And a whole mess more Southern Yellow Pine studs at the same time.
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- Texas Spent $4.34B on Commercial Real Estate Projects Last Year, Finds Report [Prime Property]
- Webster’s $160M Bay Area Regional Medical Center To Open in June [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Dunkin’ Donuts Planning First Galveston County Store in League City [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Fans Bought More Than $810,000 Worth of Memorabilia at Astrodome Auction [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Astrodome Turf, Stadium Seats Now Being Sold on eBay for a Nice Profit [Click2Houston]
- Astrodome, Katy ISD Stadium the Big Real Estate Decisions on Today’s Ballot [Houston Business Journal]
- $16.5M Memorial Dr. Improvement Project Met With Opposition from Businesses [abc13]
- Free Press Summer Fest Wants To Extend Hours, Add Another Day [Rocks Off]
- Colder Temperatures, Rain Causing Ant ‘Invasion’ [abc13]
- More Than a Fifth of the State’s 1,028 Historical Markers Are Deteriorating [Houston Chronicle ($)]
Photo of Discovery Green: Jesus Jimenez via Swamplot Flickr Pool
WILL THE RODEO OR THE TEXANS PAY RENT TO USE THE ASTRODOME? 
Contradicting teevee reporter Ted Oberg’s declaration a couple of weeks ago that the county’s own projections show that the renovated Astrodome would barely break even, the Chronicle’s Kiah Collier produces the county’s underlying single-sheet financial summary (PDF), which projects net operating income of $1.9 million a year for a redone Dome, based on $4 million in revenue. There’s not a lot of detail behind any of the “ballpark” figures that go into that projection, though — and there’s clearly been disagreement over a couple of revenue sources that may or may not be included in it. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has now officially endorsed (PDF) the bond proposal on tomorrow’s ballot that would fund the conversion of the Astrodome into “The New Dome Experience” — but only, it seems, after wresting commitments from county officials to create some sort of repair fund for Reliant Stadium and to pay for repairs to the Reliant Arena — before replacing it, somewhere down the line. Judge Emmett and the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp.’s Edgar Colón now say the Rodeo may not have to pay rent to use the revamped facility, but whether the free-rent deal the Rodeo had with the Astrodome legally applies to a renovated and seemingly repurposed facility isn’t quite so clear to other officials Collier talks to, who claim any payments would be “worked out later.” The Houston Texans, meanwhile, who earlier this year with the Rodeo promoted a study showing how a $29 million demolition of the Dome would clear way for 2,500 shiny new parking spots — have been standing on the sidelines while the bond proposal is put to voters. Really, the team would have no interest at all in using a completely revamped name-brand facility right next to the site of the 2017 Super Bowl, even? “If the Astrodome is renovated,” the team’s coy statement reads, “we would consider using it, but do not have a specific use in mind at the present time . . .” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Rendering of the New Dome Experience: New Dome PAC/Kirksey Architecture
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW CROWDFUNDING MIGHT CHANGE THE LOCAL LANDSCAPE 
“I actually really like the idea of crowdsource funding for real estate. The real estate market is too frequently weighed down with the plodding work of the institutional investors and REITs. Anything that steps slightly outside of the box is tossed before renderings are even drawn. While industries like consumer electronics and automobiles race to deliver the next and greatest new thing to customers, the real estate industry seems to be forever stuck in doing the same crap over and over as long as it makes the predicted return. If done well, crowdsourcing could potentially offer up some real innovation in real estate and shake up the ‘monkey see, monkey do’ work of the established actors in the industry. And if people lose their shirts, they will only have themselves to blame and cannot hide behind some big name REIT or investment bank.” [Old School, commenting on Headlines: ’380 Agreements’ for the East End; Real Estate’s Crowdfunded Future] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: FEAR OF CRIME EPIDEMICS “A good friend of mine lived in Third Ward up until about four years ago. Never had a problem with crime. Seriously. I recall stopping at a little convenience store on MacGregor, a bit nervous being the only white guy in the place, but god how stupid I felt when the worst I encountered was a hello, and an enterprising young man selling pirated DVDs out of his car in the parking lot. Meanwhile, up here in Oak Forest, we’ve got residents going positively bananas every time a car gets broken into or a mysterious car is seen driving slowly around the block. Check out the Oak Forest Facebook page. It’s an astonishing epicenter of paranoia. It’s so bad that I think it’s actually hurting efforts to make a good community. We can’t go a week without some poor black guy having his picture plastered on the page with somebody asking if anybody recognizes him. And most of the time, it’s a plumber or an electrician or somebody going about their work. And now we’ve got a group handing out shotguns to everyone in the name of security. I’m sure that’s going to work out just fine. It’s not that I don’t feel safe here; I absolutely do. I just get tired of the gossip passing for actual news. I want to live in a place where people are happy and engaging and hospitable, but I worry that it’s not going that way at all. And as somebody with a mixed-race child, I admit that I do worry about some crazy neighbor calling the cops because she’s out riding an expensive bicycle or something. And that makes me almost as paranoid as some of my neighbors.” [Anse, commenting on Comment of the Day Runner-Up: Splendors of the East]
Gray-scale pavers perk up a front patio and walkway off the widened driveway of a renovated 1950 ranch. The north-facing Larchmont property is on a street blocked from nearby Chimney Rock Rd. by the neighborhood’s border fence, though gates do allow pedestrian access; there’s also a sound buffering barrier beyond the homes on the street behind this one, which back up to a stretch of the Southwest Fwy. feeder road.
That little 84-year-old barber shop spot at 219 E. 11th St. in the Heights featured in Wes Anderson’s movie Rushmore has survived an eviction scare. Proprietor Doug Dreher tells the Houston Press‘s Dianna Wray that a Saturday-night email from the building’s landlord, J. Conti Interests, assured him that Doug’s Barber Shop wouldn’t be kicked out: “Dreher remembered dropping off the October rent check before going out of town for a few weeks. When he got back to town, just before the end of the month, he was notified that his business, located at 219 East 11th Street, was being evicted in two weeks.”
- 1109 Ridgeley Dr. [HAR]
The new Menil Drawing Institute building, being designed by LA architects Johnston Marklee (winners of last year’s competition), will sit on land currently occupied by the Menil’s Richmont Square apartment building. The arts institution doesn’t have plans to tear down the entire apartment complex, however: Drawings submitted to the planning commission as part of a variance application show only the northernmost bank — at the back of the site — wiped clean.
Corner views of the 23-story office building Hilcorp has been planning for the now-rubble-filled site of the former Foley’s (and more recently, Macy’s) retail box on Main St. between Lamar and Dallas surfaced on a few websites last week. The drawings of Ziegler Cooper’s design show a glass-faced structure doing the half-podium trick, blending 7-or-so garage levels into the main tower shape on one side, but letting it stick out on the other. That “other” side faces Main St.; on the Travis St. side (pictured above and in the last rendering below), the hide-a-car floors fit into the building’s northwest-facing curve, which pulls back to make room for a vehicle drop-off driveway loop and a couple of corner plazas. But what’s happening on the rail side?
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
You should have seen how it looked before.
- More Than 6,000 People Show Up for 1,000 Astrodome Seats, AstroTurf Squares [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
- St. Thomas Offers Top Bid of $60M for Law Enforcement HS [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
- Hunington Residential Breaks Ground on New Vargos on the Lake, Unveils New Rendering [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Jonathan’s the Rub Relocating a Few Blocks Away to a Bigger Spot in Memorial Next Year [Culturemap]
- ‘Overlooked’ Glenbrook Valley Now Attracting Attention, Rising Sales Prices [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Sprawl in Store for ‘Gentrified Countyside’ of Fulshear if Mobility Bond Passes [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Today’s Luxury Home Likely To Have Marble Baths, Lots of Windows, Wine Room, Finds Report [Prime Property]
- Looming Flood Insurance Rate Hikes Worry Galveston Residents [AP]
- Houston History Book Fair & Symposium Hits Ideson Library Downtown This Saturday [Memorial Examiner]
Photo of the Astrodome auction: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
- 3507 Tierwood Ct. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE DOWNTOWN TURNAROUND 
“I’ve always thought it was a little strange that the entire country has adopted a geographic reference specific to Manhattan to refer to the place in a city where the tall buildings are. Elsewhere in the Anglophone world, the terms ‘city center’ or CBD (central business district) are used, which makes a lot more sense.
In Houston we’ve gone a step further: we refer to a place 5 miles WEST of ‘downtown’ as ‘uptown,’ and the place immediately SOUTH (ok, southwest) of ‘downtown’ as ‘midtown.’” [Angostura, commenting on Comment of the Day: Downtown Is on the Edge] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: SPLENDORS OF THE EAST 
“. . . So much of our City and our history lies EAST of downtown but all too often, white people (largely) ignore that entire side of town. I’d argue that the ship channel and the refineries that line it are the backbone of the City. That U of H and TSU shouldn’t be ignored. That there’s hidden treasure to be found in the 3rd and 5th Wards. That Riverside Terrace is amazing. That Hobby Airport is way better than IAH unless you are flying overseas on a carrier not named United. That Clear Lake-NASA-Kemah are better than Greater Katy. That the San Jacinto Monument matters. That unless you’ve visited the original Ninfa’s, eaten at Kanomwan, chugged beer at Moon Tower Inn, or stood in line for fried chicken at 3 a.m. at Frenchy’s, then you need to get out of the City Centre bubble. Oh, and the soul of the ‘old’ Montrose and Heights can be found East of US 59.” [doofus, commenting on Comment of the Day: Downtown Is on the Edge] Illustration: Lulu
