Notices
03/09/11 3:00pm

Swamplot Says Thanks!

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It’s high time again to thank the folks who make this site possible:

If you appreciate Swamplot, please let our direct advertisers know you appreciate what they’re doing here.

And if you’d like to add your local business to this list and get your message out to our large audience of Houston real estate fans, let us know! Swamplot’s updated advertising program features competitive rates and new, larger ad sizes.

Brookwoods Estates
03/09/11 1:58pm

The Sound of the 290 Expansion

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A small group of homeowners that includes residents of Timbergrove, Brookwoods Estates, and Holly Park have filed a lawsuit against the Federal Highway Administration claiming that the agency approved the expansion of Hwy. 290 along the 38-mile stretch from 610 to FM 2920 last August without properly analyzing how noise from the project would affect their properties. In the filing, the plaintiffs say they are not opposed to the project, but are concerned that TxDOT’s environmental studies of its planned elevated roadways at the 610 and I-10 interchanges — some of which will reach as high as 100 ft. in the air — didn’t account for noise impacts on Memorial Park and the Houston Arboretum as well.

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Bunker Hill Village
03/09/11 11:24am

Bunker Hill Mod in the Rough: Taking in a Strey Lane House

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For sale by owner: One flat-roofed Memorial Mod, decaying in leafy solitude — it’s been uninhabited for the last several years. The home was commissioned in 1954 by Bernhardt O. Lemmel, who came to Houston to head the art department at the University of Houston, and his wife, who served as the general contractor. Designed by M. Bliss Alexander, the 2-bedroom home features all those midcentury greatest hits: clerestory windows, a multi-sided fireplace, terrazzo, and sliding doors facing its wooded lot.

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Comments
03/08/11 5:05pm

Comment of the Day: So We Can Live More Comfortably in Smaller Homes

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: SO WE CAN LIVE MORE COMFORTABLY IN SMALLER HOMES “The self-storage industry in this country is worth over $20 Billion a year in revenues . . . there are over 46,500 facilities in existence with a total combined area of 2.21 Billion sq.ft. Self-storage is almost entirely a US phenomenon. There are only 12,000 facilities elsewhere in the world and 3,000 of those are in Canada. This all begs the question, ‘Why on earth do we store so much more crap than anyone else?'” [Jimbo, commenting on Comment of the Day: Follow the Mini Storage]

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Carlton Woods
03/08/11 4:45pm

All About the Eaves: Another Tuscapalooza in Carlton Woods

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Prancing onto the market just yesterday: This 10,672-sq.-ft. gated bouquet in that cute little already gated neighborhood in The Woodlands, not far from the smaller mansion Chamillionaire generously handed over to the bank last year. Features 6 bedrooms, 6 full baths, 6 balconies, a 5-car garage, all guarded by a small army of spotlit corbels. There’s a putting and pitching green in the yard of the acre-plus lot; you can warm up there before braving the winding, mile-long trek to the Carlton Woods golf course.

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Downtown
03/08/11 11:45am

Shoppers at Downtown Phoenicia Market Will Have One Park Place to Park

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The bottom 2 floors of the 6-level parking garage at One Park Place will be dedicated for shoppers at the new Phoenicia Specialty Foods market going into that building, reports the Chronicle‘s Purva Patel. How convenient will that be for folks arriving by car who want to grab a few pitas from the conveyer belt and then head around the other side of the building to Discovery Green for a picnic? The opening of the 28,000-sq.-ft. store at 1001 Austin St. was originally scheduled for December and then April. It’s now been delayed until “at least” May 15.

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Comments
03/07/11 2:08pm

Comment of the Day: Follow the Mini Storage

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: FOLLOW THE MINI STORAGE “Mini Storage facilities are almost always limited partnerships designed to last 7-10 years and put on strategically poised land the developers/LLP’s have determined will increase in value. The facilities are generally inexpensive to build and maintain and are easy to demo once the property has gained enough value to where it is sold for development. The area all along 34th street is just not ready for redevelopment yet. It’s currently a dump. Additional years of creeping development from the Northern Heights will be required to eventually turn the 34th St. blight into the redevelopment gem many hope for.” [CK, commenting on What They’re Doing to Food Land on Ella]

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Crime
03/07/11 12:17pm

The Corruption Trials Behind the Astrodome’s Lost Decade

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Any explanation for why a county agency spent 10 years allowing the Astrodome fall into disrepair while haplessly throwing millions of dollars after a sequence of doomed and bizarre plans to redevelop it would have to focus on the thoughtful stewardship of Michael Surface, who presided over the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation from 1999 until his resignation at the end of 2007. Surface’s trial on corruption charges isn’t scheduled to take place until this fall. But jury selection for the trial of his partner in the 5-count federal indictment, Precinct 4 commissioner Jerry Eversole, begins today.

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