Headlines
08/16/12 8:30am

Headlines: Galveston Bay Dredge Island Axed; Dallas in 90 Minutes or Less

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Photo of installation on Dart St. at Beachton, First Ward: Swamplot inbox

Comments
08/15/12 2:28pm

Comment of the Day: The Teardown Dogwhistle

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19 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE TEARDOWN DOGWHISTLE “I found that calling a property a ‘Charming Bungalow’ on MLS is a way to send a message to developers ‘Lot Value!!!’ without offending the hipsters in the neighborhood. Much like other beloved MLS code phrases . . . Fixer upper = Utter Dump, beware of tetanus!, Up and coming neighborhood = Sleep with one eye open and a finger on the trigger, Cosy = you’re better off living in a closet where you are now, Great Art Scene = Masses of unbathed malcontents roaming the streets and coffee shops.” [Commonsense, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Care for a Tower of Prayer]

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Buildings for Sale
08/15/12 1:26pm

Passing on a Museum District Restaurant Reno

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Back in April, former Bootsie’s Heritage Cafe chef Randy Rucker gave up on plans to open a new restaurant in the holdout parcel (above and at bottom right in the photo at right) behind the Asia Society Texas building. Now that property’s owner, Balcor Commercial, is giving up on it as well. The 3,624-sq.-ft. former doctors’ office on a 11,700-sq.-ft. lot at 5219 Caroline was listed for sale earlier this month for just a tad under $1.5 million. The property traded hands for $907K back in July of 2010, when Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi’s steamy building next door was just a muddy construction site. Renovations of the Caroline building for Rucker’s conāt never began. “Unfortunately, converting the Caroline property into a fully functional restaurant while maintaining the integrity and design of the structure turned out to be a challenge,” an owner’s rep tells Swamplot.

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Energy Corridor
08/15/12 9:41am

A Flag Circle Flies on the Katy Freeway

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28 Comments

“I love burst mode on my Samsung S3,” writes the Swamplot reader who used it to capture these photos looking north from the Katy Freeway just west of Hwy. 6. “What’s the deal with the giant flagpoles?” More than 2 dozen of them are up now, arranged in a semicircle on I-10-facing property, immediately west of Sam’s Club adjacent to a building under construction. As of yesterday evening only 1 flag was up, flying at half-mast.

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Headlines
08/15/12 8:30am

Headlines: Pope’s t’afia Replacement Opens in Midtown; Award-Winning Toilets

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3 Comments

Photo of West Loop: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Comments
08/14/12 3:28pm

Comment of the Day: The Heritage West Bikeway Is Back on Trail

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1 Comment

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE HERITAGE WEST BIKEWAY IS BACK ON TRAIL “If you had not heard, the construction contractor for this project had gone bankrupt, leaving the project dormant for quite a while. Good news is that the new contractor started working yesterday (8/13/12) and has 120 days to complete the bikeway project. Yes, this should mean that the project will be done by 12/31/12.” [Dan Raine, commenting on Did the Heritage West Bikeway Lose Its Way?]

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Bayous and Waterways
08/14/12 1:48pm

What’s the Story with Rutland Pond?

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10 Comments

A Swamplot reader offers a trade: A few photos of the retention ponds going in north of White Oak Bayou where 6th St. was blocked between Yale and Shepherd (above and below) — in exchange for more details on the park that’s apparently planned for that location, including a scheduled completion date for the construction. “I have no ‘official’ information, only old data and hearsay,” reports the reader. Which includes this map dating from 2010:

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Home Design
08/14/12 9:32am

West U’s Haus und Häuschen

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There’s a stuccoed Dutch-Colonial-Swiss Colony on the not-so-mountainous streets behind Weslayan Plaza’s west side in the College Court section (aka the “chimney”) of West University Place. The lookalike cottage and quarters are steps away from the new Buffalo Grille and a U.S. Post Office. West U’s Judson Park to the south and a proposed rail station for Metro’s supposed University Line are also blocks away. Railroad tracks, meanwhile, are just up the street.

During construction of the 1983 main house, a former 1940s “barn” on the site became a 2-story guest house in lieu of a garage. HCAD cites some remodeling in 1991 to the home. Last Friday, the property re-listed at $462,500 after a previous listing by the same agent initially sought $575,000 in April 2012, with adjustments to $565,000, $550,000, and then a summer of $524,990. The home’s side entry and hipped roof make for an atypical floor plan:

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Headlines
08/14/12 8:30am

Headlines: New Sales Tax Deal for Metro; Beyoncé in Marfa

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2 Comments

Photo of Art Square Studios: Candace Garcia

Comments
08/13/12 1:13pm

Comment of the Day: Looking for Houston’s Neighborhood-Alikes

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19 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: LOOKING FOR HOUSTON’S NEIGHBORHOOD-ALIKES “I think the math is already starting to work for some people. Remember the guy who was concerned that he had 30 days to vacate the Andover Richmond property in Montrose? The 3rd and 5th Wards may be a good option for tenants like him, — as older, more affordable properties continue to disappear from Montrose. Of course it’s a while before anyone would drop $3,000 a month for an apartment in that area. The New York Times had an article in January titled ‘So You’re Priced Out, Now What?‘ They looked at neighborhoods, sometimes miles from each other, in very different price points, but that looked like each other. They had pictures of a street of gorgeous brownstones in Manhattan’s Upper West Side; and an equally gorgeous street in more reasonable Prospect Heights Brooklyn. You’d swear they were side by side; not miles away. The same thing happens in Houston, and Montrose versus the 3rd and 5th Wards is starting to be like that.” [ZAW, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Rent Isn’t Too Damn High]

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Missouri City
08/13/12 12:34pm

Mitt Romney’s Missouri City Mortgage

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MITT ROMNEY’S MISSOURI CITY MORTGAGE Among those who answered the clarion call to invest in Houston-area real estate back in the early eighties, just a few years before its big crash: Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Long before he earned billions at the helm of Bain Capital, Romney bought 5 rent-to-own houses in suburban areas of Houston — “without putting up any of his own money,” according to Mike McIntire’s report. Romney got stuck renting out the houses until the late 1990s, when he unloaded 4 of them, “mostly at a loss.” The tenants of the fifth house wanted to buy their 1,836-sq.-ft. 3-bedroom home (at 1350 Gentle Bend Dr. in Missouri City’s Hunters Glen neighborhood) but couldn’t qualify for a mortgage. So Romney became their bank. Tim and Betty Stamps have been making out $600 checks to Romney every month for 15 years. They refinanced the property with him this June. [NY Times]

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Franchises and Chain Stores
08/13/12 11:55am

GameStop’s Apple-Polishing Strategy

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GAMESTOP’S APPLE-POLISHING STRATEGY Strip-center mainstay GameStop has a new strategy to keep itself from going the way of video-game cartridges: changing its business in the direction of another strip-center mainstay: the mobile phone store. The company began a program of buying used iPhones last fall; it’s now ready to remake itself as a leading reseller of used Apple gadgets. Company employees are working on coming up to speed on repairing Android devices as well. Seventy-one of the Texas chain’s 6,600 locations are in the greater Houston area. Sixty stores around the country have already begun selling prepaid wireless plans; an analyst suggests selling phone plans to go with used phones could become a big new business for the chain. [SF Chronicle] Photo of GameStop Outlet at Westheimer and Hwy. 6: Dr. Mario Kart

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