- 23320 Holly Hollow St. [HAR]
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The new CVS Pharmacy that’s replacing a couple of former veterinary clinics on W. Alabama — as well as the Shepherd Corner shopping center that until late last year housed Roeder’s Pub, Ruchi’s Taqueria, and Oaks Cleaners — is almost ready to show off the 40 shiny new parking spaces that will front the S. Shepherd Dr. corner a block south from the Trader Joe’s-ified Alabama Theater.
Don’t worry that parking will be scarce, though — more spaces will be available along the side and back of the new building, which faces S. Shepherd Dr. behind 2 full parking lanes. If you’re looking for a development that might be a little more street-fronting, you’ll have to wait: Construction hasn’t even begun yet on the fast-food drive-thru planned for the adjacent former site of jewelry store Fly High Little Bunny; it’ll go in where the big pile of dirt is, at the left of this photo:
WHAT IF LOCAL REPORTERS COULD KEEP THEIR HOUSTON NEIGHBORHOODS STRAIGHT? 
Maybe by being more specific and accurate about the locations they describe, suggests Christopher Andrews, teevee news reporters could help Houston learn a little more about itself: “I sometimes wonder how much more we as citizens could learn about our cities if our local news media accurately described the neighborhoods in our cities. A shooting occurred in the Independence Heights neighborhood of Houston early Wednesday morning. Independence Heights is a neighborhood just north of Houston’s I-610 loop. It is home to what most claim was ‘Texas’ first self-governing African-American community.’
When Houston’s local news media covered the shooting, it was described as a shooting ‘in the Heights-area.‘ Would viewers not know where Independence Heights is located? Well, sure, it was near the Heights. But how close is near? Another outlet described it as ‘north Houston.’ Again, how far north of Downtown Houston is ‘north Houston’? Houston is a gigantic city, so north Houston should be more than a few miles from its center. The site of the shooting is approximately a half mile north of Houston’s I-610 loop, which serves as the northern border of what is known as the Houston Heights neighborhood. (To be technical, Sunset Heights is the subdivision name north of the Houston Heights proper.)
This is part a further trend in Houston of simply attaching ‘-Heights’ to neighborhoods or developments in hope of invoking the charm of the Houston Heights proper. (I’m sure this can be said of many other neighborhoods in other cities as well.)” [Not of It] Screenshot: KHOU
- Imperial Market at Shuttered Sugar Land Refinery ‘Not Just a Shopping Center Site’ [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- UH System Looking for New Site in Katy for State-of-the-Art Academic Building; Bonds for $50M Expansion Approved by State [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
- Ryko Development Looking To Add 50 Acres of Strip Centers, Big Box Stores, and Pad Sites Along Westpark Tollway at Grand Pkwy. [HBJ]
- 35 of 740 Homes Sold So Far at The Reserve at Clear Lake City [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- D’Amico’s Owner Opening Fellini Gelato & Caffe in CityCentre in August; Considering Downtown and Rice Village Locations [HBJ]
- Nourish Juice Bar Opening Later This Month at 1000 W. Gray [Eater Houston]
- Jersey Mike’s Subs Opening Next Week at 3091 College Park Dr. in The Woodlands [Your Houston News]
- Aerospace Company Sierra Nevada Plans To Add More Employees, Infrastructure in Houston Following Spaceport Approval [HBJ]
- $8.7B Infrastructure Plan Passes City Council [Houston Public Media]
- Walking in Houston is a Horrific Adventure, a Pleasure Endangered [Houston Chronicle]
- Los Angeles Unveils Houston-Like Plan for Improving Bus Service [The Highwayman]
- Fox Orders Modern Adaptation of the 1980 Film ‘Urban Cowboy’ to Pilot [Houston Chronicle]
- Bellaire Resident Holding Benefit Concert To Help Replace Car Totaled During Memorial Day Weekend Floods [Houston Public Media]
- Why All the Small Gaps and Missing Streets in Google Street View? [PCWorld]
Photo of Kirby Court Apartments demolition:Â Swamplot inbox
Headlines
- 4411 La Branch St. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: RISE OF THE MEMORIAL CITY MONSTER 
“Does any else remember the old Memorial City Hospital that used to sit on the east-bound Katy Freeway feeder (west of Gessner)? It was once just a small 3 stories tall. Then they built 3 more floors on top of those, making it 6. Then it kept growing/morphing until it turned into the crazy space alien tower that it is today.
Memorial City Mall has similarly morphed and changed continuously over the past 3 decades, constantly changing its footprint, accessibility, and façade. I would love to see some sort of time lapse of all the changes. With this expansion across I-10, I’m envisioning an eventual network of skywalks spanning the freeway to connect it all, like a great big vampire squid.” [Superdave, commenting on Memorial City Prepares To Cross the Katy] Illustration: Lulu
12 hours after the Courtyard by Marriott under construction at the corner of Park Row and Barker Cypress burst into flames, fire crews are still dumping water on the building, a reader reports. Here’s a post-conflagration view of the soaking going on at Texas Western Hospitality’s hotel project. The 135-room, 4-story hotel on a 5.2-acre site at 18010 Park Row Dr., next door to the West Campus of Texas Children’s Hospital, had been scheduled to open in October. No injuries have been reported.
- 2-alarm fire burns unfinished hotel in west Houston [Houston Chronicle]
- Two more hotels to rise in the Energy Corridor [Houston Business Journal]
Photo: Brian Walz
Courtyard by Marriott
Zzzzzzapp!! Workers are finishing up construction inside the Houston area’s second Tesla store for its grand opening on Saturday and Sunday. It’s in the DCT Airtex Business Center, a new tilt-up building on the east side of I-45 between Beltway 8 and FM 1960. Like the Galleria storefront that’s been open for a few years now, the showroom is a company store, not a dealership: You’ll be able to order a Model S or Model X online, then take delivery at the company’s maintenance facility in Westchase (and take care of the paperwork at the courthouse yourself to get the title and plates). But of course you won’t be able to buy a Tesla on the premises because Texas laws require cars to be sold through a dealership, and Tesla won’t sell them that way.
Unlike the Galleria store, free juice for Tesla owners is available in the drive-up spaces out front:
The building at 14820 North Fwy. is just south of E. Airtex Dr. If you don’t like what you see, the Tom Peacock Nissan and Cadillac dealerships, Corvette World, and Lone Star RV are perched on the same feeder road, and the DeMontrond complex of Kia, Buick, Volkswagen, and RV outlets and a Lamborghini dealership are just across the highway to the south.
Photos: Matt Musick
Plugging In
- Timeline for CityPlace, Springwoods Village’s Town Center, Delayed; Office Building Planned To Be Done This Year Won’t Break Ground Until Next Year at the Earliest [HBJ]
- Construction Began Last Month on The Mark at CityPlace Springwoods Village Apartment Complex [HBJ]
- Dallas Company Buys East Houston Packaging, Tires, and Plastics Warehouse on Market St. Next to Budweiser Plant and Ship Channel [Realty News Report]
- Gracepoint Homes Planning 15 Four-Story Townhomes Named ‘Rebekah’ Near Taft and W. Drew St. in East Montrose [Prime Property]
- Allied Orion Group Breaks Ground on Southfork Lake Apartments, Backing up to 288, in Manvel [HBJ]
- Trash Catches Fire at River Oaks Highrise Condo Conversion at 3433 Westheimer [Culturemap]
- Starwood Planning New Aloft Hotels in The Woodlands and the Energy Corridor as Well As in Stowers Bldg. Downtown [HBJ]
- Expanded HQ at 16720 Park Row for Salad Chain Salata Will Include Room for Training, Dressings, Soups, Sauces [Prime Property]
- Dallas-Based Pizza Restaurant Cane Rosso Signs Lease for Montrose Office-Building Location; Heights Spot Already in the Works [Culturemap]
- Closed Since May 27 After Floods, Brazos Bend State Park Now Reopen [Houston Chronicle]
- Week-Old Traffic Signal at Greenbriar and US-59 Was Installed Too High To See, Say Drivers [KHOU]
- Missouri City Cyclists Have New Designated Bike Lanes Along Thomas Taylor Pkwy. [Houston Public Media]
- Galveston Kite Store Can’t Fly Kites Above Business Because It’s Against City Code [Galveston County Daily News]
- ‘Bee Czar’ Walter Schumacher of the American Honey Bee Protection Agency Is Here To Help [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of White Oak Bayou: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
From the street, a Swamplot reader notes, the roll-on vehicle pictured here looks just like your typical construction trailer. But come around the side you can see the banner pinned to it, announcing a new Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers. The latest link in the growing fast-food chain is about to arrive on the former site of the Lucky Village Chinese Buffet that was torn down at 1111 N. Dairy Ashford last year. The new Freddy’s between St. Mary’s Ln. and Barryknoll will join a parade of beef purveyors (Sam’s Burgers, Lynn’s Steakhouse, Hebert’s Specialty Meats) and fast-food joints (Jack-in-the-Box, Sonic, and the Raising Cane’s right next door) lining the west side of Dairy Ashford, roughly opposite Spring Branch ISD’s AstroTurf-lined Darrell Tully Stadium.
Photo: Brian Walz
Steakburgers
- 1308 Krist Dr. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: LIKE THE BAYOUS, HOUSTON OIL DEVELOPMENT FLOWS WEST TO EAST 
“. . . First, low oil prices are absolutely TERRIBLE for upstream (Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, Fluor, etc). However, it’s not necessarily terrible for downstream. Expensive or cheap, oil has to be refined and there has been no reduction in the demand of downstream products (gas, polymers, aromatics etc). If you know the Houston energy market then you know that Upstream is located heavily in Katy and Sugarland. Downstream is located primarily on the East Side of Houston, with some exceptions (like the EM woodlands campus). More central or (to a degree) eastern housing markets should still see significant demand.
Second, understand that some oil companies move very slowly. Capital expense budgets are planned years in advance. Those don’t necessarily just get ripped up and thrown out the window just because the price of oil has tanked. Yet again, UPSTREAM is definitely cancelling capital left and right, I mean only a moron would drill a new low margin well right now, but Downstream? I believe at least 2 new crackers are coming online this year and a new 500+ kta polymer reactor is as well. Those aren’t stopping, and low oil prices wouldn’t stop them anyways.” [MrEction, commenting on Downtown Foreclosure Auctions in Their Final Year; Bramble’s Debut; Krispy Kreme’s Opening Date] Illustration: Lulu
The 1959 strip center that once hid the top-secret bar known as Carolyn’s — as well as the Fruit of the Spirit Community Church — is all gone now. Demolition crews tore down the 18,600-sq.-ft. center at 4122 Willowbend Blvd. 3 blocks west of S. Main St. last week and the week before (see in-action shots below, sent to Swamplot by an area resident). And in late May, the planning commission approved a couple of variances to allow the all-in-a-line seeding of 29 3-story townhomes on the lot, in 2 rows facing Willowbend, like so:
Summer Crop
