Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Houses are a game and demolition is a trophy.
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- 43 Grand Regency Cir. [HAR]
SWEET MESQUITE REBIRTHING IN RAGIN’ CAJUN’S ABANDONED UNDERGROUND LAIR BELOW MAIN 
A sign advertising a new Sweet Mesquite Grill has appeared in the tunnel-facing storefront under the McKinney Place Garage where Ragin’ Cajun shut down a few months ago. The spot below 930 Main St. Downtown is scheduled to open in a month as a Sweet Mesquite do-over. The restaurant in the shopping center at 1570 S. Dairy Ashford near Briar Forest Dr. was a Sweet Mesquite Grill before it became Mesquite Cottage; the new tunnel location henceforth will be the only Sweet Mesquite Grill in town, but is expected to be a bit of a reboot from the original. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
COMMENT OF THE DAY: DOWNTOWN’S TUNNELS ARE THE SCENE 
“As someone who uses the tunnels everyday, I contest that they are glorious. My sweatless armpits and rain-free coiffure are a testament thereto.” [Superdave, commenting on Downtown Houston Is Now Down To A Single Street-Level Subway] Photo: Ed Schipul [license]
The HAR listing for the home at 5116 Avenue H in the Second Ward, for sale for $99,990, identified the property’s subdivision as MEX Y CAN. Which seemed notable enough in the rapidly changing neighborhood for the curious name to appear as discussion fodder yesterday on Reddit. The subdivision name is accurate, appearing on county tax records: The property’s developer was required to give a name to the subdivision when the single 5,000-sq.-ft. lot on which it stood (at the time part of a subdivision named Engel) was divided into thirds last year, in order to allow him to sell off individually the 3 existing homes on the property. “Actually no one had any comments [on the name] at the time of replatting,” the developer notes.
MEX Y CAN, the name he assigned to the subdivision, “is for the name Mexican and (Y in Spanish) Canadian,” he explains to Swamplot. “The love of my life is Mexican and I am Canadian. . . . There is no other meaning or significance behind it.” The motivation for choosing this particular name? “Having myself, the love of my life, and our desire to be memorialized in the area for eternity like our love.”
Subdivided
Swamplot’s Sponsor of the Day for today, TechSpace Houston, wants to let you know about an event you might want to attend taking place at its Westchase campus tomorrow. Thanks for supporting this site!
TechSpace Houston — the new modern and flexible workspace in Westchase, is hosting a happy hour on Thursday, July 27, from 5 to 7 pm — and extending an exclusive invitation to Swamplot readers:
Join TechSpace + Office Party Houston for the Bayou City Bash Happy Hour!
- When: Thursday, July 27th from 5 to 7 pm
- Where: TechSpace Houston, 2101 CityWest Blvd., ground floor
- Enjoy networking, wine, beer, and soda or water along with complimentary small bites.
- Please RSVP if you can make it!
Can’t make the happy hour? Claim your free day pass! Come try TechSpace Houston’s unique shared office space totaling 46,000 sq. ft. with 450 workstations and lots of campus amenities. Each floor houses a variety of office space solutions, including co-working spaces, 1-to-3-person private offices, large private office suites that can accommodate 4-to-50 people, conference rooms, event spaces, and a variety of thought-provoking collaboration lounges — including a unique social platform-style seating area and an outdoor Wi-Fi enabled patio!
TechSpace Houston provides an alternative to long-term leases. It’s a great solution for all types of businesses, no matter what stage: startups, entrepreneurs, SMEs, growth companies, and Fortune 100 teams. If you are in need of flexible office space — whether you work alone and need a co-working desk to tap into the local business community or have 2-to-50 employees who need a private office — TechSpace Houston can be a smart choice for your business.
Let Swamplot readers know about your big event. Become a Sponsor of the Day!
Sponsor of the Day
DOWNTOWN HOUSTON IS NOW DOWN TO A SINGLE STREET-LEVEL SUBWAY 
With the shuttering last week of the Subway sandwich shop at the corner of Milam and Rusk streets — catty corner from Pennzoil Place, in the ground-floor space below the Level Office at 720 Rusk St. (pictured here) — the national sandwich chain is now down to a single Downtown location that can be accessed from a sidewalk. Another streetside Subway, in the ground floor of the Americana Building 5 blocks to the south at the corner of Milam and Dallas, exited its space before demolition began on that structure in February. A total of 8 Subways are located Downtown, but they’re all now harbored in tunnels or lobbies or food courts — except the lone fresh-air holdout at 405 Main St., at the corner of Preston. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo of former Subway space at 802 Milam St.: cmoney_htx
- Caydon Development Group Files Plans for 26-Story Residential Tower on Midtown’s Main Street [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Houston’s 8 Trophy Office Buildings Capture Lion’s Share of Leasing Activity, Finds JLL [Bisnow]
- 225-Lot Subdivision Planned for 15 Vacant Acres in the Fifth Ward [Houston Chronicle]
- 14 Builders Sign On for New Bridgeland Neighborhood Dubbed Parkland Village [Realty News Report]
- Parra Design Group: Fifth Ward Going To Be the ‘Next Heights’ [Houston Chronicle]
- The Houston Neighborhoods with the Highest, Lowest Apartment Occupancy Rates [HBJ ($)]
- Glenbrook Valley ‘Time Capsule’ Home Built in 1955 To Hit the Market [Houston Chronicle]
- California Pizza Chain MidiCi Opening Its Upper Kirby Location Aug. 18 [Houston Chronicle]
- Taproom from Houston’s First Cidery Slated To Open Downtown in Spring 2018 [Houstonia]
- The Rustic To Break Ground Near The Toyota Center Next Month [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Vote This Week Could Lower Seawall Speed Limit By 5 MPH [abc13]
Photo of the Fulbright Tower: Jan Buchholtz via Swamplot Flickr Pool
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Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Garage, garage, garage, goose!
- 5231 Contour Pl. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: AN IMPORTANT RULE ABOUT LOCAL RULE 
“What seems weird to me is the idea that one government body is passing a law that says that other government bodies are not allowed to pass laws that do certain specific things. Maybe this is common and I’ve just never noticed it before, but it seems like a brazen attempt by one ideological group to attempt to use their success getting elected into a majority in one jurisdiction to legislate (or block legislation) in another jurisdiction where they were not able to get elected into a majority.” [wcthoms, commenting on The State of Texas and the Right To Cut Down Trees Without Notice] Illustration: Lulu
The former Heights Finance Station post office at the corner of Heights Blvd. and 11th St. — its parking lot and front door face Yale St. — is coming down in a hail of lovingly painted bricks today. The post office was closed at the end of 2015 and subsequently purchased by developer MFT Interests. The single-story building was later festooned with an assortment of romance– and ZIP-code-themed murals.
MFT is calling the new development it has planned for the 1050 Yale St. site Heights Central Station. It’ll consist of two 2-story painted-brick buildings fronting 11th St.:
Heights Central Station
Today’s sponsor is ASCOT — also known as the Alcohol Servers Counsel of Texas. Thanks for supporting Swamplot!
If you work in a restaurant, or in any kind of food-service or food-prep operation, you’re probably already familiar with state requirements for training in food-handling safety. And if you work in a bar or for an alcohol distributor, you probably already know why it’s so important that everyone who has anything to do with selling, dispensing, or delivering any kind of alcoholic beverage complete state-certified training in alcohol safety.
Since 1988, ASCOT has been licensed by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to provide TABC-certified alcohol-server training programs. That makes ASCOT one of the oldest and most established food and beverage certification programs in the country — as well as Texas’s longest-running provider of training in this important field. And ASCOT has been a preferred source for training in food handling in Houston since 2004.
If you’re responsible for making sure new employees are trained promptly and well in these particular areas, you can be sure they’re getting the exact program they need — in the most helpful format possible — by sending them to ASCOT. ASCOT offers its training courses both in a classroom setting and online, in both English and Spanish.
Use the discount code ASCOT on the alcoholservers.com website and the online alcohol-server training course works out to just $9.89 per class. The food-handling class costs just $7.00 — no discount code is needed.
ASCOT’s server-training program is certified by the TABC, and its food-handler program is ANSI Accredited as meeting the ASTM E2659-09 standard. For more details, or to sign up, head over to the ASCOT website — alcoholservers.com — or call 713.922.1223.
Show your support of Swamplot. Become a Sponsor of the Day.
Sponsor of the Day
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One clue that the Social Junkie Sports Bar has come to the end of its almost-4-year run at the northwest corner of Washington Ave and Sawyer St.: The end-zone-styled valet parking lot pictured in the above recent photo is empty — all the way to the 25-yard line. Another clue: the “It’s been real . . . we out” goodbye notice posted to the establishment’s Instagram feed over the weekend. A reader tells us the place is shuttered and everything inside has been “thrown away.”
Gone Braun
- Pre-Leasing Underway for Proposed Medical Office Building Near The Woodlands [Houston Chronicle]
- JLL: Leasing Activity Improves at Downtown Office Buildings [HBJ ($)]
- Dallas-Based Dunhill Partners Acquires Center at Pearland Parkway I Retail Center [Houston Chronicle]
- One-Third of Houston-Area Hotels Unable To Pay Back Their Commercial Mortgage Loans [Houston Public Media]
- Houston Economy Added 56,100 New Jobs Over the Last Year [Realty News Report]
- Urban Densification Possibly a Short-Lived Trend or a Myth, Says CBRE Research [Realty News Report]
- South Bank Seafood Bar Replaces Refinery Burgers and Whiskey on Dallas [HBJ]
- Dallas Restaurant Chain Eatzi’s Scouting Locations for Its Return to Houston [PaperCity Magazine]
- University of Houston Downtown Alligator Mural To Be Demolished for More Parking [Houston Chronicle]
- 15 Quintessential Houston Murals for Your Instagram [Culturemap]
- More Med Center Employees Live in Pearland ZIP Code 77584 Than Anywhere Else in Houston [Bisnow]
Photo of Brays Bayou: Jan Buchholtz via Swamplot Flickr Pool
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