COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE FAR NORTH HEIGHTS TOWNHOUSE BOOM 
“A ride around the far north Heights (bordered roughly by Yale, Shepherd, 610 and, say, 23rd) reveals a staggering amount of residential construction activity. The Sullivan Brothers project on 23rd is finally nearing completion. A dozen new townhouses at 26th and Ashland. Eight single-family homes at the same corner, with 20 or so to follow between 26th and 27th. Eight single family houses at 26th and Rutland. Twenty townhouses about to go up at 24th and Lawrence. Plus a dozen or so 2-to-6-house developments. The numbers easily reach into the triple digits, and that’s without anything on the old National Flame & Forge site (the double block between Nicholson, Rutland, 25th and 26th), which could add another hundred.” [Angostura, commenting on Where a Couple Dozen Townhomes Are Going in the Far North Heights] Illustration: Lulu
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- 6339 Annunciation St. [HAR]
On-again off-again would-be Westheimer sushi-nightclub debutante Fish and the Knife has given up on target opening dates, reports Eater Houston. “The big debut is back on track,” reports Darla Guillen in a post that includes actual photos of the actual completed interior at 7801 Westheimer. After almost 3-and-a-half years of construction and several blown promised-opening deadlines, she writes, “the owner is (understandably) reluctant to announce an official date.” But, um, the restaurant is “definitely on schedule to open soon, and is currently hiring staff.”
Update, 3 pm: A daring update to Eater’s report notes the owner now “expects to be open by Feb. 10.”
- Take a Sneak Peek Inside Upcoming Spot Fish & The Knife [Eater Houston]
- Previously on Swamplot: Phew! Fish and the Knife Is Back to Its Usual ‘Opening Soon’ Status, Is Fish and the Knife Cutting Bait?, Fish and Knife: Beached Sushi on Westheimer
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Sooner or Later
Construction has begun on the 16-story, 1,600-car parking-only highrise at 1311 Louisiana St. When complete, it’ll cover the northeast half of the block surrounded by Polk, Milam, Louisiana, and Clay, and provide layers of automotive insulation for the cars up against the ropes (and more recently installed chain-link fence) on the adjacent Wedge International parking garage. In the meantime, Wedge parkers will have a decent view of the construction activity below.
16 Stories of Vertical Parking Bliss
- 357K SF Occupied by Shell Oil Co. at Two Shell Plaza Will Be Up for Lease in 2015 [Houston Business Journal]
- New York Firm Buys a Second Downtown Tower from KBR for Undisclosed Amount [Houston Business Journal]
- County Commissioners Hiring Independent Appraisers To See if the Harris County Appraisal District is Undervaluing Business Properties [Houston Chronicle]
- Most of Mall of the Mainland’s Stores Will Be Closed for Good By Friday [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- That Weirdly-Placed Concrete Panel TxDOT Installed Above a Ramp at I-10 and Loop 610 Is There for ‘Aesthetic’ Reasons [The Highwayman]
- The Williamsburg of Houston Is Montrose and its Bushwick Is the Heights in This Map of Hip America [Gawker]
Photo of construction of The Treehouse at Bunker Hill Rd. and Gaylor Dr.: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Don Luis Cruz, also known as the octogenarian violinist often found trilling and harmonizing with Gulfgate traffic, passed away yesterday at Pasadena’s Bayshore Medical Center, having reached the age of 90. He was a daily fixture at the intersection of Woodridge Dr. and the Gulf Fwy. feeder road until the summer of 2012, when he was beaten by a man in a wheelchair over the money in Cruz’s violin case. “Over the years,” writes the Chronicle‘s Craig Hlavaty, “crooks targeted The Violin Man for his tip money, bike, moped and even his amp. After each incident, however, Cruz would ignore his family’s pleas and head back out to his corner.” This video feature on Cruz’s string habit aired on Telemundo in 2011:
Tucked on a lot that hugs the curve of a Spur 527 access road east of Montrose Blvd., a 1930 cottage in the Fitze Home neighborhood — also referred to as Roseland Estates — has been serving as the home office of an air conditioning business. The updated Montrose-area property blew onto the market last week as a home-or-office listing with a $335,000 price tag. That includes the upgrades to the electrical and AC systems.
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Cottage Industry
A reader sends us this pic of the scene looking north from the corner of 27th St. and Rutland, just a block south of the North Loop, where a grid of townhomes is replacing the former site of the limestone-clad church and its parking lot at 251 W. 27th. The religious institution, known variously as the Houston Restoration Church, the Fulbright United Methodist Church, and the God’s Spirit of Faith Fellowship Church, was sold in August and torn down last month. An appraisal district map shows a new subdivision named Hannah Square with 12 townhome lots facing 27th St. on the old church site, and another one with another dozen lots facing 28th St., called Erin Park. The developer appears to be Colina Homes.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
There Was the Church
- 2516 Riverside Dr. [HAR]
You know the old joke about suburban developments: That they’re typically named after the natural features that they replace. But in proudly announcing the name it has chosen for the new 692-acre residential development the company is planning near the yet-to-be-built northern segment of the Grand Parkway between I-45 and U.S. 59, Toll Brothers may have made that cliché seem quaint. According to the publicly traded homebuilder, which is working with Cernus Development on the project, the top selling point for this new community is its proximity to the new corporate campus ExxonMobil is building just 6 miles to the west. Northwoods will have room for 1,000 homes built by Toll Brothers and other builders, along with “resort-style amenities that take advantage of the mature trees and topography,” including trails, parks, lakes, and a recreation center.
It’ll also have the same name as a 62-home subdivision in the Little Rock suburb of Mayflower, Arkansas, where an ExxonMobil pipeline accident last March resulted in the release of 210,000 gallons of diluted bitumen from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, onto the streets and back yards of the middle-class neighborhood.
Northwoods, Your Name Is Leaking
City offices were closed yesterday, delaying permits yet another day for the demolitions Houston so urgently needs.
- Alley To Move to U of H’s Wortham Theatre for a Year; Renovations Scheduled To Begin This Summer [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Congressman Culberson Brags He Has Killed All Federal Funding for Uptown and University Light Rail Lines [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- The One Westcreek Apartment Block That’s Not for Sale Will Likely End Up as Apartments Someday [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Texas Central Railway Planning High-Speed Dallas-to-Houston Line at 80% of Airfares, without Taxpayer Funding [Houston Chronicle]
- Water Line on W. 30th St. Near Ella on Continual Cycle of Breaking and Leaking Since October, Residents Complain [KHOU]
- Galveston’s Labyrinth Meditation Garden Moving to Moody Methodist Church [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
Photo of MFAH: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
It’s mixed use, Houston style! Which means one use over here, and another over there. The Houston Business Journal‘s Jenny Aldridge has a full accounting of plans to divvy up the low-slung (at least in retrospect) Westcreek Apartments once they’re all emptied of renters. As Swamplot reported earlier, work has already begun on a 25-story SkyHouse River Oaks tower and adjacent parking garage on the northern portion of what used to be 2041 Westcreek Ln., one lot south of San Felipe and just west of the Target parking lot.
A Little of This, a Little of That
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HARD CHOICES FOR THE KITCHEN 
“For people who really use their kitchens, are hardwood floors really practical? I couldn’t wait to remodel our kitchen and replace the wood with tile.” [matx, commenting on The $285,000 Differences Between 2 Kinda Identical Inner Loop Houses] Illustration: Lulu
