Proposed Developments

Mixed Use, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment

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Here are a couple renderings from the Michael Hsu Office of Architecture in Austin of the new 3-story building the firm is designing for the corner spot at 2132 Bissonnet St. in Boulevard Oaks. A representative of the Platform Group, the building’s developer, tells Swamplot an “all-day cafe/coffee shop” is being planned for the ground floor, and that the upper 2 floors will contain “boutique office space.” The cafe won’t be a Gringo’s Tex-Mex, but the developers do have a connection to that restaurant chain: The Platform Group is headed by a son and daughter-in-law of Gringo’s owner Russell Ybarra.

In the top rendering, the 11,300-sq.-ft. building is shown lining Shepherd Dr., with an L-shaped parking lot wrapping around it. A patio with outdoor seating will go in front of the structure along Bissonnet St. The Houston office of SWA Group is designing the landscape.

Here are views of the current site from similar angles:

Remaking Boulevard Oaks

77098, Boulevard-Oaks, Coffee Shops, Mixed Use, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment

Downtown

08/24/17 1:00pm

Houston First Is Ready To Redo the Last Jones Plaza Redo

Proposed Developments, Renovations, Theater District

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The City of Houston website may still describe Jones Plaza as a “fully renovated” public square that forms the centerpiece of the city’s Theater District downtown, but Houston First appears ready to fully renovate it again. The quasi-public agency says it will select 5 teams from among any “experienced urban design firms, landscape architects or architects capable of creating an inspired, iconic, accessible and welcoming design” that apply before September 5 to create preliminary designs for a redo. Among the possibly familiar items listed for inclusion on the redesign menu: a water element, a “green oasis with seasonal plantings,” a performance space, an art installation, and a 4,000-sq.-ft. fast-casual restaurant.

Jones Plaza’s current design, which features similar items, dates from a 2001 rebuild led by Bricker+Cannady Architects; that renovation lowered and canted the previously raised plaza surface so that all steps could be removed from the Louisiana St. side facing Jones Hall:

Do-Overs

77002, Downtown, Proposed Developments, Public Spaces, Renovations, Theater District

08/17/17 2:00pm

Pay No Attention to the Construction Work Now Taking Place on the Ashby Highrise Site

Highrises, Proposed Developments

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Buckhead Investment Partners tells Swamplot that the work crew, excavator, and large drainage pipes spotted on location yesterday and today at the east end of the site of the residential building known as the Ashby Highrise at 1717 Bissonnet St. constitutes nothing more than “on-going site work.” Multiple permits to construct the proposed 21-story Boulevard Oaks tower have been issued over the past decade — the most recent ones a little less than a year ago. And construction crews have been active on the site before. But Buckhead reports to Swamplot that there is “nothing else meaningful to report at this time.”

Just Digging It

77005, Ashby Highrise, Boulevard-Oaks, Construction Sites, Highrises, Proposed Developments

08/14/17 4:30pm

Where All the Chick-fil-As Are Lining Up, from Pearland to Webster

Franchises and Chain Stores, Friendswood, Pearland, Proposed Developments, Restaurants

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With the newest location coming to the Pearland Pkwy. pad site shown at the center of the image above in the Centre at Pearland Parkway shopping center just behind the H-E-B fronting Broadway, the density of Chick-fil-A restaurants in an axis stretching from FM 518 in Pearland to I-45 in Webster is fast approaching Texas Medical Center–level concentration, and may soon exceed it. (There are 4 Chick-fil-As in the TMC area, 3 of them conveniently located inside hospitalsÂ — though no drive-thrus.)

Less than 2 miles to the west along Broadway from the pictured location (expected to open in January) is the Chick-fil-A at FM 518 and Dixie Farm Rd.; further to the east are the spots in the Baybrook Mall and along the Gulf Fwy. at El Dorado Blvd. Between them, and possibly on the horizon, looms the planned Chick Fil A location atÂ the intersection of FM 518 and Leisure Ln. in Friendswood. The owners of that property withdrew a rezoning application that would have allowed restaurant uses on that site after residentsÂ complained before the Friendswood City Council in April that adding the Chick-fil-A would make the city too much like Pearland. But a new rezoning request for the same property is up for consideration with the council this week, and the owners tell theÂ Chronicle‘s Dana Guthrie that Chick-fil-A is still very interested in building a restaurant there.

East Pearland to get second Chick-fil-A, Friendswood developer still hoping for one [Houston Chronicle/Pearland Journal]
Previously on Swamplot:Â Spectre of Looming East Pearland-ification Invoked in Friendswood Chick-Fil-A Rezoning Fight

Site plan detail, Centre at Pearland Parkway: Stream Retail

FM 518, Chicken Alley

77581, Fast Food, Franchises and Chain Stores, Friendswood, Pearland, Restaurants, Webster, Zoning

Demolitions

08/11/17 11:15am

North Main Is All Ready for Its Holiday Inn Express

Glen Park, Hotels, Near Northside, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment

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The new Holiday Inn Express about to begin construction at 3401 N. Main St. in the Near Northside will have some consistently quiet neighbors and some occasionally very loud ones — with the steady drone of the adjacent North Fwy.Â available to somehow bridge the gap. The 1.44-acre site, where the Casa Grande Mexican Restaurant stood until it was torn down 2 years agoÂ (and Stuarts Drive-In before it), sits across N. Main St. from the Hollywood Cemetery (yes, the same cemetery featured in Wes Anderson movieÂ Rushmore). And it’s just a bit more than a quarter-mile up N. Main from the White Oak Music Hall complex, whose outdoor concert habit spurred nearby residents kept up late at night by the noise to file suit against the venue — and later, the city of Houston — for failing to follow (and enforce) local sound ordinances.

Late last month, crews removed the concrete paving left behind after the Casa Grande demolition (see photos above). Just this week, a city permit was granted for aÂ 58,929-sq.-ft., 95-room Holiday Inn Express on the site — up 10 rooms from the 85 promised a couple of years ago, when the developers submitted these drawings as part of an application for a variance that would allow them not to have to extend or widen Norma St., on the north end of the lot:

Near Near Northside

77009, Demolitions, Glen Park, Hotels, Near Northside, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Variances

Adaptive Reuse

08/09/17 1:00pm

Where Houston’s First Virtual Reality Bar Will Exist in Meatspace

Bars and Clubs, East End, Proposed Developments

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The new bar planned for the 20,878-sq.-ft. warehouse at 3229 Navigation Blvd. in Houston’s East End that earlier this decade was home to Fred’s Trailer Truck Supply will be called Straylight Run and serve — according to its promoters — as Houston’s first-ever “Virtual Reality Bar.” That’s the conclusion of some internet sleuthing by HAIF (and Swamplot) commenter CrockpotandGravel, who after seeing Swamplot’s report on the alcohol license procured for the spot at the corner of Navigation and Engelke tracked down the establishment’s website, a (possibly spurned)Â logo proposal, and Instagram feed.

Straylight Run on Navigation

77003, Adaptive Reuse, Bars and Clubs, East End, Navigation, Proposed Developments

Demolitions

07/25/17 1:45pm

How the Heights Post Office Is Coming Down Today, and What’s Going Up in Its Place

Houston Heights, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail

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The former Heights Finance Station post office at the corner of Heights Blvd. and 11th St. — its parking lot and front door face Yale St. — is coming down in a hail of lovingly painted bricks today. The post office was closed at the end of 2015 and subsequently purchased by developer MFT Interests. The single-story building was later festooned with an assortment of romance– and ZIP-code-themed murals.

MFT is calling the new development it has planned for the 1050 Yale St. siteÂ Heights Central Station. It’ll consist of two 2-story painted-brickÂ buildings fronting 11th St.:

Heights Central Station

77008, Demolitions, Houston Heights, Mixed-Use, Murals, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail

Adaptive Reuse

07/14/17 5:30pm

The Wheels Are Off at This Oak Forest Tire Kiosk Transitioning to a Coffee Drive-Thru

Garden Oaks, Oak Forest, Proposed Developments, Renovations

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Here’s a view from last week of the former Express Wheel & Tire kiosk in Oak Forest,Â in the midst of its transformation into a yet-to-be-identified coffee drive-thru along Ella Blvd. at W. 34th St., at the eastern end of the shopping center redo Revive Development is working on at that intersection’sÂ southwest corner.Â Demo crews are removing theÂ overhang connecting the front canopy to the small building behind it. Renderings of the finished development on the Revive website show the canopy is meant toÂ remain — to shadeÂ a few prime parking spaces at the eastern end of the development:

W. 34th St. and Ella

77018, Adaptive Reuse, Garden Oaks, Oak-Forest, Proposed Developments, Renovations

Attractions

07/14/17 11:15am

Next Xscape Heading for the Far Reaches of Katy

Katy, Proposed Developments, Quicklink

NEXT XSCAPE HEADING FOR THE FAR REACHES OF KATY The second of theÂ 2 XscapeÂ multiplexes planned for the “Houston” area will landÂ at the far southwest corner of Katy, reports Virtual Builders Exchange — in an update to its storyÂ identifying the Kentucky-based theater chain’s Woodlands location. A 12-screen facility (marked down a couple from the typical 14 of the prototype) and accompanying 540-spaceÂ parking lot will settle down atÂ 26616 FM 1093, just east of FM 1463, in the southwest corner of the Westheimer Lakes NorthÂ subdivision and across from Cross Creek Ranch — if contractors get their bids in to the company by the August 1 deadline. The plans for the 51,968-sq.-ft.Â Katy building appearÂ virtually identical to those for the Woodlands theater.Â [Virtual Builders Exchange; previously on Swamplot] Rendering of Xscape prototype: Patoka Capital

77494, Katy, Movie-Theaters, Proposed Developments

07/13/17 10:45am

5 Slim Chickens Caught Crossing Houston Border

Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Restaurants, Vintage Lakes

5 SLIM CHICKENS CAUGHT CROSSING HOUSTON BORDER The Slim Chicken drive-ups in Katy, Cypress, Spring, and Humble will soon be joined by 5 new locations of the restaurant franchiseÂ inside the Houston city limits. First up: wingsÂ and Texas-shaped waffles will become available atÂ 9850 Louetta Rd. in Vintage Lakes, right byÂ Aldi and just down the street from the fast-food mecca known as Vintage Marketplace. A Kingwood location atÂ 30255 LoopÂ 494 should open later this summer, though it isn’t clear if the Arkansas-based chain is counting that location as one of its 5 genuineÂ Houston spots. [Eater Houston] Photo of the Slim Chicken opened late last year atÂ 9255 FM 1960 Bypass Rd. in Humble: Edwin R.

77070, 77339, Fast Food, Franchises, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Vintage Lakes

East Downtown

07/12/17 11:00am

What Could Go Under When I-45 Moves Underground and East of Downtown

Flooding, Freeways and Toll Roads, Proposed Developments, Quicklink

28 Comments

WHAT COULD GO UNDER WHEN I-45 MOVES UNDERGROUND AND EAST OF DOWNTOWN Jeff Balke talliesÂ some of the expected carnage just east of DowntownÂ should TXDoT proceed with its plannedÂ rerouting of I-45 from the west side to the east side of Downtown, widening the path of that stretch of Hwy. 59 (aka I-69) to SaintÂ Emanuel St. Among the establishmentsÂ expecting to have to shut down or relocate as a result of the expansion: the Bayou City Barber Shop, Vietnamese restaurant Huynh, Ahh Coffee, Tout Suite, one building of the Ballpark Lofts, low-income housing development Clayton Homes, a couple ofÂ nonprofits, SEARCH Homeless Services’ new building, the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen — plus other assorted bars, barbecue joints, artist spaces, and office space. Among the questions Balke keeps hearing in reference to plans to put this portion of a new I-45-69 combo below grade, possibly (only if separate funding can be found) with a greenspaceÂ “cap” planted on top of it: “why [would] a freeway would be constructed lower than street level in a city that floods with seeming regularity, particularly when the highway in question is a hurricane evacuation route? TxDOT is quick to point out that we already have roadways below grade throughout the city that have not suffered major flooding problems since Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, which broke records and is widely considered a 500-year flood. Still, flooding is something the agency appears to have taken seriously. ‘No matter the situation, thereâ€™s a potential for flooding,‘ [TXDoT spokesperson] Perez explains, ‘but with anything below grade, additional pumps and detention ponds come into play.’ [Houston Press; previously on Swamplot] Rendering showing possibleÂ park behind GRB: HNTB and TxDOT

77003, East Downtown, Flooding, Freeways and Toll Roads, Proposed Developments

Attractions

07/11/17 1:30pm

Xscape to The Woodlands by Next Fall

New Construction, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, The Woodlands

XSCAPE TO THE WOODLANDS BY NEXT FALL One of those 2 “Houston” locations a small, Kentucky-based movie-theater chain named Xscape is building will be in The Woodlands, reports Adolfo Pesquera. Last week, investment firm Patoka Capital announced that it was still in the process of acquiring land for a pair of $15 million, 55,000-sq.-ft., 14-screen theaters in Houston — its first in Texas. But Pesquera notes that contractors have been given until this Friday to bid on construction of an Xscape complex and accompanying parking lot at 16051 Old Conroe Magnolia Rd., just north of a planned Del Webb Woodlands development. The Woodlands location will be slightly smaller than the Xscape prototype (pictured above), with only 12 screens. It’s scheduled to open in the fall of 2018. [Virtual Builders Exchange] Rendering: Patoka Capital

77384, Movie-Theaters, New Construction, Proposed Developments, The Woodlands

07/07/17 4:00pm

The Equinox Hotel Moving in a Few Doors Down from the Equinox Fitness Club in the River Oaks District

Highland Village, Hotels, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments

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The highrise hotel with apartments River Oaks District developer OliverMcMillan has been promising for a couple years as a tower feature of a promised second phase of the mixed-use development will be an Equinox, according to documents submitted to the city planning department. There’s already an Equinox fitness club in the River Oaks District, fronting Westheimer; the new Equinox hotel will be on the west side of Westcreek Ln., on the rear parking lot portion of the 3.4-acre Sullivan’s Steakhouse–Le Peep shopping center along Westheimer closer to the West Loop that OliverMcMillan leased almost 2 years ago.

The hotel portion of the site is 1.91 acres and set back from Westheimer. Equinox is seeking a variance from the city to allow the hotel to take access from Westcreek Ln., which further to the north also serves as an entry road for the SkyHouse River Oaks and the Wilshire condo towers.

The variance application doesn’t mention how tall the building will be, but renderings of the imagined hotel dating from 2015 (below) show a structure of approximately 25 stories, with a lower parking garage immediately to the west. A shorter building is shown on the 1.5-acre southern portion of the site facing Westheimer:

Phase Two

77027, Highland Village, Hotels, Mixed-Use, Proposed Developments, River Oaks District, Variances

Avalon Place

06/30/17 11:15am

Neighbor’s Security Cam Video Catches Inner Loop Googie Condo-Eating Monster in the Act

Condos, Demolitions, Proposed Developments