REMEMBERING SOMETHING 
Oh, yeah — Swamplot will be off for the Monday holiday. Best wishes to all of you for a restful and meaningful Memorial Day, however you choose to commemorate it. We’ll be back in usual form on Tuesday, but if you’ve got something you urgently need to share, no problem: our tips line will stay open all weekend. Photo of Gus Wortham fountain, Buffalo Bayou Park: lc_db via Swamplot Flickr Pool
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE ASTRODOME HONEYPOT PLAN, CHEAPER THAN DEMOLITION “If someone just gave me $50 million, I’d structure a perpetuity yielding no less than a 1.2% return (which shouldn’t be at all difficult when 30-year T-bonds yield a 2.85% return) and maintain the Dome FOREVER. I say this because I recall a Chronicle article citing a cost of $600,000 per year to maintain it in mothballs. That’s just not very much money. Unless there’s a pressing need to spend $140 per square foot to reclaim the land (which would be idiotic given that Astroworld sold its land for $17 PSF and that the Reliant Arena is also on the chopping block and would yield more land), then the only thing that could possibly make sense is to do nothing. Simply wait. Then . . . the first private concern that can pony up the cash to do something appropriate with the venue that will generate hotel and/or sales tax revenue gets to capture the $600k per year for themselves. I suspect that it wouldn’t take particularly long. And then the taxpayers come out AHEAD as compared to demolishing it and the politicians get to take well-deserved credit.” [TheNiche]
WEINGARTEN: WE’RE SAVING THE ALABAMA LETTERS 
Weingarten Realty is preparing reporters for a photo op in front of the Alabama Theater at 2922 S. Shepherd Dr. now being outfitted for a Trader Joe’s. The letters spelling “Alabama” that the company had removed earlier this week from the original tall totem sign in front of the 1939 Art Deco theater that the company recently gutted and leveled will soon be returned intact and unscrambled, a spokesperson promises. The letters are being painted and the neon lighting hidden inside them is being replaced. Expected homecoming date for the letters: sometime between June 13th and June 16th. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Jay Rascoe
NOTICING THE ASTRODOME-ARENA BAIT-AND-SWITCH 
A major focus of the report on the future of the Astrodome endorsed this week by the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp. was a proposal to spend an additional $385 million to replace the neighboring 1974-vintage Reliant Arena. (That’s almost $115 million more than the estimated $270.3 million the team of consultants estimated it would take to raise the floor of the Astrodome and turn it into a smaller “multi-purpose” facility.) And of course, county budget officials are quick to shoot down the resulting proposed $523 million tax-supported bond issue for a new county building, even if the name “Astrodome” is attached to it. But a comment from Ed Emmett quoted in today’s Chronicle makes it appear the county judge wants to call the bluff: “‘The way it was trotted out, we’re going to re-purpose the Dome and we’re going to replace the arena with a new building,’ Emmett said. ‘If we’re doing that, why don’t we use the Dome for the purposes the arena was being used for? Because that would obviously cost less.'” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Wikimedia Commons [license]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE PROBLEM WITH ALL NON-OUTRAGEOUS ASTRODOME REDEVELOPMENT CONCEPTS “I’m not attached to the Dome and I don’t know that many people are. When I read this report, like other commentators, I’m thinking . . . thats a lot of money for ‘another venue.’ My impression is that some of the really cool ideas have been suppressed by the Rodeo, which disgusts me. I think a lot of money might be well spent if you are building a unique facility . . . something truly different that would make me load up my family and go there just for that experience. . . . but I don’t want to spend a lot of money just to build ‘another venue’ . . . who’s real purpose is to somehow ‘save the dome.'” [dara childs, commenting on New Life — or Death — for the Astrodome, Now at a Discount]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHEN NOTHING IS BETTER THAN SOMETHING “. . . this is Houston, where most people think that something is better than nothing (like a WalMart). If you live here long enough, you learn the hard way to stop expecting much from local developers — even those who build amazing things in other cities. They don’t bother here, mostly because they don’t have to. No zoning, no planning, no architectural or design reviews, hell the 4th largest city in the land doesn’t even have an architecture critic on staff anywhere (only food and arts critics in H-town), so no bad reviews — just kudos from the press for ‘at least’ doing something. Houston has become the land of ‘at least’; at least they built something; at least it’s not an empty lot anymore; at least . . . Empty lots are underrated.” [Jon, commenting on Hanover’s Next Apartment Tower for BLVD Place]
NEW LIFE — OR DEATH — FOR THE ASTRODOME, NOW AT A DISCOUNT 
Notable in the options presented in today’s report from the latest group of consultants to study the future of the Astrodome: lower prices. The cost estimate for demolishing the vacant sports stadium has been marked down to $68 million from the $128 million cited in a 2010 study (possibly in part because the new figure doesn’t include retiring the debt the county still owes on the building). And turning the Astrodome into a multipurpose sports and exhibition facility (the top recommendation from the consultants at Dallas’s Convention Sports and Leisure) is now predicted to cost just $270 million, down from the $324-to-$374-million range cited in the same 2-year-old report. But the consultants also suggested spending an additional $385 million to replace Reliant Arena; they’d also like to get a private developer to build a hotel on the grounds of Reliant Park. [Click2Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia
COMMENT OF THE DAY: JUST REFRESHING THE LETTERS ON THE ALABAMA SIGN “Yes, they will re-install them. BLAAAAM!” [marmer, commenting on Taking Down the Letters on the Alabama Theater Sign]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: FERAL CATS, THE SCOURGE OF HYDE PARK “Okay, I have been dealing with ferals for about 3 years, ever since moving to Hyde Park. They drive me nuts, but you can get the population reduced by spaying all the females. If you neuter or remove a male, another will come in. I still have problems with neighbors who don’t completely understand the gravity of the situation — ie, they mean well, but they don’t help. I have worked extensively with a neighborhood friend to help reduce the numbers and have been very successful. And for those who don’t think ferals are a problem: 1) They crap EVERYWHERE and are a potential source of disease. 2) Toms are aggressive towards our dog and us. 3) They kill songbirds, A LOT of them. 4) They get run over on a regular basis — perhaps Darwinism at work, but a potential serious accident waiting to happen for those trying to avoid hitting them, and a nasty mess in the street when they die. 5) They come into your yard and are aggressive to your cats who have every reasonable right to be in your yard. 6) They are a nuisance. Sure, kittens are cute, but they can have a litter of 4 in about a year. Guess how many cats can be produced in just 7 years from one pregnant female and her offspring? 370,000. Staggering. Of course, you aren’t realistically going to see those numbers, but you get the idea. If you can trap them — trap them humanely. Take them to the SPCA, or to BARC. If you can afford to get them spayed or neutered, do so and get them back in the same neighborhood. I know this sounds silly, but even if you got rid of 99% of a colony in your neighborhood, you will wind up with them being replaced. If you spay or neuter, it seems to stabilize. And trust me, doing that is easier than convincing some neighbors to help stop the cycle.” [Bruce, commenting on Cats Still Hanging Around West U Apartments, Unaware of Redevelopment Plans]
WEST END REALITY FISH TV When Mexican TV celebrity Aquiles Chávez opened a seafood restaurant in Houston’s West End earlier this year, local English-language media may not have given it the attention a culinary star might expect. But his efforts to open La Fisheria were all the while being filmed by a crew from Colombia. Now Fox-owned Utilisima is planning to air Chávez’s northern saga as a 13-episode reality TV series, Aquiles en Houston, beginning June 10th. (The slower paced video above isn’t from the series, but contains more footage of the restaurant at 4705 Inker than the series trailer put out by the network.) [29-95; Utilisima] Video: FUHA
CATS STILL HANGING AROUND WEST U APARTMENTS, UNAWARE OF REDEVELOPMENT PLANS 
A group of 25 or so cats still hanging around the 2-and-a-half-acre grounds of the recently vacated Courts at West University apartments at 3810 Law St. have apparently not been informed of the 5-story Alexan West University complex set to go up on their old stomping grounds. An animal advocacy group concerned that the cats may get in the way when the existing buildings are demolished early next month has sounded the alarm, requesting donations and assistance in setting up a feeding station away from the demo site, as well as finding adoptive and foster homes for the uninformed animals. [West University Examiner; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Elmo at Courts of West University: Kathy Golding
THOSE EMPTYING GOVERNMENT OFFICES 
The federal government is still paying more than $3.3 million a year for the (as of last September) only 21 percent occupied 117,000-sq.-ft. U.S. Attorney’s office at 919 Milam St. Downtown (the lease expires in June 2013; the offices are moving to Wells Fargo Center). And over at Three Allen Center (at left), a much smaller lease for more than 11,000 sq. ft. by the General Services Administration that expires in 2014 is only 1 percent occupied. Those are the top Houston highlights in a report detailing unused office space the GSA is spending big bucks to lease. According to Texas Watchdog reporter Mark Lisheron’s scouring of data unearthed by a report in the Washington Examiner, 103 Texas properties leased by the GSA for government agencies are less than 5 percent occupied. [Texas Watchdog; spreadsheet of Texas leases] Photo: LoopNet
COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOUR BASIC HOUSEMOVING DEAL “We’ll be moving a small house in the Heights off a lot that we are clearing for construction. Basically the removal company pays you $10 for the structure, and after they move it they scrape the lot to a demo standard. So you save the demo costs, maybe $5k, and you recycle the house. The house we bought was the childhood home of the man we bought it from — it had been in the family for decades — so it felt like the decent thing to do; the savings will be used to upgrade my future oven, and not much more, given the cost of building a new house. The movers sell the house for $20k—$30k, maybe more if its in good shape. So as long as their own costs for the demo and the move are less than the sale price, they make out okay. The houses tend to be used as rentals, starter homes, hunting camps, etc. It takes a good deal longer to clear a lot this way compared to a straight demo, and you run the risk that the structure will never sell. But if you have a bit of patience it’s a good deal.” [KG, commenting on Bungalow on the Loose: Duplex Splits West Drew in the Middle of the Night]
A DAY FOR HOUSTON TO CELEBRATE DEMOLITION 
A mere 189 homes and businesses will be knocked down beginning Saturday, designated by Mayor Parker as the city’s third annual Demo Day. That number is down a bit from last year, when the city marked the occasion by beginning the destruction of more than 400 structures deemed blighted (it took a while). Members of the Houston Contractors Association will be donating their bulldozing services for the citywide event. Most of the structures appeared on Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Reports this week; the city’s official list is here (PDF). The mayor will be on hand at 4007 Ebbtide St., just behind Madison High School, to make sure that home gets the smashing it deserves. Photo from last year’s event: Houston Contractor’s Association
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE CRY OF THE INSTITUTIONAL FUNDRAISER “It’s all well and good to have a foundation, but what’s the fun of being a billionaire if you don’t have some buildings with your name on it?” [Robert Boyd, commenting on Midtown Arts Center Interim Design Review: How Do You Like It Now?]