Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
There is no suspense in inevitability.
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- 14875 Oak Shores Dr. [HAR]
A reader sends a few fresh shots showing the state of the new apartment complex going up on Dunvale, flanked by the sprawl of the Walmart and AMC 30 parking lots to the north and south. After a few-year-stint as a Garden Ridge, the former Sam’s Club (and its short-lived Business Center experiment) got knocked out of the way last fall to make room for a 387-unit complex that developer Embrey appears to be calling Everly (though the entity that bought the land last May before the demolition was called The Domain on Dunvale).  Here’s a rendered taste of what the buildings may look like, once the structures grow out of that awkward Tyvek phase:
Between 2 Parking Lots
COMMENT OF THE DAY: ALL HOUSTON FLOODWATER BACKS UP IN THE SAME DRAIN 
“Every editorial and study which I have seen fails to consider the plug in the bath tub. Every drop of rainwater in the metro area ultimately finds its way to Galveston Bay (and then the Gulf of Mexico). During the major flood events this spring, the tide was exceptionally high and there was a strong steady wind from the southeast. The waters of Clear Creek and the San Jacinto River were nearly three feet above normal before the first drops fell. There was no outlet for the rain and it backed up and up and up. Nothing had changed for this flood except the wind and the tide did not work in favor of Houston.” [Jardinero1, commenting on Cross-County Accounting for the Houston Flooding Puzzle] Illustration: Lulu
The former Barbara Jordan Post Office campus at 401 Franklin St. is on its way toward a new career (as highlighted by yesterday’s news that trippy music and art festival Day for Night will be hosted on the property this year). The new stage name for the 16-acre planned mixed-use space near Buffalo Bayou isn’t quite set yet — PaperCity says that Lovett has been calling the property Central Post, but an active Facebook account using the name Post HTX (and staking claim to the 401 Franklin address) has been posting photos of the inside and promising updates on progress at the site.
Demo permits for some interior walls were issued back in October after the property’s summertime sale last year. Those concrete fins on the outside of the post office’s Franklin-facing midrise section are creating the stripy light pattern visible in the interior shot up top; here’s more of Post HTX’s photos of the building, pre-redo:
Franklin St. Remake
An evening update on that wood-adorned metal structure at 2512 Woodhead St., behind The Upper Hand salon: all of the slats are in place along with the LIFE HTX signage, and the company appears to have hosted its first event in late May. The venue’s website says that the 4,000-sq.-ft. space can hold up to 250 people, though you’ll have to start hiring extra security guards if you tip past 100. The setup also allows renters to project the giant images of their choice onto the interior walls (or just hang things on them instead).
The space is across Woodhead from the Eagle Express Cleaners, the AZ Food Mart, and Bravo Key & Lock, at the Shamrock gas station:
Marked Up in Montrose
- Vigavi West Ten Breaks Ground on Spec Crane-Ready Industrial Building at West Ten Industrial Park in Katy [Realty News Report]
- Renovations for Downtown Office Tower 800 Bell on Hold [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- Micro-Unit Condo Project Ivy Lofts To Relaunch as Condo Hotels Concept [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- Under-Construction Condo Project Parc at Midtown Currently 67% Sold [HBJ]
- Harris, Fort Bend Counties Rank Among Top U.S. Counties for Incoming Investments [HBJ]
- $6M Federal Grant To Rebuild Ike-Damaged 65th and 69th Streets in Galveston [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Most Houston Metro Riders Happy with Service, Finds TransitCenter Study [The Urban Edge]
- Buc-ee’s Sues Choke Canyon Travel Center Over Animal Logo [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Lynn Park: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
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Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
It ain’t over ’til the excavator screams.
- 1816 Calumet St. 77004 (R. Miceli)
- 2022 Bolsover St. 77005 (Southampton Place; photos)
- 1927 Wroxton Rd. 77005 (Southampton Place)
- 450 Link Rd. 77009 (Gabert)
- 3559 Seabrook St. 77021 (South End Sunnyside)
- 3819 1/2 S. Braeswood Blvd. 77025 (Linkwood)
- 2414 Stevens St. 77026 (Samuel M. Harris)
- 526 W. Forest Dr. 77079 (Yorkshire)
- 6414 Sloan St. 77087 (Golfcrest; shed and carport)
- 8103 De Priest St. 77088 (Lincoln City)
- 2324 Bartlett St. 77098 (Greenbriar; garage only)
Photo of 2022 Bolsover St.: HAR
- 8206 Caldera Ln. [HAR]
FREE PRESS HOUSTON TO SHIP DAY FOR NIGHT TO THE FORMER DOWNTOWN POST OFFICE
The former Barbara Jordan Post Office at 401 Franklin St. will be the new host of Free Press Houston’s Day for Night music festival, Matthew Ramirez reports today. The 16-acre campus (including anything left of its train station ruins) sits on the north bank of Buffalo Bayou (across from Sesquicentennial Park and east of the University of Houston Downtown). The property was bought last year by an entity connected to Lovett Commercial; by mid-December the site will have to be ready to hold 3 music stages and the festival’s associated experimental art installations. [PaperCity; previously on Swamplot] Photo of former post office at 401 Franklin: CRBE
Chris Andrews has caught a few snapshots of what appears to be a soil sampling crew at work at 1901 N. Main St., formerly the site of Uncle Johnny’s Good Cars. Most of the 37,679-sq.-ft. property, occupying the block on the east side of N. Main between Hogan and Gargan streets (including the 1950s auto shop and the next door 1930s Beer’s Building), was transferred to a legal entity called Cerveza Four in May of 2015. Shortly thereafter, Keller Williams Realty posted the cheerily-soundtracked video listing below showing the ins and outs of the property, nestled between the Casa De Amigos city health clinic to the south and the former home of Alamo Thrifty Bail Bonds (now bike shop HAM Cycles 2) across Gargan:
Movement on N. Main
CROSS-COUNTY ACCOUNTING FOR THE HOUSTON FLOODING PUZZLE 
Kim McGuire checks in on the local hardscape in Friday’s Chronicle, as part the latest piece in a series examining roots of the area’s chronic flooding habit. The Houston Area Research Council tells McGuire that roughly 337,000 out of 1.1 million acres of Harris county were covered by surfaces impervious to rainfall runoff as of 2011 (the most recent year of data); meanwhile, softer surrounding counties (including the ones hosting much of the much-reduced Katy Prairie) have been racing to catch up with much higher rates of added hard area. McGuire notes that while developers are generally required to add detention basins to projects that increase the rate of runoff from their land, this does not actually require them to “eliminate runoff from their projects.” Mark Mooney, an engineer for Montgomery County, also tells McGuire that despite the regulatory scrutiny on any individual project with respect to keeping a balance betweeen added runoff and added detention, its still “clear [that] the way water moves through our county has changed. It’s all part of a massive puzzle everyone is trying to sort out.“ [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Map of Houston drainage and current/historic Katy Prairie extent: Katy Prairie Conservancy
Sponsoring Swamplot today: The metal wine storage racks from the wine storage experts at Houston’s Nos Caves Vin. Thank you for the support!
If you’re looking for a way to store your wine collection that allows you to show the bottles to their best advantage, you’re going to be interested in metal wine racks. The steel racking systems from Belgium’s Degre12 come in 3 distinct lines, each of which can be integrated neatly with almost any style of decor: Classic (see photo at top), for wine rooms; Sliding (see this video) for climate-controlled wine cabinets, and Gravity (shown in the second photo), for wine cabinets, rooms, or as an add-on to either of the other systems.
Each is available in different heights and depths, and incorporates LED systems to display your wine collection in the best light. The Classic and Sliding lines have both fixed and sliding shelf options.
NCV Custom Wine Rooms is the exclusive distributor of Degre12 wine rack systems in Texas. Special pricing and support is available to professionals installing Degre12 racks for a client; though the system is available to end users to assemble and attach themselves, NCV recommends having a qualified professional design and complete the installation.
To learn more about these systems or see photos that show how well they’ve been used, please take a look at the NCV Metal Wine Racks website.
Swamplot’s Sponsor of the Day spot is a great showcase for fine interior furnishings. See this page to learn how to get products featured in this space.
Sponsor of the Day
Here’s the freshest shot out there of the house-turned-restaurant at 219 Westheimer Rd. between Mason and Helena streets, now open once again as Georges Bistro (but no longer under the management of Georges and Monique Guy, who previously opened and later reopened the spot with Georges-centric names.) After some months of shopping the place around, the Guys closed the French cafe near the end of March to move back to France. The restaurant has since reopened with a hybrid Mediterranean menu, live music, and an upstairs hookah lounge.
- Previously on Swamplot: Off-Menu Special at Georges Bistro on Westheimer: The Whole Shebang; Feasting on the Leftovers at Feast; Bad Places To Start a Restaurant in Houston: A List; Feast: Going Whole Hog on Lower Westheimer
Photos of Georges Bistro at 219 Westheimer Rd.: Swamplot inbox
Bon Voyage and Bienvenue
- Canyon Midstream Moving Downtown HQ from Three Allen Center to 4 Houston Center [HBJ]
- Partners in Building Announces Metal Roofed Townhome and SFH Community Fountain Park on 26th in Greater Heights [HBJ]
- REI Opening Third Houston-Area Store This Fall in Baybrook Mall [Houston Chronicle]
- Lam Bespoke Inks Second Houston Location with Lease in Memorial Green [HBJ]
- Abandoned and Explorable Oakbrook Apartments in Northwest Houston Get Demolished [KHOU; previously on Swamplot]
- Metro Moves To Revive Potential Commuter Rail Line to Missouri City [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston Job Growth Lags State, Nation in June Amid Oil Bust [Houston Chronicle]
- Greater Houston Borrows $2.9B To Keep Up with Water Demands [Houston Public Media]
- Sun Belt Growth Since the 1960s Has Been A Factor of Suburban, Not Urban, Growth [The Urban Edge]
- Houston Behind Austin and San Antonio But Ahead of Dallas in HomeAdvisor’s Homeowner Happiness Survey [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of City Hall: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
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