- 3418 High Pine Ct. [HAR]
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The rendering at top from Texas real estate firm Hunington shows off what Rex Supply’s double-block complex along the Green Line would look like redone with a shop-lined pedestrian zone dubbed Rex Alley at its heart, where Everton St. is now. The full setting is called Milby Junction and would be carved from the array of industrial buildings that sit on either side of the north-south road between Harrisburg Blvd. and Preston St. right now. The 2 biggest are shown preserved in the map above, along with a house to the northwest that appears to play no part in Hunington’s plans.
An L-shaped building adjacent to the house is the one goner. It’s visible just north of the structure labeled REX SUPPLY in the view below from the corner of Harrisburg and Milby:
Milby Junction
In the span of just 3 days, the Heights Jack in the Box has closed down and abandoned both its sky- and street-level boxes. The photo above shows the empty store and its parking lot off Shepherd, where a green cherry-picker‘s now the only vehicle present.
The property’s longtime owner — a national real estate firm that owns the land beneath lots of fast food joints — sold it in 2016, which was a transformational year for the rest of the intersection as well. A few months later, Abel Motors left its spot across Shepherd, making way for the Burger Joint that’s now moving in. And on the south side of 20th St., pizza joint Mellow Mushroom and adjacent desert shop Moody Ice opened up — in what used to be Dealer Sales‘ garage and office building.
The Leftovers
- Stonelake Capital Partners To Break Ground on 15-Story Park Place Tower Near River Oaks District in January [HBJ ($)]
- Weingarten To Pour Foundation at The Driscoll in River Oaks High-Rise [HBJ ($)]
- Caldwell Cos. To Develop Multifamily Project in Towne Lake [Realty News Report]
- About 70% of Downtown’s Lyric Market Vendors Will Be Out-of-Towners [Bisnow]
- Houston City Council Agrees To Subsidize Fifth Ward Grocery Near Fiesta Mart [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston’s Economy About the Same As a Year Ago at $436.4B [HBJ]
- Sneak Peek at Kinder Institute’s Study on Houston’s Walkability [Houston Public Media]
- Harvey Cleanup Workers Reporting Wage Theft [The Guardian]
- Rice Design Alliance Launching Road Trip to San Antonio [The Rice Design Alliance]
- Goodrich Great-Grandma Hunts 12-Foot Alligator Believed To Have Killed Her Miniature Pony [Houston Chronicle]
Photo: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
These have been claimed:
- 15336 Cardinal Trl. [HAR]
The chain’s new 3004 Yale St. location opens next Friday, September 28 in the strip behind the 4-week-old grocery store and its parking lot off 610. Just off-camera to the left of the gym’s spot is the Verizon store that’s already doing business in the retail building.
It’s holding down the fort all by itself right now, but once Orangetheory moves in next door a bunch more tenants are expected to follow:
Independence Heights
A Swamplot reader sends this photo of an excavator limbering up before the main event at 1638 Bonnie Brae St. Sandcastle Homes bought the nearly 90-year-old building in July and filed plans to build a new house on the property last month. It’s nestled within the Montrose sub-neighborhood known as Castle Court, a few doors down from Dunlavy St.
Photo: Swamplox inbox
Castle Court Crackup
- Hines Building in Greens Port Industrial Park Near Ship Channel Sold [HBJ ($)]
- Arbor Oaks Neighborhood Slowly Disappearing One Buyout at a Time [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Mayor Turner Proposes Increase of Less Than 1% in Houston’s Property Tax Rate [Houston Chronicle]
- What International Homebuyers Are Looking for in Texas [HBJ ($)]
- The Menil Collection Reopens Saturday After 6-Month Renovation [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Tres Leches Bakery Treacherous Leches Opens in Downtown’s Conservatory Food Hall [abc13]
Photo of construction at Heights Waterworks: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
This row of houses, plus some follow-on clearance at UOS:
- 8006 Beaufort Dr. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON’S POPULATION FORECAST DOESN’T ACCOUNT FOR THE WEATHER 
“These studies always miss the boat on the climate change; I’d be surprised if population growth in Houston and the surrounding area hasn’t plateaued and maybe even begun to decrease by 2040. Let me put it this way: If even the most conservative projections are correct, I wouldn’t want to be living here then. If you think the flooding and the summer temperatures are bad now . . .” [Christian, commenting on Houston’s Population Will Break 10M by 2040, Says METRO Study] Illustration: Lulu
As heralded by strange sensations earlier this month, crews have begun transforming the former Montrose Mining Company into Houston’s second Postino Wine Bar by stripping the covered patio shown above from the building’s east side. So far, the rest of its gray brick exterior remains unchanged, except a portion of the facade on Grant St. that’s recently gone yellow as part of the redo:
805 Pacific St.
EMPTY LEELAND ST. FURNITURE WORKSHOP NOW HAS A WINE SIGN ON IT 
A reader tells Swamplot one of those TABC posters is up on the building at 3107 Leeland St., and the applicant it names: The Wine House, LLC. The last tenant Metamorphose Studios did double-duty in the 2,800-sq.-ft. space: dealing furniture and also guiding visitors in the art of refurbishing items themselves (“I recommend the chairapy class,” wrote the venue’s sole Yelp reviewer in 2016, adding that of the items for sale: “The hand painted and embellished cattle skulls are to die for!“) Despite its departure from Houston, the workshop lives on as part of an antique store up in Navasota. Photo: Metamorphose Studios
Signage is down and a closure notice is up on Blast Fitness’s now-former 3936 N. Shepherd storefront, which lies within the northern portion of the strip that Aldi plans to take over. Pictured above is that portion — just south of Garden Oaks Blvd. — where Yoga Collective and a next-door vacuum shop took off previously to make room for the grocer. Blast’s turf was on the south side of theirs, near where retail signs and parking activity pick back up on the right in the image.
For those in need of a new gym, not to worry: Blast is letting customers transfer their memberships to any location run by its affiliate brand Fitness Connection. The nearest of that chain’s 14 Houston fitness centers? Eight miles away in Greenspoint Mall.
- Previously on Swamplot: Aldi Is Making Its Move into the Garden Oaks Shopping Center; ALDI Taking the Yoga Collective’s Spot in Garden Oaks; Other New Tenants in the Works; What’s Going Into the Garden Oaks Box the Yoga Collective Is Being Kicked Out Of?
Photos: Dan Bradley
Clearing the Way
