News of some late-winter weed-whacking:
Sign up for the Newsletter
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE HOT NEW SALES DEVICE THAT WILL HELP YOU SELL HIGHER AND FASTER “I notice that the 2nd listing is for $1,000 MORE than the original listing. When I put my home up for sale, I’m definitely putting one of those in my bath!” [Dave, commenting on Relief in Alief: The Condo Hard Sell Gets Results]
The Houston Arts Alliance had a tough time tolerating the intersection of Montrose and Allen Parkway, but at last they’ve gotten the job done. The organization’s commission more than 2 years ago for a pedestrian bridge across Buffalo Bayou connected to that corner, dubbed the Tolerance Bridge, was abandoned after a sea of complaints about both the name and design. The new bridge that opens today at that same spot is much simpler than the earlier proposal — and it’s simply called the Rosemont Bridge. But standing — or really, kneeling — guard by the bridge’s southern entrance today are 7 new sculptures by Barcelona artist Jaume Plensa that were given to the city by a small group of donors who aren’t going out of their way to advertise their identity. The name for the artwork: Tolerance.
The see-through figures face mostly toward the south, away from the bridge and across Allen Parkway, to a vacant site where the oft-flooded Robinson Warehouse once stood. Five years ago, the Aga Khan Foundation bought the land there and announced plans to build a new Ismaili Center on it, including lecture, conference, and recital facilities, a prayer hall and a social hall, offices, and gardens:
WE’LL STILL HAVE THE NORHILL HISTORIC DISTRICT TO KICK AROUND The planning department has tallied all the surveys from property owners in the Norhill Historic District — the last of 7 historic districts subject to the one-time “reconsideration” provisions of the revised preservation ordinance city council passed last year. Department spokesperson Suzy Hartgrove says the number of surveys returned was below the 51 percent threshold that would have dissolved the district, but she hasn’t provided the actual percentage. Planning director Marlene Gafrick “has been meeting with council members whose districts are affected” by the reconsideration process, Hartgrove tells Swamplot. “We should have maps ready when this goes to council which may be as early as next week. The Planning Director is still working on her recommendations.” [Previously on Swamplot]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MYSTERY NEIGHBOR FOR THE MEYER PARK WALMART? “Well it looks like just about all of the vacant spots in that complex have been demolished. i know the Luby’s is moving and Kohl’s is moving in. there has to be something else planned to go in there. it’s too big of an area for just those two businesses. i’ve tried to call the management company but they’ve been tight lipped. you’d think they’d want to advertise and drum up as much business as possible in that spot. hope it doesn’t mean something craptastic is moving in. . . .” [Matthew, commenting on The New Smash Hits at the Meyer Park AMC 16 Theater]
That was fast: Yesterday, just a day before Valentine’s Day — and almost exactly 2 weeks after a seemingly candid photo of one of the home’s 2 full bathrooms gained attention all over the internet — the owner of this well-appointed condo in Crescent Park Village accepted a purchase offer. Congratulations! On January 30th, a photo that just happened to include what looked like a 9- or 10-inch uh, stress reliever mounted on the back of the toilet was taken down quickly — followed, in short order, by the entire listing. Really? Some sellers would do anything for that kind of attention. Well, maybe a different kind of attention. But with a new MLS number, the offending photo removed, and a sub-$70K asking price, this home still got noticed. Of course, we’re all hoping the buyer’s likely-to-be-very-careful home inspection won’t turn up any additional surprises.
For any of you who might have missed it the first time, Swamplot’s uncensored photo home tour from the original listing is reprised here:
Apple signed a lease last month on a storefront in the Highland Village Shopping Center, a source tells Swamplot. Houston’s first-ever not-in-a-mall Apple Store is heading for the street-front retail block that houses Paper Source and Sprinkles Cupcakes, across Westheimer from the old Tootsies, in a location that formerly housed the Gap. But which side of that building? There’s evidence of construction activity on the west end of the block (shown in the foreground above), but rumors dating from last summer — as well as the “partial” exterior demo permit for the space that appeared in this morning’s list of demolitions — point to the east side of the structure, adjacent to the shopping center’s Drexel St. driveway. That’s where this older map from Gary Allen’s Apple retail fan website had placed it:
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Hmmm . . . a bit of exterior demolition right next to Sprinkles Cupcakes in that new Highland Village Shopping Center building. Whatever could that be for?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE SHOPS AROUND THE CORNER “Where I live, in the Montrose area, I will soon be within a three minute drive of TWO Whole Foods, a brand new HEB, an updated Kroger, another supernice Kroger on West Gray, a Randall’s, a Fiesta, etc. Three of these will be within a 10 minute walk from my house. I’d wager that there are few (no?) other neighborhoods in America offering this kind of variety and abundance. Meanwhile, my fellow Houstonians who happen to live in the 3rd Ward have no real shopping options nearby. They have to drive 10 or more minutes to perhaps suboptimal grocery stores and fresh produce. But there is a plethora of fried and fast food options in their neighborhood. So, when deciding where to eat quickly, McDonalds or the Navy Fried Seafood store seem to be the first choices. I think what Superhouston is implying is a possibly causal relationship between poverty, [poor] health, and a lack of fresh food. The connection is complicated, multi-dimensional, and definitely worth talking about.” [Matt, commenting on Where the Grocery Stores Aren’t]
CLOSING MORE BORDERS Liquidators are already bidding to run going-out-of-business sales for as many as 200 Borders and Waldenbooks bookstores nationwide, ahead of an expected bankruptcy filing from the book retailer that could come as early as Monday, reports the WSJ’s Mike Spector. Closings of an additional 50 of the chain’s total 674 stores could come later, according to sources who spoke to Spector and reporter Jeffrey Trachtenberg. There are 7 remaining Borders locations in the Houston area — in the Galleria, Meyerland Plaza, on Kirby at West Alabama, in Bush Intercontinental Airport, in the Baybrook Mall, at Fountains on the Lake in Stafford, and in the Market Place Shopping Center in The Woodlands. The company closed its locations in the Willowbrook Mall, in Houston Center, in the Northwest Mall, and at Westheimer near Gessner early last year. [Wall Street Journal; previously on Swamplot]
An effort led by former Houston mayor Lee P. Brown to recruit wealthy Chinese investors for a proposed 1000-room East Downtown hotel project on the opposite side of the 59 freeway from the George R. Brown convention center appears to be picking up steam. Brown is listed as chairman of the managing general partner of the project, a company named Global Century Development. Brown and Global Century’s president, Dan Nip, hope to raise money for the $225 million project from investors who want to immigrate to the U.S. through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ EB-5 Visa program. That program, established as a result of the Immigration Act of 1990, allows foreign nationals to obtain a green card by investing a minimum of $500,000 — and thereby create 10 or more jobs — in qualified areas with high unemployment rates. An East Downtown investment zone identified by Global Century Development in the area bounded by Preston St., the 59 Freeway, I-45, and Dowling is the only area in Houston that qualifies as a “regional center” under the program.
A Powerpoint presentation prepared by Global Century Development that appears to date from last year sites the proposed hotel on three adjacent blocks near Saint Emanuel and Polk St. But a report in today’s Houston Business Journal by Jennifer Dawson indicates plans for the East Downtown hotel are focused on only 2 of those blocks, which Nip controls: They’re bounded by Polk, Saint Emanuel, Bell, and Chartres. Dawson reports that a pedestrian bridge connecting the hotel to the convention center across the freeway is being planned, but a schematic drawing of a bridge featured in the presentation appears to show it only crossing Chartres St., requiring pedestrians to cross under the freeway:
City officials have informed the president of the First Montrose Commons neighborhood association that the recent historic-district reconsideration survey of residents has fallen “well short” of the 51 percent needed to dissolve the district. Under the terms of the recently revised preservation ordinance, city council could still vote to shrink the size of the district — which fits between Richmond and West Alabama just west of Spur 527 in Montrose — in order to exclude some properties whose owners favored repeal. But association president Jason Ginsburg considers that unlikely: “A brief review of the repeal surveys that were returned shows that most of the dissenting property owners are sprinkled throughout our historic district, as opposed to being clustered in one particular area,” he wrote in a post on the FMC website last night. First Montrose Commons became the 16th historic district just last year.
- FMC Historic District Saved! [First Montrose Commons Neighborhood Association]
- Previously on Swamplot: How Houston’s Historic Districts Could Still Shrink, The Next New Historic District: First Montrose Commons, High School Rules: HSPVA and First Montrose Commons’s Historic Decision
COMMENT OF THE DAY: UNLESS, OF COURSE, THEY SHOW URBAN COWBOY EVERY NIGHT AT MIDNIGHT “In regard to Sundance Cinemas, that’s potentially great news, but honestly, I wonder if it won’t succumb to the same fate as its predecessor. Even if it manages to reel in the handful of film buffs gasping for air in this sprawling sea of easily titillated Transformers, it still has to deal with being in a somewhat awkward spot. I just don’t see the independent film crowd planning a night of avant-garde cinema and theme bar hopping. Yee-haw, Thaddeus! Ride that bull.” [kilray, commenting on Report: Sundance Cinemas Replacing Angelika Film Center at Bayou Place; Bar Smorgasbord Moving in Upstairs]