08/02/13 2:30pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: TOO MANY PARKING SPACES “In my line of work I look at parking requirements for different cities around the country all day long, and Houston’s are pretty high. 10 per 1,000 SF for a restaurant means you need a parking space for every 100 square feet. This means for every 10 ft x 10 ft block of floor space in your restaurant, you’re expecting that the people occupying that space drove ten different cars to get there. Is any restaurant ever so packed that there are 10 people for every 100 SF of space (including the whole area of the restaurant, not just the dining area), and all of them driving a separate car? I guarantee you this: a city that requires that ten paved parking spots exist every time there’s 100 square feet of people dining somewhere will never be an interesting city. If you need that much flat pavement everywhere that people like to hang out and cluster, you’re going to concrete and asphalt yourself away from ever having an interesting district. You might manage to get something going in the parts of town that were built before the draconian regulations took effect, but pretty soon people are going to want to build new things in those areas, the new requirements will kick in, and pavement will start spreading like a cancer.” [Mike, commenting on Comment of the Day: Would Ground Floor Retail Work in the Rice Village?] Illustration: Lulu

08/02/13 12:00pm

This big blaze early this morning destroyed much of the strip center on the 1500 block of Blodgett, where Gallery Jatad just opened back in June and catty-corner from the proposed site of 4 new Urban Living townhomes. According to the abc13 report, the fire sparked in the washateria on the west end of the strip center and burned east toward an about-to-open custom furniture shop and the art gallery, both of which appear to have sustained some water and smoke damage.

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08/02/13 11:00am

A reader sends these photos and news of bars getting ready to give it a go in Midtown. The photo above shows the former Opium nightclub undergoing renovations in the Midtown Shoppes on Travis and Anita St.; the reader reports that sometime this fall that spot will become the 3030 Pub. It’s catty-corner from where the Midtown Superblock has been proposed.

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08/02/13 10:00am

It looks like the squat building on the corner of W. Gray and Montrose will be upgraded into something like this rendering, reports 29-95. Pizaro’s Pizza Napoletana, which also has a spot in Memorial, will be replacing long-time tenants Bobbitt Glass and Southwestern Paint here at 1020 W. Gray, converting the space into a 2,500-sq.-ft. restaurant with a 300-sq.-ft. patio — and 2 of those massive brick ovens, adds Alison Cook. They’re expected to open in about a year.

Rendering: Pizaro’s Pizza

08/02/13 8:30am

Photo of the former Houston Pavilions: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool

08/01/13 5:00pm

Back in February, this 1970 Westhaven Estates home on a skinny lot fronting Woodway Dr. sold for $450,000. With its gray-scaled overhaul complete, the property with porch, patios, and pool re-appeared on the market last week with a one-digit-longer asking price: $1,295,000.

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08/01/13 4:15pm

MONTGOMERY COUNTY MASTER-PLANNED COMMUNITY PICKED FOR MIDDLE-AGED DISTRICT Arizona homebuilder Taylor Morrison has just purchased 700 lots in the master-planned community Woodforest a few miles north of The Woodlands, and the Houston Business Journal reports that these lots — for which prices and plans are not yet available — in Johnson Development’s 3,000-acre community will be reserved for residents 55 and up. But this doesn’t appear to mean that Taylor Morrison, which is also building in Springwoods Village south of here, will be putting anyone out to pasture, writes Bayan Raji: “It’s committed to the homes fitting in.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Riverbend in Woodforest: Woodforest

08/01/13 3:00pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WOULD GROUND FLOOR RETAIL WORK IN THE RICE VILLAGE? “If you follow many of the comments on this board, it’s become kind of an inside joke here that everything should have first floor retail. If there was an article about a cemetery, someone here would post that it should have first floor retail. That said, I don’t know of many other locations in this city that would be more suitable for first floor retail than this one. It’s already an established shopping district, and the building is actually replacing some retail. I’m not a developer, but I would think that in a high density location like this one, retail leases would be a net financial benefit, with a higher $ amount per square foot, and lease terms much longer than the typical 6 or 12 month residential lease. However, there’s two arguments I can think of on why they have chosen not to go the retail route. First, would any new retail businesses be subject to our city’s minimum parking regulations? If so, providing garage space would have a negative impact on costs. Second, perhaps if the plan by Hanover is to convert these to condos in the next 5 years, then retail would not be a net benefit.” [ShadyHeightster, commenting on What Hanover Might Be Building Next in the Rice Village] Illustration: Lulu

08/01/13 2:00pm

A reader sends this photo of a suite being renovated in the Memorial Bend Shopping Park, where a Japanese izakaya-style restaurant and bar is planning to begin serving, the reader suspects, sometime near the end of the year. And a brief in Ultimate Memorial shows that Izakaya Wa requested last month the permits to operate here at 12665 Memorial Dr., which is just east of the Beltway 8 feeder.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

08/01/13 11:15am

THE PARC BINZ GETTING SOME RESTAURANT BIZNESS Culturemap’s Eric Sandler is reporting that a coffee shop and wine bar and 2 new restaurants will be opening up this fall in Museum Park, all 3 of them going inside the 5-story, 50,000-sq.-ft. mixed-use Parc Binz building that’s currently under construction at the corner of Binz and Chenevert: “The first . . . will serve light bites and feature the same coffee beans from Greenway Coffee and Tea that are currently featured at Blacksmith . . . . The second will be a Korean fried chicken concept tentatively called Dak & Dop. The third will be a full service restaurant under the direction of executive chef Chris Leung, who’s already partnered with Balcor on ice cream shop Cloud 10 Creamery that’s set to open in Rice Village’s Hanover development this fall.” [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Energy Architecture

08/01/13 10:30am

The Woodway store is closing, Whole Foods announced yesterday, and the grocer plans to build a new one on the site of the recently closed and approved-for-demolition Flagship Randall’s at 1407 S. Voss near San Felipe. That’s right across the street from the brand-new Trader Joe’s. A Whole Foods rep says that new store will be 40,000 sq. ft., double the size of the store at 6401 Woodway that’s been there since 1983.

Photo of Flagship Randall’s: Allyn West