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Pedestrian scribe John Lomax and Marfa City Council candidate David Beebe have, by this time, earned the right to make a few sweeping statements about various Houston neighborhoods. And Lomax exercises that right in his chronicle of the pair’s latest adventure on foot, along Richmond Avenue from Mission Bend to Midtown:
. . . the epicenter of H-Town cheese is the corner of Fountainview and Richmond. A four-story, day-glo, red, white, turquoise, and tan building looms over the southeastern corner there, and it houses a Sprint shop, a little downstairs bar with the godawful name Identity, a scalper’s office, a massage therapist, and a huge Darque Tan outlet.
Sure, Westheimer’s got some cheese, and is a little tattered around the edges in spots, but there’s a veneer of gentility as expressed by old-line businesses like Christie’s Seafood. Richmond, by contrast, used to have that sub-Landry’s fried seafood emporium King Fish Market, which despite the incessant awful commercials that polluted local airwaves circa 1999, is now out of business and practically in ruins. The whole lot of it is a great vat of rancid Velveeta.
As is much of the Richmond Strip. That giant sax outside of Billy Blues is looking more and more like the torch sticking out of the sand at the end of Planet of the Apes.
After the jump: how’s the nightlife?
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Read more about: 77027, 77042, 77056, 77057, 77063, 77082, Afton Oaks, Nightlife, Pedestrians, Richmond Ave., Richmond Strip, Streets, Tours
From Ziegler Cooper Architects’ website: Renderings of a 20-story office tower the firm designed back in the early 1990s.
As we reported in February, the Novati Group plans to build the 500,000-square-foot spec tower, along with an 8-level parking garage, at 1600 West Loop South — next to Post Oak Motor Cars, on land purchased from Landry’s. The only changes from the original design will be adjustments so the building can qualify for LEED Silver certification.
So what if the design is old? Worrying that your brand new building already looks dated is so . . . last decade!
After the jump: the marble in the lobby will be old, too!
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Read more about: 77027, Development Strategy, Galleria, Green Design, Highrises, Houston Architects, New Construction, Office Buildings, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Uptown
The State Grille, the restaurant at the corner of Weslayan and W. Alabama, will be shutting down a little earlier than expected. Cleverley’s Blog and Jennifer Dawson of the Houston Business Journal report that the restaurant will serve its last meal on May 31st.
Restaurant owners Frankie Mandola and Joe Butera sold the property to Giorgio Borlenghi’s Interfin Cos. in October 2006. The HBJ reported at the time that the restaurant had a lease agreement lasting until the end of 2008. Whatever happened to those last 6 months, Mandola doesn’t sound too happy about it now:
Mandola says he asked “a bunch of times,” but Interfin would not extend the State Grille lease scheduled to expire in July.
Interfin won’t say what the company’s plans for the property are, but . . .
According to Mandola, Interfin plans to tear down the building as soon as the restaurant clears out and construct a 27-story building of an undetermined type.
After the jump: There’s more to the property!
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Read more about: 77027, Highland Village, Highrises, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants
March 11, 2008 – 11:21 am
The square footages appear to have adjusted a bit since our last report, but Trademark Properties says it has its financing, and that High Street is a go. From a report in Globe St.:
The Fort Worth-based Trademark Property Co. and Coventry [Real Estate Advisors Ltd. of New York City] are redeveloping a seven-acre site of the former Central Ford dealership at 4410 Westheimer Rd. In turn, the JV signed a partnership pact with Indianapolis-based Kosene & Kosene Development Co. for the residential component of High Street. The redevelopment will have 233 apartments atop 100,000 sf of retail and 80,000 sf of office in a separate structure. The foundation’s been poured for the office building, with residential and retail to go vertical in 60 to 90 days.
After the jump, another pretty picture!
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Read more about: 77027, Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Financing, Highland Village, Mixed Use, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, Westheimer
From our email: Photographic confirmation that the 90-ft.-tall billboard in the front yard of the house at 4743 Banning has indeed been removed.
After the jump, the billboard that Afton Oaks ate!
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Read more about: 77027, Afton Oaks, Billboards, Lawn Care, Neighborhood Disputes, Retail, Signs
Didja know that the new Costco going up on the former site of the HISD headquarters building at the corner of Richmond and Weslayan . . . is gonna have its very own gas station right out front?
Costco liked the idea of coming inside the Loop so much . . . it decided to bring all its friends! The city just issued a building permit for the new Costco Fuel station. But that’s just the latest addition to Greenway Commons, which is turning out to be quite a mix: A 45,420-sq.-ft. LA Fitness is going above the Costco, next to a 4-story parking garage which is connected to a 2-story retail strip center. It’ll all be protected from the busy surrounding streets by more than 500 surface parking spaces and 2 corner pad sites slated for “banks.” In back: a 550-unit Morgan Group luxury apartment complex . . . with two more separate garages!
After the jump, more drawings and plans of this surprising development.
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Read more about: 77027, Apartments, Big Box Stores, Commercial Real Estate, Greenway-Plaza, Mixed Use, New Construction, Parking, Parking-Garages, Proposed Developments, Retail, Richmond-Avenue, Shopping Centers, Sprawl, Strip Centers
No photo this time — just imagine a 90-ft.-tall billboard . . . that isn’t there!
That’s right: The billboard placed in the front yard of the house at 4743 Banning St. near the West Loop has apparently been removed. Says our tipster:
I drove by the Afton Oaks billboard house yesterday and the billboard is now GONE!!! I wonder what happened? Maybe the guy who told me they were making the billboard larger was just pulling my chain?
Read more about: 77027, Afton Oaks, Billboards, Neighborhood Disputes, Signs
February 26, 2008 – 4:31 pm
According to a report by Jennifer Dawson in the Houston Business Journal,, the first new spec office building built in the Galleria area in more than 25 years will be . . . a 20-story tower that was designed 15 years ago!
In the early 1990s, [Novati Group CEO Ken] Moczulski ran Transworld Properties, a developer of office, industrial and multifamily properties. Transworld owned the land at 1600 West Loop South at that time, and commissioned Ziegler Cooper Architects to design an office for the site.
“We had planned a building,” recalls Moczulski. “It was all designed.”
The economy turned south, he says, so the facility did not get built. . . .
Last year, Novati co-founders Moczulski and Fernando De León start looking in the Galleria area for an office development site. Moczulski approached Landry’s about buying the West Loop land because, as in the 1990s, he still thinks the location and high visibility make it a good site for an office building.
To top it off, Novati is saving months of development time by dusting off the original plans from Ziegler Cooper. The only design changes needed are those to make the 475,000-square-foot structure eligible for certification as a green building.
Hey, maybe it’s one of those towers that kinda looks like a tall glass cylinder is bulging out from the center? That was a hot nineties look, wasn’t it?
Read more about: 77027, Development Strategy, Galleria, Green Design, Highrises, Houston Architects, New Construction, Office Buildings, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Uptown
February 25, 2008 – 12:51 pm
When last we left the house at 4743 Banning Dr., a giant billboard had been planted in the front yard and the enterprising owners had successfully converted the front porch into a driveway. In this installment, our correspondent gleefully returns to the scene and finds even more exciting transformations, plus hints of a lot more fun in store for Afton Oaks. Here’s the report:
OH BOY!!!! Do I have some scoop for you.
So I went by the house on Banning and it has been swallowed up like a snake eats a rat. . . . It’s been completely usurped by Sign-A-Rama…now looks like one structure.
After the jump: it’s not just one billboard . . . there’s so much more!
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Read more about: 77027, Afton Oaks, Billboards, Neighborhood Disputes, Retail, Signs
February 15, 2008 – 11:01 pm
What should replace the disappearing ranch moderns of Afton Oaks? Faux French chateaux? Towering Tuscan Villas? Martha Stewart Colonials? Storybook stucco townhouses? Tour this weekend’s open houses . . . then cast your vote!
Location: 3121 Newcastle St.
Details: 4-5 bedrooms, 4 full & 2 half baths; 6,500 sq. ft.
Price: $2,692,500
The Scoop: Preston Wood home won’t be complete for at least two months, but already “beautifully reminiscent of Loire Valley chateaux.” Lots of old-European-house parts tacked on.
Open House: Sunday, 2-4 pm
Like this one? Well, there’s more!
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Read more about: 77027, Afton Oaks, Open Houses
February 4, 2008 – 4:38 pm
With their Afton Oaks neighbors up in arms over their enterprising 90-foot-tall front-yard billboard, the owners of the home at the corner of Banning and Vossdale have apparently decided there won’t be much need to hang out on the front porch anymore. A Swamplot reader drove by the site Friday and sends in photos and comments:
Yes, the driveway is now where the front porch once was. Also, every shade on the house was drawn. I wonder if they have gotten threats from this? Oh wait, this is Afton Oaks. Of course they have.
The reader, who asked to be called “Buildergeek,” also reports on the yard improvements described in the Afton Oaks eNews:
As for landscaping, if you call not mowing a tuft of grass and leaving a mud track where your old sidewalk used to be landscaping, they did a really good job.
Below the fold: Buildergeek’s view from the front.
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Read more about: 77027, Afton Oaks, Billboards, Neighborhood Disputes, Signs
February 1, 2008 – 8:20 am
Yes, that’s a mighty big sign in the front yard of the house at 4743 Banning Dr. in Afton Oaks. And it’s not listing the house for sale.
A reader sends in photos and says they’re from a couple of months back. He adds, “What good is having a home at the edge of the West Loop if you can’t put up a 90 foot tall billboard in your front yard?”
Remember that hiccup in the city’s sign ordinance, back in October? Well, look how resourceful some people are! The Afton Oaks January eNews reports that the billboard is still there, but that there’s now . . . landscaping around the base!
Court date: postponed until the second week of February. After the jump: a few more pics from our tardy tipster.
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Read more about: 77027, Afton Oaks, Billboards, Neighborhood Disputes, Signs
January 21, 2008 – 4:39 pm
What are all those pigeons doing in the parking lot by the original Ragin Cajun restaurant? Tech radio answerman Jay Lee discovers the secret of their survival — plus an interesting detail about a neighboring property — during his encounter with a man who’s spent more than 22 years working at Jarinee’s Dressmaking & Alterations shop, just a few doors down (at 4404 Richmond):
He’s been feeding the pigeons for 10 years.
He expressed some sadness as he told me the property had recently been sold to developers and he worried about the fate of his “friends.” Vichien told me how he tried to watch over the pigeons and how much money he’s spent on feed over the years.
As we talked I saw a Red-tail Hawk circling above the parking lot. Vichien clapped his hands and the birds all flew into the sky. This caused the hawk to retreat a bit, but he stayed close. Vichien confided that he’s lost to the hawk on many occasions.
After we were done chatting he went to his truck and pulled out a bag of bird seed and began to pour it onto the pavement. That was a sight to see…
After the jump: That sight!
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Read more about: 77027, Afton Oaks, Openings and Closings, Urban Wildlife
January 17, 2008 – 5:52 pm
With new bold, rich watercolor renderings now posted to its website, OliverMcMillan shows its mixed-use proposal for Westheimer is serious. The River Oaks District won’t be in River Oaks exactly, but it would mark a serious upgrade for this portion of Westheimer just inside the Loop, on a portion of the site of the Westcreek Apartments.
What’s planned here: 300,000 square feet of retail space, 300 fancy apartments, 250,000 square feet of office space, plus two hotels — rumored to be a W and a Le Meridien. The W Hotel will house 150 condos on its top floors.
After the jump: those shiny watercolors, plus plans and an aerial view!
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Read more about: 77027, Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Mixed Use, New Construction, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Retail, River Oaks, Shopping Centers, Westheimer
December 11, 2007 – 10:15 am
Swamplot’s many readers eager to return to Houston-area Fig. Medical Body Shaping clinics for continuing fat-reducing injections will be saddened to learn that the national chain has abruptly shut down and discontinued all operations. A note on the fig.com website indicates the company will likely be seeking bankruptcy protection.
There are three local Fig. clinics: in Sugar Land at 59 and Highway 6, next to Panera Bread; next to Jamba Juice at the Summit Plaza by Lakewood Church; and at the Portofino Shopping Center across I-45 from the Woodlands. (Yes, that’s the same Portofino Shopping Center that was home to the statue-genitalia controversy a few years back — which was ultimately solved with . . . a fig leaf.) All three Houston-area Fig. locations had been open only since April.
Okay, whose inside joke was it to locate all three fat-reduction clinics in shopping centers on feeder roads?
What happened to Fig. that would cause it to shut down so suddenly? (Reader caution: suggestive uh . . . medical detail below.)
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Read more about: 77027, 77385, 77479, Feeder Roads, Galleria, Liposuction, Medical Clinics, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers, Sugar-Land, The Woodlands
November 8, 2007 – 1:49 pm
Trademark Property has released this new image of its High Street development, slated for the site of the demolished Central Ford dealership at 4410 Westheimer, just west of Highland Village. So . . . is it really gonna happen?
The project had been on hold. It’s now described as “a 6-acre, pedestrian-oriented urban village featuring 93,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space combined with Class A offices and urban residences.” The Fort Worth developer — who also developed Market Street in the Woodlands — had planned to break ground this past spring. Instead, the company has leased part of the site to the sales trailer for the Highland Tower, and politely thrown a picture of that condo building into the background of the new drawing as well.
Don’t confuse High Street with the River Oaks District, a similar but larger project planned for next door.
Continue reading for a site plan and lots more images!
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Read more about: 77027, Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Highland Village, Mixed Use, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, Westheimer
