01/29/13 10:00am

It could become much trickier for vandals defacing murals of presidents to remain undetected, what with all these windows: Real Estate Bisnow‘s Catie Dixon reports that Alliance Residential has closed a financing deal on Broadstone 3800, a 203-unit apartment building planned for a 1.6-acre lot just across West Alabama from the yellow-brick former campaign headquarters where Reginald James’s mural of President Obama was given a rather sloppy second coat this week. The proposed site, at 3808 Main St. on the southwest side of the intersection, is home now to a surface parking lot; it’s bound by Travis, Truxillo, and West Alabama — where, Dixon reports, $8 million is expected to be spent on street improvements. This rendering shows how light rail might be incorporated into the 6-story project; the nearest Red Line stop along Main St. is Ensemble/HCC, where shops and eateries like Natachee’s and Double Trouble have congregated.

Rendering: EDI Architects

01/29/13 8:30am

Photo of Buffalo at South Main: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

01/28/13 4:15pm

A City of Houston rep tells Swamplot that 3 of the 10 Freedman’s Town shotgun houses on Victor St. between Gillette and Bailey will be relocated in the Fourth Ward. (The photo shows a shingle-stripped one up on a trailer and ready to go.) A permit to demolish them was granted in 2011, but the city rep says that the owners have since agreed to donate some of the houses to the Fourth Ward Redevelopment Authority, which says it has plans to move them to a lot they own at 1414 Robin and rehab them into low-income housing. Swamplot reported this morning that the West Gray lot where the rowhouses are now located has been pegged for a 5-story mixed-use midrise called Dolce Living.

Photo: Chris C

01/28/13 3:00pm

Facing W. Alabama, Reginald Adams’s 2012 mural of President Obama was recently given a few extra splashes of color. Of course, this isn’t the first time the mural on the side of the former campaign headquarters at 3710 Travis has been the subject of political back-and-forth. Candace Garcia’s photos show the changes over the years, starting with a replica of Shepard Fairey’s Hope poster in 2008:

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01/28/13 1:15pm

“We’ve had a lot of angry calls about that tree,” says an Urban Living rep — calls presumably prompted by the sign posted recently here at 2917 Leeland in East Downtown. Renderings aren’t available, though Urban Living tells Swamplot that the designs for 3 Princeton City townhomes are working around the tree. They’ll also have an interesting neighbor:

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01/28/13 10:00am

A pair of West Gray lots — nearly vacant save their seen-better-days Freedman’s Town rowhouses in the back — have been put on notice as the proposed site for Dolce Living: that’s 5 stories and 176,344 sq. ft. of 1- and 2-bedroom apartments, with some street-level retail to sweeten the deal.

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01/28/13 8:30am

Photo of East Side Social Center at Canal and Estelle: Candace Garcia via Swamplot Flickr Pool

01/25/13 2:30pm

It was supposed to be a teardown, this almost-defiant home in Ayrshire. That’s what had happened to the original homes on either side of this still-single-story one, located on a cul-de-sac one house away from the railroad and utility easement that separates the neighborhood from Bellaire. Demolition is what a view-screening label dictated on just about every interior photo in the before-the-redo listing. The buyer and design team had other ideas, though, and renovated the 1957 ranch-style house into something more 2013-ish, outside and in.

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01/25/13 1:45pm

Dating to 1913, this very white Colonial has been given extensive renovations both inside and out that have lent the place a certain glow. Listed earlier this week at $1.95 million, the 5,700-sq.-ft. home stands in Montrose at the corner of Sul Ross and Brandt, providing highwayside views of U.S. 59.

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01/25/13 12:25pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: I GOT YOUR HOT HOUSTON REAL ESTATE TIP RIGHT HERE “Hey, did you hear about that awesome new project happening over yonder? Too bad it’s misplacing that thing that some people like and others don’t. The architect/contractor/developer/use is still up in the air, but I’ll be sure to pass along any and all updates. Sincerely, Real Estate Insider” [RE Insider, commenting on A Terribly Vague Update]

01/25/13 10:00am

This is how Maggie Rita’s co-owner Santiago Moreno explains his Modern Mex entrepreneurial approach to Eater Houston’s Eric Sandler: “We’ve found out consumer decisions are made by women. When we track what makes a woman decide where to eat Mexican food, it has to do with margaritas. It has nothing to do with food.” Earlier this week, Houston Business Journal reports, Moreno and co-owner stand-up comedian Carlos Mencia shut down their Shepherd restaurant (shown above), the last of 3 Houston-area Maggie Rita’s, following the closings near the end of 2012 of their Kirby and Post Oak locations.

There’s another Maggie Rita’s in Houston, though you’ll have to go underground to get there: Tony Shannard, who’s ponied up the dough to use the brand name, runs his in the tunnel below Chase Tower at 600 Travis. He tells Houston Business Journal he plans to open another location soon.

Photos: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston