MORE HOUSES WANTED FOR MORE PIES 
HBJ food-beat reporter Allison Wollam, who’s heard recently that “pies are the ‘new cupcakes,’†reports that San Antonio pie chain Tootie Pies is scouring Houston for locations to build 8 new Tootie Pie Gourmet Cafés here over the next 2 years. That would more than double the new chain’s current lineup: The sixth Tootie location recently opened in Austin’s Westlake Village; other stores are in San Antonio, Austin, Fredericksburg, and the Dallas area. [Houston Business Journal] Photo of Austin store: Dan B.
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Even the home staging is staged in this Bellaire listing. Vacant when shown locally, the home’s online profile features several fully furnished, clutter-free rooms. A virtual staging service enhanced photos with an overlay of furniture and accessories from its library of actual decorative components. Thus, the family room just off the kitchen appears in its empty natural state (just above) and its tasteful-but-tame cyber-enhanced version (top). Other life-like rooms created with planted furnishings, such as the combo living and dining room, breakfast nook, and master bedroom, are described as such in the listing for the 4-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath home.
A North Carolina company that already operates 18 car dealers in the Houston area plans to build the largest “flagship” Audi dealership in the U.S. on the north side of Hwy. 59 just east of Greenbriar. The dealership would consist of a 7-story building fronting the Southwest Freeway and containing offices, parts and service departments, a parking garage, and a ground-floor showroom. A more dramatic showroom, though, will be on the top floors, where drivers stuck in freeway traffic can ogle recent Audi models parked on display. A fenced-in parking lot for 87 cars would sit behind the building on the north side of Lexington St.
NO, DUNKIN’ DONUTS IS NOT COMING TO THE CORNER OF WESTHEIMER AND DUNLAVY 
Did yesterday’s announcement that Dunkin’ Donuts plans to open 16 new franchises in Houston over the next 5 years add fuel to the persistent rumor that one of them is headed for the recently cleared northwest corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy in Montrose? A leasing agent who says he’s negotiating with “a couple of very strong retailers” to get them into the new 4,829-sq.-ft. center planned for the site by owner SFT Investments is ready to quash it. “I will tell you that at no time were we in negotiations with Dunkin Donuts,” Jed Mandel of Edge Realty Partners tells Swamplot. “I do not know how that rumor was started but I still get phone calls on the property begging us not to put them in.” [Swamplot inbox] Rendering: Edge Realty Partners
A Mansfield park, a Colquitt quitter, and these buildings, which won’t be in the way too much longer:
- Inside the New Dynamo Stadium’s Locker Room, Suites [Culturemap]
- Houston Top City on EPA’s Green-Powered Organizations List [Houston Business Journal]
- West U City Council Supports Alcohol Permits for City Events [InstantNewsWestU.com]
- South Union, Scott Terrace Residents Tired of Illegal Dumping [abc13]
- U.S. Postal Service Suspends Delivery in Lazy Spring Acres after Dog Attacks [KHOU]
- Video Tour of New Bellfort Early Childhood Center [HISD]
- Local PBS Documentary Provides Introduction to Houston Architecture [Culturemap]
Photo of Dynamo Stadium: Jeromy Murphy
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A CITY THAT HELPS TO CLEAR THE MIND “One nice thing about living in Houston is that if you have bad memories of a place, eventually someone will tear it down.” [clairedammit, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Nail Columbia]
A MUSEUM DISTRICT RESTAURANT CONVERSION CUT SHORT 
How far along did Randy Rucker get turning the 3,624-sq.-ft. former doctors’ office directly behind the Asia Society Texas Center into a restaurant — before the plug was pulled? Restaurant conÄt will not be opening at 5219 Caroline St., the lone holdout on the Museum District block demolished for architect Yoshio Taniguchi’s first freestanding new building in the U.S., which opened officially earlier this month. Rucker writes he’ll “continue to search for a location to help give life to restaurant conat & make it a reality”; he’d been working on the project with pastry chef Chris Leung. The partnership with building owner Balcor Commercial, announced last August, has been called off. [29-95; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia
DUNKIN’ DONUTS’ BIG TEXAS PUSH 
Franchise group 521 Interests plans to open 16 Dunkin’ Donuts stores in Houston — as part of plans by the nation’s largest bagel retailer to double the number of U.S. locations over the next 20 years. No rush, though: The first new Houston store won’t open until next year; the 15 others should all be open by 2018. Five Dunkin Donuts locations are already open in the Houston area. Also coming to Texas: 9 new franchises in San Antonio, as well as 50 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area over the next 5 years under a limited partnership agreement with the family of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Troy Aikman. [Dunkin’ Donuts] Photo of Bellaire location: Jimmy W.
The brand-new home of the Menninger Clinic — tucked behind the Fiesta on South Main south of the Loop, just east of South Post Oak Rd. — has only 15 more beds than the facility it’s been leasing from Metro National at the corner of Gessner and Kempwood in West Houston for the last 9 years. Plans from 5 years ago to build a significantly larger facility closer to the Texas Medical Center with enough space for 24 additional psychiatric patients were scaled back — and the project delayed — because of fundraising difficulties. But among other improvements, the new place should feel a whole lot more open. At 50 acres, the new $65 million campus is 36 acres larger than the current one, and features 650 trees. The buildings, designed by Kirksey Architecture and just completed by Tellepsen Builders, mimic a Frank Lloyd Wright-flavored Prairie style, but apparently without any of those annoying low ceilings.
Had the Brady Bunch built their iconic midcentury home in the late seventies (and somewhere other than sunny southern California), its interior might have looked something like this listing in Southside Place. Granted, the street elevation shows more snout (at right) than a classic suburban split level that just happens to harbor a 2-story interior. And, yes, the interior finishes are darker and heavier than the sitcom’s flower-powered set. But something about the open-riser staircase (top) begs for a brood to gather for annual family photos. There’s also a massive hearth for the wood-burning fireplace. A big kitchen. A bar. Plus, generously proportioned rooms for earnest conversations with mom or dad about making the right decisions or getting along despite jealousy, middle child angst, and misguided yearnings for singing careers.
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Coming back for the rest of the Memorial Springs Apartments, and other heavy-duty Houston demos:
- UTMB Breaks Ground on New $438M Hospital [Galveston Daily News]
- H&M and the Other Retailers Opening in Houston Malls This Summer [Houston Business Journal]
- Montrose Management District Hires Lawyer in Lawsuit Calling for Its Dissolution [River Oaks Examiner; previously on Swamplot]
- League City—Galveston Park-and-Ride Service Starts April 30; First Month Free [Galveston County Daily News]
- Annual Houston Survey Finds More People Wanting To Walk to Work [Houston Chronicle]
- Downtown Bike Share Pilot Program Launches May 2 [CitizensNet; previously on Swamplot]
- Texas Would Save $7 Billion Under New Fuel Efficiency Standards, Finds Report [Transportation Nation]
- Memorial Park Drought Damage Will Be Felt for Several Years [Click2Houston]
- Third of Galveston’s Fire Hydrants Still Need Repairs [Galveston Daily News]
- Sinkhole Closes Brazoria County Bridge [abc13]
- Police Taking Up Public Parking Near Downtown Headquarters with Personal Cars [KHOU]
- Houston Could Surpass Dallas as Distribution Hub, Says Trade Industry Consultant [Houston Business Journal]
- Video: Kayaking Father, Son Reel in Shark off Galveston Island [abc13]
Photo of Jennie Sealy Hospital Site: Candace Garcia
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE TACO CURE “they need to talk to torchy’s to find out how they broke the curse of that shepherd location.” [spiteful, commenting on Another Turnover in the House of La Strada]
A 20-or-so-acre piece of the 104-acre part-time parking lot across the South Loop from Reliant Park formerly known as AstroWorld has traded hands, a developer tells HBJ reporter Jennifer Dawson. But the buyer hasn’t identified itself, and Dawson couldn’t get any of the parties involved to tell her who it is (Dawson says she spoke to 15 people to report her story). Who owns the remaining 80 or so acres of the giant parcel on the south side of the South Loop, between Kirby and Fannin, at the end of the rail line? At last report, a partnership controlled by Fort Worth’s Mallick Group, who bought it in 2010 for $10 cash — and a willingness to assume the previous owner’s $74 million loan.
But a consultant who claims to be involved in redevelopment efforts on the property would only refer to the owner of the main portion of the vacant lot as “an out-of-state land investor” — who has now, she says, created a master plan for the site. Heather Schueppert tells Dawson that details of a proposed mixed-use project — probably combining office, retail, medical and hospitality components — will be revealed quietly in the next couple of months, but won’t be unveiled to the general public for at least a year.
