Tag: 77008

09/26/18 12:30pm

How Houston’s 2 Planned Robo-Parking Garages Compare in Size

Parking, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Timbergrove

5 Comments

HOW HOUSTON’S 2 PLANNED ROBO-PARKING GARAGES COMPARE IN SIZE The one that’d go next to the proposed Railway Heights food hall will be bigger: 89-ft. tall with a roughly 18,000-sq.-ft. footprint, reports Nancy Sarnoff. A site plan for the development at Wash Ave and Hempstead previously indicated it’d hold 600 cars. The other high-tech garage — planned in place of the existing analog facility on White Oak Dr. next to Tacos A Go Go — is being designed for a third of that capacity: 200 vehicles, reports Sarnoff, would fit there in a structure “no taller than 75 ft.,” with a 6,500-sq.-ft. footprint. The same tech company —Â New Jersey-based U-tron — is behind both buildings, in cooperation with Chicago developer Easy Park. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Image: Centric Commercial

77008, Parking, Parking Garage, Proposed Development, Timbergrove

Homes for Sale

09/21/18 5:45pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: The Taste Testers

Houston Heights, Interiors

2 Comments

1003 Alexander St. [HAR]

77008, Homes for Sale, Houston Heights, Interiors, Kitchens

09/17/18 9:45am

A Soaring View of Progress on the 23rd St. H-E-B

Houston Heights, New Construction, Retail

5 Comments

Red hyphenated signage hasn’t yet put a name to the building, but you can see all the other makings of H-E-B’s second second-story Houston grocery store from above in the video at top. The footage starts off over N. Shepherd, then pans around the corner of 23rd St., offering a view of the former Fiesta site from the south.

Back in March a spokesperson for the grocer told The Leaderâ€™s Landan Kuhlmann to expect a “late fall opening,” meaning the store’s debut could coincide roughly with the 2 year anniversary of the dry zone modification its management pushed for prior to construction.

Previously on Swamplot: The New Second-Story Heights H-E-B on N. Shepherd Is About To Begin Construction; H-E-Bâ€™s Plan and Backup Plan for the Double Decker Heights Dry Zone Store; H-E-B Will Double Down on a Heights Dry Zone Store or Not Build At All;Â Yes, The Heights Dry Zone Petitioners Really Did Collect Enough Signatures For a Vote;Â Heights Dry Zone Signature Gatherers Return from the Hunt Victorious;Â Former Fiesta Site Preps for Teardown as Heights Dry Zone Petitioners Circle;Â H-E-B Would Like To Plant a Store in a Wetter Heights Dry Zone;Â Somebodyâ€™s Trying to Legalize Beer and Wine Sales in the Heights Dry Zone

Video: Brandon DuBois

Doubly Decked Out

77008, Grocery Stores, Houston Heights, New Construction, Retail

East End

09/06/18 2:30pm

Sand Dollar Thrift Nears Houston Extinction

Houston Heights, Openings and Closings, Retail

4 Comments

A sign spotted up on the chain’s East End location (pictured at top) by a thrifty Redditor informs customers that the last 2 Sand Dollar stores will be closing at the end of this month, bringing an end to the retailer’s 37-year run. Both the 7018 Harrisburg Blvd. and 1903 Yale St. stores are now in clearance mode: All purchases over $20 (before tax) are half-off.

Down in Pasadena, the 2535 Spencer Hwy. store has already been emptied:

Everything Must Go

77008, 77011, East End, Houston Heights, Openings and Closings, Retail

09/04/18 10:30am

Sweet Bribery Is the Final Ingredient in Braun’s 19th St. Antique Store Remix

Houston Heights, Proposed Developments, Renovations, Restaurants

6 Comments

A recent tax filing reveals Sweet Bribery is the moniker of the corner ice cream shop Braun Enterprises has been showing in its site plan for 250 W. 19th St. without daring to speak its name. It’s the last of the 5 new tenants that the developer’s been ushering into the former Chippendale Eastlake Antiques store since buying it in 2015. (One of which — an ice cream offshoot of Leeâ€™s Fried Chicken & Donuts called Lee’s Creamery — appears no longer bound for the building.) Pictured above is the western flank it’d occupy, which backs up to Urban Float sensory deprivation spa’s entrance off Rutland St.

Next door to the creamery, clothing stores Mary & Moss and Proper are already doing business along 19th St.:

250 W. 19th St.

77008, Houston Heights, Proposed Developments, Renovations, Restaurants

08/30/18 4:00pm

Heights Homeowners Can’t Distance Themselves from Former Felon-Owned Bungalow Next Door, City Rules

Historic Preservation, Houston Heights

26 Comments

After the owner of the yellow bungalow went to jail in 2015 for conspiracy, the townhome neighbors bought it and begun looking to put some distance between the house and their own. Last Wednesday, the city’s historical commission reviewed their plans however and told them no can do. The extra 7-ft.-8-in. they wanted to add between the 2 structures would take the bungalow — part of the Heights South Historic District — out of its original 1920 location at 922 Columbia St. And the other change — sliding it 5-ft.-3.5-in. back from the curb to line up with its taller neighbor — would make it less prominent along the street.

The decision is binding, so there’s no shying away now from the current situation:

Close Quarters on Columbia St.

77008, Buying and Selling, Historic Districts, Historic Preservation, Houston Heights, Relocations

Apartments

08/30/18 12:01pm

Somerset Lofts Sign Up To Neighbor Forthcoming Railway Heights Food Hall

Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Timbergrove

2 Comments

SOMERSET LOFTS SIGN UP TO NEIGHBOR FORTHCOMING RAILWAY HEIGHTS FOOD HALL Four floors of apartments are staking their claim to the unbuilt 2-and-a-half acre tract next to the warehouse that’s becoming a food hall at 11th and Hempstead. With a nod from the city planning commission and some tax credits bestowed by the Texas Department of Housing last month, Blossom Development is now ready to start building the complex. Its bargain with the state mandates that at least some of the 120 units be priced below market rate. Map: Houston Planning Commission Agenda

77008, Affordable Housing, Apartments, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Timbergrove

08/29/18 3:00pm

Why the Heights’ Second-to-Last Founder-Built Home Isn’t Much Like Its Original Neighborhood

Homes for Sale, Houston Heights

8 Comments

The Midwestern investment syndicate that developed the Heights originally planned it as a modest outpost for middle-class families. So it’s a little puzzling when Amy Lynch Kolflat — the realtor for Houston architect Bart Truxilloâ€™s Heights pad — tells Nancy Sarnoff a day after posting the listing that “itâ€™s one of two remaining homes built by the founder of the Houston Heights, Omaha and South Texas Land Co.” Take a look at the video tour Kolflat conducts around the property at 1802 Harvard St. Kind of opulent for what historian Stephen Fox called an “industrial working-class suburb,” right?

That’s because Truxillo’s house is modeled directly on the other longstanding Heights structure Kolflat mentions — 1102 Heights Blvd. — situated 7 blocks away. Along that spinal street — planned as Houston’s first divided boulevard — many of the homes went above and beyond those found in the rest of the neighborhood. 1102 was one of those exceptions:

77008, Historic Preservation, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Houston Heights

1802 Harvard

08/28/18 4:00pm

Refilling That 19th St. Strip Building Hole with Something Other Than Scraps

Houston Heights, Proposed Developments

9 Comments

Here’s a glimpse of what 317 W. 19th St. might look like with a roof over its head for the first time in a few decades and something inside thatÂ presumably isn’t junk. An entity connected to the next-door Maryam’s Cafe bought the 6,600-sq.-ft. lot in February. Shortly after, all the odds and ends that once kept it occupied vanished.

Gone as well: the sheet-metal facade that shielded them from the public eye. But not entirley:

77008, Houston Heights, Proposed Developments, Strip Centers

Next to Maryam’s Cafe

Demolitions

08/27/18 12:00pm

Sunset Heights Church’s Receives Last Rites, Strip Retail To Succeed It

Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail, Sunset Heights

7 Comments

A pile of building parts is now all that stands in the way of the 4,500-sq.-ft. strip that Houston developer Ancorian wants to place at Yale and E. 27th, opposite the other shopping center it’s now ushering tenants into across the street. In place of the standalone Church’s Fried Chicken drive-thru — pictured above before and after its demo last week — a rendering now shows 3 newcomers lined up next to each other at 2702 Yale.

One of them carries on the site’s fast-food legacy with more of a niche focus:

Chickening Out on Yale

77008, Demolition, Fast Food, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail, Strip Centers, Sunset Heights

Comments

08/23/18 2:15pm

Comment of the Day: Former Ink Spots Museum Faces the Music

Houston Heights, Museums, Quicklink

1 Comment

COMMENT OF THE DAY: FORMER INK SPOTS MUSEUM FACES THE MUSIC “The building on E. 20th was for years the The Original Huey ‘Ink Spot’ Long Living History Music Museum. Very cool for neighbors, visitors, and especially Hamilton Middle School students to be able to pass by or visit it. The Ink Spots Museum is now online.” [Miz Brook Smith, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Sampson & Beulah; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Martha D.

77008, Comments, Demolitions, Houston Heights, Museums, Quicklink

08/21/18 5:15pm

All Tables Have Been Set Inside Southern Goods’ Abandoned Dining Room, Where There’s Still Nothing To Eat

Houston Heights, Restaurants

2 Comments

No one’s dined at Southern Goods since it caught on fire 10 months ago, but they could now if only they managed to get inside. A look through its storefront window on W. 19th St. reveals the entire dining room has been set for service, right down to the folded napkins.

Bar seating appears done up as well, with a row of wine glasses running across the countertop at the far end of the space:

77008, Houston Heights, Restaurants

08/16/18 12:15pm

Shady Acres Goddard School Is Graduating to the Other Side of Durham Dr.

New Construction, Schools, Shady Acres

No Comments

A Swamplot reader sends a few drive-by snapshots of construction on the Goddard School’s campus expansion, now going up along both sides of W. 23rd St west of Durham. The photo at top shows the 2-story steel framing now rising on the north side of the street, while the one above shows the portion of the preschool that’s going up opposite it, just east of Wright-Bembry Park.

Blue fencing now separates the green space from the south construction site: