Gonna gobble these up, then spit out something a little thicker.
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- Up to $16M Unaccounted For from Construction of 2 Montgomery County Buildings [Courier of Montgomery County]
- City Council To Discuss Changes to Chapter 42 Development Ordinance Today [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Metro Rolls Out New Train Cars With Bigger Capacity, Dedicated Bike Racks [Culturemap]
- Galveston Park Board Approves Plan To Use Funds Meant for West End Beaches on $15M Seawall Sand Project [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Galveston Conventions Lure 5,000 Visitors To Island This Week [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- City Council To Consider Building Concession Area at Houston Permitting Center [Houston Politics]
Photo of Texas Medical Center: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
NEW CONVENTION CENTER HOTEL SEEMS A DONE DEAL 
Today, reports Prime Property’s Nancy Sarnoff, the city and developer Rida announced that an agreement has been reached and construction will begin soon on the 1000-room Downtown Marriott Marquis — the one with that Texas-shaped lazy river on the roof. A batch of renderings that Morris Architects released last year suggest that the hotel will replace what’s now a surface parking lot at Walker St. and Avenida de las Americas near Minute Maid Park, Discovery Green, and the George R. Brown Convention Center. Additionally, the Houston Business Journal’s Olivia Pusinelli Pulsinelli reports that much of the initial funding oomph for the development will come from Houston First, which will pay to acquire the property and to add a parking garage before transferring the holding to Rida. [Prime Property; Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Morris Architects
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE NEW DANGERS IN THE SECOND WARD “El Tiempo just opened down the street and is charging 6 bucks per shrimp on the a la carte menu. I’d worry more about that than a ‘stray bullet.'” [doofus, commenting on A Purple Pair by the Green Line in the East End]
NEIGHBORS GLAD TO SEE WESTBURY ‘EYESORE’ GO 
Appearing in the Daily Demolition Report a week ago, this house at 5822 Cartagena St. met its unmaker yesterday. Teevee reporter Erik Barajas reports that the 2,500-sq.-ft. Westbury home located between Hillcroft and Chimney Rock in Southwest Houston had allowed “drinkers and critters to roam free inside” and annoyed neighbors, who gathered to document the destruction with cell phones: “[I’m] really happy,” Becky Edmondson tells Barajas. “The home has been in disrepair for years. It was stalled in court with a tax sale. . . . [It had] rodents, it was open, it wasn’t secured, the roof was caving in. It was just really a bad eyesore.” Barajas adds that the property has sold and a new home is planned. [abc13; previously on Swamplot] Photo: abc13
NEW SHEPHERD DR. LITTLE WOODROW’S TO SERVE PUB FARE, TOO 
Beer after wine: Closed back in November, Block 7 at 720 South Shepherd Dr. is being replaced by Little Woodrow’s, reports Eater Houston’s Eric Sandler. Just south of the Washington Corridor in Rice Military Magnolia Grove and a block east from the about-to-open Katch 22 from Roger Clemens’s kid Kory, the new Shepherd spot, rep Nick Menage tells Sandler, will house no ordinary Woodrow’s: “In a twist, this location will have a full kitchen that will serve an updated mix of bar foods including burgers, nachos and pizzas from the old Block 7 oven. Menage assures fans of the bar’s popular steak nights that there are plans to maintain that tradition, too.” [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Block 7: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston
First things first: A sign off Hwy. 6 welcoming you to Imperial Sugar Land is so far the only part of the 716-acre master-planned community that’s under construction, touts a press release from the end of March. Up next? Starting this summer, adds the press release, something like the spout-centered roundabout shown here and a 254-unit apartment complex will begin going up around the minor-league Skeeters’ Constellation Field in the so-called Ball Park District. Plans show that that district will be flanked by a mix of uses:
- Why the Next Great American Cities Are Spread-Out Urban Newbies Like Houston [The Daily Beast]
- Slideshow: A Sneak Peek Inside the Lancaster Hotel Renovation [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Closed Since February for Renovations, Westheimer’s Palm Houston Steakhouse To Reopen This Summer [Houston Chronicle]
- Walkscore.com Names Houston Most Walkable Large City in Texas [Houston Chronicle]
- Prairie View’s 3 Zip Codes Cause Mail Delivery Woes for City, Residents [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Vargo’s Peacocks Still Roaming Closed Restaurant’s Piney Point Village Grounds [Click2Houston; previously on Swamplot]
- Washington Ave. Could Use More Public Art [Art Attack]
Photo of the former Great Indoors on I-10 near Beltway 8: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Fresh paint in shades of purple is but one of the updates to this 1929 East End bungalow with matching back-lot studio unit. Listed Friday at $115,000, the plummy property is on an otherwise toned-down, mixed-use street located a block north of Metro’s East End rail line on Harrisburg, near Milby St.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHERE TORN-UP STREETS ARE KEEPING THE KIDS SAFE “As a parent of students at Roberts Elementary, I both dislike and love the condition of Greenbriar. I hate it because it is awful for our cars. But I love it because it calms the traffic considerably and forces drivers to pay attention — we all fear the speeding that will occur when it is nicely reconstructed. We have been told that if Greenbriar makes it to the city list this year, we should expect the start of construction planning in 2017. Who knows if the current street will last until then!” [No History Remains, commenting on Headlines: More La Madeleines for Houston; Montrose’s Worst Potholes]
This relatively gritty Warehouse District warehouse appears to be the subject of some real estate speculation, reports Hair Balls’ Richard Connelly: A website for the Houston Studios building — home to a 10,000-sq.-ft. soundstage with a 30-ft. ceiling for video shoots, rehearsals, and other creative expressions — features renderings that show it as a cleaned-up commercial complex:
- 934 Louise St. [HAR]
GRAND TEXAS THEME PARK: FILLING THE ASTROWORLD VOID 
And this overgrown crossroads in the middle of somewhere near U.S. 59 and FM 242 is expected to be part of the Grand Texas Theme Park. Investors are in place, and the land between New Caney and Splendora in Montgomery County should be closed on this May, developer Monty Galland tells Click2Houston, when construction on the $200 million project — advertised to feature high-noon cowboy shootouts and tractor rides — will begin. And why all the fuss? “If there was an Astroworld,” says Galland, “we probably wouldn’t have even pursued this development. . . . The great thing about it is that we have enough land that we can create a lot of the elements Astroworld had, and it doesn’t detract from the other areas of the park. We’re not going to compete with Disneyland. We want to create an entertainment value that’s similar to going to the movies or going bowling.” [Click2Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Grand Texas Theme Park, via Facebook
