SWAMPLOT’S HOTEL ALESSANDRA DOWNTOWN GETAWAY GIVEAWAY ENDS TODAY 
Today’s your very last day to enter to win an overnight stay at Downtown Houston’s Hotel Alessandra (plus some accompanying perks) in Swamplot’s latest giveaway. Maybe you’ve already signed up. But do you really want to win the prize? Maybe you’ve seen how you can earn a few extra “entries” (really, additional chances to win) by following Swamplot on social media after you sign up. But did you know at least one entrant has now accumulated more than 200 extra entries (and counting)? How do you do that? Easily: Just spread word about the giveaway on social media or in emails to friends, either by using the links on the confirmation page (there’s a link to that page in your confirmation email), or by using your special link code listed there. For each person who sees your post and then signs up for the giveaway after clicking on it, you’ll be credited with 10 additional entries. Yeah, wowza. But hurry — signups end tonight at midnight!
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Our thanks go to Just Buyers Houston, the Houston real estate firm that represents buyers only. Thanks for being today’s Swamplot Sponsor of the Day!
If you’re thinking about jumping into the market for a new place — and are looking for an experienced, data-minded agent to represent you and guide you through the buying process of buying a highrise condo, a townhome, or a single-family home — contact Judy Thompson of Just Buyers Houston.
(And if you’re thinking about becoming a Swamplot Sponsor, contact us.)
Sponsor of the Day
Make no mistake about the signage now up along Hwy. 6 across Schiller Dr. from the Aldi near Westpark: the travel stop it’s announcing is Nebraska-born Bucky’s — not the Texan Buc-ee’s. Construction vehicles are now pushing dirt around west of the Highway 6 RV Resort where the new complex plans to go.
Last year, Buc-ee’s filed a lawsuit against Bucky’s to stop the transplant from moving ahead with plans to build at least 6 new Houston-area locations. One Bucky’s is now open on NASA Pkwy. in Nassau Bay, but besides that, all other operational Bucky’ses are currently out of state: in Omaha, St. Louis, and the Chicago area.
Across the street, Twistee Treat Westpark is flanked by Golden Corral and a Take 5 Oil Change, and backed up by a Palace Inn:
The Buc Stops Here
- Lincoln Property Co. Planning $100M Renovation of Former Exxon Campus [HBJ ($)]
- New Apartments Coming Near Houston Farmers Market [HBJ ($)]
- Golfing Will End at Glenbrook Golf Course on April 1 Ahead of Its Conversion into Botanic Garden [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Houston Plans To Install Warning Lights To Prevent People from Driving into High Water at Flood-Prone Intersections [Houston Public Media]
- Study: 28M Americans Live in Flood Zones and Don’t Know It [Houston Chronicle]
- Why a Houston Police Car Is Also Painted as a Taxi Cab [Houston Chronicle]
- Movie Poster for ‘Harvey’ Gets a Redesign [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of a railroad bridge over Brays Bayou: Leonid Notax via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.
- 23134 Red Oak Trl. [HAR]
SWAMPLOT IS GIVING AWAY A FREE DOWNTOWN HOUSTON GETAWAY AT THE HOTEL ALESSANDRA One day left: Swamplot is giving away a free overnight stay at Downtown’s newest hotel — the Hotel Alessandra — plus a few accompanying perks. It’s easy to enter! And if you’ve already signed up, you can greatly improve your chances of winning the prize: Just post about it on social media (or send emails to your friends) and you’ll get credited with extra entries when people sign up as a result. To learn more about this giveaway or to sign up for it, click here.
Skinny Rita’s is about halfway through its last stand in Montrose this afternoon, thanks to the excavator now parked on what used to be its patio. The health-minded Mexican restaurant at 607 W. Gray St. sat vacant since its owners closed the place down last February. Nine months later, The Platform Group snatched up the former cantina along with its neighbor, the Traci Scott Hair Salon (visible beyond the wrecking arm in the photo at top), where business is proceeding as usual despite the racket next door.
A few more angles on the tear down show piles of rubble getting ready to overflow the patio fencing:
Montrose Pair Minus One
New possibly aquatic-themed street and sidewalk art is bubbling up on Amherst St. west of Kelvin Dr. in Rice Village. The photo at top views a few of the freshly-laid, not-quite-concentric circles from outside the Everything But Water swimwear store that occupies part of the recently renovated retail building on Amherst St. The designs are being placed there by Crossroads Decorative Pavement — whose truck is on site in the photo above looking toward Kelvin.
Here’s a view of what’s under foot on the southern bank of Amherst:
Moistening the Pavement
- River Oaks Condo The Revere To Break Ground This Spring [HBJ ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Which Portions of Brays Bayou Will Hold Water Better Than Others After Widening Project Is Complete [Houston Chronicle]
- Half-Built Bellaire House in Limbo as Builder RG Homes Faces Lawsuits, Felony Charges [Houston Chronicle]
- A Timeline of the Past and Future of the Houston-Dallas High-Speed Rail [HBJ]
- The 10 Hottest Neighborhoods in Houston in 2018 [Houstonia]
- The Latest Batch of Preservation Houston’s Good Brick Awards Winners [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston Named a Top Metro Region for Expanding Corporate Facilities by Site Selection Magazine [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Buffalo Bayou Trail, Second Ward: Leonid Notax via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
That to secure these demolitions, bulldozers are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the bulldozed.
- 4002 Piping Rock Ln. [HAR]
New protective barriers of ankle-high concrete have been added around the curbs that already front each corner at the intersection of Tuam and Hutchins streets, slowing down traffic and speeding up curb-to-curb travel times for pedestrians crossing at the crosswalks. The additions were put there by the city’s Complete Communities initiative, a project Mayor Turner launched last April to focus in its initial round on adding infrastructure to 5 neighborhoods: the Third Ward, as well as the Second Ward, Near Northside, Gulfton, and Acres Homes.
The photo at top — Tweeted out by an observer heading southbound through the Third Ward along Tuam — looks down the street to show all 4 new pedestrian pockets including the one in the left foreground that sits outside the northeast corner of Emancipation Park. That portion of the park is where its playground lays out as indicated in the map above.
A view looking east from inside the park shows what the kids’ corner has to offer:
A Concrete Solution
10-STORY CELL TOWER WANTS TO SPIKE UP ALONG FIFTH WARD RAILROAD TRACKS 
A new cell tower is proposed behind a warehouse on Schweikhardt St., just north of where the road ends at Clinton Dr. Vertical Bridge Development, an entity that manages towers for telecom companies, filed an application with the city’s Tower Commission for permission to build the 100-ft. tall structure just north of the train tracks that cross Schweikhardt late last year. The tracks are more or less the dividing line between the industrial zone that spreads out along Buffalo Bayou between Hirsch Rd. and Route 90, and the residential portion of the Fifth Ward that extends south of I-10. City rules require a waiver for towers to be built in residential neighborhoods, and in order to get one, the owner of the 1.5-acre lot where the tower is proposed argues that the parcel is deep enough for the antenna to hang back far from the road. Still, however, the nearest residential property would be just over 200 ft. away from the new sky wire. [Houston Tower Commission Agenda] Photo of signage at proposed tower site: Swamplot inbox
Longtime Upper Kirby resident Chateau Domingue has packed up the floor tiles, doorknobs, and candlesticks at its former W. Alabama St. showroom just west of Edloe St. and left for a new location in Timbergrove. An entity connected to energy businessman Douglas Foshee bought the building that housed the antique furniture and building materials store at the end of 2016. Fencing went up around the site last week, and on Friday, a permit was filed to disconnect the structure from the city’s sewer system — typically a sign that a demolition is imminent.
Chateau Domingue’s old location is abutted on one side by a complex of warehouse buildings that runs south from W. Alabama toward the middle of the block. At its new location on W. 12th St. between Hempstead and Seamist Dr., the showroom is now hugged entirely by industrial structures.
Photos: Swamplot inbox
Unfurnishsed
