Though that fuzzy border on this rendering suggest this is a gated community you’d see only in your dreams — or maybe in one of its namesake’s illustrated field guides — it appears that Audubon Hollow in Briar Hollow is already under construction. Plans describe 22 3-story houses, designed by Houston’s Butler Brothers, built on 3 acres on Briar Hollow Ln., tucked in that area bound by the Loop, Buffalo Bayou and Memorial Park, and San Felipe, west of River Oaks.
The gate is not depicted in this rendering, but Pelican Builders and Martha Turner Properties are saying that there will be one around the 18-home ’hood they are developing just east of the Loop in the not-really-in-River-Oaks River Oaks District. Named for the lane they will sit on, these 3-bedroom Bancroft Place houses are going for $1.3 million. They’ll sit near the 16-story Highland Condo Tower and south of San Felipe, where Liberty Kitchen is replacing Vida Sexy Tex-Mex and that 5-story apartment complex is going up on E. Briar Hollow Ln. If you want to buy in, you’ll have your choice among 3 floor plans:
Looks like there’s a replacement for the former Vida Sexy Tex-Mex: A reader sends in this photo showing the new vinyl sign from Liberty Kitchen & Oysterette at 4224 San Felipe St. That’s the St. Regis Hotel in the background — and a photo taken here a few months from now might also show in the background that 317-unit apartment complex and parking garage that Mill Creek Residential is building nearby on E. Briar Hollow Ln., where another Swamplot reader heard that the restaurant would be located. A Facebook post in late April from Liberty Kitchen says it hopes to open in “early [s]ummer.”
Photo: Lisa Garvin via Swamplot inbox
Even more apartments are going up inside the Loop: This development from Mill Creek Residential is underway behind the St. Regis Hotel on San Felipe and E. Briar Hollow Ln. The complex, south of Memorial Park, appears to provide residents a view of that Welcome W. Wilson, Sr. beautification strip there along the Union Pacific railroad tracks. Developer Jeb Cox says that there will be 317 units and a parking garage, the construction of which began in August.
A project to improve a 2.9-mile stretch of the Southwest Fwy. feeder road between South Shepherd Dr. and Newcastle St. could get started as early as May 1, a rep from TxDOT says. And the Upper Kirby Management District contributed some funds to the $19 million project, which might give you an idea about what to expect.
Here’s more from the reader who a week ago predicted the demise of the recently sold “very well-made” 1955 apartment building at 4724 Oakshire Dr., shown here under the glimmering purview of the Williams Tower: ”Well, now the latest rumor is that the new owners are not going to demo it (at least not right away) and tenants will have the option to do month-to-month renting with them (haven’t seen anything in writing yet, but the month-to-month thing doesn’t sound like they intend to keep the current complex in the long-term . . . .” Calls to the agent for more information haven’t been returned. [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot] Photos: Gary Greene
Here’s a prediction from a reader about the fate of these apartments just inside the Loop at 4724 Oakshire Dr.: “It looks like another older apt. complex in/near Afton Oaks will probably soon be no more. At least, the building is being sold and all the residents just got a 45 day notice to move out (I don’t know for sure they’re tearing it down, but the odds are it will be). It’s a pity, because it’s a very well-made building (and, from what I’ve seen of some of the construction going up in the area, that’s not the case for a lot of the newer buildings).”
This white box, covering up the emergency exit of a vacated belly-dancing studio, will be the new entrance of Houston’s first indoor rowing facility, says founder Greg Scheinman. In West University Place, ROW Studios is building out the former Sirrom Dance behind the Randall’s in Weslayan Plaza and resurfacing the parking lot facing Academy St.
The shell shown here was about as high as High Street got before the ambitious mixed-use development was scrapped in 2008. In 2011, the property was sold and the project downsized by Dinerstein and given a timeless, compensatory new name: Millennium High Street. Yesterday, reports the Houston Business Journal, the redevelopment at 4410 Westheimer announced a new tenant: Season 52, a low-calorie restaurant with 2 other Texas locations, will open sometime this April. Besides the restaurant, reports Olivia Pulsinelli, Millennium High Street is expected to include 15,000 square feet of retail and 336 apartments. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
Just shy of a Norman castle, this 2007 chateau with Scheherazade-swagged interior occupies a corner lot of, fittingly, Newcastle Dr., on a spit of Afton Oaks lying south of Richmond Ave. The 2-plus story property rises regally (top) above the rooftops of neighboring one-story fifties-era ranch-style homes. The fairy-tale festooning (above) found within several rooms provides a voluminous, unifying motif — and also helps screen the presence of the Southwest Fwy. sound barrier located just beyond a live oak canopy and cross street. Re-listed mid-month after a brief breather early in the year, the home has otherwise been on the market since the end of 2010, with an asking price stuck at $1,190,000.
A source close to Blanco’s ownership tells Swamplot that by November the West Alabama bar and grill will close. Meanwhile, Blanco’s will be scouting for a new location, the source says, “somewhere in the area.” Swamplot reported in January that St. John’s School was buying 13 acres of property in River Oaks that include 3406 West Alabama St., where the incongruous honky-tonk and its dusty parking lot — owned for decades by Barry E. DeBakey, the heart surgeon’s son who died in 2007 of liver failure — have been for 30 years.
The last we heard the River Oaks District was providing “move out concierges” to help Westcreek Apartment residents get off the property west of Highland Village where the upscale mixed-use cluster is going; now it appears that something’s moving in, the Houston Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff reports: Florida-based iPic has signed a lease to build a 560-seat octoplex. It might not end up looking like the rendering shown here, but it will be called “Escape,” reports Sarnoff, and it will allow moviegoers to pick — get it? — among escalators, self-serve ticket kiosks, beers on tap, recliners, and pillows and blankets. [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Oliver McMillan
There sure has been a lot of activity in the past few months here in Highland Village: the former Tootsie’s building is having a little taken off the top and being split in two for new J. Crew and Anthropologie stores coming this spring, though these recent photos of the building at 4045 Westheimer suggest that Anthropologie — or at least that mauve and understated storefront — is further along. But then J. Crew has farther to go: Anthropologie’s moving only across the street from its 4066 Westheimer store (shown at right).
