- 11611 Pinyon Pl. [HAR]
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14 PEWS’ SURPRISE NON-ENDING 
On her way into a new job as executive director of a larger church-turned-arts center in Portland, Cressandra Thibodeaux appears to have had a change of heart. Which means 14 Pews — the microcinema and performing arts venue that picked up where the Aurora Picture Show left off 8 years ago — will not be closing any time soon. The original movie house at 800 Aurora St. took over the building from the Sunset Height Church of Christ in 1997 and hosted screenings, plays, workshops, and art exhibitions there (as well as a few weddings and memorial services) before turning it over to Thibodeaux in 2010. Since then, programming has continued along those same lines — even as audiences anticipated the venue hitting the market in mid-Februrary. With that plan scrapped, Thidobeaux writes: “We are now teaming up with community leaders to curate several film series, as well as talking with other organizations about bringing unique festivals to Houston.” [14 Pews; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Ed Schipul [license; modified from the original]
A Swamplot reader holed-up in a hotel room at the Hilton Americas sends photos looking past Root Square and the Toyota Center to show the new tower crane being lifted on the site of the coming Camden Downtown apartment tower last weekend. Camden Property Trust broke ground on the 1.4-acre block adjacent to the Toyota Center’s garage at the end of last year. The finished tower will sit on the north side of the parcel — formerly a parking lot — on Bell St. between Austin and La Branch.
A rendering from architect Ziegler Cooper shows the 21-story building neighboring the parking garage and fronting the park:
Grandstanding
A new shopping center dubbed South Heights on White Oak has plans to land in the shared parking lot on White Oak Dr. just west of the former Jimmy’s Ice House at Threlkeld St. The rendering at top — taken from a leasing flyer for the development put out by Centric Commercial — views the proposed woodsy building from the north side of White Oak Dr., at the edge of the lot between Christian’s Tailgate and Barnaby’s Cafe. On the east side of the building, a deck fronted by a glass curtain wall cantilevers over a drainage ditch that runs north from White Oak Bayou through the woods between the site and the neighboring ice house.
A view across the parking lot from its southwest corner shows the low-lying area on the right:
Low-Slung in the Heights
- Japan-Based Osaka Gas To Relocate U.S. HQ from BBVA Compass Plaza to 1330 Post Oak [HBJ ($)]
- Apache Extends HQ Lease in Uptown’s Post Oak Central [Realty News Report]
- FairfieldNodal Subleasing More Than 45K SF at Memorial City Development Air Liquide Center [Realty News Report]
- New Home Prices Dipped in January in Houston, Finds HomesUSA.com [Houston Chronicle]
- 84-Acre Cricket Complex Planned for Prairie View [HBJ ($)]
- Chris Shepherd’s Underbelly Steakhouse Revamp Georgia James To Debut Sometime This Summer [Eater Houston]
- What It Means To Be a Local Government Corporation in Houston [The Urban Edge]
- City Council To Consider Extending Pricey Recycling Contract with Waste Management [Houston Chronicle]
- Environment Texas: Houston Needs To Prepare To Have 65,000 Electric Cars on the Road by 2030 [Houston Public Media]
- Wave of Teardowns in Memorial Bend Threatening the Neighborhood’s Mid-Century Character [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Manvel Home ‘Not Haunted,’ Real Estate Listing Sign Promises [abc13]
Photo of World’s Championship Bar-B-Que Contest at Rodeo Houston: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
We move with eyes shut and ears stopped; we smash walls where doors are waiting to open to the touch; we grope for ladders, forgetting that we have bulldozers.
- 902 Marshall St. [HAR]
Last December a demolition permit was filed on the car hangar parked between Tacos A Go Go and Christian’s Tailgate on the north side of White Oak Dr. Now, a leasing flyer for a neighboring development indicates a new 244-car garage is proposed in place of the existing structure. But that lot measures only 100 by 140 ft. How could 244 parking spaces fit on a lot where fewer than 20 spots exist now?
Well, what if the owner of the property was connected to Easy Park, a developer specializing in automated parking garages? An entity associated with the developer bought the garage at 2912 White Oak in 2016 along with the strip of 3 buildings around it — that includes Tacos A Go Go, Pho Binh Heights, and Lucky Food Mart to the west, and Barnaby’s Cafe and Public House Heights to the east. The Chicago-based company manufactures parts for automated parking developments, finances them, and operates them. It’s been involved in past projects in New York, Philadelphia, Vancouver, Washington D.C., and Mexico City.
Here’s what a robo-valet with parts produced by Easy Park looks like inside The Lift at Juniper St., an 8-story, 228-car garage in Philadelphia:
Double-Parked
SWAMPLOT’S CHEF FEST 2018 GIVEAWAY: WE HAVE A WINNER! 
Congratulations to Nick Adams, whose entry was chosen at random today as the winner of the Chef Fest 2018 giveaway Swamplot ran last week. He’ll be receiving 2 free tickets to the food-and-drink event, which takes place March 4. Did you miss out on entering — or just want a rematch? Stick around — we’ll have another giveaway coming up this week.
Crews took down the letters on KHOU’s antenna tower one by one last Friday — as shown in the drone footage above — leaving the channel’s signage absent from the vacant studio next to Houston’s main drainage channel, Buffalo Bayou. At the beginning of this month, the station reported that an undisclosed buyer had the 1945 Allen Pkwy. property under contract.
For the past 5 months, the teevee crew has been broadcasting temporarily from Houston Public Media’s office at UH, which it expects to leave for a permanent home at the end of this year. The whereabouts of the new newsroom — which will incorporate the original KHOU signage in its design — haven’t been announced yet. However, plans were revealed last December for a coming satellite studio that’s slated to open opposite Discovery Green in the GRB before the station goes live from a new main headquarters.
- Iconic KHOU letters removed from Allen Parkway tower [KHOU]
- KHOU to sell Allen Parkway property [KHOU]
- Previously on Swamplot: We Now Turn to KHOU’s New Studio-Apartment-Sized Studio, Reporting to Us Across from Discovery Green; KHOU Won’t Drop Anchor Again at Floody Allen Pkwy. Studio’s, Will Seek Higher Ground
Video: Shern-Min Chow
Channel Changes
Postino hasn’t opened yet, but there’s already been a notable change to the decor at the Arizona-based wine cafe chain’s first Texas location. Gone from the construction fencing outside the restaurant’s patio are the signs pictured at top that read, “DRINKING WINE AT LUNCH IS NOT A CRIME.” In their place, new banners featuring only Postino’s name and social media handle have appeared. The photo above views them from the west side of the Heights Mercantile development at the corner of 7th St. and Yale.
Here’s another look at the current fence abutting Rye 51’s storefront on 7th St.:
Restaurant Rebranding
- Sprouts-Anchored Mixed-Use Development University Commons Breaks Ground in Sugar Land [HBJ]
- Avera Looking To Develop Corporate Campus or Distribution Center at Elyson Master Planned Community [Realty News Report]
- Menil Collection Will Temporarily Close Main Building for Repairs Starting Today [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
- FitSmallBusiness Names Houston One of the Most Entrepreneurial U.S. Cities [HBJ ($)]
- Podcast: The Astrodome Conservancy on a Vision for the Venue’s Future [Houston Public Media]
- Orangetheory Fitness Bringing 6 More Studios to Houston [Houstonia]
- Damaged During Harvey, La Fisheria Hoping To Reopen at 213 Milam in a Few Weeks [PaperCity Magazine]
- FEMA Trailers Arrive in Kingwood 6 Months After Harvey [abc13]
- Mayor Turner: Recovery from Harvey ‘Not Happening Fast Enough’ [AP]
- City Wants FEMA To Accept More Volunteer Hours in Lieu of Payments for Agency’s Help [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Houston, 1003 Washington Ave: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Why still flow unceasingly with demolition wild.
- 12916 Kingsbridge Ln. [HAR]
There’s more damage to the areas along Buffalo Bayou than just the collapsed segment of trail pictured at top between the Travis and Milam street bridges. The photo above taken east of Travis shows where Spaghetti Warehouse’s former parking lot is eroding as well and transforming into a new set of cliffs on the water.
Heading west down the trail, more obstacles appear near Montrose Blvd. where the northern trail cuts past the closed Johnny Steele Dog Park:
Rough Around the Edges
