SURE LOOKS LIKE A TRADER JOE’S IS HEADED FOR VOSS AND SAN FELIPE The second Houston-area Trader Joe’s will move in at 1440 S. Voss Rd., just north of San Felipe, according to this little permit report. [Ultimate Memorial]
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: BUT A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR WILL HELP THE HISTORY GO DOWN “If you won’t drink coffee at the former Mary’s building, then you probably don’t want to know what went on at The Empire Cafe, when it was known as The Locker.” [Darogr, commenting on Restored Mary’s Mural on Westheimer Painted Over Again]
ALLEN STANFORD’S UPTOWN STAGECRAFT 
“The place was always odd. There was always more elegance, more shine . . . and yet there weren’t always people to fill the desks. There was more real estate than people. There was just such pomp. It felt like 1955, the way people were dressed and were ushered in and offered coffee in fine china. They had a private dining room — everything was over the top . . . and you’re like, OK, maybe some of these enterprises are making some money. In retrospect, it was like a Hollywood town. It was like the front, but if you peek around the back, it’s just two-by-fours holding it up.” — Houston videographer Dave Henry, who plans to craft a documentary using footage he created for the Stanford Financial Group, describing the company’s former headquarters on Westheimer. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Still: Magpie River Films
COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE DATA VISUALIZATION “I think this tool is wonderful for home buyers, now they can actually do research that us agents do. However there are still some very important reports available only to agent. What my clients see so useful is a map/grid type of report. I can take a certain section of a neighborhood and include criteria like … sqft 2000-2500, bedrooms 3-4, counter = granite, built between 2000-2005, one story homes only, lot size 5000-7000, located on a cul de sac, and the house faces WEST…. Realtors have AMAZING TOOLS AVAILABLE TO THEM.. the only problem is some realtors DO NOT know how to use them. Hence our slogan is “Leave Realty to The Pros†…hahahahhaha… Well hope this info helps, if you have any questions please let me know.. IM HERE TO HELP.” [texasrealtypros.com, commenting on New Real Estate Listings Website Reveals Hidden Price Histories]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BEWARE THE ALLURING BAYOU PARK PLAN “This appears to be a banking scheme that would have the Federal Reserve Bank(s) finance and hold securities on these important lands in many large cities across the US. More scrutiny of the fine print and long-term ramifications is needed before yielding to the sensuous propaganda.” [Dana-X, commenting on Enormous Plan To Build Bayou-Side Parks: The Movie]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT’S WORTH THE EFFORT “The system IS biased against low-value properties. There’s not a great deal of incentive to even file protest on a $40k mobile home, but there’s plenty of incentive to litigate the value of a downtown highrise in district court; and by that time, the highrise has had three bites at the apple. I’m not sure that there’s an easy solution to the inequity, though. Mass appraisal is a blunt tool by its very design. The right of protest allows for some of the rough edges to be smoothed out.” [TheNiche, commenting on The Office Building Appraisal Discount]
THE OFFICE BUILDING APPRAISAL DISCOUNT 
“Across the city, prime office buildings are selling for far more than their tax values, leaving billions in potential tax revenue on the table at a time when city and county budgets are stretched,” writes business columnist Loren Steffy. “It’s almost as if there’s two sets of books: one for the buyers and sellers, and one for the tax man. A random sample of more than 40 office buildings that sold in the past five years found 2011 appraisals trailing market value by about 40 percent, or more than $1.6 billion in unrecognized taxable value.” A state law prohibits county appraisers from taking into account certain “intangibles” — including leases and occupancy rates — in valuing commercial property. [Houston Chronicle, via Off the Kuff] Photo of Heritage Plaza: Waymarking
UNDERBELLY AND THE HAY MERCHANT GOING WHOLE HOG TOGETHER 
Co-owner Bobby Heugel tells Amber Ambrose the craft beer bar he’s been carving out of the former Chances space at the corner of Westheimer and Waugh and the meat palace built from scratch next door for former Catalan chef Chris Shepherd will be attached but operate separately: “For the sake of efficiency and competitive pricing, the one area shared by both Underbelly and the Hay Merchant is the butchering room, with its massive double doors that can accommodate an entire cow, pig or other large animal. Certain cuts suited more for the restaurant’s menu will go into the kitchen at Underbelly and the remaining trim that make up the creative pub menu of dishes like burgers, sweetbread po’boys and crispy sweet and sour pig’s ears inside The Hay Merchant will go next door, although we suspect there will be plenty of sweetbreads and pig’s ears on Underbelly’s menu at times too. Otherwise, the two businesses are taking great pains to keep their identities separate, even going as far as banning employees of each from stepping foot into the other while they’re on the clock.” [Eater Houston] Photo: Candace Garcia
RED-LIGHT CAMERA TAKEDOWN GETS GREEN LIGHT 
A city council vote this morning means that Houston’s on-again-off-again red-light cameras will likely all be coming down in 60 days. The city agreed to a settlement with the camera vendor that would give American Traffic Solutions $4.8 million, plus a share of funds collected from red-light runners. [abc13; previously on Swamplot] Photo: West U Examiner
VIDA’S SECOND ACT 
The owners of the renamed and renovated Melcher Crossing shopping center by the tracks at 4218 San Felipe brought in their own adults-only restaurant last September, reporter Rusty Graham explains: “‘We thought “how hard can it be?‒ Evie Melcher said. ‘We thought we’d just open it up and it would run itself. But there’s so much to bring together.’ Between a manager that didn’t work out and a ‘diva’ chef who quit, the Melchers have experienced and overcome the challenges. The restaurant is ‘chefless’ for the foreseeable future, the kitchen overseen by a manager. Menu items are recipes supplied by the kitchen staff; after the chef quit workers brought in family recipes that were cooked up and tried out. The best are on the menu today, what Evie Melcher calls ‘sexy Tex-Mex.’ ‘Tex-Mex doesn’t need to be weird’ she said. “Our food is less greasy, better tasting and of a higher quality, but it isn’t weird. It’s going home and not feeling so full.'” [River Oaks Examiner] Photo: Vida Tex-Mex
IS RICE WORTH IT? 
Having stood up for Houston’s heat, humidity, flying cockroaches, mosquitoes, sprawl, flooding, “no mountains,” and other typically unheralded features of the local landscape (even as more official civic campaigns shied away from the task) the folks behind the cité vérité Houston. It’s Worth It. promotional campaign are ready to move onto their next crowdsourced publishing project. “Contrary to the way it might sound,” declares a splash page announcing the project, HIWI: Rice “is not a cookbook. Nor, for all you anxious undergrads, is it a text book.” Instead, the publishers at communications firm ttweak are hoping to produce a collection of comments, stories, and photos that’ll end up serving as “part love letter, part roast, part remembrance” of Rice University, on the occasion of the institution’s 100th birthday. Working from the same model that produced the original Houston. It’s Worth It. book and HIWI: Ike, the publishers are soliciting contributions from anyone who has anything to say about the campus, its people, and its place in the city: “Have you ever shot bottle rockets in the parking lot? Were you there for Kennedy’s speech? Ever knocked back a few at Valhalla? . . . Even if you’ve never set foot inside a Rice classroom, we want to know what the ‘Institute’ means to you.” [HIWI; previously on Swamplot] Photo: ttweak
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE EADO VIRUS “For goodness sake, when are people going to stop referring to random areas within the East End as EaDo! EaDo’s northern most tip is on Commerce. The KBR site is pretty far removed from EaDo’s borders! And realtors, please stop coming up with new names. I recently saw a listing near EaDo, with a location described as “SEDO†(Southeast Downtown). When will the madness stop!” [Eddie, commenting on The Clearings on Clinton]
COMBINED ITALIAN WINERY AND PIPING PRODUCTS PLANT OPENING IN WESTLAND BUSINESS PARK 
What could better symbolize this city’s international sophistication and industriousness than the construction of an Italian winery in a Houston business park off West Rd. and Eldridge? Easy: Putting the winery inside a 60,000 sq.-ft. pipe-machining plant in said business park. Stefano Farina brand Chianti, Barolo, barbaresco, and prosecco will be fermented and bottled in a 5,000-sq.-ft. winery with its own separate cooling and ventilation systems after the dual facilities open, likely in March. Grape juice will be shipped there from the Farina Group’s wineries in Tuscany and Piedmont. Meanwhile, next door, the same company’s ITEX Piping Products plant will produce stainless steel flanges, stud bolts, nipples, swages and various piping products for Houston-area oil and gas businesses — from steel forged in the company’s Western European plants. [Houston Business Journal] Photo: Stefano Farina
NEW ROTATING GARBAGE TRUCKS WILL KEEP ON TOSSING YOUR TRASH Behold the new German-made Rotopress collection trailers, now making their North American debut — in Houston. Local refuse braintrust Waste Management is introducing the new vehicles in a pilot program here, before rolling them out to 4 other U.S. cities. The natural-gas powered tumblers hold 40 percent more waste than conventional collection trucks, are quieter, have fewer moving parts, and separate from their truck cabs, which the company can switch out and upgrade independently. The rotating drum helps distribute the load more evenly on the trailer, and mixes wet and dry materials, which the company tactfully says “reduces the amount of free liquid in the system.” That should result in fewer leaks and a less pronounced rotting-garbage smell. [GreenBiz] Video: Waste Management
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE CLUE THEY’LL BE TEARING IT DOWN “The standard Texas Apartment Association lease does not give the owner the right to cancel the lease in the event of a sale. If the land value is approaching the as-built value, however, a smart landlord is going to put a clause in the lease that allows for a 30-day termination. At the complex I listed above, that was exactly what happened. The landlord had a cancellation clause in the lease for years before the property was sold to a developer. Some tenants may be turned off by it. It may have some affect on the rental rates. You have to weigh the pros and cons. Every situation is different.” [Bernard, commenting on New Owner Orders Everybody Out of the Greenbriar Chateau Apartments]