- 7502 Satsuma St. [HAR]
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Tag: 77023
Those of you waiting with bated breath for the renovation, redevelopment, or removal of the 1950s-era office building at 3400 Montrose Blvd. (across Hawthorne St. from the Montrose Kroger): keep on bating. The company that bought the vacant 10-story building last September has told its 500 Israeli investors that its operations in Israel and Houston are both “in dire financial straits,” according to a report in Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
- 4308 Clay St. [HAR]
EAST END ALCOHOL REPORT A reader from the Country Club Place-Idylwood area checks in with rumors, some news, and questions: “A neighbor who does not do computers had a co-worker tell him that there is to be a ‘Latino topless bar’ open soon near Idylwood. For the life of me, I cannot see where he’s talking about. Of course, the definition of ‘near Idylwood’ is the variable. How can I find out where it will be and if this is true? Are alcohol permits available online? The old Helena Motel property on Wayside at 45 is being developed slowly and right now, a Chick fil A is being built next to the relatively new Taco Cabana. I can’t really see an adult entertainment place going in near that location although that block with the corner is prime for a strip shopping center. Demolition of the old Oshman’s property for Walmart is progressing quickly. Last I heard there was still some question as to whether or not this Walmart would sell beer & wine. The back side of the property is too close to the AAMA School on Maxwell. I imagine a lot of people will be unhappy if they can’t do one stop shopping there. Can you offer some suggestions as to where to begin my sleuthing on the topless bar?” [Swamplot inbox]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE TEARDOWN CHASE “Nice house. I remember back in the mid 80′s when places like that were available in West U for about the same price. My wife and I would see an ad for one in the paper, go rushing down to West U to look at it and find a bare patch of brown earth where the house stood a few days prior. We never could get to a house before the builders.” [Bubba, commenting on Bus or Bike Now, Ride Rail Later from Eastwood-Area Bungalow]
Poke along Polk St. in the Woodleigh area of “Greater Eastwood” to find this vintage brick bungalow. Since it’s next to an auto repair service, the home acts as a bookend shoring up one end of a mostly residential block. A convenience store caps the other end; a shopping center is in the next block.
The listing’s location close to Cullen Blvd. means both current and future public transportation options. Metro buses, for example, stop nearby and Polk St. itself has a bike lane. Meanwhile, Metro Rail has 3 stations pending in the area, though each might turn out to be a bit of a hike from the home. It’s about three quarters of a mile to the future Green Line’s York and Lockwood/Eastwood stations. The Purple Line’s Leeland/Third Ward stop is going up just over a half-mile away.
The house boasts classic features of 1929 domicile design: porches, wooden trim, interior archways. Listed earlier this month at $124,900, the property is offered “as is.” Here’s what — at least as the photos show it — that means:
“A couple things still remain up in the air,” about the new Walmart going in just south of Idylwood, reports East End blogger Lauren H. from that neighborhood’s front lines: “Like whether they are going to hire security or whether they are going to be able to sell alcohol.” After recent plan changes, the neighborhood’s southern border will end up with a buffer of at least 61 ft. from the big-box store’s parking lot. The store has grown, too: an additional 35,000 sq. ft. from a reduction announced early last year, made easier after the company bought the property directly on the corner of Wayside and the Gulf Fwy. feeder. It’ll end up at approximately 185,000 sq. ft., according to the recent plans she’s posted on her site. The corner purchase makes possible a second entrance from the feeder road, and resulted in a shift of the store’s garden and auto center to its Idylwood side:
And which way to the house of chads? Newly christened in Eastwood: the Brohaus. A reader who guesses the sign might mark an unofficial frat house or “architecture student commune” from nearby UH reports the letters went up recently on this structure on Polk St. near Weaver.
Photos: Swamplot inbox
Eastwood’s original Rufus Cage Elementary School would become a landmarked “community facility” under a plan announced today by Mayor Parker. The 1910 2-story brick schoolhouse at the intersection of Telephone Rd. and Baird St. last served as a schoolhouse in 1983; under Parker’s plan, the city would buy the building for $100,000 in credit from HISD, which the school district could use to acquire a city property or right-of-way to be named later. HISD’s trustees approved the sale earlier this month, but city council will have to vote on the plan too. After taking ownership, Parker says, the city would pursue a landmark designation for the property and “work with the neighborhood to seek proposals for conversion of the building to another use.” The schoolhouse, a small auditorium, and a warehouse sit on a triangular 28,700-sq.-ft. lot.
- Mayor Annise Parker Announces Plan to Preserve Historic Rufus Cage Elementary School [Mayor’s Office]
- Previously on Swamplot: HISD Looking for Cage Match in Eastwood
Photo: Candace Garcia
Just reduced a smidge: This 2-story four-squarish renovated 1914 home in Eastwood, just southwest of Eastwood Park. A few blocks north at Harrisburg and Lockwood, a light-rail station for Metro’s new East End line is supposed to open sometime around the home’s 100th-birthday mark. A porch wraps around the house, behind a front fence and driveway gate. And inside — a careful photographer has made sure you’ll notice — you’ll find lots of well-saturated colors.
Cities throughout Texas are slowing down the process of knocking down dangerous structures because of fears that angry owners might come back to bite them — even after their buildings have been demolished. By a 5-4 vote, the Texas Supreme Court last month struck a blow for the property rights of rotting, undead buildings throughout the state, giving their owners the right to sue in court for compensation even if a hearing before a city administrative board has already declared a condemned structure a hazard to public safety. If it isn’t overturned in a rehearing, the decision will likely force Texas cities to pick their demolition battles more carefully, and possibly get courts involved in what has traditionally been something handled by city departments.
What’s happening with the old Rufus Cage Elementary School on Telephone Rd., just north of Lawndale? Some roof repairs, and . . . a possible sale? “Now we actually have some people that have interest in the property, but our concern is that the interest is in the land, not necessarily in the building,” HISD trustee Juliet Stipeche tells abc13’s Cynthia Cisneros. The Eastwood school, built in 1910, closed in the mid-1980s and is currently used as a storage facility by the school district. An organization called the Rufus Cage Educational Alliance is trying to find a public use for the building and its 1.021-acre site. A deal the school district had negotiated to sell Cage to Historic Houston fell through long before the nonprofit’s recent financial difficulties. Nine other school properties are listed for sale on the HISD real estate website.
- East End residents try to save old Cage Elementary [abc13]
- Historic Rufus Cage Educational Alliance [Facebook]
Photo: Candace Garcia
The owner of 4 vacant apartment buildings and 4 carports just north of the future site of the Idylwood Walmart now has 9 days left to get a permit and tear them down — or the city will do it for him and send a bill. Zion Ohana bought the already somewhat-decrepit properties bordering Idylwood at 6634 Sylvan Rd. in January 2009, a few years after the previous owner — who had lived in one of the units — passed away. About 20 neighborhood residents and representatives of nearby businesses showed up to yesterday’s city hearing, but Ohana didn’t, and didn’t send anyone to speak for him. One Idylwood resident thinks that might be part of the reason the owner ended up with a $72,000 fine for leaving the structures in their current condition — $1,000 per day per structure for the 9 days since a notice was posted on the properties.
Don’t forget the 2 top considerations when liquidating property: Lactation, lactation.
- 1461 Scharpe St. [HAR]
CALLING OFF THE IDYLWOOD BEDBUG INVASION 
That great wave of bedbugs storming through the East End that Swamplot reported on last week? Probably didn’t happen, reports the neighborhood resident who first sounded the alarm. After a careful investigation that included the assistance of a local science teacher and microscope, Idylwood blogger Lauren H. now indicates that she believes the critters found in her living room were carpet beetles. “At least we don’t have blood sucking parasites. We just have little critters who love to eat fabric and wood and are equally hard to get rid of. I found the source of our problem today. It’s our maroon chair we inherited from Jason’s parents. They have been telling us to get rid of it for years.” [East End Escapades; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Lauren H.
