05/28/14 12:30pm

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER LUCKY BURGER CLOSES Lucky Burger, 1601 Richmond Ave. at Mandell St., Montrose, HoustonA few more details to add to our ground-beef-breaking report yesterday on the demise of Lucky Burger: The business’s current owners, who’ve operated the 40-year-old fast-food joint at the corner of Richmond Ave. and Mandell for 15 years, plan to retire. An employee tells Culturemap’s Eric Sandler that the owners couldn’t afford the landlord’s pricing for a lease renewal, and that “prospects in Montrose for a space that’s sufficiently inexpensive to support a $5 cheeseburger are simply too dim.” Meanwhile, Braun Enterprises’ Dan Braun, who heads the partnership that bought the building and the adjacent strip center in 2011, tells the Chronicle‘s Erin Mulvaney that they hope to lease the structure with the barrel-shaped roof penetration to another business once Lucky Burger is out. (Entrepreneurs salivating over the marketing power of a well-known burger stop in the shape of a beer keg might want to note that craft beer bar Revelry on Richmond is set to open soon next door, with hamburgers on the menu.) Lucky Burger plans to wrap up its business — and its last burger — before this Saturday. [Culturemap; Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Houston. It’s Worth It.

05/28/14 11:30am

A.D. PLAYERS SAYS IT’S READY TO BUILD ITS GIANT GALLERIA THEATER COMPLEX, FOR REALS THIS TIME Proposed A.D. Players Theater, Westheimer Rd. at Westheimer Way, Galleria, HoustonA mere decade after the installation of the first “coming soon” sign on the organization’s (then) new never-built-on 4-acre lot on Westheimer Rd. just west of Yorktown, A.D. Players appears ready to begin building the sparkling new theater it’s been promising — and fundraising for — all these years. The company, which produces plays “rooted in Christian values,” has announced it will break ground on the project — sometime this summer. The company hasn’t specified the budget for the building, or how much it’s raised in its 10-year capital campaign, but it is touting a recent $2 million gift from the Houston Texans owner’s Robert and Janice McNair Foundation. The facility will include a 450-seat mainstage, a 300-seat children’s theater, and a 150-seat black box theater. It’ll sit between the 5444 Westheimer office building and CVS. [Houston Business Journal] Rendering: A.D. Players

05/28/14 8:30am

mural at 2800 San Jacinto

Photo of mural at 2800 San Jacinto: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
05/27/14 4:45pm

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Since its purchase in 2010 for $65,000, an Eastwood property has gained what is described as — in the most recent of its 3 separate listings so far this year — a 2011 “Craftsman-inspired” home. The current listing has a $519,000 asking price. That’s down from the $555,000 mentioned in its March through April 2014 market debut and its weeklong appearance in early May at $529,999.

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With All the Trimmings
05/27/14 1:45pm

HOW A DEVELOPER MAKES FRIENDS IN GERMANTOWN 121 Payne St., Germantown Historic District, Woodland Heights, HoustonFisher Homes owner Terry Fisher has been scuffling with city officials and residents of the Germantown Historic District over the dilapidated state of the recently renovated 104-year-old bungalow at 121 Payne St. that he bought last year, got permission for a 2-story addition, but then let sit for months with an opened-up roof protected only by a blue tarp. Fisher may have had some difficulties maintaining the sticks and stones on his property (“demolition by neglect” is how one inspector put it), but he sure has demonstrated a way with words: “The neighbors and anyone else who doesn’t like me is welcome to go walk off a bridge,” he reportedly texted to Woodland Heights Civic Association member David Jordan: “Just try and remember I am a property owner in that neighborhood also and I’m just as important as the others. Considering how much I own, I may be more important.” The latest document attesting to that importance: the violation letter he received from the planning department ordering him to stop work on the Payne St. property and address concerns identified by the inspector. But Fisher tells reporter Erin Mulvaney his text to Jordan has been taken out of context: “God gave me two cheeks and I do what I can to turn them, but enough is enough,” he tells her, explaining that he lives in Spring, rather than in the Heights, where many of his developments are, in part to avoid ending up next door to a development he doesn’t like. “I have done nothing wrong,” Fisher says, “I’m not just a big bad developer. I’m a human, too.” But wait, there’s more: “I’m not ashamed of anything, including the Payne house,” says Fisher, who according to the article has been developing in Houston for more than 30 years. “At the end of the day,” he tells Mulvaney, “I’ve never done anything intentionally wrong. Anything has been out of ignorance.” [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot] Photo of 121 Payne St. in better times: HAR

05/27/14 11:00am

Lucky Burger, 1601 Richmond Ave. at Mandell St., Montrose, Houston

A sign on the door of Lucky Burger at 1601 Richmond Ave indicates the longtime barrel-signed drive-up is shutting down for good. No more burgers and no more shakes from the distinctive corner property — but equipment, tables, chairs, cookware, and more will soon be available in a final sale:

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Unlucky in Meat
05/27/14 10:00am

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A construction wall is up around the former French Connection store in the Galleria. That’s where the Apple Store to its immediate left will be stretching. The MacBook, iPad, and iPhone showroom, which dates from September 2002, is old enough to have lived through a couple periods of relative ungainliness, Apple Store chronicler Gary Allen reports. At 6,000 sq. ft., it once measured almost twice the size of the typical Apple mall location. But the 2,900-sq.-ft add-on will bring the Galleria location in line with the larger standards for similar spots the company has established more recently. Here’s a map from Allen’s ifo Apple Store site showing how the storefront will double, from 30 ft. to 60 ft. wide:

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Bigger Mac
05/27/14 8:30am

pleasure pier

Photo of Galveston Pleasure Pier: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
05/23/14 3:00pm

THE 3-DAY ROAD AHEAD Memorial Dr. at Shepherd Dr., HoustonWe’re heading off now for a little Memorial driveabout. Our best wishes for a rejuvenating and memorable Memorial Day weekend. After an extra day of rest, Swamplot will be back on Tuesday with more Houston real estate wonders. If you’re missing us and you haven’t already, please follow us on Facebook and sign up for the Swamplot mailing list. Photo of Memorial Dr.: Matthew Rutledge [license]

05/23/14 2:00pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE INSIDE STORY OF 4004 MONTROSE BLVD. Drawing of Court at Museum's Gate Condos, 4004 Montrose Blvd., Montrose, Houston“I worked on this project. The architect was Compendium (long defunct) and Jay Baker was the lead designer. There are indeed at least 20 different floor plans, from flats to three story units with roof decks. The ‘roof decks’ came about because some of the units exit up and across the roof to shared fire exit stair towers. All the original kitchen/bath cabinets were by italian cabinetmaker Boffi. It’s very dense, with some very unusual spaces, both in unit interiors and the three exterior plazas; the raised south pool plaza (with glass blocks in the pool looking to the street) is a great space. I agree it needs some cleaning! Before anyone asks, I don’t know why there was no ground floor retail.” [Phil, commenting on More Ups and Downs in a Court at Museums Gate Condo in Montrose]