Neighborhood

Featured Posts
04/10/18 4:30pm

New Hwy. 6 Hotel Kicking Off Its Staycation in Advance Auto Parts’ Side Yard

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New Construction, Sugar Land
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The frame is up for the first floor of the hotel that’s under construction just north of the Royale Woodbridge Plaza shopping center at the corner of S. Hwy. 6 and W. Airport Blvd. The 1.27-acre former field where the building is now semi-standing directly neighbors Advance Auto Parts’ sole Sugar Land location (not to be confused with that of AutoZone, situated diagonally across the street).

Guests with rooms furthest away from the auto shop will have a view of the drainage ditch that runs along the other side of the property:

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Sugar Land Hospitality
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Featured Posts
04/09/18 4:30pm

2-Story Heights Warehouse House on 15th St. Is More Than Just Fun and Games

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Homes for Sale, Houston Heights
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The view inside the eastern portion of the 4,400-sq.-ft. warehouse on the corner of 15th and Lawrence streets — now up for sale — shows it split between its mezzanine arcade and the more grounded live and work areas that make up its first floor. Aside from the bench underneath the staircase, this side of the building is pretty much standing room only; the sellers used it as a photography studio.

An upper-level bridge separates it from the from the rest of the first floor, where the kitchen and dining room offer more seating:

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Galvalume Skin
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Featured Posts
04/06/18 4:30pm

How a 3,000-Sq.-Ft. Addition Will Hide Behind a 5,000-Sq.-Ft. 1936 River Oaks Mansion

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Renovations, River Oaks
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Aside from some interior remodeling and roof repairs, the 5,362-sq.-ft. Hilliard House on Del Monte Dr. has been mostly untouched since J. Leon Osborn built it in 1936. According to the city planning department’s historical commission: “no updates to any electrical, structural or other systems have been performed.” In February, that commission approved the owners’ application to tack an extra 3,000-sq.-ft. onto the backside of the structure. The portion they’re now set to build — adjacent to a new pool — will include a network of new living rooms on the first floor and a new master bedroom suite with an adjacent office and exercise room upstairs. An added 2-car garage should also bring the property’s parking situation up to modern speed; right now, the only garaging option is a carriage house.

The site plan above shows how the building will sit on its almost-21-acre just-over-half-acre lot after the add-on — designed by Rogelio Carrasco — is complete. Nearly everything running back adjacent to the pool is new.

Right now, the house’s backyard stretches straight back behind the rounded side tower:

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Hilliard House
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Featured Posts
04/05/18 12:30pm

What’s Going on Backstage at Waugh Dr.’s Former Video Central?

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Montrose, North Montrose, Retail
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A bunch of pipes arrived yesterday in the vacant field behind a pair of Montrose video stores, a Swamplot reader reports. Audio Video Plus shut down 6 years ago, next door to it on W. Clay is the warehouse home to the lesser known Astro Audio Video equipment rental store — also shuttered. The photo above shows the scene on Peveto St. behind the latter store.

Audio Video Plus neighbors another vacant storefront — Quintanilla Jewelers — in the strip mall on the corner of Waugh:

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North Montrose
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Churches
04/04/18 4:00pm

Fourth Houston’s First Baptist Church Moving into Whitewashed Former Union Building on Jefferson

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Downtown, Redevelopment
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Exterior renovations are nearly complete on the 39,213-sq.-ft. building Houston’s First Baptist Church took over from a local branch of the Communication Workers of America on the corner of Jefferson and Chenevert last year. The new location is number 4 for the church — existing worship centers include the flagship spot on the Katy Fwy. just outside 610, as well as other sites in Cypress and Missouri City.

Crews began whitewashing the brick walls adjacent to the curved entrance drive along the building in January:

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Downtown Christening
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Featured Posts
04/04/18 1:00pm

Braun Enterprises’ Oak Forest Aztec 2-Step on 34th St.

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Garden Oaks, Proposed Developments, Retail
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Braun has a 2-step plan for developing the former Aztec Rental Services property on 34th St. between Oak Forest and Ella. A brochure on the developer’s website designates the portion of the site to the east as that of future residences. On the western edge of the would-be housing spot, Aztec’s former storefront — pictured above — looks toward an additional 2-acre parcel the equipment outfitter gave up.

That’s where Braun wants to plant a pair of 10,050-sq.-ft. retail buildings surrounded by a moat of parking:

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One of Each
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Featured Posts
04/03/18 3:00pm

Randalls To Leave Behind Another Grocery-Store-Sized Hole in the Shopping Center on Bellfort at Kirkwood

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Openings and Closings, Retail, Signage, Stafford
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Yet another Randalls is seeing itself out of a major shopping center space — this one in the Keegan’s Meadow complex at the corner of W. Bellfort Ave. and S. Kirkwood Rd. in Stafford. The photo above looks beyond the pumps at the grocery chain’s street-fronting gas station to show the store decorated with a liquidation sign identical to the one that’s currently posted on the Oak Forest location. The white Randalls lettering on the 53,250-sq.-ft. grocery store at 11711 W. Bellfort came down last month from the façade now taken up by the banner. An in-store Wells Fargo branch occupies the northeastern portion of the store, opposite the Avalon Discount Liquor adjacent to the its west side.

Photo: Swamplox inbox. Site plan: Brixmor

Stafford Send-Off
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Featured Posts
04/03/18 12:00pm

Strip Center Set To Rise Next Door to Where Prince’s Hamburgers Went Extinct on Ella

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Garden Oaks, Proposed Developments, Retail
5 Comments

Here’s the new 2,500-sq.-ft. strip center planned in the parking lot next door to Prince’s Hamburgers’ abandoned building on Ella Blvd. north of 34th St. The photo above, sent in by a Swamplot reader, views the former restaurant from the north, outside the closed-down A1 Auto Deals used car lot near the train tracks that cross Ella south of Judiway St. Between the auto dealer and the restaurant is where the strip center would go, at the west end of what’s now an additional 13,204-sq.-ft. parking lot.

Prince’s took over the restaurant building from Jack in the Box in 2016:

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Garden Oaks Preview
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Featured Posts
04/02/18 4:00pm

Building Out the 3-Block Grid of Springwoods Village Office Buildings, Parking, and Retail South of ExxonMobil

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Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Springwoods Village
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Developer Patrinely Group is getting ready to start construction on one of the 12 mid-rise office towers it has planned for the 60-acre zone dubbed CityPlace within Springwoods Village — south of Exxon’s new-ish campus off I-45. The rendering at top shows the 5-story CityPlace 1 building — which will fit 2 retailers in its ground floor: one fronting a central green space to the east dubbed CityPlace Plaza, and another along City Plaza Dr., a road that begins at the park and heads between several of the office towers.

You can see the road cutting its way west past CityPlace 1 — at the far edge of the park — in the aerial rendering below:

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I-45 and Grand Pkwy.
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