COMMENT OF THE DAY: JUST REFRESHING THE LETTERS ON THE ALABAMA SIGN “Yes, they will re-install them. BLAAAAM!” [marmer, commenting on Taking Down the Letters on the Alabama Theater Sign]
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Taken down to its studs: This home’s renovation project is in the works on a quarter-acre corner lot backing up to the feeder road of the North Loop at Yale St. That’s in Garden Oaks, or so says the neighborhood signage on the property’s easement.
Listed last week at $350,000, the future version of this 1950-built cottage will have new siding, windows, plumbing, hardwood and stone floors, custom cabinetry, and granite counter tops. The kitchen is already displaying the bones of its new, barrel-vaulted ceiling:
Going on now: “The owner of the company taking down the Alabama theater sign letters says ‘the plan’ is to restore them and put them back,” tweets the Chron‘s Nancy Sarnoff, who was no doubt sent several urgent messages from passers-by wondering what was happening to the totem on Shepherd Dr. just north of West Alabama today. And an email property owner Weingarten Realty sent to Preservation Houston says that’s legit: “We are replacing the neon and painting the Alabama letters. In order to paint the letters we are removing them and will re install them.â€
- 682 Lester St. [HAR]
- Bistro LeCroy Leaving Trolley Station To Move to Another Downtown Island Spot [Galveston County Daily News]
- Henri Bendel Coming to the Galleria Next Month [West University Examiner]
- New $85M HMNS Dinosaur Hall Opening June 2 [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
- Stop Ashby Highrise Group Stages Bissonnet ‘Park-In’ To Show Potential Traffic Problems [Culturemap]
- Harris County Property Tax Protest Deadline is May 31 [Your Houston News]
- Why You’re Still Paying for Toll Roads That Have Already Been Paid Off [abc13]
- Texas Has Same Amount of Water Storage Capacity Per Capita Today as in 1953 [Houston Chronicle]
- Rare ‘Flesh-Eating’ Bacteria Common in Gulf Coast Waters [KHOU]
- 7 Houston High Schools Whose Architecture Is Worth Appreciating [Hair Balls]
Photo of Lamar High School: Chris Adams
COMMENT OF THE DAY: FERAL CATS, THE SCOURGE OF HYDE PARK “Okay, I have been dealing with ferals for about 3 years, ever since moving to Hyde Park. They drive me nuts, but you can get the population reduced by spaying all the females. If you neuter or remove a male, another will come in. I still have problems with neighbors who don’t completely understand the gravity of the situation — ie, they mean well, but they don’t help. I have worked extensively with a neighborhood friend to help reduce the numbers and have been very successful. And for those who don’t think ferals are a problem: 1) They crap EVERYWHERE and are a potential source of disease. 2) Toms are aggressive towards our dog and us. 3) They kill songbirds, A LOT of them. 4) They get run over on a regular basis — perhaps Darwinism at work, but a potential serious accident waiting to happen for those trying to avoid hitting them, and a nasty mess in the street when they die. 5) They come into your yard and are aggressive to your cats who have every reasonable right to be in your yard. 6) They are a nuisance. Sure, kittens are cute, but they can have a litter of 4 in about a year. Guess how many cats can be produced in just 7 years from one pregnant female and her offspring? 370,000. Staggering. Of course, you aren’t realistically going to see those numbers, but you get the idea. If you can trap them — trap them humanely. Take them to the SPCA, or to BARC. If you can afford to get them spayed or neutered, do so and get them back in the same neighborhood. I know this sounds silly, but even if you got rid of 99% of a colony in your neighborhood, you will wind up with them being replaced. If you spay or neuter, it seems to stabilize. And trust me, doing that is easier than convincing some neighbors to help stop the cycle.” [Bruce, commenting on Cats Still Hanging Around West U Apartments, Unaware of Redevelopment Plans]
WEST END REALITY FISH TV When Mexican TV celebrity Aquiles Chávez opened a seafood restaurant in Houston’s West End earlier this year, local English-language media may not have given it the attention a culinary star might expect. But his efforts to open La Fisheria were all the while being filmed by a crew from Colombia. Now Fox-owned Utilisima is planning to air Chávez’s northern saga as a 13-episode reality TV series, Aquiles en Houston, beginning June 10th. (The slower paced video above isn’t from the series, but contains more footage of the restaurant at 4705 Inker than the series trailer put out by the network.) [29-95; Utilisima] Video: FUHA
CATS STILL HANGING AROUND WEST U APARTMENTS, UNAWARE OF REDEVELOPMENT PLANS 
A group of 25 or so cats still hanging around the 2-and-a-half-acre grounds of the recently vacated Courts at West University apartments at 3810 Law St. have apparently not been informed of the 5-story Alexan West University complex set to go up on their old stomping grounds. An animal advocacy group concerned that the cats may get in the way when the existing buildings are demolished early next month has sounded the alarm, requesting donations and assistance in setting up a feeding station away from the demo site, as well as finding adoptive and foster homes for the uninformed animals. [West University Examiner; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Elmo at Courts of West University: Kathy Golding
THOSE EMPTYING GOVERNMENT OFFICES 
The federal government is still paying more than $3.3 million a year for the (as of last September) only 21 percent occupied 117,000-sq.-ft. U.S. Attorney’s office at 919 Milam St. Downtown (the lease expires in June 2013; the offices are moving to Wells Fargo Center). And over at Three Allen Center (at left), a much smaller lease for more than 11,000 sq. ft. by the General Services Administration that expires in 2014 is only 1 percent occupied. Those are the top Houston highlights in a report detailing unused office space the GSA is spending big bucks to lease. According to Texas Watchdog reporter Mark Lisheron’s scouring of data unearthed by a report in the Washington Examiner, 103 Texas properties leased by the GSA for government agencies are less than 5 percent occupied. [Texas Watchdog; spreadsheet of Texas leases] Photo: LoopNet
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Watch for these properties to disappear:
- Arhaus Furniture Filling Empty Barnes & Noble Spot in Galleria’s Centre at Post Oak [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
- Groundbreaking for Grand Cay Subdivision Inside Texas City-La Marque Hurricane Levee [Galveston County Daily News]
- Ronnie Killen of Pearland’s Killen’s To Open New Steakhouse in Shuttered Stella Sola Heights Location [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- 10-Year Tax Deal Aids Renovation of Condemned Carter’s Grove Apartments at Shepherd and 34th [Houston Chronicle]
- Landry’s Employees Test Out Pleasure Pier; Opening Day To Be Announced This Week [Galveston County Daily News]
- Council Gives Preliminary Approval to Zoning Change for Pearland Pkwy. Medical Development Amid Homeowners’ Protests [Pearland Journal]
- UTMB Gets Nearly $3M from FEMA To Repair Ike Damage to Primary Care Pavilion [Click2Houston]
- Greater Houston Partnership, Convention Bureau endorse Hobby expansion [Houston Business Journal]
- 350 Pounds of Honeycomb Removed from Walls of Sugar Land Home [Click2Houston]
- ‘EaDo’ Light Rail, Dynamo Stadium Attracting Empty Nesters, Lake Flato Townhomes [Houston Chronicle]
- From Concrete-Lined Bayous to Detention Ponds: Flood Control District’s Evolving Flood Strategies [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston Home Tours Act as Fundraiser and Promotional Tools [Houston Business Journal]
- Forgetting Houston’s Flag and Official Song [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of solar eclipse from the Central St. bridge: Christopher Newsom [license] via Swamplot Flickr Pool
COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOUR BASIC HOUSEMOVING DEAL “We’ll be moving a small house in the Heights off a lot that we are clearing for construction. Basically the removal company pays you $10 for the structure, and after they move it they scrape the lot to a demo standard. So you save the demo costs, maybe $5k, and you recycle the house. The house we bought was the childhood home of the man we bought it from — it had been in the family for decades — so it felt like the decent thing to do; the savings will be used to upgrade my future oven, and not much more, given the cost of building a new house. The movers sell the house for $20k—$30k, maybe more if its in good shape. So as long as their own costs for the demo and the move are less than the sale price, they make out okay. The houses tend to be used as rentals, starter homes, hunting camps, etc. It takes a good deal longer to clear a lot this way compared to a straight demo, and you run the risk that the structure will never sell. But if you have a bit of patience it’s a good deal.” [KG, commenting on Bungalow on the Loose: Duplex Splits West Drew in the Middle of the Night]
A DAY FOR HOUSTON TO CELEBRATE DEMOLITION 
A mere 189 homes and businesses will be knocked down beginning Saturday, designated by Mayor Parker as the city’s third annual Demo Day. That number is down a bit from last year, when the city marked the occasion by beginning the destruction of more than 400 structures deemed blighted (it took a while). Members of the Houston Contractors Association will be donating their bulldozing services for the citywide event. Most of the structures appeared on Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Reports this week; the city’s official list is here (PDF). The mayor will be on hand at 4007 Ebbtide St., just behind Madison High School, to make sure that home gets the smashing it deserves. Photo from last year’s event: Houston Contractor’s Association
Part of its roof already lopped off and broken free from its brick-fireplace anchor, about half of the 1910 duplex at the corner of W. Drew and Crockett in East Montrose made a break for it last night. A Swamplot reader on the escape route sends in these photos of the scene:
