Headlines

• Stowers Building Currently Being Transformed into Aloft Hotel, Will Open Next Summer [Realty News Report; previously on Swamplot]
• Developers Working on 1,170 Home Lots in Texas City [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• WalletHub: Houston, Dallas, Austin Have Best Real Estate Climate in U.S., Just Not When It Comes to First-Time Homebuyers [Prime Property]
• Helen Greek Food & Wine Set To Open Tomorrow in Former Kahn’s Deli Space at 2429 Rice Blvd. [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
• Azuma Group’s New Japanese Bar Izakaya Set To Open ‘Any Day Now’ at 318 Gray in Midtown [Food Chronicles]
• Sub Zero Ice Cream & Yogurt Franchise Enters Houston Market with Lease in Vintage Marketplace [Prime Property]
• Shuttered 6-Month-Old Wash Ave Restaurant Beirut Fine Lebanese Cuisine Relaunching as Fig & Wasp Mediterranean Cuisine [Food Chronicles]
• Can Car-Crazy Houston Become Bike-Friendly? [Texas Observer]
• Ash Ward’s Paintings of Houston Architecture, Including City Hall, the Old Macy’s Building, Now Up at Ladybird’s [Houston Chronicle]
• The Complicated Legacy of Victor Gruen, aka the Father of the American Shopping Mall [Quartz]

Photo of the Mosaic Condos: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Pelican Builders To Break Ground on 17-Story, Galleria-Area Condo Tower The Wilshire on Site of Former Westcreek Apartment Complex on Aug. 4 [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
• ‘Scattered-Site’ Public Housing in Galveston May Be Replaced with Mixed-Income Housing Development [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• The Houston Neighborhoods with the Biggest Home Value Growth, According to Zillow [Prime Property]
• Inside Brick & Mortar Kitchen, the Restaurant Adjacent to the New Grand Pkwy. Gallery Furniture [Culturemap]
• Behind-the-Scenes Photo Tour of Houston Hobby Airport’s New Terminal Currently Under Construction [AirlineReporter; via Houston Chronicle]
• Circular Bus Services Expansion in Houston Driven By Construction Boom [Houston Chronicle]
• Year-Long, $10M Renovation of Upper Kirby District’s Levy Park To Begin Today [Prime Property]
• On Average the City Is Repairing a Stretch of Lawndale Near Pasadena Every 6 Weeks [abc13]
• Rice Military Residents Fighting Speeding, ‘Frequent’ Accidents with New Traffic Management Program [The Leader]
• Neighborhood Feud Brewing Over Horse Sanctuary and Deed Restrictions in Semi-Rural Spring Hills Subdivision [Houston Chronicle]
• League City Implementing Stage 2 of Its Drought Contingency Plan During Repairs To Main Water Supply Line [Click2Houston]
• Another Labor Filmed with a GoPro on a Houston Highway, This Time on Beltway 8 [MyFoxHouston; previously on Swamplot]
• Swamplot Illustrator and Her Business Partner Will Draw You as a Cat [Kickstarter]

Photo of Brays Bayou: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Johnson Development Unveils Master Plan for Development of Former Camp Strake Property in Conroe [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
• Buyer of San Jacinto Mall Plans To Tear All or Most of It Down, Start Over [Houston Chronicle]
• Pace of Leasing Slowed Down While Vacancy Rates Went Up in Houston in the Second Quarter, Finds Colliers International [Realty News Report]
• Strength of Midstream and Downstream Energy Industry Fueling Demand for Apartments in East Houston [HBJ]
• Houston Rent Became Unaffordable for Millennials Late Last Year, Following Other Big U.S. Cities [Bloomberg; via Houston Chronicle]
• Houston Has the Lowest Rate of Market Penetration for Solar Power Among Major Texas Markets, According to BuildZoom [HBJ]
• Residents Near the New Domain West Apartment Complex Petition Against ‘Ugly’ Open-Air Parking Garage Behind Beautiful Strip Center [Houston Chronicle]
• A Map of Houston’s Civic Center Circa 1937 [Houston Chronicle]
• The DIY Aerial Photos of Instagram User ‘HoustonHeroe’ [Houston Chronicle; stream]
• In Texas ‘Colonias,’ Third-World Conditions Are the Norm [The Urban Edge]

Photo of Comet Cleaners, 2612 S. Shepherd Dr. at Westheimer: Allyn West

• More Houston Single-Family Homes Were Sold in June Than in Any Month on Record, Reports HAR [Prime Property]
• Houston Second in the Nation in Number of Apartment Permits Issued Over the 12 Months Ending in May, Finds Axiometrics [HBJ]
• NewCoast Properties Starts Construction of Seagrass Beach Development on Bolivar Peninsula [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Nation’s Largest ‘Creative Campus’ Taking Shape Around Proposed Artist Alley in First Ward [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
• Developers Hoping First Ward Art, Washington Ave Cultures Will Mix at New Brewery in Artist Alley Next to Silver Street Studios [Houston Chronicle]
• Ellington Spaceport Anchor Tenant Intuitive Machines Foresees Eventual Consolidation of Company HQ on Site [HBJ]
• Katy-Based Academy Sports + Outdoors Relocating Spring Store, Opening 2 New Locations in Missouri City and Cypress [HBJ]
• Krispy Kreme’s Anticipated Houston Return Now Bumped to End of August [Isiah Factor]
• After Contractor Default, Work To Resume on Stalled Segment of U.S. 290 Widening Project in October [The Highwayman]
• New ‘My Galveston’ Campaign Aims To Lure Young Professionals To Live and Work in Galveston [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Recounting the Strange History of the Vacant Property at 731 E. Eighth St. in the Heights [Houston Press]
• Philly House That Launched Postmodern Architecture Now Available for $1.75M [Curbed]

Photo of “Preservons la Creation” at 2800 San Jacinto: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• China’s Strategic Capital Buys 372-Unit Broadstone Post Oak Apartments Just South of the Waterwall [Realty News Report]
• A List of the 9 Residential Projects Currently Under Construction Downtown and the 9 More on Tap [HBJ]
• Goody Goody Liquor Taking Over Woodway Square Shopping Center Space Vacated by Whole Foods Market [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
• Sugar Land’s Awkwardly Named $84M Performance Center Aiming for a Fall Opening [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
• Midway Says It Had Downtown Post Office Under Contract Before Lovett Commercial Until Negotiations Fell Through [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
• A List of Houston’s 15 LEED Platinum-Certified Projects [Prime Property]
• Houston Adding More Restaurants, Bars, and Hotels per Resident Than All but 6 Other U.S. Cities, Finds SelfStorage.com [Culturemap]
• Houston Graded a ‘D’ by Renters for Quality-of-Life Metrics in National Study by Apartment List [Prime Property]
• Reports Hint at Future Sea-Level Impacts in Texas [Texas Climate Change]
• How the Original Clear Lake City in 1974 Compares to the Community Today [Prime Property]
• Dallas and Houston Becoming Too Expensive for Artists Who Don’t Want To Be Broke [Glasstire]
• Winter Descends in an Air-Conditioned Houston [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of Millennium Kirby: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Analysis of Early HAR Data Shows June May Have Been Highest-Dollar Residential Real Estate Sales Month Ever [Tom Plant’s Houston Real Estate Blog]
• Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio Saw an Average 1% Drop in Condo Sales from January to May Over Same Period Last Year [Culturemap]
• Slideshow: What ExxonMobil Colony Springwoods Village Looks Like Now, 5 Years After It Was Announced [HBJ]
• Second Building at DCT Northwest Crossroads Logistics Centre Now More Than 50% Full After Sunny Sky Lease [HBJ]
• Noble Energy To Close Rosetta Resources’ Downtown Headquarters at 1111 Bagby St., Lay Off Staff During Acquisition [Fuel Fix]
• After Completion of Glassy Renovation, People Are Actually Noticing the Mickey Leland Federal Building Downtown [Houston Chronicle]
• New Pearland Salata Features Revamped Design with an ‘Instagram-able’ Iced Tea Tap [HBJ]
• New Microbrewery Holler Brewing Slated To Open in the First Ward at 2206 Edwards St. [HBJ]
• State Holds 60,000 Acres in Undeveloped Park Lands [Houston Chronicle]
• New Study To Explore How To Create a More Walkable Museum Park District [Prime Property]
• How Houston Can Sprawl Gracefully To Accommodate 10M People in the Next 20 Years [Houston Strategies]

Photo of skywalk traffic at the corner of Woodway and S. Post Oak: Swamplot inbox

• Packers Plus Energy Services Consolidating Houston Operations into Single Campus in Tomball Business and Technology Park [Prime Property]
• Sempra Energy Moves Its Southeast HQ from South Carolina to Houston [HBJ]
• San Antonio, Houston, Austin, DFW Top List of Metro Areas at Risk for Home Price Declines, Finds Arch Mortgage Insurance Co. Report [Prime Property]
• CDC Houston Planning 3 New Neighborhoods in Springwoods Village [HBJ]
• Homes in Springwoods Village Neighborhoods Harper Woods, Audubon Grove Selling for More Than Originally Expected [HBJ]
• Residents of Creekside Park Neighborhood in Harris County Want It To Be More Like the ‘Real’ Woodlands [Houston Chronicle]
• Saltair Seafood Kitchen Now Open in Former Brio and Pesce Spot at 3029 Kirby [Food Chronicles; previously on Swamplot]
• Ridership on Metro’s 2 New Rail Lines Less Than Expected So Far [Houston Chronicle]
• Sugar Land City Council Approves $500K Contract To Expand Hwy. 6 from Brooks St. to Lexington Blvd. [Your Houston News]
• Kemah Officials Consider Making Main Streets Near Boardwalk One-Ways To Improve Traffic Flow [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• How Other Cities Have Taken Down or Rethought Central Freeways [The Urban Edge]

Photo of West U Marketplace Shopping Center in former Bellaire Theater: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Imperial Market at Shuttered Sugar Land Refinery ‘Not Just a Shopping Center Site’ [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
• UH System Looking for New Site in Katy for State-of-the-Art Academic Building; Bonds for $50M Expansion Approved by State [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
• Ryko Development Looking To Add 50 Acres of Strip Centers, Big Box Stores, and Pad Sites Along Westpark Tollway at Grand Pkwy. [HBJ]
• 35 of 740 Homes Sold So Far at The Reserve at Clear Lake City [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• D’Amico’s Owner Opening Fellini Gelato & Caffe in CityCentre in August; Considering Downtown and Rice Village Locations [HBJ]
• Nourish Juice Bar Opening Later This Month at 1000 W. Gray [Eater Houston]
• Jersey Mike’s Subs Opening Next Week at 3091 College Park Dr. in The Woodlands [Your Houston News]
• Aerospace Company Sierra Nevada Plans To Add More Employees, Infrastructure in Houston Following Spaceport Approval [HBJ]
• $8.7B Infrastructure Plan Passes City Council [Houston Public Media]
• Walking in Houston is a Horrific Adventure, a Pleasure Endangered [Houston Chronicle]
• Los Angeles Unveils Houston-Like Plan for Improving Bus Service [The Highwayman]
• Fox Orders Modern Adaptation of the 1980 Film ‘Urban Cowboy’ to Pilot [Houston Chronicle]
• Bellaire Resident Holding Benefit Concert To Help Replace Car Totaled During Memorial Day Weekend Floods [Houston Public Media]
• Why All the Small Gaps and Missing Streets in Google Street View? [PCWorld]

Photo of Kirby Court Apartments demolition: Swamplot inbox

• Timeline for CityPlace, Springwoods Village’s Town Center, Delayed; Office Building Planned To Be Done This Year Won’t Break Ground Until Next Year at the Earliest [HBJ]
• Construction Began Last Month on The Mark at CityPlace Springwoods Village Apartment Complex [HBJ]
• Dallas Company Buys East Houston Packaging, Tires, and Plastics Warehouse on Market St. Next to Budweiser Plant and Ship Channel [Realty News Report]
• Gracepoint Homes Planning 15 Four-Story Townhomes Named ‘Rebekah’ Near Taft and W. Drew St. in East Montrose [Prime Property]
• Allied Orion Group Breaks Ground on Southfork Lake Apartments, Backing up to 288, in Manvel [HBJ]
• Trash Catches Fire at River Oaks Highrise Condo Conversion at 3433 Westheimer [Culturemap]
• Starwood Planning New Aloft Hotels in The Woodlands and the Energy Corridor as Well As in Stowers Bldg. Downtown [HBJ]
• Expanded HQ at 16720 Park Row for Salad Chain Salata Will Include Room for Training, Dressings, Soups, Sauces [Prime Property]
• Dallas-Based Pizza Restaurant Cane Rosso Signs Lease for Montrose Office-Building Location; Heights Spot Already in the Works [Culturemap]
• Closed Since May 27 After Floods, Brazos Bend State Park Now Reopen [Houston Chronicle]
• Week-Old Traffic Signal at Greenbriar and US-59 Was Installed Too High To See, Say Drivers [KHOU]
• Missouri City Cyclists Have New Designated Bike Lanes Along Thomas Taylor Pkwy. [Houston Public Media]
• Galveston Kite Store Can’t Fly Kites Above Business Because It’s Against City Code [Galveston County Daily News]
• ‘Bee Czar’ Walter Schumacher of the American Honey Bee Protection Agency Is Here To Help [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of White Oak Bayou: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• U.S. Arm of Chinese Company Buys Alliance Residential’s Broadstone Post Oak for Undisclosed Price [HBJ]
• Slower New-Home Sales in Suburban Communities Blamed on Heavy Rains [Prime Property]
• Sneak Peek at NRG Model ‘Smart Home’ in Spring Community MainStreet America [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
• Harris County Preparing Online Version of Its ‘Archaic’ Family Law Center Property Auctions [abc13
• Miami-Based Company Negotiating with 2 Area Developers To Build Self-Cleaning ‘Crystal Lagoons’ in Houston [HBJ]
• Randy Rucker’s New Bramble Restaurant Now Open at 2231 S. Voss with Old Mancuso’s Sign Still Intact [Food Chronicles]
• Your Pie Will Start Construction on First Houston Location, on Ground Floor of SkyHouse Houston, in August [HBJ]
• Krispy Kreme To Make Long-Awaited Return to Houston July 21 with Opening of Hwy. 6 Location [Isiah Factor]
• $12M Makeover To Turn Upper Kirby District’s Levy Park into a ‘World-Class Urban Space’ [Your Houston News]
• Discarded TVs, Toilets, Broken Vacuums Found During Buildout of Spring Creek Greenway [Houston Chronicle]
• Smelly Drainage Ditch in Melrose Park Finally Fixed Following News Report [abc13; more here]
• Kingwood Residents Provide Input on Houston Bike Plan; Deadline for Feedback Extended to July 20 [Your Houston News]
• Russian-Language Newspaper Our Texas, Begun as a Hobby, Celebrates 15 Years of Publication [Houston Public Media]

Photo of James Surls’s “Walking Molecular Flower” at Rice U. BRC: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Lovett Commercial Under Contract To Buy Downtown Post Office, Turn Property into 16-Acre Multi-Use Complex [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
• 450K-SF Katy Power Center Shoppes at Parkwest Going in on 40-Acre Site Catty-Corner from Katy Mills Mall at I-10 and Katy Fort Bend Rd. [Realty News Report]
• Plan for The Timbers, a 2,749-Acre Residential Development Northeast of Lake Houston Near Grand Pkwy. Extension, Goes Before Planning Commission This Thursday [HBJ]
• Alamo-Craftsman-Style Seagrass Beach Going Up on 33-Acre Bolivar Peninsula Site [Prime Property]
• Recently Completed Westchase Park II Building Now 50% Leased [Prime Property]
• Proprietor of Shuttered Spring Water Cafe Now Running Deli at B&B Butchers, Looking for Spot Near Washington Ave for Wholesale Bagel Shop [Culturemap]
• Raising Cane’s To Open in League City in August [Prime Property]
• Houston Design Manual Revisions Reduce Standard Street Lane Width from 12 Ft. to 11 Ft. [The Highwayman]
• How One Houston Man Actually Gets Around Houston Without Owning a Car [abc13]
• HPD Will Watch Your House for Free While You’re Away Through Its Alert Slip Service [abc13]
• White Population Doubled, African American Population Shrunk 10% Over Last Decade in Third Ward [Houston Public Media]
• HISD Considering Renaming Reagan High School [The Leader]
• Rapper Says He Spent 4 Months Secretly Recording an Album in a Manhattan Apple Store [The Daily Beast]

Photo of burned house on Taylor Ct., Fifth Ward: o texano via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Electro Tech Industries Acquires 115K-SF Industrial Building at 303 W. Little York [Realty News Report]
• LGI Homes Sells Record 331 New Homes in June, Up 36% from June 2014 [Realty News Report]
• Officials Plan To Tear Down Old City Incinerator on 71st St. That’s Been Closed Since 1955 [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Ronnie Killen Moving Steakhouse to Malibu Steak & Seafood Spot, Converting Current Spot into Burger Joint Previously Planned for Former Gas Station [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
• The Chicken Ranch Closes on North Main St. Following Lease Dispute, Looking for a New Home [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
• Songkran Thai Kitchen Opens Second Houston-Area Location, in Sugar Land Town Square Plaza [Prime Property]
• Surveillance Video Shows Thieves Using Backhoe To Smash Way into Warthog Firearms on Main St. in Old Town Spring [abc13]
• Should Lee, Reagan, Davis High School and Dowling, Jackson, and Johnston Middle Schools Be Renamed? [Houston Chronicle]
• Old Timers Stop by To Reminisce About Westbury Square [KHOU; previously on Swamplot]

Photo of Memorial Hermann Memorial City: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Occupancy Rates in High-End Apartment Complexes Down 7 Percentage Points from 2 Years Ago, Says Apartment Data Services [Prime Property]
• 740-Home Neighborhood East of Ellington Airport Will Be Clear Lake City’s First New Home Development in Decades [HBJ]
• Video Shows Burglars Wandering Through Stafford’s Promenade Estates, Breaking Into Cars [KHOU]
• People’s Trust Federal Credit Union Building New HQ on Bastrop St. Near Soccer Stadium [HBJ]
• Sale of Westbury Square Scheduled for September 1, After Buildings Are Demolished [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
• Newest and Biggest Gallery Furniture, Near Grand Pkwy. in Richmond, Has Restaurant, 11,000 Houseplants, Monkey Family [HBJ]
• Cowboys Owner Donates $1 Million To Help Build Hope Lodge at 7505 Almeda Rd. Southeast of Med Center [Houston Press]
• Avenue CDC Report Documents Changes in the Near Northside [Prime Property]
• Woodlands Mosquitoes Test Positive for West Nile Virus [Houston Chronicle]
• Architectural Highlights of the Third Ward as Seen from the Car, Part 3 [OffCite]
• Lunch at Croissant Brioche in the Village with Robert Durst [Esquire]

Photo of Warwick Towers: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Tolls and Fines Begin Monday on I-45 Flyovers at Texas 242 North of The Woodlands [Houston Chronicle]
• Houston Condo Sales from January to May Down 1% from Last Year, according to the Texas Association of Realtors [HBJ]
• Houston’s Healthcare Arms Race by the Numbers [The Tenant Advisor]
• Sodium Hydrosulfide Spills in Settegast Yard After Train Collision [Houston Chronicle]
• Water Still Gushing from Ground at Tierwester and Tuam in Third Ward [abc13]
• 5 Smash-and-Grab Burglaries Have Taken Place in the Last 2 Weeks on Rayford Rd. in Spring [Click2Houston]
• Redevelopment of Medical Arts Building at 302 21st St. May Have Stalled [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Metro To Start Accepting Payment by Smartphone App Later This Year [Houston Chronicle]
• Tiny House Fans in Houston Mostly Just Want To Use Them as Add-Ons or Outbuildings [Click2Houston]
• Spottings of Wild Animals in Urban Areas Shouldn’t Be Such a Surprise [Houston Chronicle]
• Artists Painting Dozens of Mini Murals on Traffic Signal Control Boxes in Southwest Houston This Summer [The Urban Edge]
• Map Shows Texas’s 21 Remaining Abortion Clinics After Supreme Court Ruling, All in 5 Largest Urban Areas [Texas Tribune]
• The History of Monuments to the Confederacy at the Texas Capitol [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of Centennial Gardens, Hermann Park: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool