Just carving a little bit out of the Shell.
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- Sneak Peek of Harris Health System’s $98M Smith Clinic Outside Med Center, Opening Next Month [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Ritz Camera and Wolf Camera Stores Shutting Down Just About Everywhere [Houston Business Journal]
- Oil Prices Above $70 a Barrel Will ‘Keep Houston Going,’ Says Economist [Houston Business Journal]
- Broken Spoke Cafe Owner Thinks Landlord Will Try To Rebuild After Fire [Eating Our Words; previously on Swamplot]
- Rice Village Wine Bar Opening Second Location in Frostwood [West University Examiner]
- Hotel Planned for Seawall Blvd. Would Exceed Galveston Height Limits [Galveston County Daily News]
- Houston Real Estate Swindler Charged with Auto Theft [Houston Chronicle]
- Texas Watchdog’s Funding Runs Out; May Close Up Shop [Hair Balls]
- Excessive Pollution Reported at Baytown Refinery [abc13]
- Woodlands Safe from Hoarder-House-Harbored Hantavirus [KHOU 11 News]
Photo of Smith Clinic, 2525-A Holly Hall St.: Harris Health System
COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU PAY, WE SALVAGE “. . . Under the new business model, which is consistent with national models used by various non-profits involved in deconstruction and restores involved in reselling reclaimed materials, the donor of the house will now pay to have the materials reclaimed because they are the ones benefitting from the charitable contribution for the gift of the materials. As an example . . . a property owner could simply demolish a house . . . send everything to the landfill and they will have a cost associated with that for about $8,000.00 with no tax benefit. OR . . . the donor can donate the house to Historic Houston, pay for us to deconstruct/salvage the house, which may cost an additional 3,500-5,000.00, so a total cost of let’s say 13,000.00 to demolish the house. In every instance I have ever dealt with, the charitable contribution for the gift of the materials FAR EXCEEDS the total cost of the demolition and salvage sometimes multiple times over. . . . If doing deconstruction and reclaiming building materials was such a HUGE profit center and money making proposition . . . there would be all kinds of competition out there in this growing market . . . but in fact there’s not . . . because it’s really hard work getting the material out, and storing the material until someone (hopefully) buys it is really expensive and the profit margin is incredibly low . . . thrift store value. . . .” [Lynn Edmundson, commenting on Fundraising To Reopen Historic Houston’s Salvage Warehouse]
Where else? After “several months of thoughtful searching,” the chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips spinoff Phillips 66 has announced the location for the multi-building headquarters campus it plans to build: on the Beltway 8 feeder road in Westchase, just north of Westheimer. Right next door to Homewood Suites and the Fairfield Inn. The campus will include a training and development center, conference space, a credit union office, a wellness center, plus a cafeteria, coffee shop, and — yes — a convenience store. The email announcement doesn’t mention whether the Phillips 66 food mart will be part of a Phillips 66 gas station facing Beltway 8, but CEO Greg Garland reports the company is “still in the conceptual design process” with its architect. A grander entrance to the 14.2-acre property will likely be pulled off of City West Blvd. Construction is expected to take 2 to 3 years once the design is completed.
- Previously on Swamplot: Where Phillips 66 Will Hang Out for a Few Years in Westchase, Phillips 66 Will Build a New Headquarters in Houston
Image: Phillips 66
A day after this Memorial West home hit the market late last month, its price rose by $15,000 to $465,000 — where it remained until today. Now, in honor of the new deep discounts on the iPhone 4S, it’s been cut to $425,000. The tidy ranch-style home sits upon the clipped suburban grasslands of Britmore (one “t”) Oaks, a neighborhood that appears to have pine trees and magnolias as well as the namesake oaks. Like its neighbors, It’s a mid-fifties single-story. The street is 2 blocks south of I-10 off Brittmore Rd. (2 “t”s), has drainage gulleys, dead-ends 9 homes in, and takes a bit of a jog right out front of the property.
What will the long-awaited BLVD Place mixed-use development just north of the Galleria end up looking like now that Apache is building a 33-story office tower and parking garage — and reserving space for a second tower — on a huge chunk of the land facing Post Oak Blvd.? Like a considerably smaller retail complex than what Wulfe & Co. advertised from 2007 until the Apache purchase announcement this June. The development now appears to be split into 3 functionally distinct blocks: A Whole Foods-anchored shopping center with office space above it wrapped around a parking garage on the corner of San Felipe and Post Oak Blvd.; the Apache office complex to the south of that on land formerly occupied by the Pavilion at Post Oak; and a bank of 4 apartment or condo towers (including Hanover’s) and maybe a hotel hanging in back, behind Post Oak Ln. The only incongruity will be the portion of BLVD Place that’s already been built: the 4-story retail-and-office building in the Apache zone at the project’s southeast corner, which will now be separated from the rest of the retail by the Apache Tower.
Let’s just clear this stuff off our desk before we get going:
- Brazoria County Opening First Sam’s Club in Pearland September 27 [Pearland Journal]
- Judge Emmett Says Money Will Go Back to Metro if November Transportation Funding Ballot Measure Loses [KUHF]
- Ike Lore Becomes Tourist Curiosity in Galveston, Kemah [Galveston County Daily News]
- East End Considering Streetcar for ‘Friendly, Approachable’ Means of Transportation [Houston Chronicle]
- U of H Considers Smoking Ban on Campus [KHOU]
- Houston Among Top US Cities in Economic Index Thanks to Strong Job Numbers, Housing Values [Business Journals]
- Remüv’s “Hate!” Tag on I-45 Railroad Bridge Near Downtown May Be Houston’s Lamest Graffiti [Art Attack]
- Texas Home & Garden Show Takes over Reliant Center This Weekend [Culturemap]
Photo of Galveston sunset: Jackson Myers via Swamplot Flickr Pool
FUNDRAISING TO REOPEN HISTORIC HOUSTON’S SALVAGE WAREHOUSE 
Historic Houston is kicking off a fundraising campaign with an event 2 Sundays from now in a Woodland Heights home in the process of being restored. According to executive director Lynn Edmundson, the afternoon fundraiser will be “the first of many” targeting the $350K needed before the organization can lease a location for a new salvage warehouse. Historic Houston’s salvage warehouse on Clay St. was shut down last year. Edmundson reports the business model for the salvage program has changed in the meantime: Salvaging salable parts from older homes is now “a fee-based service that is paid by the person that donates the house to Historic Houston,” she tells Swamplot. [Historic Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Historic Houston
COMMENT OF THE DAY: DICK CHENEY’S BIRD SHOT AND MY FOOD TRUCK PEDIGREE “‘glorified Roach coaches’? Some maybe but certainly not all. I was one of the first to start a gourmet food truck in the Houston area almost three years ago. I have been interviewed by several newspapers in Houston and have done numerous live television cooking from that truck. I am no longer in the business of food trucks because Houston guidelines made it too difficult to make any money. Now to address your ‘glorified Roach coach’ comment. I have a degree in Culinary Arts from Le Cordon Bleu in France. I have been in kitchens for 24 years and currently work as a Corporate Executive Chef for a very large food purveyor. My work history includes having run 4 and 5 star hotels as Exec Chef, working as Exec Chef for numerous high-end New American cuisine restaurants, I have developed many menus in many cities and chances are you have probably eaten at one or more of them. I worked at The Food Network in NYC and was personal chef for George and Barbara Bush and yes I was at the ranch when Cheney shot Harry Whittington while bird hunting (it was Harry’s fault by the way and I have proof!) When I owned the food truck I carried an insurance policy with 2 million dollars of coverage (the same that any restaurant carries) and my kitchen was always spectacularly clean. I, like many other chefs, take a lot of pride in what I serve to you. My food is my craft and what I put on the plate is a direct reflection of me, my integrity and my love for what I do. Unless you have ever worked in a kitchen professionally, please refrain from making blanket statements about the men and women that run some of these fabulous mobile kitchens. You would be surprised about the background of many of them.” [Jason, commenting on Mobile Food Vendors Mobilize]
On a few maps, this false-shutter-and-keystone-bedecked Arlington Court home appears to occupy a lot at the corner of E. Terrace Dr. and E. Terrace Dr. One of those streets, however, is just a stub serving 4 driveways within the enclave development just east of Memorial Park. The property is one lot in from the Memorial Dr. entry of the ungated-but-guarded neighborhood. That puts it on the block-long main drag — the only straight shot in the community of mostly front-loading, 2-story homes lining winding roads, a cul-de-sac, and one loopdeloop. (One interior street discreetly ties into Crestwood Dr. and its by-the-bayou estates.) Listed last week at $1,295,000, this property with a side-loading double driveway previously changed hands in April 2009Â for $1 million and change.
THE NEW MICROSOFT STORE ABOUT TO OPEN IN THE WOODLANDS MALL WILL CLOSE SOON 
Surprise! Microsoft will be opening a new store in The Woodlands Mall this fall “to meet expected demand for new Microsoft-enabled devices.” Meaning: the new Surface tablet computer and the tile-happy Windows 8 operating system. But don’t expect the store to stick around long after customers figure out the new interfaces — or give up on them for something more familiar. The Woodlands location will be one of 32 “pop up” stores around the country being thrown up for the selling season, which will more than double the software company’s retail presence for its big rollout. A schedule for the stores’ openings and closings wasn’t included in the company’s announcement. [Woodlands Online] Photo: Desman Associates
- Astros Obscure Fans’ View of Downtown with ‘Ugly’ Bank of Billboards [Houston Chronicle]
- Second, Older Burial Site Uncovered in Path of Grand Pkwy.; Judge To Rule This Week on How to Proceed [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Investors Spent Nearly $4B To Acquire Houston-Area Office Properties in Past Year [Houston Business Journal]
- Treasures Strip Club Can Remain Open for Now, Despite Houston, Harris County Public Nuisance Lawsuit [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
- Killen’s Steakhouse Kills Planned Move into Old Stella Sola Spot in the Heights [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot]
- Space Shuttle Endeavour To Stop by in Houston on Way to Permanent Home in L.A. [Houston Chronicle]
- Bellaire High School’s Future Farmers of America’s Livestock Trailer Burglarized [Click2Houston]
- Sugar Land Skeeters Break League Attendance Record with 22,886 Visitors This Past Weekend [Houston Business Journal]
- Little Free Library Comes to Cleveland [Cleveland Advocate; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of Minute Maid Park billboards: Hiren Joshi
According to several reports, the fire that appeared to be coming from the building that housed the recently shuttered Broken Spoke Cafe began this afternoon at the duplex next door, at 1807 Washington Ave. That structure has been completely destroyed; fire department officials report that the Broken Spoke, at 1809 Washington, has “sustained major damage.” A third house nearby got mighty warm. No injuries have been reported.
- The Broken Spoke Goes Up in Smoke: Pictures and Video [Eating Our Words]
Photos: John Luu (fire), Matt Hackworth (smoke)
