Headlines

• Stag Industrial Holdings Acquires Greenspoint-Area Manufacturing Building at 1020 Rankin Rd. [Realty News Report]
• Developers Say They Plan To Begin Construction of $52M 12-Story City View Terrace Apartments, with Ground Floor Retail, in East Downtown in April [HBJ]
• Houston Rents Climbed 5.9% Year-Over-Year in January to a Monthly Rent Index of $1,497, According to Zillow [HBJ]
• Commoner (Downstairs) and The Boulevardier (Upstairs) Replacing Former Clutch City Squire and Barringer Bars at 410 Main [Culturemap]
• TxDOT Funding Decision on Post Oak Bus Dedicated Bus Lines Expected This Thursday After Request for Attorney General Opinion Withdrawn [The Highwayman]
• Fire at Kirkwood Vista Townhomes Overnight Destroys One Unit, Damages 2 Others [abc13]
• Owner of Unidentified Title Companies Gets 3 Years in Prison, $2M+ Fine for Bank Fraud Conspiracy [FBI]
• Trail Rides to Houston’s Livestock Show a 61-Year Annual Tradition [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of US-59 at Buffalo Bayou: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Behind the Industrial Construction Boom in Lake Jackson [Houston Chronicle]
• Builders Say More Than 100 Prospective Homebuyers Lined Up, Some Overnight, To Buy a Home at The Reserve at Clear Lake City Luxury Community [HBJ]
• Brett Zamore, Creator of Zamore Homes’ Customizable Modern Home Kits, Plans To Build New Company’s First Prefab Structure in Houston Heights Later This Year [Houston Chronicle]
• UH Stadium Operator Contracting Process ‘Compromised’ Because Winning Company Aramark Turned in Nonconforming Bid, Finds Audit [Houston Chronicle]
• Sud Italia Ristorante To Open By Mid-April in Former Bistro des Amis Spot in Rice Village [Culturemap]
• Work on $24M Elevated Interchange at FM 359 and U.S. 90A To Start This Summer [Houston Chronicle]
• Katy Prairie Conservancy, Having Grown to 20K Acres, Aims to Protect Between 30K and 50K Acres from Development [Houston Chronicle]
• Hundreds of Millions of Dollars of Deferred Maintenance Forcing Many of the State’s 95 Parks To Close More Often [Texas Tribune]
• Galveston Bay Foundation Grant Will Fight Sewage Overflows Caused By Grease [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Melange Creperie Nearly Halfway To Its $50K Kickstarter Goal in Brick-and-Mortar Campaign Ending March 2 [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of Millennium Kirby, 7600 Kirby Dr.: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Houston Retail Center Market Occupancy Hit Highest Point Ever, 93.4%, at End of Last Year, Says CBRE [Realty News Report]
• Houston’s Multifamily Market Among the Most Affordable for Middle-Income Renters, According to NYU [HBJ]
• HAR Now Reports That Houston Home Sales in January Were Down 0.6%, Not Up 2.6% [Houston Public Media]
• Can’t Make This Up: New Performing Arts Venue’s Official Name Will Be ‘Smart Financial Centre’ at Sugar Land [Prime Property]
• Edens Investment Trust’s Has Acquired AmREIT for $26.55 Per Share in an All-Cash Deal Valued at $763M [HBJ]
• Riverway Properties Says It Will Start Construction of 3615 Montrose Condo in Spring of 2016 [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
• Even Without Rooftop Wind Turbines, Downtown’s Hess Tower Wins Efficiency Designation [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
• Developers Working with Houston First Hope To Add Up to 7 New Venues to Convention Center Area by Late 2016 [Realty News Report]
• End of February Opening Eyed for Jackson Street BBQ in Former Houston Live Spot Near Minute Maid Park [Food Chronicles]
• Johnny’s Gold Brick in Former Boom Boom Room on Yale St. Won’t Open Until First Week in March [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot]
• Third Houston-Area Crust Pizza Co. Location Now Open in Creekside Park Village Center [Eater Houston]
• How Houston Drastically Increased the Utility of Its Bus Fleet Without Increasing Its Operating Costs [Vox]
• Eastbound and Westbound Lanes of U.S.-290 at Loop 610 Will Be Closed This Weekend [The Highwayman]

Photo of Market Square: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Tanglewood H-E-B with Kiddie Play Area, Wine and Beer Bar, Restaurant Opens Today on San Felipe at Fountainview [Houston Chronicle]
• Preferred Apartment Communities Buys Tomball, Cypress Apartment Communities for $76M [CoStar Group]
• Baytown’s Cedar Crossing Industrial Park Infrastructure Improvements Will Allow for Nearly 11,000 Acres of Development Along the Houston Ship Channel [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
• Gourmet Sandwich Shop Local Foods Opening a Third Houston Location This Fall in Tanglewood Shopping Center on San Felipe Near Bering [Culturemap]
• India Grocers Owner Yatin Patel Opening Indian Restaurant in Former Mozelle’s Cajun Seafood Market Next to Art Car Museum [Eater Houston]
• Generic Central Station Main, Subject of Failed Metro Design Competition, Opens Today with Snøhetta Nowhere in Sight [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
• Buffalo Bayou Park Now Sprouting 14,000 New Trees; Planting To Be Complete by June [Culturemap]
• Area Residents Worried About Their Health a Month After ‘Catalyst Fines’ from Former BP, Now Marathon Texas City Refinery Blanketed Neighborhoods [Houston Public Media]
• Art Guys’ ‘Tunnel of Love’ Opens in One Allen Center Lobby [HBJ]
• Worker Falls About 20 Ft. from Base of Downtown Highrise Crane on 609 Main Construction Site [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of I-45 at Buffalo Bayou: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Houston’s WFI Properties Bought More Houses Than Any Other HomeVestors Franchisee in a Major Market Last Year [Prime Property]
• Gatlin’s on 19th Now Closed, Will Do Pop-Ups in Mobile Kitchen Until It Reopens on Ella in June [Food Chronicles]
• El Tiempo 1308 Cantina Closure Not So Certain; Developers May Delay or Cancel Plans To Build on 1308 Montrose [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot]
• Neighbors Complain Cleanup of Shuttered CES Environmental Facility on Griggs Rd. Isn’t Fast Enough, Urge City To Clear Out Facility [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
• Man Charged with Arson for Fire at Southeast Houston Islamic Center Claims It Was an Accident [Houston Chronicle]
• City Fire Marshal Demoted for Telling Inspectors Not To Ticket Noncompliant City Buildings [Houston Chronicle]
• Fire Destroys Pair of 4-Story Townhomes at Dowling and McGowen in Third Ward Overnight [abc13]
• Breaking Down What the New FAA Drone Rule Proposal Allows, Who It Benefits, and Who It Doesn’t [LA Times]

Photo of the Susanne at Dunlavy and W. Alabama St.: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• New Apartment Tower on Block 114, Renovation of Former Petroleum Building Approved for Downtown Living Initiative [HBJ]
• Pelican Builders Plans To Begin Construction of 17-Story Condo Tower The Wilshire on Site of Former Westcreek Apartments in May [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
• Medistar Nearly Doubling Size of Bay Area Regional Medical Center in Webster [Prime Property]
• LA’s Omninet Capital Buys Hartford Park Apartments North of the Westpark Tollway [Houston Chronicle]
• Slideshow: The 20 Most Expensive Houston-Area Homes Sold in 2014 [HBJ]
• Owner of Down the Street in Cottage Grove Opening Around the Corner in East Downtown [Eater Houston]
• North Italia Restaurant Opening at BLVD Place Phase II at 1700 Post Oak on March 3 [Houston Chronicle]
• Arson Suspected in Fire at Southeast Houston Islamic Center off FM 1959 [Houston Chronicle]
• Fitzgerald’s Operators’ Proposed Music Venue at 2915 N. North Main Divides Neighbors [The Leader; previously on Swamplot]
• Residents Oppose Holmes Rd. Waste Transfer Station on Site of Former Garage Dump [Houston Public Media]
• Seamist Dr. Man Who Lives Directly Across from Goodman Manufacturing Fed Up with Noise, Traffic Congestion, Property Damage [The Leader]
• What Caused the Collapse of SF–Based Nonprofit Architecture for Humanity [The Architect’s Newspaper]

Photo of Southwest Fwy.: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• BP Looking To Sublease Office Space in 2 Buildings at its Westlake Campus in the Energy Corridor [Houston Business Journal]
• Construction Begins on 238-Apartment ‘Plantation Park’ in Lake Jackson [Prime Property]
• Table 57 Restaurant Inside New H-E-B on San Felipe To Open Feb. 18 [Food Chronicles]
• Salt N Pepper Opening New Beer Market Co. in Midtown in Former Medical Office at 3304 Milam [Culturemap]
• Supporters of Light Rail One Day Going to Houston Airports Shouldn’t Get Their Hopes Up [The Highwayman]
• Hearing on Freedmen’s Town Bricks To Resume on Monday [Houston Public Media]
• Arson Investigators Looking into Early Morning Fire at Quba Islamic Institute at 730 FM 1959 Near Ellington Airport [KHOU]
• Ron Roznovsky, Owner of Roznovsky’s Hamburgers in Oak Forest, Has Passed Away [Houstonia]

Photo of I-10: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Single-Family Home Sales Went Up 6% in January Over Last Year, Finds HAR [Culturemap]
• Third SkyHouse Apartment Tower in Houston Has Broken Ground Downtown at 1725 Main St. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
• Toll Brothers and Cernus Development’s 692-Acre Woodson’s Reserve Opening on a New Section of Grand Pkwy. [Realty News Report]
• CastleRock Communities Has Acquired 106 Acres in Baytown for New Residential Community [Houston Business Journal]
• Marvy Finger’s Midrise Apartment Project the Susanne, on Site of Former Montrose Fiesta, Begins Leasing, Releases Prices [BuzzBuzzHome; previously on Swamplot]
• Trader Joe’s at the LaCenterra in Cinco Ranch Opening This Friday [Prime Property]
• Akamaru Japanese Restaurant Now Open in Former Dean’s and The Fairview Space at 315 Fairview [Eater Houston]
• Sen. Bettencourt’s Proposal To Double School Property Tax Homestead Exemption Would Cost State $1B, Require Amending Constitution [Texas Politics]
• Nearly a Dozen ‘Ghost Bikes’ in Houston Have Disappeared or Been Vandalized [abc13]

Photo of Hermann Park: Brandi Lynn via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Colocation Company Buys 25-Story 1301 Fannin Building Downtown, Will Convert 2 More Floors to Data Center [Houston Business Journal]
• Falling Oil Prices Threaten Houston Building Boom, Where One-Sixth of U.S. Office Space Is Under Construction [Wall Street Journal]
• Houston Expected To Break Ground on $769M Worth of New Apartments This Year, Down 26% from Last Year, Says CMD Group [HBJ]
• Texas Cafeteria Building on Shepherd Dr., with $1.875M Asking Price, Sold to MFT Interests [Prime Property]
• Parking Variance Ruling for Heights Mercantile Development at Former Pappas Warehouse Site on 7th St. Deferred for 2 Weeks [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
• Town In City Brewing Co. on Cavalcade in Sunset Heights, 11 Below Brewing Co. Near Willowbrook Mall Both Plan To Open Next Month [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
• What Remains of Fannin’s Once-Bustling Flower Row [Houston Chronicle]
• Metro ‘Reimagining’ Plan Could Receive Final Approval By Its Board Today [Houston Chronicle]
• Thieves Take Saint Darth Vader Candle from Museum District’s Grand Prize Bar [Eater Houston]
• Art Guys Creating ‘Tunnel of Love’ in One Allen Center for Brookfield Properties [Houstonia]
• Montrose Blvd.’s Funnel Tunnel Dismantled, Relocating to New Orleans’ Poydras St. This Summer [Montrose District; previously on Swamplot]
• The Miniature, Fake 20th-Century Town Inspired By Pittsburgh [CityLab]

Photo of Johnny Steele Dog Park, Buffalo Bayou Park: Swamplot inbox

• Howard Hughes Corp. Planning Residential Tower with a ‘European Sensibility’ Along The Woodlands Waterway Next to New Hotel [Prime Property]
• HealthHelp Leasing 2 Floors of Former ExxonMobil Space in Four Greenspoint Place [Prime Property]
• New Jersey-Based Meat Distributor D’Artagnan Signs Lease for Warehouse Near I-45 and 249 at 416 Blue Bell Rd., with Option To Buy [Houston Business Journal]
• H-E-B Opening New Tanglewood Store with Wall of Live Plants, Casual Restaurant on Feb. 18 [Houston Business Journal; more here; previously on Swamplot]
• Pub Fiction Guys Moving into Downtown with The Moonshiners at 1000 Prairie St. [Eater Houston]
• B&B Signage Goes Up for Benjamin Berg’s B & R Butchers at 1814 Washington Ave [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot]
• Majority of Houston Households are Renters, Despite Low Vacancy Rates and Rising Rents, Finds New Report [Prime Property]
• Meet Michele Marano, Real Estate Agent to the Energy Industry [Houstonia]
• Opposition to High-Speed Rail Line from Dallas to Houston Gets Organized at NoTexasCentral.com [Off the Kuff]
• Lamar Bike Lane Has Reached ‘Record Levels of Facebook Enthusiasm,’ Says BikeHouston Executive Director [The Highwayman]
• Houston’s 5 Best Public Gardens [Houstonia]

Photo of Menil Park: Brandi Lynn via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Audits Investigating Funding, Bidding Processes at University of Houston’s New $128M Football Stadium [Houston Chronicle]
• Percentage of Young College Graduates in Houston Increased at Twice the National Rate from 2000 to 2012, Finds City Observatory [Houston Chronicle]
• Map Shows Where Property Tax Assessments Have Risen or Fallen Since 2010, by Zip Code [Click2Houston]
• Dallas-Based Roofing Supply Group Expands To Katy with New Warehouse in Grand Pkwy. Industrial Park [Houston Chronicle]
• PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans Opening at at 2155 Durham Dr. Delayed [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
• YES Prep Builds New Schools from Former Bank, Church, DHL Truck Warehouse, Kroger, and Furniture Store [Houston Public Media]
• First Phase of Tomball Tollway from North of Spring-Cypress Road to North of FM 2920 Set To Open Sometime This Spring [Houston Chronicle]
• Work Begins on 2-Way Bike Lane Along Lamar Street Downtown To Link Bicyclists Between Area Trails [Houston Chronicle]
• Study Ranks Houston 15th Among 70 U.S. Cities for Number of Ways People Can Get Around Without a Car [Houston Public Media]
• Street Artists To Paint Gorilla-Themed Murals on 4 Inner Loop Buildings To Promote Houston Zoo’s New Gorilla Environment [Glasstire]
• No Maps Included in Presentation of Draft Vision of New General Plan for Houston [OffCite]
• PODS of Houston, Houston Arts Alliance Team Up To Turn Storage Containers into Traveling Art Shows, Currently on Antoine Dr. [The Leader]

Photo: Jackson Myers via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Signorelli Co. Looks To Transform Sleepy Porter Suburb Near Grand Pkwy. Extension into Economic Juggernaut [Houston Business Journal]
• Memorial Hermann Wants To Sell and Lease Back 11 Houston-Area Medical Office Buildings Totaling More Than 1M SF [Prime Property]
• Unilev Capital Corp. To Make Improvements to Westchase Office Building 1500 CityWest, Hires CBRE To Handle the Leasing [Prime Property]
• Most Houston-Area Single-Family Homes and Condos Qualify for a Down Payment Assistance Program, Finds Report [Houston Chronicle]
• Houston Developers Increasingly Tout Proximity To Major Grocery Stores as an Amenity [Houston Chronicle]
• DoubleTree by Hilton Opens DoubleTree by Hilton Galveston Beach on Seawall Blvd. [Realty News Report]
• Lasco Enterprises Indeed Taking Over Arturo’s Uptown Italiano in Uptown Park, Anjeo Will Open March 1 [Culturemap]
• Clutch City Squire Closing This Saturday, The Commoner To Take Over Space at 410 Main [Eater Houston]
• City, Preservation Group Fail To Reach Agreement over Freedmen’s Town Bricks in Court-Ordered Mediation [Houston Public Media]
• Houston Metro Area Accounts For More Than Half of the $5.5B in Requests to the State’s Water Planning Agency for Help Funding Water-Supply Projects [Houston Chronicle]
• Houston TV Has Been Attacked By Potholes [mikemcguff.com]

Photo of Bishop’s Palace, Galveston: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Houston the Third Best U.S. Market for Commercial Real Estate, Behind Denver and San Francisco, in Coldwell Banker Report [Prime Property]
• Pearland Economic Development Corporation Predicts 13,000 New Residents Will Move to Pearland in the Coming Years [Prime Property]
• High End Houston Stores Not Worried About Slump in Oil Price; Construction Boom Will Offset Oil Bust, Declares Women’s Wear Daily [Culturemap]
• Toll Brothers, J. Patrick Homes To Build 45 Homes in Sienna Plantation’s Village of Sawmill Lake [Prime Property]
• Marvy Finger’s Midrise Apartment Project the Susanne Set To Open Monday on Former Dunlavy Fiesta Site [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
• 40K-SF Walmart ‘Neighborhood Concept’ Will Anchor Retail Development on League City’s West Side [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• U.S. Capital Advisors To Occupy Top One-and-a-Half Floors of a 5-Story River Oaks District Building [HBJ]
• Texas Cafeteria Closing After 50 Years To Make Way for 2 New Businesses at 2400 N. Shepherd [Houstonia]
• Lucille’s Owner Chris Williams Opening Gastropub Scrappy Brown’s in Museum Park at 4830 Almeda [Eater Houston]
• Velvet Taco Now Under Construction at 4819 Washington Ave [Eater Houston]
• Mary’z Lebanese Cuisine Now Open on Washington Ave [Eater Houston]
• Mayor Says Houston’s Roads a ‘Crisis Situation’ as City Has 3,667 Open Work Orders for Potholes, Asphalt Repair [Houston Chronicle]
• 1,000-Ft. Urban Slide Setting Up Near the Elysian Street Viaduct for a Weekend Next Month [Houston Chronicle]
• Electricity from Some 15K Texas Wind Turbines Now Accounts for About 11% of the State’s Total [Houston Public Media]
• Allen Pkwy. Improvement Plans To Be Presented at Public Meeting Tonight [Downtown Redevelopment Authority]
• Tiny Holdout Seattle House Used To Promote Movie ‘Up’ May Go Up for Foreclosure Auction [KHOU]
• Wichita Man Who Paid $600 Property Tax in Tightly Rolled $1 Bills Accused of Disrupting Tax Operations, Arrested [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of the AstroWorld Bridge: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Statoil, BP, and WorleyParsons Collectively Putting 1M SF of Sublease Office Space on the Market in Houston [Realty News Report]
• First Building in New DCT Northwest Crossroads Logistics Centre Is 100% Preleased [Prime Property]
• Transwestern’s Westway Plaza Office Building in Northwest Houston Also 100% Preleased [Prime Property]
• West Loop Office Building Housing Houston’s DEA HQ Sold To New York Investors [Realty News Report]
• Houston Multifamily Developers Scramble To Find Funding Amid Oil Slump [Houston Business Journal]
• Championing for the Rebirth of Downtown Houston [Not of It]
• KPRC Local 2 Planning To Tear Down Its 44-Year-Old Building and Rebuild in the Parking Lot [Houston Chronicle]
• Concrete Cowboy and Fuego’s Saloon Coming to Washington Ave [Eater Houston]
• Fort Bend Brewing Co. in Missouri City Officially Closes After 2 Years [Beer, TX]
• This Year’s Winners of Preservation Houston’s Good Brick Awards [Culturemap]
• Rice Gallery Installation Explores History, Aspects of Shotgun-Style Houses [OffCite]
• The 8 Worst Spots to Try and Park in Houston, Plus 2 Honorable Mentions [Houston Press]

Photo of Beatles Sculpture by David Adickes on Summer Street: Brandi Lynn via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Developer of Suburban Shopping Centers Wins Bid for 21-Acre Tarkett Tile Site, Between Target and Kroger East of Studewood [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
• Black Forest Ventures Hires Stream Realty Partners To Handle Leasing of 5050 Westheimer [Prime Property]
• Friendswood Development Co. Acquires 200-Acre Parcel To Expand Tomball Community Wildwood at NorthPointe [Prime Property]
• CBRE Predicts Increased Competition Will Cause a Flattening of Rents and Some Concessions in Houston [Houston Business Journal]
• Houston Is ‘Moderately Unaffordable,’ According to 2015 Demographia Housing Affordability Study [Prime Property]
• Houston’s Suburban Past Meets Its Urban Future Inside the Loop [Governing]
• Opening of Krispy Kreme Location at 5611 Hwy. 6 North Pushed Back Until the Spring [Eater Houston]
• The Ginger Mule Tonics & Meals Taking Over Former Cappriotti’s Spot in Sugar Land Town Square [Eater Houston]
• City of Houston Patches Approximately 50,000 Potholes per Year, at $200-$400 a Pop [Click2Houston]
• Public Meetings Today on How Houston Should Spend $279M of Prop. 1 Money on Highway Improvements [The Highwayman]
• For the Best U.S. Architecture per Square Mile, Head to Dallas [CityLab]

Photo of Rice University: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool