A split decision in West 11th Place, and other demo spoils:
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- Location TBD: A reader who’s seen it used as a backdrop for engagement photos wants to know the location of this wall painted with the Texas flag. The pic above was snapped more than 2 1/2 years ago — does the Lone Star-splatted wall yet wave?
- Cottage Grove: Reader Eric Nordstrom wants to know what that new construction going up on Shepherd across from the shuttered Shuck Daddy’s is gonna be when it grows up. That’d be on the corner of Maxie St., for all you online map Googlers.
- First Ward: Yet another reader sends in these notable surveillance photos (below) from the scene of the old Harris Moving and Storage warehouse at 1824 Spring St. What’s going on there? “They dug up the fuel tank a few months ago, and lately there are fleets of HVAC and plumbing trucks in front every day. They’ve amassed a number of curb mosaics and appear to be laying them out for parking spaces. The most recent thing I observed was framing out of some of the windows — for AC units maybe? The other morning I also saw a truckload of what appeared to be room dividers being delivered. There is a rumor in the neighborhood that the warehouse will be turned into artist space, but I have no idea how credible that is.” Swamplot readers: What credible rumors about this building do you have to contribute?
“The store is still struggling, but it’s a lot better than it was a year ago,” Rob Arcos told a Chronicle reporter late last month. But a year ago must have been pretty bad, because earlier today Arcos sent out an email announcing he’s decided to shut his Montrose indie video store for good next month. “Even if the store were to attract a new investor,” Arcos wrote, “our debt is already too high.” The River Oaks Theatre and Hollywood Video refugee opened for business across Richmond Ave. from the Richmont Square apartments in 2006.
- Has digital age killed the video store? [Houston Chronicle]
- Coolest Movie Store In Town Needs Your Help [Hair Balls]
Photo: Aaron Carpenter
Will a new, third Inner Loop location for health-club chain 24 Hour Fitness take over where the Rice Village Bally’s left off? That’s what some not-so-subtle banners hung on the Dunstan St. building have been claiming for more than a month now. Plus: a bid package for the buildout was sent out to subcontractors over the summer. Other than that, we haven’t heard a thing: The new location isn’t even listed in the “coming soon” section of the fitness chain’s website. The Bally’s Total Fitness in the same building, at the corner of Dunstan and Kelvin, shut down last June.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Residents of the Magnolia Creek subdivision in League City are protesting plans by developer Lynn Watkins to drill for oil and natural gas on a 3-acre site next to a daycare center near the corner of League City Parkway and Bay Area Blvd. To gain the drilling permits, Watkins would need to rezone the land to light industrial. Abc13’s Kevin Quinn reports:
Those who purchased homes say they were told the land is zoned as commercial. They expected a strip mall of some sort to be built here — not a drilling rig that stands 131 feet tall. Dozens of homeowners have signed a petition asking the city not to grant the special use permit the developer seeks. . . .
[Watkins] insists there would be minimal impact to the surrounding neighborhood and schools.
Additional traffic, he insists, would be less than that coming and going from a home being built in the neighborhood. He says also of the 400,000 operational wells across the state, there have been only 900 blowouts in the past 30 years. Those, he says, resulted in 131 injuries and nine deaths.
“In that same period, there’s been 90,000 traffic deaths on Texas highways in that same period,” Watkins said.
Here it is: Your friendly guide to the day’s demos:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MAKING HISTORY IN GALVESTON 
“what’s equally funny is that the sign on the [pier] now reads ‘[coming] soon: galveston’s historic pleasure pier’. i guess on this island, things are now considered historic even before they’re built.” [JC, commenting on Landry’s Kicking Galveston’s Flagship Hotel Off the Pier, for Amusement] Photo: Ellen Yeates
Gosh, processing paperwork for foreclosures used to be so easy before the end of last month — when everyone started getting so picky, insisting that agents for the mortgage lenders actually read the documents they were signing. What do they expect? Have you ever tried to wade through all that legalese? And now look what’s come of it: On Friday, Bank of America became the next major lender to call for a time-out, announcing it would halt foreclosures and the sales of foreclosed homes in all 50 states — presumably until the company can figure out its best defense against lawsuits. Yes, that would include all B of A mortgages headed for foreclosure in Texas, where ordinarily courts don’t care whether an agent of the lender has any personal knowledge of the signed documents. Bank of America and its subsidiaries have accounted for 31 percent of all Harris County foreclosures so far this year, according to data dug up by Chronicle reporter Nancy Sarnoff.
Also getting in on the break: Litton Loan Processing Services, a division of Goldman Sachs. The Houston company announced Friday it would also stop pushing through foreclosure paperwork — though only in “certain cases.” Next to be held up in the paperwork traffic pile-up: title insurers. A statement released by the company tries to spin it in a different direction, but the AP reported Friday that an internal memo issued by Houston’s Stewart Title would “make it difficult” for the company’s agents to issue insurance policies for properties foreclosed on by Bank of America and other quick-signing lenders: JP Morgan Chase, OneWest Bank and the GMAC Mortgage unit of Ally Financial.
- Ally’s mortgage documentation problems could extend beyond 23 states [Washington Post]
- Bank of America puts sales on hold [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Bank of America Center: Erin Ferguson
Last night’s postponed airing on ABC of the first Extreme Makeover: Home Edition filmed in Houston proper made no mention of the mud-inducing and deadline-destroying downpours, the organizers’ multiple pleas for Gatorade, patio furniture, trim carpenters, siding installers, and plumbers — or the mad (and ultimately futile) rush for an on-time finish that was a major source of drama at the South Union site. But it did feature a brief pre-demolition “roast” of the Johnson family’s dilapidated original home on Goodhope St. by comedians Tommy Davidson, Ralphie May, and Paul Rodriguez, as well as a later appearance by supermodel Brooklyn Decker, (wife of tennis star Andy Roddick), flown in to design the 5 Johnson girls’ elaborate pink closet. Plus: plenty of those fawning building-product-delivery placement shots. On what looked like it could have been the limo ride back from IAH after the family’s Paris vacation, Cedric the Entertainer briefly “joked” to the girls that they wouldn’t get to see their new house right then. But viewers’ only delay was a commercial break.
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
What we’re set on hacking now. Okay, maybe just whittling:
The development director of the New York-and-Denver-based firm that just announced it would be creating a new eco-themed 1,800-acre community immediately south of The Woodlands — and directly adjacent to a 400-acre parcel Exxon Mobil has been eyeing for a giant new consolidated corporate campus — is sure being kinda vague about the identity of the property’s owner, Springwoods Realty. Keith Simon tells the HBJ‘s Jennifer Dawson that Coventry Development and Springwoods Realty share some officers (including him), but that the two companies are “not affiliated.”:
Coventry handles all of the real estate holdings for a privately held umbrella organization that Simon would not name. Springwoods Realty is under that umbrella.
Other entities under the umbrella own approximately 1,000 acres of undeveloped land by Baybrook Mall. Coventry has developed approximately 1 million square feet of retail property around the mall over the past 25 years.
“It’s really a confusing puzzle,†Simon admits.
Adding to the mystery surrounding this corporate . . . uh, “shell” game: Simon’s statement earlier in the week that Springwoods Realty had sold off approximately 400 acres of its holdings — not to Exxon Mobil, but to an entity named Palmetto Transoceanic.
- Coventry developing new community near likely Exxon campus [Houston Business Journal]
- Springwoods Village coverage [Swamplot]
Site map: Coventry Development
Among the revelations in the packet of emails reporter Miya Shay recently received in response to a 3-month-old public-records request: City officials learned from Ainbinder Company as early as June 11th that the big-box store indicated on plans for the company’s Washington Heights shopping center in the West End would be a Walmart. Swamplot readers first heard reports of the company’s plans on July 1st. But as late as July 13th, the city development director’s deputy apparently felt it necessary to ward his boss off plans to keep the details or intentions behind the city’s infrastructure-improvement agreement with Ainbinder a secret: Tim Douglass writes development director Andy Icken, “Frankly, it’s a little too late to try and ‘sneak’ this through council. The cat is out of the bag.”
A quick photo preview of a few of the stops on this Saturday’s “Mad About Mod” tour put together by Houston Mod, which will feature inside views of a few long-ignored modern homes (and a church) in Houston’s latest almost-historic district, Glenbrook Valley: Above and left, the Googie-inspired residence built for drive-thru restaurant barons Elmer and Myrtle Richardson, designed in 1955 by Pasadena architects Doughtie & Porterfield.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HANGING OUT A SHINGLE, BUT QUIETLY “In Houston, Some Obra lots have been purchased by Frontera Homes, they are also using the Obra Floor Plans. While researching, I could not find any relationship between Obras Owner and Staff Vs Frontera Owner and Staff. However, Frontera’s information is hard to find, only contact number is to the salesmand/building supervisor. I can not locate a CEO, DBA or board members for Frontera. It is awfully secretive, like Obra was when going under.” [Gayle, commenting on Obra Homes Secret Hiding Place Revealed!]