- 10 Retreat Blvd. [HAR]
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON’S NEW BIKE PLAN IS JUST A PLAN 
“The plan is really just a recommendation of where to put lanes. The decision of actually putting in the bike lanes in a given spot will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, mainly as roads are rebuilt. Most of the money can come from TxDOT, TIGER, TIRZs, etc. It’s much easier to get that funding if you have a plan already in place. An example: Maybe your local CIP project involves tearing up a road and replacing it. Instead of repainting the road with the old 12-ft. wide lanes, maybe make them a reasonable 10-ft. wide and spray in a line for a bike lane. That’s a cheap addition to a project that doesn’t involve a lot of overhead that would normally come from a separate project to put in a new bike lane somewhere.” [Biker, commenting on Houston Bike Plan Up for a Vote Again This Morning Amid More California-ization Fears] Illustration: Lulu
The earth being pushed and shoved around on Lawndale St. between Hackney St. and the railroad tracks to the west this weekend looks like it’s being primed to sprout a field of new townhomes, if all goes according to Drake Homes’s plans. The irregularly shaped former warehouse site is already divvied up into more than 130 townhome-ready plotlets in the Harris County Appraisal District’s records system, each labeled with the moniker Magnolia Gardens. The land spreads between and behind the Eastwood post office and the Lawndale Street Carwash, right across Lawndale from the KIPP Explore Academy:
Mowing Lawndale
Sponsoring Swamplot today: Houston’s own Central Bank. Thank you for the continuing support!
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Say, how’d those midrise apartments nestling delicately into the northernmost armpit of the 45-59 exchange turn out, anyway? An accessory to a Midtown drive-by past the scene sends a fresh shot of the finished product and its The Hamilton nametag, taken from the ramp that sends northbound 45-ers onto the potentially doomed Pierce Elevated. Construction started in 2014 and just wrapped in the fall as leasing started up.
Only the top 2 and a half of the complex’s 5 residential stories (never mind the parking podium levels below that) can peek over the railing of the freeway on the southern side of the structure, providing scenic views both to and of any loiterers on the building’s uppermost southern balconies. Spencer Moore of FancyHoustonApartments.com even took the time to share the experience of staring down drivers on the closest ramp:
Hamilton Now Showing
The former liquor store that housed a more sessile version of snowcone trailer Mam’s House of Ice for the last few years appears to be up for grabs again, a reader notes (with a new HAR listing backing them up on the story). A sign on the window tipped the reader off, but the joint was closed at the time; it’s not yet clear yet whether the folks behind Mam’s are seeking a new space somewhere, have retreated to its more mobile lines-out-the-empty-lot business model, or have perhaps shut down altogether.
Sunset in Sunset Heights
- Zillow: Houston Home Values Up 4.5% Year-Over-Year in February to $175,200 [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston Rent Growth Hottest in Jacinto City, Cloverleaf, Channelview, Pearland, Inwood [Bisnow]
- Houston Had Record Number of Visitors in 2016 with 20.5M People [Houston Public Media]
- Senior Living Facility Houston Heights Tower Has Completed $12M Renovation [Realty News Report]
- Can ‘Stilts’ Make a Comeback in the Inner Loop? [Realty News Report]
- Memorial Hermann Cypress Hospital To Open This Month [HBJ]
- Five Houston Post Offices Off Chopping Block, Energy Corridor Facility Still Under Review [Houston Chronicle]
- Unlicensed Club and  Possible Crimescene Club Life in Midtown Shuttered by Harris County [Houston Press]
- House of Pies Opening a Third Houston Location on the South Side [Houston Chronicle]
- Downtown Food Hall Conservatory Replaces Ramen Shop Samurai Noodle with Poke Concept Moku Bar [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- Metro’s $13M Dispute with Light Rail Train Builder Continues [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Local Artists Depict Pearland’s Historic Landmarks in New Mural [abc13]
Photo: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Where all the apartments went on Bellaire Blvd., and other Houston stories:
- 11928 Taylorcrest Rd. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTONIANS WOULDN’T KNOW DENSITY IF IT PARKED RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM 
“This is exactly what happens in every dense city. If you go to Brooklyn, you will see cars street-parked in front of the brownstones. Few of those cars belong to the resident of the brownstone immediately adjacent. They recognize that they don’t own the street parking in front of their residence. It’s an incredible waste of resources to require that those perfectly good parking spaces remain vacant, in favor of large separate parking structures.” [Heightsresident, commenting on Comment of the Day: How To Tilt The Zero-Sum Houston Transit Game] Illustration: Lulu
HOUSTON IS NO LONGER THE FASTEST GROWING CITY IN THE COUNTRY 
New Census Bureau numbers tracking population ins-and-outs between mid-2015 and mid-2016 have been released, Alexa Ura and Chris Essig note in the Texas Tribune this morning — and Houston is no longer in the number 1 spot nationally for growth among cities. Harris County as a whole, meanwhile, has also lost that top county population growth title (which it’s been defending for some 8 years) to Phoenix-containing Maricopa County in Arizona. The duo write that the growth that did occur in Houston itself was mainly from existing Houston residents having kids and from international immigrants moving in, while growth in Houston’s suburban orbit was more the product of migration in from elsewhere in the state and country; though the net population change was still positive, Harris County still lost around 44 people a day, probably in connection to the oil industry. [Texas Tribune] Map of Harris and surrounding counties: HGAC
More angles on the ongoing obliteration of structures at the freshly former Exxon Upstream Research facility on Buffalo Spdwy. at W. Alabama St. come this week from one of reader MontroseResident’s more elevated perches. The most prominently visible act of deconstruction has been the shattering breakup of the parking garage in the campus’s northwest corner, due south of the now-mostly-reskinned River Oaks Luxury Apartments midrise on Westheimer (which was stripped down to the slabs in the last 2 years for retooling as The River Oaks condo tower, visible below on the far left):
Crushing on Buffalo Spdwy.
One of the low-slung spots fringing Portsmouth Square (the gravelly picket-fenced space between Portsmouth St. and Richmond Ave. which a reader refers to as “arguably Houston’s worst parking lot”) has been getting worked over for an identity swapout planned to take effect later this month. The former Blue Fish House sushi restaurant, just north of vegetarian- and Lord-of-the-Rings-geek-friendly Hobbit Cafe and facing off with Capone’s Oven and Bar, is now decked out in signage for Rim Tanon, billed by its Richmond-facing banner as a Thai street food joint.
Some of the Blue Fish’s old signage was still visible on the back side of the building as of earlier this week (as seen above), though the space’s hanging placard sign has already been replaced. And the building’s trees-in-the-holes front patio area has been getting a little bit of retooling:
Tradeoff on Richmond Ave
- Chase To Keep Some of Its Property near Heights Waterworks for New Branch Building [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- Targa Resources Signs Major Lease Across 4 Floors at 811 Louisiana Downtown [Realty News Report; previously on Swamplot]
- Johnson Downie To Move from BG Group Place to 609 Main [HBJ]
- Photos: Cranes Over Houston, March 2017 Edition [Houston Streetwise]
- Slideshow: Tour Hines’ Luxury Apartment Tower The Southmore in the Museum District [HBJ]
- Sushi Burrito Restaurant U’Maki Opening at Vintage Market Plaza Next Month [Houston Chronicle]
- City Council Passes New Bike Plan [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
- Galveston Officials Lay Out Plans for Trolley-Like Buses [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Houston Named a Top City for Millennial Homebuyers by Realtor.com [Culturemap]
- 3 Off-the-Radar Things To Do in Houston [Houstonia]
Photo of Spring Branch: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Chop House Cheddar Burger, Hash Brown Sticks, Shakes, Fruit Chews.
