FERTITTA: THAT WAS NOT ME IN THAT STUDEWOOD ST. DIVE 
Billionaire Landry’s CEO Tilman Fertitta categorically denies that he was recently seen in venerable Houston Heights dive bar the Shiloh Club, knocking back cocktails and peppering regulars for local information. “I was not there,” the world’s richest restaurateur tells the Houston Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff. He also denied rumors of a pending Landry’s land invasion of the Heights. (His Shepherd Dr. Saltgrass-and-Cadillac-Bar mini-stronghold will stay in Cottage Grove south of I-10 for now.) He’s about volume, something the Heights can’t provide him in ample measure: “The way that I’m set up, I have to do a lot of business, and they’re more smaller restaurants.”  With one potential exception: “Brenner’s on the Bayou could be there. But that’s probably around here the only (Landry’s) restaurant that could be in the Heights.” Fertitta went on to reiterate and expand on a bearish short-term real estate market forecast he first delivered on Bloomberg TV earlier this month. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Bloomberg TV
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- Old Richmond Rd. Slaughterhouse Sent 500 Gallons of Chicken and Goat Blood into Roadside Ditch, Claims State and County Lawsuit [Houston Chronicle]
- Gated Enclave at Riverstone Neighborhood in Sugar Land Will Feature New Homes with Prayer Rooms, Casitas [Houston Business Journal]
- Half-Ton Manatee in Critical Condition Sent to San Antonio After Rescue from Trinity Bay Foray [KHOU]
- Randy Rucker’s New Bramble Restaurant To Open in Former Mancuso’s Spot at 2231 S. Voss Rd. in January [Food Chronicles]
- Highland Park Estate of Developer Trammell Crow Goes on the Market in Dallas for Just Shy of $60 Million [Culturemap]
- Pizza Restaurant Named Fire Station #11 Taking Over Former Bronx Bar Spot at 4520 Washington Ave [Eater Houston]
- Why Whitney Bank Has Been Selling Off Its Houston Branches [Houston Business Journal]
- Woodlands Mall, Katy Mills, and Galleria Top List of Malls with Most Crime Calls to Police [Click2Houston]
- Houston Arts Alliance Hires Interim Replacement for Director Who Resigned After Agency’s Flubbed GRB Sculpture Commission [Glasstire]
- From Auto Showroom to Crack House to Weekly Boarding House: A Brief History of Downtown’s Londale Hotel [Houston Chronicle]
- A View of Pregame Ceremonies at NRG Stadium from a Video Camera Mounted on a Bald Eagle [Ultimate Texans]
- #BlackFridayParking Hashtag Aims To Boost Fight Against Minimum Parking Standards [Not of It]
Photo of I-45: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr pool
Headlines
- 1609 Tabor St. [HAR]
Tweaks to a 1977 Briarmeadow home have left it looking rather peachy inside, thanks to a dream-state color wash. The heavy-roofed French-ish property last sold in 2013, for $291,040, and has appeared in an assortment of listings and relistings ever since. Updated in that interim, the westward-facing home is now  attempting a flip at $409,000. Previous listings sought a high of $489K in July 2013, with reductions to $459K in September 2013, $449K in April 2014 (which snagged a contract but not a closing), and $429K in July 2014 — before taking a breather from the market in August. Renovations picked the bones clean and added new ingredients . . .
Continuity
Phase 2 of Texas A&M’s $450 million Kyle Field makeover will get underway in earnest in the early morning hours of December 21, after a season-long pause to slot in the Aggies’ 2014 home-field gridiron slate. That’s when Christmas will arrive early for demolition junkies, as the stadium’s multitiered west side will come down with a bang.
Some prep work has already begun, but the pace will quicken about two hours after the conclusion of the Aggies’ season finale on Thanksgiving Day against LSU. That’s when the whole stadium will once again become a construction zone, and only those with the proper credentials will be granted entry.
Expanding Aggieland
METRO GETTING READY TO SELL OFF THE CLOSED PINEMONT PARK & RIDE 
This spring the ramp connecting Metro’s Pinemont Park and Ride to Hwy. 290 was removed as part of TxDOT’s 290 widening project. The facility closed down a few weeks before the ramp vanished. Now the 14.8-acre Pinemont site could go up for sale before the end of the year. Because the Park and Ride’s construction had been partially funded by Uncle Sam, the Federal Transit Administration will have to grant Metro permission to sell. Once that hurdle is cleared, Metro will begin reading sealed bids on the property. The site sprawls out behind Hwy. 290’s Cafe Red Onion, abuts an HISD motor pool and fronts Pinemont Dr. It also sports a handy shortcut to the 290 feeder road along Federal Plaza Dr. The Collier Regional Library stands across Pinemont and a trio of parks — Rosslyn, Forest West and Pinemont — dot the cityscape within a half-mile of the site. [The Leader; more info] Photo: Metro
002HOUSTON MAGAZINE GETTING RID OF ITS DOWNTOWN ZIP 
For its seventeenth birthday, sleek-stuff-about-downtown glossy 002houston magazine is stripping away the Zip Code part of its name to indicate its (longstanding) willingness to venture into Discovery Green (010), East Downtown (003), Bellaire (401), Montrose (swinging both ways: 006 and 019), the Energy Corridor (079), The Heights (007, 008, and 009), Pearland (584), Sugar Land (478 and 479), The Woodlands (380, 381, and 389), or wherever a nearby polo match is to be found. Starting with the January issue, the free publication’s new name will be Local Houston Magazine. “Local will continue to provide relevant news targeting those who live and work downtown, but with increased coverage throughout Greater Houston,” reads a notice sent out yesterday from 002houston magazine’s Spring St. editorial offices (in 007), “with editors covering food, culture, art and style for Houstonians who make Houston one of the coolest cities in America.”
Now is the season for acknowledging how much we appreciate all the wonderful buildings we have. Except, of course, for these ones:
- New York Company Converting 17-Story 1960s-Era River Oaks Luxury Apartments Building at 3435 Westheimer into Condos [Houston Chronicle]
- Toll Brothers’ 3,700-Acre Addition to Sienna Plantation To Feature 500 Homes with Models Opening in March 2015 [Prime Property]
- Katy Cane Island Development To Feature Dog Ambassador, Bellagio-Like Conservatory [Houston Business Journal]
- Influx of International Buyers Is Changing Work of Houston Real Estate Professionals [Houston Business Journal]
- Ka Sushi To Join Fat Cat Creamery, Smoothie King, Forthcoming Hugs & Donuts in 19th St. Retail Center Next March [Eater Houston]
- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service To Rescue Manatee Stranded in Canal Near NRG Cedar Bayou Power Plant Today [Houston Business Journal]
- Houston-Area Residents in 77032 Live in the Eighth Most Stressed-Out Zip Code in the Nation, According to Movoto [Culturemap]
- Why Galveston and Houston Still Have No Major Projects Under Way To Protect from Surging Seas 6 Years After Ike [Reuters]
- Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk Joins Dallas-Houston High-Speed Rail Team at Texas Central Railway [Dallas Morning News]
Photo of TDECU Stadium: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Exxon marks the spot for Ronnie Killen’s latest foray into the Pearland meat market: A burger joint, going in a derelict Exxon station at the corner of S. Main St. and Broadway St. and sharing a busy intersection with Whataburger and folksy Pearland institution the Busy Bee Cafe.
Killen had teased readers of his social media sites earlier this month with snapshots of the gas station, but on Friday, he at last confirmed it as the future home of Killen’s Burger on the Killen’s Barbecue Facebook page:
A Garden Oaks home likes balconies so much, it stuffs a few of them inside looking over the living room (top) as well as facing the street (above). The bones of the property beneath a tree canopied lot located just west of Yale St. date to 1940, but it’s been expanded and updated over the years. Last week, its tidy presence popped up on the market sporting a $695,000 asking price.
Canopied Lot
SAYONARA FOR FISH & THE KNIFE? 
Eater Houston’s Jakeisha Wilmore is reporting that Fish & the Knife will close at the end of this month. Wilmore is basing her report on an interview with a Yelp reviewer who said that management at the Briarmeadow sushi house canceled her upcoming holiday event and told her that the restaurant was about to shut down. Wilmore could not reach management for confirmation, but should this really be the end for the 9-month-old restaurant, it would prove an abrupt final act to a bizarre and dramatic saga. The not-designed-by-Tony-Chi restaurant finally opened this February after a roller-coaster ride of a buildout that dragged on for 3 years. Wilmore’s Yelp source told her that the Fish & the Knife’s manager told her “financial challenges” were the cause of the possibly imminent shuttering. The restaurant’s demise might not be lamented in all quarters: On weekends Fish & the Knife transformed into a nightclub, and residents of nearby neighborhoods had become disgruntled with partiers parking along their streets and leaving trash behind. Update, 2:15 pm: Fish & the Knife management tells CultureMap’s Eric Sandler that the restaurant’s closing will be temporary and that the Fish & the Knife will reopen after a rebranding, while the weekend nightclub activities would continue in the meantime. Sandler also reports that opening chef, former Iron Chef America contestant Bob Iacovone, has returned to his hometown of New Orleans. [Eater Houston; Click2Houston; CultureMap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
Update: 3:45 p.m. Eater Houston reports that the name of the sushi bar will be Akamaru.
According to the permit in the window at 315 Fairview, the next occupant of the mixed-use building’s downstairs will be a restaurant named Sushi Bar.Â
Most recently that area had been home to a lounge called The Fairview.
Prior to its incarnation as the Fairview, the building had housed the short-lived Montrose outpost of downtown institution Dean’s Credit Clothing.
Sushi Bar will be situated about halfway between Uchi and the Bluefish.
Montrose Eats
HOUSTON CHRONICLE COMPLEX DOWNTOWN GOING ON SALE — A YEAR OR 2 TOO LATE? 
The Houston Chronicle‘s former real estate reporter says Hearst is putting the Chronicle complex at 801 Texas Ave. up for sale at a less-than-ideal time. Ralph Bivins reports that the newspaper’s parent company has just selected brokerage firm HFF to market the building, on the block surrounded by Milam, Travis, Texas, and Prairie, and its separate parking garage. But “Hearst would have met stronger demand by putting the Chronicle property on the market a year or two ago,” Bivins writes. “Hearst moved too late to catch the crest of the wave. The price for the Chronicle property is expected to be less than $50 million.” In July, the company announced the newspaper’s offices would be moved to revamped facilities in the former Houston Post complex at 4747 Southwest Fwy. [Realty News Report; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Ralph Bivins
