Tag: 77002

03/19/18 4:30pm

Sapporo Japanese Restaurant Preparing To Rub Shoulders with Barnaby’s Across from Market Square Park

Openings and Closings, Restaurants

6 Comments

Update, 1 pm, March 21: The numbers of Sapporo restaurants under the same ownership but with different names have been clarified.

Now on its way to the former Fusion Taco space shown shaded by trees and orange awnings next to Barnaby’s in the photo at top: Sapporo Japanese Sushi & Bar. The restaurant’s spot in the Henry Henke Building on the corner of Congress and Milam — across from Market Square Park — will be its second location with this specific name; its first is just off the western end of Woodlands Pkwy. Two other Sapporo Japanese Steakhouse & Bar restaurants are also located in the Houston area.

Fusion Taco opened at 801 Congress in 2013. Here’s what the viewÂ east from its sidewalk seating area looked like before the place shuttered:

Fusion Taco Turnover

77002, Downtown, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

Comments

03/13/18 4:30pm

Comment of the Day: What’s Still Missing from the Top of the Central Square Plaza Redo

by Swamplot

Midtown, Office Buildings, Quicklink, Renovations

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT’S STILL MISSING FROM THE TOP OF THE CENTRAL SQUARE PLAZA REDO “After all the beautiful exterior enhancements, does Claremont plan to update and restore functionality of the enormous electronic retro clock on top of the building? The building now looks so nice. I canâ€™t believe the clock sitting on top has not been restored, paint peeling off and not turned on, especially when it completes the whole retro-mod feel of the entire project.” [Unsure About This, commenting on Midtownâ€™s Redone Central Square Plaza Looking To Lure Tenants to Its Empty Ground Floor] Photo of former Central Square Plaza clock: meltedplastic [license]

77002, Comments, Midtown, Office Buildings, Renovations

Midtown’s Redone Central Square Plaza Looking To Lure Tenants to Its Empty Ground Floor

Midtown, Office Buildings, Renovations, Restaurants

11 Comments

A building permit filed recently on the Central Square Plaza complex that takes up the block of Travis St. between Gray and Webster reveals Kraftsmen Coffee as the latest restaurant slated for the renovated tower’s empty ground floor.Â Work to install plumbing for the 1,768-sq.-ft. space that the owners of coffee shop plan to take over began last year.

The photo at top views the west portion of the building’s ground floor, which sits about halfway down the block on Gray St. and faces Milam. A parking garage is off-camera to the right. Around the corner — on the building’s north side — a TABC flyer for Malawi’s Pizza still hangs in the window of the empty storefront on Gray where it was originally posted back in 2016:

Kraftsmen Coffee

77002, Midtown, Office Space, Renovations, Restaurants

Bars and Clubs

03/05/18 4:15pm

Newest Tenant Headed for the Mid Main Lofts Wants To Bring Booze to Apartment Complex’s Travis St. Side

Midtown

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Yet another sign of incoming retail is up on the Mid Main Lofts, where both Kura Revolving Sushi Bar and a 9Round kickboxing gym made their marks last week. Big Mike’s Entertainment LLC is the applicant named on the TABC notice that’s posted on the apartment building’s Travis St. side, near the corner at Holman and across the street from the Holman Draft Hall bar. The photo at top — taken by a Twitter user who’s been monitoring street-level activity outside the Lofts — shows where the storefront is situated, just north of the entrance to the garage that occupies nearly all of the complex’s frontage along Travis.

New TABC sign up [Natalie W]
Previously on Swamplot: Signs of Rotating Sushi, Roundhouse Kicks Now Appear on Mid Main Lofts

Photos: Natalie W

Big Mike’s

77002, Bars and Clubs, Midtown, Signs

03/01/18 11:15am

Signs Are on the Door to WeWork’s New Downtown Branch at 708 Main

Office Buildings, Quicklink, Renovations

SIGNS ARE ON THE DOOR TO WEWORK’S NEW DOWNTOWN BRANCH AT 708 MAIN The buildingÂ on the corner of Main and Capitol — known since 2003 as the Great Jones building — is showing signs of the new WeWork office that’s heading into it. Last April, the workspace provider signed a lease for 86,000 sq. ft. in the building — originally billed as its first Houston location, although a smaller WeWork branch snuck in and opened on 3 floors of the Galleria I tower last December. 708 Main St. has been undergoing renovations since 2016 when its developers Midway and Lionstone Investments announced they planned to link the structure to its neighbor — the JP Morgan Chase building on the corner of Main and Rusk — via a first floor and mezzanine common area dubbed the Currency Lounge. The entire block between Capitol and Rusk is now being marketed as a single property termed The Jones on Main. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo of WeWork entrance: Swamplot inbox

77002, Downtown, Office Buildings, Quicklink, Renovations

Apartments

02/27/18 1:15pm

Crane Now Spiking the Lot Next To Root Square Where a New Camden Tower Will Rise

Downtown, New Construction

A Swamplot reader holed-up in a hotel room at theÂ Hilton Americas sends photos looking past Root Square and the Toyota Center to show the new tower crane being lifted on the site of the coming Camden Downtown apartment tower last weekend. Camden Property Trust broke ground on the 1.4-acre block adjacent to the Toyota Center’s garage at the end of last year. The finished tower will sit on the north side of the parcel — formerly a parking lot — on Bell St. between Austin and La Branch.

A rendering from architect Ziegler Cooper shows the 21-story building neighboring the parking garage and fronting the park:

Grandstanding

77002, Apartments, Cranes, Downtown, New Construction

Bayous and Waterways

02/23/18 4:30pm

Where the Banks of Buffalo Bayou Are Wearing Thin

Buffalo Bayou Park, Flooding

11 Comments

There’s more damage to the areas along Buffalo Bayou than just the collapsed segment of trail pictured at top between the Travis and Milam street bridges. The photo above taken east of Travis shows where Spaghetti Warehouseâ€™s former parking lot is eroding as well and transforming into a new set of cliffs on the water.

Heading west down the trail, moreÂ obstacles appear near Montrose Blvd. where the northern trail cuts past the closed Johnny Steele Dog Park:

Rough Around the Edges

77002, 77019, Buffalo Bayou Park, Downtown, Erosion, River Oaks

Midtown

02/22/18 4:30pm

Caydon Properties Wants To Build These Second and Third Towers Next to McGowen Station in Midtown

Mixed Use, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Retail

6 Comments

Update, 7:00 pm: At the request of the copyright holder, the images of Caydon Properties’ proposed development have been removed.

The Australian company that’s already begun construction on a residential tower in place of the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Association building on the corner of Main and Tuam has plans for a pair of additional towers on the 2 blocks north of that site, along Metro’s red line. These renderings from visualization studio Large Arts show the extent of the complex — including a hotel, offices,Â residential space, and street-level retail fronting the rail up to McGowen St.

The rendering at top views the development from the corner of Main and Drew St. to show the new southern tower — home to a hotel — fronting Fannin while the northern one faces Main. Further up the tracks, a train pulls into the northbound McGowen St. station stop — shown lined with storefronts that sit below the north tower. An alley runs along the north end of the development, between the building and Greensheet Mediaâ€™s former office — just out of view on the left at the corner of Main and McGowen.

More retail fronts the alley, adjacent to the McGowen platform:

New Main Drag

77002, Midtown, Mixed-Use, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Residential, Retail

02/21/18 11:30am

La Calle Taco Shop Downtown Now Opening a Cantina on the Side

Openings and Closings, Restaurants

4 Comments

La Calle Tacos & Tortas has opened a hole in the wall to allow customers to get to its new space: Cantina La Calle, shown to the right of the original restaurant on Franklin St. in the photo at top. Interior renovations on the new cantina at 911 Franklin began late last year in the spot that PI Lounge once occupied and a planned English-themed bar dubbed The Brit eyed but never landed in. The photo above looks into the taco shop — opened in 2016 — from the new cantina next door to it.

â€œLa Cantinaâ€, by La Calle is now officially open! [La Calle Tacos via HAIF]
Previously on Swamplot: The Office and Alcohol Options Stacking Up Around the Bayou Lofts; La Calle Prepares to Bring the Taco Cause Next Door to That Evicted Brewery Incubatorâ€™s Former Downtown Command Post

Photos: La Calle Tacos

Bayou Lofts Eats

77002, Downtown, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

Signs of Rotating Sushi, Roundhouse Kicks Now Appear on Mid Main Lofts

Midtown, Openings and Closings, Retail

2 new signs are now up on the Main St. side of the Mid Main Lofts across from MATCH: one for Kura Revolving Sushi Bar, and the other for kickboxing gym 9Round. The photo at top looks across the platform of Metro’s Ensemble Theatre stop to show Kura’s new name tag affixed near the cornerÂ of Main and Holman. Identical markings appear on the Holman St. side of the new raw fish restaurant, which uses touch screens and an automatic conveyor belt to deliver your food. The 3510 Main location is Houston’s second Kura; one opened in the Westchase Shopping Center last year. Another debuted in Sugar Land last month.

9Round — shown in the photo above — sits further south down the block on Main, near Double Trouble Caffeine & Cocktails’s spot at Winbern. All 18 of the workout venue’s current locations are in west South Carolina. The new gym follows 4 others the chain already operates inside the 610 Loop.

Photos: Natalie W

And in This Corner

77002, Midtown, Openings and Closings, Retail

Bars and Clubs

01/30/18 12:37pm

Walter’s Second Life in a Northside Former Warehouse Nearing Its End

Near Northside, Openings and Closings

3 Comments

A show-stopping announcement posted on the Walter’s Downtown Facebook page yesterday brings sad news for thrashers, metal-heads, punks, and indie fans: the 18-year-old live music venue on the corner of Naylor and Vine streets plans to close down on February 4. Walter’s moved to its current location — the former classic car showroom, video production studio, car parts distribution center, and cabinet warehouse pictured above — in 2011. Before that, the club was located on Washington Ave, in a building just east of Thompson St. that’s since been transformed into the office of Carnegie Custom Homes.

The photo below views the venue from its north side on Naylor back in 2014:

The Last Set

77002, Bars and Clubs, Concert Venues, Near Northside, Openings and Closings

01/03/18 2:15pm

The Street, Restaurant, and Cafe Changes Coming to Bank of America Center Once the Secret Building Inside It Is Exhumed

Houston Landmarks, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Renovations

New renderings released by Sydness ArchitectsÂ show the street-level changes planned for the Bank of America Center, which sits across the street from Jones Plaza on one side and Philip Johnsonâ€™s other notable downtown office tower, Pennzoil Place, on the other. Last fall, building owner M-M Properties announced plans to remove the mummified 2-storyÂ Western Union building that had been encapsulated within the Bank of America Center’s northeast quadrant since 1983 (see photo above).

Windows and doors are shown added to the skyscraper along Capitol and Louisiana streets — in 2 of the walls that once entombed the telegram building. The rendering at top shows the reconfigured view from outside Jones Hall, withÂ new 2-story openings facing Capitol St.

Only one new street-level entrance is clearly shown in that rendering, however: the awninged door to a new restaurant along Louisiana St. That restaurant is planned for a portion of the former Western Union building’s ground floor in the northeast corner of the Bank of America Center:

Philip Johnson’s Ghosts

77002, Downtown, Houston Landmarks, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Renovations

01/02/18 12:30pm

Cubicles, Mezzanines, Great Glass Elevator To Fill Philip Johnsonâ€™s Grand Downtown Banking Hall Airspace As Part of Renovation

Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Renovations

13 Comments

Quick, what’s the most vaulted bank in all of Houston? Easy: the lofty Bank of America branch on the ground floor of theÂ Bank of America Center at 700 Louisiana St. Downtown (pictured at top) — so grand, so postmodern, so .Â .Â . unleasable. Philip Johnson designed theÂ 12-story high banking hall to resemble “a sixteenth-century Dutch guild hall, albeit one scaled to be seen from the freeway at sixty miles per hour,” writesÂ Joel Warren Barna in a history of the project included in The See-Through Years. But nowÂ big changes are planned for that empty space:

“We’re just going to kind of slip in these two floor slabs,” Jeff Sydness of Sydness Architects tells theÂ Chronicleâ€™s Katherine Feser. Sydness was hired by M-M Properties to reconfigure the lower levels of the 56-floor tower, which was built in 1983. So: Lower ceilings ahoy! New mezzanines are now being planned to colonize the banking hall’s towering overhead emptiness. The new structures, edged with glass walls, will fill much of that air-conditioned but unused airspace with workstation- and cubicle-ready office platforms:

Loft Office

77002, Downtown, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments

12/21/17 3:15pm

The Clearest Views Yet of Lyric Market’s Plaza-Front Food Hall on Louisiana

Proposed Developments

Renderings now up on Lyric Market’s new website reveal more of what’s planned for the parking-garage food hall.Â The image at top showsÂ David Adickes’s self-playing cello sculptureÂ ascended atop a new pedestalÂ atÂ the corner of Smith and Preston streets. Behind the artwork, outdoor seatingÂ and what the website describes as a private terraceÂ back up to the food hall’s main entrance.Â The new structure, currently under construction, is shown on the left of that rendering — adjacent to the existing Lyric Centre office tower.

Here’s a full view of the completed parking garage from across the intersection of Preston and Louisiana: