- 1316B Willard St. [Zillow]
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How long has it been since you’ve run along, rowed along, or flown over Buffalo Bayou? Guy-out-with-his-Phantom-quadcopter Marco Luzuriaga filmed this scene earlier this month above a short section of the city’s most prominent drainage canal beginning near the Rosemont Bridge, then turning around and heading a ways toward Downtown. He gives up on the waterway and substitutes a bit of downtown-tangling freeway spaghetti near the end, but if you look into the distance around the 1:30 mark, you can catch a quick progress report on reconstruction of Buffalo Bayou Park.
Video: Marco Luzuriaga, via Brittanie Shey
Tour by Drone
Alonti Catering has done so well with the build-your-own burger spot it’s been operating in the Downtown tunnels since 2010 that it’s taking the concept straight to a feeder-road strip center — a mere 21 miles away at the intersection of Hwy. 290 and ring road FM 1960. The new eT Craft Burgers & Beer taking the place of Kim Kim Vietnamese and Paragon Pools in the end slot at 19841 Northwest Fwy. is scheduled for an official opening this Thursday, and will feature interiors by Uchi designer Michael Hsu and the entrance to the nearby Starbucks drive-thru around back.
FM 1960 and Underground
A fire that broke out in the kitchen of Spanky’s Homemade Pizza early this morning did considerable damage to the structure, reports Click2Houston’s Courtney Gilmore. But if you’re wondering about the “kitchen staff wanted” sign posted outside, or how owner Frank Roache could possibly declare on camera that the restaurant, which has been open on the South Loop feeder road at Woodridge only since 1976, would be “back up and running in about 6 weeks,” here’s a little background:
The much larger Gabby’s Bar-B-Que next door to Spanky’s at 4659 Telephone Rd. closed down earlier this year.
Scooting Over to Telephone Rd.
Every once in a while you need to clear the past-due-date goods from the shelves.
- After Loan Holdup, Grand Texas Theme Park Resumes Construction of RV Resort and Campground Portion [HKA Texas]
- Downtown Office Tower 1000 Main Up for Sale; Could Fetch Record $450MÂ [Culturemap]
- Kirksey’s New $69M Campus for Milby High School Will Keep 100-Year-Old Original Building [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
- JW Marriott Houston Downtown and Its Main Kitchen Restaurant Set for Soft Opening Tomorrow [Food Chronicles; previously on Swamplot]
- McGuyer Homebuilders To Begin Building First Homes in The Meadows at Imperial Oaks [Houston Business Journal]
- Four HPD Officers Suspended for Traffic Ticket Scheme That Collected Nearly $1M in Overtime Pay [Houston Chronicle; more info]
- Some Discovery Green Visitors Upset Over Anatomically Correct Sculpture Near Children’s Splash Pad [Click2Houston]
- Elon Musk Breaks Ground on $85M SpaceX Spaceport Near Brownsville, Calls It Future Mars Launch Site [Click2Houston]
- Hanging Out with a Bunch of Unemployed Concrete Freeway Dividers Near 610 and Long Dr. [OffCite]
Photo of Southwest Fwy.: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
The last time this 1952 River Oaks home attributed to Staub and Rather was on the market was about a decade ago. At the time, it sold for $2.875 million to business titan and philanthropist Jack S. Blanton, who died in December of last year. The 1952 corner property features an expansion by a previous owner back in 1998 — around the time it sold for $1.08 million. In its listing earlier this month, the home’s asking price was $4.85 million. What sorts of add-ons have accompanied the rising prices?
Still Rather Staub-Like
- 5417 Valerie St. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON HAS NO TIME FOR THE PAST 
“Houstonians do not look back at the past. They are so intent upon running into the future at break-neck speed that any glance into the past could lead to a disastrous fall. I will have you know that they are running with scissors.” [Bubba, commenting on The Real Estate Secrets Buried Around Market Square] Illustration: Lulu
Oh, don’t worry too much about that for-sale sign out in front of the shop, note the owners of Sparrow and the Nest: “The shop remains open and we will be keeping regular business hours,” reads a note on the boutique’s blog. Expect just a few interruptions, maybe, commensurate with a non-stop open house atmosphere for the 1,344-sq.-ft. 1920 bungalow duplex at 1020 Studewood St. that Stephanie and Andrew Lienhard renovated a few years ago for their handcraft-retail venture — like last month’s week-long closure to paint the floors.
The residential listing posted over the weekend for the 2-bedroom, 1-1/2 bath structure calls it completely updated (there’s an ACK! mural on the side fence), and is asking $595,000. If and when the property sells, the Lienhardts plan to reduce the “retail aspect” of the business while growing its online presence. A smaller version of the boutique is planned for an unspecified location “a few blocks down the road.”
- 1020 Studewood St. [HAR]
- Announcement [Sparrow and the Nest]
- Field Trip Friday: Sparrow and the Nest [Houston Makerspace]
Photos: Houston Makerspace/Samantha Roberts (front); HAR (interior)
Bungalow Shop for Sale
Atlanta’s Novare Group, known for planting glassy crowned apartment towers in Sunbelt cities, is about to build its third in Houston. If the SkyHouse Main the company is planning for the block surrounded by Main, Fannin, Pease and Jefferson (across the light-rail line from the Beaconsfield) looks familiar, that’s because the new 24-story, 335-unit project appears identical to the SkyHouse Houston building it just completed a block to the north. That means a multi-level parking garage on the east side of the block, and retail space on the ground floor, fronting the rail line.
SkyHouse Main would be the company’s third SkyHouse in Houston: SkyHouse River Oaks is currently under construction southwest of River Oaks, on the site of one of the former Westcreek Apartments just east of the West Loop.
- Novare Starting Another High-Rise Residential Tower in Downtown Houston [Realty News Report]
- SkyHouse #3 (SkyHouse Main) Planned for Block 368 [HAIF]
- Current Projects [Novare Group]
- Previously on Swamplot: What the SkyHouse River Oaks, Not Far from River Oaks, Will Actually Look Like; New ‘River Oaks’ SkyHouse Apartment Tower Wants To Snuggle Up Between Target and the West Loop off San Felipe; The Street Shops in Store for SkyHouse Houston, Now Under Construction Downtown; Downtown SkyHouse Clearing the Ground First; Where Downtown’s New Residential Tower Will Go
Rendering:Â Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart
SkyHouse Main
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
No longer in stock or on special order.
- Galleria Office Tower Replacing the Courtyard on St. James Place Breaks Ground; Should Be Complete by March 2016Â [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
- Rice University Takes Over Ownership of Village Arcade in Rice Village, Plans Changes [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
- City of Rosenberg May Grant Developer of New Paragon Outlet Mall at I-69 and Spacek Rd. $4.8 Million for Public Infrastructure Improvements [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston Arts and Media Hosts Brainstorming Session To Help Fine-Tune Judge Emmett’s Astrodome Park Proposal [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Texas Transportation Commission Wants TxDOT To Focus on Repairing State’s Oil Patch Highways [Houston Public Media]
- Why the Old Wheatley High School Building, Freedmen’s Town Bricks, and Henington-Alief Regional Library Matter [Houston Chronicle]
- During ‘Preservation Sunday’ Event, Freedmen’s Town Residents Pray To Save Neighborhood Street Bricks from City Renovation [Houston Chronicle]
- Identical Twins Purchase Identical Neighboring Homes in Galveston [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Next Sunday Streets Event Moved to Oct. 12 in the Heights, from 19th St. to Shepherd [Culturemap]
- A Brief History of Oak Forest and Its Recent Transformation [Art Attack]
Photo of 609 Main construction: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Despite a series of remodeling tweaks, this 1970 Thornwood contemporary’s rebirthing still has a way to go. Its listing earlier this week pegs the property’s status as ripe for renovation, and sets the ask at $345K. Several rooms already feature updates (and the pool got a redo back in that “watershed” year of 2008), but others show their age, work in progress, or the effects of what’s gently described by the listing agent as “recent moisture and plumbing issues.”
Can the home’s renovations be completed? Should they be? Look for clues in the photos below, or see for yourself at this Sunday’s open house.
You Complete Me
- 4319 Bettis Dr. Unit 7 [HAR]
