- 507 Moody St. [HAR]
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WHERE THE LITTLE PINK FLAGS ARE WAVING NOW, NEXT TO I-45 NORTH 
Reader Joel Balderas seeks some Brooke Smith-area feeder road intel: “I’m curious what’s going on at the property located at approximately 2450 North Freeway. I live just around the corner and I noticed that a couple weeks ago the for sale sign was taken down and stakes were placed around the property with pink flags. The lot looks to be about an acre and a half and sits on the northbound side of I-45 between North Main and Patton. I-45 bounds it to the west. Little White Oak and Top Brass are to the north. A small home is to the south at 2406 North Freeway. To the east is a wooded area that would double the size of the lot. After the wooded area you would hit Little White Oak again. On the north east corner is a T-Mobile tower and on the south west corner is a large billboard facing north, which is currently advertising Fiesta. If you hear of anything I’d appreciate the info.” Photo: Joel Balderas
For all of you keeping score, the bounties of Briargrove-area apartment demolition should should now be clear. Arising from the site of the 634-unit courtyard-style Tanglewood Court Apartments on the almost-18-acre site on the southeast corner of San Felipe and Fountain View (knocked down last year and pictured at right), there will soon be a corner bank with drive-thru, a new 88,000-sq.-ft. H-E-B (moving west from down the street, and “modeled after” the chain’s Montrose Market), a 32,000-sq.-ft. strip center, and — announced yesterday — a new 5-story 431-unit garage-wrapping apartment block called the Hudson and featuring a reverse-Alamo-style tab (illustrated above) at the top of its garage entrance for some reason. Oh, yeah, also gained in the equation: A sea of concrete for the retail parking lot:
What Tanglewood Webs We Weave
- Grand Pkwy. Expansion, Access to ExxonMobil’s New Campus Drive Sale of Pines Business Park [Houston Business Journal]
- 17K Houston-Area Multifamily Units Expected To Be Completed This Year [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- City of Manvel Expecting 10,000 New Homes Over Next 15-20 Years [abc13]
- Former Photobooth Space in Montrose Will Become First Inner Loop Location of  Local Pizza Chain Pepperoni’s [Culturemap]
- New Siphon Coffee on West Alabama Will Open in March, Serve Actual Siphon-Brewed Coffee [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- Marco’s Pizza Chain Expanding in Houston with 10 Locations Set To Open This Year [Houston Business Journal]
- Latest Cycling Hit-and-Run Fatality, on Harrisburg at 81st, Shows Houston Hasn’t Done Enough To Provide Safe Places To Ride, Say Advocates [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Rice Students’ Rack Prototype Would Allow Buses To Carry an Additional Bike [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Aerial Video Offers Views of Downtown, Battleship Texas, Fred Hartman Bridge, Industrial East Side, and More [HAIF]
- This 1856 Shot of the 300 Block of Main is the Oldest Known Photograph in Research Center Archive [Houstonia]
- Seven Developments That Could Only Exist in Houston [Next City]
Photo of the Houston Ship Channel: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
COMMENT OF THE DAY: YE OLDE PRONUNCIATION CONFUSION 
“How do you pronounce ‘Shoppes’? Sho pez? long o. Cho pes? s with a z sound . . .” [PYEWACKET2, commenting on A Gated Shopping Center for Kingwood, the Livable Gated Forest] Illustration: Lulu
When everyone gravitates to the kitchen (top) of this overhauled 1953 ranch-style home on Hewitt Dr. near T.C. Jester, there might actually be room for them. The opened-up prep space is just off the combo living-dining room, and there’s room for grilling out back, too. The listing appeared on the market last week with a $369,000 asking price. A 2012 attempt to sell the property — for $70K less — didn’t pan out. The home was renovated in 2011; the current owners purchased it in 2010 for $145,000. Welcome to Oak Forest!
Mid-sized Micro
Dallas apartment developer Streetlights Residential is planning to build this 20-story apartment tower on the former site of the Eye Excellence clinic at 4 Chelsea Blvd., backing up to the Southwest Fwy. just south of where it spits out the Downtown Spur. The company bought the property behind the Chelsea Market shopping center last September, tacking on an additional freeway-facing parcel. The rendering above shows the not-quite-final scheme from Dallas architects Gromatzky Dupree & Associates.
From the Site That Gave You Eye Excellence
- 1405 Plum Creek Dr. [HAR]
MEANWHILE, ACROSS THE DRIVEWAY FROM A NORTH LOOP WHATABURGER 
From reader David Hille comes this report of the latest parking lot pad site takeover: “After a morning run to the ‘Brinkman’ Home Depot on 610 near N. Shepherd, I became curious about the temporary fencing which was being erected around the northeast quarter of the parking lot. So, I stopped, and spoke to a couple of men who were reviewing a fairly large roll of blueprints on the lowered tailgate of a truck. I had a little head rush when I was told that a new Chick Fil-A was about to be erected . . . right there in the parking lot. Makes sense, as I can’t remember that portion of the lot ever being full of cars. A similar scenario took place last year at the Lowes down the street. Part of that property which held a retention pond is now home to a brand new CVS. Prior to that, some of the Lowes parking lot was sacrificed for a Murphy Express gas station . . .” Photo: David Hille
The new 30-story apartment tower the Hanover Company is planning to replace the vacant 10-story office tower just south of the Kroger at Montrose and Hawthorne will hang back from the street that gives the new development its name. Renderings submitted to the city’s planning department in conjunction with a variance request for the development — labeled 3400 Montrose like its predecessor — show a structure set back approximately 30 ft. from Montrose Blvd., but hugging and favoring its Hawthorne St. side, where the views of the Kroger parking lot (if you look down from your new skypad) will be much better. The rendering above shows how the building’s Montrose Blvd. face should look, from a spot just south of the Walgreens drive-thru across the street.
Hanover Looks North
- Number of Homes for Sale in Houston Drops To Lowest Point in More Than a Decade [Tom Plant’s Houston Real Estate Blog]
- HAR Chairman Predicts Housing Sales Will Rise 4%-6%, Home Values Will Increase 5%-7% This Year [KUHF]
- Galveston Planning Commission To Discuss City’s Land Development Regulations [Galveston Island Daily News ($)]
- Sugar Land Neighbors Complain About Planned Expansion of St. Laurence Catholic [abc13]
- El Tiempo Opening Biggest Location To Date in Webster This April [Eater Houston]
- In Its First Week, Without Tolls, New Grand Parkway Section Averaged Upwards of 9,000 Cars Each Day [The Highwayman]
- Architecture Panel Shares Its Lists of Favorite Houston Homes [Houstonia]
- Stolen Heights Grapefruit Actually a Case of Mistaken Identity [The Leader]
Photo of Gateway Memorial City: MetroNational
Headlines
A barn door and a side fence help define space for a Sunset Heights home, but neither appears to be a fixed feature. The interior’s barn door, for example, rolls into place to screen shut a bedroom otherwise open to the main hallway (at right). And beyond the side fence, there’s a vacant lot, but half of it belongs to this property. The souped-up straight-shot bungalow appeared on the market last week with a $475,000 asking price.
Door on Demand
- 5000 Schuler St. Unit D [HAR]
