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American Express Doling Out Millions To Help Save 37 Historic Sites, Including the Astrodome [KHOU; previously on Swamplot]
Aldi Opening Store in Kemah on Oct. 24 [Prime Property]
Pair of Squatters Trying To Claim Legal Ownership of Deceased Woman’s Heights Bungalow [KHOU]
Zeapod Cakery Owner/Driver Developing Food Truck Park on 3 Acres on Highway 6 for Energy Corridor Workers [Culturemap]
The Strand One of Country’s 10 Great Streets, Says American Planning Association [Houston Chronicle ($)]
Slideshow: The Weirdness You Can Find in Houston Only on Your Bicycle [Houstonia Magazine]
TxDOT Says Prada Marfa Installation, Like Playboy Bunny Sign, Is Illegal Roadside Advertisement [A/N Blog]

Photo of JPMorgan Chase Tower Downtown: elnina999 via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines

10/03/13 2:15pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Take Your Booty

9 Comments

3509 Stanford St. [HAR]

77006, Interiors, Montrose, townhomes for sale

Quicklink

10/01/13 4:22pm

Astros Owner Pitching ‘Camp Strike’

by Swamplot

25 Comments

ASTROS OWNER PITCHING ‘CAMP STRIKE’ Houston Astros owner Jim Crane this week confirmed rumors that the team is interested in building a facility for a new Astros Triple-A team 41 miles up I-45 from Minute Maid Park — on the grounds of Camp Strake in Conroe. Johnson Development is expected to complete its purchase of the 2,083-acre former Boy Scout campground by the end of this year. Crane tells Fox 26’s Mark Berman he’s had initial conversations with the new owners about securing a portion of the property, but will wait until after the closing to complete his own deal. Crane will likely go shopping for a new Triple-A team to move to the area once a facility is built. [MyFoxHouston; previously on Swamplot] Photo of PuffUp Webelos Camp at Camp Strake: Adolfo Chavez III

77304, Camp Strake, Conroe, Houston Astros, Proposed Developments

09/16/13 4:45pm

Putting the Finishing Typefaces on the Heights General Store

27 Comments

New signage is up, it appears, on the Heights General Store at 350 W. 19th St., and an executive chef has been named: Antoine Ware, who’s been cooking at The Hay Merchant. The store, whose logo gives a typographical nod to its predecessor here at the corner of 19th and Ashland, Harold’s in the Heights, will include a market, restaurant, and bar. (Though it’s in a dry area, a private alcohol “club” will be put into practice to sidestep that restriction.) The opening is set for October.

Previously on Swamplot: Whatâ€™s Becoming of Haroldâ€™s in the Heights?, Torchyâ€™s Tacos Taking Haroldâ€™s Old Corner Spot in the Heights, The Last-Ever Sale at Haroldâ€™s in the Heights Is Over, Haroldâ€™s in the Heights Is Closing Down

Photo: Heights General Store

77008, Buildouts, Houston Heights

09/12/13 3:15pm

Rolling Around an Aubry and Barnstone Mod in Richmond

12 Comments

In Jane Long in Richmond, this 4-bedroom house was designed in 1965 by Eugene Aubry and Howard Barnstone, with landscaping from C. C.Â Pat Fleming, and it is the shady, sloping grounds of the 3-acre lot that dominate the photos in this listing. At 109 Hillcrest Dr., the home has been on the market since early July; it was chosen as Houston Mod’s Mod of the Month for September. It’s listed at $449,900.

77469, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Richmond

09/10/13 10:00am

No Parking: Idylwood Residents Want Parks Board To Move Proposed Hike and Bike Lot Somewhere Else

42 Comments

Note: Read more about this story here.

First a Walmart, and now a parking lot? Some Idylwood residents are organizing opposition to a 20- or 30-space parking lot proposed for this site by the Houston Parks Board for the Bayou Greenways Project. The parking lot, presumably meant for users of theÂ hike and bike trail to be built at some point along this stretch of Brays Bayou — which slithers beneath I-45 on its way toward U of H and the Med Center — would replace this sylvan knoll in theÂ bayou-hugging â€™hood where N. Macgregor Way curves into Sylvan Rd. But residents have some concerns . . .

77023, Bayous and Waterways, Idylwood, Neighborhood Disputes, Parking-Lots, Parks

09/04/13 9:15am

Daily Demolition Report: Get Cabell Rung

2 Comments

Let’s make sure we deliver the action wherever it’s ordered:

Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions

08/26/13 10:00am

Sprouts and Others Sign Leases for Spots in the San Jacinto Stone Site Shopping Center

11 Comments

A trio of retailers have inked their deals to take up most of the space in that slow-to-develop shopping center along Yale St. on the 8-acre site sold and vacated earlier this year by San Jacinto Stone. The Houston Chronicle reports that LA Fitness, Guitar Center, and Sprouts Farmers Market have all signed leases here. This will be the first Sprouts location inside the Loop. There remains about 22,000 sq. ft. for lease in the proposed 150,000-sq.-ft. shopping center squeezed between the Washington Heights Walmart and the new I-10 feeder roads. Construction on the center could begin in the next few months.

Developing Smart Opportunities for Retail [Ponderosa Land Development]
Retailers sign up for center near Heights [Houston Chronicle ($)]
Retailers in upcoming Heights shopping center revealed [Houston Business Journal]
Previously on Swamplot: Look Whatâ€™s Sprouting on Westheimer and Kirkwood, San Jacinto Stone To Reopen at Wholesale Gardens in Bellaire, The End of the San Jacinto Stone Age, Sprouts Far Out, Shops Replacing San Jacinto Stone, Just North of the South-of-the-Heights Walmart, Look Out for Sprouts

Rendering: Ponderosa Land Development

77007, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, West End

08/05/13 1:15pm

The Backyard Playhouse Only The Art Guys Could Ask For

11 Comments

Metalab recently collaborated on and completed this so-called “architectural folly” commissioned by those staunch advocates of play, The Art Guys. Dubbed the “Tumbling House,” the private playshack rests atop a 50-ft. galvanized archÂ of rolled pipe; the pipe spans much of the backyard and branches off into a manic jungle gym ofÂ swings, slides, monkey bars, and ladders. Metalab declined to give many more details about the project, since it’s a private thing and all, but you can see more photos of the whimsical whozee-whatzit from the firm’s blog:

Art Guys, Back Yards, Recreation

08/02/13 12:00pm

Museum Park Strip Center Catches Fire

8 Comments

This big blaze early this morning destroyed much of the strip center on the 1500 block of Blodgett, where Gallery Jatad just opened back in June and catty-corner from the proposed site of 4 new Urban Living townhomes. According to the abc13 report, the fire sparked in the washateria on the west end of the strip center and burned east toward an about-to-open custom furniture shop and the art gallery, both of which appear to have sustained some water and smoke damage.

77004, Fires, Museum Park, Strip Centers

07/29/13 2:00pm

Improving the Dirt at the Old KBR Site

4 Comments

Swamplot reader Robert Meaney sends some observations along with these photos from the Fifth Ward of the 136-acre former KBR industrial property, sold a little more than a year ago and most recently designated for use as a private helistop: “I know they have been excavating for some time to get the contaminated soil out of the area. Currently they are scheduled to be finished digging up the lot by [December of] this year and according [to] the KBR manager I talked to on site the land will be up to commercial and residential standards.”

Previously on Swamplot: Helicopters Over Clinton?, New Mystery Owners of 136 Acres in the Fifth Ward, Along the Shores of Buffalo Bayou, The Clearings on Clinton

Photos: Robert Meaney

77020, Fifth Ward, Industrial Properties, Land Development, Soil Movement

07/02/13 3:30pm

Highland Village’s River Oaks District: Up It Goes!

19 Comments

It’s got some of the cachet of that tony â€™hood’s name and none of the fuss of its actual hard-and-fast boundaries: The River Oaks District is, at long last, going up. TheÂ $150 million in construction financing that California-based developer Oliver McMillan scored started being spent Monday morning.

And other new numbers are in: The 14-acre mixed-use and misnomered development will comprise about 252,000 sq. ft. of retail and 92,000 sq. ft. of office space as well as 279 places to live — including the 18 3-bedroom homes planned for the gated Bancroft Place community-within-a-district.

Of course, the demolition is imminent of the old 4444 Westheimer apartments whose residents were assisted late last year with their evictions by “move out concierges” provided by Oliver McMillan. But hey — why let something like that stand in the way of something like this?

77027, Highland Village, Mixed Use, River Oaks District, Shopping Centers

06/20/13 9:15am

Daily Demolition Report: Briar Patch

by Swamplot

No Comments

Just a few properties in need of erasure.

Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions

05/30/13 11:30am

Skanska’s New Downtown Office Tower

35 Comments

Once the old 18-story Houston Club Building here at 811 Rusk is out of the way, and someone or something agrees to set up shop inside, this is the Gensler-designed office tower Skanska has said it will begin building Downtown. Tentatively named the Capitol Tower — since the main entrance will be moved from Rusk, on the south side of the block, to Capitol — the 700,000-sq.-ft., 34-story building (and a parking garage, too) will go along with a cavernous lobby designed to connect the recently vacated tunnels to the streets above.

77002, Downtown, Highrises, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments

05/07/13 3:45pm

The Ice House by the Second Ward Switchyard

5 Comments

This new build on the corner of Navigation Blvd. and Terminal Rd. has aroused the curiosity of a Magnolia Park resident: Though its utilitarian appearance and ballast-sharing trackside location suggest a storage facility — or maybe a roll-byÂ gift shop for forgetful conductors — a neighbor on Terminal Rd. says he heard it’s going to be the new location of Players Ice House.