THAT RUMOR ABOUT A NEW CENTRAL MARKET IN GARDEN OAKS 
To all of you who’ve been emailing, tweeting, and speculating about H-E-B buying the Sears shopping center at 4000 N. Shepherd at the edge of Garden Oaks and turning it into a Central Market: Interesting idea. But here’s your rumorkiller: Houston division prez Scott McClelland tells Swamplot, “H-E-B has not looked at this location and we’ve had no discussions about it to date.” Photo: City-Data
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- Buyer of Downtown Galveston’s Medical Arts Building Plans To Put 84 Luxury Apartments Inside [Galveston County Daily News]
- Space Center Houston Needs $1.8M To Refurbish Shuttle Replica [KHOU]
- Revamped Memorial Silver Triangle Plaza Features Curved Jogging Trails, Bricks from Old Houston Streets, Sustainable Landscaping [Bellaire Examiner]
- Three Privately Funded Pocket Parks Increase Conroe’s Recreational Opportunities [Courier of Montgomery County]
- The Era of Olympic-Size Public Pools in Houston Is Over [abc13]
- Neighbors Tired of Cycle of Illegal Dumping in Front of Abandoned Fifth Ward House [abc13]
- Election Runoffs Keep Campaign Signs on Sante Fe, League City Lawns a Bit Longer [Galveston County Daily News]
- Sustainable Landscaping in Cross Creek Ranch Means Residents ‘Don’t Feel Like They Are Raping Mother Earth’ [Culturemap]
- Award-Winning Art Car Covered with Lipmarks Stolen, Then Found [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Esperson Bldg. reflection: Jackson Myers via Swamplot Flickr Pool
COMMENT OF THE DAY: OH, AND WATCH OUT FOR THOSE AREAS NEAR THE SHIP CHANNEL TOO “If you are looking inside the loop at places like Eastwood or just outside the loop at places like Oak Ridge and Westbury, be careful that your house is at least 1000 feet from any highways. Living within 1000 feet of a major highway can expose your children to serious air quality issues in addition to what we already have to endure in Houston. Also, make sure that you get the house tested for lead paint and be ready to have some cash on hand to do some work to remediate any lead paint on the interior and any lead paint that is coming off on the exterior. I always thought that I was being overly cautious when I had my house remediated before moving in. But one day I had my then 4 month old baby on the changing table and watched as he scratched the paint on the wall with his finger and then put his finger in his mouth . . .” [Old School, commenting on Crazy for the Inner Loop]
The long-delayed piece-by-piece redevelopment of the 28-acre Archstone Memorial Heights compound at the corner of Studemont and Washington Ave. into a denser style of apartment complex appears to be back on track. Residents of the 3 existing 3-story “garden-style” buildings in the southwest corner facing Heights Blvd. have received notice that they will need to vacate their apartments by August 1st. (“I was trying to figure out why rent prices went up $300 in 5 months,” a resident quips to Swamplot: “Now I know why.”) Did those letters from management sound familiar? Residents of the same buildings were cleared out in March 2008 in anticipation of a similar redevelopment. A letter sent to Memorial Heights tenants refers only to a new 4-story apartment building planned for the site of those structures: Buildings 7, 8, and 9.
CRAZY FOR THE INNER LOOP “I’m sort of at my wit’s end, I don’t have anyone else I can ask, so here goes: say you have $150K–$200K (closer to $150K would be best/more realistic) to spend on a house anywhere in Houston — where do you buy, now, at this point in 2012? We’d prefer to keep it in the loop, and we’ve got a baby with more possibly on the way. Trying to buy a house in this city is driving me insane.” [Swamplot inbox]
Fortunately for all of us, those 147 swampy acres in the middle of nowhere where Houston got its start also turned out to be almost exactly in the center of the 610 Loop.
Video: Planning and Development Dept., via Houston Strategies
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
For every building, there is a time. And a place. And some dust.
- Shuttle Replica Completes Barge Trip from Florida with 5-Hour, Mile-Long Journey Along Nasa Road 1 [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Visitors To Be Able To Walk Inside Shuttle Mockup by Late Fall [Galveston County Daily News]
- Missouri City-Owned Quail Valley Golf Clubhouse and Event Center Opens Later This Summer [Sugar Land Sun; previously on Swamplot]
- Soon You Can Make Your Own Beer at Downtown’s Café Luz [Culturemap]
- A Breakdown of the Montrose Management District’s Expenditures [Hair Balls; previously on Swamplot]
- Galveston Park Board To Consider Plan To Charge for Seawall Parking on June 12 [Galveston County Daily News]
- 80 Percent of Harris County’s Housing Stock Would Suffer Wind Damage During a Properly Aimed Category 4 Hurricane, Says Study [Houston Chronicle]
- George Mitchell’s Cook’s Branch Conservancy: A Former Ranch Once Eyed as a Second Woodlands Restored to Pre-Settlement Condition [Houston Chronicle]
- Wortham Theater Center Construction Photos [Culturemap]
- In Houston, Old Buildings Become Art; In Dallas, They Become Dumps [The Scoop Blog]
Photo of shuttle replica on Nasa Rd. 1: Flickr user txflygirl
Do you miss the old Galerie Mado Chalvet building at 1706 Westheimer? And, um . . . another question: Do you need a backpack? Designer Julia Gabriel has just the thing for you, then: Your very own handmade 1706 Westheimer Rd. backpack, modeled after photos she took of the hulking duplex-turned-antique-store after it burned last July. It’s since been torn down — along with the neighboring structures on the corner of Dunlavy and Westheimer — for a new development. The HSPVA grad watched the building’s demolition from across the street at Domy Books, but she’d already decided to memorialize the building as a backpack. Yeah, she does that sort of thing: “My backpacks are what I imagine these abandoned buildings were like in their prime: fresh and new with a dash of color,” she writes. “They include a stitched map that shows the buildings original location so it can always find its way home.”
- 2169 University Blvd. [HAR]
- ExxonMobil Planning Major New Chemical Plant in its Baytown Complex [Reuters]
- Downtown’s Inn at the Ballpark To Become a Westin [Culturemap]
- Houston Construction Contracts Up 21 Percent from Last Year, Finds Report [Houston Business Journal]
- Nighttime Seawall Blvd. Construction Keeping Nearby Residents Awake [Galveston County Daily News]
- Some Sugar Land Residents Worried About Construction of Apartments in River Stone [abc13]
- Scammers Taking Advantage of Houston’s Rental, Leasing Demand [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
- Lawsuit Claims Pearland Police Statue Copied Sugar Land Police Statue [Hair Balls]
- Crazy Rasberry Ants Spotted in Katy [Click2Houston; previously on Swamplot]
- West U Warns Residents After Hawk Sighting: Protect Your Little Pets [West U Examiner]
- Local Groups Say Toxic Part of San Jacinto River Should Be Off-Limits to the Public [KUHF]
- Band Writes Original Songs About Houston Landmarks [Culturemap]
- Watch a Live Stream of Historic League City Oak Tree’s Move Now Through June 5 [abc13; webcam]
- Tour PDR’s LEED Platinum Office at 2 Houston Center Today [Houston Business Journal]
- Harris County Flood Control Wants You To Get Flood Insurance [KUHF]
Photo of a windowless Upper Kirby Borders: Brennan Rosales
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A LIKELY STORY “Exact same thing happens every time I list my garage apartment on the MLS. Someone grabs the info and posts it to craigslist. I’ve always thought these folks are misguided but legitimate Realtors using it as a way to lure apartment seekers who don’t already have their own agent. They see the ad on CL, call the ‘agent’ and she takes them to the property and collects the buyers-side commission. However, it could be more of the scenario that Katie P describes, which is much more malicious. Earlier this year, I got a knock on my door from a person who wanted to see the apartment, even though the MLS [listing] had been removed a few weeks prior. He was not too pleased to find out the property was long gone. I found the ad on craigslist and called ‘agent Samantha’ to find out more about the property she listed. She was more than just a little flustered and told me that she wasn’t sure what properties her assistant had posted to craigslist. After a few minutes I informed her that the property was no longer available and she needed to remove the ad.” [Kepdogg, commenting on The MLS Rental Scam Going on Now in the Heights]
The very first event at the brand-new West Oaks Art House takes place this Friday night, when the Suchu Dance company performs its first work in the eerie fluorescent-lit cavern left behind by JCPenney when it gave up on its freestanding building at the West Oaks Mall in 2003. The performance kicks off the appropriately named Big Range Dance Festival. It’s not just the repositioning dance of the vacant mall department store: 16 Suchu dancers will range around the enormous space in a piece called “Afternono.” To counter claims that this event is a bit too “way-out” for Suchu’s usual East Downtown audiences, the company is commandeering a trolley-style bus to bring audience members from the Spring Street Studios north of Downtown to the West Houston mall at Westheimer and Hwy. 6.
LA artist Sharsten Plenge, who’s been working to transform the abandoned 100,000-sq.-ft. store into some sort of arts center — in part by offering free rent to artist groups willing to venture so far from their usual haunts and set up shop or exhibits there — tells Swamplot she hopes the inaugural Suchu performance (as well as additional ones on subsequent Saturday afternoons) “marks the beginning of what we hope to be many more unique projects” in the building, which now bears the acronym WOAH.
