- 2814 Meadowcreek Dr. [HAR]
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON’S HQ2 REALITY SEASON FINALE 
“I feel like this was a really bad episode of The Bachelor.” [Mr.Clean19, commenting on Amazon Will Not Be Delivering HQ2 to Houston] Photo of former KBR Building 3: Swamplot inbox
Something new is on the table for the building at the corner of Westheimer and Stoney Brook Dr.: Prime Social, a card and board game venue with an onsite restaurant. The not yet full house is advertising chess, backgammon, cribbage, and a number of poker variants — with 2 daily tournaments (up to “$5,000 GUARANTEED”). Also, “professional armed security” will be present on the premises, according to the house website, in case anything gets out of hand.
Churrasca Brazilian Steakhouse closed down in the 11,448-sq.-ft. building, pictured above, last year. The restaurant took over from sushi joint and nightclub Fish & the Knife, which shuttered in its newly-built space at 7801 Westheimer in 2014, 9 months after opening.
- Prime Social – Houston’s Premium Gaming Destination [Prime Social]
- Previously on Swamplot: Westheimer Fish & Knife Spot Will Soon Be Home to Lubbock’s Finest Dining Experience; Sayonara for Fish & the Knife?; Your Long Wait for a Sushi Restaurant and Nightclub on Westheimer Is Over: Fish and the Knife Opens Today!; Houston’s Most Anticipated Restaurant Will Open When It Feels Like It; Phew! Fish and the Knife Is Back to Its Usual ‘Opening Soon’ Status; Is Fish and the Knife Cutting Bait?; Fish and Knife: Beached Sushi on Westheimer
Raising the Stakes
Davis Commercial is showing images of a renovated building on the corner of 11th St. and Rutland in hopes of enticing a burger-flipping collective or something similar to take over the space. Q St. Salon & Boutique shared the 2,712-sq.-ft. building behind the parking-lot gazebo with Heights Discount Dry Cleaners until the latter closed down last year. A bungalow that now sits adjacent to Q St.’s spot to the west (hidden behind the building in the photo at top) is excised from the renderings.
The rendering above shows the building’s windows wiped clean of advertisements for laundry deals and extended to the ground. New awnings are shown in place of the blue vinyl ones now covering the storefronts at 402 W. 11th.
An 800-sq.-ft. patio is also planned for the building’s frontage along 11th St.:
Wash Cycle
Here’s the site on the block of 22nd St. bookended by the Vapor Gypsy e-cigarette shop and the Carl Barnes Funeral Home — and peppered with townhomes, an auto repair shop, and Refrigeration Gaskets of Texas — where 2 new row houses are about to be built. Wile Interests and Capital Realty are constructing the pair they’re calling the Bungalows on 22nd St. between Durham and Shepherd — in place of 2 dilapidated bungalows that were torn down on the same site last year.
A rowing-focused workout center called Crew Fitness will occupy the eastern bungalow in the development at 715 W. 22nd St.:
One Oar the Other
- Amazon’s Rejection of Houston for HQ2 a ‘Wake-up Call’ [HBJ ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Apple Rules Out Texas for New Corporate Campus [HBJ]
- Hertz Investment Group Enters Texas Market with Purchase of Westchase Park Plaza Office Building [Houston Chronicle]
- Slideshow: Inside the Most Expensive Homes Sold in Houston Last Year [HBJ]
- Water-Damaged Midtown Bakery Fluff Bake Bar To Reopen Jan. 20 [Houston Chronicle]
- Dunkin’ Donuts Looks To Be Replacing the Former Heights Quiznos at 20th and Yale [Christopher Andrews]
- Chunks of Ice Were Falling Off of Downtown Buildings Yesterday [abc13]
- Bicycle Parking Has Become a Premium at Heights Mercantile [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Construction Starts on What Will Be the Largest Solar Farm in Texas [Houston Public Media]
Photo of Main St.: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Let the bulldozers roll out, let the excavator call.
- 16707 Bahama Wy. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THOSE LITTLE EXTRAS THAT MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE 
“Compared to the price of raising the house, also adding a spare rowboat in the garage is very, very cheap.” [diggity, commenting on Comment of the Day: Still Stranded] Illustration: Lulu
Excavators are now moving dirt around on the corner of Kirby and oak-lined Steel St. where a 39-story apartment tower dubbed Hanover River Oaks is planned. Hanover bought a 1.6-acre portion of the former Kirby Court Apartments along Steel St. in 2016; funding issues had left the project in limbo for most of the prior year. The photo above, taken from the highrise at 2727 Kirby, looks southwest past the corner tower of the Gables West Ave apartments to show a portion of the crater where the new apartment tower is now under construction.
Although the project has a Kirby Dr. address, the building won’t actually front the street. Instead, it will sit behind Becks Prime at the corner of Kirby and Kipling (partly visible in the bottom left of the image above). Earlier renderings showed a new standalone restaurant building fronting Kirby just south of Becks Prime. West of the drive-thru restaurant zone, an entrance driveway for the apartment will run between Kipling and Steel.
A recent rendering from architecture firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz views the tower from southeast of 2727 Kirby:
Hanover River Oaks
A Swamplot reader sends this photo of new signage fronting Hwy. 6 along the vacant Macy’s parking lot at West Oaks Mall. The space left behind by the former anchor tenant — which closed its doors last year — will be turned into a new store called The Outlet at West Oaks that will specialize in clothing and home goods and open within the next few months. Dress shop Formal Gallery has been announced as the new store’s first retailer. Other additions have been announced for the rest of the mall, HBJ’s Cara Smith reports: a gym, a trampoline park, a daycare facility, a food hall, restaurants, event venues, and some sort of maker space.
1st Emporium, the real estate division of Houston-based Mehta Investments, quietly bought most of the mall — out of bankruptcy, Paul Takahashi reports in the Chronicle —Â last August. (The mall’s former owner, Pacific Retail Capital Partners, bought the shopping center out of bankruptcy, too, back in 2009.)
Anchors Away
Today’s sponsor is Just Buyers Houston, a real estate firm that represents — you guessed it — buyers only. Thanks for supporting Swamplot!
Appreciation calculations for Houston’s most popular neighborhoods have been published at JustBuyersHouston.com. In the 10-year ranking, the Westbury area (77035) showed the highest level of appreciation in price paid per square foot (75 percent). Meyerland, right next door, showed the lowest (12 percent).
For the last 12 months, the Museum District and Montrose/Upper Kirby led the pack. This could be a result of new construction in those areas, Just Buyers Houston’s Judy Thompson notes. Meyerland showed the greatest decline in price paid per square foot in the previous 12 months, likely — Thompson notes — a result of flooding.
For more up-to-date data on the Houston market, check out the Just Buyers Houston website.
In the market for a great way to reach Houston real estate fans? Check out what it takes to become a Swamplot Sponsor of the Day.
Sponsor of the Day
AMAZON WILL NOT BE DELIVERING HQ2 TO HOUSTON 
Despite campaigns that included coordinated office light displays and banner flybys over the company’s current headquarters in Seattle, none of the Houston proposals to house Amazon’s new campus made it past the first round. The company announced this morning that 17 U.S. cities plus northern Virginia, Toronto, and Montgomery County, Maryland would be finalists for the new HQ2. Among those that did make the cut: Dallas and Austin. [USA Today; map; previously on Swamplot] Photo of former KBR Building 3: Swamplot inbox
- City Council Approves Contracts To Elevate 3 More Meyerland-Area Homes, But Not Without Expressing Some Concerns [Houston Chronicle]
- Caldwell Cos. Developing 330-Unit Multifamily Complex in Spring [Realty News Report]
- Construction Could Start This Spring on Housing Development at Fifth Ward Superfund Site [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
- What You Can Get for Houston’s Average Home List Price of $290,000 [Houston Chronicle]
- Greater Third Ward Projected To Have Greatest Home Value Appreciation in Houston This Year, According to Zillow [Culturemap]
- Houston and Phoenix Emerging as Cities of Millennial Migration [The Urban Edge]
- Green Ceviche Opens First Houston Location on Westheimer Rd., Second Slated for Cypress [HBJ]
- Icy Conditions Create Traffic Nightmare on Houston Roads [Statesman]
- A Drone Video of The Woodlands Coated in Ice [abc13]
- Why the Winter Storm Won’t Have Much of an Impact on Houston’s Economy [Houston Public Media]
- Harvey Disaster Aid Left Out of GOP Plan To Head Off Government Shutdown [Houston Chronicle]
- Gas Buddy Names Buc-ee’s the Best Gas Station in America [abc13]
- Houston Ranked Among Top 20 Cities for Bedbug Infestations on Latest Orkin List [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of I-45: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Still no permits, so let’s give it another day to let some defrost.