THE SHAKEUP AROUND WHITE OAK MUSIC HALL’S OUTDOOR STAGE 
The permanent outdoor concert stage suggested by renderings of N. Main St.’s newest music venue, Erin Mulvaney writes this week, wasn’t included in the building permits approved for the venue; for now, it appears that the blue-roofed temporary stage used for the music hall’s first concert this past weekend will be covering the outdoor gig indefinitely. Meanwhile, Houston police documented at least 17 noise complaint calls from the immediate area on Saturday night, and 1 during the leadup week; multiple residents near the spot tell Mulvaney that their homes were vibrating to the music of French electronica group M83. Area resident Kerry Whitehead remarks to Swamplot on her observations from her home nearby: “I recently read a quote in a 1983 Texas Monthly article about our stretch of Main Street . . .  seeing I-45 in proximity to Hollywood Cemetery (an ‘old, lush place’ then, as it is now), the author remarked that he imagined ‘the bones of the nineteenth-century dead rattling in resonance with the vibrations from the freeway.’ Well, if those bones resting in peace hadn’t been rattled yet, they were rattled on Saturday night — as was I.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Rendering of White Oak Music Hall complex: White Oak Music Hall
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Here’s the current scene along the north side of Drew St., where the acre-plus of emptied land previously planned for development as the Pearl on Helena now hosts a Morgan Group for sale sign. The block bounded by Helena, Drew, Albany, and Dennis streets was marked a few years back as another addition to Morgan’s string of Pearl midrises; the Helena site’s application went dark during the variance request process in mid-20014, but the land was cleared of its former hospital and mansion occupants near the end of that year.
Morgan Group currently has a Pearl in Greenway Plaza, with another getting polished up on Washington Ave near T.C. Jester; a planned Pearl on Smith (at the site of the former Social Security office right across Smith St. from the Pearl on Midtown) appeared to have been removed from the company’s immediate focus in 2014, only to resurface in renderings the following year as part of an apartment-midrise-grocery-store complex containing a Whole Foods.
New Treatment Plan in Midtown
Today on Swamplot our Sponsor of the Day is crowdfunding site NextSeed. Thanks for the continued support!
The team behind gastrolounge and event space Chapman & Kirby (portrayed above) just raised $440,800 through a NextSeed campaign. More than 130 NextSeed members invested in this Texas crowdfunding offering, which will help it launch in East Downtown.
Chapman & Kirby raised its funds through a revenue sharing loan on NextSeed. The business is contracted to share a percentage of its revenue every month with the members that invested in the offering — until they are paid 1.75x their investments. Chapman & Kirby is enrolled in NextSeed’s payment automation service, which means that NextSeed will monitor the business’s monthly revenue and facilitate payments to investors each month.
The investment opportunities listed on NextSeed are available to all Texas residents. But don’t worry if you missed out on it: You can sign up on NextSeed so you’re ready for what’s coming next.
Disclaimer: NextSeed does not provide any investment advice or recommendation, and does not provide any legal or tax advice with respect to any securities. Any offers and sales of securities appearing on NextSeed are limited to persons that are Texas residents.
Looking for attention in the world of Houston real estate? Becoming a Swamplot Sponsor of the Day can help you get it.
Sponsor of the Day
Following the death of graphic-designer-turned-multi-genre-meat-artist Jim Goode back in February, Goode Co. looks to be moving on and moving north to a fourth barbecue spot at 8865 Six Pines Dr. in Shenandoah. The spot is part of Pinecroft’s Six Pines III development, south of Research Forest Dr. near now-labeled Fielding’s Wood Grill and Baker Hughes’s Grogan’s Mill Rd. campus.
The renderings from Pinecroft include a barbecue nod as well as a kitchen + cantina label. Meanwhile, a reference to the restaurant recently appeared in Goode Company beverage manager Rob Crabtree‘s judge bio for a Sugar Land cocktail context, which refers to the “Good Co. Kitchen Cantina” as an agave-centric bar and restaurant.  Here’s a wider look at the whole storefront:
Shenandoah
- Academy Sports & Outdoors To Join Kroger Marketplace and Sam’s Club at Valley Ranch Town Center Near Porter [Houston Chronicle]
- Zara To Open Store in Recently Renovated Willowbrook Mall by December [HBJ]
- Kiran’s Indian Restaurant Signs Lease at Midway Mixed-Use Project Kirby Grove in Upper Kirby [Realty News Report]
- FreeRange Concepts Breaks Ground on The General Public, Its Second Restaurant Concept in CityCentre [HBJ]
- Kirby Ice House from Little Woodrow’s Owner Now Open at 3333 Eastside St. [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- 14-Acre Crestmont West Apartments in South Acres Abandoned Since Ike Now Eyed for Redevelopment [Houston Chronicle]
- HAR.com Adds Austin Home Listings, Now Offers 92% of All Real Estate Listings in Texas [HBJ]
Photo: o texano via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Take some time to decompress, but don’t go making any crazy pacts.
- 723 Epperson Way [HAR]
The presentation slides from last week’s meeting about the street and infrastructure work planned for Fourth Ward between W. Gray and Welch streets are now online — you have until May 6th to email the city about it, if you feel like doing so. The green lines show areas where 50-ft.-plus cross-sections are planned, with anywhere from 7 to 22 ft. of pedestrian space (mostly running 12-to-17 ft., in the not-to-scale drawings). Streets marked in light blue would range from 33 to 36 ft. wide, including only 1 sidewalk and a 2-ft. easement on the opposite side; areas marked in dark purple would also get 1 sidewalk, but both vehicle and pedestrian lanes would be several feet narrower (27 to 30 ft. in total).
The work skirts the southern edge of the not-quite-rectangular Freedmen’s Town National Historic District, which runs north-to-south roughly from W. Gray to W. Dallas St., and east-to-west from Gennessee St. as far west as Arthur St. in some places. Planned street and infrastructure work in that area is currently on hold due to the ongoing court case over preserving the remnants of brick roadways in the district, along parts of Wilson and Andrews streets.Â
Hitting the Streets
COMMENT OF THE DAY: TAKE CARE OF THE OTHER BURIALS BEFORE PUTTING I-45 IN THE GROUND 
“I don’t understand why people want to bury the Pierce Elevated. That seems like something to put onto the table after all the murders are solved and money starts to rain down from the sky. Can someone explain this to me? How could it possibly be practical to tear down this road?” [Commenter7, commenting on Defending the Pierce Elevated; The First Toucan Traffic Signal in Texas] Illustration: Lulu
A running reader caught sign of the leasing notice currently up at the former Macy’s outlet store just north of I-45 and S. Lockwood Dr. along Munger St. The clearance center operations moved out several years ago to the current location at Highway 6 and Westheimer Rd. (as noted by signage tacked to the S. Lockwood storefront’s doors, still redirecting missed-the-memo potential customers). The company’s distribution warehouse complex next door is still in action (and, per the same set of signage, handling customer pickup).
Lovett Commercial is marketing the space; its own (larger) signage currently refers to the property as East End Central. The flier on the company’s website marketing the property (dated January 2014) shows some proposed pad sites and some potential tenants; the flier also refers to the property only as 4500 Gulf Freeway or as South Lockwood Retail:
Southern Eastwood
The first 2 waves of decorative railing are now stretching north off the edge of the new building at 2015 S. Shepherd Dr., the first half of the Shepherd Commons shopping center planned for the site. Per the renderings released back in 2013 , the 3rd and 4th waves should follow after the Hot Bagel Shop and River Oaks Nails jump ship from the original single-story strip center immediately to the north at 2009 S. Shepherd; after that, the old structure is slated for demolition to make way for part 2 of the new one.
Back in 2014, both businesses had plans to move into the space at 2015 S. Shepherd when it’s ready. (We Buy Gold, which wasn’t going to join in on the trip, has already been replaced in the old center by Cell Phone reStore).  Hot Bagel says it’s still planning to move in next door as soon as it can; a reader also spotted notice of an application submitted late last fall to sell food and drinks, including beer and wine, behind one of the site’s still-tape-dotted windows. The name on that application belongs to a corporate entity sharing an address with Fu Fu Restaurant in Dun Huang Plaza along Bellaire Blvd. at Beltway 8.
Visible in the background just south of the new building is kickboxing studio 9Round, followed by the Chipotle facing the corner of Shepherd with Indiana St. Here’s another look at what the center could look like after round 2 of construction gets knocked out:
Bagels Rolling South
- New Senior Living Community Methodist Retirement Communities Now Open in League City [Houston Chronicle]
- Hospitality USA’s Restless Palate Restaurant Opens in Former D’Amico’s Italian Market Cafe Space at LaCenterra at Cinco Ranch [Covering Katy]
- Cullen’s Abrupt Closure Left Weddings in Limbo [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
- Texas’s First Toucan Traffic Signal Now Installed But Not Yet Operational at Yale and Seventh [Houston Chronicle]
- I-45 Feeder Between Scott And Wayside Near U of H Campus Awarded $5.6M For Reconstruction [Houston Public Media]
- In Defense of Keeping the Pierce Elevated in the New I-45 Plan [Opportunity Urbanist; previously on Swamplot]
- Restaurants Offering Free Parking, Shuttles to Minute Maid Park To Avoid Expensive Parking Lots [abc13; more here]
- New Houston CityBook Launching This Fall Will Target Readers in ‘Emerging Centers of Power and Prosperity’ [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of White Oak Music Hall: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Not much to see now, but just you wait.
- 6043 Rose St. [HAR]
The bluest bar-on-a-stick in town gives a 360-degree overview of the area around White Oak Music Hall, which held its first concert Saturday on a temporary stage next to the still-under-construction main building. Renderings released last year for the concert complex, next to the already-in-action Raven Tower at the crossing of I-45 and Little White Oak Bayou (above), showed plans for 2 indoor stages and a 3rd outdoor pavilion, with a 3,000-person events lawn between. Developer Will Garwood told the Houston Chronicle last week that while he would still like to add a permanent stage someday, the temporary stage would be getting reused in the meanwhile — possibly requiring special event permits (like the one issued for Saturday’s concert) multiple times each month.
Here’s what the scene looked like on Wednesday evening, as crews continued working past sundown to get everything in line for the weekend:
Hatching in Near Northside
