CHASE BANK CLOSING IN THE TOWER THAT BEARS ITS NAME 
December 13 is the last business day at Chase’s Chase Tower branch. The bank — which a portion of the lobby shown beyond Joan Miró’s Personage and Birds sculpture in the photo above — is following in the footsteps of the upstairs Chase employees who left in 2006 when the corporation moved its offices out of the building and lost the naming rights to it, reports the Chronicle’s John C. Roper. The nearest branch: in the former Gulf Building at 712 Main St., on the block catty-corner southeast of the Chase Tower. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: 42 Floors
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- MetroNational Sells Off Office Properties in the West Belt Submarket and Energy Corridor [HBJ]
- The Most Expensive Homes Sold in Houston So Far This Year Are Mostly in River Oaks [Houston Chronicle]
- Downtown’s The Rustic Houston Opening to the Public Nov. 2 [Houston Chronicle]
- Latest Pizaro’s Pizza Now Open on Katy Fwy. [Culturemap]
- Taste of Texas Steakhouse Along the Katy Freeway Undergoes a Nearly $2M Makeover [Houston Chronicle]
- Sears Hometown Store in Richmond Says It’s Not Going Bankrupt in Wake of Sears Holdings Filing [abc13]
- Lending Tree Ranks Houston Among Top 10 U.S. Cities with Most Foreign-Born Homeowners [Culturemap]
- Houston Housing Needs $12B More in Harvey Aid, Finds City Study [Houston Chronicle]
- This Weekend’s Eastwood Historic Home Tour To Include Sunny DJ Dana Tyson’s Renovated Home [Houston Chronicle ($)]
Photo of the Bayou City Art Festival: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
It all dates from too long ago to remember.
- 3507 Amos St. [HAR]
The new owner of the former Mary Barden Keegan Center along the southbound I–45 North feeder goes by the name Houston Market Center LLC and is connected to J. Luna’s Produce, a longtime vendor at the soon-to-be redone Houston Farmers Market on Airline. The sale closed late last month and included both the parking lot and 5,000-sq.-ft. community garden that sit behind the warehouse, closed-off from Vincent St. and the rest of residential Brooke Smith by a wrought-iron fence. Last week — reports a neighbor — workers got rid of that fence, “cleared out†an onsite homeless camp, began dismantling a retaining wall, and cut down a few trees adjacent to the parking lot.
The seller, Virgata Property Company, picked up the building from the Houston Food Bank 2 years ago and — last summer — leased it to the Peli Peli restaurant group as a prep center for the South African chain’s catering operation and a production hub for its house-brand sauces and spices. Since then, Peli Peli’s added 2 more order-at-the-counter restaurants to its lineup of formal and informal locations: one in the Esperson Building at 808 Travis downtown, and the other in the new 365 by Whole Foods Market on 610.
- Previously on Swamplot: Empty ‘End Hunger’ Warehouse by I-45 North To Be Filled with Workers Making South African Food and Seasonings
Photo: Virgata Property
2445 N. Fwy.
A building permit filed last Thursday reveals that an ice cream shop plans to take over the corner Hazard-St.-and-Westheimer storefront shown on the left in the photo above. Backed by a group that calls itself Milk + Sugar Creamery LLC, the new store plans to grab just a 1,542-sq.-ft. portion of the building’s west side — which has been occupied by a trio of clothing shops over the last decade.
Mio Boutique was the last of them; it picked up from Coquette in 2014, which picked up from Pixie & Ivy about 8 years ago. Although all 3 of the stores dealt in womenswear, Coquette went a step beyond, retaining an “onsite psychic†— reported Culturemap — to assist customers along with its regular sales staff.
Photo: LoopNet
Vermont Commons
The owner of the abandoned restaurant storefront on Taft St. south of W. Gray didn’t waste much time in trashing the place after acquiring it in June. A demo permit filed last month condemned both the street-fronting building shown above and its backyard bungalow. The photo at top shows the state of things on Friday afternoon.
The new owner also bought the neighboring brick house on Peden St. around the same time:
A Flash in the Pan
- Transocean Has Leased the Entire Enclave Place Building in the Energy Corridor [HBJ]
- Endress+Hauser To Build New Facility in the Lower Kirby District in Pearland [Houston Chronicle]
- Inside the Forthcoming Mondrian Luxury Condo in the Museum District [HBJ ($)]
- 1959 Greater Houston Builders Association Parade of Homes’ ‘Giveaway House’ on the Market [Culturemap]
- Restored Gus Wortham Park Golf Course Reopens in the East End [Houston Chronicle]
- New Permit Applications Point To Bobby Heugel and Justin Yu Planning New Bar in Southern Goods Space [Eater Houston]
- More Than 140,000 Cubic Yards of Harvey Storm Debris Ultimately Removed from Bayou Drainage System [Houston Public Media]
- Study Finds Houston’s First Light Rail Line Has Helped Reduce Air Pollution [The Urban Edge]
Photo of White Oak Bayou: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Gone, but also soon forgotten:
- 10907 Sagewind Dr. [HAR]
A local franchisee of nationwide chain Camp Bow Wow is getting started transforming about 8,000 sq.-ft. within the 30,000-sq.-ft. warehouse building shown above into something more pet-friendly than what’s inside now. About 150 Camp Bow Wow kennels are currently spread across the U.S. and Canada, according to the chain’s promotional materials, but this so-called “Greater Heights†location would be the first in Houston.
The building is one of 3 with identical exteriors that make up the Wynwood Park industrial complex, part of the even larger landscape of industrial buildings north of Hempstead Rd. and just east of 610. Some of the dog facility’s soon-to-be neighbors in those whereabouts: laser printer retailer Alpha Laser, construction tool supplier Expert Equipment, and a distribution center for specialty food purveyor Swiss Chalet.
- Franchise [Camp Bow Wow]
Photo: First Industrial Realty
Camp Bow Wow
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Spotted on the Instagram story for a not-yet-open venue calling itself The Gypsy Poet: TABC signage going up where it plans to move into Core Church Midtown‘s former home at 2404 Austin St. It’s the fifth liquor-purveying establishment planned for the block — bounded by McIlhenny, Austin, McGowen, and Caroline streets — in the past year-and-a-half, none of which are open yet. But which together have now succeeded in reserving almost all of the space there for themselves.
According to its pastor Jim Stern, Core Church had been negotiating to move into a smaller spot at the back 2404 when the landlord tabled that option and switched its current lease over to a month-to-month agreement. Shortly after, in mid-February, the church was given 60 days to hit the road. It left in mid-March. “I am wondering if we were ‘pushed’ out because of the bars,” Stern tells Swamplot.
- See You Soon [The Gypsy Poet via HAIF]
- Previously on Swamplot: America Gardens Declares Victory Following 2-Month Crowdfunding Campaign; Core Church Midtown Flees Its Austin St. Strip Center in Advance of Syn Hospitality’s Bar Quartet; America Gardens, Small Bouquet of Other Upstate Restaurants To Be Planted in Midtown
Photos: The Gypsy Poet (sign); Core Church (Jim S.)
Change Comes Knocking
HINES PICKING UP LESS THAN AN ACRE ACROSS FROM MONTROSE WHOLE FOODS PARKING LOT 
The developer entered into an agreement earlier this year to buy the property at the corner of Waugh Dr. and D’Amico St., reports the HBJ’s Olivia Pulsinelli in her round-up of recent North Montrose land sales. On-site that nearly three-quarter acre parcel right now: a parking lot, driveways, and 2-story dingbat office building that backs up to the adjacent strip housing Pimlico Irish Pub and others. To the east, BMW-focused auto shop Bavarian Machine Specialties buffers the tract from what’ll soon be Stages Repertory Theatre’s new theater and green space on Rosine St. [HBJ] Photo: LoopNet
- 13.2-Acre Pasadena Tract First Listed for Sale 18 Years Ago Finally Off the Market [Realty News Report]
- Downtown’s Lancaster Hotel Reopens Oct. 15 After Work To Repair Harvey Damage [HBJ]
- Report: Houston Needs an Extra $2B in Federal Funds for Harvey Housing Relief [The Texas Tribune]
- Houston Isn’t So Affordable When Transportation Costs Are Factored In, Finds Kinder Institute Study [The Urban Edge]
- How Houston Is Planning for a Future with More People But Fewer Cars [Houston Public Media]
- Chris Shepherd’s Steakhouse Georgia James Debuts in Old Underbelly Space on Westheimer [Eater Houston]
- Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company Breaks Ground on New Sawyer Yards Brewery and Restaurant [Culturemap]
- New Vietnamese Eatery Banh Appetit Coming to Westchase [Eater Houston]
- Memorial Park Master Plan’s Eastern Glades Phase I Project Wraps Up [Culturemap]
- Every Single Building in the U.S., Mapped [New York Times]
Photo of Sewall Hall at Rice University, with Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza behind: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
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