- 3738 Meadow Lake Ln. [HAR]
Sign up for the Newsletter
HOW BELLAIRE’S NEW H-E-B IS RISING ABOVE ITS OLD PARKING LOT 
H-E-B’s double-decker replacement in Bellaire is now hovering over the spot where its old store, neighboring strip, and adjacent parking lot once fronted Bissonnet and Cedar streets. The photo above — tweeted out by KHOU’s Bill Bishop views the elevated supermarket’s southwest corner from the intersection of 5th St. and Cedar, showing its second-story grocery level towering above a 3-acre, all-parking first floor. Not visible in the scene: the additional acre of parking that sits on the opposite side of upstairs deck, along Bissonnet in front of the store’s main entrance. Construction on the building is expected to wrap up later this year. In the meantime, the property’s owner Brixmore Holdings recently listed it for sale. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Bill Bishop
Update, May 1: At the request of the copyright holder, images of the proposed development have been removed.
Michael Hsu designed a new 2-story structure (depicted in a rendering posted on HAIF) for a spot directly across Yale from the existing retail building (above) he created as part of the Heights Mercantile complex near 7th St. Like its neighbor — which went up not long ago in place of a Pappas Restaurants warehouse — the new building will replace a metal-sided structure, this one currently occupied by Urban Jungle Self Defense:
Westward Expansion
- Houston the No. 2 Housing Market in the Country for New Home Starts, According to Metrostudy [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston Floodplain Rules Could Lead To Bump in New Home Construction [HBJ ($)]
- Investors in Houston’s Single-Family Rental Houses Seeing Strong Annual Returns, Finds Roofstock.com [Houston Chronicle]
- Stream Realty Partners Brokers Launch New Venture Looking To Capitalize on Houston’s Strong Retail Demand [HBJ]
- Transwestern: Fast-Casual Dining Sector Continues To Be ‘Red-Hot’ in Houston [Realty News Report]
- Everson Developments Starts Construction on Medical Office Building in Shenandoah [Houston Chronicle]
- Harris County To Consider Calling Flood Control Bond Referendum on the 1-Year Anniversary of Harvey [Houston Chronicle]
- Inside Houston’s Growing Renewable Energy Sector [HBJ]
- Discovery Green’s Impact at 10 Years [OffCite]
- Texas Residents Can Be Doing More To Conserve Water as Drought Returns, Water Experts Advise [The Texas Tribune]
Photo of Galveston: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
I am turned into a sort of machine for observing houses and grinding out their conclusions.
- 316 W. 6th St. [HAR]
INDICTMENTS BRING LE MERIDIEN HOTEL RENNOVATOR’S INTERSTATE KICKBACK SCHEME TO LIGHT 
A construction boss who oversaw work to turn the Melrose Building on the corner of Walker and San Jacinto into the new-ish Le Meridien Hotel has been indicted for his role in a scam to embezzle $3.4 million from his employer — The Beck Group — during its renovation of the structure. “[Moses] Said was picked to manage construction at the Le Meridien Hotel from 2016 to 2017,” reports the Chronicle‘s Gabrielle Banks. “Prosecutors say he turned in fake invoices he had signed off on asking the Beck Group to pay for services that were never provided. After the fake contractors received money from Said, they kicked back some of the illegal proceeds to Said, according to court documents.” Also named in the indictment: 8 co-conspirators across multiple states who worked with Said as part of the scheme. The 225-room hotel opened in late 2017 after roughly 2 years of work. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Le Meridien Hotel: apvossos
The airy eastern façade of the new Big Brothers Big Sisters building at 1003 Washington opens it up to the adjacent parking lot, and beyond that — across a short north-south street — the one-and-a-quarter-acre Centerpoint substation that’s bounded by I-45. Previously, the half-acre parcel that now plays host to the volunteer organization housed Health Masters Clinic of Massage Therapy. Its warehouse structure — pictured from the east in the photo above — bit the dust in April, 2015. Two months later, Big Brothers Big Sisters’ previous home met the same fate off Hillcroft Ave. in Gulfton.
Here’s a cloudier view of the new building looking east along Preston St.:
All Grown Up
- Value of New Houston Residential Projects Increased to $979.2M in March, Finds Dodge Data & Analytics [Houston Chronicle]
- Denver-Based Black Creek Group Has Acquired Stafford Grove Industrial Park in Southwest Houston [Realty News Report]
- Texas City Retail Development Palmer Plaza Getting $3.5M Makeover, New Tenants [HBJ]
- CommercialCafe: Texas Office Market Hit a 5-Year Low in Sales in the First Quarter [Bisnow]
- Harvey Ushered in a New Reality for Houston Real Estate [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- New Lake Houston Grant Program To Award $200K-Plus to Small Businesses Affected by Harvey [Houston Chronicle]
- BikeHouston Pushing for Improvements at Site of Deadly Crash in the Museum District [abc13]
- METRO’s First Driverless Vehicle Will Debut at Texas Southern University Later This Year [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
- How Rice University Students Famously Turned Willy’s Statue 180 Degrees 30 Years Ago [Houston Chronicle ($)]
Photo of Market Square clock tower: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Demolition is merciless. You do not look at it – it looks at you and does not forgive.
- 11600 Arrowwood Cir. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MY SUITE CHILDHOOD YEARS IN A DOWNTOWN HOUSTON HOTEL 
“My dad was the innkeeper when the Holiday Inn opened, and we lived in the building for a couple of years. It was quite a place — with the Orbit Lounge, one of A. J. Foyt’s Indy cars in the lobby, and so on. But its day has passed.” [Patrick, commenting on Downtown Houston’s Foremost Abandoned Building Now Listed for Sale]
Once you get in, 5501 Regency Dr. provides 2 options for how to ascend. The 5,120-sq.-ft., 5-bedroom house hit the market yesterday with an asking price of $1,098,000. Across the street from it is the far west cove of one of the numerous ponds that water the surrounding neighborhood, dubbed Waters of Avalon.
The only thing hidden from the front doorway is the baby grand:
Waters of Avalon
The transit-themed entryway Lennar Homes wants to build to its 39-lot development — dubbed Fulton Station — on the corner of Fulton and Cavalcade will get another shot at city approval when it goes before Houston’s planning commission this afternoon. Lennar’s new residential neighborhood hugs the Charisma Design Studios & Art Gallery Building, west of the southbound stop for METRO’s Red Line in the middle of Fulton St.
The gated entrance would go at the foot of a private park Lennar has planned just across the street from the rail platform, on the parcel highlighted red in the map below:
Red Line Scenery
- 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Up to 4.6% in Houston in February, Finds Bankrate [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Simmons & Company International Joins New Downtown Office Tower 609 Main at Texas [Realty News Report]
- Indie Bar Will Open Inside Bravery Chef Hall This Summer [HBJ]
- Roughly 50 Hurricane Harvey Victims Given Eviction Notices at Spanish Village Apartment Complex in Southeast Houston [abc13]
- Texas Lawmakers Pressing Regulators To Toughen Anti-Pollution Enforcement [Houston Public Media]
- City Surveying Residents To Study How Harvey Impacted Public Health [Houston Public Media]
- Kinder Foundation Gives $70M for Memorial Park Transformation [HBJ]
- $10M in Bike Lane Expansions Funds Diverted from a Pot That Usually Supports Sprawl Infrastructure [Streetsblog USA]
- In Seattle, the Data-Driven, Pro-Density Campaign To Transform Single-Family Neighborhoods [Politico]
Photo underneath Murdochs souvenir store, 2215 Seawall Blvd., Galveston: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
