Proposed Developments

Downtown
02/01/12 10:00am

5 Designs for Houston’s New Main St. Central Station

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Proposed Developments, Transportation
23 Comments

The reddish steel structure shown here is UH architecture grad Neil Denari‘s design for the new light-rail transfer station on Main St. between Capitol and Rusk downtown, where the new East End and Southeast Lines currently under construction will intersect with the existing rail line. Besides Denari, whose firm is based in LA, 3 New York and 1 local architecture firm were invited to dream up schemes for the long open-air, 11-ft.-wide rail platform. A jury selected by Metro will pick the winning design, but Metro is still asking for rider comments on each of them.

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Attractions
01/27/12 6:11pm

Mayor Parker Not Backing Beyoncé Monument Idea, but She’s Cool with the Tunes

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Proposed Developments, Quicklink
14 Comments

MAYOR PARKER NOT BACKING BEYONCé MONUMENT IDEA, BUT SHE’S COOL WITH THE TUNES In announcing plans for a fundraising venture that would include construction of some sort of monument to Houston native Beyoncé Knowles, Armdeonce Ventures’ Marcus Mitchell indicated last night that there was  official civic support behind the project. “We’ve gotten support from the city of Houston, from the mayor,” Mitchell told Fox 26 reporter Kristin Kane. “We’re waiting for a very nice letter from the mayor right now.” But if Mayor Parker sends him one, the letter may not include what Mitchell is after. Just out from the Twitter feed of Janice Evans, a spokesperson for the mayor: “Fox is wrong. The City of Houston is not behind, working with or having anything to do with an effort to build a monument honoring Beyonce.” To soften the blow, she adds, later: “But we do heart Beyonce and her music.” [MyFox Houston; Twitter] Photo from Run the World video: Beyonce Online

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Apartments
01/20/12 11:59am

Next for the Corner of West Alabama and Dunlavy: A New Office Building?

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Demolitions, Mandell Place, Montrose, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment
20 Comments

Is the corner of West Alabama and Dunlavy the busiest intersection in Inner Loop real estate right now? Two months after the opening of the new H-E-B Montrose Market on the former site of the Wilshire Village Apartments on the southwest corner of that intersection, and just a week after developer Marvy Finger’s official announcement of his plans to replace the Fiesta Food Mart on the southeast corner with a 6-to-8-story “Mediterranean” apartment building, there is a report that the 2 apartment complexes on the northeast corner may be next to fall. It may be a bit more than a rumor: While taking these photos yesterday, Swamplot’s Candace Garcia came across workers who appeared to be surveying the site. For what?

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Houston Architects
01/18/12 2:22pm

A New Costume for Dominic Walsh Dance Theater

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Montrose, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments
5 Comments

The rather plain-looking headquarters of the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater company at the corner of Dunlavy and Fairview is getting more than just a new coat of paint. The building at 2311 Dunlavy is slated for a redesign by another building tenant, DiNunzio Lifestyle Architecture, which will create a new entrance facing Fairview and add several new materials to the exterior. “It is going to really catch your eye when it’s done!” reads a note on the architecture firm’s Facebook page.

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New Construction
01/17/12 10:38am

Second Woodlands Anadarko Tower: A Bit More Boxy and Taller Than the First

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Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Skyscrapers, The Woodlands, The Woodlands Town Center
13 Comments

Note: Story updated and corrected below.

Anadarko Petroleum announced to its employees last week that the company is ready to begin constructing a second office tower just west of its existing headquarters building in The Woodlands Town Center, a source tells Swamplot. The new building will fit on the corner of Lake Robbins Dr. and Woodloch Forest Dr., just south of The Woodlands Mall, and like the current tower will be visible from miles south on I-45. At the announced 31 stories, the new structure would be one floor shorter taller.

According to the report, parking will account for the building’s first 10 floors, though the renderings included in the announcement (above) appear to show a garage a bit shorter than that. The remaining floors are planned to accommodate company growth. Construction is expected to be complete by the spring of 2014. Anadarko did not announce the building’s contractor or architect.

Update, 1:25 pm: Groundbreaking is expected in a few weeks, our source adds; workers are beginning to clear the lot this week.

Renderings: Swamplot inbox

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Apartments
01/13/12 11:21am

Apartments Planned for Montrose Fiesta Site Will Go Tall Mediterranean

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Buying and Selling, Lancaster Place, Proposed Developments, Retail
36 Comments

Apartment developer Marvy Finger tells Nancy Sarnoff that he’s the developer who’s buying the Fiesta Food Mart on the corner of West Alabama and Dunlavy — and planning to build a 6-to-8-story complex in its place. Finger says the closing is scheduled for February, and that he’s looking to fit 390 apartments onto the 3.68-acre site. Finger has charged architects Wallace Garcia Wilson with designing something “Mediterranean” — presumably a structure dressed up in that style will fit the neighborhood better than Lake Flato’s new H-E-B Montrose Market across the street, the modern Menil Collection campus nearby, the many bungalows and brick homes surrounding the site in Lancaster Place, and the occasional new gallery along West Alabama. “We’re going to try to create something really beautiful,” he tells Sarnoff.

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Buying and Selling
01/12/12 3:46pm

Changing Buildings on Mid Lane

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Highland Village, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Retail
8 Comments

A reader passes on the rumor that the retail buildings along the west side of Mid Lane north of Westheimer, from Capone’s Bar and Oven (above) up to but not including Crapitto’s Cucina, are under contract to a developer — with a closing scheduled for this month. Purported plans for the properties: demolition and the construction of a highrise, with new retail spaces at the bottom. No rush, though, apparently: “They can’t do anything for 16 months because of the leases.”

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Buying and Selling
01/12/12 1:52pm

Downtown Parking Lot Playland

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Downtown, Parking, Proposed Developments, Quicklink
2 Comments

DOWNTOWN PARKING LOT PLAYLAND The 4 full-block surface parking lots along the rail line just east of the ExxonMobil building bounded by Leeland, Fannin, Clay, and Travis streets downtown will soon have a small blot on their perfect cars-and-asphalt-only record: a 10,000-ft. childcare center for JPMorgan Chase employees. The new owner of the easternmost block, Skanska USA Commercial Development, plans to build the center on a third of it to replace the facility currently housed in Skanska’s other recent downtown purchase, the 18-story (soon-to-be-former) Houston Club Building at 811 Rusk St. Moving the tenants out of that building, which the company is considering demolishing and replacing, would give Skanska “more options,” a company spokesperson tells Nancy Sarnoff. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Bill Barfield

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Proposed Developments
01/11/12 1:03pm

Prince’s Heads for North Post Oak

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Quicklink, Restaurants
7 Comments

PRINCE’S HEADS FOR NORTH POST OAK Reader Marcy Basile notes the former location of the French Press Cafe at 1201 N. Post Oak Rd between I-10 and Hempstead Hwy. is now sporting “coming soon” window signs for Prince’s Diner. Same logo as Prince’s Hamburgers, but these ones have a diner label. [Swamplot inbox] Photo: Marcy Basile

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Medical Buildings
01/04/12 12:34pm

The Signs Around the Parc Binz Site

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Mixed Use, Museum Park, Neighborhood Disputes, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments
22 Comments

Walking by the vacant site on the corner of Binz and Chenevert on the way to Hermann Park, reader David Hollas notes that the large sign advertising a 75,000-sq.-ft. medical-offices-and-retail development planned for the site has been taken down. Meanwhile, the surrounding neighborhood has been peppered with Ashby-Highrise-style signs protesting Balcor Commercial’s planned 6-story Parc Binz building and parking garage at 1800 Binz St— and “hi-rise buildings” in general. Opposition to the development got some media attention last year, but Hollas has seen sign changes on the property before: “About 2 years ago, the signs offered the sale of townhomes that were to be built imminently, but never materialized. After a period of inactivity and weed growth, the city came and decked out the site with code violation placards. Eventually the site was mowed and trash removed, and the city signs and townhome signs disappeared.”

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Comments
12/19/11 11:00pm

Comment of the Day: Yes, a Ring Road Even Further Out Than the Grand Parkway

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Freeways and Toll Roads, Master-Planned Communities, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Sprawl
12 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: YES, A RING ROAD EVEN FURTHER OUT THAN THE GRAND PARKWAY “I hate to be the one to break the news, but the next outer loop beyond Grand Parkway is already being planned. If you look at the land plan for Cross Creek Ranch, there’s a big right of way built into the western portion of the development. It is right close to the proposed terminus of the Westpark Toll Road and roughly aligns with FM 2855 to the north and Spur 10 to the south. Some of the economic development corporations and chambers of commerce out there have even begun tracing its route on their planning maps.” [TheNiche, commenting on The Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Sprawl: The Official 2011 Ballot]

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Art
12/19/11 9:55pm

Architects Agree To Collaborate on Main St. Arts Collaborative

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Houston Architects, Institutional Buildings, Proposed Developments
2 Comments

The local architecture firm responsible for designing the city’s new permitting center on Washington Ave (which is currently doing well in the voting for one of this year’s Swamplot Awards) and the San Antonio firm behind the recent Buffalo Speedway and Montrose H-E-B Markets will team up to design the 85,000-sq.-ft. Midtown building for the new Independent Arts Collaborative at 3400 Main St. between Holman and Francis St., the organization announced today. Earlier, Studio Red and Lake Flato Architects had been listed separately as finalists for the commission on the organization’s website.

The building — shown above in a concept drawing produced by Morris Architects, one of the finalists that did not get the job — will contain shared exhibit and performance space for several local arts groups, as well as rehearsal and workshop areas, classrooms, and offices. Houston’s city council agreed to sell the site — which served as a surface parking lot for the city’s previous permit office — to the brand-new arts organization last summer. Among the organizations listed as probable tenants of the new building: Fotofest, Diverseworks, the Houston Arts Alliance, Musiqa, Catastrophic Theater, the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, and Main St. Theater.

Rendering: Houston-Galveston Area Council

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Comments
12/12/11 11:50pm

Comment of the Day: The Apple Hour of Power

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Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Religious Facilities
5 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE APPLE HOUR OF POWER “Believe it or not. Just a few weeks ago I posted a mail to Tim Cook, no reply till now :), in which I suggested to buy the Crystal Cathedral Campus in Garden Grove. I have been there on several occasions (although I am a dutch citizen so it is not around the corner). It would be an excellent Apple campus where people can meet Apple and each other and where we all can build a platform where contemporary speakers like Deepak Chopra, Lynne McTaggart and many others who can tell us new things that can make this world a better place can be invited to share their knowledge. Can you imagine streaming to or downloading by the devices like the iPad, Apple TV iPhones and Macs in every corner of this planet? In that way preserving the heritage of that beautiful place and at the same time give it a destination that will appeal tot the entire world (community). Now it will be sold to a catholic church, in my opinion a loss of possibilities.” [Hans Noordsij, commenting on Comment of the Day: Apple’s Crystal Cathedral]

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Development Strategies
12/06/11 5:44pm

Montrose Fiesta Building Owners: That Variance Is for Future Generations

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Lancaster Place, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing
19 Comments

The request for a variance that would allow developers of the 3.68-acre property at the corner of Dunlavy and West Alabama to avoid putting in cul-de-sacs at the ends of Sul Ross and Branard St. — and that prompted the posting of signs around the Fiesta Food Mart on the property — isn’t the work of a new owner. It was submitted by the same owner who has held the property since the early sixties when the current shopping center was constructed.

So why the need for a variance that would only matter if the grocery store were redeveloped?

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Afton Village
12/06/11 2:26pm

Houston IKEA Going Solar

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Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Utilities
23 Comments

HOUSTON IKEA GOING SOLAR Houston’s 300,000-sq.-ft. IKEA store on the Katy Fwy. near Antoine — along with 8 other southern-state locations and a distribution center — will soon be covered with rooftop solar panels. The furniture company’s U.S. solar program began late last year. Contractor REC Solar will install 3,962 PV panels measuring a total of approximately 116,400 sq. ft., which IKEA will own and operate, on top of the Houston store by next summer. A company press release estimates the Houston panels will produce 931 kW, for a projected annual electricity output of 1,317,500 kWH per year. [BusinessWire] Photo of panels installed earlier this year in West Sacramento: IKEA

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