Y’ALL CAN DISCUSS THE WEST END WALMART ON YOUR OWN Missed all the fun at last week’s big celebration of Walmart’s impending arrival in the Inner Loop? Two ways you can still get in on the action: Mayor Parker’s office has posted videos of the presentations given by the mayor and chief development officer Andy Icken at the gathering. And a second public meeting is scheduled for tonight, at a venue guaranteed to keep things orderly — The High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. But the folks from Ainbinder and Walmart won’t be around this time, according to the mayor, who’s announced the meeting “will focus solely on areas of the development that are under the city’s control.” [CitizensNet via Off the Kuff; previously on Swamplot]
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At last night’s meeting, representatives of the Ainbinder Company revealed the suburban-style site plan for the development centered around Yale and Koehler streets in the West End they’re calling the Washington Heights District. Among the plan’s notable features: 2 bank- or chain-restaurant-style pad sites planted on the west side of Yale St. just south of Koehler, and a couple new strip centers along Heights Blvd., each featuring a double row of parking spaces in front. A rendering of the southmost strip (above) shows it changing facade costume every few bays, following the template of a sort of mini-Wild, Wild West version of Uptown Park. These new buildings would become only the 5th and 6th strip centers on the almost-3-mile length of Heights Blvd., joining such exclusive company as the Heights Food Mart north of Center St., the cell-phone-friendly Heights Retail Center at I-10, the Pink’s Pizza and Sunny’s Food Store combo at 14th St., and that just-in-from-Austin building at 6th St. that used to house McCain’s Market — in easy-auto-access splendor.
One change from the version of the site plan leaked last month: 2 other strip centers in the project — both on Yale St. south of the main Walmart driveway — have been moved up to the street and their parking placed in back. Well, maybe the back: It isn’t clear from the renderings, but it’s likely the store entrances will move to the Walmart side as well, turning away from Yale. The development’s 5th strip center offers parking-lot views to all 3 streets it faces: Heights, Koehler, and Yale.
But the Washington Heights District promises to be so much more than just a symphony of Inner Loop strip centers. There’s also . . . the Walmart!
A few highlights from last night’s meet-and-jeer on the third floor of the George R. Brown Convention Center Downtown, where representatives of Walmart, Ainbinder, and the city gave presentations on the Walmart and related retail developments proposed for the area around Yale and Koehler streets in the West End:
- Mayor Parker announced she had originally hoped to hold the meeting at the United Way building at 50 Waugh St. in Memorial Heights, but the nonprofit turned her down — probably because of concerns it might get “rowdy,” she joked. But the night’s meeting format seemed designed to keep public outbursts to a minimum: After the presentations, attendees were asked to break up into smaller groups and gather around tables in the back to get their questions answered, one by one, from city officials or developer representatives. Before attendees could be dispersed, though, a few people managed to work their way to a microphone and ask questions or make statements in front of the entire room.
- A significant percentage of the crowd wore “I don’t want that Walmart” red shirts. It wasn’t clear what portion of the less-vibrantly-dressed people there supported the development, but during his presentation Walmart senior VP Jeff McAllister did announce that many of the company’s suppliers were in attendance.
Just ahead of tonight’s meeting, Ainbinder Company has released the requisite mostly-empty-parking-lot and pedestrians-standing-in-a-median renderings of the Walmart the company is hoping to seat off Koehler and Yale in the West End. The renderings come from a 5-page brochure for the company’s Washington Heights development that includes an aerial view and plenty of lovely images documenting the site’s industrial recent past, going so far as to call the former Trinity Industries plant on the site — where beams, columns, and other structures were fabricated from supplied raw materials — a “steel mill.” But no official (or updated) site plans for the current proposal are included.
Here’s a view of how the Walmart might look in the early dawn, as you drive up:
MORE THAN A COLLECTION OF RED SHIRTS AND BLUE SHIRTS 
Hearing the news that Mayor Parker will be hosting a public meeting Wednesday evening at Downtown’s George R. Brown Convention Center to answer questions about Ainbinder’s Walmart & friends development targeted for a 24-acre property near the intersection of Yale and Koehler streets in the West End (just south of the Heights), the folks behind the Stop Heights Walmart website have come up with an interesting plan: Urge opponents of the discount chain’s first foray into Houston’s Inner Loop to attend the meeting wearing red shirts. Notably, that’s the daily uniform of the hundreds of thousands of “team members” who work for discount rival Target. One Walmart opponent noted on the group’s Facebook page that red shirts are available for low prices at Walgreens. “Please don’t buy them at Walmart :) Given, right?” asked another commenter. A few representatives of Ainbinder and Walmart itself will be on hand at the meeting, wearing blue vests and greeting visitors at the door. [Stop Heights Walmart; previously on Swamplot] Photos: Rufus Quail; Alice Wright
A few neighbors actually picketed this home on the corner of Decatur and Silver streets for months after it was built. In 2001 Cite magazine labeled it “probably the most scrutinized — and criticized — private home in recent Houston history.” What was all the fuss about? It was a brand-new home built on a long-vacant lot around the turn of this century in a recently designated historic district: the Old Sixth Ward.
The protest signs have been down for years, but a for-sale sign went up in the yard last fall. After a failed closing, the house came back on the market this summer. Then a second buyer couldn’t come up with financing. The sellers cut the asking price $20K, to $539,999, just last week.
The 3 bedroom, 2 full- and 2 half-bath house was designed and constructed by Houston’s MC² Architects. A picketer-free photo tour is below:
Ainbinder Company president Bart Duckworth says he’s hoping to unveil plans to “community leaders” next week for the firm’s 23-acre development at Yale and Koehler in the West End — which the company is calling Washington Heights. But it sounds like they’ll look at least something like what we’ve already seen. Some details: The exterior of the Walmart the company wants to plant on 15 acres of that development will “feature more browns and show an effort to break up the stark ‘big box’ look with architectural detailing,” writes real estate promoter Ralph Bivins, who the company invited to look at the plans. Duckworth tells Bivins the Walmart’s large parking lot and store front will have tree plantings that “exceed the norm.”
The project’s leasing broker tells Bivins he wants “chef-driven restaurants, local boutiques and non-chain outlets” to occupy the new retail spaces on Yale and Heights Blvd., which he views as an extension to recent developments along Washington Ave.
Duckworth also describes portions of the “380” agreement his company has been trying to negotiate with the city:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WEST END WALMART IN DETENTION “. . . The only negative to the city to me has to deal with drainage. The developer (under current city policy) can claim the site was previously developed which means no storm water detention needs to be provided for the tract. The mayor and several other local groups believe that all new large scale development should provide detention regardless of the previous conditions of the site. It’s not an easy policy change to implement even in the strictest of regulatory environments.” [kjb434, commenting on In the Mail: Walmart Gets Its Game on for Central Houston]
More evidence that Walmart is now in full campaign mode as it pushes for public support to build what the company is now calling its Central Houston location: Residents of the Heights, Timbergrove Manor, and many other nearby areas have reported receiving a small slick brochure in the mail touting the benefits of the proposed “custom-designed” store at Koehler and Yale in the West End. The mailer asks recipients to send in an attached postcard indicating their support for the project — and asks them if they’d be willing to contact city council members and other “city leaders” as well. The mailer is identified as coming from Friends of Walmart, an organization with a 77270 Houston P.O. box address. But the website link featured on the brochure, WalmartHouston.com, is clearly a project of Walmart itself. That website follows the same format as others the company has set up (see the Chicago and Baltimore equivalents) to campaign for public support or approvals necessary to build urban stores in other major cities.
The ad copy uses some form of the term “community” 10 times. Also worth noting: The Friends of Walmart mailer describes the proposed West End site — formerly home to Trinity Industries’ steel fabrication plant — as “an unused piece of property that is much in need of remediation.” But the brochure doesn’t specify what remediation Walmart — or Ainbinder Company, the project’s developer — plans to complete before construction begins. The Walmart Houston website makes no mention of any possibly toxic materials lying in wait at the former plant.
THE WEST END WALMART AND THAT “OUTSIDE AGITATOR” ARGUMENT Sadly, KPRC reporter Carl Willis doesn’t exactly specify who is “raising questions” about the neighborhood groups fighting Walmart’s attempts to build a new store in Houston’s West End. And he only shows a portion of Walmart spokesman’s Daniel Morales’s musings on the subject. But still, this is starting to get real fun: “As for the outspoken opposition, questions have come up about just who is supporting them,” Willis declares. “Written reports have alleged competing chains have paid consultants, or so-called Walmart Killers, to run anti-development campaigns in other cities.” Where could these suggestions have come from? Willis cuts to Morales: “It would be unfortunate,” says the Walmart spokesperson, “if another outside group or competitor would be creating a disingenuous movement . . .” Oh, but why cut him off there? [News2Houston; previously on Swamplot]
St. Thomas High School officials broke ground last week on what will likely be the most monumental garage in the long history of Houston secondary school parking. A 6-story, 433-space parking structure designed by Kirksey will rise at the southeast corner of the school’s Memorial-and-Shepherd campus. It’ll replace this dirt lot southwest of Granger Stadium and just north of Shepherd, allowing other parking areas on campus to be redeveloped. A couple rendered views of the finished product, some portion of which will likely be visible from Shepherd:
SMALL JITNEYS GET RULED OUT 
Amid promises that a new “Green Vehicle” ordinance scheduled to come to a vote in September will eventually cover smaller no-emissions vehicles, Houston’s city council today approved revisions to the jitney ordinance. The new jitney rules require all new fixed-route shuttle services to have a carrying capacity of 9 to 15 passengers. Smaller vehicles already licensed under the existing ordinance can continue to operate, but Erik Ibarra — whose Rev Eco-Shuttle business operates two 5-passenger electric vehicles Downtown, in Midtown, and on Washington Ave — won’t be able to expand his service with additional vehicles of the same type. Unlike the jitney ordinance, the proposed rules for green vehicles will likely not restrict pedicabs and electric carts like Ibarra’s to a fixed route. [HTV; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Rev Eco-Shuttle
Update, 9/15/11: Our error. 5820 Washington is now the home of The Blue Fish, a restaurant chain based in Dallas — not to be confused (as we did) with Blue Fish House, a Houston-based restaurant with locations at 2241 Richmond Ave. and in Sugar Land at 2735-C Town Center Blvd. The Dallas chain also has a location in Bayou Place. We’ve updated the story.
This new parking lot across Knox St. from Benjy’s on Washington recently replaced the Thomas Collection fabric store that used to sit directly on the corner of Washington Ave. Dallas’s Blue Fish chain will be opening a new location in the building behind it, at 5820 Washington Ave. Yes, this is the same building that, a few weeks ago, a Swamplot reader identified from a state license application as the future home of Washington Wine Storage. That facility’s address will be 1120 Knox St.:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HECK, I COULD NAME THAT OL’ TRACTOR ON THE CORNER FROM A MILE AWAY 
“Ford 9N. 1939 model I believe.” [nx99, commenting on The Smoke Is Back at Washington and Heights, but It Smells a Little Different This Time]
Bringing you the happening sounds of the vacant former Morse Wholesale Paper Co. on the east side — live, via YouTube!
Can’t get enough of this sort of thing? More Industrial: