From a tall perch nearby, a reader sends Swamplot this shot of the future site of BLVD Place, where — it appears — site work has begun on the land slated to become the second phase of the mixed-use development, including the long-awaited Galleria Whole Foods Market and more than 150,000 sq. ft. of shops. The camera is pointed down San Felipe, looking east toward Post Oak. Here’s another view of the site from the south, from another reader:
The Alamo reinforcements have arrived! Okay, they’re just temporary steel props, but they’re now holding the tilt-up concrete facade out of the mud around the tamale-themed strip center Warwick Construction is putting up on Houston’s Northside. The 23,000-sq.-ft. Alamo Tamale Company development at 809 Berry Rd. just west of Irvington will include a bakery, a reception hall, a restaurant and cantina, a dessert bar, and — yes — an on-site tamale-construction facility. Plus: a drive-thru meant to accommodate about 20 tamale-pickup vehicles.
It turns out the construction work Swamplot readers noted last week on the vacant lot at 1401 Binz St., catty-corner from the Children’s Museum, is for a 4-story structure combining ground-floor shops, 2 floors of medical office space, and a top-floor residence — all in less than 30,000 sq. ft. A small courtyard will separate the building from a linked multilevel 160-car parking garage. Half the office space, reports the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff, will be taken up by medical clinics operated by UT dermatologist Stephen Tyring; he also owns the property and is an owner of the development firm, Dermedica Property Group. Bailey Architects notes on its website that the building “will reflect the architectural fabric of Houston’s premier museum district buildings.” Sarnoff’s translation: It’ll look Modern. Contractor Arch-Con expects construction to be complete early next year.
Rendering: Bailey Architects
A couple of readers are curious about some Museum District action, catty-corner from the Children’s Museum. “Could hardly believe my eyes this morning,” writes one. “SOMETHING is going on at the empty lot at Binz & LaBranch (next to the soon to be opening Lucille’s). Old foundations and stumps have been dug up. There’s even a port-a-potty on-site. What I don’t know, however, is WHAT is being planned for this site. I thought maybe the readers would have a clue.” Well, here’s an old one:
LIGHT RAIL SCORECARD: 6 MILES DOWN, 9 TO GO, CULBERSON BLOCKING GOAL 
Metro says it’s now laid 6 miles of track for the 3 light-rail lines its working on — the new East End and Southeast Lines and the North Line extension. And construction is now under way on 10 of 24 new stations. All is on track for a 2014 opening date, including $200 million of federal funds for 2 of those lines, approved by a vote in the House of Representatives last Friday. Also approved within the same bill, though: Congressman John Culberson’s ban on federal funding for both the Uptown Line and the long-delayed University Line. A House-Senate conference committee will determine if the funding block remains in the bill’s final version. [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Metro
From a perch in the American General Life Building off Allen Parkway, a reader sends this view of the “HUGE property” at 2900 West Dallas, behind the new Whole Foods Market on Waugh. Construction work has been going on for about a month, reports the photographer. Going up: 431 apartment units in a 6-story block from the Finger Companies. Judging from these 2 renderings of the project, the apartments won’t end up looking much like the Whole Foods or the American General office campus directly to the north:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A DEDICATED FAN’S SPRING BURGER REPORT 
“Carl’s Jr is about to open another factory of deliciousness in Spring, TX, corner of hwy 249 and Louetta Rd. built from the ground up, it started about two months ago, and just last week they hung the signs, no word on when it opens. I’ve submitted pictures to Swamplot, they might publish them soon.” [Sweetmocha, commenting on Burger Chains Ready Attack on Houston: Carl’s Jr., Smashburger, Five Guys] Photo: Sweetmocha
NEW HILTON AMERICAS SIDEWALK CAFE SEATING WILL FEATURE ELECTRIFYING VIEWS 
Spencer’s for Steaks and Chops inside the Hilton Americas Hotel downtown will soon feature sidewalk seating and an outdoor lounge area — but not on the hotel’s busy side facing Discovery Green.The improvements are going instead on the west side of the structure, facing Crawford St. (shown above under construction) — and Centerpoint Energy’s showcase full-block electrical transformer farm next door. Crawford St., which is blocked by the Toyota Center one block to the south, will be reduced to 2 traffic lanes, while the sidewalk is widened by 25 ft. Plans for the sidewalk scene by landscape firm Clark Condon Associates show the lounge area surrounded by a low wall closer to Dallas St., a dining area further south, and a double row of sycamore trees that should help shield sidewalk sitters from any sparks across the street. Separately, sidewalks are also being widened along 3 blocks of Dallas St. between Houston Pavilions and the George R. Brown Convention Center. The Spencer’s eating area should be complete by October; drawings of the design are currently on display in the restaurant. Photo: Swamplot inbox
A reader who normally parks in the full-block surface parking lot on Clay St. on the east side of the Bell light-rail station downtown was shocked to discover his usual parking option vanished when he came in to work last week: “About three quarters of the lot has now been fenced off.” Inside the blue fence, at left in the photo above: a couple porta-potties and “one large piece of digging equipment.” So far, reports the reader, about a third of the fenced portion has been dug out — to a depth of about 3 ft.
That’s probably just enough of a hole to plant the new 10,000-sq.-ft. childcare center for employees of JPMorgan Chase (or rather, their children) that Skanska USA is building. The U.S. branch of the Swedish development company bought the property earlier this year.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
ROUNDING UP VIRGINIA AND OHIO WORKERS, SENDING THEM TO NORTH HOUSTON 
The official tally of ExxonMobil employees who’ll be working out of the company’s enormous new campus just south of The Woodlands is now up to 10,000, approximately 2,000 more than reported last year. The company announced today that beginning in early 2014, workers from ExxonMobil facilities in Fairfax, Virginia, and Akron, Ohio, will be relocated to buildings now under construction in a new forest clearing west of the intersection of I-45 and the Hardy Toll Rd. Also being brought up to breathe the fresh Spring air: some employees currently working in ExxonMobil’s chemical and research & engineering companies at the Baytown refinery. ExxonMobil says it’ll expand its 385-acre campus to make room for the recently announced newcomers. [Marketwatch; previously on Swamplot] Rendering of new Energy Center: ExxonMobil
Some burger stand, street signs, a car wash, bungalows: So many little Heights-y things muck up the foreground in development blog Going Up! City’s construction pix of the 6-story concrete-and-brick condo building going up just north of the restaurant-heavy corner of 11th St. and Studewood. 1111 Studewood Place, which at last report included 9,000 sq. ft. of retail space on its ground floor, has a website up which for now carefully avoids use of the word “condo.”
That’s a Raising Cane’s joint going up at 3007 Ella Blvd. just north of 610, soon to become the closest location of the Louisiana-born chicken fingers chain to Houston’s Inner Loop sanctum. Formerly on that site: the Ella Square Apartments; the city forced the owner of the derelict apartments to tear them down 2 Decembers ago. Next door to the Raising Cane’s construction site is the just-opened Carl’s Jr. built on the north side of the same property. Not enough Oak Shepherd Forest drive-thru action for you? They’ll be joining the McDonald’s, Taco Bell, KFC, Burger King, and Popeye’s already on that short stretch of Ella south of Stonecrest.
Photo: DC from Houston, via Swamplot inbox
In honor of “nearly” reaching what it describes as the halfway point in constructing the new East End light-rail line, Metro is releasing this rendering showing what it’ll look like when riders reach the track’s end. It’s a view of the station at the Magnolia Park Transit Center on Harrisburg at 70th St., the line’s easternmost reach. For the most part, the basic structure of each station will be identical steel constructions with glass canopies — much as they are on the existing Main St. line.
The first-of-its-kind Apple Store scheduled to open to long lines of new iPad buyers 2 days from now in the Highland Village Shopping Center is much bigger than it appears from the outside. That’s because more than a third of the space in the 9,000-sq.-ft.-plus seemingly single story store is disguised from street view above 2 adjacent shops. A 3,510-sq.-ft. you-wouldn’t-know-it’s-there second floor extends above both the Sprinkles Cupcakes shop (shown at right) and the Paper Source to its west. Some of this secreted space may be open to customers at various times. Included in the hidden second story are a briefing room with a capacity of 46 people, as well as offices, work spaces, a break room, employee restrooms, and storage space.
FUDDRUCKERS GROWING INSIDE LUBY’S 
Seven months after converting a Luby’s takeout room on the I-10 East Fwy. into a Fuddruckers Express drive-thru (shown in the photo at left), the company behind the 2 chains is building its first-ever combo restaurant from scratch, Catie Brubaker reports. Construction will begin next month on a new 12,000-sq.-ft. Luby’s-and-Fuddruckers hybrid on a 2-acre site at 11023 Shadowcreek Pkwy., at the northern end of Shadow Creek Ranch in Pearland. This time the Fuddruckers will be a bit bigger, though, taking up a full 2,500 sq. ft. of the building, plus an additional 1,000 sq. ft. of shared kitchen-and-storage space. Expected opening: August. [Real Estate Bisnow; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Luby’s
