Out from Kirksey: new interior renderings of the built-and-named-by-Tellepsen YMCA now going up Downtown.
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Some residents of Long Point Woods are blaming the new and well-paved 48-acre Village Plaza at Bunker Hill shopping center along the north feeder road of the expanded Katy Freeway for the late-April flooding that damaged many homes between Bunker Hill Rd. and Blalock, south of Westview. Abc13’s Miya Shay reports, opting not to mention the neighborhood or the development by name:
[Resident Barbara] Hunt says homeowners grew worried when a large development along I-10 and Bunker Hill [was] allowed to be built without additional retention, and when heavy rain fell, it ran off the parking lots and into their homes. . . .
But Mayor White says the developers didn’t get special treatment because the property was already covered in asphalt before the developers bought the land and began building.
“If something is built, and somebody buys it from somebody where it already has some paved over and is already developed, we don’t have new detention requirements,” said Mayor White.
Many of the buildings on the campus were completed last August, but this weekend marked the official grand opening of “one of the largest Buddhist developments in the nation,” just northeast of Hempstead. The American Bodhi Center, a new retreat on 515 acres off FM 2979 in Waller County, was created by the Texas Buddhist Association — in part to relieve crowding at the 1,500-family-strong Jade Buddha Temple in Alief.
Among the new buildings: the Memorial Hall pictured above. There’s also a new Meditation Hall:
AUGUSTA DEMO AND STORAGE The new owner of a small Galleria-area office building directly across the street from the parking garage for San Felipe Plaza plans to tear down the 2-story 1977 structure, which suffered a roof collapse and $2.7 million worth of damage from Hurricane Ike. “[Seller Robert] Clay is under the impression that a self-storage facility will be built there. In fact, four parties interested in buying the site wanted to build development storage units there, he says. [Hasad Development’s Sam] Amber, the buyer, has developed several ProGuard Self Storage locations around town. However, a company spokesman in Houston would not comment on future plans for the nearly one-acre site. Based on buyer interest, Clay concludes that, ‘This location is a perfect private mini-storage location.’” [Houston Business Journal]
Some residents of 9-year-old Victory Lakes have been demonstrating against a La Quinta Inn proposed for the commercial strip that separates the recent master-planned community from the Gulf Freeway in League City, reports Rhiannon Meyers in the Galveston County Daily News:
[Developer Roy] Mease turned what was supposed to be an upscale suburb and high-end offices into a hub for big box retailers, fast food restaurants and hotels, Victory Lakes residents claimed.
“I’m opposed to these hotels,†resident John Calebrese said. “It’s just another step in the wrong direction of the promises made to the original homeowners of Victory Lakes … (The subdivision) is nothing like what was promised.â€
But Mease said the subdivision, with its 14 big box retailers, brings in an “ungodly amount†of sales tax revenue for League City. There is no reason to oppose a hotel plotted for land far away from any Victory Lakes homes, he said.
A Hampton Inn and Candlewood Suites are already under construction. What’s wrong with La Quinta?
OUT IN DISCOUNT LAND Former Halliburton unit PathFinder Energy Services, now a part of Smith International, is building a new $20-million, 225,000-sq.-ft. tilt-up campus on 25 acres in Katy. “The center will be located near the northwest corner of Colonial Parkway and the Grand Parkway, next to the highly visible, 800,000-square-foot 99 Cents Only warehouse along Interstate 10. PathFinder’s site is across I-10 from where Houston-based KBR Inc. planned to build 900,000 square feet of office space to house most of its 4,500 local employees. The KBR project, which would have extended the Energy Corridor farther west, has been put on hold for economic reasons. PathFinder intends to consolidate hundreds of employees from four buildings it leases in Northwest Houston into the Katy-area site, which was acquired in December 2007 from an Interfin Cos. partnership.” [Houston Business Journal]
The fog cuts both ways: Reader Stephen Cullar-Ledford sends in this view looking back at Downtown, taken from the AIG American General building on Allen Parkway yesterday morning.
. . . Along with yet another economy/fog/building metaphor, ripe for the captioning:
The River Oaks Examiner‘s Cynthia Lescalleet says her recent tour of West Ave at the corner of Kirby and Westheimer “felt a bit like a campus visit for a really, really, ritzy college.” But wait, there’s more:
Rising seven-stories, West Ave. is hard to miss. The project by Gables Urban is massive and ambitious, and that’s only the first phase. The two-acre lot behind it, now used as a construction staging area, will be Phase II. Some day. It may spend the interim as overflow parking.
Further details about that Upper Kirby campus:
Yelp user Minh L. does his part to clear up all those Washington Ave. rumors. How many new bars are planned there? Really?
1. “The Lot” next to Pearl Bar will be open at 2 pm this Thursday.
2; The Daily Grind that closed down, the owners of Cork Screw has taken over the place, and is now currently being remodeled.
3. Owners of Whiskey Creek is opening a bar right next to “Busty La Rue” which is also right next to Pub Fiction new place on Washington. 5102 Washington Houston TX 77007
4. That Gawd awful yellow/stone place your talking about is called “Zen Ultra Lounge”
5. Owner of Pandora is opening another one down the street. Its that purple buidling. DBA is called “Blue Book” don’t think they have a name yet.
6. That really big one is called “Reign Lounge” One of the owners name is Luis. Very nice guy.
7. The old Pig stand is going to be called “Sawyer Sports Bar”
8. “Rare Bar” is opening soon on Durham & Washington
All in all there’s about 16 bars/club so far wanting to open on Washington, but we’ll see how many of them really open. These are all the ones I have time to confrm.
And where exactly does Minh L. get his info?
The new Belle Sherman Kendall Library in West Houston will have a little something extra inside: a half-court basketball gym. The ceremonial groundbreaking took place Monday on the site near Buffalo Bayou:
Besides housing a library and a community center, the building will be the first three-story building in the Houston system, and the first to have a drive-up window.
The site at 609 N. Eldridge will also serve as a city park and a trailhead to Terry Hershey Park. . . . At Kendall’s drive-up window, users will be able to return books, pick-up books they’ve reserved, and pay fines.
- New Kendall will be library, community center [Memorial Examiner]
LONE STAR SALOON CAMO REPLACEMENT The owner of the Lone Star Saloon in Richmond says he’s going to demolish what remains of the 120-year-old building at 102 and 106 S. Third St. and build a “gorgeous” new 4,000-sq.-ft. nightclub in its place. A fire last November gutted the brick structure and destroyed displays of American Indian memorabilia collected and installed by the previous owner. “[Bill] Lindquist, who owns the Lone Star along with his wife, Beverly, said last month he will rebuild the Lone Star as a large one-room nightclub, with a bandstand, dance floor, large modern bar and a kitchen. . . . ‘It’s going to be a metal building, camouflaged not to look like a metal building,’ Lindquist said.” [FortBendNow, via Hair Balls]
Bruce Wolfe, who owns Houston’s Ligne Roset furniture showroom — and is about to open one in Austin — tells Houston Business Journal reporter Allison Wollam that business at the sleek and modern 3,500-sq.-ft. store in the strip center just north of the Rice Village at 5600 Kirby Dr. was better this holiday season than last, despite problems in the economy that have hurt other home-furnishings retailers:
“It’s not unusual for one of our clients to come in and show us their floor plan and hand us a $40,000 check to furnish their entire home,†he says. “When it comes to furniture, if you pay with peanuts, you’re going to get a monkey. And you can’t pay for a Pontiac and expect to drive away with a Mercedes.â€
The Houston Ligne Roset store was one of the few in the chain to carry the entire catalog in Spanish, which Wolfe says that also helped attract new clients.
Wollam goes on to report that Ligne Roset will be expanding and moving up Kirby in April, to the new West Ave development — where the store will be 1 of 5 showrooms Wolfe will operate under the name Design Source:
Hot off the Swamplot tipline: Discovery Tower, going up across McKinney St. from Discovery Green Downtown, has its first tenant — and it’ll be taking the whole building.
Beginning in late 2011 — about the time Hess’s current lease at One Allen Center expires — the 30-story tower with the wind turbines on top will be renamed Hess Tower.
After the jump, details from an email announcing the move — sent out to Hess Corporation employees late this morning:
The new 3-level youth building on the growing campus of Chapelwood United Methodist Church on Greenbay St. in Piney Point Village is now open:
Tour members, most who were seeing the new construction for the first time, were visibly taken aback when entering the ground-level youth activity center Sunday, where they were greeted by loud music and kids enjoying the actiivites.
Complete with 13 video gaming stations, air hockey, foosball, ping pong and pool tables, a snack bar, tables and seating for hanging out, a small stage with a huge video screen for games, group study rooms, free wi-fi, and more.
Youth ministry offices are off to the side of the game room.
- Chapelwood: Youth building impresses visitors [Memorial Examiner]
- Chapelwood United Methodist Church [Merriman Holt Architects]
Drawing of Chapelwood United Methodist Church master plan and photo: Merriman Holt Architects
That see-through office tower above the new Houston Pavilions development Downtown won’t be empty much longer. Globe St.‘s Amy Wolff Sorter reports that law firm Sheehy, Serpe & Ware has leased the top floor and a half.
Only 7 1/2 floors left!
- 200,000-SF Tower Gains First Tenant [Globe St.]
- Pavilions Tower [Houston Pavilions]
- A Soft Opening for Houston Pavilions [Swamplot]
Photo of Pavilions Tower: Houston Pavilions
