Neighborhood

Featured Posts
05/26/16 1:30pm

Braun Marking Territory for Pet and People Food Stores on W. Gray

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North Montrose, Restaurants, Retail, River Oaks
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River Oaks collection redevelopment, 1705 W. Gray St., North Montrose, 77019

River Oaks collection redevelopment, 1705 W. Gray St., North Montrose, 77019

The Panera marker previously spotted all by its lonesome in the leasing flier for Braun Enterprises’ redevelopment of 1705 W. Gray has picked up a companion in the form of the Kriser’s Natural Pet logo. The marker for the grain-averse pet supply and grooming store now appears on the freestanding former home of International Hair Salon & Nail Spa (shown above), previously marked up in Braun’s renderings as a possible coffee shop. 

The reader who snagged the shot above also spent some time sniffing around the back and sides of the complex (to be known as the River Oaks Collection). The wall in the shot below is starting to get its coat of grey paint cleaned off to match the mottled brick exterior shown in the redo renderings:

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River Oaks Collecting
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Bellaire
05/26/16 11:00am

Bellaire Asked To Pick Out Face of Police Building from Full Lineup

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4 Comments

Options for Police and Courts building, Design Options for Bellaire Town Square Renovations, Bellaire, TX 77401

Evidently none of these facades will appear on the Jessamine St. entrance of the new police and municipal court building planned for Bellaire’s Town Square. The latest design, as presented at last week’s town hall meeting, appears to be a blend of several of the choices above. Architect PGAL put together a set of possibilities earlier this spring for both a new police building and a planned city hall redo; a committee spent the last few months choosing the parts they liked.

The approximate sites of the police station and the new city hall appear in gold on the conceptual site plan below, showing the S. Rice Ave. land bounded by Jessamine, 5th St., and the houses south of Linden St.:

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Reshaping Town Square
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Quicklink
05/25/16 4:45pm

Drinking Age Rises to 23 at Kirby Ice House

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Upper Kirby
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DRINKING AGE RISES TO 23 AT KIRBY ICE HOUSE Kirby Ice House, 3333 Eastside St., Greenway/Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098No-longer-blue Upper Kirby Kirby Ice House announced this morning that it will no longer allow customers younger than 23 into the venue. A message on the company’s Facebook page cites a month and a half of customer feedback since the bar’s opening at 3333 Eastside St., and a need to maintain the venue’s diverse clientele — adding an apology to the segments of that same clientele who areunder 23 (and an invitation to come back in a few years). [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Kirby Ice House

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Featured Posts
05/25/16 4:15pm

Lawsuit: No More Private Projects for TIRZ 17 Until All the Flooding Is Fixed

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Memorial City
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TIRZ 17 boundary

Some Memorial-area residents (mostly under the banner of uncontroversially-named Residents Against Flooding) filed a previously-threatened lawsuit this morning requesting that the city of Houston and TIRZ 17 be barred from using the reinvestment district’s funds for private development projects until more drainage projects have been implemented in the nearby neighborhoods. The lawsuit alleges that the Memorial City Redevelopment Authority and the city have been increasing runoff from the zone (inside Beltway 8 at I-10, shown above in green) into the nearby neighborhoods without adding enough new drainage projects to compensate for it; residential flooding in 2009, last Memorial Day, and this Tax Day are cited as the outcome.

The group filing the suit says it doesn’t want money — so what is the suit asking for?

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Memorial City
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Featured Posts
05/25/16 10:45am

Prepping the Soil for Soccer by the Sawyer Yards Silos

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Sawyer Heights
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Houston Toros Downtown facility, 2202 Summer St., Sawyer Heights, Houston, 77007

The new Houston Toros facility on Summer St. is getting polished up for next month’s soft kickoff, per reader Rony Canales’s latest panoramic update. The training spot and community center is across a railroad easement and some now-warehouse-free fields from the rice silo complex being redeveloped into the Silos at Sawyer Yards artsy-retail space to the south.

The new soccer center appears to incorporate at least the shells of few of the warehouses previously occupying the site, though a few structures on the block have ejected — including the house at the corner of Summer and Hemphill streets, where a playing field is now being smoothed into place (as shown above). Check out the aerial rendering of the entire site, facing toward the silos and the Downtown skyline:

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Summer St. Summer League
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Featured Posts
05/24/16 12:30pm

Former Medical Inn & Suites Site Now Being Revived After Momentary Flatline Across from NRG Stadium

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New Construction, Reliant Park
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9000 Main St., Reliant, Houston, 77025

That’s 5 stories of sticks now stacked up at 9000 Main St., the triangular former site of the Medical Inn & Suites complex that met its unmaker late last year. The property was bought in 2013 by an entity named Shree Shriji LLC, which shares an address with the Days Inn & Suites near Hobby Airport at 9114 Airport Blvd. The land sits a half block north of Broadmead Dr., directly across Main from Superbowl-prepping NRG Park’s parking lot (the one spanning between Murworth Dr. and McNee Rd.).

The land wasn’t empty for long following deconstructive operations — but another reader did manage to snap a view of the property back in January, when the freshly emptied spot provided a clear view all the way to the since-sold land 2 parcels north, where Regency Car Wash holds soapy court:

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More Rooms on Main St.
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Clear Lake
05/23/16 5:00pm

Climbing Into a Turquoise Trojan Horse on Horsepen Creek

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Homes for Sale, Interiors
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14303 Harvest Glen Ct., Clear Lake, Houston, 77062

14303 Harvest Glen Ct., Clear Lake, Houston, 77062

This Clear Lake home overlooking a golf-course-adorned stretch of Horsepen Bayou to the north is now for sale for $1.75 million (dropped in February from the $1.8 million requested when the house first hit the market last July). If you are allowed into the walled inner garden, you’ll find the yellow-and-cerulean structure above perched at the top of a glass-brick staircase. Ivy-League-turned-Rice-turned-University-of-Virginia architect Peter Waldman, who designed the 1990 home, referred to the multicolored elevated landing as a Trojan Horse “invading” the larger space. Roll right in through the front gates to see for yourself:
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Hidden In Bay Oak Country
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Demolitions
05/23/16 12:00pm

Upper Kirby Corporate Plaza Finally Down to the Dregs and the Direct Auto Billboard

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Upper Kirby
5 Comments

Corporate Plaza I Demolition, Kirby at Norfolk, Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098

Here’s this morning’s view of the former Corporate Plaza site, now sans the skeletal midrise that spent much of May wasting away. Standing at the edge of the rubble is the Texas Direct Auto billboard, visible here from its non-dayglo-yellow backside above the cluster of excavators picking over the last of the former midrise. On the left (at the corner of Kirby and 59) is the separately-owned Shell service station property, boxed in by the increasingly empty lot throughout the entire demo spectacle.

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And Then There Was Shell
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Featured Posts
05/23/16 10:00am

What’s Brewing in the Former Te House of Tea in Hyde Park

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Hyde Park, Restaurants, Retail
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2410 Woodhead St., Hyde Park, Houston, 77019

The retail strip at 1927 Fairview St. is now being gutted and cleaned out into a large dumpster parked in front of the former Te House of Tea and Trudy’s resale boutique. Permits to clear out some interior walls and redo the space were issued at the start of this month to an entity named Riel Restaurant; also listed on those permits are the company phone number and CEO of South Union-based seafood importer Marine Foods Express. 

Out back behind the retail strip, the nextdoor 1935 bungalow at 2410 Woodhead St. appears to be joining Te’s former backyard garden in becoming a parking lot — purportedly a green one:

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Something Fishy on Fairview
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Construction Materials
05/20/16 4:15pm

Model Construction Worker Caught With Pants Down On Site, Turns Out To Be a Phony

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Golfcrest
4 Comments

Fake Construction Workers, McHenry at Carothers streets, Golfcrest, Houston, 77087

Fake Construction Workers, McHenry at Carothers streets, Golfcrest, Houston, 77087Something caught the eye of occasional construction scrutinizer Tuco Ramirez yesterday at the corner of McHenry and Carothers streets (and not just the site’s elaborate and colorful vinyl construction fencing): what appeared to be 2 workers on the job in the middle of the downpour and accompanying lightning. Upon slowing down to take a closer look, Ramirez realized the figures “were standing still — turns out they weren’t working at all.” 

Above are some close-ups of the mannequins snapped after the rain slowed down; while both do appear to be making an effort to model some level of appropriate protective gear, each still lacks a few of the basics, from safety goggles to pants.  “Have to admit, if it wasn’t pouring cats and dogs at the time, I would never have noticed they were fake,” continues Ramirez. “I got out of my truck to snap these shots from a good perspective, but I assure you they look very convincing from the street view.”

Here’s the rest of the scene:

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Props in Golfcrest
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Featured Posts
05/20/16 11:15am

Bulletproof Bike-Geared Raspa Shop to Open in Former Drive-Thru Bank on W. Little York

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Inwood
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Future Site of Raspado Xperts , W. Little York Rd. east of Antoine Dr., Greater Inwood, Houston, 77091

Up on the docket for the White Oak Village redevelopment of the Evergreen Center shopping plaza at Antoine Dr. and W. Little York Rd.: the underway conversion of a long-empty drive-thru bank into a bike-and-drive-thru branch of Houston raspa-smoothie-snack shop Raspado Xperts. The structure sits at 5647 W. Little York on the north side of the complex, right between O’Reilly Auto Care and that eastern strip getting turned around to face White Oak Bayou and its hiking-and-biking enthusiasts.

A rep from Nankani Management claims that the raspa shop will be the first bike-thru business in Houston, and one of only 5 officially Bicycle Friendly businesses in the city (per a designation from the League of American Bicyclists). The shop is hanging on to the bank’s original bulletproof glass side wall and teller shield, which are becoming walls of the restaurant’s kitchen:

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White Oak Village
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