Attractions
03/04/11 11:03pm

Maybe Once the Astrodome Reopens Charlie Sheen Will Rent It Out Again So He Can Shag a Few More Balls

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County Judge Ed Emmett says he’s ready to move forward with that idea for renovating the Astrodome he floated a couple years back: turning it into a big open air-conditioned space that could be, you know, used for events and stuff. Emmett’s plan would require replacing the roof, maybe removing the seats, and spiffing up the grounds for indoor festivals. But he’s promised to work closely with the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation — the same organization that’s favored far more complicated ideas for reusing the Dome over the decade it’s spent supposedly studying the issue. Emmett says he’s hopeful Harris County commissioners will have a plan ready within a few months; voting on a bond to pay for the changes could take place as soon as a year from now.

Photo: James Harrison

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Energy Corridor
03/04/11 12:06pm

If the Buffalo Grille Had Migrated West

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Brock Silverstein tells the HBJ‘s Allison Wollam the strip-center endcap on the northwest corner of Briar Forest and Eldridge Parkway where he and his wife Stacey just opened the Pecan Creek Grille is one of the locations he had investigated a year and a half ago as a possible new home for the then-ready-to-roam Buffalo Grille. Fans of that West U breakfast joint, where the Silversteins worked for 10 years, may find this new lunch spot in the Energy Corridor a little familiar, in a way-out-west kind of way: Pecan Creek has an outdoor patio and serves “diner-style” food, Tex-Mex standards, and breakfast all day.

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Fraud
03/04/11 10:31am

HCAD Tax Protest Settlement Protest

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HCAD TAX PROTEST SETTLEMENT PROTEST The largest property-tax consultant in the state agreed last November to an $800,000 settlement with the attorney general’s office that requires it to pay a penalty to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, restricts some of the company’s business practices, and establishes a restitution fund for clients. But the agreed judgment doesn’t require O’Connor & Associates to admit any wrongdoing. A 2-year-old lawsuit alleged that the company routinely represented thousands of taxpayers in property-tax protests without their consent, failed to appear at some clients’ appraisal hearings, submitted documents that were “fraudulently notarized,” and failed to file more than 11,000 legally required client forms to the Harris County Appraisal District. Company president Patrick O’Connor denies the charges, and tells the HBJ‘s Jennifer Dawson his company was picked on by HCAD because it is big and aggressive: “The firm filed 150,000 to 160,000 protests in 2010, at least seven times the volume of its next closest competitor, O’Connor said. ‘Yes, we do make mistakes, but the percentage is a very low percentage. . . . It’s about four per 1,000 hearings that we did.’” [Houston Business Journal; consumer alert]

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Comments
03/03/11 11:07pm

Comment of the Day: It’s All Happening at the University of Houston!

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: IT’S ALL HAPPENING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON! “. . . You do realize that over the last two years, UH has opened up over 2,000 NEW rooms on campus, right? There’s a two year old graduate level loft building and a brand new all freshman dorm. Additionally, the Moody Towers will be getting a much needed rehab soon. The dining facility there has already been turned into a ‘fresh cooking’ concept that is getting rave reviews. AND, in the best news of all category, the Cougar Place apartments are in the process of getting razed right now and will be replaced with new housing. On the academic side, UH has added new space for the Honors College, MD Anderson Library, a new Cemo Hall, a Social Work Bldg rehab, expansion for the theatre school, architecture school improvements, a new home for PBS and the communications department, a new science bldg, and the school is currently building a massive bioscience/health science facility that will house a free eye clinic through the optometry school. This doesn’t even begin to mention the plans for the old Schlumberger property!” [doofus, commenting on UH: Fundraising for Robertson Stadium Replacement Halfway There]

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Demolitions
03/03/11 7:04pm

Debris? What Debris? Video To Help Landry’s Figure Out What Parts of the Flagship Hotel Are Jumping Off the Pier

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Yesterday a spokesperson for Landry’s told Galveston County Daily News Reporter Michael A. Smith that the company had already investigated claims that pieces of the Flagship Hotel it’s dismantling on Galveston’s 25th St. pier were finding their way into the water and “determined [them] to be false.” But what reports had the company actually looked into? By Wednesday, a website run by Galveston real-estate agent Bill Hill was featuring 7 separate accounts from witnesses claiming to have seen demolition workers or machinery knocking pieces of the building into the Gulf. And then there’s the video above, one of 3 assembled and posted Monday night by Flagship pier surfer Jeff Seinsheiner from a much longer weekend filming session. “The quality is shaky from shivers & cheap camera with no image stabilizer,” Seinsheiner explains in a note on Hill’s website. But: “I knew this would become a he said/she said without solid proof, so this should stop the nonsense.” As long as you look at it closely:

Watch for the bobcat on the first floor at 0:40…at 0:48 I see midair debris and at 0:49 I see splash. At 1:25 I see debris falling, at 1:26 splash, at 1:27 debris mid air, at 1:28 splash with more mid air debris above it.

Seinsheiner comments on the soundtrack of a later clip, which includes multiple OMGs: “By the way, we are non-denominational, but I needed a higher power for strength, as you’ll hear in the audio.” His camerawork appears to have had some effect.

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Garden Oaks
03/03/11 12:20pm

Garden Oaks Hare Krishna Temple Ready for Its Gold Turret Tops

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These gold-colored turret-toppers were at long last delivered to the Hare Krishna Temple on 34th St. at Golf Ave. this week, reports a Swamplot reader who sent in photos. Construction on a new 24,000-sq.-ft. temple at the facility — scheduled to include a vegetarian restaurant inside — began in 2005. The Houston congregation of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness first moved into a former church at 1320 W. 34th St. in 1984. Two deities made out of brass — but which looked like they might be gold — were stolen from an altar at the temple last October. Here’s what the new building is supposed to look like when it’s finished:

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Alief
03/03/11 11:14am

A Change of Screenery for the West Oaks Mall

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How long will the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema be sticking around at the West Oaks Mall, now that Regal Entertainment Group has announced it’s going to open a new 14-screen Edwards Theatre multiplex there in the fall of 2012? A spokesperson for Triple Tap Ventures wouldn’t say directly, explaining that the beer-and-movie house will remain open “throughout the planned construction and into the foreseeable future.” But the Alamo Drafthouse owner doesn’t appear to be looking as far ahead as the mall’s owners, who’ve already announced that the 6-screen theater will close after the new theater is opened.

The Edwards multiplex will go into the mall’s west wing, where Mervyns used to be. Next door will be a new plaza with 3 restaurants and outdoor seating. Triple Tap reports it is still looking to open new Alamo Draft House locations both inside the Loop and around the Houston area.

Photo: Joel Barhamand

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Comments
03/02/11 7:07pm

Comment of the Day: In the Clear Waters of the Gulf

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: IN THE CLEAR WATERS OF THE GULF “I take my kids there every couple of weeks all summer and we are in and out of the water all day. I don’t know what it used to be like in the 80s but when we go to Stewart beach now the water is clear, we see dolphins almost every visit and fish literally swim between your toes periodically. I didn’t go down there for a couple of years after moving out here because of the horror stories I heard. They were nonsense then and they’re still nonsense now.” [Jimbo, commenting on Galveston’s Flagship Hotel Fades into the Sunset, Leaves a Few Big Chunks in the Gulf]

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Garden Oaks
03/02/11 6:38pm

What They’re Doing to Food Land on Ella

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How is it that Garden Oaks residents are so sure that the former Food Land supermarket at the corner of Ella and Judiway is going to be turned into a storage facility and not, say, a long-rumored H-E-B? Well, there’s this sign up on the property, which pretty much makes it clear what’s happening to the 32,596-sq.-ft. space.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Proposed Developments
03/02/11 11:44am

UH: Fundraising for Robertson Stadium Replacement Halfway There

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University of Houston athletic director Mack Rhoades reports the university has raised $40 million of the $75 to $80 million it thinks it needs to raise by next spring in order to begin construction of a new 40,000-seat football stadium on the current site of Robertson Stadium at Cullen and Holman streets. The university’s plans for the new stadium — projected to cost $120 million — were announced last summer, along with an extensive renovation plan for the neighboring basketball venue, Hofheinz Pavilion. Construction cost savings, revenue from 22 luxury suites, 200 loge box seats and 650 club seats at the stadium, the sale of naming rights, and financing would make up the difference, Rhoades tells the Chronicle‘s Sam Khan Jr.

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Glenbrook Valley
03/02/11 10:57am

Knocking Out a Few Properties from the Woodland Heights and Houston Heights South Historic Districts

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Planning director Marlene Gafrick is recommending that city council shrink the boundaries of the proposed Houston Heights South and Woodland Heights historic districts before approving them — but only slightly. In this morning’s meeting, Gafrick presented a map of Houston Heights South with “squared off boundaries” in the southeast corner and western edges of the district, and that excludes a number of residences on Oxford St. For Woodland Heights, her map cuts out some properties on Omar St. She proposed making no changes to the proposed boundaries of the Glenbrook Valley district. The actual designation and boundaries of the districts will be up to city council.

Photo from 800 block of Columbia St.: Swamplot inbox

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