Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
A quartet of Meyerland goners form the finale of today’s smashing report:
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- 4710 Tain Dr. [HAR]
 
More than $100,000 worth of liens have now been placed on the stalled Victoria Condos at 829 Yale St. by contractors that worked on the 40-unit midrise. It’s one of the remaining Fisher Homes properties that the Harris County court system hasn’t yet liquidated as part of its ongoing efforts to pay back the developer’s creditors — including some who’ve sued it for failing to pay their invoices on developments such as the Yale condos.
A rendering put out around the time sales began at the beginning of June 2016 shows what they would look like if they had people in them now:
Somebody To Lien On
RICE PICKS UP 1.75 MORE ACRES NEAR WHEELER TRANSIT CENTER, STRIPPED-DOWN SEARS 
A pair of entities connected to Rice University have purchased some extra property near the molted Midtown Sears the school bought along with 3 adjacent acres last year. Included in the deal: the surface parking lot at 4510 Main St. — west of the Wheeler Transit Center — the Shipley Do-Nuts on the corner of Richmond, and the Gulf station next to the Spur 527 overpass. Nothing’s gone down on the land recently except for the gas station; it was demolished in June. But A long list of proposed Houston residential developments put out by mortgage bank Berkadia — now being passed around on HAIF — shows the surface parking now slated for a 243-unit highrise from developer Horizon Real Estate. Last time someone planned to do something with that parcel, ground-floor retail was in the mix, too, with 327 units of affordable housing upstairs. [Berkadia via HAIF; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Lou C.
DAIRY ASHFORD H-E-B GETTING AXED NEXT MONTH 
H-E-B store number 471 in the Memorial Dr. strip at Dairy Ashford will close to the public next month, Nancy Sarnoff reports, but it’ll remain filled with food items. The company plans to turn it into a warehouse for its home delivery and curbside pickup services. The mini-store has been understocked relative to other H-E-Bs — and no matter how you slice up its 28,000 sq.-ft., “There just isn’t enough space to fit everything that you would be looking for,” company prez Scott McClelland said on Facebook yesterday. Its nearest regular-sized backup H-E-B: the standalone one nearly triple its size on Westheimer and S. Kirkwood, just under 3 miles away. [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Weingarten Realty
- The Aztec Fund Acquires 3-Year-Old Westway Plaza [Realty News Report]
- Villas at Bunker Hill in the Memorial City Area Trades Hands [[Realty News Report]
- Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s Long-Term Plans for the AstroWorld Site [Bisnow; previously on Swamplot]
- Sweet Paris Crêperie & Café Looking To Add Another Houston Location in Friendswood [HBJ]
- Republic Diner and Noodle Bar in the Heights Has Closed To Make Way for Blackbird Izakaya [Eater Houston]
- Austin Bar Owners Bringing 4 New Concepts to Midtown [Culturemap]
Photo of lake off Sandalwood Dr. in Sandalwood neighborhood: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
With each act of destruction we grow wiser — and build our sense of community.
- 16043 Fawn Vista [HAR]
Houston’s latest Bacco-branded wine venue Bacco’s Wine Garden has begun its takeover of 3611 Montrose Blvd. by adding this corral to the house’s front parking lot, although nothing’s being consumed on site yet; a TABC application is still pending approval. Now enclosed within the pen: the gable-roofed sign once colored by the logo for Tony’s Place, the homeless center for LGBT youth under 26 that relocated last summer to a Midtown space it shares with the Salvation Army’s own youth shelter on McGowen St.
On the north side of the building, Bacco’s’s own sign is now up:
Bacco’s Wine Garden
A Swamplot reader sends a photo (top) of the trees that appear to have grown up outside the former McGowen Cleaners real fast since plant life was first added to the bed (above) earlier this year. That’s because the crew now converting the place into a restaurant called Vibrant tore out the bushier trees just over a week ago and replaced them with a row of taller new cedars.
The swap-out left the bed short on plant life last Wednesday and Thursday:
Growth Spurt
A POST OAK PARKING GARAGE SOLUTION TO THE DEMAND FOR DRIVE-IN THEATERS 
The head of the company now bringing a movie theater to the top of the BLVD Place garage at Post Oak and San Felipe tells the Chronicle’s Ileana Najarro that he “hopes to offer a social experience for those nostalgic for drive-in theaters.” What better place to do it than in Houston, where people drive in and out of buildings all the time? The catch: you’ll have to get out of your car and amble up to the garage’s top floor above Whole Foods and other retail, where it might get noisy — especially with that bus lane construction happening now on Post Oak. But there’s a solution: wireless headphones for each audience member — which Rooftop Cinema Club’s head says will “replicate the intimate setting of one’s car,” just like the old days. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Whole Foods at 1700 Post Oak Blvd.: Dung L.
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Ground beef chain BuffBurger is about to move into the new Citywest Retail Center 3 blocks outside Beltway 8 and just down the street from Phillips’s year-old headquarters and garage-top sports complex. So far, the strip center’s lineup includes almost exclusively food joints of the fast-casual variety, with a lone Ideal Dental office in middle of the east building. Its coming soon sign is pictured in the photo above, west of Yogurtland.
BuffBurger’s spot — its third since opening in the new Alabama Row strip across W. Alabama from the Menil in March — is in the shorter and stouter east building, where it’ll fill in corner at the far end from Panera’s already-open endcap:
Westchase
- HAR: Last Month Saw Highest Figures for Single-Family Home Median and Average Prices for a July [HBJ]
- New Home Construction Program To Help Replace Housing Lost from Harvey [Houston Chronicle]
- Braun Redevelopment Project at 2522 Yale St. in the Heights To Include Creative Office Space [HBJ ($)]
- McCord Development ‘Essentially Building a City from Scratch’ with Generation Park [Community Impact Newsday]
- Houston Ranked Among the Biggest Boomtowns in America by MagnifyMoney [Houston Chronicle]
- Second Houston Location of Japanese Cream Puff Chain Beard Papa’s Already Planned for Bellaire Blvd. [Eater Houston]
- Part-Taproom, Part-Brewery Fortress BeerWorks Coming to Spring This Fall [Eater Houston]
- Forthcoming Bellaire Food Street Development Adds Vietnamese Eatery Migo [Eater Houston]
Photo: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Upstream and downstream takeaways in today’s report, plus a dead letter on Sage:
