Sign up for the Newsletter
A reader shows us a few through-the-fence glimpses of the massive demolition project that now appears to be taking place on the Shell Oil Company’s Woodcreek campus, just south of the Addicks Dam: 7 connected triangular 5-story office buildings and a separate cafeteria structure on the west side of the campus at 200 N. Dairy Ashford are all on the crushing block, according to a demo permit filed a couple of weeks after Harvey hit.
Energy Corridor Clearance
That’s not a retention pond pictured near the center of these aerial shots highlighting the vacant lot at 12906 Memorial Dr. — or at least that wasn’t its original main purpose: It’s the Sam Houston Tollway, shown filled almost to the brim after Hurricane Harvey flooding. “Lot has been cleared and is ready for construction,” declares the listing description for the featured 11,760-sq.-ft. vacant property, one house away from the corner of Memorial and Beltway 8. It’s now marked down to $505,000.
The only photos of the lot included in the listing are drone views that include the adjacent Memorial Dr. underpass, shown in its full-of-water configuration:
Where the Water Goes
Halloween is almost upon us, and again the full-store gift wrapping and Christmas trees have gone up at the Highland Village shopping center — as these pics sent in by a reader show.
You now have 9 full shopping weeks before Christmas (and a little less than 5 before Thanksgiving), but if you’re still getting your gifts ready for Halloween next Tuesday, you’d better hurry.
Photos: Swamplot inbox
’Tis the Preseason
- Houston Home Sales Up 4% Year-Over-Year in September Following August Slump, Finds National Association of Realtors [CNBC]
- Texas AG Investigating Debris-Removal Companies That Might Be ‘Overpromising and Under-Delivering’ [Houston Chronicle]
- Applications for Harvey Repair Grants in Dickinson Include Language from State Law Requiring Applicants To Certify They Agree Not To Boycott Israel [Huffington Post]
- Houston Lost Nearly 25,000 Jobs in Harvey’s Wake [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Harvey Might Deepen Houston’s Economic Divides [NBC News]
- Slideshow: Inside Houston’s First ‘Micro Condos’ at Parc @ Midtown [Houston Chronicle]
- Tilman Feritta’s Post Oak Project Slated To Open Early Next Year [Realty News Report]
- Heights Retail Center Crossroads at Cavalcade Going Up at 20th and Main St., Adjacent to NewQuest Properties Retail Project [Culturemap]
- Houston-Galveston Area Council Seeking Additional $15.9M in Federal Funding for Uptown Bus Lanes [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Consumer Website MagnifyMoney: Houston One of America’s Most Dramatically Changed Cities [HBJ]
Photo of Discovery Green: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Demolition is truth that has lost its temper.
- 18 Florham Park Dr. [HAR]
Without providing too much detail on the scope of the accompanying construction (“a remodel the owner wants to do”), KHOU’s Marcelino Benito yesterday interviewed one of the proprietors of Oak Forest coffee house and occasional goat-yoga venue Slowpokes, who along with several customers and neighbors has been protesting landlord Naushad Momin’s apparent plans to chop down 2 large oak trees on site — to add more paving and parking spaces.
The oak trees sit at the southern end of the strip center at 1203 W. 34th St., which faces Alba St., and shade a lawn (pictured at top) adjacent to the Slowpokes patio deck. Chopping down trees to add more parking might appear to be a landlord’s prerogative, despite tenant opposition. Except possibly not in this case:
Oak Deforesting
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW LAST NIGHT’S A$AP MOB SHOW ON THE WHITE OAK MUSIC HALL LAWN MIGHT’VE BROUGHT DOWN THE HOUSE “Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. WOMH should cut a deal fast to make major sound mitigation improvements before the court and the City shuts them down. People on both sides of I-45 are hopping mad about the concert last night. It is a huge roll of the dice to expect a bunch of jurors to say: ‘Yeah, a big concert venue in the middle of a residential neighborhood is no big deal.’†[Old School, commenting on FEMA Aid Deadline Extended; Pre-Trial Outdoor Shows Can Go On at White Oak Music Hall; Hakeem Olajuwon in the Red Mango Biz] Video clip of last night’s outdoor concert (NSFW): FIRST CLASS BEATS
Swamplot’s sponsor for the day: Houston’s own Central Bank. Thanks for the continued support!
Central Bank has 4 (central) Houston branches available to meet your business or personal needs: in Midtown, the Heights, West Houston, and Post Oak Place.
Central Bank believes that change is essential to its success; the company actively pursues the latest in service, technology, and products. Central Bank aims to know its customers personally and to be their primary business and personal financial resource. The bank’s staff values relationships and strives to be available when you need them.
To learn more about how Central Bank can meet your banking needs, please call any of the following Senior Vice Presidents: Kenny Beard, at 832.485.2376; Bonnie Purvis, at 832.485.2354; Carlos Alvarez, at 832.485.2372; or Ryan Tillman, at 832.485.2307. You can also find out more on the bank’s website.
Swamplot readers are deeply involved in Houston. Become a Swamplot Sponsor of the Day.Â
Sponsor of the Day
Here we are in the newly revamped courtyard between Three Allen Center, Two Allen Center, and the building just renamed from One Allen Center to Motiva Plaza. (The new courtyard plaza itself has been given a new name as well: The Acre.) And what have we here? It appears to be a Swamplot reader, snapping a photo, probably to send to the site. Our report: automatically altered course to pass by and avert collision; continued crime detection through infrared and video feed, facial scans; added new license plates to database.
But in that photo, of course, now published above: the same scene, as viewed from the opposite side, with a little less data to accompany. Just showing the new 5-ft.-3-in.-tall Knightscope K5 Autonomous Data Machine, out on security patrol, Downtown.
- Knightscope K5 ADM [Knightscope]
Photo: Swamplot inbox
The Bots of Allen Center
- EPA Approves Plan To Stabilize Riverbed Near San Jacinto River Waste Pits [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- The Daunting Task Ahead for County Appraisal Districts Determining Property Values in Harvey’s Wake [The Texas Tribune]
- Harvey Damage to Metro Buses, Trains, and Facilities Estimated at $9.4M [Houston Chronicle]
- Housing, Equity Top Concerns for HUD Money as Houston Rebuilds After Harvey [The Urban Edge]
- FEMA Aid Deadline Extended to Nov. 24 for Harvey Victims [Houston Chronicle]
- A Look at What Houston Highlighted in Its Amazon HQ2 Proposal [HBJ ($)]
- HealthSouth’s Pearland Hospital To Open, Already Plans To Expand [HBJ ($)]
- Video: Latest Look at New Retail Development 33 1/3 @ Thirtyfourth Under Development at 34th and Ella [YouTube]
- Hakeem Olajuwon Opening a Red Mango Yogurt Cafe in Mont Belvieu Today [Houston Chronicle]
- Spring Street Beer & Wine Garden Now Open in the First Ward [Eater Houston]
- White Oak Music Hall Allowed 4 More Outdoor Concerts Before Going to Court on Dec. 11 [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of home under construction in Lynn Park: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Lord, what fools these houses be!
HOW ALLIGATORS WORKED THEIR WAY INTO THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF ALVIN “The First Bank of Alvin has been home to alligators for nearly half a century. In 1969, a rice farmer donated three 6-inch gator hatchlings to the bank, to live in its goldfish pond, according to an Associated Press story, published in 1983. The trio — J. Paul Gator, Mitzi Gator and William Teller Gator — soon grew to be about 7 feet long, and became a major attraction for locals. The goldfish didn’t last long. By the late ’70s, the gators had become such a celebrated part of the bank that when owner A. Guy Crouch made plans to move to a new $4 million facility, he spent $250,000 to build them a habitat: an open courtyard with an in-ground pool and a couple of waterfalls, right at the glassed-in center of the bank’s five-story building. The Alligatrium, he called it.” [Houston Chronicle] Video: waltpinkston
Venturing into the upper reaches of the now officially empty Barker Reservoir near Addicks Clodine Rd. and south of the Audi West Houston dealership on I-10, reader Kyle Steck finds a mostly dry landscape. (The pictured lakes in the images are features shown in maps of the area.)
“In a few weeks it will turn from brown dead apocalypse to green wonderland,” he predicts.
After the Watering
