So much going away so fast. How can we possibly take it all in?
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- Astrodome Proposals Must Include Funding Source or Else They Won’t Be Considered [KUHF]
- Galveston Housing Authority Approves Agreement with State To Fund Mixed-Income Housing [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Afton Oaks Homeowners Worried About Cut-Through Traffic Going To River Oaks District Development on Westheimer [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
- Transformation of Branch Water Tavern into Federal Grill Now Complete [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot]
- League City’s Red-Light Cameras To Be Shut Off Today [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- State Budget Panel Endorses $2B Plan for Reservoirs, Pipelines, Other Water-Supply Infrastructure [Houston Chronicle]
- ‘Guerrilla Gardeners’ Plant Seeds with Slingshots in Unused Midtown Parcels [Culturemap]
Photo of construction on the MetroRail north line at Fulton St: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool
This rendering of the apartment building that Hines is replacing Cafe Adobe with isn’t current, says a company rep. And details about the building are few — though the rep says that the midrise Hines is planning for the soon-to-be-former restaurant and parking lot at Westheimer and South Shepherd will contain 215 units and no retail space.
- 1203 Creekford Circle [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BURY ME AT HOLE 18 “I’ll tell ya, country clubs and cemeteries [are the] biggest wasters of prime real estate. My partial solution: Combine the two! All you have to do is build a couple of extra holes (a 20 or 21 hole golf course) so you can close a hole or two when a hole is ‘needed’ to welcome a new permanent resident. Markers (flush to the ground, of course) can double as distance markers. (‘It used to be an 8 iron from ole Ted to the green for me, but now it seems to be a 7′). Perpetual maintenance? No problem! Additional revenue for the facility? No doubt! Just remember where you heard it first.” [Al, commenting on Homebuilders Playing Through Old Katy Golf Course]
This year’s Terrain Denali, shown here in Iridium Metallic, seems to have been redesigned with a towing capacity that borders on the seismic: Apparently, it can bring the lake in along with the speed boat and dock right into the middle of the city! A vehicle that can manipulate geography according to your desires? What will they think of next? And it’s just $34,925!
- 2013 Terrain Denali [GMC]
Image: GMC
Chalk this one up to wishful thinking: Over the weekend, the Fifth Ward CRC, led by a pair of interns from Rice University, hung a basket of chalk and this chalkboard on the exterior wall of a vacant corner grocery (with an awning seemingly inspired by Charlie Brown’s T-shirt) at 4101 Lyons. One of the interns, Heidi Kahle — who’s minoring at Rice in “Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities,” a brief bio states — says that the idea’s for Fifth Ward residents to compile a wish list for their community by completing the sentence and filling in the blank: “I wish the Fifth Ward . . . .” As of yesterday, the project’s blog adds, all the blanks had been filled in, with such wishes as “Prosperity” and “Nonviolence” and “Overflow Blessings.”
Before construction can begin next month on this 4-story apartment complex planned for the southwest corner of Cypresswood Dr. and the Tomball Pkwy., some things have to go. Developers Embry and Stonelake Capital appear to have in mind an unscraped 15.4-acre site that’s thick with trees, and Real Estate Bisnow’s Catie Dixon reports that the demise of an “existing structure” is imminent. But she doesn’t say which one. And neither has Embry. But: The manager at the Arby’s there on Cypresswood says it’s not the Arby’s.
- $2M Project Repaving 33 Blocks of Seawall Blvd. To Begin in February [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Aldi Planning To Open Stores in Webster, Kemah This Year [Galveston County Daily News ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Friendswood May Be on the Hook for $1M in Improvements to Brazoria County Land It Can’t Buy [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- State Legislators Say Texas Lags Behind Other States in Health, Education, Environment [KUHF]
- With No Zoning, Deed Restrictions Relied Upon To Protect Neighborhood Character in Houston [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Warmer Winter Temperatures, Spring Freezes May Cut Texas Peach Crop [Houston Chronicle]
- The Story of Zelko Bistro’s 89 Beehives in South Houston, Alvin [Houston Chronicle ($)]
Photo of a 25-foot oak tree being planted at Skanska’s 3009 Post Oak Blvd. office building: Craig Hartley/Skanska
Note: Read an update to this story here.
What’s left of the Gramercy Place apartments on the 200 block of Portland St. were sold this month. A few of the apartment buildings, which date to 1935, were torn down before being replaced in 2002 by the Museum Tower on Montrose. Now, the seller’s agent says that the remaining 5 buildings and 31 units that records show have been owned for the past 15 years by an entity controlled by Rebecca Parsons were closed on two weeks ago.
And the buyer? The seller’s agent wouldn’t say. But a Swamplot reader with knowledge of the transaction shares a document and some rumors that suggest the buyer is an LLC presided over by Hungry’s Cafe and Bistro owner Fred Sharifi. And the document states an intent to smash the rest of the apartments and put up “residential rental midrise buildings.”
COMMENT OF THE DAY: CAN’T FACEPALM “No palm trees please!! Why do people still think it’s a good idea to plant them in a non-tropical, urban location? They provide little to no shade, take forever to grow, and aren’t particularly pretty.” [John, commenting on A New South Downtown ‘Garden District’ of Really Wide Sidewalks]
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: CAMERAS ON THE STREET, BEFORE AND AFTER BOSTON “Before Boston, my attitute on red light cameras was (1) there is no expectation of privacy on the roads, in your cars or otherwise in public, (2) no person is actually monitoring these cameras, you paranoid freaks and (3) only those who were breaking the law had anything to worry about. After Boston my attitude is the same plus (4) WE NEED MORE CAMERAS and for tapes to be saved at least thirty days to aid law enforcement!” [mel, commenting on Headlines: Challenging Keystone Pipeline Challenge; Watching ExxonMobil Campus Grow]
- 2801 Colquitt St. [HAR]
HOMEBUILDERS PLAYING THROUGH OLD KATY GOLF COURSE 
Just flip the sand traps to sandboxes and the water hazards to water features, and you’re most of the way there: A 440-home master-planned community, reports The Rancher’s Zach Haverkamp, is aimed for the site of the old Green Meadows Golf Course in Katy: Lennar Homes, Meritage Homes, and Village Builders have started construction on the first model homes of the Falls at Green Meadows on the 242-acre, 36-hole course groomed out of the prairie near Franz Rd. and Avenue D. The course was open from 1965 to 2008. Developer Tim Fitzpatrick tells Haverkamp: “We wanted to be in the heart of Katy, and if you look around, this is one of the few tracts . . . that remain.” [The Rancher] Photo: Zach Haverkamp
