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- Piedmont Office Realty Trust Breaks Ground on 300K SF Office Building Enclave Place in Energy Corridor [Prime Property]
- SG Cypress Real Estate Ventures Buys Piece of Former HP Campus in Northwest Houston [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Beacon Land Developing Private Golf Club, Community Called Bluejack National on Former Home of Blaketree Golf Club in Montgomery County [Houston Business Journal]
- Johnny Rockets Looking at Houston, Dallas, San Antonio in Plans for International Expansion [Houston Business Journal]
- Are Oxheart Duo Justin Vann, Justin Yu Behind Downtown’s Cotton Exchange Bar? [Culturemap]
- First Baptist Church Erecting 6-Story Cross, Water Wall at 610 and the Katy Freeway [Houston Chronicle]
- Galveston Park Board of Trustees To File Claim for Damages Following Last Month’s Oil Spill [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Was the Death of Nearly 30 Dolphins Found Along Shorelines Connected to the Galveston Bay Oil Spill? [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- 23 Sex Offenders Moved into Acres Homes Boarding House Last Month With No Advance Notice to Neighbors [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- The Greater Houston Area’s 25 ‘Hottest’ Neighborhoods [Houstonia]
Photo of Centerpoint Energy Plaza downtown: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
There’s a balcony off the dining-room prow in the corner penthouse for lease in the midrise Renoir building north of River Oaks Shopping Center. Up on the 8th floor of the Randall Davis project, the 2-story condo unit has views on 3 sides, sweeping from the Galleria area to downtown. The $7,500 per month rate appears to include the furnishings — but don’t assume pets are OK, the listing says.
Sky Season
- 3822 Minglewood Blvd. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A PROPERTY TAX PROTESTOR’S GUIDE TO HCAD BUILDING GRADES 
“There is no process to request that a home be considered an economic misimprovement. When a neighborhood has changed to the point that the original homes are no longer the norm, either by new construction or remodeling, HCAD can deem the remaining original homes as econ improvements.
On to grade — Grade is set when the home is constructed. There is usually a discussion between the builder and the appraisal district as to what level of customization is going into the property as it’s being built. Think of a typical Pulte starter-home as a C+. For every level of better materials or customization, the grade will be increased up to a maximum of X+. This is, for the most part, impossible to change on a permanent basis. Especially after the construction is complete. The key here is to get in either during construction or immediately after. It helps if your home is exactly the same as the rest on the block, but for some reason, your grade is higher. Bring in floor plans and show which houses are similar.
On to Condition/Desirability/Utility (CDU) – This is the one you can play with. A home with a reasonable amount of un-repaired deferred maintenance should be in Average condition. In the old days, all new homes were put on at Excellent condition, but HCAD has since changed that policy and puts most new homes on in Average condition. This is the one you need to work on with signed written repair estimates and pictures. Every year. Big stuff — electric, plumbing, foundation, windows, storm damage, etc.
Finally, Level of Remodel — None, partial, extensive, total, new/rebuilt. This causes a great deal of angst to many people, because there is no real written explanation of what each one is, and how long a remodel actually lasts. There are homes from the early 90s in West U that are still being considered New/Rebuilt, and, as such, are being compared to brand new construction. Additionally, HCAD does not know about every remodel — they only started getting the building permits about 6 years ago. So, your neighbor with the spectacular new kitchen who did it under the table may still be listed as having no remodel. Unless you want to bring in pictures of their kitchen from the last BBQ, there’s not much you can do, other than show that yours is in worse shape than HCAD shows. Additionally, many ARB boards and appraisers have different ideas as to what makes a remodel — putting new cabinet doors up in the kitchen? I’ve seen that called a partial remodel. Replacing knob and tube wiring without increasing capacity to avert a possible fire? I’ve seen that called a repair, and not an improvement.” [BrewWench, commenting on How Do You Get on HCAD’s ‘Cheap’ List?] Illustration: Lulu
If you’re as impressed as we are by the free-rotated and seemingly free-spirited snapshots attached to the listing (see actual screenshot of the entire HAR photo gallery, above), you may be interested in the curious for-sale history of the property at 11718 N. Kathy Ave. in Fondren Park — as recorded by the MLS, at least. The 3-bedroom, 2-bath 1967 home is currently marked “pending,” but records show it’s had that same status since April 18th of last year. The current listing appears to date from September 2012, when it went on the market for $70,000. That’s still the current listed asking price. And $70,000 is also the amount the 1,771-sq.-ft. home on a 12,280-sq.-ft. lot sold for in 1999, according to MLS records.
- 11718 N. Kathy Ave. [HAR]
Still Pending
SAWYER HEIGHTS ARBY’S UPGRADING TO LA MADELEINE, ADDING SAUCE 
The shuttered Arby’s waving to I-10 eastbound feeder road drivers exiting at Taylor has been gutted, there’s a hole in the outside wall, and the drive-thru window is being filled in. All in service of transforming the Sawyer Heights shopping center slot at 2423 Katy Fwy., next to Vitamin Shoppe, into a La Madeleine, notes reader Christopher Andrews. Included in his tweeted photo report from the Target-anchored center: a TABC notice posted in the storefront, for the wine portion of the “country French café” menu. [Twitter] Photo: Christopher Andrews
There may not be much to do here, but let’s at least try to make every smash count.
- Smart Growth America Ranks Houston as 10th Most Sprawling U.S. City with Population of More than 1 Million [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- With 90% of Lots Built Out, Newland Communities To Close Its Eagle Springs Visitor Center [Prime Property]
- New Twin Peaks Opening on I-10 near Kirkwood Across from Elementary School Will Feature-in Beer Garden, Uniformed Police Officers [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- House of Pies in Upper Kirby Now Reopen After Last Year’s Fire [abc13]
- Lasco Enterprises Looking To Unload Its River Oaks and Kingwood Tasting Room Wine Bars [Food Chronicles]
- Houston First May Absorb Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau in ‘Strategic Realignment’ [Houston Business Journal]
- Armed with Wikipedia Data, Conan O’Brien Sings About Houston Pollution [Culturemap]
- ‘Sunday Streets’ Kicks Off This Sunday with Parts of White Oak Dr., Quitman St. Closed to Car Traffic [Houston Public Media]
- Slideshow: Garden Oaks Home & Garden Tour To Feature Six Homes, Four Gardens in April 27 [Houston Business Journal]
Photo of the remains of the Axis Apartments on West Dallas: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool; previously on Swamplot
Headlines
Spotted on a reader’s drive to Champ Burger: the newly vacant almost-an-acre lot at the corner of York and Sherman streets east of East Downtown, where the New Era Nursing and Rehab facility at 3510 Sherman St. was recently demolished. An entity controlled by Lovett Homes developer Frank Liu purchased the property last October.
Lovett Gotta
- 6311 Woodbrook Ln. [HAR]
There’s what looks to be a moving truck parked in front of the home at 2244 Welch St. today, right next door to the building site at 2229 San Felipe St., where a giant crane is already in the process of constructing a 17-story Hines office building across the street from River Oaks. UH professor Richard Armstrong, who with his family rented the home, had complained to the media last month that the continual noise and diesel fumes and earth-moving going on next door was making it difficult to live there. A couple weeks later, Armstrong announced that financial assistance from Hines would help him move to a new home in Pearland. “This individual story may have ended,” a neighbor notes to Swamplot, “but there are many more neighbors left to deal with the ongoing noise and construction paraphernalia.”
- Previously on Swamplot: With Help from Hines, Family Living Next Door to Highrise Construction Site Exits to Pearland; Neighbor Has a Few Problems with That 17-Story Office Building Going Up Over the Side Fence; Lawsuit Won’t Stop Construction of Hines’s San Felipe Tower — At This Time; The Scene on San Felipe: Hines’s Friendly Neighborhood Skyscraper Is Going Up Now; Dear Hines: We’d Settle for a Residential Midrise, Please; Hines Not Stopping San Felipe Skyscraper; Hines Develops Website To Explain 17-Story San Felipe Development; “Stop†Signs Oppose 17-Story Hines Office Building on San Felipe; A Look Around San Felipe at the Randall Davis Condos and Planned Hines Office Building Site; Hines Plans a Shiny New 18-Story Office Building Across San Felipe from River Oaks
Photos: Swamplot inbox
River Oaks Neighbors
Windows don’t appear to be a priority for the street facades of this 1966 townhome in Townhouse Manor, tucked into the South Loop’s swoop west of Stella Link. The curve of the recessed entry porch hugs the corner curb line of the property, which is located on the neighborhood’s remaining entry street extending from the westbound 610 feeder road a block away (a freeway sound wall has walled off the others). This low-slung home has a contemporary exterior, but neighboring 1- and 2-story townhomes feature the architectural flourishes of various neo-styles.
Side by Side by Side by Side
Local art guide Robert Boyd takes himself and readers on a photo tour of the outbuildings surrounding Nestor Topchy’s home “just south of the North Loop,” catching readers up on a few of the structures the artist has built since (or salvaged from) his residency at the legendary TemplO (earlier, Zocalo), the 6-acre arts commune he ran on a rented former truck depot at 5223 Feagan St. in the West End from the late eighties into the early aughts. And he finds much to impress, including the glass-walled tin-roofed structure pictured here, which Topchy pieced together from steel windows and doors salvaged from buildings in Houston and Argentina, and which fronts a pond on the acre-plus property. Topchy calls it the Crescent:
Art Is Where You Make It
