Featured Posts
03/24/16 1:00pm

Starbucks Now Open Across from Former Starbucks on Richmond Ave at Chimney Rock

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Starbucks, 5540 Richmond Ave, Galleria Area, Houston, 77056

Rising in this photo, from left to right: the back-t0-searching Williams Tower, the 30-story Mercer condo building, and the vertical sign for the new Starbucks that opened yesterday morning at the northeast corner of Richmond Ave. and Chimney Rock Rd. The freestanding coffee shop at 5540 Richmond (next to the spot previously occupied by now-demolished Taco Cabana) is right across the street from the freestanding former Starbucks no longer listed on the company’s website at 5549 Richmond, between wine-themed Pinot’s Palette and probably-not-intentionally-wine-themed Night Train Luggage.

The store is a 4-minute drive from the Starbucks-turned-Minuti on the corner of Fountainview Dr. and Westheimer Rd., and just a 3-minute drive from the new AT&T-adjacent Starbucks on S. Rice Ave. south of 59, at the edge of the Walmart Supercenter parking lot next to relocated MicroCenter. Folks who want to get their coffee and split can head east to the drive-through lane; folks looking to stick around can hang out inside, out front, or on the semi-sheltered side patio which will eventually be partially screened with greenery, if the planter plants follow the plan:

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Coffee’s Back On
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03/24/16 12:00pm

Swamplot Sponsor: This 2-Story Townhome in West Lane Place

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2797 West Lane Dr., West Lane Place, Houston

2797 West Lane Dr., West Lane Place, Houston

Wondering about today’s Sponsor of the Day? It’s the townhome for sale at 2797 West Lane. Thanks for supporting Swamplot!

This 2-story, 3-bedroom, 2-1/2-bath townhome is tucked into West Lane Place, which stretches between Westheimer and West Alabama just east of Mid Lane. Both the Highland Village Shopping Center and the fancy shops of the River Oaks District are just 6-minute walks away. You’d probably choose to hop in a car to visit the Galleria, but you could make it on foot in just 18 minutes.

The main living areas in the 3,130-sq.-ft. home (pictured above) hug the rear of the floorplan, where large windows look onto a paved back patio. Go up the curving staircase and you’ll find all the bedrooms — as well as a game room. The master bath has a large tub and a separate shower, plus sinks at 2 separate heights. An additional room designated as a study is downstairs.

For pix of all these spaces — and a map where you can plot nearby shopping expeditions — check out the property website. There’s also an open house scheduled for Sunday, April 3, from 2 to 4 pm.

A Swamplot sponsorship could be the ideal location for a message from your business. Click here to find out more about becoming a Sponsor of the Day.

Sponsor of the Day
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Proposed Developments
03/24/16 10:00am

Cosmopolitan’s Condo Association Preemptively Sued by Would-Be Next-Door Highrise Developer in Uptown

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COSMOPOLITAN’S CONDO ASSOCIATION PREEMPTIVELY SUED BY WOULD-BE NEXT-DOOR HIGHRISE DEVELOPER IN UPTOWN South elevation of proposed Vantage highrise, Post Oak Blvd. at San Felipe St., Uptown, Houston, 77056Dinerstein is evidently embracing the ‘inevitable lawsuit’ over its proposed 40-story Vantage highrise (planned for the northwest corner of Post Oak Blvd. and San Felipe Dr. next to the 22-story Cosmopolitan condo tower) by suing first, reports Nancy Sarnoff.  In 2014, Cosmo residents formed a political action committee to oppose a now-scrapped 50-story tower planned by AmREIT for the same Uptown corner; Sarnoff reports that the lot’s current owner has filed a suit against the condo association to preemptively block nuisance claims related to the tower’s construction (which featured prominently in the legal fight surrounding the Ashby highrise). The plaintiff also wants a judge’s declaration that the condo group doesn’t have legal standing to sue based on alleged violation of city ordinances; the developer wants attorney’s fees paid, too. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Elevation of proposed Vantage tower: Gensler 

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Headlines
03/24/16 8:30am

Everyone’s Moving to Houston; Home Prices Beating Pre-Recession Peak

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braes-bayou

Photo of Brays Bayou: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
Avondale
03/23/16 5:15pm

Signs of the Biskit Junkie Transition at Greywashed Former Mango’s on Taft St.

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Biskit Junkie at former Mango's spot, Taft at Westheimer Rd., Avondale, Houston, 77006

Up top is a fresh snap of the former home of veggie-friendly-cafe-turned-music-club Mango’s, where Biskit Junkie’s new not-quite-I.P.A.-standard signage is in place over the now-grey entryway. The all-biscuit restaurant, from the starch-centric folks who started Jus’ Mac, closed its Oak Forest location at 2925 W. TC Jester in mid-December to focus on what was then revealed to be a move to the corner of Westheimer Rd. and Taft St., rather than the opening of a second location as previously announced.

The building’s current flat grey exterior hides all traces of Mango’s full technicolor exit at the end of 2014, shown below:

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Spelling It Out
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Featured Posts
03/23/16 4:15pm

What Holy Rosary Catholic Church Is Knocking Down Right Now

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Demolition at 3505 Louisiana St., Midtown, Houston, 77002

Demolition at 3505 Louisiana St., Midtown, Houston, 77002The church property that met its unmaker this morning is was a 2-story 1930s house at 3505 Louisiana St. (shown above, several hours post-meeting). The property sits 1 block north on Milam and 1 west down Holman from the main sanctuary of Holy Rosary Catholic Church. A demo permit with the church’s name on it was issued by the city yesterday, listing demolition and sewer shutoff as the planned program for the 3600 block of Travis between Berry and Winbern streets where the 1930s sanctuary and rectory stand.  A representative of Holy Rosary, however, confirmed to Swamplot this morning that no demo is in the works for the buildings actually located at the permit address.

The church acquired the freshly flattened house at the corner of Louisiana and Holman St. in 2003; the home sat vacant next to the church’s Religious Education building for several years before today’s teardown. The space will add to the church’s parking territory for the time being.

Photos of demolition at 3505 Louisiana St.: Swamplot inbox

Down in Midtown
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Development Patterns
03/23/16 1:45pm

TCEQ Takes 26th Crack at Solving Stench Mystery in Landfill-Adjacent Shadow Creek Ranch

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Shadow Creek Ranch aerial photo, Pearland, TX, 77584

What could be causing the mysterious unpleasant odor Pearland residents have been reporting through TCEQ complaint channels since August of last year — primarily from the Shadow Creek Ranch subdivision (shown above) between 288 and FM 521 south of Clear Creek? TCEQ’s Andrew Keese spoke with the Houston Chronicle recently about the 26 previous and ongoing investigations, which are triggered whenever a finger is pointed at a new possible emitter of the smell. So far, Keese says, no odors have been officially detected that qualify as a ‘nuisance condition’, but he encourages residents to use the TCEQ’s odor log form to help the search effort by describing “the precise character of the odor, [relevant] weather conditions, and times” when the smell is noted.

Before you ask, yes: TCEQ knows about the 60-ft tall mounds of garbage right across FM 521 from the subdivision, at Republic Waste Service’s Blue Ridge Landfill (visible in the bottom left corner of the above photo as a pinkish blob).  Pearland residents previously sought to keep the landfill from more than doubling in acreage and nearly tripling in height (and blocking the operation of several Doppler Radar stations in the process). The landfill (which started accepting garbage several years before Shadow Creek Ranch’s developers broke ground nearby) will eventually get to pile as high as the 170 ft. allowed by its expanded TCEQ permit — but per a 2009 settlement agreement with the city of Pearland it will have to wait until 2021 before rising to only 130 ft., and wait another 8 years after that to reach for its full vertical potential.

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Sniffing Out the Culprits in Pearland
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03/23/16 12:00pm

Swamplot Sponsor: ‘Nourish,’ The 2016 Rice Design Alliance Annual Home Tour

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1514 Banks St., Ranch Estates, Houston, by Paul Hester 748 Arlington St., Houston Heights, by Paul Hester

Our sponsor today is the Rice Design Alliance’s 2016 spring home tour. Thanks for sponsoring Swamplot!

This spring the Rice Design Alliance’s annual home tour is entitled “Nourish.” It’s a tour of 6 Houston houses that have edible gardens, created by architects, landscape architects, and designers. “If our kitchen is the heart of our house,” says tour chair and landscape architect Flora Yeh of Mirador Group, “our edible garden would be a nurturing extension. The homes on this tour share an integral theme, a way of life.”

“Nourish: An Architecture Tour of Houses and Edible Gardens,” the RDA’s 41st annual architecture tour, takes place from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on 2 days: Saturday, April 9, and Sunday, April 10.

Tickets start at $35, which includes an eMembership, providing a year of digital communications from RDA. Current RDA members (as well as those who join in time for the tour) are eligible for discounted tickets at $25; tickets are $15 for students with ID. You can buy tickets online here.

Here’s a list of the 6 houses on the tour:

  • 4523 Teas. Natalye Appel + Associates Architects, 2015. Landscape: RH Factor
  • 3312 University. Strasser Design, 2016
  • 2709 Albans. 1941; English + Associates Architects, 2010
  • 1514 Banks. Lantz Full Circle, 2012 (pictured above)
  • 1603 Cherryhurst. 1922; GSMA (formerly Glassman Shoemake Maldonado Architects), 2009, 2013. Landscape: Grove Hill Farm
  • 748 Arlington. Jay Baker Architects, 2003, 2012. Landscape: Fischer Schalles (pictured at top)

You’ll find more information about the tour on the RDA website.

If you’re wanting to take Swamplot readers on a tour of your company’s offerings, there’s no better way than with a Swamplot Sponsorship.

Sponsor of the Day
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Featured Posts
03/23/16 10:30am

Lawyered-Up Former Home in Midtown Looks To Get Liquored Up, Too

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TABC Notice at 1916 Baldwin St., Midtown, Houston, 77002

A notice of a TABC application, requesting permission from the agency to serve mixed drinks and stay up late, is now up by a door of the 1930s house-turned-office-building at 1916 Baldwin St. The 2-story home, which was remodeled as office spaces in the early 2000s, is currently listed as the home of D’Olive Law Firm, the Texas Passport Center and Bibby, McWilliams, & Kearney, among the latest in a string of law-minded businesses to inhabit the space 1 block north of Gray St.

The bar-to-be sits between the condos at 207 Pierce St. and the RISE Lofts and Edge condo complexes across Baldwin; the Camden City Centre apartments hedge in the parking lot from the north. The space is also just across Pierce St. from Komodo Pub, another house-gone-bar tucked back a block from the restaurant-filled stretch of Gray to the south.  The building changed hands in early January; the TABC permit notice, naming Basilio Investments as instigator, is hanging to the right of that side entrance visible left of the oak tree nearest to the parking lot — here’s a closer look:

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Taking the Bar on Baldwin
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Headlines
03/23/16 8:30am

SoulCycle Spins into Houston; Upgrading the Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark

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memorial-hermann

Photo of Memorial Hermann: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
Daily Demolition Report
03/23/16 8:00am

Daily Demolition Report: Two By Two

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3815 Revielle St., Gulfgate, Houston, 77087

Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.

Update, 11:30am: Holy Rosary Church has confirmed to Swamplot that demolition is planned for a nearby property, and not for 3600 Travis St. as listed in the permit issued by the city. The photo of the church property has been removed; more info here.

Two can play at that game, but four will come down.

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Featured Posts
03/22/16 5:00pm

Tout Suite Popping Up in the West End of Memorial City Mall

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Tout Suite, Memorial City Mall, 303 Memorial City Way, Houston, TX 77024

Tout Suite, Memorial City Mall, 303 Memorial City Way, Houston, TX 77024A reader notes the logo of freeway-side cafe Tout Suite making an appearance over at Memorial City Mall, smack in the middle of the path leading north-to-south from Target to Sears. The first Tout Suite opened in early 2014 in the former nightclub, warehouse and auto dealership at 2001 Commerce St. just east of the 59 overpass; the same folks also started pastry shop Sweet in CityCentre several years prior.

Signage hints at an opening later this spring for the new spot, in the pedestrian crossroads by Kay Jewelers and Ice Skate USA at the western end of the mall (visible in the top photo). The spot is just down the hall from the freestanding Starbucks kiosk, which sits along mall’s east-west axis between Macy’s and JCPenney. Here’s a more southward facing shot of the Suite spot, looking toward the Sears entrance:

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Finding The Suite Spot
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