Headlines
10/21/16 8:30am

Houston’s Most Nostalgic Demolished Buildings; Second Downtown SkyHouse Debuts

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downtown-night

Photo: Ruben S. via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
Quicklink
10/20/16 4:30pm

Boxes of Evidence Take Cold Shower in HPD Property Room Freezer

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BOXES OF EVIDENCE TAKE COLD SHOWER IN HPD PROPERTY ROOM FREEZER 1202 Washington Ave., Washington Ave, Houston, 77002The still-under-investigation malfunction of an evidence freezer fire sprinkler at the HPD Property Room on Washington Ave. yesterday may have compromised evidence in as many as 4,200 cases, a Harris County district attorney’s office rep tells KHOU. Acting police chief Martha Montalvo says that some the moistened cardboard boxes and envelopes contained DNA evidence (though seemingly none related to sexual assault cases); she also adds that most of the individual samples are bagged in a few layers of sealed plastic. Mayor Turner announced that HPD’s forensic folks will help repackage the dampened evidence and see whether any of it has been damaged or compromised; reps from the DA’s office say they will be in touch with the lawyers of anyone whose case might be impacted by the samples in question. [KHOU] Photo of HPD Property Room at 1202 Washington Ave.: City of Houston

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Featured Posts
10/20/16 12:30pm

Juan Mon’s International Sandwiches Peacefully Cedes Fourth Ward Territory to Cowboys & Indians

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Cowboys & Indians, 1901 Taft St., Fourth Ward, Houston, 77006

The palm-tree-garnished signage for Juan Mon’s International Sandwiches is now down at 1901 Taft St., shown above near the tail end of the space’s conversion into Cowboys & Indians Indo-Tex Kitchen. The 1920s building hit LoopNet in the spring after about 7 years of serving globally-themed lunch options, and the Juan Mon’s folks appear to be helping to ease neighborhood diplomatic relations for the space’s new Texan-South-Asian-fusion operators. The space has been remodeled during the transfer of power: those covered drivethru lanes out front at the corner with W. Webster St. are now serving as a covered patio, and the building’s coat of flag-worthy primary colors have been replaced with a more neutral suite of grey-browns. Here’s the old look, for comparison:

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Culinary Alliances
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10/20/16 12:00pm

Swamplot Sponsor: Keep the Heights Dry

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Keep Heights Dry Poster

Swamplot today is sponsored by Keep the Heights Dry, a political action committee that opposes City of Houston Proposition No. 1.

If you live in or near the Houston Heights, you’ve probably heard about City of Houston Proposition No. 1 on the ballot this November (or already, for early voters). If it passes, Proposition 1 would allow the legal sale of beer and wine for off-premise consumption only in an area where it’s currently not allowed — the “dry Heights.” Proposition 1 will only appear on the ballots of voters who live within the former boundaries of the City of Houston Heights.

Keep the Heights Dry — or Keep the Heights Weird and Dry, as the campaign alternately refers to itself — encourages voters to vote against Proposition 1. The group’s biggest concern about the prospect of allowing the sale of beer and wine for off-premises consumption — spelled out in more detail on its website — is that it “would make it easier for large regional or national operators to come in and apply a ‘one-size-fits-all’ model that is currently anomalous in the Heights dry area.” Keep the Heights Dry claims that defeating the ballot measure will help the Heights keep its character intact.

The group notes on its website that it believes that changing a 104-year-old law so that one commercial project (a proposed H-E-B) can enter the market “is short-sighted and will have very logical consequences that will irreversibly change the character and commercial development of The Heights.” Real estate broker and local business owner Bill Baldwin, one of the organization’s backers, says “It’s not just about an H-E-B next year, it’s about a Costco that then shows up at 24th St. and Ashland or a Sam’s Club at 4th & Yale. . . . Of course we’d love an H-E-B — they’re great community partners — but there’s just no way it would end there.”

If you’d like to learn more about Proposition 1 or read more of Keep Heights Dry’s arguments opposing it, visit the Keep the Heights Dry website, where you’ll find a map that shows the boundaries of the dry Heights, some detail on the history of the area, and a thought-provoking FAQ. Whatever you decide, do make sure to vote on (or before) November 8th.

Here’s our proposition: Become a Swamplot Sponsor of the Day, and reach the readers you want to reach.

Sponsor of the Day
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Near Northside
10/20/16 9:45am

City Red Tags White Oak Music Hall for Illegal Outdoor Stage Construction

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CITY RED TAGS WHITE OAK MUSIC HALL FOR ILLEGAL OUTDOOR STAGE CONSTRUCTION Rendering of White Oak Music Hall, 2915 N. Main, Houston, 77009A city inspector issued a red tag to White Oak Music Hall on Tuesday to stop what appears to have been unpermitted construction work on a permanent outdoor stage, Zach Despart reports this morning. The venue’s permit for the long-term temporary stage it had been using for outdoor shows expired on October 5th, a few weeks after mayor Turner publicly nixed the organizers’ just-take-it-down-real-quick renewal plans; this week a real estate agent who lives in the area handed out photos to city council ostensibly showing that crews were already at work to put up a new structure, despite the plans for the stage still not having passed the city’s permitting review process. Despart also notes that a show previously billed on the outdoor stage for this Saturday is now marked on its ticket purchase page as planned for one of the venue’s indoor performance spaces. [Houston Press; previously on Swamplot] Original renderings of White Oak Music Hall with planned outdoor stage:  Schaum /Shieh

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Headlines
10/20/16 8:30am

Property Tax Rates Unchanged; No More Place For Steaks at the Galleria

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allens-landing

Photo of Allen’s Landing: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
Comments
10/19/16 5:24pm

Comment of the Day: You Can Love The Bay You’re With and Still Harbor Ship Channel Fantasies

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU CAN LOVE THE BAY YOU’RE WITH AND STILL HARBOR SHIP CHANNEL FANTASIES Bayou illustration“I know that Galveston Bay is the economic engine of the Houston area, but it’s fun to ponder what 42 prime bayside acres could be other than a barge staging area, or what the bay woulda/coulda been had oil not been discovered nearby. Coulda been San Francisco, got Can Cerisco.” [JoeDirt, commenting on Kirby To Lease New Ship Channel Barge Parking Area, Pay for Barge Collision Oil Spill] Illustration: Lulu

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Featured Posts
10/19/16 4:45pm

3 Wise Men Lead the Way Through a $975K Hunters Creek Mod

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922 Boros Dr., Hunters Creek, TX 77024 922 Boros Dr., Hunters Creek, TX 77024

Behind the well-spotted Lucite front door of the 1958 mod above, living and dining room spaces wrap full-circle around an open-from-all-sides central kitchen. The home, full of floor-to-ceiling mirror walls and other retro finishes, was put on the market in June at just under $1.1 million, took a quick break in early October, and was put back up for sale a week ago with the current asking price of $975,000. Journey onward to check out the house’s eclectic light fixtures, the 3-ish bedrooms, and the guest suite out back by the pool:

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Following Yonder Pendant Lights
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Notices
10/19/16 2:00pm

Would You Like To Write for Swamplot?

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WOULD YOU LIKE TO WRITE FOR SWAMPLOT? Help Wanted SignWe’re looking to add a few occasional-ish contributors to Swamplot’s editorial mix. Got a way with words and a fresh take on this city (or know someone who does)? Here’s a terrific chance to dig into the ups, downs, ins, outs, wets, and dries of the local real estate scene —- and to get paid (well, something) for doing it. To apply, send an email to the tip line with the subject Freelance Contributor. (Please note: If you’re in the real estate biz, this is not the gig for you.) Tell us about yourself in a paragraph, and spend another telling us what kinds of stories you might be interested in working on. Will you trawl HAR for gawk-worthy listings? Review the artistic merits of sparkly refinery incidents? Scoop up tidbits on restaurant shakeups? Let us know the Houston real-estate-related stuff that you get excited about. Do include writing clips if you have ’em. If we like what we see, we’ll get in touch. 

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Baytown
10/19/16 1:15pm

Kirby To Lease New Ship Channel Barge Parking Area, Pay for Barge Collision Oil Spill

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42-acre Avera site, Independency Pkwy. near Lynchburg Ferry, Baytown, TX 77520

Some of the 42 acres of land just purchased for development by Avera Companies are shown here from above, east across the Ship Channel from the San Jacinto Battleground (that’s the bottom half of the star-topped obelisk visible toward the top left).  The property is on a peninsula of land about 2 miles downstream from the I-10 bridge and the San Jacinto Waste Pits. The eastern terminal of the Lynchburg Ferry can be seen here at the end of Independence Highway, with the Lynchburg reservoir lying  to the north.

The company says Kirby Inland Marine is set to be the first tenant for the property, and will use a section of the property to let up to 76 barges tie up and hang out as necessary. Kirby just agreed last month to a $4.9-million settlement with the Department of Justice over its role in that March 2014 barge-meets-carrier oil spill that shut down the Port for a few days and spread oil along roughly 160 miles of Texas coast between Galveston Bay and Padre Island National Seashore. (Kirby Offshore Marine, another of the corporation’s subdivisions, is currently dealing with fallout from last week’s tugboat-meets-shore fuel spill off the coast of British Columbia.)

Here’s a view of the rest of the property, showing a bit of Burnet Bay on the left and the San Jacinto River upstream toward I-10 on the right:

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Floating Around Near Baytown
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Briargrove
10/19/16 11:00am

Big Woodrow’s on Chimney Rock Turning Into Mediterranean Restaurant

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3111 Chimney Rock, Lamar Terrace, Houston, 77056

The graffiti on the tall face of the former Big Woodrow’s spot at 3111 Chimney Rock Rd. has been joined lately by new signage for Rotana Mediterranean Restaurant. The 2-story 2-bar space north of Richmond Ave. shut down near the end of August last year after a planned temporary closure for building repairs turned into an unplanned permanent landlord dispute, and the building went up for lease around the same time. Some of those repairs to the 5,928-sq.-ft. space may have been getting done over the past year since the closure, if building permits issued in March and at the start of this month are any indication.

Photo: MiraDry team at Mosaic Clinic Dermatology

Rotana Remodeling off Richmond Ave.
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