Sign up for the Newsletter
Tag: 77008
- 331 W. 18th St. [HAR]
The proto-strip center that houses Yale St. Grill in the Heights went up for sale earlier this month, but Barbara Guidry, who’s been the vintage-y diner’s manager for 30 years, doesn’t expect any changes: “[The building’s] been sold before,” she tells Swamplot, “but this is like an institution.” The 1952 building has been listed at just under $3.2 million. The restaurant shares the 18,000-sq.-ft. structure — located a couple blocks north of the 19th St. shopping district — with Heights Antiques and Dr. Ullman, an optometrist. All 3 are long-term tenants on triple-net leases. Guidry says, “No, this place is a gold mine.”
- Shopping Strip Yale St. Center (PDF) [Marcus & Millichap]
Photo: Flickr user jgeo
- 2703 Droxford Dr. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: FOR WHOM THE BELL TOWER TOLL CALLS 
“The bell tower was already there. It was the result of the neighborhood going ballistic over a cell tower going in, and is the disguise for said tower, making it the Ma Bell Tower. And the only ringing for which it is responsible is in your purse or pocket.” [mollusk, commenting on Union Kitchen Expanding to 1111 Studewood Place]
A ground-floor restaurant spot in the almost-complete 6-story brick condo building at 1111 Studewood St. will be taken by the third location of the Union Kitchen, the Leader‘s Charlotte Aguilar reports. A sign in a window facing north onto E. 11th 1/2 St. indicates a TABC application for that space is currently under review. A broker from Personette Properties says a model unit for one of the building’s 20 residences should be ready for visits by December 1st — and move-ins by the first of the year. 1111 Studewood Place is also working to sign up a fitness facility and a medical office for the building’s office space, the broker says. The building has its own garage; all the condo units are on the top 3 floors.
- Heights close to getting popular Union Kitchen at 1111 Studewood Place building [The Leader]
- 1111 Studewood St. [HAR]
- Previously on Swamplot: Meanwhile, at the Corner of 11th and Studewood, A Rooftop Party Deck Behind the 11th St. Someburger? Those Lofty Earlier Designs for 1111 Studewood Place, Studewood Place: Some New Building Behind the 11th St. Someburger
Photos: Candace Garcia
“Better see the Telephone Museum while you can,” a tipster tells Swamplot. “Word is it’s sold.” But our tipster doesn’t know who the buyer of the Heights’ AT&T building is. The 3-story, 77,456-sq.-ft. structure at 1714 Ashland St.— it’s got a basement too — was put up for sale earlier this year for $3.1 million. It comes with 113 parking spaces on the 1.65 acre-lot, plus 55 spaces on a half-acre spot across the street. The museum is on the building’s second floor; the structure was built in 1957.
Update: The museum will be out of there by December 1st, Charlotte Aguilar reports.
Weingarten Realty has at last sold the 2.08-acre parcel under the Fiesta Mart on Studewood at 14th St. — to a Houston developer of assisted-living and independent-living complexes. Bridgewood Properties, the company behind the Village of Meyerland complex under construction at 4141 N. Braeswood Blvd. near Stella Link on the site of the former Rutlege Apartments and the Village at the Woodlands Waterway, plans to build a 4-story, 80-unit building in place of the grocery store — with independent-living apartments on the top floor, a bottom floor for “memory care” patients, and 2 floors of assisted-living units sandwiched in between. Fiesta’s lease expires in January; Bridgewood plans to begin building a “Craftsman style” structure in its place shortly thereafter, which should take 16 to 18 months to finish.
- Goodbye Studewood Fiesta; hello boutique senior living [The Leader]
- *Updated* New use in store for Heights Fiesta Mart [Prime Property]
- 1407 Studewood [Moody Rambin]
- Communities [Bridgewood Properties]
- Previously on Swamplot: Heights Grocery: Not Gone Yet
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Even without the flag waving as punctuation, this 1890 Victorian serves as a pint-sized Americana residential souvenir, complete with gingerbread trim and turned posts on the porch. The fence, however, is of more modern scale — and function, given its automated gate across the driveway. Flashbacks continue inside the cottage, listed earlier this month at $369,5000. It’s located in the Bartholomew Place tendril of Sunset Heights, a long block west of Metro’s Heights Transit Center.
THE MULTICOLORED POOP BAGS OF THE HEIGHTS HIKE AND BIKE TRAIL Alas — or should that be phew!? — no photos accompanied this brief report sent to Swamplot’s tip line: “Not sure if this qualifies for publication but I am not sure where else to turn to give this attention. Unfortunately I don’t jog with my camera so no photo yet but hope to submit one at some point. There are dog walkers that go through all the effort to bag their dogs’ poop only to toss it on the Houston Heights hike and bike trail. On any given day there are nice colorful bags of poop along the trail especially on the stretch from I-10 up to Nicholson. Pink, yellow, brown, black, and even turquoise bags preserving dog poop for all to enjoy. I am a bit perplexed at this practice of poop art.” [Swamplot inbox]
Like a beret worn jauntily, an angled steel roof provides a little attitude, a stab of color, and some tilt to an otherwise monochromatic and perpendicular property on a lot-and-a-half in the Melford Heights area of the Heights. That’s near 14th St. west of Studewood, 2 blocks from the Fiesta. The much-discussed 2006 home has a block-on-block facade, light-and-shadow fencing, and landing-pad pavers. But for a boldly toned painted wall here and there, the inside repeats the exterior’s shades-of-gray grid:
Pardon us, one at a time, while we slip — slowly — into a slightly higher elevation.
The last time this 1920 Houston Heights home was on the market, it was a tiny bungalow and sold for $235,000. That was way back in 2009, before Arnold Builders remodeled and spiffed it up as the builder’s own home. Earlier this month, the renovated property hit the market — at a much heftier $750,000.
As part of the overhaul, a driveway-covering 1,600-sq.-ft. addition more than doubled the now 2,708-sq.-ft. house. Its revised elevation sports a third gable and a new front room so the porch, formerly off-center, now sits squarely between old and new construction. The redo pumped up many of the home’s Craftsman-y design details, inside and out.
Austin’s Torchy’s Tacos chain will be opening a restaurant in the former Harold’s in the Heights retail space at the southeast corner of 19th St. and Ashland, according to a flyer advertising a new development planned for the former clothing store and connected space. Harold’s closed last year after operating for 61 years at 350 W. 19th St. The flyer says Braun Enterprises — which bought the fifties-mod property from the family of Harold Wiesenthal last September — has already executed the lease with Torchy’s, which is shown taking up 3,340 sq. ft. in the corner spot. The development includes an additional unleased 7,260 sq. ft. of ground-floor space imagined as a cafe and 3,000 more sq. ft. upstairs shown as a dental office in the flyer.
MAKING A KILLEN OUT OF THE OLD STELLA SOLA SPOT 
A whole bunch more tables will be added to the restaurant Ronnie Killen is opening up at 1001 Studewood St. in the Heights, last known as the location of Stella Sola. Also, the name hasn’t quite been decided yet: either Killen’s Steakhouse in the Heights or KS2. Other details in Patrice Shuttlesworth’s report from the ready-to-demo interior: There will be outdoor dining on a new rooftop garden, accessible by elevator; and the floorplan will be mixed up a bit, with the front door and meat locker both relocated. Killen hopes to have the place open by the middle of next month. [Eating Our Words; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Stella Sola
