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- Here’s the Completed Memorial Park Master Plan, Ready for City Council’s Vote on April 1Â [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
- Availability of Office Sublease Space at a 10-Year High in Houston, According to NAI Partners Report [HBJ]
- Harris County Set To Have 3.4M New Residents by 2050, the Most in Texas; Fort Bend To Have 2.1M Newcomers [HBJ]
- The Story Behind the Creation of Houston’s First General Plan [The Architect’s Newspaper]
- New Bills in State Legislature Aim To Get Rid of ‘Equal and Uniform’ Clause at Core of Property Tax Appeal Lawsuits [HBJ]
- Cottonwood, Liberty Station Partners Planning New Montrose Bar La Grange in Former EJ’s Space, Set To Open in Mid-April [Culturemap]
- Del Frisco’s Grille Opening at Hughes Landing in The Woodlands on May 29 [Eater Houston]
- New Hungry’s Designed by Palmer Schooley with Cantilevered Patio Set To Open This Fall Next to Current Location on Rice Blvd. [Houston Chronicle]
- Salata Relocating Downtown HQ to 26K-SF Facility with Test Kitchen at 16720 Park Row in West Houston [HBJ]
- Spare Key Opening in Second-Story Aerie Atop Midtown’s Cook & Collins at 2416 Brazos Later This Month [Food Chronicles]
- The Rise, Fall, and Renewal of the Third Ward as Seen in a Mile-and-a-Half of Holman St. [Houstonia]
Photo of Jersey Lake, Jersey Village: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
JONESING TO SMASH UP AND GRAB STUFF FROM A RIVERSIDE TERRACE MOD? HERE’S A FIX COMING IN ABOUT 5 WEEKS 
The anticipation is almost unbearable: What 1950s-era Riverside Terrace Mod will visitors have the opportunity to loot, bang up, and yank out the goodies from? That’s right: This isn’t just any estate sale, but a “tear-down estate sale,” reads the teaser from JBD Estate Sales. Which means the company is asking you to “bring your hammer and crowbar,” along with “your own help & vehicle for removing & loading large items!” Oh where, oh where will this be? Somewhere in the 77021, but the company isn’t telling until the morning of Thursday, April 16th — the sale runs that weekend. [EstateSales.net] Photo: JBD Estate Sales
From its extensive upper (top) and lower porches facing Upper Galveston Bay to a pair of double-bay garages, an updated 1970 Kemah Heights home finished in sea foam shades duplicates many of its open floor plan’s features. The bi-level property, located a few blocks south of the Kemah Boardwalk, has 2 courtyards, a pier, quarters, a boat house, and a $998,950 asking price on its listing.
Baywatch
A MISSION ATHLETIC CLUB AND DRINKERY WANTS TO STRETCH OUT AND SERVE DRINKS IN AND AROUND THIS NETT ST. BUNGALOW 
A TABC notice went out earlier this week to neighbors of this 1,430-sq.-ft. bungalow on a 10,000-sq.ft. lot on the northeast corner of Patterson and Nett streets in the West End. Hoping to serve beer and wine at 4504 Nett St. (misidentified as 4505 Nett St. on the notice): a new establishment called the Mission Athletic Club and Drinkery. Washington Ave is 2 blocks to the south. Photo: Swamplot inbox
Katherine Feser has the inside scoop on how the $7 million strip center portrayed above — but loaded with a Dunkin’ Donuts, a dry cleaner, and — yes, a mattress store — is coming to land in its rightful place along the south side of Memorial Dr. just east of Westcott, 2 doors down from the MFAH’s Bayou Bend Collection. Developer Amir Taghdisi tells Feser he and his brother Alan chose not to build a 3- or 4-story office building with below-grade parking on the site “because it would have been an outdated format from the beginning.” Instead, the 10,000-sq.-ft. strip center is now under construction at the back of the three-quarters-of-an-acre lot, with rows of parking facing Memorial Dr. and Knox St.
Why think so small? “I had all the big names wanting to do a 30-story high-rise for lease,” Taghdisi tells Feser. But he says the homeowners association of Bayou Bend Towers, directly to the south, wouldn’t let him.
The Towers and the Strip
- 350 New Home Sites in Conroe’s Grand Central Park Development at Former Camp Strake To Begin Construction Early Next Year [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
- H&M To Open Fifth Houston-Area Store This Fall with 20K-SF Location in CityCentre [Prime Property]
- Blue Bell Building Fifth Houston-Area Branch Distribution Facility, in Tomball [HBJ]
- Houston Office Rents Among the Top 5 Fastest-Rising, According to Report [HBJ]
- Houston’s Apartment Boom Contributed $22.6B To Local Economy in 2013, Multifamily Boosters Claim [HBJ]
- Harmony in Spring Adds Taylor Morrison, Shea Homes as Homebuilders [Prime Property]
- Stern and Bucek Design for Weingarten Mansion Renovation Includes Expanded Kitchen and Master Suite [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
- Opening of Southern Goods in Former Table 19 Space at 632 19th St. Delayed By Permitting Process [The Leader]
- Complaints About Memorial Park’s Master Plan [Houston Press]
- Mom Would Like to Revive the Tradewinds Skating Rink in Oak Forest [The Leader]
Photo of Houston Club building demo: El Kento, via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
- 1516 Harold St. [HAR]
Fronting byways rather than bayous, a 1993 Creole-style cottage in the Houston Heights has room-like porches on the front and back. The bisque-hued property looks over more plantings and pavers than free-range lawn; in its initial listing last week, the price is $989K.
Creole Cooking
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS FOR THE NEXT HIGHRISE SKY THRONE 
“It’s probably a bit daunting to have to go bathroom on a sunny day, especially if you’re trying to respond to the comment of the day on swamplot on your phone, but the glare is just making it impossible.
But imagine at night, especially on Independence Day. You can catch the fireworks, even if that greasy pizza you had for dinner just ran right through you.
Maybe on their next iteration they’ll build out a little glass box that the toilet faces outwards from. So as you are sitting with feet firmly planted on the glass floor, it looks like you’re sitting in the air staring out at the cityscape. How peaceful that would be.” [toasty, commenting on Comment of the Day Runner-Up: The Best Views in Every Skyhouse] Illustration: Lulu
HBJ reporter Paul Takahashi has details on the gated compound of 18 homes Pelican Builders is planning to fit onto the about-an-acre site of the recently vacated Mimosa Lane Apartments and Argonne Forest Apartments at the corner of Mimosa Dr. and Argonne St., behind the Huntingdon condo tower in Avalon Place. And — surprise! — they’ll be very similar to the townhouse-style structures in Pelican’s Bancroft Place compound 2-1/2 miles to the west, which was designed by the same architect, the Hopkins Company.
Avalon Place
THE FUTURE OF HOUSTON IS ON HILLCROFT NOW 
Armed with a few stats, Monica Rhor takes a look at Hillcroft Ave, ground zero for the Great Houston Influx: “More than 1 million immigrants — one of every four residents — call Harris County home, and the percentage holds true across 10 surrounding counties. From 2000 to 2010, Houston gained 400,000 foreign-born residents, more than any other U.S. city except New York. Last year, the county received 4,818 refugees from 40 different countries, the most of any county in Texas. The newcomers have done more than shift our demographics. They have created a metropolis where one-third of business owners are foreign-born, where the number of Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus has tripled in the last three decades, where more than 100 languages are spoken by students attending Houston public schools.” Hillcroft, of course is only the area of greatest concentration: “Immigrant communities are dispersed across Harris County — from the southwest side to The Woodlands, from Spring to Pasadena. Over the last two decades, even as the number of foreign-born residents has increased, segregation levels have decreased. Two out of every five people speak a language other than English.” [Houston Chronicle] Map: John D. Harden
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Demolition is what makes us get up in the morning — and get out of the house.
- Inside the New Petroleum Club Atop Total Plaza at 1201 Louisiana [Prime Property]
- Sneak Peek at Southwest’s New $156M International Terminal at Hobby Airport, Opening in October [HBJ]
- CBRE Trying To Sell 987 Acres for New Development in Lake Jackson [Prime Property]
- Fisher Homes ‘Still Figuring Out’ What To Do with Oak Forest Place Apartments at Rosslyn and 43rd [The Leader]
- Fire Ant Brewing Company Brewpub Planned for 304 Market St. in Old Town Tomball Will Require Zoning Change [Community Impact News]
- Sale, Closure of Upper Kirby’s 60 Degrees Mastercrafted Blamed on Westheimer Street Construction [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- Looks Like Hefley’s Is Closing After Bar’s W. Gray Property Listed on LoopNet [Eater Houston]
- North Italia Now Open in BLVD Place [Eater Houston]
- W. 43rd St. Residents Want Slower Traffic on Their Garden Oaks Street [Houston Public Media]
- Slow, Clicky Reveal of What Houston’s Population Will Look Like in 2050, According to State Demographer [Houston Chronicle]
- The Highs and Lows of the Astrodome, the ‘Stadium of the Future’ [NY Times]
Photo of Houston Club building: Christopher Andrews via Twitter
Headlines
