Finding a place to build — in a city full of houses.
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- Galveston City Council Approves Beachfront Construction Prohibitions [Galveston County Daily News]
- Sienna Plantation Developer Adds Cross Creek Ranch to Master-Planned Community Domain [Prime Property]
- Nearby Construction Hurt Business, 2 Restaurant Owners Say [Houston Business Journal]
- Giant Presidential Head Sculptor David Adickes Turning Former Huntsville High School into Museum for His Work [Houston Chronicle]
- Bastrop State Park Reopens 80 Percent of Trails Damaged from September Wildfires [abc13]
- $7.6M Plan To Reforest Memorial Park’s Golf Course and Running Trails, Add Irrigation Systems [abc13]
- Map Lets You Track Texas Reservoir Levels [Texas Tribune]
- Is This the Ugliest Food Truck in Houston? [Eating Our Words]
- Slideshow of Houses from the Heights Home and Garden Tour [Houston Business Journal]
- Houston in 1940 from the Perspective of Two Blocks [Hair Balls]
- Parade of Rockin’ Astrodome Sky Boxes from 1966 [Hair Balls]
Photo of Med Center and Downtown: Jackson Myers via Swamplot Flickr Pool
With a giant piano illuminated atop a neighboring property’s parking lot, it’s easy to miss the little griffin statue pictured atop a brick column here. It serves as sentry to the unassuming gate of LeMans Townhomes, located on the south feeder road of the Southwest Freeway, just east of Buffalo Speedway. The 1965-built property has a courtyard shaded by trees in place for decades. Today, the canopy buffers part of the complex from passing traffic and from some of the signage for fast food restaurants and strip centers sharing the stretch of freeway.
A new listing asks $72,5000 for a first floor unit that looks out onto the complex’s landscaped commons.
MONTROSE DISTRICT BATTLE HEADS TO COURT 
The owner of a 6-unit apartment complex in Montrose has filed suit against the Montrose Management District, hoping a court decision will help shut down the taxing entity. A petition calling for the dissolution of the district was delivered to the organization’s managers last September. It contained 988 signatures — accounting for more than the required 75 percent of the district’s assessed property values, according to district opponents. But the district says the 75 percent threshold hasn’t been met, because its count includes the value of residential properties in the total. The lawsuit says including residences to figure the 75 percent threshold is “perverse,” since the district can only assess taxes on commercial property. [Houston Chronicle; more info; previously on Swamplot] Map: Stop the District
Schemes for half-billion-dollar eco-resort theme parks are delicate things. To make them happen, it sure helps if everyone believes! Close your eyes and wish it, then: a 500-acre eco-themed, dinosaur-flavored earth science fantasyland, resort, conference center, and retail development just 30 miles northeast of Downtown Houston on Hwy. 59, and just a short drive from Bush Intercontinental airport. Imagine the synergy: Rides, a water park, a museum and scientific institute, ecotourism, a volcano and retreating glacier, shops, restaurants, and shows! Pterodactyls!
But darn, wouldn’t you just figure a ragtag bunch of cynical, self-proclaimed investigating journalist types would get in the way, asking all sorts of annoying questions? Like: How come the East Montgomery County Improvement District has been funneling millions of dollars to various development entities connected to the proposed EarthQuest Resort in New Caney, a hefty chunk of which appears to have been spent on lavish travel junkets for the developers, EMCID officials, and their families — to view theme parks in Las Vegas, Florida, Canada, the Bahamas, Japan, China, and Vietnam? And: How come EMCID officials now claim not to know the current status of the now apparently bankrupt EarthQuest Institute, which for several years listed the EMCID’s address as its own on tax forms, and when the 2 organizations have the same board chairman? And: Who’s even gonna build this thing now that the landowner has declared bankruptcy and the developer won’t show up to community meetings?
And maybe toss one down first.
- 20-Story Spec Office Tower Planned for I-10 at Eldridge [Houston Chronicle]
- Toronto-Based Direct Energy Moving HQ to Houston [Houston Politics]
- H-E-B Planning New Store along Grand Parkway in Spring near Spring Trails, Bender’s Landing [Prime Property]
- Plans Revealed for $4M Hike-and-Bike Trail from Westchase to Art Storey Park [Memorial Examiner]
- Houston Sales Tax Revenues Up 14 Percent From Last Year [KUHF]
- New Vendors, Contracts for Galveston Beaches This Season [Galveston County Daily News]
- Four-Foot Hole in North Loop Grabs at Least 6 Cars [KHOU]
- Red Light UFOs in Texas City Still a Mystery [Galveston County Daily News]
- Casino the Most-Common Request Harris County Judge Hears for the Astrodome [KUHF via Culturemap]
- Slideshow: Inside and Outside the Dynamo’s New Stadium [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Rice University sculpture: lc_db via Swamplot Flickr Pool
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SETTING THE STANDARDS TOO HIGH “Have people gone from midgets to monsters in the few years that this place went from being fully occupied to empty? Before it closed were people banging their heads on the roof? did any of the previous tenants died of melanoma due to asbestos? Should we blow up any building that has asbestos in it? Do you realize that would be just about every building in the city? I realize the ceilings are lower than what is considered to be in style today, but that doesn’t mean the place needs to be torn down. The price of the building, plus the cost of demo, is much higher than the land alone was worth. There is no way that the value of the structure doesn’t warrant it being saved. If you clean the place up and turned it into offices, it would be full in about 15 seconds. Low ceilings and all. It’s not the asbestos or low ceilings keeping it from being taken care of and fixed up. It’s unrealistic expectations of what the building needs to be in order to be considered satisfactory to the city.” [Codys bar, commenting on Will 3400 Montrose Rise from the Dead?]
ARCO OFFICE GOING DOWN; DOWNTOWN HOUSTON CLUB BUILDING WILL STAY PUT 
Dismemberment of the former ARCO office building west of Eldridge at 15375 Memorial Dr. should begin sometime within a month or two, Catie Dixon reports. What will new owner Skanska USA do with the 21-acre site — rumored as a possible location for the new Phillips 66 headquarters? Skanska is currently hunting for an architect to provide a master plan, Dixon writes, “potentially with a couple of offices.” Meanwhile, the other pre-owned office building purchased recently by the Swedish construction firm appears safe from the wrecking ball: The company’s regional manager tells Dixon he expects to begin remodeling the Houston Club building at 811 Rusk St. downtown by the end of 2012. [Real Estate Bisnow; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Houston Club building: Silberman Properties
A full block of Calumet St. in the Museum District has been blocked off from traffic with a new landscaped and fenced median, notes Swamplot reader Katie White. Her photo above shows the new view from Austin St. looking towards Calumet; the street appears to have been closed between Austin and Caroline, directly south of the Holocaust Museum.
- Does the museum own the land now? [Twitter]
Photo: Katie White
- Proposal To Add Toll Lanes to U.S. 290, Texas 288 Approved [KHOU]
- Exact Size of New ExxonMobil North Houston Campus Still a Secret, Apparently [Houston Business Journal]
- Bunch of Restaurants and Cafes Coming to Hanover Development Going Up in Rice Village [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Restaurants Moving into Old Brautigam Family Buildings Near Downtown Tomball Railroad Depot [Tomball Potpourri]
- 8,200 Houston Structures Earmarked for Demolition Stuck in Pipeline [KHOU; previously on Swamplot]
- US-59 Southbound Lanes Between I-10 and I-45 Closed This Weekend for Bridge Repairs [Memorial Examiner]
- Video of Alligator Capture on Katy Fwy. Service Road [abc13]
- Bald Eagles Move into Pearland’s Cypress Village II [Bay Area Citizen]
- The Las Vegas Star Trek Attraction That Almost Was [Goddard Group]
- Animated Map Shows America’s Wind Resources in Real Time [TPM Idea Lab]
Photo of Flower Man House at 2305 Francis St.: Candace Garcia via Swamplot Flickr Pool
WILL 3400 MONTROSE RISE FROM THE DEAD? 
On assignment a couple of months ago to document the office building at 3400 Montrose that once housed Scott Gertner’s Skybar, photographer Patrick Bertolino wrote that the 10-story vacant structure across Hawthorne St. from Kroger reminded him “of what a building might look like after a zombie apocalypse, minus the zombies.” But, um, zombies always come back, don’t they? And now here’s a hint that something might be stirring: Workers were giving the parking structure behind the building a new coat of paint yesterday, reports Swamplot picture-snapper Candace Garcia. Photo evidence above. [Patrick Bertolino; previously on Swamplot] Photo of parking garage: Candace Garcia
- Top Airport Official Backs New International Terminal at Hobby [KUHF]
- Apartments Off I-10 at Silber To Be Demolished for Car Dealership [Prime Property]
- All That Land-Clearing Next to La Marque’s Walmart Wasn’t for Sam’s Club After All [Galveston County Daily News]
- West U Residents Sound Off on Limits to On-Street Parking [InstantNewsWestU]
- New Lakeside Drive Extension Near Hwy. 146 To ‘Revolutionize’ Traffic Flow in Seabrook [Bay Area Citizen]
- Galveston City County Votes on Beachfront Construction Prohibitions This Thursday [Galveston County Daily News]
- Computer Glitch Results in $1 a Gallon Gas in Pasadena [abc13]
- Mysterious Red Lights Spotted in Texas City Sky [Galveston County Daily News]
- Dining in the Remnants of Houston History [Culturemap]
- Slideshow: Inside the State-of-the-Art Houston Food Bank [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of Little Pinata Shop, 1019 Studewood: Christopher Newsom [license] via Swamplot Flickr Pool
