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Demolition of Micro Center, 1717 West Loop South, Houston

Demolition of Micro Center, 1717 West Loop South, Houston Demolition crews wiping the West Loop-side slate clean of the recently vacated Micro CenterÂ computer store and its parking lot took a break over the weekend, allowing a brief interlude for views of dramatic, halted scene of destruction in Post Oak Park. Amegy Bank, which bought the property at 1717 West Loop South in March, plans to build a new headquarters office building for itself on the site after the computer outlet is unplugged.

Demolition Porn

77027, Demolitions, Post Oak Park, Redevelopment, Retail

Home Decor

11/17/14 2:45pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Home of the Rock

5 Comments

home-listing-lava-meteor-11602-applewood

11602 Applewood St. [HAR]

77024, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Memorial, Old Orchard

11/17/14 1:15pm

City Nets $300K Settlement for Late-Night Kirby Dr. Wendy’s Oak-Axing Incident

30 Comments

Partial Demolition of Wendy's Restaurant, 5003 Kirby Dr., Upper Kirby, Houston

Wendy's Restaurant, 5003 Kirby Dr. at North Blvd., Upper Kirby, Houston

Update, 1:40pm: A revised press release from the mayor’s office now indicates the settlement was for all 6 trees, not 4 as previously indicated. We’ve updated the story below.

A just-announced legal settlement signed late last week means that the owner of the Wendy’s franchise at 5003 Kirby Dr. will be paying a $300,000 fine to the city for the late-night chopping-down and mulching-up of oak trees in the public right-of-way in front of the restaurant late last month. Six trees lining Kirby and North Blvd. were removed in the nighttime incident (illustrated in the before-and-after photos above), which was first reported on Swamplot. Crews from Freddy’s Landscaping and More carried out the tree-removal work under contract; the settlement, however, is to be paid entirely by Mohammed A. Dhanani and HAZA Foods, the Wendy’s franchise owner. All construction work on the restaurant, which was closed and undergoing renovations when the trees were removed, had come to a stop after city officials became aware of the clandestine street-visibility-improvement operation.

Now That’s Better

77098, Fast Food, Landscape, Lawsuits, Restaurants, Trees, Upper Kirby

11/17/14 1:00pm

Hollywood Vietnamese Will Be Gone by Black Friday

8 Comments

hollywood-vietnamese-closing

Hollywood Vietnamese and Chinese Cuisine will close down by the end of the month. Back in August plans came to light of a coming Farb Montrose full-block apartment complexÂ at 2409 Montrose Blvd., a one-acre site once home to Cafe Noche but occupied since 2007 by Hollywood. A sign posted on the door last week informs the public of Hollywood’s demise by the end of the month;Â several staff members told Eater Houston’s Jakeisha WilmoreÂ that Thanksgiving Eve will be its final day of service. How will Montrose late-night diners be able to cope without this vital pipeline to much-needed Lotus Delights, tofu spring rolls, and steaming bowls of ginger-laced Mama’s Hangover Chicken Soup? Turns out they won’t have to, at least not for long:

Phogeddabouddit

77006, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

11/17/14 10:30am

Say Salaam to the Shady Acres Home of Houston’s First Arabic Immersion School

21 Comments

SAY SALAAM TO THE SHADY ACRES HOME OF HOUSTON’S FIRST ARABIC IMMERSION SCHOOL HISD-Arabic-use-this Here’s where some of Houston’s future bilingual Arabic-English speakers will learn their two alphabets: HISD’s former Holden Elementary and ~~the current home of~~ more recently the Energy Institute High School at 812 W. 28th. St., just across N. Durham St. from a ramshackle flower shop just inside the North Loop. An energy school giving way to Arabic-language instruction? Synergy? Arabic trails only Spanish (and English) among languages HISD students speak at home, according to statistics from the district.Â Interested parents of rising pre-kindergartners and kindergartners were able to start applying last Friday for the magnet program slated to begin next Fall.Â Two each of pre-K and kindergarten classes will comprise the school’s first classes next year. If the district’s first Arabic immersion school is to operate the same way the existing Spanish- and Mandarin-English HISD schools do, students will be taught half in English and half in Modern Standard Arabic. [HISD] Photo: Swamplot Inbox

77008, HISD, Schools, Shady-Acres

Daily Demolition Report

11/17/14 9:30am

Daily Demolition Report: Take It from Beaver

2 Comments

901 Sandman St., Fowler Place, Rice Military, Houston

Swamplotâ€™s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.

A whole lot of digging on West Main St. — and other earth-shattering demo action around town.

Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions

Headlines

11/17/14 8:30am

Paying for Cost Overruns on UH’s New TDECU Stadium; The Last-Minute Settlement in the San Jacinto River Waste Pits Trial

by Meredith Deliso

7 Comments

houston-construction-skyline

Power Center with Unnamed Grocery Store Planned for Corner ofÂ Grand Parkway and Holzwarth Rd. in Springwoods VillageÂ [Prime Property]
The Best Houston Markets for Commercial Projects in 2015, According to Transwestern [Houston Business Journal]
Energy Corridor Christian’s Tailgate To Be Biggest Yet at 6,500-SF, 45 TVs; Will Feature Bar Made from Shipping Container [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot]
UH Launching Internal Audit into $5M in Funding Used on New Football Stadium That Was Reserved for Academics [Houston Chronicle]
Why the Death of Toll Roads Has Been Greatly Exaggerated [The Highwayman]
San Jacinto River Waste Pit Trial Ends with Waste Management Making Deal To Pay Nearly $30M in Damages, International Paper Cleared of Responsibility by Split Jury [Houston Chronicle ($)]
Senate To Vote on Keystone Pipeline Proposal Tuesday After U.S. House Passes Bill [Click2Houston]
Renewed Investment and Activity in Philadelphia’s Railway Network Could Have City Rival Houston as an Energy Hub [CNBC]
Tiger Woods Amazed To Find Actual Changes in Topography at Site of Bluejack National Golf Club in MontgomeryÂ [Prime Property]
See the Galleria’s 55-Ft. Christmas Tree Get Decorated in 25 Seconds in Timelapse Video [Culturemap]

Photo of West Loop: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines

Broadmoor

11/14/14 3:00pm

Will This Updated Park-View Home in the East End Flip for $339K?

by CALwords

15 Comments

1510-pearson-10

1510-pearson-01

Overhauled this year, a 1935 Broadmoor foursquare across the street from a small park is aiming for a sale price ofÂ $339,000Â — after a purchase in August 2013 for $127,500. What comes with a more-than-$200K bounce? Some of the updates to the property, which is located west of Telephone Rd. and near the neighborhood’s namesake street, include a renovatedÂ kitchen and bathrooms, roof, electrical and plumbing systems, and air conditioning. But the home’s interior has kept its 80-year-old proportions, trim, and efficient floor plan:

A Broadmoor Foursquare

77023, Broadmoor, East End, Flipping, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Renovations

Comments

11/14/14 2:00pm

Comment of the Day: How Real Estate Trailblazers Really Can Burn Up the Trail

Comments, Development Regulations, Neighborhood Disputes

3 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW REAL ESTATE TRAILBLAZERS REALLY CAN BURN UP THE TRAIL Burning Up the Road “There are very real consequences for having a NIMBY-smashing attitude for developers. Yes, the developers usually get their way, but they often end up ruining it for the next guy. Ashby developers will get to build, but the next guy might not because of the high-rise buffering ordinance that passed in the wake of the Ashby uproar. 380 agreements flowed like a river to Walmart and Kroger, but community uproar has meant that only Costco has since been able to get a similar deal despite some healthy opposition in city council. And there has only been one 380 agreement in 2014 outside of the downtown urban living initiative (which does require first floor space to be retail ready). There are a whole host of development regulations that have their root in NIMBY activism: drainage detention, tree ordinance, and parking minimums, to name a few.” [Old School, commenting on Comment of the Day: Don’t Let the Locals Get in the Way of Your Project] Illustration: Lulu

11/14/14 1:00pm

Tilman Fertitta Sees and Smells a Nationwide Real Estate Crash, Starting in Houston

Forecasts, Real Estate Investing

38 Comments

TILMAN FERTITTA SEES AND SMELLS A NATIONWIDE REAL ESTATE CRASH, STARTING IN HOUSTON fertitta-bloomberg Landry’s CEO and purported Shiloh Club irregular Tilman Fertitta ladled out a deep bowl of bear stew from the teevee-front kitchen of his restaurant empire Wednesday, telling Bloomberg TV viewersÂ that he smells a national real estate crash on the order of what happened in 1986, and volunteering that he “can see it in Houston right now.” He prefaced these comments to hosts Erik Schatzker and Stephanie RuhleÂ with a survey of the “crazy numbers” he is seeing in real estate valuations and transactions: “You are seeing it in New York probably more than anywhere else; but you are seeing it in Texas; you are seeing it in California.Â And . . . history always repeats itself as we always know, but I think it’s going to repeat a little sooner this time. You can just see it coming. There are so many cranes everywhere.”Â What’s the trigger?Â “If oil stays in theÂ 70-something dollar rangeÂ — where it is right now — you’re gonna see it inÂ Houston first,” he said, adding that it might take an oil price of $50 a barrel to bring on a “total crash” like the one in the eighties that knocked Houston off its feet for a good decade. Fertitta continued his jeremiad with a few complaintsÂ about inflation, which he sees as “huge,” no matter what Ben Bernanke has to say to the contrary. [Bloomberg TV; previously on Swamplot]

Condos

11/14/14 10:00am

Here’s a First Glimpse of the Actual Design for the 100-Unit Condo Tower Randall Davis Wants To Put at the End of GreenStreet Downtown

32 Comments

Rendering of the Marlowe, Proposed Condo Tower at 1211 Caroline St., Downtown Houston Yesterday the Downtown Management District approved funding under the city’s downtown living initiative for Randall Davis’s planned downtown condo tower. But before Swamplot could receive any additional entries in the impromptu design competition for the project initiated by a reader, the developer appears to have gone ahead and dropped a view of his own proposal. Here, in all it’s blanc-et-noir-ish splendor, is an actual rendering of the Marlowe as its developer intends it. The 100-unit building is shown hovering over a Photoshop-white blanket atop an aerial map of the block bounded by Polk, Caroline, Austin, and Dallas streets, across the street from the House of Blues at the eastern end of GreenStreet, the renamed Houston Pavilions.

The Marlowe

380 Agreements, 77002, Condos, Downtown, Highrises, Mixed-Use, Proposed Developments, Randall Davis

Daily Demolition Report

11/14/14 9:15am

Daily Demolition Report: Starbucked

9 Comments

2324 South Blvd., Greenbriar, Houston

We’ll have your coffee order ready shortly.

Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions

Headlines

11/14/14 8:30am

Property Tax Bills Are in the Mail; Petroleum Club Auction Hauls

by Meredith Deliso

1 Comment

The Arrabella Apartments, 1009 Brittmoore Rd., Spring Branch, Houston

Transwestern’s 21-Story Uptown Headquarters on the Market, Expected To Fetch $107M [Realty News Report]
What Bidders Picked Up at the Petroleum Club Auction as It Clears House Before Moving to 1201 Louisiana [Houston Chronicle]
Transwestern’s Predictions for Houston’s Commercial Real Estate Market in 2015 [Houston Business Journal]
The Other Residential Projects Surge Homes is Planning in Houston [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
Construction in Greater Houston Area Will Generate Nearly 80K Middle-Skill Jobs Through 2017, According to JPMorgan Chase [Houston Public Media]
Average Homestead in Harris County ‘Could See’ Property Tax Increase of $400 [The Leader]
What Metro Needs To Do To Get More People Using Public Transit [Not of It]
Old Spring Town Businesses Slowly Moving Over to Modern Sewer System [MyFoxHouston]
Hive with 40K Bees Removed from Underneath Katy Bridge Near West Little York Rd. and Queenston Blvd. [Click2Houston]

Photo of the Arrabella, 1009 Brittmoore Dr.: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines

11/13/14 5:00pm

A Colorized Crosby Place Townhome Goes Bold, Asks $325K

by CALwords

8 Comments

1211-crosby-st19

1211-crosby-st18

Colors a-blazing and juxtaposed vibe big time within a 2004 townhome in Crosby Place that popped up on the market a week ago. Its location is in the cluster of brightly painted townhome developments on the eastern edge of the Fourth Ward near Midtown. On listing day, theÂ metal-clad property appears to have briefly flirted with a $330,000 asking price but revertedÂ to its original $324,900. Today, fresh listing photos brought in crisper staging of the space . . .