Squatters and street artists might have to find another bygone building to pick on — but that’s only assuming there’s something really behind the renderings of renovations to Midtown’s Central Square Plaza that Claremont Property has been floating around. Could that demure stone mosaic on the wall facing Webster finally get its comeuppance after years of playing hard to get?
YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY 
Has Midtown become too hip even for the federal government? The Social Security Administration is leaving, having lost its lease at the low-slung building at 3100 Smith (shown at right), reports CultureMap’s Whitney Radley: “Once a sort of wasteland, the surrounding neighborhood teems now with development, restaurants, bars, mixed-use complexes and multifamily units . . . . speculation that the building might be prime space for a restaurant or even torn down to make room for a mid-rise, is rampant.” [CultureMap] Photo: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston
Back in 2010, Skanska said it was going to build and finance an office building in the Galleria all on its own. Swamplot showed you the first and second Kirksey-designed renderings. This one’s the third. And there’s another detail to add to the story: Skanska announced today that Datacert will be the first tenant. Though the planned 20-story, 300,000-sq.-ft. building at 3009 Post Oak is still under construction, Skanska says that Datacert should be able to move in on the 10th and 11th floors later this summer. Right now, the 15-year-old “enterprise legal management solutions” company is headquartered in a building a few doors down at 3040 Post Oak.
Rendering: Swamplot inbox
What’s this? Near the intersection of W. Gray and Milam, a for-sale sign has popped up on the Central Square Plaza buildings on a 1-acre lot in Midtown. We’re hoping to get more details soon. The fate of the 12- and 14-story offices and parking garage at 2100 Travis has been tied up in court for years; Swamplot reported last summer that owner Alfred J. Antonini won a skirmish in a ongoing battle against the city, which had in 2011 ordered him to make “a bunch of repairs” to the buildings, vacant now for a real long time.
Photo: Swamplot inbox (sign); LoopNet
HOUSTON CLUB BUILDING WILL BE DEMOLISHED, SAY AUCTIONEERS 
Going, going . . . gone?: The company auctioning off the contents of the Houston Club ahead of its move to the 49th floor of One Shell Plaza gleefully reports on its website that the Jesse Jones-era 18-story office building at 811 Rusk is “scheduled for demolition!†That’s more than Skanska, which owns the building, has officially announced, though the Swedish construction firm’s own website does note that “future redevelopment” is planned for the Downtown site. [Lewis & Maese via CultureMap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Silberman Properties
Those of you waiting with bated breath for the renovation, redevelopment, or removal of the 1950s-era office building at 3400 Montrose Blvd. (across Hawthorne St. from the Montrose Kroger): keep on bating. The company that bought the vacant 10-story building last September has told its 500 Israeli investors that its operations in Israel and Houston are both “in dire financial straits,” according to a report in Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
After slinking its nameplate away from a prominent site in North Montrose sometime after the company’s name became a not-so-revered household word in the aftermath of the late-noughts financial meltdown and the $182 billion in government bailouts it received (see sign-free photo at right from last month), insurance giant AIG has decided the froth has subsided enough that it can call itself AIG again. This week a new shroud disguising a new-again three-letter logo was lifted on the 42-story America Tower — er, AIG Building — in the American General Center at 2929 Allen Pkwy.
Photos: Candace Garcia
SOUTHWESTERN ENERGY DEFINITELY MOVING INTO EXXONMOBIL’S ORBIT 
A report today confirms what a reader told Swamplot yesterday — that Southwestern Energy plans to build a 10-story office building in Springwoods Village, the new eco-themed community being carved out of a forested area just south of the new ExxonMobil corporate campus at the intersection of I-45 North and the future Grand Parkway. An additional lot for expansion is being preserved on an adjacent site. Reporter Emily Wilkinson guesses that Southwestern could be the mystery company that bought up 22 acres of Springwoods Village last year. [Houston Business Journal] Map: Springwoods Village
THE NEXT SPRINGWOODS VILLAGE RUMOR “Just got off the phone with a Southwestern Energy employee and they announced they are building a new building. The building will be located on 45 near the Exxon Mobil campus. I remember a previous article stating something about there being more office buildings built in the Springwoods development. This is where I surmise it will be. It will be 10-stories high with room for expansion on an adjacent site. Completion date is set for 2014.” [Swamplot inbox] Map: Springwoods Village
Where else? After “several months of thoughtful searching,” the chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips spinoff Phillips 66 has announced the location for the multi-building headquarters campus it plans to build: on the Beltway 8 feeder road in Westchase, just north of Westheimer. Right next door to Homewood Suites and the Fairfield Inn. The campus will include a training and development center, conference space, a credit union office, a wellness center, plus a cafeteria, coffee shop, and — yes — a convenience store. The email announcement doesn’t mention whether the Phillips 66 food mart will be part of a Phillips 66 gas station facing Beltway 8, but CEO Greg Garland reports the company is “still in the conceptual design process” with its architect. A grander entrance to the 14.2-acre property will likely be pulled off of City West Blvd. Construction is expected to take 2 to 3 years once the design is completed.
Image: Phillips 66
“Better see the Telephone Museum while you can,” a tipster tells Swamplot. “Word is it’s sold.” But our tipster doesn’t know who the buyer of the Heights’ AT&T building is. The 3-story, 77,456-sq.-ft. structure at 1714 Ashland St.— it’s got a basement too — was put up for sale earlier this year for $3.1 million. It comes with 113 parking spaces on the 1.65 acre-lot, plus 55 spaces on a half-acre spot across the street. The museum is on the building’s second floor; the structure was built in 1957.
Update: The museum will be out of there by December 1st, Charlotte Aguilar reports.
The epic Software Group is now passing around pix of the “creative co-op” building the company painstakingly constructed next to its Woodlands headquarters over the last 18 months — out of 11 recycled shipping containers and a slew of other recycled materials. The 8-ft. x 40-ft. x 9-1/2-ft. containers, explains company president Vic Cherubini, are each 8-9 years old and still rated “sea worthy.” Around that core, the animation, multimedia and web development company production company built an almost-5,000-sq.-ft. building with a large video production studio inside. The assembly sits 50 ft. away from Epic’s own facility at 701 Sawdust Rd., and is now occupied by several creative companies in the area — who pre-leased it before completion.
How’d they put the thing together?
Sure — you wanna hear the scoop behind this set of drawings showing the vacant and forlorn 10-story office building at 3400 Montrose Blvd. across Hawthorne St. from the Montrose Kroger transformed into a glassy white figure with real big numbers. Unfortunately, the tipster who sent these pix to Swamplot didn’t include additional info on any possible plans for the structure, which since last September has been the property of real estate firm Global Paragon. The rendering shows a building that’s jettisoned its distinctive limestone panels in favor of a more conventional office-building grid. Progress in that de-facing process began last fall. A watermark in the bottom right corner of the image reads “Lizard House, Inc.”
Images: Swamplot inbox
Y’know this long-vacant 12- and 14-story office-building-and-parking-garage complex at 2100 Travis St. between Webster and Gray in Midtown — the one also known as “those Central Square Plaza buildings that somebody besides taggers ought to do something with”? Back in late 2009, the city ordered the owners to make a bunch of repairs within 60 days. What happened next? Owner Alfred J. Antonini filed suit to block the order; it’s been tied up in court ever since. Now 3 years later, Antonini has won the latest round in the ongoing tussle. An appeals court ruled this morning against the city’s claim that Antonini’s suit was invalid because he didn’t file it quickly enough. The case will go back to a lower court for more Midtown cleanup fun.
Photo: LoopNet
A reader who works in Downtown sorta-mall Houston Pavilions has decided that a mysterious problem with broken windows in the complex’s 11-story office building is “becoming a situation.” A notice sent out to workers in NRG Tower recently, according to the reader’s report, declares that they are no longer allowed to exit the building from the first floor onto Polk St. The concern? That someone might get hit by falling glass. The reader explains: “The part of the building that faces inside the pavilion has an overhang on the second floor so we can walk into the building. The Polk street side has no such overhang.”
