COMMENT OF THE DAY: TRACING OUT THE BOTTOM LINES ON HOUSTON’S HISTORIC DEMOS 
“‘The excuse is always that the structure would be too expensive to update and bring up to code.’ Your fight is with the city and their code requirements. If it wasn’t so costly and time consuming to ‘save’ this house, that would likely be the better choice for the owner. If they make something too much of a pain, the property gets knocked down. The result is a newer, ‘safer’ house, which is good — but at the cost of knocking down a lot of old cool buildings.” [Cody, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Second to Nun] Illustration: Lulu
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Update, 5/2: Yep, it’s an ALDI. More here.
The end of the 95,000-sq.-ft. N. Shepherd Dr. strip mall just south of Garden Oaks Blvd. is being cleared out shortly, a handful of readers tell Swamplot. Endcap tenant Yoga Collective announced recently that the studio’s lease is being terminated at the end of June, and has been hinting on social media that something bigger is taking over the space (and possibly a few other adjacent spaces in the row). The nearest spot in the strip appears to have been vacant since about 2015, when the domestic-minded shop next door (apparently operating now as A&B Vacuum and Sewing Machines) moved further up N. Shepherd, and out from under the since-removed VACUUM & SEWING CANDLES signage:
N. Shepherd Swapout
Are Houston’s peculiarities something you’re passionate about? Do you enjoy delving into this city’s neighborhoods, architecture, and strip-mall secrets? Would you like an editorial position that puts you in prime position to sift through, explore, and explain the latest happenings in the local real estate landscape? Would you enjoy interacting with a dedicated and highly engaged fan base of tipsters, readers, and commenters — as well as other site contributors?
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This is the perfect gig for someone who can research, report, and write quickly and well; who’s attentive to detail, careful with facts, and has a good sense of humor; who can work independently but also bring out the best from collaborators in a small editorial team; and who can produce accurate and entertaining posts at a steady clip. We’re seeking someone who understands this site and how it works (or can come up to speed on that quickly) — but who also has the vision, ideas, and energy necessary to help Swamplot evolve into something better.
This is a full-time position; salary will be commensurate with experience. (If you are a real estate professional, though, this is not the job for you.)
Here’s how to apply:
A Job Posting
A double-decker strip center appears to be planned for 307 Westheimer Rd., which for just shy of 5 decades has been home to Avondale Italian restaurant and house-with-a-tree-in-it Michaelangelo’s. Michaelangelo’s, Inc., sold the property in March to an entity tied to the CEO of Habitat Construction, and a 2,000-sq.-ft. space in the proposed replacement building is currently for lease. Renderings for the strip label the over-the-edge top floor as set aside for a fitness business, and call for a restaurant to take over most of the street level (noting that another tenant has already staked out a small section of the ground floor floorplan):
Rising Above Parking Requirements
- Whole Foods 365 Store in Garden Oaks Pushes Back Opening to 2018 [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- WeWork Signs Lease for About 86,000 SF of Co-Working Space at The Jones on Main Downtown [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- Re/Max Inner Loop Opening a Location in the Heights [Houston Chronicle]
- Hundreds Attend Third Ward Event Aimed at Increasing African-American Home Ownership [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Justin Yu and Bobby Heugel’s Better Luck Tomorrow Quietly Opens in the Heights [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot]
- City Reinstalls Damaged Freedmen’s Town Bricks in the Fourth Ward [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
- The Future of Houston Traffic: How TxDOT’s I-45 Project Will Change Commuting Downtown [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
Photo: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
These are too good for this world, and because of that the world will eventually demolish them.
A reader alerted Swamplot back around February to the removal of that the cluster of classic cars generally visible inside the mysterious former Southwest Lincoln-Mercury dealership on US 59 a block southwest of Hillcroft Ave. — you know, the one with the glassy peaked showroom that’s often illuminated but usually empty except for the lone security guard (as the Houston Press’s Aaron Reiss documented in 2014). Some of the cars made a brief reappearance soon after — but as of early April the whole property is now up for lease.
Colliers International is listing the mid-sixties building and its 7.44-acre surrounding lot complex, previously owned by late Oilers owner Bud Adams (and still owned by the corporate entity that now owns the Titans.) The Lincoln-Mercury dealership itself — which opened as Southwest Dodge — shut down some time after it filed a 2002 lawsuit against nextdoor amusement park and unskilled minigolf hotbed Celebration Station, alleging thousands of dollars in property damage caused by multi-colored golf balls flying over the fence. (The offending minigolf course is now part of Zuma Fun Center, visible on the bottom right in the top photo.)
Revving Back Up in Sharpstown
Sure, nervous economists and friends, go ahead and fret about how the coming robot revolution is likely to decimate the availability of middle-class jobs. But the likely wide-ranging effects of technological change are notoriously difficult to predict. For example, after viewing the dramatic promotional video above, which brings to the treed expanse of a 0.78-acre vacant lot in The Woodlands the full power of remote-controlled robot-camera cinematic glory, does another possibility come to mind? With this marriage of drone footage, music-video-intro aesthetics, desktop video software, and soundtrack punch, has a Woodlands-area real estate agent stumbled upon the secret to unleashing desires hidden deep inside us all . . . to feed a new vacant land boom?
As delicate orchestral swells matched to lingering aerial pans and zooms tug at our emotions and the full majesty of 67 N. Glenwild Cir. (conveniently located  between The Woodlands Preparatory School and the entry gate to the Club at Carlton Woods Creekside) comes into view, can we imagine a new — dare we dream? — vacant-lot-buying frenzy, the wider availability of new technologies enabling craftily orchestrated drone footage to surround and tempt us, and transforming this once dowdy sector?
Flyover Country, The Woodlands
Today Swamplot is brought to you by the home at 1709 Ebony Ln., which is being offered for sale by Nan and Company Properties/Christie’s International Real Estate. Thanks for the support!
If you enjoy entertaining in a spacious residence, you’ll want to take a second look at this one-of-a-kind new home located in Oak Forest. This 4,435-sq.-ft. residence is only a couple blocks away from T.C. Jester Park and has 4 bedrooms and 3 full and 1 half bathrooms.
The front door opens to a well-lit, double-height foyer overlooked by an upstairs balcony. To your immediate left, a pair of French doors leads to a study that faces the front of the home; ahead is a staircase to the second level. Dark wide-plank engineered-wood floors throughout the home match the name of the street. The family room, to the left of the stairs, has built-in cabinets along one wall and a trio of windows along another.
The kitchen (pictured above), which is open to the family room, features black and light gray granite countertops, white cabinets from Madeval, and stainless steel appliances and fixtures. There’s also a wine rack, a wine refrigerator, and a breakfast bar lit by decorative pendants.
Past the kitchen and dining area, also on the first floor, is the master suite. Built-in cabinetry in the walk-in closet makes efficient use of the room’s complete height. The master bathroom has a contemporary look, with light gray walls, a granite bench, and glass shower doors. Upstairs you’ll find the 3 remaining bedrooms and a 17-ft.-by-20-ft. game room.
An extra room to the back of the home provides space for additional furniture or storage — and access to the home’s back yard, through a wall of French doors.
More information and photos are available on both the property website and the Christie’s International Real Estate website. If you’re interested in this home, contact Nan and Company Properties/Christie’s International Real Estate at 713.714.6454 — or info@nanproperties.com. To stay updated on the latest listings and announcements from Nan and Company, check out the company’s website — or follow Nan and Company Properties/Christie’s International Real Estate on Facebook or Instagram.
Become a Swamplot Sponsor of the Day! Here’s how to get on our schedule.
Sponsor of the Day
The recently remonikered Margaret Long Wisdom High School is prepping for its scheduled student body transplant as the school year winds down. The shot above shows the main entrance of the school’s almost-ready new building, tucked behind the old one along Hillcroft Ave. south of Beverly Hills St. That older structure, which cut its Confederate ties about a year ago, should be getting erased altogether starting in June, a reader involved with the project tells Swamplot.
Here’s the flip side view of the glassy main entrance above, which should be unlocked in time for fall classes:
Creeping South on Hillcroft
- Houston Had Net Absorption Gain of 4,916 Apartments During First 3 Months of 2017, More Than 2016 Total, Finds Berkadia [Realty News Report]
- Two-Thirds of Houston-Area Neighborhoods Saw Sales Price Gains in 2016, Finds HAR Data [Houston Chronicle]
- Land Tejas Breaks Ground on Wedgewood Forest Community in Conroe [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Slowly, Confidence Is Returning to Houston’s Office Market [Realty News Report]
- JLL: 76 Branch Banks Closed in Houston from 2010 to 2016 [Realty News Report]
- Contested West End Property To Stay Residential, Galveston Council Decides [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Dish Society Opening Fourth Houston-Area Location in Heights Central Station [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- Post Yauatcha, Hakkasan Group Eyes Future Growth in Houston [HBJ ($); previously on Swamplot]
- California Chain Black Bear Diner Opening First Texas Location Next Year in Katy [Houston Chronicle]
- ExxonMobil Ordered To Pay $20M for Air Pollution at Baytown Complex [The Texas Tribune; previously on Swamplot]
- The Worst Roads in Houston, Based on Factors Like Cracking and Roughness [KHOU]
- New Project To Add Mosaics to Houston Bridges Connecting Downtown and Midtown with EaDo and the Third Ward [Click2Houston]
Photo of I-10: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
The way of success is the way of continuous pursuit of demolition.
The 7-bedroom house at 5124 Palm Royale Blvd. isn’t the only one of the street’s “10,000-plus-square-foot Mediterranean extravaganzas” (as archi-historian Steven Fox put it to Lisa Gray on a Sugar Land driving tour a few years back) to cuddle up against a couple of the golf fairways winding through the neighborhood. (The 12,400-sq.-ft. house may well be one of the homes most directly in the line of incoming golf balls, however.) Inside, the 1995 house is fully coated with intricate calligraphy, carvings, and geometric patterns; the massive star-shaped chandelier above dangles through a star-shaped hole in the second floor, coming to rest above the indoor courtyard-style fountain.
To get to it, you’ll need to dodge the pride of lions ringing the other fountain out front:
Par for Sugar Land
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE MARCH OF PROGRESS, AS PERFORMED BY HOUSTON MIXED USE PROJECT PLANS 
“Rendering 1: Shiny multifamily tower, midrise condo and office buildings, multilevel retail center with parking neatly concealed in above- and below-ground garages tucked under the buildings. Sleek architecture looking like something on Vancouver Island or in Dubai. Rendering 2: [Single] midrise office building and 6-story stucco apartment complex with hats. Big parking garage with a 2 story retail strip center wrapped around one side. Rendering 3: 4-story ‘Houston wrap’ apartment complex. One-story strip center with big parking lot. Final rendering: Large strip center with big box anchor and acres of parking. Architecture identical to retail center recently built in Pearland. [Old School, commenting on New Gleaming Mixed-Use Visions of a Former Fourth Ward Incinerator Brownfield] Outdated rendering of mixed-use development planned along Allen Pkwy.: Tianqing Group
