Y’ALL CAN DISCUSS THE WEST END WALMART ON YOUR OWN Missed all the fun at last week’s big celebration of Walmart’s impending arrival in the Inner Loop? Two ways you can still get in on the action: Mayor Parker’s office has posted videos of the presentations given by the mayor and chief development officer Andy Icken at the gathering. And a second public meeting is scheduled for tonight, at a venue guaranteed to keep things orderly — The High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. But the folks from Ainbinder and Walmart won’t be around this time, according to the mayor, who’s announced the meeting “will focus solely on areas of the development that are under the city’s control.” [CitizensNet via Off the Kuff; previously on Swamplot]
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Spoiler Alert! Okay, so you see that “Still a Virgin?” billboard off 59 on the way to work yesterday and then, y’know, curiosity gets the better of you and the next thing you know you’re in some sort of voicemail comedy hell. And then the feelings of regret set in. You start asking yourself, “Okay, did I just lose my movie-marketing-campaign virginity?” Well, hey — you can’t get that back again, but you can brush it off. Swamplot is here to uh . . . help:
Shhhhhhhh! It’s still parking! Roving Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia happens upon this swan-label vehicle, hanging out late Tuesday a few streets off Westheimer: “My only guess is that since we are so close to Mango’s there may be a performer in town. Or, I guess it could be someone at KPFT. The plates are from Cali. Anyway it’s a really nice truck with a great design on it. The small windows on either side of the cab have curtains hanging on the inside.”
Two and a half houses, marked down:
Reopened yesterday at 12151 Westheimer between Dairy Ashford and Kirkwood: Arpi’s Phoenicia Deli, which crossed the street after 27 years to be closer to Arpi and Zohrab Tcholakian’s flagship (and 2009 Swamplot Award-winning) Phoenicia Specialty Foods store. The new 6,000-sq.-ft. space at the front of the shopping center will still feature shawarmas and salads, but mixes in a new Phoenicia-branded coffee house — and gelato, in classic flavors like Pistachio & Orange Blossom and Cardamom Turkish Coffee. A new Phoenicia Specialty Foods location — in the ground floor of One Park Place across from Discovery Green Downtown — is scheduled to open later this year.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: CAN’T EVEN BEGIN TO TALK ABOUT THIS HOUSE “. . . There is no calliope in the rumpus room to mock. No discount Hall of Mirrors to deride. Nary a bevy of Spring Bok heads lining the walls, nor herds of cattle skins adorning the marble floors, can be found in this fine salt box. Little Elliot’s do-it-yourself version of Serrano’s ‘Piss Christ (with #2!)’ is nowhere to be seen. It’s pretty much tabula rasa with some ecru, antique white, eggshell, and Sonoran sand thrown in the mix. To answer the eternal question of, ‘Is there color in your world?’ Sometimes, not so much.” [wilf, commenting on A Little Bit Country, a Little Bit Town]
SELF PRESERVATION 
Among the businesses and organizations smoked out of the 36-story former Gulf Building Downtown at the corner of Main and Capitol after last night’s fire on the 27th floor: The Greater Houston Preservation Alliance, which has offices on the ground floor of the 1929 tower, now named after JPMorgan Chase Bank. It’s likely the organization hasn’t lost anything, but none of the businesses with offices there will know for sure until the building is reopened. “Crews are currently on the scene fanning smoke out of the building,” the GHPA reported this morning — from a remote location. [abc13 update] Photo: Jim Parsons.
The high-stakes leasing drama that culminated in Sunday’s sudden early-morning shuttering of the Angelika Film Center at Bayou Place Downtown included some familiar plot elements: the wandering eye, the unwillingness to commit, the threats of retaliation, the uh . . . 30-day notice to terminate. Andrew Dansby and Nancy Sarnoff track the courtroom scenes:
Angelika’s landlord, Bayou Place Limited Partnership, filed suit more than a week ago claiming the cinema was threatening to remove equipment from the theater if it did not receive a new lease.
The landlord’s petition outlines a situation dating to 2007, when the theater’s first 10-year lease expired. It did not exercise an option to renew for another 10 years.
The Angelika – also called Bayou Cinemas in the petition – continued as a month-to-month tenant at reduce rent, according to the petition.
Bayou Place and the Angelika continued discussions on a new lease, even as the landlord, an affiliate of the Cordish Co., sought a tenant that would enter into a long-term lease for a cinema.
But during a meeting, according to the petition, a principal of Bayou Cinemas threatened to remove equipment if the parties couldn’t reach a deal. Based on the initial lease agreement, the property belongs to the landlord, the petition claims.
The theater’s lawyer has filed a general denial of the allegations in the suit.
And oh, the broken promises: Angelika says the company had received official notice ending its month-to-month tenancy as of September 18th; Bayou Place’s general manager says Angelika changed its mind about committing to something longer term. How will it all end?
This updated corner Ranch with the DJ-booth-style kitchen in the center sits just outside the designated 100-year floodplain in Candlelight Estates. It showed up in MLS just yesterday, sporting a $349K sticker price. Includes 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a 9,400-sq.-ft. lot, a pool, and these HDR pix:
Time to cut our losses — and take this rubble to the landfill:
Neighbors in the Freeland Historic District who imagined the nationwide economic downturn and neighborhood protests a few years ago would have been enough to kill a threatened 65-70-condo development on a wooded tract next to the new Heights hike-and-bike trail have been buzzing about the project’s apparent reappearance. On the agenda for this week’s planning commission meeting: the Emes Place Subdivision, which will give the long-landlocked site access by connecting Frasier St. and E. 5th St. across the trail, just north of White Oak Bayou. The subdivision plat is listed as a “consent item,” meaning its approval is not scheduled to be put up for a separate vote.
Viewpoint at the Heights, slated for that subdivision, is a project of Canada’s Group LSR, which goes by the name Inner Loop Condos in Houston. The company developed the Serento Condominium near the Med Center and the Piedmont sorta near River Oaks. Freeland residents have heard the building being proposed for the 1-acre site will be 4 or 5 stories tall.
- Viewpoint at the Heights [Inner Loop Condos]
- The Heights and lows: Condos face neighborhood opposition [Houston Business Journal]
ANGELIKA THEATER UPDATE: WHO’S ON DECK? From a statement issued this morning by Gary Rhodes, Bayou Place Limited Partnership’s general manager: “The Angelika Film Center had a terrific run at Bayou Place over the past 13 years. We had hoped that they would stay longer but unfortunately, after saying they would commit, Angelika changed its mind. It is amazing to think how far downtown Houston has evolved since Bayou Place first opened and helped spark the rebirth of downtown. . . . We will be upgrading Angelika with an operator of the highest quality and we will be making the announcement shortly.” [MyFox Houston; previously on Swamplot]
This Fonn Villas cul-de-sac saltbox backs up to the Town & Country Candlewood Suites. That puts it within range of the afternoon shadows of CityCentre‘s taller buildings. Inside, a lot has changed since 1964: A recent kitchen renovation includes an eat-in island where seated family members can watch a wall-mounted TV, monitor the wine closet or powder room, or just stare out the window if they don’t feel like talking to each other. The place was listed just last Friday, for $559,000.
Some managers at Downtown’s Angelika Film Center who showed up for work Sunday morning didn’t know any better than customers showing up for the Sunday morning matinees of Eat Pray Love and Farewell that the indie theater had been shuttered overnight. “After 13 years of continued service to the Houston community,” read a note posted on an empty ticket-booth window and papered-over front doors, “the Angelika’s lease has been terminated by the Angelika’s landlord, Bayou Place Limited Partnership, an affiliate of the Cordish Company.” But Cordish officials weren’t even returning phone calls from the Chronicle. Anyone want to tell us what really happened?
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Are we ready to drop these? Sure, whatever.