Neighborhood

Interiors, Montrose, Winlow Place

7 Comments

1752 Sul Ross St. [HAR]

77098, Bathrooms, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Montrose, Winlow Place

02/20/18 3:45pm

Signs of Rotating Sushi, Roundhouse Kicks Now Appear on Mid Main Lofts

Midtown, Openings and Closings, Retail

2 new signs are now up on the Main St. side of the Mid Main Lofts across from MATCH: one for Kura Revolving Sushi Bar, and the other for kickboxing gym 9Round. The photo at top looks across the platform of Metro’s Ensemble Theatre stop to show Kura’s new name tag affixed near the cornerÂ of Main and Holman. Identical markings appear on the Holman St. side of the new raw fish restaurant, which uses touch screens and an automatic conveyor belt to deliver your food. The 3510 Main location is Houston’s second Kura; one opened in the Westchase Shopping Center last year. Another debuted in Sugar Land last month.

9Round — shown in the photo above — sits further south down the block on Main, near Double Trouble Caffeine & Cocktails’s spot at Winbern. All 18 of the workout venue’s current locations are in west South Carolina. The new gym follows 4 others the chain already operates inside the 610 Loop.

Photos: Natalie W

And in This Corner

77002, Midtown, Openings and Closings, Retail

02/20/18 10:45am

Label Warehouse Calling It Quits on W. 19th St.

Houston Heights, Openings and Closings, Retail

21 Comments

The Label Warehouse clothing resale store 3 doors down from Boomtown Coffee on 19th St. is now selling off the last of its stock ahead of the planned closing announced on its Facebook page earlier this month. The Heights thrift venue and its Midtown sibling location on the corner of Main and Eagle streets — also on its way out of business — are the last 2 spots remaining in the chain, which once held outposts in Conroe, Misouri City, and Angleton, as well as others in Houston. Its first location — opened at 6708 Harrisburg under the name Insurance Claims Fire Sale WarehouseÂ in the early 60s — closed last year.

The photo at top looks south across 19th St. to show the few items left in the soon-to-be shuttered 7,425-sq.-ft. Heights building.

This letter is to inform our customers [Label Warehouse]

Photos: Some Random Property Gossip (storefront); Chelsi H. (sign)

Hand-Me-Down

77008, Houston Heights, Openings and Closings, Retail

Interiors

02/16/18 5:00pm

The Woodlands Home Listing Photo of the Day: The Fire Department

The Woodlands

No Comments

6 Electra Cir. [HAR]

77382, Fireplaces, Interiors, The Woodlands

Braeswood Place

02/16/18 1:15pm

Comment of the Day Runner-Up: A Soggy Mod for Grabs in Braeswood

Comments, Flooding, Homes for Sale, Quicklink

COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: A SOGGY MOD FOR GRABS IN BRAESWOOD “For what itâ€™s worth, my house flooded. Iâ€™m selling as is and would be thrilled for the free publicity.” [Joe, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: The Halfway House] Photo of 3611 N. Braeswood Blvd.: HAR

77025, Braeswood Place, Comments, Flooding, Homes for Sale

02/16/18 12:15pm

The Woodlands at South by Southwest This Year: One Day Only

Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing, The Woodlands

1 Comment

THE WOODLANDS AT SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST THIS YEAR: ONE DAY ONLY The Woodlands is doubling the spending but seventhing the duration for its upcoming tour stop at Austin’s South by Southwest, reports the Chronicleâ€™s John S. Marshall. “The Woodlands on the Road” will take place in the afternoon on March 15 and feature “live music, food & refreshments, yard games, art demonstrations,” plus a chance to win prizes including a trip to The Woodlands at an “expanded booth with a prime location” in Brush Square, a downtown park. The township announced earlier this week that 4 local sponsor organizations had stepped up to match the $35,000 the township had already budgeted for its sophomore showing on the seventh day of the festival. Last year, The Woodlands’ debut inside the Austin Convention Center also had an outdoorsy bent: the 2-man booth featured a pair of bicycles hooked up to teevees that screened a simulated ride along the town’s bike paths as guests pedaled. [Houston Chronicle; event listing] Photo of Brush Square during 2008 South by Southwest: George Kelly [license]

Real Estate Marketing, The Woodlands

02/16/18 10:30am

Shake Shack Will Be Taking Over Former Burger King Drive-Thru on Westheimer at Montrose

Hyde Park, Montrose, Openings and Closings

17 Comments

Shake Shack has taken over the lease on the building Burger King left last month at the corner of Westheimer and Lincoln, a block west of Montrose. The fast-casual restaurant with 2 current Houston locations and one in the works signed off last week on at least a 15-year residency at 1002 Westheimer, next to Blacksmith. Behind the soon-to-be re-burgerized building’s frontage on Westheimer — shown above — a parking lot backs up to California St. along Lincoln.

Previously on Swamplot: Burger King Has Stepped Down from the Corner of Montrose and Lincoln

Photo: MontroseResident

Fast Food Turnover

77006, Fast Food, Hyde Park, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

Homes for Sale

02/15/18 5:30pm

Lake Jackson Home Listing Photo of the Day: The Same Wavelength

Interiors, Lake Jackson

319 Cypress St. [HAR]

77566, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Lake Jackson

Buildings for Sale

02/15/18 4:30pm

Two Homes-Turned-Retail on W. Gray and Stanford, Now Waiting for Their Next Gig

Montrose, North Montrose, Retail

1 Comment

If the Platform Group has settled on a plan for redeveloping the corner of W. Gray St. and Stanford, it hasnâ€™t made it known yet. An entity connected to the developer bought the white corner building home to the Traci Scott hair salon and the former Skinny Rita’s restaurant adjacent to it last December. The firm’s website now explains it’s “in the early stages of feasibility studies” for the pair of 2-stories at 615 and 607 W. Gray.

The 2 buildings share the parking lot visible in the snow-capped aerial above with entrances on W. Gray as well as one on Stanford, behind the hair salon. Not pictured is a narrow patio that runs along the chop shop’s Stanford side. A larger fenced-off seating area and upper deck currently front W. Gray outside the former restaurant, which closed last February after just under a year in the building.

Here’s a closer up view of Skinny Rita’s seating taken from the parking lot entrance between the 2 buildings just after the restaurant vacated the premises:

Skinny Ritaâ€™s Plus One

77019, Bars and Restaurants, Buildings for Sale, Montrose, North Montrose, Retail

02/15/18 2:00pm

Meet Heights Village, the New Strip Center Going Up at Yale and 5th St.

Houston Heights, New Construction, Retail, Strip Centers

19 Comments

The skeleton of a new strip center across the street from the Alexan Yale St. apartments — dubbed Heights Village by a banner attached to its construction fencing — is now rising on the corner of Yale and W. 5th St. Construction began on the just-under-an-acre parcel last month, reports the Swamplot reader who snapped the above photo of the site from outside the Alexan complex. The corner — on the opposite end of the block from where Better Luck Tomorrow opened last year — had been vacant since 2010, when a warehouse on the site was demolished.

The aerial rendering above from Cisneros Design Studio shows what an upper-story Alexan Yale St. resident might see out the window when the retail center is complete. Parking lots hug the building on 3 sides and include entrances on Yale, 5th. St., and Yale Ct. — a short dead end that runs behind the property. Patio seating is shown fronting the chamfered corner on the buildingâ€™s northwest quadrant, and an elevated walkway runs along its storefronts, a few steps up from the lot.

Yale Retail

77007, Houston Heights, New Construction, Retail, Strip Centers

Homes for Sale

02/14/18 5:00pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: The Halfway House

Interiors, Memorial

12 Comments

20 Bayou Shadows St. [HAR]

77024, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Kitchens, Memorial

Cypress

02/14/18 4:00pm

New Coworking Space Plays Houston City Limits

Office Buildings, Openings and Closings

3 Comments

Here’s a good spot for people doing business in both Cypress and Houston: new coworking space The Work Well. The 23,000-sq.-ft. shared workspace takes up the top floor of the 3-story office building shown at top on Wortham Center Dr., just off the northwest tentacle of Houston’s jurisdiction, which runs along the Northwest Fwy. and links the city to Cypress. The red arrow on the map above indicates where The Work Well sits at 13100 Wortham Center, east of Goode Co.’s Cy-Fair location and just inside the city’s territory. Nearly all structures beyond the red shaded zone — save for a few along other major roads Houston keeps for itself — are outside of Houston city limits and inside unincorporated Harris County.

The Work Well’s first business day was back in December. A grand opening is now planned for March.

Coworking Space in Northwest Houston [The Work Well]

Photo of 13100 Wortham Center Dr.: LoopNet. Map: Houston Map Viewer

The Upper Reach

77056, Office Space, Openings and Closings

02/14/18 11:45am

Braun To Swap Out Brown Brick Next to Johnny’s Gold Brick, Redo Warehouse Behind It All

Houston Heights, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Retail, Sunset Heights

Braun Realty is gearing up to replace Johnny’s Gold Brickâ€™s next door neighbor and redo the warehouse behind the 2 structures as part of a new retail development it has planned for the corner of Yale and Aurora.Â An entity connected to the developer snatched up the property on Yale — as well as a few adjacent parcels east on Aurora — last October. The site plan above taken from Braun’s leasing flyer for the complex now indicates all 3 buildings decked out with new adjacent patios. East of the buildings, a parking lot sports entrances on both Aurora and an alley that runs north of the site.

The photo at top shows the front door to Johnny’s Gold Brick next to the brown brick building that Lucas Craftsmanship contractors moved out of in 2015. Here’s the view from the corner of Yale and Aurora showing the 2-story structure that’s slated to replace the former construction office:

Heights Corner Shake-Up

77008, Houston Heights, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Renovations, Retail, Sunset Heights

02/13/18 3:45pm

The Galleria’s New Food Court: Stacked Restaurants in Former Saks Space

Galleria, Renovations, Restaurants

1 Comment

4 new restaurants of 4 different culinary persuasions are planning their migration to the Galleria’s coming chow center — beyond the curved wall that fronted Saks Fifth Avenue before the department store moved to a straighter-edged building just next door along Westheimer.Â Renovations to transform the building’s face into something new tenants could get behind have been in progress for the past few years. The site plan above from Simon Properties shows where Blanco Tacos + Tequila will arrive below Japanese restaurant Nobu, east of the building’s main entrance hall. West of the hall is where Fig & Olive as well as its upstairs Indian neighbor Spice Route will move in. They’ll go behind and in front of the new first- and second-story windows pictured at top — punched in the building’s facade last year.

Heavily blanched renderings put out by Fig & Olive show the patio fronting its 7,000-sq.-ft. interior: