New Construction

Energy Corridor
09/05/13 10:00am

Skanska Starts In On Parkside Office Building in Energy Corridor

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New Construction, Office Buildings
3 Comments

Note: Story updated with an additional rendering.

More action from Skanska: Now, the Swedish development and construction company has begun work on West Memorial Place, which for now will comprise a single 12-story, 325,000-sq.-ft. office building on the site of the demolished ARCO building in the Energy Corridor. It’ll be accompanied by a 9-story parking garage. Though the rendering above shows a pair, only one building is going up; the second, a PR rep tells Swamplot, depends on the market. The HOK-designed building will stand on 12 acres at 15375 Memorial Dr., between Westlake Park Blvd. and Southmayde Creek Dr., bumping up against the hike and bike in Terry Hershey Park. Petroleum Geo-Services has already signed on to occupy about 122,000 sq. ft.

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Cinco Ranch
09/04/13 4:30pm

Trader Joe’s Opening New Store Outside Every Loop in Cinco Ranch

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Katy, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Retail
15 Comments

Here’s a look at Houston’s next Trader Joe’s, set to open in Cinco Ranch sometime next year. It’ll be at 2643 Commercial Center Blvd., right in the center of all that commerce just west of the Grand Pkwy. This new 12,500-sq.-ft. store will be the 4th in the area. The last to open was the one on San Felipe and Voss in January, across the street from the Randall’s that has since been torn down to make way for a new Whole Foods.

Rendering: Trader Joe’s

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Bayous and Waterways
08/30/13 11:15am

What’s Been Happening at Buffalo Bayou Park

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New Construction, Parks
19 Comments

The dirty work continues: Here are some photos of the progress, as of last night, of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s big plan to soup up the soupy waterway.

Above, you can see the new view from Eleanor Tinsley Park, where site work is underway for the Bud Light Amphitheater. Picnic tables, a volleyball court, playground equipment, and a few pine trees are all long gone.

After the jump, you can see more photos of dirt. And photos of the newest pedestrian bridge, inserted between the Houston Police Memorial and the rear of Glenwood Cemetery.

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Homes for Sale
08/27/13 11:00am

New Townhomes for a New(ish) Blodgett St. in the Third Ward

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New Construction, Third Ward, Townhouses
44 Comments

This pack of Larry S. Davis-designed townhouses, clad in metal and stucco, is under construction in the Third Ward just a few blocks from TSU. A site plan shows 24 of ’em spanning Wentworth and Blodgett — the sidewalks along which are being repaired and gussied up to include new landscaping, granite benches, decorative pylons, and purty brick inlays. Floor plans show that the 2-bedroom, 2-bath townies range in size from 1,470 sq. ft. to 1,956 sq. ft.; some include a study. All but 3 appear to have been already sold. Those remaining start at $269,900.

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Commercial Real Estate
08/27/13 10:00am

Another Office Building in the Pines in The Woodlands

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New Construction, Office Buildings, Office Space, The Woodlands
6 Comments

This week, Stream Realty will start adding this 6-story building to its all-natural, LEED-aspiring office park in The Woodlands. The spec 154,213-sq.-ft Reserve at Sierra Pines II, to be located at 1585 Sawdust Rd., will join its larger predecessor, the 175,000-sq.-ft. building sold more than a year ago for about $40 million to the REIT CapLease. Houston Business Journal’s Shaina Zucker adds that this new building, a brisk 1.5-mile walk north of the ExxonMobil campus, is planned to include “a jogging trail” and a “heavily landscaped Zen garden.”

Stream has a few other projects in the hopper: There’s that curvaceous 41-story International Tower that Stream (along with Essex) has proposed to build on that block south of Market Square Park, and there’s that more straightforward 25-story office building just off Washington and Waugh.

Rendering: Stream Realty Partners

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Memorial City
08/23/13 11:00am

The New Hospital-Adjacent Steakhouse in Memorial City

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New Construction, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants
1 Comment

THE NEW HOSPITAL-ADJACENT STEAKHOUSE IN MEMORIAL CITY And far below that lit-up crown that you can’t enter, there will soon be a steakhouse you can: Culturemap reports that construction is coming along at the mixed-use Gateway Memorial City development on Vallone’s, the red-meat-and-red-wine concept from the folks who feed you on a first-name basis at Tony’s. General manager Scott Sulma says that they hope to open here on Gessner Rd. and the Katy Fwy. in October. [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Vallone’s

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Energy Corridor
08/23/13 10:00am

Ponds, Paths, and Office Space in the Energy Corridor

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New Construction, Office Buildings
8 Comments

Kirksey designed both of these 7-story, 175,000-sq.-ft. office buildings for PM Realty, which expects construction to begin on the first of them — dubbed Jacobs Plaza — here at 12140 Wickchester Ln. this month. They’re part of a proposed office park north of the Katy Fwy. and east of N. Dairy Ashford that, as this rendering shows, will comprise a manmade pond and pedestrian paths that lead out to the nearby Addicks Reservoir. Houston Business Journal reports that the primary tenant and namesake for the first building will be Jacobs Engineering.

Rendering: Kirksey Architecture

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Apartments
08/16/13 10:30am

The Apartments Hines Will Be Building on Westheimer

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Demolitions, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Upper Kirby
25 Comments

Now that Cafe Adobe is coming down on the corner of Westheimer and S. Shepherd, Hines says it is going to start building this apartment complex later this month. A Hines rep tells Swamplot that this rendering of the so-called 21 Eleven at — wait for it — 2111 Westheimer is current — though it doesn’t appear to be all that different from the one published back in April that Hines said wasn’t. At any rate, the complex is planned to hold 215 units in 5 stories that will sit atop 2 levels of “podium parking.” And no ground-floor retail.

Rendering: Hines

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Montrose
08/15/13 2:00pm

Austin Bar Doc’s To Remedy Montrose Wendy’s Wreckage

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New Construction, Openings and Closings, Restaurants
11 Comments

The old Westheimer Wendy’s has been reduced to a shell of itself, this photo shows, as Doc’s Bar and Grill has come all the way from Austin to build itself up. Located at 1303 Westheimer and Graustark — right beside the overflow parking lot for Royal Oak Bar and Grill, which is right across the street — Doc’s says in a Facebook post that this 3rd location could open in November.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Downtown
08/15/13 10:15am

GreenStreet, Getting Going

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New Construction, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Renovations, Retail, Shopping Centers
9 Comments

GREENSTREET, GETTING GOING Just 4 short months after that party it threw for itself, GreenStreet might start becoming something more than a new name and a few signs, reports the Houston Business Journal. Though graffiti artists worked in June to enliven some of the former Houston Pavilions infamously inward-facing spaces with murals, it seems real construction — expected to last between 6 and 9 more months — will begin in a few weeks. The thrust of the renovations? Here’s Shaina Zucker: “Changes to the 568,294-square-foot property . . . include removing existing implements to the interior corridor while creating a new linear urban park.” [Art Attack; Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: GreenStreet

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New Construction
08/14/13 5:00pm

The Natural Spaces Being Built into the ExxonMobil Campus

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Proposed Developments, Spring, Springwoods Village
34 Comments

Here are some new renderings of the spaces between the buildings on the ExxonMobil campus under construction in Springwoods Village. The Houston Business Journal’s Shaina Zucker reports that the 20 or so office buildings that will constitute the 385-acre campus will be organized around “a central three-acre commons” much like the one, designed by Houston firm PDR, shown here. The commons, explains Zucker, is “modeled after great public squares found in Europe and the U.S.”

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Apartments
08/12/13 4:45pm

Energy Corridor To Get ‘Both Brick and Stucco’ Alexan Complex

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Energy Corridor, New Construction, Quicklink
4 Comments

ENERGY CORRIDOR TO GET ‘BOTH BRICK AND STUCCO’ ALEXAN COMPLEX More Alexan-brand apartments are going up, The Memorial Examiner reports. But unlike that pair of ’em planned for those 2 stacked lots in the Heights, this one beyond the Beltway will have almost 6.25 acres all to itself. Trammell Crow says it should have ready this spring the 4-story, 354-unit Alexan Enclave at 13411 Briar Forest Dr., just off Eldridge Pkwy. in the Energy Corridor. Worried that the complex will disrupt the stylistic unity of the area? Or that it might be built with strange, atypical materials? There’s no need, Trammell Crow explains: “The traditional, exterior facade, which will incorporate both brick and stucco, is in keeping with the architecture of the surrounding neighborhoods.” [Memorial Examiner; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Trammell Crow Residential

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Bayous and Waterways
08/07/13 5:00pm

Introducing the Bud Light Amphitheater, the Next Greenspace To Grace Buffalo Bayou

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New Construction, Parks
42 Comments

Thanks to $2 million from Silver Eagle Distributors, which is also putting up that new beer dispensary in Pasadena, the Buffalo Bayou Partnership might to be able to afford to turn Eleanor Tinsley Park into something as purty as what you see in the rendering above. That means the existing “event meadow” down below there along Allen Pkwy. will be scooped out and rid of the volleyball court, playground equipment, picnic shelters, and some of the pine trees, then re-landscaped and rechristened the Bud Light Amphitheater; more parking and stairs will be introduced; and a new “Skyline Overlook” pavilion will be built and named in honor of Silver Eagle prez and CEO John Nau.

The dirty work began earlier this month, says the BBP, part of the overall project to install new swag like pedestrian bridges and remove invasive species, transforming the 2.3-mile stretch, BBP prez Anne Olson explained a few months ago to Free Press Houston, into an “11 acre urban prairie.”

Rendering: SWA Group

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Institutional Buildings
08/07/13 12:00pm

The Bigger Building Where Studies Will Continue at Rice University

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New Construction, Rice University
9 Comments

Here’s what’s going up on the west side of the Rice University campus. Construction began back in December on the 3-story, 53,000-sq.-ft. Anderson Clark building, just off University Blvd. and behind the football stadium, that will serve as the much-larger home for the Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies; plans describe 2 dozen new classrooms, conference space, an auditorium, and a terrace for events.

Check out some purty renderings of the finished building after the jump:

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Institutional Buildings
07/29/13 10:00am

A Place for Men To Get Clean in Midtown

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Midtown, New Construction
28 Comments

A new residence hall for men rehabbing from drug and alcohol addiction looks to be shaping up in Midtown. Designed by Roesler Architects, the 4-story, 26,000-sq.-ft. building will hold 64 efficiency units meant to house 2 men at a time; each unit, according Roesler, will have a microwave, refrigerator, built-in desk, and a coffee bar. There will also be what Roesler describes as a “Linear Courtyard” — a fenced-in landscaping feature, presumably — that will be accessible from the dayroom on the first floor. The new building is located at the corner of Alabama and San Jacinto, east of the Men’s Center headquarters across Main St. from the construction of Broadstone 3800, the 5-story apartment complex facing the light rail line on Main.

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