On Tuesday night, Houston’s first and only bayou movie barge docked at Guadalupe Park off Navigation for the first of 2 “sneak peek” video performances on the banks of Buffalo Bayou. On the opposite shoreline, a few cargo trains and a motorcade of dirt bikes rumbled past, but the night was clear and mosquito-free, show and boat organizer Bree Edwards claims. Plus, she says: The solar-powered cinema setup on the Tex Hex worked flawlessly. Her pix of the scene:
Is this unassuming building on the same block as Irma’s Restaurant downtown Andy Fastow’s new Houston hangout? Federal prison officials wouldn’t confirm it to him, but Chron energy reporter Tom Fowler figures Fastow’s not-entirely-disclosed location has gotta be the Leidel Comprehensive Sanctions Center at 1819 Commerce St., 3 blocks north of the baseball stadium formerly known as Enron Field. Other recent Enronian visitors to the same facility: former chief accounting officer Richard Causey, who went home Tuesday; Enron Broadband’s Rex Shelby, who’s been there for about a week; and Fastow’s wife Lea, who visited for a month in 2005. Fastow may not stay long, though — Fowler reports he should be eligible for some form of in-home confinement as early as a month from now.
Photo: GEO Care
DECODING THE CODE BUILDING SALE 
City council today approved the sale of Houston’s code enforcement building at 3300 Main St. to the Midtown Redevelopment Authority, for $5 million. The 57,899 sq.-ft. structure and parking garage on a full Midtown block, which also houses the city’s Green Building Resource Center, received several sealed private-sector bids before the February 17th due date. Last week, Mayor Parker declared that the Midtown TIRZ had submitted the high bid, but 2 council members disputed that, claiming the group hadn’t submitted a bid for the property at all. (One of them, Anne Clutterbuck, was the lone dissenter in today’s vote.) Chronicle reporter Chris Moran hasn’t been able to get a straight answer yet, but interprets a staff report to mean that the TIRZ did not submit a formal bid — the city simply determined a purchase from the government entity would be “the most advantageous.” What’s all the fuss? “The city built the sale of 3300 Main into its FY 11 budget, and it is now depending on that sale to help it bridge a $21 million projected budget shortfall for the fiscal year that ends June 30. There is still no information on what the Authority might do with the property, which remains off the tax rolls as long as it is owned by a public entity.” [Houston Politics]
The demo-photo tag team of Joe Lex and Kerwin McKenzie have more pics to share of the ongoing destruction at 1600 Louisiana St. downtown. But there’s more to their latest images than your run-of-the-mill demolition porn. Hidden behind the racquetball courts already pulled down on the southwest end of the former YMCA building, they claim: What looks to be the building’s original brick facade, before the courts were added. You can see what sure looks like an original exterior wall on the far left side of the image above, which shows the view from along Pease St.: Look for the lighter-colored brick structure with the engaged arches.
JUST HOW LONELY IS IT DOWNTOWN? Reporter Yang Wang’s weekend survey of forlorn and empty buildings hanging around Houston’s Downtown includes this little tidbit: “The recently released 2010 census results show one out of four buildings in Houston downtown’s two census tracts is vacant, higher than the city’s average vacancy rate of 12 percent.” [Houston Chronicle]
GETTING CASH OUT OF THE HOUSTON PAVILIONS 
The Downtown Redevelopment Authority this week approved a loan of $3.3 million to the developers of the Houston Pavilions. But the mall’s developers likely won’t need to pay it back. According to a 2006 agreement that included a promised $14.3 million of TIRZ reimbursements and grants for the sleepy downtown redevelopment project, the developers would only receive the last $3.3 million payment once the retail portion of the project was 70 percent leased. At the moment — thanks in part to efforts by management earlier this year to prevent Books-A-Million from closing up shop there — the retail spaces are 62 percent full. Not a problem: The interest-only loan will tide the developers over until they can get their numbers up. Also coming to Houston Pavilions, as part of the deal: new outdoor eating areas and an HPD “special operations” storefront. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Flickr user Scott DeW
After weeks of prep work, the bricks have at last begun coming down from the old YMCA building at 1600 Louisiana St. downtown. From his vantage point on the 18th floor of the office tower at 1600 Smith St., reader Joe Lex reports that major demolition started this morning — on the walls of the racquetball courts on the south-southwest side of the building.
Photos: Joe Lex (from above) and Kerwin McKenzie
BAYOU PLACE TURNOVER NOW COMPLETE 
Curtain! The oldest tenant at Bayou Place downtown — and the only venue left from the original 1997 retail lineup at the revamped former Albert Thomas Convention Center — closed last week. Mingalone Italian Bar & Grill, with its balcony view of the Wortham Center plaza from across Texas Ave., had a 14-year run. Photo: Mingalone
If you’re the ghost of Kenneth Franzheim, scoot! Again. Cameraphone correspondent Pankaj reports that Cherry Demolition is already at work dismantling a second building designed by the Houston architect: the original Downtown YMCA at 1600 Louisiana St. Workers from the demo company have begun removing windows from the 10-story brick building; the property is now partially fenced. In 2008, as it announced plans to construct the new Tellepsen Y a few blocks to the east, the organization said it would tear down the 1941 structure in advance of selling the 85,000-sq.-ft. lot beneath it to Chevron, owners of the Enron hand-me-down tower next door.
“Does anyone know what is the plan here?” asks Swamplot reader and architect Filo Castore, who encountered this little wall-building project in front of the Preston St. side of Treebeards at 315 Travis St. downtown, across from Market Square. That’s where this mural normally hangs out:
In 2005, Houston’s transportation agency agreed to pay $15 million for 17.3 acres of flood-prone land along the northern bank of White Oak Bayou just north of Downtown, reports the West University Examiner‘s Michael Reed. Former Houston Rockets and UH basketball star Hakeem Olajuwon had purchased the property from the Union Pacific Railroad for an estimated $2 million six years earlier. But even more eye-popping than Olajuwon’s roughly estimated $13 million profit on the sale is this little nugget: A separate appraisal — conducted the same year as the sale — valued the property at only $2.6 million.
IT’S OFFICIAL: ROBERT REDFORD, SUNDANCE CINEMA TAKING OVER THE ANGELIKA, HOLDING YOUR SEAT 
Robert Redford’s Sundance Cinema will spend $2.25 million to renovate the 36,000-sq.-ft. former Angelika Film Center space in Bayou Place downtown, according to today’s official announcement from the Mayor’s office. The new movie complex is scheduled to open on November 1 in the former Albert Thomas Convention Center at 510 Texas St. Underground parking will still be free, but movie showings will have reserved seating only. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Aaron Carpenter
A reader whose office faces the old Sheraton-Lincoln Hotel at 711 Polk St. downtown reports that demolition work on the former Beatles hangout is now “in full swing”:
They are taking down the building literally floor by floor. So far they have removed all the utilities on the roof and the entire top floor. Seems like a very labor intensive project. I plan to take a picture everyday and make a time lapse video. Can watch it in reverse and pretend they are revitalizing southern downtown!
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Denver Hopkins tells abc13 he’s the brilliant mastermind who spent 30 seconds at an open, unlocked keyboard attached to a downtown electronic construction sign over the weekend, changing the message from “Poop” to “;> LOL.” What harsh punishment will the Texas Dept. of Transportation seek to inflict on this sign hacker? He turned himself in this afternoon to the TxDOT offices at I-10 and Old Katy Rd. to find out. TxDOT spokeswoman Raquelle Lewis told Chronicle reporters yesterday that messing with the sign carries a fine of “up to $500.”
Video: abc13
COMMENT OF THE DAY: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, SEZ ‘POOP’ HACK PERP 
“I BROKE NOTHING!!!! THERE WAS NO LOCK!!!! THEY’RE TRYIN TO COVER THEIR A$$3$!!!! THAT’S CRAP!!!! But seriously, let them try to find me. I guarantee they won’t. I’ll give you a hint. I bounce around the world 9 times before I actually connect to the internet. If they wanna try to track my IP, they’ll be in for a long and hard journey. Also, as for cameras, I’d love to see the video! Bring it on! When you do things that can get you in trouble, you can’t be afraid of the consequences.” [theguythatdidit, commenting on What Dirty Little Secret Was This Downtown Sign Hiding?]
