Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Many options are available, but a smashing one is definitely in the cards for these two properties.
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- 410 Longwoods Ln. [HAR]
This Clear Lake home overlooking a golf-course-adorned stretch of Horsepen Bayou to the north is now for sale for $1.75 million (dropped in February from the $1.8 million requested when the house first hit the market last July). If you are allowed into the walled inner garden, you’ll find the yellow-and-cerulean structure above perched at the top of a glass-brick staircase. Ivy-League-turned-Rice-turned-University-of-Virginia architect Peter Waldman, who designed the 1990 home, referred to the multicolored elevated landing as a Trojan Horse “invading” the larger space. Roll right in through the front gates to see for yourself:
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Hidden In Bay Oak Country
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHERE COULD TRAINS GO THAT BUSES COULDN’T? 
“Light-rail transit the way METRO has built it is slow, and actually adds somewhat to congestion by taking up a vehicular lane and messing up traffic flows (i.e. no left turns).  . . . Frankly, buses accomplish the job just about as well, even if they aren’t glamorous to some people. DART built grade-separated rail out to the [Dallas] suburbs and to the airport. It does go faster, since it doesn’t contend with stoplights and traffic. It also doesn’t clog up arterial roads. It was a different approach, but I think that it was the correct one.” [ShadyHeightster, commenting on Feds: Unused Richmond Light-Rail Funding Offer Now Expired, Getting Thrown Out]
Here’s this morning’s view of the former Corporate Plaza site, now sans the skeletal midrise that spent much of May wasting away. Standing at the edge of the rubble is the Texas Direct Auto billboard, visible here from its non-dayglo-yellow backside above the cluster of excavators picking over the last of the former midrise. On the left (at the corner of Kirby and 59) is the separately-owned Shell service station property, boxed in by the increasingly empty lot throughout the entire demo spectacle.
And Then There Was Shell
The retail strip at 1927 Fairview St. is now being gutted and cleaned out into a large dumpster parked in front of the former Te House of Tea and Trudy’s resale boutique. Permits to clear out some interior walls and redo the space were issued at the start of this month to an entity named Riel Restaurant; also listed on those permits are the company phone number and CEO of South Union-based seafood importer Marine Foods Express.Â
Out back behind the retail strip, the nextdoor 1935 bungalow at 2410 Woodhead St. appears to be joining Te’s former backyard garden in becoming a parking lot — purportedly a green one:
Something Fishy on Fairview
- University of Houston System Approves New Katy Campus Inside Failed Grand Parkway Mall Ring Road [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- Construction Underway on $4.2M Emergency Shelter on Bolivar Peninsula [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Home Builders Positive So Far in 2016, Says Metrostudy Senior Advisor Lawrence Dean [Realty News Report]
- Pearland the 7th Fastest-Growing City in U.S., According to Latest Census Bureau Data [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston Unemployment Rate Tops National Average for First Time in Nearly 10 Years [Houston Chronicle]
- Texas Water Development Board’s Plan To Not Run Out of Water [HBJ]
- Are Houston’s Sinking Suburbs Suffering Worse Flooding? [Houston Public Media]
- Why Houstonians Can Worry Less About Smog [Houston Chronicle]
- Some Advice on What To Do If Your Home Floods in Houston [HBJ]
- Houston Among Top U.S. Cities for Registered Commercial and Hobby Drone Users [MarketWatch]
- Chicago Declares Houston Its Newfound ‘Nemesis’ and Beer-Sales Rival [Chicago Tribune via Houston Chronicle]
Photo: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
There will be vivacious revitalization without this old Victorian queen.
- 13675 Dairyland Dr. [HAR]
Something caught the eye of occasional construction scrutinizer Tuco Ramirez yesterday at the corner of McHenry and Carothers streets (and not just the site’s elaborate and colorful vinyl construction fencing): what appeared to be 2 workers on the job in the middle of the downpour and accompanying lightning. Upon slowing down to take a closer look, Ramirez realized the figures “were standing still — turns out they weren’t working at all.”Â
Above are some close-ups of the mannequins snapped after the rain slowed down; while both do appear to be making an effort to model some level of appropriate protective gear, each still lacks a few of the basics, from safety goggles to pants. “Have to admit, if it wasn’t pouring cats and dogs at the time, I would never have noticed they were fake,” continues Ramirez. “I got out of my truck to snap these shots from a good perspective, but I assure you they look very convincing from the street view.”
Here’s the rest of the scene:
Props in Golfcrest
COMMENT OF THE DAY: LAYING OUT STRATEGIC ANGLES ON THE NEXT HEIGHTS BOOZE BATTLE 
“. . . Flooding? Really? There are no tracts of land any grocer could realistically acquire that are not already paved over for commercial spots. Nobody is going to open a liquor store in the middle of a residential section where there will be no traffic — there’s plenty of storefront space near by. The proposed change won’t impact bars and restaurants. . . . [The backers] are advocating for a policy change with respect to a policy that impacts their business. How else would you propose they do it other than hiring a law firm and PR firm to help them navigate the rather obscure laws that govern this thing?” [Heightsresident, commenting on H-E-B Would Like To Plant a Store in a Wetter Heights Dry Zone] Illustration: Lulu
A letter from the Federal Transit Authority released this morning by the office of long-time light-rail derailer US representative John Culberson announces that the comatose plans for rail construction along Richmond Ave. have now lost eligibility for federal funding due to the project’s lack of major progress, reports Dug Begley for the Houston Chronicle.
Previous plans for the University Line show it running from the Wheeler Red Line station along Richmond to Cummins St., where a turn south would take the line down to Westpark Dr. before continuing out to the Hillcroft Transit Center just past 59 — connecting along the way to the also-stalled Uptown rail-turned-bus-line). The Richmond part of the route includes a 1.7 mile stretch west of S. Shepherd Dr. that falls in Culberson’s district; the rest of the route to Hillcroft falls within 7th district territory as well.
Use It Or Lose It
Yes, we’ve been hearing a lot about 33 1/3 @ Thirtyfourth this week. And a good part of that is because the 2.5-acre retail development coming to Garden Oaks and Oak Forest is Swamplot’s Sponsor of the Day — for the third day in a row. We sure appreciate the support!
Wasn’t somebody telling us a while back that Oak Forest lacked retail excitement? Well, take a look at what Crescere Capital Management has in store for the intersection of 34th St. and Ella Blvd., where each day close to 50,000 cars pass by, on their way to and from Garden Oaks and Oak Forest: a 29,000-sq.-ft. (or so) multi-tenant retail center on the southeast corner.
The project’s (uh, record-setting) name is 33 1/3 @ Thirtyfourth. The design team is being led by architects Peter Merwin and Ted Rubenstein of the Houston office of Gensler. Broker Tony Armstrong of leasing firm A. A. Armstrong will be working to fill up the new development. Crescere’s Chris Hotze is probably best known to GOOFers as the developer (and still the owner) of The Shops at Oak Forest a few blocks north at 43rd St., which is home both to Plonk! and a Starbucks drive-thru.
What kind of retail is going to go in at 33 1/3 @ Thirtyfourth? Hotze says his team has “reached out to the neighborhood to find out what they are looking for. There are certainly tenants looking to go into a high-caliber center, and that is the market segment that we seek to fill.†Merwin says he sees it as a “neighborhood center with hip, ‘aspirational’ retail . . . a place where parents, children, and neighbors connect with their community on a daily basis.â€
Construction is scheduled to begin in January 2017.
When your new project is ready to receive the attention it deserves, talk to us about how to participate in Swamplot’s Sponsor of the Day program.
Sponsor of the Day
Up on the docket for the White Oak Village redevelopment of the Evergreen Center shopping plaza at Antoine Dr. and W. Little York Rd.: the underway conversion of a long-empty drive-thru bank into a bike-and-drive-thru branch of Houston raspa-smoothie-snack shop Raspado Xperts. The structure sits at 5647 W. Little York on the north side of the complex, right between O’Reilly Auto Care and that eastern strip getting turned around to face White Oak Bayou and its hiking-and-biking enthusiasts.
A rep from Nankani Management claims that the raspa shop will be the first bike-thru business in Houston, and one of only 5 officially Bicycle Friendly businesses in the city (per a designation from the League of American Bicyclists). The shop is hanging on to the bank’s original bulletproof glass side wall and teller shield, which are becoming walls of the restaurant’s kitchen:
White Oak Village
- Second Phase of Mixed-Use Project Regent Square Moving Forward Near Buffalo Bayou [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- Grand Opening Held for New Hines Building at Pinto Business Park [Houston Chronicle]
- Memorial Hermann Health System To Build 5-Story Patient Tower at Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital Campus in Humble [HBJ]
- Hotel Alessandra Under Construction Downtown Won’t Open in Time for the Super Bowl After All [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- The Fibs That Helped Build Houston [Houston Chronicle]
- Behind the Chronicle’s Makeover of the Former Post Building [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Head to Fort Bend County for the Lowest Home Closing Costs in Houston [HBJ]
- Pearland’s King’s Biergarten Owners Opening King’s Bierhaus in the Heights at 2044 East T.C. Jester [Houston Chronicle]
- Sterling House Restaurant Opening in Historic Sterling House in Midtown To Feature ‘Girl-Friendly’ Menu [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- A Few Suggestions on Areas in Houston That Could Use a Pedestrian Plaza or Protected Bike Lane [The Urban Edge]
- Houston’s Rapid Growth, Heavy Rains Heighten Flood Risk [Wall Street Journal]
Photo of St. John Church at Sam Houston Park: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
