How do you move a historic cottage from one location to another? Well, carefully: This video uploaded this week from the Heritage Society chronicles the easy-does-it, steady-as-she-goes relocation of a Fourth Ward cottage from its perch in Sam Houston Park. The Heritage Society says that the house, originally located on Robin St. in Freedman’s Town, dates to at least 1866. It’s been in the collection since 2002, temporarily sited on Dallas St., while the society awaited the funds to move it to its permanent home beside to the Jack Yates House in that architectural promenade on the park grounds along McKinney St.
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Tag: 77002
Central Square Plaza has been sold, and new owner Keeley Megarity, whose LLC closed on the 1-acre Midtown property at 2100 Travis St. about a week ago, says that a decision about how to renovate these buildings — and what to renovate them into — will be made in the next 30-45 days.
Architect John Kirksey has an idea for building a park on 36 blocks in south Downtown — just north of the Pierce Elevated, between Louisiana and Caroline. But he doesn’t own the land, and he’s not proposing to buy it up. So Kirksey’s plan isn’t for a single park space — it’s for a bunch of linear walkways. Okay, call it a series of extra-wide sidewalks on the east-west streets. Here’s how it might look, driving through:
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE DECK OF THE SECOND CONVENTION CENTER HOTEL 
“I am dumbstruck at the sheer genius (or is it audacity?) of a Texas-shaped lazy river. The turns around El Paso and Brownsville might be a little hazardous, but that’s a great analogy of the current state of affairs along the Rio. I’d also expect to encounter armed poachers along the Sabine, and flag-waving tea partiers along the Red, but I’m still pretty sure that by downing 3 beers from a floating cooler, I could not only survive, but conquer that bitch. The hardest part would be commemorating the accomplishment with (another) barbed wire arm tattoo and slapping one more bumper sticker on my pickup about guns, secession or liberals (pick one).” [Superdave, commenting on New Convention Center Hotel Seems a Done Deal] Rendering of proposed Marriott Marquis amenity deck: Morris Architects
CITY COUNCIL TO DECIDE WHETHER DOWNTOWN HOTEL REDO WILL RECEIVE FEDERAL DOUGH 
Houston Politics’ Mike Morris is reporting that city council will vote today to decide whether it will loan Pearl Real Estate up to $7.4 million toward the $81 million renovation and redevelopment of the 22-story slipcovered 1910 Samuel F. Carter building at Rusk and 806 Main St. What does Pearl have in sight? A JW Marriott. (It’d be across the street from BG Group Place.) Last summer, explains Morris, the city applied for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development money that would be passed on to Pearl and ultimately paid back with interest — or that’s the idea, anyway. This kind of deal went off without a hitch in 1998, when the Rice Hotel paid back their $4.8 million right on time. But the city’s been kept waiting before: “In early 2005, it came to light that the Magnolia Hotel (which had gotten $9.5 million in 2002) and the Crowne Plaza (which had gotten $5 million in 2000) had never made a full payment to the city on their loans.” Though by 2012, Morris adds, those loans had been repaid. [Houston Politics; previously on Swamplot] Photo of 806 Main St.: Swamplot inbox
This relatively gritty Warehouse District warehouse appears to be the subject of some real estate speculation, reports Hair Balls’ Richard Connelly: A website for the Houston Studios building — home to a 10,000-sq.-ft. soundstage with a 30-ft. ceiling for video shoots, rehearsals, and other creative expressions — features renderings that show it as a cleaned-up commercial complex:
Houston Pavilions is to be renamed in honor of 2 urban features the troubled 5-year-old Downtown outdoor mall had so far shunned, its new owners announced yesterday: greenery and streets. The newly dubbed GreenStreet appears to be taking a few cues also from Discovery Green, the younger but far more successful urban attraction a few blocks to the east. Midway, which with Magic Johnson’s Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds bought the 3-block-long mixed-use center out of bankruptcy last August (and the adjacent parking garage on Clay St. between Main and Fannin a few months later), plans 6 to 9 months’ worth of renovations to the property as well, to turn it into a CityCentre-style event hub.
The new design, by Houston architects Muñoz + Albin and the Office of James Burnett, a local landscape firm, will try to soften and connect the 3 separated interior courtyards and make them come across as more park-like. Additional changes won’t exactly make the famously inward-looking mall turn itself inside-out, but they do appear to make a few stabs at poking through to Dallas St., adding signage, storefront windows in some places, and a few outdoor seating areas along its northern edge.
MULTIPLYING HOUSTON’S RENT-A-BIKE FLEET 
Yesterday, reports abc13, the city added to the original 3 B-Cycle kiosks 18 more, bringing the fleet of pay-to-play bikes to 175. Thus far, most of the rental racks are clustered Downtown — including the one shown here at the Tellepsen Family YMCA on Pease St. — but the expansion, funded wth $750,000 from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, also added racks to Hermann Park and the Westheimer restaurant row near Blacksmith and Underbelly. And even more are planned, says abc13, for the East End, the Med Center, and unnamed universities. (You can mess around with an interactive map of B-Cycle locations here and here.) [abc13; Houston Chronicle; B-Cycle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
WHY YOU CAN’T EAT AT MR. PEEPLES YET 
A lawsuit from Landry’s is trying to keep the self-described “sexy,” “chic,” and “unique” Mr. Peeples Seafood + Steaks from opening at 1911 Bagby St. in Midtown. Culturemap’s Whitney Radley reports that Tim Kohler, who managed Vic & Anthony’s near Minute Maid Park, is named in the suit alleging that he violated nondisclosure and noncompetition clauses for “solicit[ing] former Vic & Anthony’s sales manager Stacy Chambers to work for the up-and-coming seafood and steakhouse.” But Landmark Houston, which owns several other Houston bars and restaurants besides Mr. Peeples, doesn’t appear to think there’s much competition there — or so it tells the Houston Chronicle: “Mr. Peeples is a stylish, high energy, and vibrant alternative to the traditional steakhouse concept . . . We believe there is room and a need for both concepts in the growing Houston market.” [Culturemap; Houston Chronicle] Image: Mr. Peeples Seafood + Steaks, via Facebook
WHY THE CAPITOL AT ST. GERMAIN MIGHT BE CLOSED A LITTLE LONGER THAN IT SAYS 
Culturemap’s Whitney Radley reports that a rep from the jazzy Main St. spot says it had to close temporarily because of water damage to the kitchen, but the Houston Press’s Katharine Shilcutt claims she has reason to believe otherwise, since the bar and restaurant — paying, she reports, “a monthly rent close to $17,000” — seems to have sprung another kind of leak: “When a restaurant is faltering and owes its landlord rent, one of two things usually happens: 1) The restaurant closes shop and washes its hands of the entire affair, leaving behind everything from kitchen equipment to barstools, which then become property of the landlord or 2) the restaurant wants to close but also needs to recoup some of its losses and stalls by telling the landlord that it’s ‘renovating’ for a few days. Those days are spent clearing the place out and selling everything that’s not nailed down.” And what makes Shilcutt so sure? “I spotted some activity going on outside . . . that suggested furniture was being moved out of the space.” And: “Calls to the restaurant weren’t returned, and on my last attempt, the phone line seemed to have been disconnected.” Update, 1:47 p.m.: Shilcutt reports that the Capitol at St. Germain has told her it’s not closing and does plan to reopen once the water damage — which, says the bar’s rep, knocked out the phone lines — is repaired. [Culturemap; Eating Our Words; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Cvent
Main Street and its rail line lie 6 floors below this lofty condo unit within a converted 1908 downtown office and retail property. The unit has a grilled-out balcony right across from the limestone frieze of the former-but-still-formidable Gulf Building, a 1929 skyscraper that’s now the J.P. Morgan Chase building. Architect Alfred C. Finn designed both buildings.
DOWNTOWN LANDMARK LANCASTER HOTEL TO BE UPGRADED WITH ‘PRESTIGIOUS PLUMBING ACCOUTERMENTS’ 
The Joseph Finger designed Lancaster Hotel at 701 Texas that dates to 1926 will receive about $10 million in “aesthetic and technological upgrades” designed by Gensler, reports Nancy Sarnoff. She cites a hotel press release that claims the Lancaster will introduce Wi-Fi and “intuitive” keycards that you don’t have to insert into the door, as well as new interiors featuring “premier bedding and bathroom fixtures and fittings by WaterWorks, making The Lancaster the first and only Houston hotel to offer this prestigious brand of plumbing accouterments.” To kick up the Lancaster’s ambience a notch, the new decor will feature “men’s suiting fabrics.” The hotel will remain open during the renovations, which are expected to be completed by this summer. [Prime Property] Photo: The Lancaster
APARTMENTS IN OLD HUMBLE OIL BUILDING DOWNTOWN TO GO THE WAY OF ITS HOTEL NEIGHBORS 
Back in 2003, 2 of the 3Â Humble Oil buildings at 1212 Main and Dallas St. were turned into hotels. The oil-to-hospitality transformation will soon be complete, reports the Houston Business Journal’s Shaina Zucker: A Maryland company has acquired the 3 buildings for about $80 million and says it will convert the last of them into another hotel. Presently, that tower at 914 Dallas St. holds 82 apartments. By 2015, reports Zucker, it will become a 166-room SpringHill Suites, joining the 191-room Courtyard and the 171-room Residence Inn — each of which is now dubbed a “Houston Downtown Convention Center” hotel. [Houston Business Journal]Â Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Hines has confirmed that it will be putting up something new — maybe this glow stick of an office building, maybe not — at 609 Main, just north of the former MainPlace, now BG Group Pipe Wrench. Pickard Chilton, says Hines, will design a 41-story, 815,000-sq.-ft. office tower just as soon as an anchor tenant is signed. This view of the rendering released this week seems to look south toward the Hines-owned downtown block bound by Main, Texas, Fannin, and Capitol. Now, half that block is an $8 a day parking lot. If you look closely at the rendering, you’ll see an Apple logo just to the left of that entrance teepee. Whether that will actually be a new Apple store is not confirmed — and anyway, before anything new can come in, Hines will have to tear down what’s already there: The unoccupied Texas Tower, the former Sterling Building, at 608 Fannin:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT LUXURY REALLY MEANS “Although the term ‘Luxury’ is being thrown around loosely, it’s shorthand for New Construction with Upper Market Price. The truth is that from a developer’s perspective that’s the only thing that makes financial sense, there’s no money left in low end markets unless its government subsidized. Go big or go home.” [commonsense, commenting on Where Downtown’s New Residential Tower Will Go]