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Orange barricades now flank the far east side of the northern portion of the River Oaks Shopping Center where a 30-story highrise — dubbed The Driscoll — is planned in place of Café Ginger’s original corner spot on W. Gray. The saucer-like tower shown in the photo above was appended to the retail building as one of many modifications its owner Weingarten Realty has made to the originally Art Deco structure over the years. When the new apartment rises, it’ll tower over 5 storefronts in the retail center, as opposed to just one.
Café Ginger’s northern neighbor Local Pour also shuttered in the portion of the building that’s replaced by The Driscoll’s lobby in the rendering below from architect Ziegler Cooper:
The Driscoll
Houston City Council voted unanimously yesterday to purchase 2 vacant parcels of land — just under 8 acres total — off Reed Rd. in Sunnyside for a new community service center and health clinic, as well as an adjacent park. Unlike the more remote site the officials first proposed for the new service center — on city property next to a former landfill that’s still home below ground to 3.5 million tires — the Reed Rd. location has never been developed, is just down the street from the existing center at 9314 Cullen Blvd. (pictured at top), and is now privately-owned.
A garbage incinerator once located on the 299.5-acre landfill on Bellfort St. just east of 288 closed in 1974 after a report from the Environmental Protection Agency said it was letting off deadly levels of lead into the air. The city commissioned new soil tests last year and argued that the brownfield — shown above — was safe. But the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality says it’s still contaminated with metals, pesticides, solvents, and potentially toxic volatile organic compounds.
Here’s what the furnace — dubbed the Holmes Road Incinerator — looked like around the time the city shut it down:
Holmes Road Incinerator
The building on the corner of Montrose Blvd. and Bomar St. is showing signs of rebranding as Les Ba’get’s owners prepare to open a new, more pho-friendly joint in its place — dubbed Les Noo’dle. February 2 was closing day for the original Vietnamese restaurant; it’s now getting situated in a new Oak Forest shopping center on Ella Blvd. where it will double its space.
Apostrophe Intact
- Most Expensive Home Listing in Houston Reduced to $30M [HBJ]
- Developer Has Land Under Contract for Indian-Focused Active-Adult Community Underway in Aliana [HBJ ($)]
- Randalls Warehouse and Distribution Center in Northwest Houston Trades Hands [HBJ]
- Residents Need a Salary of $27,067 To Own a Home in Houston Right Now, Finds SmartAsset [Culturemap]
- Texas Housers Files Lawsuit Claiming City Policies Perpetuate Racial Segregation [Wall Street Journal]
- Flood Czar Outlines List of High-Priority Flood Control Projects To Be Submitted for FEMA Mitigation Grants [Houston Chronicle]
- Downtown Restaurant Springbok Revamps as Bird Dog Saint [Eater Houston]
- Greenway Plaza Food Court Adds Restaurant Feges BBQ [Houston Chronicle]
- Torchy’s Tacos Coming to The Boardwalk at Towne Lake Next Month [Houston Chronicle]
- David Adickes Will Install New ‘Art is Everywhere in Houston’ Sign Near I-10 in Place of Relocated ‘We Love Houston’ Sign [Houston Chronicle]
- Heights Getting a Pride Wall at Jenni’s Noodle House on 20th St. [The Leader]
Photo of McGovern Centennial Gardens, Hermann Park: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
When we remember we are all mad, the buildings disappear and life stands explained.
- 13202 Vinca Ct. [HAR]
KING’S BIERHAUS OWNERS WILL HATCH EGGHAUS NEXT DOOR 
Egghaus Gourmet is what the father-and-son owners of King’s Bierhaus are planning to call the new breakfast restaurant they have planned next to their existing beer hall in the strip center on T.C Jester, just off Ella. The Chronicle’s Greg Morago reports that Hans and Philipp Sitter have already “secured the Egghaus space” on the east side of the building. Upon opening, the new restaurant will bring the tenant count of the 17,500-sq.-ft. strip to either 3 or 4, depending on the state of another neighboring business: Tea & Victory. Announced last September, the board game cafe is still in its incubation phase, but a representative now tells Swamplot it’s looking at an early April opening. [Houston Chronicle] Photo of 2042 and 2044 E. T.C. Jester: JJ J.
In the wake of Snooze, 2 more businesses with names suggesting AM activities are on their way to the new Lowell Street Market on 18th St. between Shepherd and Durham. Radom Capital began transforming the 3-building former warehouse complex in something retail- and restaurant-ready back in 2016. Since then, Snooze has been the only restaurant to open in the development.
Building permits filed for the empty spots neighboring Snooze and Smoosh now show reveal the name of a third eatery that could be on its way to 718 W. 18th St.: Teapresso Bar. The Hawaiian tea shop chain has most of its current locations on Oahu, with a few on Maui as well. Lowell Street Market would be its first step onto the mainland.
The site plan below indicates all 3 buildings in the complex:
The Early Risers
- Houston’s Top 10 Best-Selling Neighborhoods in 2017 [HBJ ($)]
- Why Northeast Houston Continues To Attract Homebuyers After Harvey [HBJ ($)]
- Baker Katz To Update Facade of Newly Purchased Retail Center Near Rice Village [Houston Chronicle]
- Xscape Theater Bringing 12-Screen Cinema to The Crossing at Katy Fulshear [Bisnow]
- Denver Steakhouse Guard and Grace Coming to Downtown’s Allen Center Next Year [Culturemap]
- New Downtown Bar The Cottonmouth Club Coming to Main St. [Eater Houston]
- Saint Arnold’s Expanded Beer Garden To Open Later This Year [abc13]
- Dallas-Based Snappy Salads Coming to the Downtown Tunnels [Houston Chronicle]
- Go Inside the Astrodome Before It’s Renovated at This Free April 9 ‘Domecoming’ [Houston Public Media]
Photo of Buchanan’s Native Plants: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
A mid-week wrecking rest – we’ll return as soon as technical difficulties with the city’s permit reporting system are resolved.
- 901 E. 24th St. [HAR]
FUNDING FOR DOWNTOWN HOUSTON’S NEW ISLAND 
Houston’s flood czar Steve Costello tells the Chronicle’s Mike Morris that the city plans to apply for FEMA resiliency grants in order to build the North Canal Bypass — the long-whispered diversion channel that would relink White Oak and Buffalo bayous between Main and Elysian streets. The waterway concept bubbled up last year in Plan Downtown where its course formed an island northwest of Allen’s Landing indicated in the imagined map above. By bypassing the bayou’s oxbow, the channel is expected not only to reduce flooding downtown — it could also “help lower the water level in White Oak Bayou all the way to the 610 Loop and in Buffalo Bayou as far west as Gessner,” according to a county study. The result: “A little more than half of the 854 structures in the 100-year floodplain along White Oak and an adjacent tributary, Turkey Gully, would be removed from the floodplain.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Map: Plan Downtown
Crews are now digging a hole through the middle of the Sojourn Heights church campus off Gostick St., south of Aurora in Sunset Heights. The rendering above looks west across Gostick to show the fenced-off lawn that will eventually grow in place of the demolished building. The new green space is bookended by renovated street-fronting structures and backed by a smaller addition that’s planned on the far west side of the just-over-an-acre church property.
Before the takedown got started yesterday, the complex consisted of 3 buildings that lined Gostick:
Prayer Semi-Circle
- Houston, Dallas Among Top National Markets for Medical Deals, Finds Colliers International [Realty News Report]
- Houston-Based Stewart Information Services Corp. To Grow Through Acquisition by Fidelity National Financial [Houston Chronicle]
- A Status Report on Mixed-Use Projects Under Development in the Inner Loop [Bisnow]
- Salad Chain Salata Planning To Open 130 Nationally Stores By the End of 2020, Including More in Houston [HBJ]
- How the Arbor Court Apartments Illustrate Inequitable Recovery for Renters [Texas Housers]
- Public Art Project To Makeover Shipping Containers, Silos, Cisterns, and More in the East End and Fifth Ward [Houstonia]
Photo of 1111 Durham: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
