Headlines
07/26/12 9:00am

Headlines: Better Phone Coverage in Downtown Tunnels; Woodlands Red-Light Camera Refunds

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Photo of Spindletop Restaurant at Hyatt Regency Houston: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Comments
07/25/12 11:34pm

Comment of the Day: Building Around Trees

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6 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: BUILDING AROUND TREES “. . . If the new construction were built around the tree branches, that could be used as a real selling point for a nice home. But construction is very hard on trees — Directly across the street is a development of new homes, and the property owner and architect specifically worked very hard to build around the huge tree on that lot and protect it during construction. It appeared that they had succeeded. But take a look at it today . . . the tree trunk is tall and fat . . . but there are only a few pom-pom sized clusters of leaves on the tree. It takes a long time for a tree to die, and damage from construction may show up years later. . . .” [Julie Young, commenting on Big Oak Tree in Little East Montrose Park Branches Out]

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Homes for Sale
07/25/12 3:38pm

The Plan To Flip Houston’s LBJ House

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31 Comments

Here’s an idea: How about buying that old rundown Houston house where President Lyndon Johnson lived in the early 1930s that nobody seems to want, then trying flip it for more than twice the price? Great idea, but you got beaten to it.

The 1904 farmhouse-style structure on the corner of Hawthorne and Garrott in the Westmoreland Historic District was snatched up for less than $285,000 this past March — about a year after it first went up for sale (for a significantly higher price). As of mid-June the home is back on the MLS, with a few photos of the renovation-in-progress to spur interest. What could the would-be flippers do to the place that would bring in a price around, say . . . $619,900?

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Glenbrook Valley
07/25/12 1:38pm

Furniture Jettisoned, Glenbrook Valley’s Sputnik House Is Ready for Liftoff

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8 Comments

Listed yesterday: This 1957 Mod in Glenbrook Valley long nicknamed the “Sputnik” house — after the custom-built light fixture its original owner hung on the front porch when he moved in. The light’s still there, but all the furniture’s been cleared out for sparkly photo shoot, so you can even imagine the place filled with Hummel-bedecked Ethan Allen if you like. The 11,694-sq.-ft. lot sits across the street from Sims Bayou, half a mile west of the Gulf Fwy., a couple miles north of Hobby Airport, so it’s got real southeast Houston street cred. The neighborhood, which includes a lot of homes of similar vintage, was designated a historic district not too long ago. Your guess on the home’s asking price?

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Headlines
07/25/12 9:00am

Headlines: Houston Building Permit Value Slowdown; America’s Emptiest Cities

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14 Comments

Photo of Midtown Terrace, 4640 Main St.: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Comments
07/24/12 11:36pm

Comment of the Day: Who Owns the Tree

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15 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHO OWNS THE TREE “The location of the tree trunk does not determine ownership of a tree. If a neighbor’s tree hangs over your property, the portion of the tree that is contained within your property boundary belongs to you. You can do with it as you please. The same rule applies to a tree that hangs over the street. The City may do with it as it pleases.” [Bernard, commenting on Big Oak Tree in Little East Montrose Park Branches Out]

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East Montrose
07/24/12 2:42pm

Big Oak Tree in Little East Montrose Park Branches Out

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20 Comments

Those are some pretty hefty tree branches cutting across the front of the duplex listed for sale at 720 Bomar St. in East Montrose. And they’re from a pretty hefty tree — a giant oak that sits on the next lot over, a 3,500-sq.-ft. plot now known as Peggy Shiffick Park. A “for sale” sign appeared in the duplex’s front yard a few weeks ago, a reader tells Swamplot. “Rumors then started flying that the property had been bought, before it went in to the MLS system, by a builder (it is now pending in MLS) and that the existing grand old home on the property, which had been converted to a duplex and has been empty for years, will be torn down and townhomes built.”

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Homes for Sale
07/24/12 2:00pm

Windows on an Updated Windermere Contemporary

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Ivy creeping across the mostly unadorned facade of this Windermere home helps plant the 1950 contemporary into its leafy and landscaped setting. Interior updates over the years appear to have kept the home’s mid-century bones while adding some modern conveniences — and a whole lotta windows facing the large back yard. Listed a month ago at $619,000, the home in Southgate’s hinterlands west of Greenbriar Dr. is within walking distance of Rice Village and Roberts Elementary School — or just a short ambulance ride away from the Texas Medical Center.

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Highland Village
07/24/12 12:19pm

Starting Over with Pinkberry’s Westheimer House of Steel

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The arches are gone, and new steel is up: Reader Ken Barnes sends in this shot of the rather extensive “renovations” taking place on the former Village Kids and Janie & Jack building across the street from Central Market at 3838 Westheimer, down the street from the Highland Village Shopping Center. It’ll be the Houston area’s third Pinkberry, the first inside the Loop.

Photo: Ken Barnes

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Headlines
07/24/12 9:00am

Headlines: Midtown Tree Thief; Houston’s Walled Garden

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Photo of former Pesce and Borders, Kirby at West Alabama: Ken Barnes

Energy Corridor
07/23/12 4:50pm

Brownout in Fleetwood Home Near Energy Corridor

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Decorative panels mimic and emphasize the vertical orientation of windows on the front of this 1977 Fleetwood home just past the Energy Corridor. Around back, though, it’s all windows overlooking the pool. Behind the property, a shared alley provides access to the home’s 2-car garage as well as the garages of similarly pooled-up homes on the street. The alley also ups the distance between the back fence and the homes beyond it.

Last week, this corner-lot property resurfaced when a new agency relisted it at an even $312,000. The initial asking price back in February 2011 had tested the waters at an unusual $343,343, with a dive 2 months later to $328,328 — before throwing in the towel in October.

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Leasing
07/23/12 4:23pm

Are There 2 Starbucks Nearby?

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ARE THERE 2 STARBUCKS NEARBY? California chef Bradley Ogden spent 2 days investigating 16 different restaurant locations in Houston recently. And he now has signed letters of intent for leases on 3 of them: One near the future site of ExxonMobil’s corporate campus south of The Woodlands, and the other 2 “across the street from each other five minutes from River Oaks.” Ogden says they’ll be “branded, quick, casual, farm-to-table restaurants. The Bradley Ogden restaurant inside Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas is shutting down next month. [Eater Vegas]

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Montrose
07/23/12 1:19pm

Redo Plans for the Office Building at 3400 Montrose Blvd.

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Sure — you wanna hear the scoop behind this set of drawings showing the vacant and forlorn 10-story office building at 3400 Montrose Blvd. across Hawthorne St. from the Montrose Kroger transformed into a glassy white figure with real big numbers. Unfortunately, the tipster who sent these pix to Swamplot didn’t include additional info on any possible plans for the structure, which since last September has been the property of real estate firm Global Paragon. The rendering shows a building that’s jettisoned its distinctive limestone panels in favor of a more conventional office-building grid. Progress in that de-facing process began last fall. A watermark in the bottom right corner of the image reads “Lizard House, Inc.”

Images: Swamplot inbox

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