Tag: 77004

Featured Posts
03/05/14 4:45pm

The New Stand-Up Place on Almeda for Late-Night Take-Out Sausage

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Museum Park, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
5 Comments

Chicago's Famous Maxwell Street Grill, 4902 Almeda Rd., Museum Park, Houston

A reader who’s already delved a bit into the menu at the “definitely not fine dining, but really tasty stuff” offered at the Maxwell Street Grill walkup (or more likely, driveup) that opened up last Saturday in the former Discount Liquor store spot at 4902 Almeda Rd. between Wichita and Rosedale has a few tips for follow-on sausage samplers: “A big pro is that it’s open late every night: until midnight Monday through Wednesday, and until 3am Thursday through Sunday. Definitely decent fare along the Almeda/Museum District corridor, for which there’s a demand. Happy to have it close to my house, especially since I’m from Chicago originally.”

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From Maxwell St. to Almeda Rd.
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Featured Posts
02/18/14 10:15am

A Crowdfunding Campaign To Keep the Wichita St. Mystery House Under Renovation for Another 30 Years or So

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Financing, Homes for Sale, Houston Landmarks, Quicklink, Renovations, Riverside Terrace
14 Comments

A CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN TO KEEP THE WICHITA ST. MYSTERY HOUSE UNDER RENOVATION FOR ANOTHER 30 YEARS OR SO 2309 Wichita St., Riverside Terrace, HoustonA former city librarian is channeling the don’t-stop-the-renovating spirit of Charles Fondow in her bid to raise enough funds to purchase the seminal Houston DIY-contractor-hobbyist-visionary’s remarkable former home in Riverside Terrace. “Help us raise the funds to buy it outright so we can complete the additions in our own time,” writes Virginia Verner in the promotional copy for her crowdfunding effort on website GoFundMe. Keeping the whir of power tools going appears to be one of the goals: “Current plans are to repair necessities first, inhabit the front house, and over time work to complete the unfinished bits. Events for repair and recreation will become a fixture in this abode.” The homeowner Verner hopes to replace in the 4,861-sq.-ft. expansion and renovation project at 2309 Wichita St., just 5 houses east of the Hwy. 288 feeder, worked consistently at his creation for 31 years before passing away in 2011. Perhaps paralleling the sincere, hardworking, but perenially underfunded Fondow, Verner has set the fundraising goal for her effort at $150,000 — the exact asking price for the property, which appeared on the market last Friday for the first time since its foreclosure in 2011. No mention is made how renovations might be funded after the acquisition. As of this morning, the website indicates she’s received pledges for 0.1 percent of her goal. [GoFundMe; previously on Swamplot] Photo: HAR

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Featured Posts
02/14/14 11:00am

Wacky Wichita St. Mystery House Is Back on the Market, for a Low, Low Price

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Homes for Sale, Houston Landmarks, Renovations, Riverside Terrace
36 Comments

2309 Wichita St., Riverside Terrace, Houston

Fans and confounded passers-by of the unique castle-like construction at 2309 Wichita St. that former VA nurse Charles Fondow left after his death in 2011 will be interested to note that the 31-year Riverside Terrace renovation and expansion project he never completed is now for sale again — as of yesterday afternoon. And the price is significantly lower than the $325,000 it was listed at 3 years ago. The new owner of the 4,861-sq.-ft., 5-bedroom property — who according to county tax records is a division of Deutsche Bank — is asking just $150,000 for the property.

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A Renovator’s Dream
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Apartments
01/24/14 10:30am

Where They’re Digging for New Apartments by Hermann Park

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Hermann Park, New Construction: Residential
25 Comments

View Showing Construction of Hermann Park Plaza Apartments, 5745 Almeda Rd., Houston

Hark! Ye down there, amidst the freewayishness and — what? Some sort of dirt hill? A bit of earthwork and foundation pouring appears to have begun on the new 193-unit apartment complex M-M Properties is developing along the southbound 288 feeder road between the misaligned block-long stretches of Hermann Dr. and MacGregor Way. The 2.1-acre site was forged by merging a drainage-friendly never-been-built-on swath that cuts diagonally through the site with a bit of extra feeder-road frontage to the north. The view, sent in by a Swamplot reader, is taken from high above in the northern Mosaic condo tower. Almeda Dr. extends along the left side of the photo; the new complex will have a 5745 Almeda address. The Amalfi at Hermann Park apartments are at the far left.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

Construction Overview
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Condos
01/10/14 4:30pm

The Private Views of and from an Open Museum District Terrace

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, Museum District
5 Comments

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There’s a jumbo terrace outside the second-story corner condo unit in this here Il Palazzo building that listed earlier this week. It brings an extensive, open air view of the surrounding Museum District, from the corner of Austin and Calumet. But the main portions of the terrace aren’t exactly the most private part of the property:

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Il Palazzo Plaza
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Demolitions
01/03/14 10:15am

The Singular Demolition of Museum Park’s Caroline Collective

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Museum Park, Redevelopment
3 Comments

Caroline Collective, 4820 Caroline St., Museum Park, Houston

Caroline Collective, 4820 Caroline St., Museum Park, HoustonA reader reports the sighting of an excavator and dump truck next to shuttered coworking space Caroline Collective at 4820 Caroline St. between Rosedale and Arbor Pl. in Museum Park yesterday. Plus, pictured at right, a little tag indicating that a required pre-demo sewer disconnect has been completed for the converted office property. “Sure enough, the time has come for it to be torn down,” the reader opines. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what will be going up, but according to [someone I ran into on the site] the correct answer is: townhouses.”

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Digging for Homes
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Featured Posts
12/30/13 4:15pm

A Hold-Out Studio from Midtown’s Warehouse Years

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, Midtown, Mixed Use
3 Comments

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Recent redevelopment of neighboring lots into townhomes has brought higher (and higher-density) neighbors (top) to this circa-1950 retail-ish space converted at some point into a low-rise loft (above). Currently an artist’s live-in studio, the fortress-fenced mixed-use property appeared on the market earlier this month with a $1.295 million asking price. It’s located on the east side of Midtown, southwest a block or so from the 59-288-45 spaghetti bowl.

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Low-Rise Living
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Condos for Sale
12/13/13 2:15pm

Strung Between the Towers of a Museum District Condo Building

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Highrises, Home Decor, Interiors, Museum District
6 Comments

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Warwick Towers, 1111 Hermann Dr., HoustonAptly named a “bridge unit,”  this eighth-floor space spans between the 30-story Warwick Towers just north of Hermann Park in the Museum District. The 3,385-sq.-ft. condo it’s part of had $5oK knocked off its initial asking price earlier this week in its relisting by the same agent after a 6-month previous listing expired. The million-dollar view (which curiously is not pictured in the listing) is now priced at $1.15 million — plus a not-insignificant monthly maintenance fee of $2,694.

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Looking North and South
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Art
12/02/13 1:00pm

The King of Houston Yard Art Is Dead

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Houston Landmarks, Third Ward
15 Comments

Cleveland Turner in Front of His Home at 2305 Francis St., Third Ward, Houston

Cleveland Turner, a Third Ward resident whose passion for art and junk flowed out of his home, onto his front yard, past the sidewalk, and into a few museum exhibitions, passed away Sunday after a bout with stomach cancer, at the age of 70-something. Known as The Flower Man, Turner’s effusive and eclectic stylings landed him appearances in the CAMH and on TV shows “Roadside America” and “American Dreamers.” A bicycle-riding yard-art pioneer for more than 3 decades, Turner regularly festooned the fronts, sides, backs, and interiors of his own home in the neighborhood — most recently at 2305 Francis St. (above)

Photo: Ed Schipul [license]

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Homes for Sale
11/01/13 11:15am

Stepping Around a Cottage in Riverside Terrace

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Interiors, Riverside Terrace
11 Comments

Fresh interior paint gives a 1930 Riverside Terrace cottage the look of buffed up, unscuffed saddle shoes all tied up and tidy for the first day of school. The up-a-knoll property, located around the corner from Riverside Park, was relisted by 2 days ago after an 18-month hiatus from the market. The initial asking price back in November 2011 was $216,500, but it had dropped to $197,500 by March 2012. The current price tag for the spiffed-up house and its less-polished garage apartment is $207,500.

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Midtown
10/22/13 11:35am

Making Way for Movie Making in Midtown

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Office Buildings, Proposed Developments
1 Comment

A variance to reduce the setback from Caroline and Truxillo was recently approved, clearing the way for this 2-story film studio to go up in Midtown. Dubbed Buffalo Studios, the CONTENT-designed building will sit on a 5,630-sq.-ft. lot at the southeast corner of Caroline and Truxillo, which appears to be currently occupied by a warehouse. The proposed site is catty-corner from the former Houston Light Guard Armory, now open as the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, a block south of HCC and just around the corner from the proposed site of Retrospect Coffee, the cafe and wine bar being built out at that abandoned gas station on La Branch.

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Apartments
10/18/13 10:00am

The 25-Story Apartment Tower Hines Plans To Build in the Museum District

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Highrises, Museum District, Parks, Proposed Developments, Retail
13 Comments

Here’s a rendering of that 25-story residential highrise Hines says it plans to start building in the Museum District in July. Designed by Munoz + Albin, the 259-unit, 301,000-sq.-ft. apartment building and parking garage will stand next to the Asia Society Texas Center on most of the block bound by Caroline, Oakdale, Southmore, and San Jacinto.

What’s missing from this rendering is that historic home on the corner of Caroline and Southmore whose owners chose not to sell. It appears that the property immediately west of the holdouts’ and next to the light rail line will become a 10,000-sq.-ft. “public-access park,” reports the Houston Business Journal: “In addition, there is potential for small retail space adjacent to the park, such as a café or light food services.”

Rendering: Hines

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