- 2120 Gostic St. [HAR]
Sign up for the Newsletter
Tag: 77008
What’s this new construction being framed in wood and steel on the site of 2 former bungalows at 828 and 832 Yale St. in the Heights? A single 23,000-sq.-ft. residence that will also serve as the offices of homebuilder Fisher Homes, a source tells Swamplot. The builder is perhaps best known for the Morrison Heights 5-story condo building near Houston Ave. and White Oak; it is also planning a Studemont Mid-Rise at Studemont and Center St., just north of Washington Ave.
Fisher Homes
The nature of this ravine-lot home in Timbergrove Manor is looking a bit . . . reserved. Earlier this week, the woodsy property (with saltwater pool and path to a bayou-let) appeared on the market. Asking price: $450,000 $405,000. Updates over the years have boosted the property’s energy efficiency, natural lighting, and counter space. The latter starts right off the entry . . .
Bug Spray Not Included
Chain-link fencing has gone up around the warehouse buildings at 2401 Nicholson St. in the Heights, a reader reports. There’s a total 139,126 sq. ft. of building space on the large alley-divided block surrounded by Nicholson, 24th, 25th, and Lawrence St., on 3.6 acres. JLB Partners doesn’t appear to have announced the new apartment building it’s planning for the site, but its builders received a couple of permits for a parking garage and an apartment building at 525 W. 24th St. late last year. And a TCEQ notice for the construction — identified as the Heights Block 39 Apartments, at 525 W. 25th St. — has gone up at the site as well. The block is catty-corner to the cleared National Flame & Forge site on the other side of Nicholson.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Block 39
A wee corner lot in the Houston Heights East Historic District carries a 1920 home’s addition on its back instead of in its back yard, which is occupied instead by the “tandem” one-car-wide garage. Renovations to the property since last summer, when it sold for $342K, moved around some of the interior walls and overhauled the kitchen and bathrooms. The current listing’s asking price of $574,900 is the ninth price point sought by a series of listings that ticked down nearly $75K in price reductions since the home’s January 2014 market debut at $650,000.Â
Spacing Out
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW THE HEIGHTS IS PUTTING ON WEIGHT? 
“I think they are going to have to change the name of the area from the ‘Heights’ to the ‘Widths.’ In addition to Fat Cat and the soon to be new doughnut shop, Gelazzi on White Oak is opening in May to serve gelato and other Italian treats. RED Dessert Dive & Coffee Shop is building out on Studewood. Then there is the recently opened Heights Candy Store on Studewood. All of this is in addition to great pastries, baked goods and other treats at Angela’s Oven, Kraftsmen, Revival Market, Boulevard Coffee (possibly the best cinnamon rolls in Houston), Happy Fatz, What’s Up Cupcake, Mighty Sweet Mini Pies and Dacapo’s. Yikes.” [Old School, commenting on More Sugar Headed for the Sweetest Strip Center on North Shepherd] Illustration: Lulu
From reader Jody Henry comes this pic of the newly transformed facade of the former Country Kitchen location on the western reaches of 11th St. near Seamist. The front patio is built out; burgers, salads, beers, and wings are waiting in the wings. Warehouse Bar & Chill is a week and a half away from opening at 3333 W. 11th St., according to the new establishment’s Facebook page.
- Warehouse Bar & Chill to Open in the Heights [Eater]
- Coming Soon! [Warehouse Bar & Chill]
Photo: Jody Henry
Just Add Patio
- 6311 Woodbrook Ln. [HAR]
Here’s a pic of the latest sign of the growing Heights-area crawfish swarm: The just-painted front of the former audio repair shop at 606 E. 11th St., just east of Oxford, showing the new home of Boil House. “A hot pinch of authentic Louisiana flavor” is offered in the wall sign just behind the spray-painted trashcan above, and the mudbugs are implied in the name of the company behind the venture: Boil House Crawfish, LLC. But don’t confuse this under-the-radar venture with the other crawfish restaurant setting up camp in nearby Shady Acres. Cajun spot The Boot just opened (on weekends only for now, it appears) in the former Shady Tavern spot at 1206 W. 20th St., between Bevis and Beall.
Photo: T.S. Noble
Cajun Heights
TODAY’S BIG FIRE IS IN THE HEIGHTS 
In other fire news, firefighters have just contained a blaze at the Heights Presbyterian Church at 240 West 18th St. near Rutland St. [abc13] Photo still: abc13
Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair North Norhill, where we lay our scene . . .
Double Vision
Someday, your Prince’s (hamburgers sign) will go. If you hail from the kingdom of the Heights, today appears to be that day. Swamplot reader Rachelle Varnon sends in the above photo, taken just a short while ago, of the old N. Shepherd Prince’s Hamburgers sign as it sits, mounted on a royal coach for a northern journey. “I saw a bucket truck by the old sign [pictured at left] at 15th and North Shepherd today on my way to lunch,” she writes. “By the time we returned, the sign was down.”
Where’s it headed?
Neon Royalty
With today’s knocking of the Salmex Auto & Truck Sales building at 1819 N. Shepherd Dr. (pictured above from earlier today), the great used-car-lot-to-restaurant-row transformation of North Shepherd begins! Er . . . continues. On the site of this spot will flourish: a parking lot! And a pretty big one. But further in on 18th St. is the planned site of Foreign Correspondents, which bills itself as a “farm to table” Thai restaurant. Further in and attached to it will be tavern and whiskey bar Hunky Dory from the operators of DownHouse and Feast alumnus Richard Knight.
Used Cars to Whiskey, Farm to Table
The Ella Creek Apartments at the corner of Ella and 22nd St. (and just a block of away from a jog in that creek called White Oak Bayou) have been completely vacated, a reader tells Swamplot: “On a recent drive by I noticed there were no cars in the parking lots and the complex looked even worse than usual. It is a very large tract, and I’m wondering what the future land use will be.”
Guesses, anyone?
Shady Acres
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE FAR NORTH HEIGHTS TOWNHOUSE BOOM 
“A ride around the far north Heights (bordered roughly by Yale, Shepherd, 610 and, say, 23rd) reveals a staggering amount of residential construction activity. The Sullivan Brothers project on 23rd is finally nearing completion. A dozen new townhouses at 26th and Ashland. Eight single-family homes at the same corner, with 20 or so to follow between 26th and 27th. Eight single family houses at 26th and Rutland. Twenty townhouses about to go up at 24th and Lawrence. Plus a dozen or so 2-to-6-house developments. The numbers easily reach into the triple digits, and that’s without anything on the old National Flame & Forge site (the double block between Nicholson, Rutland, 25th and 26th), which could add another hundred.” [Angostura, commenting on Where a Couple Dozen Townhomes Are Going in the Far North Heights] Illustration: Lulu
