ONCOMING TEXAS BULLET TRAIN MODEL NOW KILLING TIME IN JAPAN AHEAD OF ITS STATESIDE DEBUT 
The general manager of Central Japan Railway Company, the Japanese firm designing the would-be Houston-Dallas bullet train, tells WFAA’s Jason Whitely it’ll be a spin-off of the company’s recently-revealed N700S model, 2 prototypes of which appear above. That new design — test runs of which began in July — is a half-size version of the N700 stock the company currently operates along Japanese rail lines: 8 cars instead of 16. They’re planned to start hurdling hurtling down the country’s Shinkansen rail network at 177 miles-per-hour in 2020, by which time Texas Central — our state’s own high-speed rail hopeful — expects to have broken ground already on its 240-mile right-of-way. It says its version of the trains — to be named the N700I (“I” for “international”) will start off running at 186 miles-per-hour but could later accelerate up to 205, “subject to regulatory approval and market demands.” [WFAA; previously on Swamplot] Photo of 2 N700S Shinkansen prototype trains: Texas Central
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- New Owner of Greenspoint Hilton and Marriott Plans To Renovate Both of Them [Realty News Report]
- Coworking Offshoot of Life Time Fitness To Open 25,000-SF Space in CityCentre Five Next Year [HBJ ($)]
- Dish Society To Debut Finn Hall Location Downtown Next Week, Heights Central Station Location in January [HBJ ($)]
- Boomtown Coffee Signs Up for Spot in Understory Food Hall Beneath Skanska’s Capital Tower [Culturemap]
- Turner Says HPD Will Add Patrols to 10 HISD Campuses After Fatal Shooting Outside Lamar High School [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- What’s Killing Houston’s Music Festivals? [Houston Press]
- 2 Friendswood Street Redos Down, 6 To Go This Year Thanks to Sales Tax Hike [Houston Chronicle]
- First Houston Wienerschnitzel Opening in Strip Center Across from New Caney Walmart in February, Baytown Location Planned Next Summer [Houston Chronicle]
- Neighbor of Clark Gable’s Demolished Montrose House Wants Houston To Stop Tearing Down Its Historic Structures [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Astrodome Interior Demo, Renovations Expected To Begin in April [KHOU]
- How the Energy Corridor Was Developed and How It Might Survive Future Flooding [Realty News Report]
Photo of downtown skyline: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Double Jacquelyn removals, plus more Oak Forest turnover:
- 536 Harvard St. [HAR]
Here’s a toilet-side look at the new Regions Bank that’s going up at Fountain View and San Felipe in place of the Dino’s Texaco gas station torn down there in September. It’s a replacement of sorts for the bank’s shuttered branch inside 5005 Woodway, a lowrise office tower about a mile and a half away, near Sage Rd. It’s also one of 14 new branches the bank announced plans to open earlier this year, at which time it had 29 existing locations in the Houston area.
The new building hasn’t yet gotten off the ground, though excavators are busy prowling the half-acre site across from the Tanglewood H-E-B. The bank’s 20-year lease (with 4 consecutive 5-year renewal options) officially begins next March.
- Regions Bank appoints Houston market leader, plans several new branches [HBJ]
- Previously on Swamplot: Daily Demolition Report: Last Chance Texaco
Photos: Swamplox inbox
San Felipe at Fountain View
The former Ascent Fitness building next to West Alabama Ice House is taking on a new life as Blue Mambo Hair Salon, according to a building permit filed yesterday. The gym’s 3-year run in the 4,260-sq.-ft. space at 1911 W. Alabama ended last October following the on-site sale of all no-longer-needed exercise equipment. (It took over the building in 2015 from 713 Pilates, now located down the street in the strip center it shares with Siphon Coffee.)
“For lease” signs went up early this year around the property, which includes a back parking lot that wraps the next-door hardware store and kicks out onto Hazard St. That arrangement should give Blue Mambo a bit more space than it’s got currently in the Chelsea Market shopping center off Montrose Blvd., long rumored for some kind of highrise replacement.
Photos: Margo
Dearborn Place
- New Topographic and Predictive Rainfall Data Shows More People in Harris County Mapped in Floodplains [Houston Public Media]
- Houston-Based Media Tech Startup The Decathlon Looking To Expand with More Local Hires [HBJ]
- Former Director of Planning and Development Patrick Walsh Succumbs to Cancer [Houston Chronicle]
- Tiger Den Chef’s New Chinatown Japanese Comfort Food Spot Ishin Udon Opens Dec. 4th [Culturemap]
- Tex-Mex Icon Irma’s Opens Downtown Location Inside Catalyst Apartment Tower on Texas Ave. [Eater]
- France-Based Industrial Gas Company To Build $150 Million Liquid Hydrogen Plant in Houston [HBJ]
- Post Oak Construction Nears Finalization, but Bus Lane Roadblocks Threaten To Push Final Route 3 Years Past Original Completion Date [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Ethically-Sourced International Jeweler Settles into Upper Kirby Location at 3300 Kirby Dr. [Culturemap]
- New Low-Cost Community Dental Clinic Opening In Southwest Houston on Wilcrest Dr. [Houston Public Media]
- Apartment Developer Planning New Midrise Alexan Lynn Park near Weslayan and Alabama [HBJ ($)]
Photo of 609 Main St.: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
A quintet of destruction from Sunnyside Place and beyond:
ARMY CORPS’ FIRST PUBLIC IKE DIKE DISCUSSION IS TOMORROW 
Tomorrow, the Army Corps will hold a public meeting in Port Lavaca about the Ike Dike it proposed last month. The meeting — the first of 6 planned between now and April — will give the agency an in-person opportunity to defend the modeling system underlying its $30 billion recommendations, which took some heat earlier this month from Rice U. scientists who claimed it didn’t take into account all those 100-year events that keep happening every few years. Since then, the Corps has told the Chronicle’s Nick Powell that isn’t true, adding that numerous key tweaks have brought the system up to date from FEMA’s earlier model, used in flood insurance mapping projects. The public comment period for the proposal remains open until mid-January. [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
A new indoor golf venue is on its way into the Shops at Sawyer Yards, where it’s laid claim to the empty space marked “B” in the site plan above, adjacent to Sawyer St. It’ll be Loft18‘s first step outside Metairie, Louisiana, home to its only existing location. There, an array of 5 golf simulators — essentially turf teeboxes fronted by large video screens — offer customers 95 different courses to play. Along with bar and kitchen service, it’s all wrapped up within 7,000 sq.-ft.
The rendering at top shows what the west face of the converted warehouse building at 2313 Sawyer St. could look like once Loft18 gets situated. No building permits appear to have been filed yet on that address, however, HAIF users note that both a Houston-specific website and Facebook page for the business recently went live.
- Previously on Swamplot: Awesome Bites Will Take a Chunk Out of Shops at Sawyer Yards’ West Side; B&B Butchers Bull Marking New Territory in Shops at Sawyer Yards; Where Lovett Commercial Is Really Developing That Restaurant in the First Ward
Rendering: Loft 18. Site plan: Lovett Commercial
Teeing Off
- METRO Holding More Meetings for Input on Draft Regional Transit Plan [Houston Public Media]
- Pride Wall at Jenni’s Noodle House on E. 20th St. Vandalized [Houston Chronicle]
- Austin Chain Hat Creek Burger Company Announces 3 Houston-Area Locations in 2019 [Culturemap]
- Developer Breaks Ground on 14-Story Apartment Tower Near West Loop on Westcreek After 3 Years of Delays [Houston Chronicle]
- UH-Downtown Debuts City’s First-Ever Gaming Center [Houston Public Media]
- Katy’s Grand Lakes Residents Protest Proposed Cell Tower [Houston Chronicle]
- Tiki-Themed Christmas Cocktails Pop-Up Takes Over Lei Low Through Dec. 30th [Culturemap]
- Federal Report Officially Claims Hurricane Harvey Worsened by Climate Change [Houston Chronicle]
- North Carolina Kitchen Cabinet Company To Open Houston Distribution Center [HBJ]
- NASA’s Robotic Geologist InSight Expected To Touch Down on Mars this Afternoon [abc13]
- Houston’s Small Business Administration Guaranteed $1.1 Billion in Loans in Most Recent Fiscal Year [Houston Chronicle]
- A Dozen Houstonians Made the Forbes 400 List of Richest People in America [HBJ]
Photo of Houston skyline from Bell St.: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
A toppling on Topping St. and another Meyerland number:
A TIME TO GIVE THANKS 
Swamplot is taking a holiday hiatus starting right now. We wish you the best in your own Thanksgiving endeavors and hope you’ll rejoin us on Monday when we come back refreshed and ready to recap any newsworthy dealings that may have transpired over the long weekend. Photo of H-E-B Thanksgiving Day Parade: Houston First
Work is underway to divvy-up the abandoned Chuck E. Cheese’s at the Weslayan Plaza shopping center into handful of new retailers. Among them: Torchy’s Tacos. It hasn’t fully materialized yet but looks good on paper in the updated site plan that Regency Centers is now showing off on its website. Next-door — and east of longtime tenant Skeeter’s Mesquite Grill — Sola Salon Studios (number 16) and Sally Beauty Supply (15) are also newcomers, themselves carve-outs from the former mouse-themed pizza and arcade joint as well.
It served its last slice earlier this year, by which time the house animatronic band — once a staple of all Chuck E. Cheese’ses — had presumably left the building. Company leadership axed the mechanical Pizza Time Players from all store locations last August, ending their 41-year nationwide run. “Back then,” Chuck E. Cheese’s top brass Tom Leverton told NPR’s Morning Edition, “kids’ expectations of technology were much, much lower.”
Photo: Phil L. Map: Regency Centers
Bissonnet and Weslayan
