Hmmm . . . What’s going on in Houston real estate today? How about . . . the continuing construction of MainPlace! It’s the day before Christmas, and it’s still going on!
Scope out the scene yourself with the D.E. Harvey MainPlace webcam! Five-minute camera takeovers accepted.
Swamplot had more than 100 comments from readers this week. Thanks, everybody! Here are a few favorites:
There were so many fun Houston real-estate stories in Swamplot last month! Here’s a list of a few of our favorites:
Updated with more videos below.
If you didn’t hear about the implosion of that 11-story building Downtown last weekend until after it happened, you weren’t the only one. It’s just that battle-scarred Cherry Demolition was a little gun-shy about publicizing another hotel demo in advance. Fewer spectators means less chance a blurry video or two will turn the company from rubble removers to crime-scene investigators.
Fortunately for readers, nobody informed Swamplot about the media blackout. After the jump, reports, photos, and videos of Sunday’s big bang!
Update: Photos and videos of the implosion are here.
Another Houston hotel implosion? So soon?
This one will be downtown, and everyone’s hoping it doesn’t make national news. But that doesn’t mean this weekend’s big bang won’t be another early-morning citywide block party. And so much to talk about since the last one!
Cherry Demolition crews have been chipping away at buildings on the block bounded by Main, Fannin, Rusk, and Walker since October, to make room for a 46-story pipe wrench. And everything is set for Dykon’s implosion of the 11-story Montagu Hotel (originally the Hotel Cotton, built in 1913) at the corner of Main and Rusk at 7 a.m. on Sunday, January 20th.
Streets will be shut down at least a block in each direction. But with the Crowne Plaza final-mystery-guest hullabaloo fresh in everyone’s memory, maybe this time there won’t be so much jockeying for the same “best” camera and video angles. Everyone spread out in a big circle, and send us your unique photos and videos. First person to spot anything fishy on the scene wins a special report on Inside Edition!
Photo of Hotel Montagu: Jeremey Barrett
Swamplot is off for a brief Christmas holiday. But if you find you just can’t stop thinking about Houston real estate in the meantime, there’s no need for you to take a vacation from the scene. Here are a few choice posts still here to entertain you from the Swamplot archives:
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Pesky little buildings in the way of MainPlace, Greenview Manor holdouts, and more fill out today’s demo list. All those addresses are hiding after the jump.
What a way to make up for yesterday! Finally, demolition permits are issued for more than a dozen addresses within the almost-full-block at Main and Rusk being offed to make way for Hines’s MainPlace downtown — including the historic 1912 Beatty-West Building, the 1940 former Bond Clothes store, and the 11-story Montagu Hotel, originally the 1913 Hotel Cotton. Plus: Way, way down Main St., the Droubi’s railroad car at Kirby Dr. finally leaves the station.
Our list of colorful names and addresses of stores-no-more, as usual, begin after the jump.
