COMMENT OF THE DAY: MIXED USES GOTTA MIX “When did adding a strip mall next to an office building qualify as mixed-use? Just like the law, are we going to have to parse out if a development is just a literal mixed-use property (as in there are two possible uses of the land on it) or if it’s in the spirit of mixed-use? Do skyscrapers downtown qualify as mixed-use due to the retail in the tunnel and the public space they add by having a pedestrian plaza outside? I guess I should have realized that the ‘Campus-like Mixed-use’ oxymoron is really just . . . well, moronic.” [DNAguy, commenting on Headlines: Houston’s Bilingual Cinema; Galveston’s Holiday Weekend Crowding]
Sign up for the Newsletter
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: FROM THE INNER LOOP REAL ESTATE LEXICON “Remember, ‘Craftsman style’ doesn’t refer to what a structure is going to look like. It’s a magical incantation that developers recite to make Heights residents feel calm.” [John (another one), commenting on Assisting the Living in the Heights]
- 1536 Jacquelyn Dr. [HAR]
Since its beam-boosting renovation in 2009, a Briarcroft corner-lot property on an oxbow street off Chimney Rock has been listed a few times — and offered itself up as a rental property. A year-and-a-bit-long break from the market for the updated 1963 home ended earlier this month when the agent upped the asking price to $825,000 for its latest run. That’s just shy of $150K more than the previous 2 efforts, both of which gave $675,750 a shot back in 2011 and 2012. Back in 2009, though, the pre-reno property sold for $282,150. If you want to rent this home today, it’ll run you $5,850 a month.
A plan on the website of Hnedak Bobo Group, a developer an architecture firm based in Memphis, showcases this rendering of a shiny 38-story residential tower named (for now, anyway) “Houston Luxury Apartments,” standing behind the Texaco Building at 1111 Rusk St.
This view shows the lot bound by Capitol, Fannin, San Jacinto, and Rusk, where the 13-story Texas Company Building — said to be the first major oil company headquarters in Houston — and its add-ons has stood since 1915. The few details Hnedak Bobo mentions indicates that that building would be maintained and renovated into age-appropriate apartments, as well.
And there’s more:
- Hines Sells Downtown BG Group Place to Invesco Real Estate [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
- Stream, Wile To Begin Construction on Energy Corridor Campus-Like Mixed-Use Development This Summer [Houston Business Journal]
- Viva Cinema, Showing Movies in English and Spanish, Opening This Friday in PlazAmericas Shopping Center [Click2Houston]
- 437K Visitors Went to Galveston During Memorial Day Weekend, Up 70 Percent from Last Year [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Insurer Settles 1,200 Hurricane Ike Suits for $135M [Texas Tribune]
- Heights Revival Market Owners Annoyed By Repeated Break-Ins [KHOU]
- How Topography, Geography, and History Have Helped Houston Become America’s No. 1 Job Creator [The Atlantic]
Photo of ditch near Addicks Dam: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
The very first train graced the tracks of the North Line light rail extension earlier today — though this was only a test, says Metro’s Christof Spieler. That explains why you can’t see in this photo taken near the Burnett Transit Center north of Downtown any overhead wires — the train was being towed by a diesel tractor. (Diesel tractor not pictured.) And it explains why you can see that foam bumper: That, says Spieler, was meant to catch anything built too close to the tracks. More test train should be running all by themselves this fall, he adds, and full service is scheduled to go in December.
- Previously on Swamplot: What’s Left of the Burnett Transit Center, Main St. Intermodal Transit Center Kiss-Off, On the Shelf: That Grand North Main Intermodal Center
Photo: Christof Spieler via Swamplot inbox
Here’s a view of the senior living and memory care facility that will go up in place of the Heights Fiesta that’s now coming down at 14th and Studewood: Though what’s being called the Village of the Heights was initially described to the Leader by “boutique senior living developer” Bridgewood Properties as “Craftsman style” with 80 units, descriptions accompanying this rendering omit any mention of style — and add 23 units. Either way, it’s supposed to be up and running next summer; Real Estate Bisnow reports that money to get construction going is in place.
Meanwhile, the sacking of that long-standing Fiesta continues:
- 25111 Intrepid Ln. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE COMING AUTO-AUTO UTOPIA WILL SAVE THE GALLERIA FOR WOODLANDSERS “. . . I think you have a good point. Except that ‘travel is good for the soul’ bit. It is, but commuting isn’t travel, and I defy you to find more than a dozen people who think commuting from the Woodlands to the Galleria is good for their souls. (I work with a couple, their descriptions are more along the lines of ‘the soul-crushing hell of my day.’) But this actually becomes a driver for density. If you have really fast trains and you pair that with dense destinations, commuting by the maglev from Columbus to Houston becomes practical — you have to be able to get somewhere when you hop off that train. And technology changes will figure into this, which is why ‘freeways vs transit’ is a busted argument. Take a look at the self-driving car technology that’s developing really fast. When that hits usability, and you turn the roads into smart networks, you have a situation where they can handle a lot more capacity (because networked smart cars can use it far more efficiently than distracted primates). You also have the possibility of breaking the one-car-per-person paradigm, when you can order up a self-driving car to show up at work and take you home — cars no longer need to sit unused 95% of the time, and can be parked farther from destinations (‘Car — leave the parking structure to be at my door at 5PM, please’) which also makes density more practical — you don’t have to account for all those cars and junk up the streets with parking.” [John (another one), commenting on Comment of the Day: First We Crowd]
It’s coming soon, the sign says, that international power trio of donuts, kolaches, and tacos. (In the suite beside El Greco, the Mediterranean restaurant, to boot.) West of Idylwood and Country Club Place at 5420 Lawndale St., this strip center is less than a mile east of the new Oak Leaf Smokehouse on Telephone and that complementary retail activity recently opened inside the Tlaquepaque Market.
‘C’MON. KNOCK IT DOWN. I DARE YOU’ 
Writing in the New York Times, sportswriter Jeré Longman tries to raise Houston’s burgeoning “are we really gonna demolish it?” moment to a level of national concern: “. . . it was despairing to hear that the vacant Astrodome might be torn down and its site paved over as Houston prepares to host the 2017 Super Bowl. Demolition would be a failure of civic imagination, a betrayal of Houston’s greatness as a city of swaggering ambition, of dreamers who dispensed with zoning laws and any restraint on possibility.” [New York Times; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday city offices were open.
It’s easier to mow them down when they’re all lined up.
- Metro’s North Line Light Rail Extension Opening Early — Sometime in December [Houston Chronicle]
- Best Western Planned for Galveston’s West End [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Million-Dollar Home Sales Up 25 Percent in Houston [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Free Taxi Rides Part of Metro’s Expanded Park & Ride Program [Culturemap]
- City Resetting 800 Lights in Downtown, Southwest Houston To Help Ease Congestion [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- League City Looking to Decrease Reliance on Cars [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Battleship Texas Repairs Underway, But Battleground Still Needs Additional $18M of Work [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Buffalo Bayou Brewing Tripling Capacity with $250K Expansion [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Alligator Captured at Galveston’s Bermuda Beach [abc13]
- A Very Short Open Letter to Homeowners in the Memorial Villages [The Great God Pan Is Dead]
Photo of the Royalton on Allen Pkwy. near Dunlavy: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
