THE KROGER ON OST AT CAMBRIDGE ST. IS CLOSING 
Citing the demographics and income levels of the surrounding neighborhood, officials from Kroger tell Dwight Boykins that the Signature Kroger at 1990 Old Spanish Trail, immediately north of UTHealth’s Research Park complex, is closing, the council member reports. The store is the closest supermarket to the Texas Medical Center main campus. Boykins cited the decision in explaining why he delayed a vote on Kroger’s request for a $775K tax abatement connected to the expansion of the company’s distribution center at 701 Gellhorn Dr., near the intersection of the East Fwy. and the East Loop. Kroger was granted the abatement by a vote of city council yesterday, with Boykins absent. Update, 6/19: Kroger responds. [Houston Style Magazine, via HAIF; Houston Chronicle] Photo: Juleena M.
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The ground floor lease space labeled Suite 150 in the 2,000-car parking garage at 1501 Lake Robbins Dr. in The Woodlands Town Center — just a couple doors down from the storefront in the same building that used to house Northside Fiat — is now home to the Houston area’s second factory authorized Ferrari dealership. Unlike your typical dealership (and the same owner’s Ferrari of Houston, at the top of the bend of the Southwest Fwy.), there’s no lot and no service or parts department.
Waterway Square
Some fine pickings on Crab Orchard. Plus: more farewells for Richmont Square.
- Mattress Firm Will Consolidate HQ into Former Stage Stores Office Building on S. Main at W. Bellfort [HBJ]
- Rockspring Capital Flips 4-Acre Property at North Loop and Yale to Fidelis Realty Partners [Prime Property]
- Slideshow: Developer Jon Deal’s Silos on Sawyer, So Far [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- City Council Signs Off on $770K Tax Break for Expansion of Kroger Distribution Center in Northeast Houston [Houston Chronicle]
- Dallas-Based Velvet Taco Opening First Houston Location June 22 at 4819 Washington Ave. [HBJ]
- Brooklyn Meatball Co. Opening Second Downtown Location with New Store at the Shops at Houston Center [Food Chronicles]
- ReBuild Opponents File Class Action Lawsuit Against the City Seeking Reimbursement for Drainage Fee [Houston Chronicle]
- 2015 on Pace To Have Most Reported Truck Accidents in Houston, According to TranStar [The Highwayman]
- More Than 100 Homes in Liberty County Are Without Power, Most Since the Memorial Day Floods [KHOU]
- Houston Could Surpass Chicago as Third Most Populous U.S. City by 2030 [The Urban Edge]
- Gated Parking Garage at the Marquis Lofts at Hermann Park Was Scene to More Than 2 Dozen Car Break-Ins in 1 Week [abc13]
Photo of 8502 S. Main St.: Swamplot inbox
Headlines
SHAKING AT THE TOP OF A HOUSTON SKYSCRAPER IN THE MIDDLE OF A HURRICANE 
Houstonians who were around for Hurricane Alicia in 1983 might remember that the Wells Fargo Plaza tower downtown — then known as the brand-new Allied Bank Plaza — ended up losing more than 3,000 glass panels in the storm. But did you know that the building that night became the site of one of the few live wiggling-skyscrapers-in-a-storm experiments ever conducted? Engineers Robert Halvorson and Michael Fletcher spent the night of the hurricane in the 71-story tower’s unfinished top floor, just to see how much the building would sway; more than 30 years later, they described their experiences to Washington Post reporter Emily Badger. The peak acceleration of 43 milli-g’s they recorded — enough back-and-forth and twisting to make it impossible for them to walk upright — turned out to be “give or take, exactly the same thing that had been predicted by the wind tunnel” before the structure was built. [Gizmodo] Photo of Wells Fargo Plaza: Jackson Myers
- 3623 Maroneal St. [HAR]
It was introduced in April as the Arábella, but all you Randall Davis fans who’ve been trying hard since then to affect the correct pronunciation can relax your eyebrows. A reader sends in this closeup of the sign up on San Felipe, next to the driveway for the neighboring Target, advertising the 34-story condo tower the foreign-language-reference aficionado is planning to plant right in front of the just-about-complete SkyHouse River Oaks and across from Ashley Furniture on San Felipe, just inside the Loop. And behold! The accent is gone. Or rather, painted over, the reader reports.
Acute Name
Work has begun transforming the former Heights Blvd. Church’s Fried Chicken — which left its longstanding spot on the corner of 6th St. (aka White Oak across the street) back in March — to the long-promised Lee’s Fried Chicken & Doughnuts. Back in 2012, the team behind Liberty Kitchen (and BRC Gastropub as well as Petite Sweets) had intended to open a Lee’s Fried Chicken in the long-vacant drive-thru behind Liberty Kitchen at 1132 E. 11th St. — after initial plans to open a coffee house in that space were switched.
Church’s to Lee’s and Donuts
- Downtown Redevelopment Authority Receives Proposals from 6 Groups Interested in Redeveloping Site of Former Sakowitz Department Store on Main St. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- San Diego-Based REIT Buys 4-Story Saks Garage at 611 Fannin Downtown for $8.375M [Prime Property]
- Vacant Deer Park Industrial Building Quickly Leased Up After DCT Industrial Trust Purchase [HBJ]
- Bridgeland’s First Commercial Development Will Be a 20-Acre CVS-Anchored Shopping Center [HBJ]
- 600-Home Lakes at Creekside Planned Near The Woodlands’ Creekside Park [Prime Property]
- Snooze Restaurant Chain Hitting 3217 Montrose Blvd. for First-Ever Houston Location [Houston Chronicle]
- Johnny Rockets Puts Houston on Short List of Markets It Wants To Enter [Prime Property]
- The Woodlands, Sugar Land, Pearland, League City, Missouri City Named Among Top 10 Best Places To Live in Texas By NerdWallet [HBJ]
- For the Most Part, Houston ‘Lucky’ During Tropical Storm Bill, but Watch Out for the Tail [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Downtown from Yale St. Market: Rubin Serrano via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
- 963 Enclave Pkwy. [HAR]
$150 HOUSE HEADED FOR THE MLS, EXPECTING MUCH HIGHER OFFERS 
Here’s the final tally for real estate agent Michael Wachs’s failed attempt to sell his Heights bungalow at 213 E. 23rd. St. for $150: After a flurry of late entries, the total number of essays-with-$150-application-fees came to more than 1000, though a slightly larger number of essays came in without any fees at all. Wachs and his family are now rich in heartfelt stories documenting the residential yearnings of strangers, but the total funds received were not enough to “make it work,” Wachs writes in a new note on the house-offer website. He’ll soon be listing the house on HAR at a much higher price, and accepting what he terms “traditional” offers, though he does encourage interested buyers to attach a “heartstrings” letter. A FAQ about fee refunds has been posted to the website as well. [$150 House; previously on Swamplot] Photo: $150 House.
Crescent City Beignets closed its spot in the Lamar-River Oaks Shopping Center across from Lamar High School last April. Fourteen months later and 4-and-a-half miles to the west, something very much like it is opening up in a strip center strip endcap formerly occupied by a Dickey’s Barbecue Pit at 6383 Westheimer, outside the Loop and just east of Hillcroft. A reader tells Swamplot the interior of the shop is decorated with black-and-white posters of New Orleans scenes and scheduled to open late next week.
Photos: Carlos I. Velázquez (top); Joe Carl White (beignets sign)
Gone West on Westheimer
- Harris County Prepares for ‘Normal, Heavy Thunderstorm Event,’ Flooding as Tropical Storm Bill Hits Area [Houston Chronicle]
- Residents Continue Ritual of Parking Cars on State Highway 6 Bridge Near Bayou Vista To Keep from Flooding [Galveston County Daily News]
- Streets To Avoid When it Floods [Houston Chronicle]
- Rents Don’t Fall Off in Houston Suburbs as Much As They Do in Other Major Cities [Prime Property]
- Houston Has the Second Most Overvalued Housing Market in the U.S. This Year, Behind Austin, According to Forbes [Culturemap]
- Oil Rout Can’t Stop Houston’s Economic Boom, If Lack of Interest in Cinq’s Lunch Special Is Any Indication [Bloomberg Business]
- Houston Cash Sales Down 5.6% Year-Over-Year in March, Finds CoreLogic [Prime Property]
- Effective Rents for Houston Office Tenants Are Down 15% From Last Year, Declares New York Firm [HBJ]
- Inside the Grenader Family’s Renovation of Heights Clocktower Building [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- City Breaks Ground on Post Oak Blvd. Dedicated Bus Lane Project in Uptown [Houstonia]
- Cosmopolitan Condo HOA Files Lawsuit Against Metro Over Post Oak Bus Lanes Plan [Houston Chronicle]
- How the City Commandeered Glenbrook Golf Course for a Botanic Garden Without Any Public Meetings, Civic Club Presentations, or Community Input [Super Houston; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of Memorial Park: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
