Taking out a contract. And a bit more.
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- Silver Eagle Buys 100 Acres at Beltway 8, Highway 225 in Pasadena for Major Distribution Facility [Real Estate Bisnow]
- Noble Energy Planning 20-Story Office Tower at Texas 249, Louetta, Creating 1M SF Corporate Campus [Houston Chronicle]
- Hines Reveals Invesco Advisers Bought Williams Tower for $412M [Houston Business Journal]
- Hotels, Medical, Retail Planned for Springwoods Village [Houston Business Journal ($); previously on Swamplot]
- 670-Home Residential Development Coming to Clear Lake City [Bay Area Citizen]
- Slideshow: Inside the New Katy Whole Foods on Fry Rd. at Grand Pkwy. Opening January 30th [Prime Property]
- Red-Light Cameras Coming Down in League City This Week [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Houston’s 28 Public Charging Stations Served About 1 Electric Car a Day Across the City Last Year [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Tall Ship Elissa To Return To Dry Dock in Galveston Harbor This Saturday [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Port, Park Board Unveil Informational Signs To Point Tourists to Island Attractions [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Weekend Beam Work To Affect U.S. 290 Around Mangum [The Highwayman]
- Houston Barely Stays Out of Drought Status [Click2Houston]
Photo: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Houston architect Wylie W. Vale passed away early this morning. He was 96. Vale’s career, according to photographer Ben Hill, who has documented his works, spanned from 1939 to 2001. Working in an array of styles, Vale played a substantial role in shaping the looks of River Oaks, Tanglewood, and Memorial. The home pictured above is in Katy.
- A Brief Guide to the Work of Wylie W. Vale [HAIF]
- Previously on Swamplot: Hidden Modern: Wylie Vale’s Katy Best, Katy Does Contemporary Country: More Pix of that House on Woods Lane, Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Contemporary Country, Neighborhood Guessing Game: Office Managers
Photos: Ben Hill
Office building or home? It depends on which listing you read. One on LoopNet appears to have marketed the property for a while at $599,000 — as an office building. But it popped up as a single family item this week on HAR, asking $535,000. Built in 2001 and updated in 2010, the corner-lot custom live-work structure is 2 blocks south of the Katy Fwy. in the Brunner subdivision in Cottage Grove.
A TERRIBLY VAGUE UPDATE 
“More to tell!,” says the Swamplot tipster who earlier in January shared some big vague news that something was going to happen to “a major (non-residential) Houston property” — and no, it wasn’t Macy’s — sometime this year: “It looks like some changes have come up. The part of the property to be demolished will retain some of the current façade and no notable architects will be brought in. However, a new structure may be built on another part of the property and that one is still very new in terms of recent developments, as in the past couple of weeks, so prominent designers and what-have-you aren’t entirely off the table. When it comes down to it, the property is going to have to fight to maintain its relevance in the new economic climate, and I don’t mean the recession and recovery. You might have guessed what it is by now, but I still can’t say it yet. . . . I just want to make sure you have the most recent information possible because it’s a Houston landmark even if I wish it weren’t.” [Swamplot inbox] Photo: Seth Bienek
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT A GATE GETS YOU “I can tell you why I have a gate. It’s not to keep out someone that REALLY wants to get in (as I can hop over in about 5 seconds if needed). It’s to keep randoms from coming up and knocking on my door. I work from home a lot and hate when I get a knock on the door during the day (or at night when I’m spending time with my wife) only to go to the door and find some pandhandler ‘fundraising’ for a trip or other nonsense. And while I don’t subscribe to the fact they’re a big problem, I have heard warnings that people come by, knock on the door for a ‘legit’ reason, and if no one answers they target the property to break in. A gate will keep most of these fishing expeditions out. So a gate isn’t going to keep someone out that’s committed themselves to getting in, but it’ll be a deterrent to the passers by that want to bother you. Other reasons? I park my car inside the gated area (yet still outside) so I add some security there. I have furniture on my patio that is much more secure due to the gate. I have a daughter that’ll soon play outside and I like the idea of her not being able to run out to the street. If I had a dog I could let them run around without bothering anyone walking by or running into the street. There are several legit reasons for a gate. The least of which is a means to make your house impossible to access.” [Cody, commenting on A Preview of a $110K Modest Mod]
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: STICKING UP FOR STUCCO “What’s with all of this unfounded hate for stucco? It’s actually a very good construction material, well suited for wet climates (if installed properly). One can have just as much water penetration and mold on a brick facade if flashings are not installed properly or weep holes are clogged. And unlike brick, stucco actually ‘ties’ the structure together by making the frame more rigid, whereas brick just sits there almost unconnected from the structure.” [commonsense, commenting on A Preview of a $110K Modest Mod]
Squatters and street artists might have to find another bygone building to pick on — but that’s only assuming there’s something really behind the renderings of renovations to Midtown’s Central Square Plaza that Claremont Property has been floating around. Could that demure stone mosaic on the wall facing Webster finally get its comeuppance after years of playing hard to get?
And this one seems almost preordained by the stars: Aries Motel, the last of the City of Houston’s “dirty half-dozen,” those multi-family/commercial buildings so blighted not even Mayor Parker can love them, has been tagged to go down today. The Gladstone St. motel sits on 10,000-sq.-ft. lot in Sunnyside, just west of Scott and north of Bellfort.
- Mayor Parker, Community Leaders Tear Down Last of “Dirty Half-Dozen” [City of Houston]
Photo: abc13
- 8345 La Roche Ln. [HAR]
At a Neartown meeting two days ago, Kirk Baxter presented these two drawings for a Mary’s memorial, according to a HAIF poster, celebrating the 30-year heyday of the Westheimer bar for Montrose’s gay community. Some 300 memorial services were held here over the years. Mary’s was closed in 2009; the building where it sat since the early ’70s opened this weekend as the coffee shop Blacksmith.
The drawings show a kind of replica Mary’s installed near Waugh and Hyde Park; two of Mary’s original doors — donated to the project by Blacksmith owner Bobby Heugel — would sit underneath tiles reclaimed from the original roof.
Nothing about the memorial has been approved or decided yet, says the HAIF poster. During the meeting several other potential locations were brought up: a spot behind the original building the regulars called the Out Back, and across the street, facing the building, in front of Half Price Books.
- A Memorial in Montrose for Mary’s [HAIF]
- Previously on Swamplot: Blacksmith Now Serving Coffee In Former Montrose Leather Bar, Restored Mary’s Mural on Westheimer Painted Over Again
Photos: HAIF user trymahjong
When they come they will be brutal, quick, and unsparing. But first, we’ll have this fine crop of demolitions to take care of.
- Houston, Austin, Dallas Among America’s Fastest-Growing Cities [Forbes via Houston Business Journal]
- More Than 2M SF of New Shopping Space Will Be Built in Houston This Year [Prime Property]
- Former San Jacinto Hospital in Baytown Sold to GRP Holdings for $550K [Houston Business Journal]
- Hanover Co. Broke Ground on BLVD Place Residential High-Rise 1 Month Ahead of Schedule [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- TransCanada Moving Offices a Couple Blocks Downtown to Bank of America Center [Prime Property]
- Brewery Incubator Wants To Bring Nano-Brewing to Downtown [Eating Our Words]
- Shooters Targeting Protected Hawks, Say Texas Wildlife Officials [Click2Houston]
Photo of the Menil campus: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
In Southeast Houston, Glenbrook Valley sits between Telephone and Broadway near Hobby Airport. Developed during that same spate of post-war optimism that gave us the Jetsons, the neighborhood is home to many smaller mid-century mods, including this 1,375-sq.-ft. one at 7722 Glenalta. Designed by P. Herbert Caldwell, the home should be listed this Thursday or Friday at $110,000. Have a look around:
Brick-fired, you think? Swamplot tipster Ryan Lankford says that when he convinced his mom to add this tantalizing topping to her sign, the 2-story, 4,700-sq.-footer in Memorial that she’s standing in front of was shown 18 times and received 3 offers on its first day. Listed at $1.5 million, the house went option pending not 24 hours later.
- 19 Hibury Dr. [HAR]
Photo: Ryan Lankford
