So much going away so fast. How can we possibly take it all in?
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Set back behind the trees along I-10 and Memorial Dr. and beside the trails of Terry Hershey Park, the ExxonMobil Chemical Company Headquarters have gone up for sale. Marketing firm HHF says that the sale of the 35-acre Energy Corridor property was precipitated by the company’s impending consolidation northwest of here at the under-construction 385-acre campus behind other trees in Spring. Standing now on the property at 13501 Katy Fwy. are a 5-story, 576,968-sq.-ft. office building and a 20,463-sq.-ft. conference center.
It’s parched and scruffy, sure, and there’s an abandoned slab without any load-bearing walls to keep it company, but this less-than-a-half-acre patch of grass on Yoakum Blvd. could be the site of a 3-story office building: A rep from Owens Management Systems says that a variance application for the site just west of Castle Court in Montrose has been approved by the city planning commission, and a commercial architecture firm is considering moving to what’s being dubbed the Yoakum Enclave. The 0.4-acre lot backs into Mt. Vernon St. and up against the U.S. 59 barrier wall at the very end of the 4300 block of Yoakum, south of the University of St. Thomas and the construction site on Richmond Ave. of the 6-story Campanile South.
The excavator in the distance, the pick-up trucks, and the port-a-potty can mean only one thing: Here comes the Idylwood Walmart. Last week, a construction trailer showed up on the north end of the 28-acre site near the Gulf Fwy. on Wayside. This week, the heavy equipment started rolling in, chomping on trash trees along the property’s fences and churning up dust to make way for the city’s second store inside the Loop. So far, though, this proposed 185,00 sq. footer doesn’t appear to have attracted the same scorn as its predecessor on Yale St.
Note: A TxDOT spokesperson has confirmed that the total cost of the project is $1.3 billion. Story updated below.
This map shows where commuters would get in and out of the toll lanes that TxDOT says it will build in the grassy median of Texas 288 — part of a project it’s proposing to help deal with Med Center congestion and development southwest of town by widening 26 miles of the highway between U.S. 59 and County Road 60. Several new overpasses at intersections and upgraded connections to the Loop and Beltway 8 are also included in the project, which TxDOT says will cost about $1.38 million $1.3 billion. The full extent of the project will be rolled out tonight at a public hearing in Houston and again on Thursday in Pearland.
- Public Hearing [TxDOT]
- TxDOT schedules 2 hearings on proposed Texas 288 improvements [Houston Chronicle]
- More Concrete Coming on SH 288: 26-Mile Toll Road to Pearland [Hair Balls]
Map: TxDOT
- 9827 Moorberry Ln. [HAR]
They grow up so fast: Sending photos in August and October, a reader has been documenting from on high the progress of BLVD Place near San Felipe and Post Oak — and now here’s one more. What’s new? Well, what used to be nothing but grass in the foreground has been stripped for the Hanover apartment tower. And the Whole Foods shell appears to be shaping up, too.
- BLVD Place coverage [Swamplot]
Photo: Swamplot inbox
- State Orders North Forest ISD To Close, Be Annexed By HISD [Hair Balls]
- J. Crew Sidekick Madewell Coming to the Galleria; Opening Planned for Early June [CultureMap]
- First Ward Co-Working Space CoInside Moving In with EaDo Co-Working Space Start [Houston Business Journal]
- Roadwork Begins on $3.29M Century Boulevard Extension [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Invasive Plant Species Giant Salvinia Threatens Texas Waters [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Serial Arsonist on the Loose Around Memorial Drive [abc13]
- Heritage Society at Sam Houston Park’s Weekend Exhibition Celebrates Foley’s [New York Times]
- Travel Channel Names Galveston One of Gulf Coast’s Best Beaches [Click2Houston]
Photo of Downtown: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Downtown has been missing out, RIDA President Ira Mitzner tells Bisnow: “A CVB study found we lost 630,000 room nights from conventions” between 2008 and 2012 because of a “lack of activity” around the George R. Brown Convention Center — Â the largest in Texas, says Mitzner, but only the fourth-most booked. Swamplot reported in December that RIDA worked with Morris Architects to develop a 30-story, 1,000-room Marriott Marquis — you might remember the rendering of a Texas-shaped lazy river on the roof. And other developments are coming. Houston First COO Peter McStravick lays them out to Bisnow step by step:
1 is the Marriott Marquis. 2 is owned by HISD and will be a high school for visual and performing arts, and the western half of block 3 may become a limited-service hotel. 4 is Houston First’s tract (1.5 blocks) and 5 is the site of the new [1,800-space parking] garage. 6 will house the Nau Center for Texas Cultural Heritage, and 7 (two blocks) will be the Finger 8-story tower.
Houston First wants that tract to become apartments and retail; the Finger tower of apartments and retail is planned for the same site where the Ben Milam Hotel stood until it went crumbling down in a cloud of glory in early December.
- Convention District Makeover [Bisnow]
- Morris Architects unveils downtown convention center hotel design features [Houston Business Journal]
- Previously on Swamplot: A Texas Island on the Next Convention Center Hotel
Map: Bisnow
We now come to the final category in the 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. We need your help to determine the Greatest Moment in Houston Real Estate of the past year. The official nominees, culled from reader suggestions, are posted below. Which one would you pick to win the award?
Remember, there are 4 ways to vote! And you can vote once using each approved method — that’s 4 votes in all for each award category. Declare your vote in a comment to this post, in an email to Swamplot HQ, in a Tweet, or on the wall of Swamplot’s Facebook page. The complete voting rules are available here.
All votes must be in by 5 pm on Wednesday, December 26th. When you vote, please tell us why you made your choice. We’ll include some of the best explanations for the winners when we announce them next week.
The official nominees for the Greatest Moment in Houston Real Estate of 2012 are . . .
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SCRAPPING IT ALL — OR NOT — IN WESTBURY “So I have a home in Westbury that I purchased in the $190 range. It’s ok shape but I am living in another home inside the loop. As I am interested in a larger home and can’t find an affordable lot inside the loop, I am considering demoing my Westbury home and rebuilding on that lot. Does anyone have an opinion on this? I am only aware of one other Westbury new build from 2006. I love the neighborhood, I just need more space. Another option I am considering is building a second story to the existing home. Thoughts?” [Westbury Owner, commenting on A Londoners’ Guide to the Westbury Land Rush]
Why is Houston the only major city in the country that bans propane-equipped food trucks from operating Downtown — and one of the few that prohibits all food trucks from serving near seating areas or even setting up their own chairs for customers? A few clues appear in Katherine Shilcutt’s fascinating account of Tuesday’s city hearing, during which council members expressed a few concerns: that food-truck purveyors might be selling “other items” on the sly, or that there might not be a sufficient number of city inspectors to police the existing fleet. But, Shilcutt reports, “The questions got even stranger when Council Member Andrew Burks began hinting at the possibility of terrorists using food trucks’ propane tanks as weapons, a comment that prompted laughter from the audience.”
The possibility of overfueled taco trucks blowing up Downtown Houston, however, wasn’t the only frightening specter Burks conjured up before the mostly mobile-food-friendly crowd:
MOBILE FOOD VENDORS MOBILIZE 
A collective formed by more than 2 dozen food-truck operators plans to roll on city hall later this month — to present the mayor and council members with a list of proposed changes to city ordinances, fire code, and health regulations that restrict where and how Houston’s growing fleet of mobile food units can operate. The changes promoted by Mobile Food Unit Houston would get rid of current rules requiring food trucks and trailers to park more than 60 ft. away from each other, allow a single propane permit to cover multiple locations, and lift the ban on using propane fuel in the Med Center and Downtown. The changes would also allow their customers to sit down, lifting current rules that prohibit the sale of food-truck food near seating areas and letting them to set up limited numbers of tables and chairs on their own. [Mobile Food Unit Houston; previously on Swamplot]
