WHAT A PLACE AT THE SOVEREIGN WILL COST YOU 
A couple of readers have written in noting their own sticker shock at the pricing announced for the 290 apartments at the still-under-construction 21-story Sovereign at Regent Square tower. One bedrooms will start at $2070 a month, two bedrooms at $3070, and studios at $1615. A temporary leasing office run by Boston-based Windsor Communities will open in a couple of weeks; the first units at 3233 West Dallas St. should be ready for occupancy by July 15th, the company says. [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Alonso Ortega
Sign up for the Newsletter
New Construction
The UH professor whose experiences living next door to the vacant-lot-turned-highrise-construction-site across the southern border of River Oaks made for a colorful teevee news report and an EPA complaint has called an end to his protests of the rumbling, diesel fumes, and building and patio cracks caused by the giant crane that showed up next door (pictured above). With an unspecified amount of financial assistance from Hines, the developers of the 17-story office tower going up at 2229 San Felipe, Richard Armstrong and his family will be moving from 2244 Welch St. to a new home in Pearland early next month.
His media appearances “got the attention of Hines and Gilbane Construction,” Armstrong reports in a letter posted to an online news group focusing on the tower’s construction. “Fundamentally, there isn’t much that can be done,” he writes, “given the pace and scale of this construction. . . . We have loved this house and the neighborhood — up until December. This is a wonderful pocket for people who want access to everything the inner loop has to offer. Unfortunately, other people are discovering our secret. So we’ll just have to roll with the changes.”
It appears that Armstrong’s “roll” will be bankrolled — at least in part — by Hines.
Neighbors Helping Neighbors — To Move Away
Opposite the pedestrian-friendly Winlow Westheimer shopping center at the corner of Westheimer and Hazard St. that includes the recently de-Firkinized Phoenix bar, a new Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers fast-food joint is about to go up — on a 35,000-sq.-ft. lot that’s been vacant since the 2-story pushed-to-the-street building once home to Martha Turner Properties was torn down on the site almost 6 years ago. The reader who sent in the photo above reports that a construction supervisor on site claimed the new chicken joint will be alive and kicking within 3 or 4 months.
Montrose Drive-Thru
Construction work has begun on the exciting new Sam’s Club #6867, which will face onto the Grand Pkwy. just north of Bellaire Blvd. in Richmond, as this reader photo taken from Parkway Lakes Ln. attests. The 136,454-sq.-ft. store will be surrounded by a sea of 529 parking spaces and 13 cart corrals on a 15-acre site just south of the Westpark Tollway:
@ Westpark Toll Rd.
We’re counting no fewer than 5 construction cranes in this view looking east along the north side of I-10 from N. Eldridge Pkwy. But what’s that one-story building going up in the center of the photo on the north side of the I-10 feeder, south of Shell’s Woodcreek campus and east of ConocoPhillips, on N. Dairy Ashford? It’s a new daycare facility for Shell.
Photo: David Elizondo
Shell Games
Construction and don’t-touch-these-oaks fencing have gone up at the corner of Richmond and Buffalo Speedway, where the PM Realty Group has been planning to build a new 18-story office building attached to a 7-level parking garage on the open space and parking lot at the northern end of the site. The site plan shows retail space — likely for a restaurant — fronting Buffalo Speedway; the development is being called 3737 Buffalo Speedway.
3737 Buffalo Speedway, Going Up
If the panoramic photo above makes it look like these newly erected concrete tilt walls, having been boiled and baked on the ground and then propped into place, are about to envelop the 2-story strip center building to its north on S. Shepherd Dr. just south of Welch known to most as the longtime home of the Hot Bagel Shop — well that appears to be the idea. These photos were taken over the weekend. Last November, Swamplot reported on plans for Shepherd Commons, at 2015 S. Shepherd, a new 2-story replacement strip mall which Hot Bagel Shop and River Oaks Nails, according to the source, were intending to move into. After the move, it was reported, the original strip center would be knocked down and a second phase built in its place:
Plain or Poppy?
Note: Story updated below.
O ye of little faith, casting doubts here and there that a little 13,000-sq.-ft. standalone fine dining and lounging experience on Westheimer across Stoney Brook from AutoZone would ever open its doors after a mere 3 years of construction, a few long silences, and working so hard behind the scenes to get every detail right! It takes time, and actual anticipation, to truly earn the status of Houston’s Most Anticipated Restaurant. So take this: Fish and the Knife opens today. As in: You can park your car in the big parking lot out back, walk right in through the big wooden doors, and order yourself some sushi and a Japanese-style steak. And maybe this weekend, or some other big weekend night soon, wiggle your tail and fins to the rhythms and the flashing lights in the transformed 4,000-sq.-ft. “Las Vegas-style” nightclub inside.
Okay, but really, what took this place so long to open? Here’s the owner of the new spot at 7801 Westheimer, trying valiantly to explain it all:
A Good Restaurant Took Time
Here’s a view of the Wedge International parking garage at 777 Clay St. from across Polk St. taken yesterday. It’s not particularly notable — until you realize what’s no longer visible. For years, while a surface parking lot stood on the lot in the foreground, this was the scene of Houston’s most spectacular grid of auto headlights and taillights — changing daily, and screened from their cliff-like views at each level only by low, light-looking barriers of steel cables. (A closeup side view of the scene from last week, with a few levels already partially masked by new chain-link fencing, is shown at right.)
That’s a Wrap
Construction has begun on the 16-story, 1,600-car parking-only highrise at 1311 Louisiana St. When complete, it’ll cover the northeast half of the block surrounded by Polk, Milam, Louisiana, and Clay, and provide layers of automotive insulation for the cars up against the ropes (and more recently installed chain-link fence) on the adjacent Wedge International parking garage. In the meantime, Wedge parkers will have a decent view of the construction activity below.
16 Stories of Vertical Parking Bliss
“They are definitely moving forward” on construction of the office tower at the corner of Spann St. and San Felipe between Kirby and Shepherd, a Swamplot reader reports from the scene across the street from River Oaks. Neighborhood complaints or no, Hines is ready to roll on its 17-story 2229 San Felipe development (portrayed in an aerial view among its low-rise neighbors at right). “They have scraped the land, built a cover over the neighbors garage, and fenced this property,” our correspondent reports. And oh, yeah: A crane has arrived.
- Previously on Swamplot: Dear Hines: We’d Settle for a Residential Midrise, Please, Hines Not Stopping San Felipe Skyscraper, Hines Develops Website To Explain 17-Story San Felipe Development, “Stop†Signs Oppose 17-Story Hines Office Building on San Felipe, A Look Around San Felipe at the Randall Davis Condos and Planned Hines Office Building Site, Hines Plans a Shiny New 18-Story Office Building Across San Felipe from River Oaks
Photo: Loves Swamplot. Aerial View of 2229 San Felipe: Hines
Sticking Up, for River Oaks
MEANWHILE, ACROSS THE DRIVEWAY FROM A NORTH LOOP WHATABURGER 
From reader David Hille comes this report of the latest parking lot pad site takeover: “After a morning run to the ‘Brinkman’ Home Depot on 610 near N. Shepherd, I became curious about the temporary fencing which was being erected around the northeast quarter of the parking lot. So, I stopped, and spoke to a couple of men who were reviewing a fairly large roll of blueprints on the lowered tailgate of a truck. I had a little head rush when I was told that a new Chick Fil-A was about to be erected . . . right there in the parking lot. Makes sense, as I can’t remember that portion of the lot ever being full of cars. A similar scenario took place last year at the Lowes down the street. Part of that property which held a retention pond is now home to a brand new CVS. Prior to that, some of the Lowes parking lot was sacrificed for a Murphy Express gas station . . .” Photo: David Hille
PHEW! FISH AND THE KNIFE IS BACK TO ITS USUAL ‘OPENING SOON’ STATUS 
After announcing just last week that it had given up all hope that the 3-and-a-half-year-long construction project on the corner of Westheimer and Stoney Brook Dr. would ever open its doors as a restaurant, the crack team behind the b4-u-eat newsletter declared yesterday that its loss of sushi faith was unwarranted: “Fish & The Knife mystery solved,” the latest email report reads. “The facebook page was removed because it was created by an employee who is no longer there. There were a lot of workers there today and the beautiful fish tank contains live fish now. The owner says they expect to open in 3 weeks.” [b4-u-eat; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
A reader who happened to be on the scene Saturday morning when scaffolding collapsed on the side of the Chateau Ten condo building going up at the corner of Spann and Welch streets just south of River Oaks sent Swamplot these photos and a report shortly after the incident. The Randall Davis development is under construction behind the empty lot on San Felipe on which Hines is planning to build a 17-story office tower:
“I did not see the collapse, but I heard it . . . It sounded like an explosion — power went out immediately.” The correspondent reports running out to find scaffolding for the 6-story building down, “completely covering a house (and Mercedes) and scaffolding bits were dangling from power lines. I called 911. I don’t think anyone is hurt.”
What could have caused this construction accident?
Stucco, Interrupted
A fence is up and some demo work appears to be beginning at Galleria Plaza, across Sage Rd. from Galleria III. The mixed-use site, which stretches between Westheimer and West Alabama, is indeed the planned location of the new Hyatt Regency hotel that Swamplot reported on last month. The 14-story hotel, which was designed by Gensler and is being developed by Songy Highroads and the Carlyle Group, will fit into the surface parking lot at the northwest corner of Sage and West Alabama shown here:
Making Rooms
