Tag: 77007

Cottage Grove
10/12/10 11:42pm

Swamplot Street Sleuths: Oh Say, Where Can You See?

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First Ward, New Construction, Renovations
18 Comments

Got an answer to one of these reader questions? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Here’s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.

  • Location TBD: A reader who’s seen it used as a backdrop for engagement photos wants to know the location of this wall painted with the Texas flag. The pic above was snapped more than 2 1/2 years ago — does the Lone Star-splatted wall yet wave?
  • Cottage Grove: Reader Eric Nordstrom wants to know what that new construction going up on Shepherd across from the shuttered Shuck Daddy’s is gonna be when it grows up. That’d be on the corner of Maxie St., for all you online map Googlers.
  • First Ward: Yet another reader sends in these notable surveillance photos (below) from the scene of the old Harris Moving and Storage warehouse at 1824 Spring St. What’s going on there? “They dug up the fuel tank a few months ago, and lately there are fleets of HVAC and plumbing trucks in front every day. They’ve amassed a number of curb mosaics and appear to be laying them out for parking spaces. The most recent thing I observed was framing out of some of the windows — for AC units maybe? The other morning I also saw a truckload of what appeared to be room dividers being delivered. There is a rumor in the neighborhood that the warehouse will be turned into artist space, but I have no idea how credible that is.” Swamplot readers: What credible rumors about this building do you have to contribute?

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Development Strategies
10/08/10 12:37pm

Unbagged Cats and Other Secrets of the West End Walmart Emails

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Proposed Developments, West End
57 Comments

Among the revelations in the packet of emails reporter Miya Shay recently received in response to a 3-month-old public-records request: City officials learned from Ainbinder Company as early as June 11th that the big-box store indicated on plans for the company’s Washington Heights shopping center in the West End would be a Walmart. Swamplot readers first heard reports of the company’s plans on July 1st. But as late as July 13th, the city development director’s deputy apparently felt it necessary to ward his boss off plans to keep the details or intentions behind the city’s infrastructure-improvement agreement with Ainbinder a secret: Tim Douglass writes development director Andy Icken, “Frankly, it’s a little too late to try and ‘sneak’ this through council. The cat is out of the bag.”

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Buying and Selling
10/04/10 3:31pm

Secret Underground Games: The White House by Memorial Park

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Crestwood, Homes for Sale, Interiors
11 Comments

Longtime Swamplot readers may remember Richard Maier as the listing agent who advertised his own Talbott Wilson modern as a freebie that just happened to come with the 1.35-acre lot on Glencove St. he was selling. (The pitch was successful, luring buyer David Mincberg and later, a demolition crew.) Michael X. Flynn was the designer and contractor responsible for transforming a small Upper Kirby office building into this little villa of vaguely Corbusian pleasures. (That one’s still on the market.) Now they’ve put their own little uh, white house on the market. The pair moved into 26 Crestwood Dr. a few years ago, though they previously owned the 2 properties that flank it. All 3 mansions share a gated driveway that faces directly into the southern reaches of Memorial Park.

Now’s your chance to peek around what they’re leaving — the scene of that Annise Parker fundraiser you missed:

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Homes for Sale
10/01/10 3:59pm

For Sale: What the Esperanza School Is Leaving Behind

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Houston Heights, Land for Sale, Schools
4 Comments

The little ’uns have left the buildings: The Infant House, the Little Treasures House, the Wee-Bits House, the Toddler House, and the Bloomer & Sunflower House are all vacant now. The Esperanza School, a Heights daycare institution, has moved west to the former Ben Milam Elementary at 1100 Roy St., leaving its unique campus cobbled together from Heights Blvd. and Harvard St. houses behind. Founded in a grand Lovett Blvd. home in Montrose, the school moved to Heights Blvd. in the mid-eighties, expanding into adjacent and nearby kiddie cottages one at a time. And now they’re all for sale, in little mortgage-bite-size pieces!

Well, almost: all except the main school house at 639 Heights Blvd. (now under contract, snatched up before it could be listed), and the Discovery House at 429 Heights Blvd. (which the owner is keeping).

But 5 of the 6 listed and deed-restriction-free properties form an almost-contiguous (okay, there’s an alley down the middle) 35,700-sq.-ft. plot across 7th St. from Donovan Park. One reader comments: “The two on Harvard back up to two on the Blvd., so that is at least a dozen townhomes. No law against a high rise, either.” A quick tour of the homes standing in the way:

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Camp Logan
09/30/10 1:20pm

Comment of the Day: Microlots by the Park

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Comments, Landscape, Parks, Quicklink
44 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: MICROLOTS BY THE PARK “I think most people flee because they think they need yards for those kids, and with X amount of money you can either buy a house from the 50s on a lot or a townhome from the 80s to now on a microlot. I have a five year old and moved from my last two homes on lots (including Lazybrook) to a townhome in the 77007 and couldn’t be happier. We live next to the biggest, most amazing parks in the city, the arboretum, etc – why would I mow my own yard when I can walk a block to that?! This is turning out to be a better place to raise my kid than any of those neighborhoods were.” [Brandy C, commenting on Comment of the Day: Moving for Kids]

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Comments
09/29/10 1:20pm

Comment of the Day: You Could’ve Had a Chain Store!

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Franchises and Chain Stores, Leasing, Quicklink, Retail, Shopping Centers, Washington Ave, Washington Corridor
7 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU COULD’VE HAD A CHAIN STORE! “this was a terrible gym location, and parking was going to be a battle from day one. hate to be johnny-come-suburb, but it was a better call to work a deal to redevelop the site with CVS and give them their free-standing deal with drive thru. Soma would be down the street somewhere, hopefully with easier access/parking, crew would not be under, and this property would be better served than the future it has. now the owner spent time/effort with this problem, has a built-out gym that is not usable for another gym (nightclub, here we come…for 9 months), has 3500 sf that doesn’t lease (my guess is from lack of parking/ability to pay the rent) and has a basement (???) that will never lease. all of this, and he could be on a beach right now, getting his checks in the mail from year 4 of 20 with CVS as the return addressee.” [jg, commenting on Fitness-Club Scavengers at the Washington Ave Crew] Photo of West End Shopping Center, Washington Ave at Shepherd: Aaron Carpenter

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Openings and Closings
09/28/10 1:16pm

Fitness-Club Scavengers at the Washington Ave Crew

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Retail, Washington Corridor
21 Comments

A photo snapped at the storefront of Crew Health and Fitness at 4826 Washington Ave., in the restored shopping center between Shepherd and Durham, taken around 2:30 Sunday afternoon. Yes, the workout shop is now officially out of business. But what are all those yellow tags attached to the window? Free passes — to LA Fitness on Richmond! A tipster tells Swamplot the LA Fitness sales team heard news of Crew’s demise around 10 a.m. on Sunday: “They had representatives at the doors trying to sign people up when we went by.”

Photos: Swamplot inbox (Crew Fitness storefront) and Aaron Carpenter (West End Shopping Center)

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Comments
09/22/10 6:39pm

Comment of the Day: Why They’re Bringing Walmart to the West End

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Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Retail, West End
17 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY THEY’RE BRINGING WALMART TO THE WEST END “I once wrote a frustrated letter to Wal-Mart’s corporate office in Arkansas begging for a better store to serve the Inner Loop than what was available on S. Post Oak and 610. It may very well have come off as begging. Had they ever followed up with me about the particular issue, I almost certainly would have begged for the store. And had they come to my door, I’d have groveled at their feet in admiration of their corporate largess and magnaminity, even.” [TheNiche, commenting on West End Walmart Development 380 Agreement Gets City Council OK]

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Development Strategies
09/22/10 10:54am

West End Walmart Development 380 Agreement Gets City Council OK

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Proposed Developments, Quicklink, West End
60 Comments

WEST END WALMART DEVELOPMENT 380 AGREEMENT GETS CITY COUNCIL OK As expected, city council this morning approved a program of reimbursements to Ainbinder Company for improvements to public areas related to its Washington Heights Walmart-plus-strip-centers development in the West End. The vote, 11-4, came after amendments were approved limiting taxpayer costs to $6,050,000. The improvements will include wider sidewalks and bigger trees along Yale and Heights than required minimums, drainage and reconstruction of several nearby streets, and a jogging path along the Heights Blvd. esplanade south of I-10. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]

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Cottage Grove
09/20/10 10:23am

Aw, Shucks

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants
18 Comments

AW, SHUCKS No official confirmation yet, unless you count one corroborating report on Yelp — but reader Jack McBride reports that Shuck Daddy’s seafood restaurant at 1511 Shepherd in Cottage Grove appears to have closed. Writes McBride: “I drive by here everyday on my way home from work, and it was just in the last week that I saw it super packed.” [Swamplot inbox] Photo: Jack McBride

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Adaptive Reuse
09/15/10 4:55pm

David Adickes’s Big-Headed Summer Street Studio Getting a Redo

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Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, First Ward, Historic Preservation, Proposed Developments
18 Comments

The launching pad for I-45’s Mount Rush Hour, that presidential muck circle in Pearland, and more outsize sculpture projects has a buyer. David Adickes — creator of the giant Sam Houston of Huntsville and the disembodied cellist in front of the Lyric Center Downtown, and yes, the original owner and projectionist for sixties psychedelic Commerce St. hangout Love Street Light Circus — is selling his SculpturWorx compound off Sawyer St. to Phil Arnett and L.E. “Chap” Chapman. Arnett and Chapman are best known for turning an old staple manufacturing building down the street from the original Goode Co. Bar-B-Q on Kirby into the Bartlett Lofts. Their plan for Adickes’s 78,175 sq. ft. of warehouse space at 2500 Summer St.: keeping the “artist flavor” (and most of the tenants) of the old buildings, while renovating the property and using up to 22,000 sq. ft. of it (Adickes’s first-floor studio, for example) as commercial space — maybe including a restaurant or two.

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Nightlife
09/13/10 1:41pm

With Fox Hollow, the Washington Corridor Gastro Zone Moves North

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Washington Corridor, West End
5 Comments

This 1960-vintage warehouse on the corner of Nett and Parker, a couple blocks north of Washington Ave, is the latest project of Augustine Bui and Jornell Aveledo, 2 of the original creators and operators of Midtown’s Bond Lounge. Still under construction, it’s scheduled to open October 6th as Fox Hollow, a gastro lounge featuring cocktails in vintage stemware, “locally-sourced, organic dishes” on antique plates, second-hand outfits for the waitstaff and bartenders, plus a buildout that makes use of sheet metal and other materials the owners found in the space during construction. What second-hand goods they couldn’t find on-site they imported: door frames from Paris, stained-glass windows. That “used” theme sounds appropriate for a place directly across the street from Nox Bar.

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Proposed Developments
09/03/10 11:32am

West End Walmart Development Gets Its Koehler St. Jog

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Quicklink, Streets, Traffic, West End
6 Comments

WEST END WALMART DEVELOPMENT GETS ITS KOEHLER ST. JOG Despite the protests of a number of speakers — including council member Ed Gonzalez — who wanted some study of neighborhood traffic to be conducted first, the planning commission yesterday approved a minor variance connected with the West End Walmart yesterday, after 2 earlier postponements. The variance allows Koehler St. to be extended from Yale St. to Heights Blvd., even though the resulting street alignment doesn’t meet city development standards. [HTV; previously on Swamplot]

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Comments
09/02/10 1:53pm

Comment of the Day: We’re All Intruders Here

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Development Strategies, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Redevelopment, Retail, Townhomes, West End
3 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WE’RE ALL INTRUDERS HERE “Now, if I lived next to it . . . I would be vocally opposing it based on its proximity to me, but I have to say, those of you living near its proposed location were on the WalMart end not too long ago, changing the quality of life for many of your neighbors with your big stucco three and four story homes going in next to small bungalows. So, while you are throwing stones, you might want to consider that in the not so distant past those stones were being thrown at you.” [EMME, commenting on Y’All Can Discuss the West End Walmart on Your Own]

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Buying and Selling
09/02/10 1:08pm

Available Soon: More Front Row Seats for the West End Walmart

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Proposed Developments, Townhomes, West End
25 Comments

Liking the views you’ve seen of the new Walmart coming to the former Trinity Industries steel fabrication property at Yale and Koehler in the West End? Well, one of them could be yours! A few more of those front-row townhouses lining the property’s southern edge will soon be available, reports 11 News reporter Shern-Min Chow.

“Sitting on the couch to the fence line is roughly 55 feet,” brags Anne Marie Leahey, who says she’ll be selling her 1,167-sq.-ft. townhome on Center Plaza Dr. soon. Chow sounds impressed:

Her home is beautiful. The inside is stunning. As she pulled the bay window curtains back, it was clear the view outside would also be eye-catching. Her home looks out directly onto the site of the new Walmart.

Leahey, a Bonner Street Homeowners Association board member, was already thinking about moving before she heard of the new development, but has since decided to relinquish her home now instead of waiting. That’ll give some more dedicated Walmart fan a chance to enjoy the complete construction process from close range. She tells Chow she regularly gets calls from neighbors asking her if they should move, too.

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