OLD DAILY REVIEW CAFE SPOT, NORTH MONTROSE MIGHT SOON BE UP A CREEK 
Back in March, the Daily Review Café on W. Lamar St. off Dunlavy closed temporarily with a notice about “water issues”; shortly afterward the owners announced the restaurant and its extensive patio wouldn’t reopen. A “for lease” sign has been up at the space for several months, but it now appears the property has attracted a buyer. Eater Houston’s new sleuth-in-residence Jakeisha Wilmore has gathered clues that point to the participation of Gary Mosley’s Creek Group, the company behind the Onion Creek Coffee House, Dry Creek Cafe, and the Cedar Creek and Canyon Creek Bars and Grills. Only this time, the serial restaurateur appears to be flying under a different name: “A limited liability company formed under Piggy’s Tavern was filed by Mosley’s restaurant group in August,” Wilmore writes. “The group also filed for a mixed beverage permit and mixed beverage late night permit from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC). The address listed to conduct business is 3412 West Lamar,” the Daily Review spot. [Eater Houston] Photo: Daily Review Café
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- Principal Financial Group Buys 14-Story Bellevue Office Building at S. Shepherd and Fairview Previously Known as Shepherd Place [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
- Cabot Properties Buys Clay-Campbell I and II in Northwest Houston, Kirby Business Center in South Houston [Realty News Report]
- Rent Premiums for New Construction Highest in Greenway Plaza, West Loop, Central Business District, Says CBRE Report [Houston Business Journal]
- In Past 4 Years, 89 Companies Have Moved to or Expanded in Houston Region, Finds CBRE [Houston Chronicle]
- Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center President Thinks Epicenter of Texas Medical Center Will Move South, to New McNair Campus [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Houston Had the Sixth Fastest-Moving Housing Market in the U.S. in September, Says Realtor.com Report [Houston Business Journal]
- Restaurant Chain Zoës Kitchen Opening in the Heights This Thursday at 250 W. 20th St. [The Leader; previously on Swamplot]
- Number of College Graduates Aged 25-34 Increased 50% in Houston from 2000 to 2012, According to New Think Tank [New York Times]
- Surfside Beach Getting 140-Ft.-Tall Weather Data Collection Station Installed To Measure Storms [Houston Public Media]
Photo inside the new Micro Center at S. Rice Ave. and Westpark: Swamplot inbox
Headlines
It’s not the largest of the townhomes lining West University’s Northern border, but it might be the tallest — and it’s certainly the whitest. The stucco contemporary’s listing at $485K mid-month points out the home was built in 1983, not the 1973 found on HCAD. A 3-story design amid 2-story neighbors, the front loader comes with a crow’s nest view north and west that takes in Greenway Plaza. H-E-B’s Buffalo Market is across and down the street.
Decked Out
- 6506 Cindy Ln. [HAR]
The steel-framed doubled-up home at 115 Arnold St. in Rice Military (pictured above) owned by Houston restaurateur Ouisie Jones and her husband Harry Jones earned its demolition permit yesterday, a few months after the property was sold to a developer — for $2.2 million. (It was asking $2.65 million this past March, when Swamplot featured it.) The 24,915-sq.-ft. property is being joined with the slightly larger plot of land under the adjacent warehouse building at 5202 Chandler St. to make space for an F-shaped 22-townhome development.
Redevelopment on the Menu
By now, most of us have probably been tricked once or twice by an incredibly realistic rendering of a building that we thought was an actual photograph. Here’s something that might do the reverse: If after several viewings, you still suspect this fly-through of the 10-month-old city park forged out of the former Bethel Missionary Baptist Church at 801 Andrews St. in the Fourth Ward might have been created at least in part with modeling software, you should be excused. But it’s actual aerial footage from Seventh Ray Films, using a DGI Phantom 2 quadcopter — with a fair amount of post-production work to achieve a more “cinematic” look.
- Previously on Swamplot: New Fourth Ward Park of the Open Church; Rumblings Around the Fourth Ward’s Bethel Missionary Baptist Church
Video: Seventh Ray Films
Can Your Drone Do This?
Ground-level view corridors were limited by extensive street closures early Sunday morning, which meant that the best views of the controlled demolition of the denuded Houston Club Building at 811 Rusk St. were to be had from inside neighboring office towers. The video above and its entertaining soundtrack was posted to YouTube by Culturemap yesterday (and have already inspired its first quasi-parody video), though it’s almost identical to the (longer) raw video feed posted by KHOU. Once cleanup is complete, Skanska will begin construction of the 35-story Capitol Tower on that site.
- RAW: Houston Club Implosion [KHOU]
- Sunday A.M. Implosion Clears Way for 750,000 SF Office Tower [Realty News Report]
- Previously on Swamplot: Pennzoil Place’s Sticky Damage Control Plan; Hulking Remains of Houston Club Building Downtown Will Get Dynamited Early Sunday Morning; The Clubbing of the Houston Club Building Begins; Houston Club Building Will Be Demolished, Say Auctioneers; Will Skanska Knock Down the Houston Club?
Video: Culturemap/KHOU
Wow. Wow. Wow.
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Sometimes it’s just so hard to keep it together.
- 5-Story ‘Gateway at Spring Valley’ Spec Office Project Going Up on North Side of Katy Fwy. at Campbell Rd. [Houston Business Journal]
- Sam Houston State University Working on Deal To Build Medical School on Former Camp Strake Property [Community Impact Newspaper; previously on Swamplot]
- Month-Old Tout Suite Coffee Shop and Bakery in Old Warehouse at 2001 Commerce at Chartres Already a Popular East Downtown Hangout [Houston Chronicle]
- Smoothie King Plans To Open 4 Houston-Area Stores By End of This Year, Up To 6 More in 2015 [Houston Chronicle]
- Shrimp N’ Stuff To Open Second Galveston Location Next Month in Historic Washington Hotel Building at 2228 Mechanic [Prime Property]
- Inside the New Micro Center at S. Rice Ave. and Westpark [TechBlog; previously on Swamplot]
- Median Price of New Woodlands House Jumped by More Than $100K in 2 Years, Finds Metrostudy [Houston Chronicle]
- At 40, The Woodlands Has Drifted Away from Founder’s Original Vision [Houston Chronicle]
- Possible Routes Being Studied for Dallas-to-Houston High-Speed Rail Line [Dallas Morning News]
- Downtown Bike Lane on Lamar St. Delayed Until Year’s End as City Waits for ‘Armadillos’ [Houston Chronicle]
- The 7 Once and Future Historic Houston Teardowns That Tear Up Ralph Bivins on the Inside [Culturemap]
- Why Houston Needs a 100-Foot Statue of Willis Carrier, the Man Who Invented A/C [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of McGovern Centennial Gardens, Hermann Park: Swamplot inbox
Headlines
Don’t be fooled by the apparent symmetry at the entry (top). Once you’re inside the updated 1982 home in Cambridge Green, a mewsy subdivision just west of Kirby Dr. and south of W. Holcombe Blvd., you’ll see that much of the footprint swings to one side. A combo living-dining room further emphasizes the long and low of the lot-filler’s layout. The north-facing front entry looks down the length of a pedestrian-minded greenbelt that spools off the neighborhood street’s loop. A listing that began in July 2014 terminated earlier this month; a relisting by a new agency last week carries a $984,500 price tag.
Mall Walker
A truck-mounted crane at work on Mac Haik Realty’s Energy Tower IV on the north side of the Katy Fwy. just west of Kirkwood fell over earlier this afternoon, damaging scaffolding, a portion of the building’s curtain wall on a few lower floors, a fence separating the construction site from the adjacent Don McGill Toyota dealership at 11800 Katy Fwy., and a truck or 2 parked on the sales lot. No injuries have yet been reported. The 17-story, 450,000-sq.-ft. building began construction last August.
- Large crane falls over at building under construction in west Houston [Click2Houston]
- Previously on Swamplot:Â A New 17-Story Office Tower Just Like the Others in the Energy Corridor
Video still: Click2Houston
Construction Accidents
Pictured above on a grassy field standing in for its potential newer neighbors is the 17-story, Kirksey-designed highrise condo building Pelican Builders is planning for a 1.5-acre lot it bought from the site of the former Westcreek Apartments. It’ll go up near the taller SkyHouse River Oaks now under construction on another section of Westcreek Ln. just south of San Felipe (viewed at left from the adjacent Target parking lot). Nancy Sarnoff reports that financing for Pelican’s project hasn’t been finalized, but the company says it plans to begin constructing the project next summer, whether or not it pre-sells any units. It’ll take 2 years to build.
Pelican Builders
- 8211 Katy Fwy. Unit 44 [HAR]
Why are so many of the men featured in the Tinder Guys Posing with Art Tumblr posing with art that’s in Houston? Maybe it’s because the website’s creator and curator, Sally Glass, is based here. Scroll through the entries Glass has been posting since April and you’ll not only find available men on Tinder who’ve staked out positions in and around some of the city’s more prominent sculptures and paintings, you’ll also find a handy guide to the works they favor:
Local Screenshots
