- 1303 Du Barry Ln. [HAR]
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BRAD MOORE AND FRIENDS SNATCH EMPTY BODY OF INVASION ICE HOUSE 
 Formerly apostrophe-averse Grand Prize co-owner Brad Moore and his business partners have a new bar now up and running in the work-out-the-kinks, wait-for-the-liquor-license phase. The business, operating under the syllable-rich name Lil’ Danny Speedo’s Go Fly a Kite Lounge, has taken over the space in the 1950s building at 823 Dumble St. (shown here as seen early last year in its then-new alien mural skin). Danny Speedo’s is the latest link in a long chain of bars on the property — most recently including Invasion Ice House, which the Ramos family opened last spring before shutting it down at the end of October. Phaedra Cook reports that Lil’ Danny Speedos is limiting the alcohol menu to beer, wine, and frozen shandies until the liquor permit comes through. [Houston Foodfinder; previously on Swamplot] Photo of former Invasion Ice House at 823 Dumble St.: Swamplot inbox
The excavator treatment is complete for that subset of Archstone Memorial Heights apartment buildings that’ll be replaced by a mixed-use midrise with an H-E-B at the bottom, a neighbor notes. The shot above shows one of the buildings midway through the deconstruction process, which began earlier this month after that fenceless gate showed up on the site. Also noted during the demo weeks — a handful of firefighters rappelling down the side of the empty unit above.
As of about sunset yesterday, the site is now fully emptied out:
Climbing the Walls on Wash Ave
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT’S GONE AND WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN ON LOUISIANA ST. 
“I just stumbled upon this today (having moved away from Houston in the early 90s.) Kind of breaks my heart to see it gone, having been the maître d’ and sommelier there in the late 80s and early 90s. . . . I still have dreams of a hidden cellar beyond the famous cellar downstairs.” [Kevin Metivier, commenting on Those 2 Century-Old Louisiana St. Buildings Being Demolished Now for Lancaster Hotel Parking] Photo of 517 Louisiana demolition: Jack Miller
THE WOODLANDS SEEKS PERMISSION TO DEPLOY MUTANT FISH TO FIGHT WATERWAY WEEDS 
The Woodlands Development Company has filed a request with the state to add some genetically sterile Asiatic grass carp in the development’s Waterway feature, Catherine Dominguez notes in the Houston Chronicle. The fish are a proposed answer to the bushy pondweed and algae blooms that have recently been clogging up the created channel, which runs from the Lake Woodlands reservoir to the Woodlands Mall alongside I-45. Dominguez writes that the permit request was set in motion by a complaint from Ironman Texas, which at the last minute moved the miles-long water course of its recent Woodlands supertriathlon, citing skepticism that water quality was okay for swimmers. The carp is native to the Amur River that divides northeastern China from Russia; TPWD has issued permits for stocking the fish in Texas since 1992, but only in its deliberately-given-too-many-chromosomes-to-reproduce triploid form. The TPWD’s grass carp permit writeup includes advice on fish deployment, reasonable fish performance expectations, and info on how to prevent fish escape. [Houston Chronicle] Photo of Woodlands Waterway: TheWoodlandsTX.com
Some time between the morning and evening rush hours yesterday, says a reader, the new sign above for Another Broken Yolk Cafe went up at 3801 Farnham St., the original location of the 59 Diner chain prior to its lawsuit-clouded closure. The building adopted the persona of optionally halal Tex-Mex and pancake joint El Beso Cantina for a brief interlude starting around Christmas, after which the building’s “Eat Here!” dot was redone to read “24 Hrs Breakfast.” The website for the latest redo, however, currently lists the restaurant’s hours of operation as 7am to 10pm.
The building’s exterior has had a bit of a makeover since 59 Diner’s departure: the chrome and teal went more brick, yellow, and red for El Beso’s brief tenure, though other elements (like the BREAKFAST LUNCH DINNER labels) have remained in place. A teal hole can be spied where some El Beso signage hung until recently, in the same over-the-doorway spot previously occupied by the bubble-gum pink 59 logo:
Flipping Breakfast Concepts
- Weingarten Plans To Redevelop 2 Buildings Next to Its River Oaks Shopping Center [Houston Chronicle]
- Midtown Office Building at 1500 McGowen St. Sold to Davis Holdings [HBJ]
- Houston Single-Family Home Sales Fell 2.1% Year-Over-Year in January, Finds Re/Max [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston Apartment Industry Braces for Another Slow Year [Houston Public Media]
- Crescent Communities Sells Master-Planned Community The Groves in Humble [Houston Chronicle]
- Canadian Home Builder Empire Communities Planning Woodforest Project in Montgomery County [Realty News Report]
- The Story Behind the Joseph Finger-Designed Mansion in Old Braeswood, on the Market for $2.5M [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
- Houston-Dallas Bullet Train Targeted by State Lawmakers’ New Bills [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- Post-Super Bowl, Uber Says It Has Made No Plans to Leave Houston [KHOU; previously on Swamplot]
- The 12 Strangest Things To Happen on Houston’s Freeways, in Cartoon Form [Houstonia]
Photo: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Maimed, spoiled for aspiration: farewell buildings!
- 7311 Broadway St. [HAR]
The 10-story tower segment of the Americana building at 811 Dallas St. is now undergoing disassembly, Nancy Sarnoff confirms this afternoon. A few folks caught sight of the tell-tale orange barricades and fencing around the base of the tower over the weekend; the view above was captured from Milam St. and shows the defunct former Subway on the Dallas corner of the block. Hilcorp, which owns the site (and also wrapped up its new tower across Travis St. on the site of the Foley’s blowup early last year), hasn’t yet announced further-down-the-line plans for the block. No explosives are part of the plan for this demo, however — the tower will be taken apart piece by piece, leaving the parking garage intact.
- Downtown Americana Building To Be Demolished [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: Mayor Parker Announces the Death Sentence for Downtown Macy’s Building; Zeroing Out the Americana Building
Photo: ThaChadwick
Laid Low Downtown
The sign above announcing the proposed abandonment of the short dead-end stretch of N. Braeswood Blvd. running east of Main St. was captured in situ by a reader over the weekend. The roadway currently serves as the access road for the remaining Saint Nicholas School campus, though the school is planning to be all moved in at that new facility further south along Main St. in about a year and a half. That’ll free up the landf for whatever might be in the works by shell corporation 7200 Main St., which now owns both the school property and the 8-plus-acre tract north of the N. Braeswood segment, former site of barn-shaped restaurant The Stables.
To the east of the orange-roofed soon-to-be-former Saint Nicholas school, HCC’s  Coleman College for Health Sciences building looks to be just about wrapped up, at least in terms of exterior finishes:
Medical Center Excision
Today’s sponsor on Swamplot is Just Buyers Houston, a real estate brokerage that — you guessed it! — represents buyers only. Thanks for supporting this site!
Just Buyers Houston’s Judy Thompson writes: “I am a very analytical person (my husband says I should have been an investment banker, but in investment banking you don’t get the thrill of helping an accomplished professional person or couple find their first house). Helping people buy homes is a great source of satisfaction and I enjoy it a lot. I meet interesting people from all over the world and have pretty intense 6-week adventures in home buying with them. (If we’re lucky it’s all over in 6 weeks. Sometimes it’s not because there is such a shortage of things to buy.)”
The other day Judy was out on a walk admiring the brick bungalows in Winlow Place. Curious about how much they were selling for, she did a price analysis of bungalow sales in 3Â Montrose Zip Codes and published it on her website. Here are the numbers: On average, they sell for about $345 per square foot, in 30 days, and were built in 1930. How many will be left in 10 years? You can find her analysis of 1-story Montrose-area brick bungalows here.
Offbeat analyses like these for buyers are a specialty at Just Buyers Houston — she does a lot of them. When the local real estate market was slow after the 2008 near-collapse of financial markets, she created an analysis identifying what percentage of sellers described themselves as “motivated” in their MLS listings. “That was fun for a while,” Judy says. “But then the market took off again and I stopped.”
If there’s a customized analysis you’d like to see, let Judy Thompson know. She’ll work on it.
If you’re working on getting your company’s name out there, here’s an easy help: Become a Swamplot sponsor.
Sponsor of the Day
Across a parking lot from the stripy blue office of Air Alliance Houston, the 1940s building that has hosted Lee Printing Company since 1970 is now up for lease. The Lee family has closed the printing business, and the current listing for the property says the spot will be available starting in March. Eponymous co-founder Gene Lee (who started the business with his wife Hedy, and spent a decade running Houston’s first English-Chinese newspaper in the mid 70s and early 80s,) retired in 1994 and passed away in 2010. The storefront is being marketed as potential office, retail, or art studio space; Sandy Lee says the family is open to selling some of their old-school Chinese printing equipment, as well. The structure is a block up Hussions St. from Houston Elbow & Nipple Co.’s facility toward the corner with Jefferson St., and about a block south along Hussions from Super Happy Fun Land, which sits around the bend on Polk St.
- 3904 Leeland St. [LoopNet]
Photo: Robert Downs
Eastwood End
- Owner of Greenway Plaza, Phoenix Tower Selling Nearly Half of its Interest in the Properties for $512.1M [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Office Tenants Seeking Close Proximity to Shops, Restaurants, Gyms [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- La Marque Saw the Greatest Growth in Average Sales Price, Transactions Last Month, Finds HAR [Houston Chronicle]
- Single Women Can Not Afford To Buy a Home in Houston, Finds RentCafe and PropertyShark Study [Culturemap]
- Snooze, an A.M. Eatery, Signs Lease at La Centerra at Cinco Ranch, Will Open Later This Year [Houston Chronicle]
- Grilled Chicken Chain El Pollo Loco Expands to Webster [Houston Chronicle]
- Texas Catfish Restaurant Flying Fish To Debut Later This Year in the Former Houston Tire Shop in the Heights [Houston Chronicle]
- German Grocer Lidl Planning Pearland Location in Addition to League City [HBJ]
- Work Underway for Potential June Opening on Galveston County Amusement Park Called Adventure Pointe with Year-Round Outdoor Ice Rink [Houston Chronicle]
- Slideshow: Inside Downtown Private School Incarnate Word’s $15M Expansion [HBJ]
- Evelyn’s Park in Bellaire Slated to Open on April 22 [HBJ]
- Houston Drivers Wasted an Average of 51.6 Hours in Traffic Last Year, Finds Study [Click2Houston]
- Houston Falls in TomTom’s Latest Congestion Rankings as Job Losses Helped Ease Traffic [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Why Houston Remains Segregated [Texas Housers]
- How One Houston Homeowner Made Her Townhouse Flexible for Short- or Long-Term Paying Guests [Marketplace]
- Traffic Signal at Westcott and Memorial Misspells Street’s Name as ‘Westscott’ [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Bellaire: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a whole new house.
