Tag: 77008

Houston Heights
06/09/10 11:15am

Heights Kroger: Okay, Now We’re Really Big

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Redevelopment, Renovations, Retail, Shopping Centers, Timbergrove Manor
77 Comments

It was only closed for a few evenings during construction, but the Merchants Park Kroger at 11th and North Shepherd in the Heights is marking today as its grand re-opening. Work on the project began 13 months ago. A new section of the store, which was expanded by 39,184 sq. ft., opened last October. Today, all the expansions and renovations on the 24-hour market are complete. Total tally: 88,988 sq. ft.

What’s new? A Starbucks with free wi-fi; a “Kitchen Place” featuring small appliances, cookware, and dinnerware; and the now-de-rigueur drive-thru pharmacy. Plus: an “open-air” seafood market, an order-on-the-computer deli kiosk, a “Cheese Shoppe” with more than 300 cheeses, and an Artisan Bread gallery that features store-made tortillas in your five favorite flavors: white, wheat, butter, salsa and cinnamon sugar.

There’s more:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Commercial Real Estate
05/28/10 11:10am

Swamplot Street Sleuths: On the Banks of Greenway

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Foreclosures, Greenway Plaza, Houston Heights, New Construction, Redevelopment
1 Comment

Got a question about something going on in your neighborhood you’d like Swamplot to answer? Sorry, we can’t help you. But if you ask real nice and include a photo or 2 with your request, maybe the Swamplot Street Sleuths can! Who are they? Other readers, just like you, ready to demonstrate their mad skillz in hunting down stuff like this:

Some fine sleuthing and rumor-mongering by Swamplot readers this week! Here’s what you dug up about the 2 properties in question:

  • Greenway Commons: That building going up at the corner of Richmond and Cummins is . . . an Iberia Bank! Just a little pad-site action for the sprawl-eriffic Costco Plus retail-and-parking-lot development that replaced the former HISD headquarters building a few years back. The most polite and knowledgeable-sounding response came from Amir, who added info about a nearby corner, for all you bank fans out there:

    The location currently going up on the CostCo pad site is an Iberia Bank ground lease. The property located at Richmond and Weslayan is owned by BBVA Compass, which operates the drive thru behind it and will eventually build a location there.

What about that Heights church building?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Comments
05/27/10 2:57pm

Comment of the Day: Pumping the Heights

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Houston Heights, Price Trends, Quicklink, Real Estate Investing, West University
26 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: PUMPING THE HEIGHTS “I grew up in West University in the 1980s and watched it change from a shabby lower middle class neighborhood to what it is today. I now live in the Heights, and the area is remarkably similar to the way West University was during my childhood. The similarities include everything from housing stock, neighborhood amenities, and eclectic mixture of residents. The location is also similar to West University, in that it is convenient to all of Houston’s major destinations. Mr Kelley’s prediction that the Heights will follow the same upward trend as West University is probably correct, and I think investing in the Heights is a wise move. As the Heights continues to improve, the demand to live in the area will continue to increase and real estate prices will reflect that. If I had more cash right now, I’d buy another house in the area and hold on to it.” [Obsolete, commenting on Comment of the Day: Priced Out of the Conversation]

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Buying and Selling
05/25/10 12:38pm

Comment of the Day: Priced Out of the Conversation

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Comments, Houston Heights, Price Trends, Quicklink, West University
44 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: PRICED OUT OF THE CONVERSATION “The fact that ‘many’ people think the Heights is overpriced is meaningless – if other people besides yourself think that home prices in the Heights are spot on and actually buy the homes, it doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks. For the record, the way you feel about the Heights is how I feel about West U. I think the neighborhood is completely overpriced and I would never pay the going rate for West U. But – clearly, many people disagree with me, as those houses continue to fetch what I consider to be ridiculous prices. I can argue as long as I want that West U is overpriced and I can take my money elsewhere, but all that means is that I’m clearly out of step with hundreds of people who feel differently.” [LT, commenting on Swamplot Price Adjuster: The Heights of 2-2ness]

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Greenway Plaza
05/25/10 10:30am

Swamplot Street Sleuths: Nestled ’Neath the Costco Oaks

by
Houston Heights, New Construction
11 Comments

Got an answer to any of these reader questions? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Here’s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.

  • Greenway Commons: What’s that going up at the corner of Cummins and Richmond, tucked “amongst the Costco Oaks?” asks a reader:

    I assumed it was a bank – there’s only one in that parking lot now which falls woefully short of standard Houston bank-to-block ratios. But the odd, football shaped structure in the background that they’re rigging appears to be for signage. Can’t find anything online.

  • The Heights: First Saturday Arts Market proprietor Mitch Cohen wants to know what the workers are up to at the Heights Christian Academy activities building on the corner of 17th St. and Ashland. Signage is down and something’s going on, he tweets:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Buying and Selling
05/24/10 4:16pm

Comment of the Day: Local Experts

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Comments, Homes for Sale, Houston Heights, Quicklink
No Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: LOCAL EXPERTS “Wow, these comments are amazing…quite obviously you aren’t the target audience for a renovated Heights bungalow. Not to sound like Jeff Foxworthy but if you don’t like subway tiles, craftsman style, small (to Houston) homes or high prices per square foot you aren’t a good person to guess on the price of a house in the Heights. Similarly I wouldn’t make a guess on a Katy home because I wouldn’t ever have the desire to live there. . . .” [Wannabe, commenting on Swamplot Price Adjuster: The Heights of 2-2ness]

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Homes for Sale
05/19/10 10:02am

Swamplot Price Adjuster: The Heights of 2-2ness

by
Houston Heights, Price Adjuster
49 Comments

The Swamplot Price Adjuster runs on your nominations! Found a property you think is poorly priced? Send an email to Swamplot, and be sure to include a link to the listing or photos. Tell us about the property, and explain why you think it deserves a price adjustment. Then tell us what you think a better price would be. Unless requested otherwise, all submissions to the Swamplot Price Adjuster will be kept anonymous.

Location: 1447 Oxford St., Houston Heights
Details: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths; 1,498 sq. ft. on a 6,600-sq.-ft. lot
Price: $421,500
History: On the market since the beginning of last December. Price cut $5K in mid-April.

How long could Swamplot readers go without some good old-fashioned price-sniping in the Heights? The latest submission for the Price Adjuster focuses on this little 1920 home on the corner of 15th St.:

There’s just so much a 2/2 can go for in the Heights. Also, it has no garage. The kitchen has been updated but it’s not a nice kitchen. Nice backyard for sure with trellis and a bit of storage, but at the end of the day, it’s still a 2/2.

Well, then . . . what price would sell this place?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Houston Heights
05/14/10 1:19pm

The Great Houston Heights Fast Food Slowdown

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Woodland Heights
7 Comments

“I have to say, I have always had luck with Asian food in some sort of repurposed fast food building,” declares The Heights Life blogger Viula. Surely everyone hopes her good fortune continues: A Heights Asian Cafe (or, as the banner puts it, Height Asian Cafe) will soon lay claim to the booty that is the vacant Long John Silvers building on Yale at 22nd St.

Likewise, Jenni’s Noodle House expects to open its 3rd location in the former Mrs. Baird’s Bread outlet at 602 E. 20th (at the corner of Oxford St.) in less than 8 weeks.

Ah, but there’s more than Asian food moving in. Viula has the rundown:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Comments
05/13/10 10:06pm

Comment of the Day: Those Friendly Neighbors with the Chickens

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Houston Heights, Neighborhood Disputes, Quicklink
No Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THOSE FRIENDLY NEIGHBORS WITH THE CHICKENS “. . . I feel obliged to disagree with the comparison between Lone Star [Poultry] and a train. We’ve never smelled chicken or been bothered by truck noise or anything. I heard from some old-timers that Lone Star used to be a problem but neighbors complained and it’s no longer an issue. Our interaction with Lone Star has been nothing but positive…one of the truck drivers had to make room for a load of chicken and gave us a whole sack of cabbage as we were walking by.” [Katie, commenting on Hangin’ with the Large and Lonely Homes of Bammel Lane Park]

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Homes for Sale
05/10/10 2:02pm

Coming Down from the Heights: How the Swamplot Price Adjuster Works

by
Houston Heights, Price Adjuster, Price Reductions
No Comments

Whatever happened to that little Swamplot Price Adjuster feature — you know, the one where readers report on a property for sale that appears to need some pricing correction, and suggest a better price for it? It’s still waiting for your smart submissions! In the meantime, here’s some evidence that it actually works:

Last November, when a reader nominated the 1920 house perched on an 8,200-sq.-ft. lot at the corner of 10th St. and Cortlandt in the Heights, a bunch of you wrote in to suggest that the list price was a bit steep. The nominator gave a target:

Asking $600,000 for this is a joke and I think it should be at the most $350,000.

By December, the price had been lowered to $450K. And then, by late March, the house was gone from MLS. What’s happened to it since?

You guessed it: A brand new listing appeared at the end of April, with a new set of photos and — what? Is it listed at $350,000 now?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Houston Heights
05/04/10 4:25pm

Hooray for the Smallest Freestanding Commercial Office Building in the Heights?

by
Office Buildings
10 Comments

A reader wants to nominate the tiny offices of Marine Offshore Electric Services, at 226 W. 18th St., just west of Yale, for . . . what?

It’s so cute! And really, this has got to be the smallest freestanding office structure in the Heights at least. What about a wider area? Bellaire, you got anything like this?

And what about retail? If someone will promise me there aren’t any old Fotomats or Fedex kiosks out there ready to trip me up, I’d like to nominate this place for smallest permanent freestanding non-foodservice commercial structure too. Is that category available?

  • About Us [Marine Offshore Electric Services]

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Bellaire
05/04/10 8:14am

Timbergrove Swing: Plenty of Pots, Pans, Parking Where SSQQ Is Headed

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Houston Heights, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Retail, Shady Acres, Shopping Centers, Timbergrove Manor
6 Comments



Come June, promise the owners of SSQQ, the popular social dance studio will reopen just to the west of Restaurant Depot, in the former Kmart beached on the asphalt shores at 20th St. and T.C. Jester near Timbergrove.

Last weekend, SSQQ shut down the Bellaire strip-center site it had occupied for 30 years. Why’d it up and leave? Doctors’ orders, reports the Bellaire Examiner‘s Steve Mark: First Street Hospital, which owns the center on Bissonnet just outside the Loop, is planning an expansion that would slice the center in half, knocking out SSQQ, Sweetwater Pool & Patio, and a Radio Shack. (Not all is lost, though: Charlie’s Hamburgers and that nail salon in the center at 4803 Bissonnet will get to stay.)

Besides easy access to restaurant supplies, what’s in store for students taking a swing at new Bachata and Whip moves at SSQQ’s new location?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Houston Heights
04/08/10 10:07am

Heights Welcome Wagon

by
Quicklink
6 Comments

HEIGHTS WELCOME WAGON Taryn Peine scopes out the new kids on the block: “We have two new neighbors. Not one, but TWO. As I fight my way through my terrible case of new person anxiety (What if they just start showing up all the time? What if they ask us to do things for them? What if they’re the borrowing type, and we never see our step stool, our weedeater or a full carton of eggs again?) in order to make my way over to introduce myself, I’ve been super-secretly scouting them out. Memorizing their routines. Doing an inventory of the stuff in their garages. Making note of the fact that they already had window coverings on the very day they moved in, instead of waiting two years like we did. You know. Just making sure they understand there is a creepy neighbor on our street, and that creepy neighbor is me. . . .” [A Peine for Your Thoughts]

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Comments
04/07/10 2:56pm

Comment of the Day: The Best Kind of Neighbor for Your Lawn

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Gardening, Houston Heights, Landscape, Quicklink, Trees
2 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE BEST KIND OF NEIGHBOR FOR YOUR LAWN “I live on a large lot in the heights with a couple of mature trees. I haven’t bagged one leaf, actually I have picked up lawn clippings and leaves from neighbors that have been set out, and put both into my compost. I’ve filled 2 5′x25′ raised beds with the compost in the last 2 years. I now have a 3 pile/annual rotation taking up a 4′x12′ area. I doubt I will ever run out of capacity for waste generated by my property. Sorry but this arguement about not enough space is not a logical one.” [SaintCyr, commenting on New Rules for Yard Waste]

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