- 14818 Chetland Place Dr. [HAR]
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Austin, Detroit, England: in today’s list, a tour of soon-to-be far-flung local scenery:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: OBEDIENCE TRAINING WITH ANIMAL-SKIN RUGS “‘Sarge behaved a lot better after he saw what Paw did to Duke.’†[Eric, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Floor Coverings]
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DEMOLISHINGS AND CLOSINGS 
HISD plans to begin demolishing the old Bastian Elementary School on Calhoun Rd. just south of the South Loop within the next few weeks, in an effort to make the 6-acre property more appealing to possible buyers. The South Park campus has been vacant since 2007, when a new Bastian Elementary was built a mile south on Bellfort. At one point, Lynn Walsh reports, “the property was listed for sale for $825,000, according to an online multiple listings service search, or slightly more than a third of the county’s appraised value for it.” Meanwhile, the HISD board voted this evening to close Grimes, Rhoads, McDade, and Stevenson elementary schools. Some students from Stevenson Elementary will begin classes next year at Love Elementary in the Heights, which had previously been threatened with closure. [Texas Watchdog] Photo of Bastian Elementary: Dikombi Gite
Atlanta’s Post Properties has announced that it’s ready to get started with a third phase of its Midtown Square mixed use development, notes Houston’s InnerLooped blog. A rendering of the project on the front cover of a recent company financial report (above) may not be the latest, though — that looks like a 2005 date scribbled in the bottom right corner. The $21.8 million development will include 124 apartments and 10,864 sq. ft. of street-level retail and should begin opening mid-to-late next year, the company says. The apartment units should run a little smaller on average than those in the existing Post Midtown Square complex at 302 Gray St. Post Properties hasn’t responded to our request for details about the development’s exact location, but the rendering appears to show the view looking east from the narrow corner of West Gray and Webster in the Fourth Ward, a few blocks west of Post’s existing outpost of street activity.
- Post Properties Announces First Quarter 2011 Earnings and Development of Post Midtown Square(R) – Phase III in Houston, Texas [Post Properties]
- Post Midtown Phase III [InnerLooped]
- Post Midtown Phase III [HAIF]
Rendering: Post Properties
- 218 Blalock Rd. [HAR]
On today’s roster: a pool garden adjustment at a private little gathering spot near Memorial Park that’s home to a 1940 John Staub clubhouse.
DECODING THE CODE BUILDING SALE 
City council today approved the sale of Houston’s code enforcement building at 3300 Main St. to the Midtown Redevelopment Authority, for $5 million. The 57,899 sq.-ft. structure and parking garage on a full Midtown block, which also houses the city’s Green Building Resource Center, received several sealed private-sector bids before the February 17th due date. Last week, Mayor Parker declared that the Midtown TIRZ had submitted the high bid, but 2 council members disputed that, claiming the group hadn’t submitted a bid for the property at all. (One of them, Anne Clutterbuck, was the lone dissenter in today’s vote.) Chronicle reporter Chris Moran hasn’t been able to get a straight answer yet, but interprets a staff report to mean that the TIRZ did not submit a formal bid — the city simply determined a purchase from the government entity would be “the most advantageous.” What’s all the fuss? “The city built the sale of 3300 Main into its FY 11 budget, and it is now depending on that sale to help it bridge a $21 million projected budget shortfall for the fiscal year that ends June 30. There is still no information on what the Authority might do with the property, which remains off the tax rolls as long as it is owned by a public entity.” [Houston Politics]
Here’s a showboat custom-made for Houston’s bayous: an aluminum pontoon deck outfitted for exploring inland waterways . . . and screening videos along the way. Assembled by a design-build sculpture collaborative called Simparch, the Tex Hex has its official maiden voyage scheduled for May 21, the night before Houston’s Art Car Parade. The boat will dock in front of the concrete steps where White Oak Bayou spills into Buffalo Bayou, behind the loft building at 1011 Wood St., for a program of films about — what else? Car culture. They’ll be projected onto the Tex Hex’s onboard rear-projection screen. Downtown skyscrapers are expected to hang out in the background, just for effect.
WEST AVE READY TO PUSH WEST 
Catie Brubaker reports that West Ave is set to begin construction on an expansion in January, consisting of 270 new apartments and 150 new retail parking spaces. The new development will go in the fenced area west of the existing garage, north of Kipling St. and just south of the Regency House condos. Isn’t this area marked “Phase III” on circulated site plans? Yes. The much larger development originally labeled Phase II — stretching all the way south to West Alabama and west to Virginia St. — has now apparently been switched to a later, third phase. Planned for that much bigger extension: “350 multifamily units, a 175-key hotel, 100k SF of office, and an additional 275k SF of retail. Nick [Hernandez of Page Partners] says Page is ‘way down the road’ on preleasing, especially for restaurants.” [Real Estate Bisnow; previously on Swamplot] Photo: West Ave River Oaks
A view of the cleanup after yesterday’s early-morning fire on Dickson St. west of Patterson in Magnolia Grove, to the north of the High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. A single structure in a row of 31-year-old townhouses burned after what neighbors say was a large explosion.
- Firefighters: Body found in rubble of charred Houston townhome [KHOU]
- Man’s body found in Houston townhouse gutted in fire [Houston Chronicle]
- Body Found After 2-Alarm Fire [MyFox Houston]
Photo: Swamplot inbox
A little bit of healthcare reform over by the Willowbrook Mall, plus other destructive delights.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHEN THAT SECOND MASTER SUITE COMES IN REALLY HANDY “Its for when the inevitable divorce comes and they split the house between the east and west wings. Its alot cheaper than a fire sale and in a house this big, they could drop a wall down the middle and still have plenty spacious living. I’m sure the pool table room and the kitchen are in opposite wings for this same reason.” [Lost_In_Translation, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Enter, Stage Upper Right]
LOOK OUT FOR SPROUTS 
Next little grocery chain likely to show up in Houston: Sprouts Farmers Market, out of Arizona. Page Partners managing principal Ed Page tells Nancy Sarnoff he’s “actively negotiating on some sites right now†for the fast-growing retailer to set up shop. Where? He wouldn’t say. But in Southern California, Sprouts took over a couple of former Circuit City stores, without even pulling the plug. Sprouts recently merged with a similar health-oriented chain — founded in San Diego by the same family — Henry’s Farmers Market. [Prime Property] Photo of Sprouts in Culver City: Retail Remix
The demo-photo tag team of Joe Lex and Kerwin McKenzie have more pics to share of the ongoing destruction at 1600 Louisiana St. downtown. But there’s more to their latest images than your run-of-the-mill demolition porn. Hidden behind the racquetball courts already pulled down on the southwest end of the former YMCA building, they claim: What looks to be the building’s original brick facade, before the courts were added. You can see what sure looks like an original exterior wall on the far left side of the image above, which shows the view from along Pease St.: Look for the lighter-colored brick structure with the engaged arches.
