06/07/18 8:30am

Photo of Midtown Park: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
06/06/18 5:15pm

Here’s where the neighbors of the soon-to-be filled and graded Stanley Park subdivision will go, in a larger, adjacent 207-home community dubbed Palisades Park that’s also planned by the floodable rail yard west of T.C. Jester and south of Timbergrove Manor. Unlike the tract next door, it’s almost entirely outside White Oak Bayou’s 100-year floodplain (but still almost entirely inside the 500-year).

Its current occupant: the complex of industrial buildings eyed from the sky at top — which sits behind Grace Bible Church and adjacent to Better Bags, Inc.’s facilities off 11th St. In order to connect to that street, a new roadway would be built through what’s now the church’s parking lot, as indicated in the subdivision map below:

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By the Tracks
06/06/18 3:00pm

Current and proposed views from high above Lyons Ave. show what the St. Elizabeth Hospital would look like repurposed as a 110-unit housing complex, as the Fifth Ward CRC proposes. The biggest change architect Van Meter Williams Pollack has in store for the place is a teardown of the central wing that runs back behind the 3-story north face — pictured above — to make room for a new parking courtyard.

Behind that lot, a newly-constructed, 3-story building would front Chisum St.:

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St. Elizabeth Place
06/06/18 10:00am

Asbestos abatement crews are on the scene at the former Houston Post building on the corner of Polk and Emancipation that Lovett Commercial plans to redevelop. The photo at top from St. Charles St. looks east to show the building’s parking lot — now serving as a staging area for contractors that have been there all week, according to a Swamplot reader. The other shot views the building’s corner at Polk and St. Charles, which — according to a site plan put out by Lovett last May — would be demolished to make room for more parking.

Fronting all those parking spaces would be a CVS at Polk and Emancipation and a newly-constructed Sprouts Farmers Market off Bell St.:

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Seeds of Sprouts?
06/06/18 8:30am

Photo of North Montrose: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
06/05/18 2:00pm

Hillocks of dirt dot the landscape west of T.C. Jester, adjacent to the train tracks near the end of Shirkmere Dr. where Lovett Homes is now elevating some of the 77 lots that’ll make up its new Stanley Park subdivision. Since receiving a commercial fill permit from the city in April, the developer has stacked soil across the site — which lies entirely within White Oak Bayou’s 100-year floodplain and has never before been built on.

Also included in that flood-designated realm: the Timbergrove Manor neighborhood just north of the development. Its southernmost street, Queenswood Ln., had it up to here during Harvey:

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Next to Timbergrove Manor
06/05/18 12:00pm

Today’s Sponsor of the Day is the recently renovated home at 8647 Dover St. in Glenbrook Valley. Thanks for supporting Swamplot!

The original Roman brick wraps the front, back, and sides of this 4-bedroom, 3-bath home from 1956 (yes, you read that right). It sits on an 8,250-sq.-ft. lot on the corner of Dover and Wilmerdean in Glenbrook Valley — an oasis of ’50s residential swank just one exit outside The Loop.

Inside this rambler, almost everything’s been redone: Walls have been removed to allow unimpeded views of both the front and rear yards from the main living spaces. The all-new kitchen has stainless-steel appliances and microwave, a marble subway-tile backsplash, and modern fixtures and lighting. A corner fireplace in the adjacent family area abuts a sliding glass door to the new rear deck, in a courtyard-ish portion of the back yard.

French doors lead to the deck from the Master Bedroom; on a separate wing of the U-shaped floor plan, a fourth bedroom with ensuite bath gathers light from windows on 3 sides. A 2-car attached garage faces Wilmerdean.

Take a look at the revamped interior of this home on the property website. If you like what you see, be sure to contact the listing agent, Robert Searcy of Robert Searcy Properties, for more information or an in-person tour.

Intriguing homes get attention on Swamplot. Find out more about our Sponsor of the Day program.

Sponsor of the Day
06/05/18 10:30am

A new eatery is on its way to the Montrose shop called Montrose at 1723 Westheimer, a block west of Dunlavy. The toponymic women’s clothing boutique had about a 3-year run in the space before it went out of business, leaving the building vacant. Just last week, the developers behind the coming Eastern European restaurant filed plans with the city to remodel the 1,830-sq.-ft. structure into something more Turkish and culinary: Cafe Bosphorus. A banner hung up on the left storefront window store heralds its arrival.

Photos: Hipster Hotspots (Montrose Shop); Cafe Bosphorus (sign)

Cafe Bosphorus
06/05/18 8:30am

Photo of Downtown: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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