Spring Branch Gardens, Memorial Bend, and the old Northline Mall see action in today’s report. Track it all with our handy address list, below:
Read more about: Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
Here we go again! Photo, interiors, and real-estate sleuths: Your clues are here. Can you identify the mystery neighborhood?
If you know this house already, you can play too . . . but please follow the rules of the game!
Fun inside-only photos . . . below!
Read more about: Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game
“The eastbound main lanes are wide open all the way into downtown for the first time in more than 36 months. . . . Having this long stretch of roadway open paves the way for the final completion of the entire project slated for October 2008, a grand total of 23 miles.” [abc13]
Read more about: Freeways and Toll Roads, I-10, Openings and Closings
Those two or three Starbucks locations in Houston rumored to be closing as part of the coffee company’s 600-store nationwide shutdown? One of them’s in Rosenberg. That means only two Rosenberg Starbucks left! [Houston Business Journal]
Read more about: 77471, Openings and Closings, Rosenberg
This updated rendering of Regent Square’s central square, showing a ghost-like tower looming in the not-so-distant distance, has been posted to CBRE’s leasing page for the project, notes sharp-eyed HAIF user ChannelTwoNews. A reader sent it to us, too.
What is it?
Two condo towers are planned for the first phase of the project. In a rendering leaked to us back in May, the condo towers are are drawn as shadowy boxes. But this new ghost tower isn’t one of them.
After the jump: the ghost of Regent Square’s future!
Read more about: 77019, Condos, Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Regent Square
A house on Purdue defeated; another taken from Court. The day’s half-dozen dustmakers, after the jump.
Read more about: Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
Concept drawings for the new “boutique” hotel on Westheimer mentioned here on Friday are out! A tipster sends us to a HAIF post pointing to the Bunkhouse Management website, where Liz Lambert and company — the team behind Austin’s too-cool slow-mo Hotel San Jose rehab and Jo’s Coffee — have posted sketches of a 5-story, 75-room hotel complex planned for 1634 Westheimer, between Dunlavy and Mandell.
Yes, that’s the long-vacant failed-condo site next to Buffalo Exchange, across the street from the Leopard Lounge. Bunkhouse describes the site as a “blank slate,” but they’re likely to find a number of poured-then-abandoned piers on the property.
Bunkhouse’s plans show a restaurant, patio, and retail space fronting Westheimer. The hotel, wrapping around a pool, is in back, reachable from the front patio and a car entrance along one-block-long Kuester St., on the east side of the property.
Below: More drawings, including a site plan.
Read more about: 77006, Hotels, Lower Westheimer, Mixed Use, Montrose, Proposed Developments
“The first firefighter who went inside had to be carried out by two others because he was overcome by the fumes. Investigators say something was so strong that it killed trees and grass adjacent to the garage.” Following the strange but apparently contradictory laws of TeeVee and web journalism, the print version of the report removes all references to the name of the neighborhood and the street address. (It’s 15022 Falling Creek Dr., Oak Creek Village, just north of FM 1960). [abc13]
Read more about: 77068, Crime, FM 1960, Oak Creek Village
Driving around Glenbrook Valley for this past weekend’s open houses, Mr. Kimberly finds two very different home flag displays. Here’s his photo of one. The other is below:
Read more about: 77061, Glenbrook Valley, Neighborhood Disputes
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
No more auto service from the Grissom Brothers. Plus the usual housetrimming. It’s all in our daily address list, below:
Read more about: Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
If you’re looking for a cool, low-hanging Modern home, Glenbrook Valley is your best bet! This week: Glenbrook Valley’s “Mod-palooza,” courtesy of broker Robert Searcy. Three of the homes below are listed as Houston Mod’s Mods of the Month.
Location: 8119 Stony Dell Ct.
Details: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths; 2,665 sq. ft.
Price: $199,900
The Scoop: 1954 brick L-shaped ranch on actual Houston hill at end of cul-de-sac. Carpet and tile floors; stone patio in back. Wood paneling in Den. Listed for just under 2 months.
Open House: Sunday, 2-4 pm
More moderately Mod-ish moments as the tour continues . . .
Read more about: 77061, Glenbrook Valley, Homes for Sale, Open Houses, Tours
A reader forwards us a report indicating Trammell Crow Residential has withdrawn its variance requests for the South Shepherd Apartments, planned for the current site of the RR Donnelley printing company building on the Shepherd Curve, between the themey Renoir and Gotham condo buildings. And it’s not just the variance requests — apparently the entire project has been withdrawn from consideration by the city. Judging from the Planning Commission hearings — and from the comments on Swamplot’s story about the project — there was a fair amount of neighborhood opposition to aspects of the project. Is this simply a strategic retreat or is Trammell Crow backing out?
Read more about: 77019, Apartments, Proposed Developments, Shepherd Curve, Shepherd Dr., Trammell Crow, Variances
They’re not saying much, but two separate potential developers have targeted Inner Loop sites. No “immediate plans,” of course: “Liz Lambert, the businesswoman behind the hip Hotel San José in Austin, has a site on lower Westheimer earmarked for a possible hotel. . . . Sergio Ortiz, owner of Houston-based Orion Hotels Inc., is working on the development of a boutique hotel on Washington Avenue, one of the hottest emerging strips in the Bayou City.” [Houston Business Journal]
Read more about: 77006, 77007, Hotels, Lower Westheimer, Montrose, Proposed Developments, Washington Corridor
Some residents of the Sabine Street Lofts are unhappy with the new Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark that opened across the street on June 1st: “an average of 320 people have skated its ramps and concrete bowls every day. Lofts residents say the skaters also have tagged city property, left behind soda cans and snack-food trash and even trespassed onto loft property to skate in the parking garage. Topping their complaints is illegal parking on the Sabine Street bridge, which they say constricts the route they use into and out of the complex.” [Houston Chronicle; previously]
Read more about: 77007, Neighborhood Disputes, Old-Sixth-Ward, Parks
A healthy dozen-plus demos documented in today’s report. Now we’re crackin’! The wheres are below.
Read more about: Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
You guys are good! And better at this than you think you are. You found all the right clues to this week’s puzzle . . . the problem was just putting them together!
Before we get to our winners, your list of guesses: Oak Forest attracted 4 votes. There were 3 guesses each for Montrose and West University, and 2 each for Bellaire and Lazybrook. We had 4 separate votes for Knollwood, Timberside, Woodshire, and Stella Link. The rest went to Meyerland, Timbergrove, Clear Lake, Kemah, “something out I 45 towards the Gulf,” the Houston Ave./Sawyer/Washington area, Afton Village, Cleveland, the Heights, “that area south of Richmond, east of Shepherd but immediately north of the recessed portion of 59 over by Mt. Vernon,” Alief, and Braes Terrace.
This week’s win goes to two players: CK, who called Clear Lake:
. . . it’s hard to tell if it’s a street outside or lakefront.
Aha!
And Joni Webb, who called Kemah:
It’s old - say 50 years, low ceilings, actually cute for once . . . mature landscaping . . . lots and lots of palm tree type plants and it could be around Kemah - those really cute old houses there. Artsy community.
For this game, Clear Lake and Kemah were close enough. Seabrook would have won it outright, and Ruggles East would have beaten that!
So . . . what were the clues? marmer picked up a few:
The craft room and living room are on the front of the house, and narrow, probably original rooms. Most everything else is an addition. What’s with the weird bedroom with French doors and no window treatment? Do exhibitionists live here?
And so did toadfroggy:
My only thought is that those blue cabinets would never have survived in an area that’s seen much flipping, so it’s unlikely to be in any of the close-in nabes if it’s even in Houston at all.
. . . which earn them both honorable mentions. No interfering liars this week!
After the jump: Around and about that house!
Read more about: 77586, Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Seabrook
