WASHINGTON AVE. INSANITY! Here’s a question: “Do y’all know what’s going up on Washington in the block between Candelari’s and El Tiempo? Looks massive, possibly shaped like a music venue. No info on HAIF. Driving…me…mad.” Readers? [Swamplot Inbox]
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Tag: 77007
City officials posted signs at the Gables of Inwood Apartments near Antoine Forest yesterday notifying residents that they need to vacate the property by Monday. The owner of the 165-unit complex, Collins Ofoegbu of El Sobrante, California, has received notices of more than 240 violations from city inspectors since purchasing the property in 2006.
Some received the news from orange “notice to vacate” signs affixed to their doors. The signs also warned residents that power would be disconnected Monday.
“I need, like, two or three months,” said an agitated Jolanda Hernandez, who waved a recent rent receipt while complaining in Spanish. “I need time so I can move out of here.”
Matt Stiles’s report in the Chronicle indicates there are also problems at a closer-in property with a much larger group of owners: the Park Memorial Condominiums near the corner of Memorial and Detering. Stiles says city inspectors planned to post notices at the condominiums at 5292 Memorial warning residents that the parking garage is unsafe and “may experience catastrophic failure at any time.”
After the jump: More highlights from reporter Matt Stiles’s personal collection of dangerous-apartment photos!
BOUTIQUE HOTELS COMING TO WASHINGTON AVE. AND LOWER WESTHEIMER? They’re not saying much, but two separate potential developers have targeted Inner Loop sites. No “immediate plans,” of course: “Liz Lambert, the businesswoman behind the hip Hotel San José in Austin, has a site on lower Westheimer earmarked for a possible hotel. . . . Sergio Ortiz, owner of Houston-based Orion Hotels Inc., is working on the development of a boutique hotel on Washington Avenue, one of the hottest emerging strips in the Bayou City.” [Houston Business Journal]
SKATEBOARDING IS NOT A CRIME? Some residents of the Sabine Street Lofts are unhappy with the new Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark that opened across the street on June 1st: “an average of 320 people have skated its ramps and concrete bowls every day. Lofts residents say the skaters also have tagged city property, left behind soda cans and snack-food trash and even trespassed onto loft property to skate in the parking garage. Topping their complaints is illegal parking on the Sabine Street bridge, which they say constricts the route they use into and out of the complex.” [Houston Chronicle; previously]
Neighbors in the Sixth Ward have noticed some activity at the shuttered Pig Stand on Washington at Sawyer:
It appears that the former owners of the Pigstand property have retained ownership, but that they have leased the property out to the Sawyer Sportsbar, Inc.
Sawyer Sportsbar, Inc., is a new corporation, formed in April, by none other than Darren Van Delden, owner of The Drake.
I am not sure if Darren or the Dallas property owners are doing the build-out, but it is in its very early stages. (The Pigstand only had an outdoor bathroom, so I expect some relatively expansive upgrades, at least to the interior).
- Sawyer Sports Bar [Old6WardHouston]
- The Drake Bar
- Washington News and Rumors: Beaver’s Open, Pig Coming? [Swamplot]
Photo of Washington Ave. Pig Stand (No. 7): Flickr user Fotollena
A post offering “a few notes of clarification” appears on the HAIF thread discussing the new sign on the property next to the Onion Creek Coffee House on White Oak:
a. The structure, as currently envisioned, will include first floor retail and parking, probably two floors of parking and six to seven floors of office/studio lease space. The top floor of the garage will be designed for an art gallery, or similar space, with the roof of the garage as outdoor terrace areas.
b. The project is in a very, very early design stage and will be a Class-A “green” structure with early 20th-century details. Equivalent-scaled structures might be the Lancaster downtown or The Plaza in Montrose.
c. Target tenants will be neighborhood small businesses and individuals currently doing business in homes, garages, guest rooms, etc…within walking or biking distance and not wanting a heavy commute routine.
d. Project is in commercial district and would only “border” the residential district of the Heights.
e. Since it is primarily an office building there are considerations for the parking to be utilized after-hours by the nighttime oriented buinesses nearby for off-street parking which would limit the intrusion of parking into residential areas.
f. This is the only information available at this time. Further postings will come in the near future.
Thank you for your interest.
- High Rise Apartments on White Oak? [HAIF]
- More on the Heights highrise [Off the Kuff]
- At Risk: New 14-Story Tower Drawn in the Heights [Swamplot]
Photo: HAIF user tmariar
Some residents of Glen Cove St. have been encroaching on the Hogg Bird Sanctuary with their lawnmowers and destroying the birds’ habitat, complains an area resident. The sanctuary is nominally a part of Memorial Park, but is adjacent to Bayou Bend, the former Ima Hogg estate.
Abc13’s Miya Shay comments:
there are about a dozen homes whose own lawn shares a border line with the sanctuary. One of the women who actually lives there is complaining her some of her neighbors are mowing the grass, and putting up a hammock in what is technically city property. Instead of respecting land deeded by the Hogg Foundation, the neighbors are using the land as their own property.. for free.. forget the birds. As you can imagine, some folks are not so happy about it.. and demanding that the Parks department do a little more than just send angry letters and putting up “do not mow” signs….
Shay reports that City Council wants to get to the bottom of it . . . and maybe store some construction equipment in the sanctuary too!
- Birds vs. big houses: the sanctuary question [Houston Political Blog]
- Development takes toll on Houston bird sanctuaries [KHOU]
- Protecting the Sanctuary [abc13]
This sign, posted near the corner of White Oak and Oxford in the Heights, has apparently stirred up concerns among a few area residents. And really, if causing a commotion was the goal, broker Ed Rizk couldn’t have picked a better location: the property is right next to the Onion Creek Coffee House.
Judging from the emails we’ve received, the project already has a name: It’s “another Ashby Highrise.” The latest from the sleuths on HAIF: Planning and Development says it hasn’t received any permit or subdivision application for the project.
- High Rise Apartments on White Oak? [HAIF]
- Rizk Properties
- Can’t Stop This: Southampton Pop-Up Tower [Swamplot]
Photo: HAIF user tmariar
A tipster informs us that the lovely 1.35-acre lot at 6040 Glen Cove in Memorial — which had been languishing on the market for about a year and a half — has finally been bought! The purchaser: County Judge candidate David Mincberg.
And apparently, Mincberg isn’t too interested in that free Talbott Wilson Midcentury Modern home that comes with it.
Photo of 6040 Glen Cove St.: HAR
For those of you still fascinated by that Tin House in Rice Military designed by Natalye Appel featured here Wednesday: Photos of the house dating from the . . . uh, Golden Age of Tin Houses in the West End, circa 1992.
Remember when it looked like the entire West End was going to go . . . metal? It was going to be the Tin House District: Hot young architects inserting daring steel-sided homes between ramshackle bungalows . . . with great sensitivity to the sleepy little neighborhood.
Here’s a Rice Military home Natalye Appel designed for Sarah Balinskas in 1992. And it’s for lease! Have a peek inside . . .
A reader sends photos of the new Memorial Hills Apartments under construction just north of Memorial Drive and west of Jackson Hill at 3200 Scotland St., on the site of the old . . . Memorial Hills Apartments! The new apartments are being developed by Gables Residential, and were designed by Ziegler Cooper Architects.
The apartments will be 8 stories tall and face Cleveland Park directly to the south. The parking garage will be on the north side of the site.
Below: more reader photos of the construction site, plus pretty words and pictures from Ziegler Cooper!
Discussing Vietnamese restaurants in Houston, Food in Houston’s Anonymouseater notes the upcoming launch of Pagoda Vietnamese Bistro and Bar — the latest addition to the agglomeration of restaurants off Shepherd and Durham, just south of I-10. But Pagoda appears to be struggling to gain its bearings. The restaurant’s website and menu claim:
We are the first authentic Vietnamese eatery west of downtown with a full menu comparative in traditional quality that can be found in Southeast Houston better known as Chinatown.
There’s more Houston neighborhood-related entertainment in Pagoda’s description of itself on its website:
Up and coming restaurant surely to be a neighborhood favorite to the Heights hippies, Midtown young professionals, Montrose eclectic crowd, Museum District artisans, River Oakies, and the Downtown/Allen Parkway industry professionals.
Anonymouseater provides a helpful summary — and preliminary verdict:
Translation: bringing Vietnamese food from Bellaire to a non-Asian audience with nice decor and high prices. Sounds like Vietopia? Those goals are not necessarily bad. But the food has to be compelling for it to work.
- Vietopia – Vaguely Vietnamese [Food in Houston]
- Pagoda Bistro & Bar, 4705 Inker St.
Photo of 4705 Inker St. (from 2006): HAR
Razorblade and wheatpaste artist Give Up gives up this photo preview of the Artist Front (AFront for short) boutique and skate shop, opening March 21st on Washington:
anthony correa and matt fuller have decided to take their combined years of experience in pretty much every facet of the skateboard industry and turn it into something a little more physical. offering up a new skate/boutique/gallery space under the name A-FRONT. located at 2205 washington next door to the darkhorse tavern, A-FRONT is like houston’s answer to supreme or huf or ftc. with an even stronger emphasis on art. a fully functional gallery space, the shop’s grand opening will also be the opening of their first show.
Another inside photo of Afront — from the front — after the jump.
Armed with only a camera and a healthy sense of curiosity, Swamplot reader and longtime Memorial Heights Apartments resident Michael W. Jones pokes around his apartment complex and unearths evidence of Archstone-Smith’s redevelopment plans. His conclusions:
- Buildings 7, 8, and 9, in the southwest quadrant of the complex facing S. Heights Blvd, will be the first to come down. All tenants have been out of these buildings since March 1. The first of six new four-story apartment buildings will be built here.
- The dingbat-Modern-style office building at 225 S. Heights Blvd. outside the complex will likely be torn down:
The fact that the building is not on the tax roll leads me to believe that 225 is actually owned by Archstone-Smith, and will be brought down as part of the redevelopment. The current state does give sign that there may have been some interior demolition already done, and it’s waiting for the wrecking crew to come in to finish the job.
- Though tenants have been hit with some large rent increases in the last two years, Archstone-Smith isn’t going out of its way to let them know what’s happening to their homes:
To date, other than the tennants in the buildings affected by the pending demolition, the rest of the complex has not been made aware of the pending changes. It is only through research and infomation from other sources have I been able to piece the information you see here together.
After the jump, photos — and a few more details — from Jones’s report.
