- 1516 Campbell Rd. [HAR]
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“Does a building have diplomatic immunity to local ordinances if [its site] is deemed international soil?” asks Architect’s Newspaper reporter Jay Thomas, reporting on the variance request made on behalf of a new General Consulate of Saudi Arabia complex in Westchase — which Houston’s planning commission denied in December. The applicants for the variance appear to say yes, it does: “The Consulate should be considered foreign soil and should be allowed to develop the property as they have planned as long as it doesn’t harm the public in any way,” reads the application.
But the design team went ahead and applied for the variance anyway. Why?
International Setbacks
Alice Barr and her KHOU camera crew spend an authorized-by-building-management evening on top of an unnamed Downtown hotel to feature the photography and highrise hijinx of the “rooftopper” who goes by the name of Visual Contrabrand. The photographer (pictured above) tells Barr he’s afraid of heights, and that even after climbing down, glances at some of the images he’s taken “still make my palms sweaty.” But that doesn’t stop him from finding a way to access various tall structures around town (“without destroying any property,” he says) and snapping daredevil pix with his Canon 70D.
Night Pix
- BP Looking To Sublease Office Space in 2 Buildings at its Westlake Campus in the Energy Corridor [Houston Business Journal]
- Construction Begins on 238-Apartment ‘Plantation Park’ in Lake Jackson [Prime Property]
- Table 57 Restaurant Inside New H-E-B on San Felipe To Open Feb. 18 [Food Chronicles]
- Salt N Pepper Opening New Beer Market Co. in Midtown in Former Medical Office at 3304 Milam [Culturemap]
- Supporters of Light Rail One Day Going to Houston Airports Shouldn’t Get Their Hopes Up [The Highwayman]
- Hearing on Freedmen’s Town Bricks To Resume on Monday [Houston Public Media]
- Arson Investigators Looking into Early Morning Fire at Quba Islamic Institute at 730 FM 1959 Near Ellington Airport [KHOU]
- Ron Roznovsky, Owner of Roznovsky’s Hamburgers in Oak Forest, Has Passed Away [Houstonia]
Photo of I-10: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
You might want to grab a spoon to dig into this 2001 neo-Victorian on a big corner lot in the Bellewood (spelled Bellwood in some places) neighborhood of Spring Branch. Its frothy paint pairings with chocolate- or vanilla-stained trim would be right at home in an ice cream shoppe. The pier-and-beam property last changed hands in June 2012, at $765K. Its listing last week has a $1.15 million asking price. There’s an open house scheduled for Sundae afternoon.
Lots of Lot
- 429 Woodland St. [HAR]
Is H-E-B planning to build a new Bellaire store in the triangle-shaped block surrounded by S. Rice Ave., Bissonnet, and Cedar St., in the north corner of the Bellaire Triangle? This week’s Southwest News implies that the Texas-based grocery company is: “H-E-B has tentatively reserved Bellaire’s Civic Center auditorium on Feb. 24 for the Big Reveal: a new supermarket for Bellaire,” reads the page-one story, which also notes that engineers have submitted a planned development request with the city for an H-E-B at 5106 Cedar St., to be heard by the zoning commission on March 10.
But H-E-B Houston division president Scott McClelland tells Swamplot that the Cedar St. spot is only “one location we are considering. Because of the size and shape of the center, we would have to be innovative in our approach. We have not locked down firm plans at this time.”
Bellaire Triangle
NEW MONTROSE APARTMENT LISTING SERVICE ON A LEASH 
Interested in seeing what kind of only-a-sign-in-the-yard rentals are available in Montrose, but don’t have time to walk the neighborhood with your dog to find them all and scoop up the phone numbers? No problem! Montrose Corgi Lady is doing it for you, and posting all the yard-and-sign pics she comes across (“Rentals I find while I’m out walking my dog”) on her new Tumblr. [Walkabout Rentals, via Reddit] Photo of 2501 Whitney St.: Montrose Corgi Lady
- Single-Family Home Sales Went Up 6% in January Over Last Year, Finds HAR [Culturemap]
- Third SkyHouse Apartment Tower in Houston Has Broken Ground Downtown at 1725 Main St. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Toll Brothers and Cernus Development’s 692-Acre Woodson’s Reserve Opening on a New Section of Grand Pkwy. [Realty News Report]
- CastleRock Communities Has Acquired 106 Acres in Baytown for New Residential Community [Houston Business Journal]
- Marvy Finger’s Midrise Apartment Project the Susanne, on Site of Former Montrose Fiesta, Begins Leasing, Releases Prices [BuzzBuzzHome; previously on Swamplot]
- Trader Joe’s at the LaCenterra in Cinco Ranch Opening This Friday [Prime Property]
- Akamaru Japanese Restaurant Now Open in Former Dean’s and The Fairview Space at 315 Fairview [Eater Houston]
- Sen. Bettencourt’s Proposal To Double School Property Tax Homestead Exemption Would Cost State $1B, Require Amending Constitution [Texas Politics]
- Nearly a Dozen ‘Ghost Bikes’ in Houston Have Disappeared or Been Vandalized [abc13]
Photo of Hermann Park: Brandi Lynn via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
- 2454 Pine Valley Ct. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW ABOUT A NEIGHBORHOOD PARKING POOL? 
“If businesses want to lessen their on-site parking requirements (once you get inside the Loop, they ALL do), my vote is that we should let them pool parking. Organizations could be set up that are similar to a MUDs but that build and maintain central parking garages instead of utilities. Businesses in the GD (Garage District) have their parking requirements taken care of by the central parking garage — they just need to confirm that there’s capacity through a letter of availability. This would allow for the car-less density that we’re after Inside the Loop; it would make it a lot easier to develop there, but it would also prevent parking from being a problem.” [ZAW, commenting on Coltivare’s Patio Wrap Draws Attention from the City] Illustration: Lulu
After a year and a half of redrawing, presenting, and tweaking, Metro’s “reimagined” transit plan was approved by the transportation agency’s board today. The interactive map above shows the whole system in all its reconfigured glory, including the new rail lines currently scheduled to begin running in April. Bus routes will switch over to the above route system in August.
All Approved for August
DISTRIBUTING DISASTER RELIEF FUNDS THROUGH TIRZ 
A reader has a question about a particular Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone in Houston: “In this example scenario, the city of Houston is giving [Hurricane Ike] money to a developer for infrastructure improvements on their lot (located in a TIRZ) but the requirement is that the developer must build some affordable homes on that lot.
The twist to this is that the city would give the developer money, but only if it is given through the TIRZ. Speaking with the TIRZ board, they said that they plan to distribute that money around the entire TIRZ and not just to that single development. This of course has the neighboring residents and the developer worried about how the funds will be given.
Is this the normal process for distributing Ike funding? And can a TIRZ take money away from the developing area?” Map of area Tax Increment Reinvestment Zones: City of Houston
