Headlines

• Transwestern Breaks Galleria Ground on 30-Story BHP Billiton Tower [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
• Hines Planning ‘European-Style’ Residential Development on Old Katy Road Inside the Loop [Houston Chronicle ($)]
• Aldi Postpones October 24 Opening of Kemah Store [Prime Property]
• What’s Going On at Georgia’s Farm to Market’s West Houston Location? [Houstonia Magazine]
• Metro Brings Back $3 Day Pass, Discontinued in 2008 [Click2Houston]
• City Sues Developer for Cutting Down Two 100-Year-Old Live Oaks in the Museum District, Montrose [Houston Chronicle]
• Five Of Houston’s Weirdest, Wackiest Buildings [Houstonia Magazine]

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

• 1700 West Loop South To Be Renamed Burns & McDonnell Plaza [Houston Chronicle ($)]
• Grand Texas Theme Park Neighbors Fear Loss of Quiet Country Life [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
• Bridgewood Property Planning River Oaks Retirement Community [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
• Houston’s Fake Space Shuttle To Be Called Independence After Contest Drew 10K Suggestions [abc13]
• Menil Billboard in Dupree Park Provokes a Copycat Billboard Response [Glasstire]

Photo: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Houston: The Surprising Contender in America’s Urban Revival [Governing]
• Office Vacancy Rates Continue To Shrink in Houston, Finds CBRE Group [Houston Business Journal]
• Dunkin’ Donuts Opens Largest Houston Location in Atascocita [Lake Houston Observer; previously on Swamplot]
• Apartment Vacancies in Houston Down 1.2 Percent from This Time Last Year, Reports Reis [Houston Business Journal]
• HAR, City Unveil Houston App for Newcomers with Handy Housing, Government Information [Prime Property]
• TxDOT Threatens To Shame Publicly Worst Toll Violators To Help Recoup $27M in Unpaid Tolls [KUHF]
• Video: Piney Point Village Commercial Real Estate Broker Says He Caught Process Server Spitefully Peeing on His Driveway [KHOU; more info here]

Photo of The Strand: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Downtown’s Heritage Plaza For Sale, Could Garner $480M [Culturemap]
• Louisiana St. One of the Most Expensive Streets in the Country for Office Rents [Houston Business Journal]
• A Call To Open HOV Lanes During Non-Peak Hours [Houston Chronicle ($)]
• Some Ideas for Doing Critical Mass Smarter [Houston Chronicle ($)]
• Some of Those Wild Mushrooms Popping Up All over Houston May Be Deadly [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of the underside of the Galveston Island Causeway: Stephen Alexander via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Formerly Blighted First Ward ‘Losing a House a Day’ as Neighborhood Reinvented By Townhomes [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
• MF Sushi at Westheimer and Fountainview Closed After Fire [Culturemap]
• Foreclosures as Art at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft [Houstonia Magazine]

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

• Construction To Start Today on Hobby Airport’s New $156M Terminal [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
• Skanska Sells 20-Story Post Oak Office Tower for $112M [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
• Building Permits Up 23 Percent in Houston [Prime Property]
• Downtown Houston Feels Like Chicago Did 20 Years Ago, Says Developer [Real Estate Bisnow]
• Galveston Customer Base Isn’t Returning To Small Businesses, 5 Years After Ike [Houston Chronicle ($)]
• San Felipe Bridge Closure Hurting Business, Says Ouisie’s Table [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
• Artists Behind Prada Marfa Explain to TxDOT Why It’s Art [Glasstire]

Photo: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Developer Randall Davis Sells Historic Galveston Building Containing The Strand Lofts [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Construction Underway for New Pappasito’s in Downtown Hilton Americas [Food Chronicles]
• In Honor of Downtown Burger Guys Closing, Houston’s 12 Cursed Restaurant Spots [Houstonia Magazine; previously on Swamplot]
• Designating Buffalo Bayou as a National Heritage Area [Texas on the Potomac]
• New Memorial Park Running Trails Center, with Showers and Lockers, Gets Going [abc13]
• First Seeds Planted To Restore Full Height of San Jacinto Battlefield Vegetation [Houston Chronicle ($)]
• Rodents Hanging Out in Closing Galleria H-E-B Parking Lot [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
• Neighbors Upset About Smoke from Gulfton Crematorium [abc13]

Photo of the Medical Center: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Memorial Hermann Planning $93M Expansion of Sugar Land Hospital [Prime Property]
• Houston Hosting 23 Major Conventions This Year; Momentum Expected To Continue in 2014 [Houston Business Journal]
• The Dining Scene Blossoming Downtown [Houstonia Magazine]
• One of the Last Holdouts at the Allen House Apartments in Houston’s Era of Displacement [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
• Construction Starts on Extending 249 Toll Lanes Through Tomball [The Highwayman]
• Houston Named One of Texas’s Most Scenic Cities Based on Public Landscaping, Parks, Billboards [KUHF]
• In Richmond’s Brazos Lakes, Residents Are Allowed To Hunt Alligators [Houston Chronicle]
• Ignored Market Square Clock Tower Subject of Artist’s Piece on Time [Houston Chronicle ($)]

Photo of the Galleria: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Two Polls Show Voters Favoring $217M Astrodome Bond Initiative [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
• 1950s Glenbrook Valley Subdivision Named a Top ‘Old’ Neighborhood in the U.S. by This Old House [Prime Property]
• TxDOT Repairing U.S. 59 Bridge at Sam Houston Tollway, Causing Lane Closures [The Highwayman]
• Scientists Propose $1.5B Centennial Gate To Protect Ship Channel During Hurricane [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
• Houston Hurricane Season Pretty Much Over, Says Expert [KUHF]
• Waugh Bridge Bat Population Numbers Around 300K [Houstonia Magazine]

Photo of Chong Hua Sheng Mu Holy Palace at Overture and Ashford Point: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Rice University Report Finds That Half of Houston Area Isn’t Affordable [Prime Property]
• UH Documentary Presents Origins of Downtown’s OKRA Charity Saloon [Culturemap]
• Feral Pig Population Increases Across Texas [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Please Stop Hosting Art Parties at the Galleria and Other Temples of Commerce [Houstonia Magazine]
• All the Houston References On Drake’s New Album, from the Galleria to Warehouse Live [Rocks Off]
• The Art Guys Sum Up Their Repeated Crossing of Westheimer and Hillcroft/Voss as ‘Brutish’ [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
• How Much It’ll Cost You To Heat and Cool That $15M Timberwilde Lane Mansion [Mission Air Conditioning]
• Cracking Down on ‘Astroturfing,’ the Business of Fake Online Reviews [Christian Science Monitor]

Photo of Jim Sanborn’s sculpture outside the University of Houston’s M.D. Anderson Library: Molly Block via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Toll Brothers Buys Up 600 Acres in Montgomery County To Build Luxury Homes [Prime Property]
• Belle Communities Building Rental Condos for Residents 55 and Older Near Tomball Pkwy. and Louetta [Houston Chronicle ($)]
• Dickinson Invests in Street Improvements To Accommodate Population Growth [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• What Fulshear’s Cross Creek Ranch Development Does Right When It Comes to Its Environment [Houston Chronicle ($)]
• Environmentalists Think Harris County Keeping Public in the Dark on Buffalo Bayou Restoration [KUHF; previously on Swamplot]
• Potentially Deadly Fungus Infecting Stressed 100-Year-Old Ghirardi Oak Tree [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Buffalo Bayou Flooding Strands, Damages Cars in Houston Omni Hotel Parking Lot [Click2Houston]
• Bing Maps Does Not Know Where Downtown Houston Is [Macrosoft]

Photo of GreenStreet after Foleys’s demo: Jon Morris

• Demand for Hotels in Houston Expected To Increase During Next Five Years, Finds Report [Houston Business Journal]
• Hughes Landing in the Woodlands Completes First Building [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
• Kingwood Apartment Complex for the Disabled Likely the First of Its Kind in Texas [Houston Chronicle ($)]
• BYOB No Longer Viable on Washington Ave, Says Owner of Closing Hollister [Culturemap]
• Baytown’s Royal Purple Raceway at Odds with Proposed Nearby Rock-Crushing Facility [Houston Chronicle ($)]
• Something Must Be Done About Big Rigs Snarling Traffic [The Highwayman]
• Nine Arrested in Connection with Columbia Tap Trail Attacks [Culturemap]
• Houston Hen Ordinance in a ‘Holding Pattern’ with Council [The Leader News; previously on Swamplot]

Photo: Alex Luster via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Texas Children’s To Build New Hospital in The Woodlands [Houston Business Journal]
• Construction Begins on Stalled Galveston Burger King [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Council Approves $2.79M More for Structural Improvements to Miller Outdoor Theatre [Houston Business Journal]
• Sales from International Homebuyers Up 2 Percent in State This Year, Study Finds [Prime Property]
• State Tabs African Dust, Mexican Smoke for Failing Air Standards [Houston Chronicle ($)]
• Chefs Challenged To Make 20-Minute Meal During Disaster Preparedness Event on Sunday [Eating Our Words]

Photo of First Baptist Church at Harvard and Ninth: Jason Ezer

• Houston-Area Home Sales Slow Just a Bit in August [Houston Chronicle ($)]
• Fire Destroys 10K SF, $1.1M Home in Northeast Houston [abc13]
• The Bus Routes Sunday’s Macy’s Implosion Will Impact [Click2Houston]
• What’s the Capacity of the Expanded Katy Freeway? [Off the Kuff]
• Playboy Marfa Illegal Advertising Controversy Might Affect Prada Marfa Too [Glasstire]
• Houston Artist Makes Sculptures out of Beach Pollution [KHOU]

Photo of 2929 Wesleyan: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Former Foley’s Exec Criticizes Downtown Retail Task Force for Lacking Retailers [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
• Tanger Outlets, Buc-ee’s Generate Interest in Developing Along I-45 in Texas City [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Houston Home Sales Went Up for 27th Consecutive Month in August [Tom Plant’s Houston Real Estate Blog]
• Home Prices Near Ashby Highrise Up 58 Percent Over Same Time Last Year, Finds Greenwood King [Prime Property]
• Springwoods Village Has Already Sold Land for 500 Homes [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
• State Seals Polluted League City Oil Production Site [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Texas Residents Using Much Less Power Than State Predicted [StateImpact Texas]
• City Putting Up Hidden Cameras To Catch Illegal Dumping [abc13]
• Natural Environment Largely Recovered from Ike Damage [Galveston County Daily News ($)]

Photo of the Houston Methodist Training Center at Reliant Park: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool