- 2029 South Blvd. [HAR]
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- 705 C.R. 411 [HAR]
Some of the 42 acres of land just purchased for development by Avera Companies are shown here from above, east across the Ship Channel from the San Jacinto Battleground (that’s the bottom half of the star-topped obelisk visible toward the top left).  The property is on a peninsula of land about 2 miles downstream from the I-10 bridge and the San Jacinto Waste Pits. The eastern terminal of the Lynchburg Ferry can be seen here at the end of Independence Highway, with the Lynchburg reservoir lying  to the north.
The company says Kirby Inland Marine is set to be the first tenant for the property, and will use a section of the property to let up to 76 barges tie up and hang out as necessary. Kirby just agreed last month to a $4.9-million settlement with the Department of Justice over its role in that March 2014 barge-meets-carrier oil spill that shut down the Port for a few days and spread oil along roughly 160 miles of Texas coast between Galveston Bay and Padre Island National Seashore. (Kirby Offshore Marine, another of the corporation’s subdivisions, is currently dealing with fallout from last week’s tugboat-meets-shore fuel spill off the coast of British Columbia.)
Here’s a view of the rest of the property, showing a bit of Burnet Bay on the left and the San Jacinto River upstream toward I-10 on the right:
Floating Around Near Baytown
To cap off a series of Houston-landmark-linked performances carried out over the past few years, Karen Stoke’s dance company will put on bayou-and-space-themed DEEP: Seaspace at Hobby Center the weekend after next (that’s October 20th through 22nd). Stokes, whose previous work includes that well-timed dance about flooding in Discovery Green right after Memorial Day last year, tells Swamplot she has been mulling over appropriately grand Ship Channel choreographies since at least 2003, when she cut a related section from her piece Hometown with plans to tackle the topic later in greater depth.
On the list of historical places given a nod in the choreography (or in the short film to be shown during the live performance): Ship-Channel-side spots like the site of Santa Anna’s capture near the San Jacinto battlegrounds (the historical marker for which is located along Federal Rd. where the Washburn Tunnel crosses under the waterway); Allen’s Landing in Downtown; and the area around the former Willow St. Pump Station (just north of where White Oak Bayou meets Buffalo, by the Harris County Jail) — that spot is shown below, with dancers placed for atmosphere:
Industrial Art
A fresh shot shows the veteran’s memorial at Sugar Land Memorial Park last weekend, which has been relatively high and dry since its brief closure following all that June flooding along the Brazos. The park is right alongside the river channel (southeast of the 59 crossing, where University and Commonwealth boulevards meet), and is designed to protect and serve the surrounding neighborhoods by storing excess floodwater in a pinch. The memorial is also designed to showcase tilt-up concrete construction methods (and was the focus of the Tilt Up Concrete Association’s annual tilt-up-related do-gooding project in 2013). Here’s an aerial view from early June from the Sugar Land Parks & Recreation folks, showing exactly why this year’s Memorial Day event at the park was cancelled (and why the neighboring Pawm Springs Dog Park, in the foreground, was closed):
On Duty on the Brazos
- Construction Wraps on 24-Story SkyHouse Main Downtown [CoStar Group; previously on Swamplot]
- Texas Children’s Hospital Buys O’Quinn Medical Tower, Baylor Clinic Building in Med Center [HBJ]
- Co-Working Space TechSpace Opening in the Westchase District in April 2017 [HBJ]
- Rice University’s Off-Campus Housing Costs More Than U.S. Median, Finds Zillow [Houston Chronicle]
- City Council To Consider Cutting Houston Property Tax Rate for Third Time in 3 Years [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Houston Monthly Sales Tax Revenue Down 4.51% in July from Same Month Last Year [Houston Chronicle]
- TxDOT To Start Acquiring Property for SH 249 Toll Road Extension into Grimes County [Houston Public Media]
- Artist Boat Buys Another 40 Acres on Galveston’s West End for Preservation [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- There Have Been More Than 11K Registrations for Cistern Tours Since It Opened to the Public in May [CityLab; previously on Swamplot]
- More Details About Tri-C’s Plan To Drill for Oil on the Northern Shore of Lake Houston [Houston Public Media]
Photo of The Woodlands: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
- 20727 E Sand Hill Dr. [HAR]
- 5402 Buffalo Spdwy. [HAR]
Now for sale just across the Spring-Creek-hugging southern edge of Harris County: this 1970s ranch, carefully dressed by the seller in slate panels. The 3-bedroom 2-bathroom property was given a new outer skin (as seen in the top photo) to tie into features of the extensive interior redo, carried out by the seller’s own stone-and-tile-centric remodeling business. New features in the home include stone paneling, a few reshaped windows, and some throwback color schemes (including a black-and-white checkered garage floor), as well as a new pump system for the drought-tolerant backyard landscape (complete with koi pond.)  Asking price is $400,000 — check out more before-and-after shots below:
Slated for a Redo
If you duck southwest under the Pierce Elevated from near the maybe-not-vacant-much-longer downtown Days Inn highrise (and maybe dodge a few exit ramps), you’ll find the logo of sparkle-happy steak and seafood house Mr. Peeples still peering coyly out from behind the greenery at 1911 Bagby St. — accompanied more recently by a less shy sign advertising the freed-up space’s availability, notes a reader. Landmark said in a press release when the spot closed in March that it would “emerge as an exciting new venue in the near future”; the informational signage from WLC Interests implies that that emergence may occur elsewhere, and that other folks may have a chance at the spot for less culinarily focused uses.
Here’s a shot of the place pre-glitzification (circa 2007)Â when it was a more conservatively decorated Boy Scouts office:
Prepping for the Next Costume Change
- 5308 Pocahontas St. [HAR]
- $1.5B Being Spent To Improve Downtown Entertainment District Ahead of the Super Bowl [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
- Slideshow: A Bunch of the New Developments Planned Around Town [Houston Chronicle]
- Lubrizol Leases 50K-SF in One Briarlake Plaza Building in Westchase [Realty News Report]
- Houston-Area Cash Sales Fell 4.7% in April Over Same Month Last Year, Finds CoreLogic [Houston Chronicle]
- Downtown Restaurants, Retail Hurting as Area Loses Workers Amid Oil Slump [HBJ]
- ExxonMobil Planning $450M Beaumont Refinery Expansion [Beaumont Enterprise via HBJ]
- First Look Inside Trader Joe’s West Houston Location Opening Tomorrow [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- French Restaurant Brasserie Max & Julie Closing Sunday, To Be Replaced by New French Restaurant [Culturemap]
- Historic Freedmen’s Town Houses in the Fourth Ward Nominated By Houston Housing Authority To Become City Landmarks [The Urban Edge; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of the Menil: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
- BP Investing Millions in Renovations to ‘Modernize’ Energy Corridor HQ [HBJ ($)]
- Allendale Shopping Center in Pasadena Sold to SJGZ Investments [Realty News Report]
- JLL’s Bruce Rutherford: Energy Corridor Has ‘No Demand’ for Land Deals Right Now [HBJ]
- Developers: Only the Experienced Survive in Houston’s Condo Market [HBJ]
- Condo Sales, Prices In Houston Between January and May Were Up over Last Year[Realty News Report]
- Port of Houston To Sell Bayport Cruise Terminal’s Gangway System Following Failed Cruise Bid [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Levy Park’s $15M Makeover Under Way with Pavilion, Elevated Boardwalk, Dog Park Under Construction [Houston Chronicle]
- Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women To Open Zika Clinic [HBJ]
- Houston Has One of the Worst Commutes in America Based on Home Access to Job Centers, Finds Redfin [HBJ]
- Houston Undergoing ‘Real Estate Meltdown’, Says San Francisco-Based Wolf Street [Business Insider]
Photo: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
- 39 Autumn Crescent [HAR]
- 11502 Olympia Dr. [HAR]
