COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHEN HELICOPTERS RULED THE HOUSTON SKIES 
“Armadillo Airways was the service that flew to IAH from the Galleria, Whitehall Hotel (downtown), Shamrock Hilton and the Westchase Hilton. Flights cost $49 each way. The service was started by the son of the inventor of the Weed Eater.
I remember my dad taking this service from an earlier location in the Globe Department Store parking lot at the SW corner of what is now I-10 & Beltway 8. This all went away with the mid-80′s oil bust. Here is an old pamphlet.” [Holtnow, commenting on A Heliport Lands In Spring Branch East] Illustration: Lulu
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The 10,000-sq.-ft. Becks Prime location in the Sears wing of the Memorial City Mall — dubbed the Sportatorium on account of its 30 big-screen teevees showing major league sporting events, video game room, and conference room — shut down for good on Saturday. The location had been open since 2008, when the local hamburger chain was substituted late in the game for a venture originally planned to feature Roger Clemens, back in the days when the former Astros, Yankees, and Red Sox player was best known for his standout pitching.
Burgers Are Out!
A Swamplot reader writes in with a report on the aftermath of last night’s collapse of a top-story section of the very long parking garage for the One Riverway office building north of the Galleria, on S. Post Oak just south of Riverway Dr. No one was hurt in the accident, which occurred before 8 pm, but abc13 reports that vehicles were still exiting the structure at that time. S. Post Oak Ln. is now closed to traffic while officials determine if the concrete structure is safe, and workers are already mourning the lost parking spaces.
Ramp Down
- Montrose and Museum District, Katy Lead Houston Market in Number of Proposed Apartment Units [Houston Business Journal]
- Downtown’s Sam Houston Hotel Becoming Part of Hilton’s New Curio Brand [Prime Property]
- West Ave Restaurant Saint Genevieve Suddenly Shutters So Owners Can ‘Focus on Other Projects’ [Culturemap]
- Director of Consulting Firm Metrostudy Leaves To Join McAlister Fund Investing in Houston Sprawl [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Raintree Place ‘House in the Trees,’ with Safe Room, on the Market for Nearly $1M [Culturemap]
- CoStar Group Drops Piracy Lawsuit Against Defendants It Says Posted Its Real Estate Data to a Rival Company [Washington Business Journal]
- Coast Guard Opens Hearing into Galveston Bay Oil Spill Collision [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Texas City Has Made About $1.4M So Far from Fees To Get on the Texas City Dike During Summer Weekends [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- That Biggest Mural in Houston Officially Taking Up 9,750 SF of a Midtown Wall [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of mural behind 2800 San Jacinto St.: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
A 1976 home by architect Lucian Hood in the Indian Trails neighborhood north of Tanglewood displays different approaches to detail inside and out. Tall windows, extensive parquet flooring, and columns add drama to the finishes inside (top). The outside? Not so much (above). The corner lot property, at Chimney Rock Rd. north of Woodway Dr., has a front-filling driveway that curves around semi-walled landscaping. Listed last week, it has a $1.4 million asking price. That’s just a smidge more than the $1.375 million sought in 2003, when the north-facing home last appeared on the market; it eventually sold the following year for $823,500.
Detail Oriented
The sign is down and workers are moving equipment out of the Brio Tuscan Grille at the corner of Kirby and West Alabama. The restaurant shut down yesterday, a reader informs Swamplot. “They had a bunch of stuff all over the floor and about 3 rental moving trucks with guys hanging out,” writes the informant, who adds that one of the unnamed workers said the restaurant had been “not that busy” and wasn’t making enough money. Brio took over the space formerly occupied by Pesce at the 3029 Kirby Dr. spot in the Centre at River Oaks Shopping Center 2 years ago, around the same time the former Borders Books in the same building was being carved up into separate spaces for a pediatric clinic and Ulta Beauty. The Brio CityCentre location remains open.
- Previously on Swamplot: Borders Activity Report
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Moving Out Senza Brio
With an entertaining, droll video (see above), a close-to-Downtown location already picked out, and a “first ever in Houston” concept, the fundraising effort for the Press Start Bar seemed to have a lot going for it. Alas, the Kickstarter game plan for the planned console-videogame-themed nightspot has failed to reach its high-score goal. After 30 days on the crowdfunding platform, the crew garnered $18,483 in pledges from 81 different backers. That’s impressive for a first try at the controls, but a bit shy of the stated $50,000 its founders said they needed to secure the proposed location — “off Rusk and St. Emanuel” (between the 59 overpass and BBVA Compass Stadium) — obtain building permits, and get started with TABC licensing, to be able to serve craft beers and Pokemon-themed cocktails, among other menu items.
Press Restart
- 1702 Overland Pass Dr. [HAR]
HIGH VOLTAGE NEWS FOR HOUSTON BICYCLISTS 
Parks and Rec department director Joe Turner tells the Chronicle‘s Mike Morris that a powerline right-of-way crossing on University of Houston property northeast of the intersection of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Old Spanish Trail will be the first improvement allowed by a new agreement between the city and CenterPoint Energy (subject to city council approval this week) that will allow hike-and-bike trails to be cut along electrical transmission-line right of ways throughout the city. Most likely the next up, according to Turner: a trail from Sims Bayou to Cambridge Village Park in southwest Houston. That route, along with others being contemplated, runs north to south. As Mayor Parker noted in her announcement, that should complement the bayou-side (and therefore mostly east-west) trails being created as part of the Bayou Greenways 2020 project. CenterPoint is donating $1.5 million toward the creation of new trails on their property, possibly because it got what it wanted in the deal, which also involves the conversion of all 165,000 city traffic signals to LEDs over the next 5 years. Writes Morris: “Bills to allow trails on utility right of way were filed as early as 2007 but stalled over questions about how much liability CenterPoint should face in opening its land for recreational use. A compromise was reached last year. The utility is liable only for a serious injury or death caused by its ‘willful or wanton acts or gross negligence.’ Under the agreement announced Friday, the city would pay the utility’s legal bills if lawsuits are filed.” [Houston Chronicle ($); more info; previously on Swamplot] Photo of bike trail along Brays Bayou: Dave Fehling/State Impact
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Bending and breaking on Aldine, shutting the barn door, and more creative destruction around town.
- Zoning Change Helps Pave Way for Proposed Pier That Will House Balinese Room in Galveston [Houston Chronicle]
- Watch for These Signs That Mean Houston’s Booming Economy Is Beginning To Fall [Houston Business Journal ($)]
- What’s the Deal with the Abandoned Car Dealership at 6737 Southwest Fwy.? [Hair Balls]
- Bridgeland Looks To Stand Out To Potential Homebuyers Through Large Public Events Such as Nature Fest [Houstonia]
- Forthcoming Study Expected To Reveal New Damage to the Pelican Island Bridge [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Is the Cheapest, Easiest, Fastest Thing the Best Thing for the East End Overpass? [OffCite; previously on Swamplot]
- Bike Master Plan ‘Goal Zero Fatalities’ in Development in Houston [Hair Balls]
- Free Press Summer Fest Marked By 2-Hour Evacuation Due To Flooding Threat [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Midtown’s Massive Mural To Be Unveiled on June 7 [Culturemap]
- Inside Gonzo247’s Art Gallery Aerosol Warfare [Free Press Houston]
- Why Does Houston Only Have 2 Public or Semi-Public Statues of Women? [Houstonia]
Photo of Free Press Summer Festival at Eleanor Tinsley Park: Pooja Lodhia
Headlines
Renovations after Hurricane Ike appear to have maximized the lighting and open plan of a streamlined Bayou Woods home cited in separate records as a 1960 or 1964 edition. The property listed a week ago; it has a $2.9 million asking price.
An Ike Redo
The former single-story office building at 4820 Caroline St. where the coworking space called the Caroline Collective set up shop and operated for 5 years until last August was demolished earlier this year. And the companies redeveloping the property are sharing details of the 5-story condo building they plan to build in its place. A giant oak tree in the back was taken down with the demo, but Urban Flats Builder (formerly known as Infinity Texas Development) is still planning to call its building the Oaks on Caroline. The remaining oak, in front of the property, is featured in the rendering shown above.
Museum Park
- 6030 Sandy Hollow Dr. [HAR]
