04/11/17 11:00am

1410 W. Mt. Houston Rd., Charleston Gardens, Houston, 77038

The current pallor of the departed Whataburger #292 (on Mt. Houston Rd. between the Veterans Memorial Dr. Fiesta shopping center and the Templo Aposento Alto) offers a stark, ethereal contrast the structure’s previous traditional getup of What-a-Orange stripes. The restaurant has stood in the spot since the early eighties, surrounded by a heavy salting of auto garages and related businesses; it appears to have been operational through at least November of last year before blanking out. Will the peaked bones of the fast food joint be reanimated to new purpose? Or is the new coat of whitewash merely a shroud, applied before the building is allowed to rest in pieces at last?

Photos: Swamplot inbox

Late Fast Food on W. Mt. Houston
06/30/16 12:30pm

Beltway Crossing Northwest Construction Progress, April 2016 Beltway Crossing Northwest Access Map ExcerptMost of the square box just left of center in the above photo was officially leased by Amazon yesterday, reports Cara Smith for the HBJ. The deal is for roughly 100,000 sq.ft. in the Beltway Crossing Northwest business park, located on the other side of 249, Greens Bayou, and an AMC Theater from Willowbrook Mall (as seen in the access map and intended eventual site plan from developer Panattoni). The agreement on the park’s Buildnig 5 was reportedly made official within 24 hours of the commissioners court’s Tuesday vote to approve a larger-than-normal tax abatement deal for a different Amazon facility — the proposed 855,000-sq.-ft. warehouse in Pinto Business Park (catty-corner across Beltway 8 and I-45 from Greenspoint Mall). But building permits naming Amazon as the occupant of the Willowbrook site at 11720 N. Gessner Rd. date back to at least 2014.

Here’s a shot of the Pinto site — the park’s 971 acres lie in place next to the Houston National Cemetery (the yet-unoccupied eastern end of which is visible on the far right in the south-facing aerial below):

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09/11/09 11:49pm

Did we really need that extra day to come up with a winner? Well, not exactly. Your extra-day guesses for this week’s game weren’t much closer. But let’s work with what we’ve got!

First, here’s where you thought this week’s mystery homestead might have been: Champion Forest, the Northgate Country Club area, Old Town Humble, Minnetex, Jersey Village (2 guesses), “off south Gessner near Bellaire,” “on the east side of town south of Highway 90 just outside the Beltway,” “a barely incorporated area of Humble,” the FM 1960 corridor, Stafford, Zip Code 77024, Atlanta, Kingwood, Spring Branch (2), Spring Shadows, Eastwood, “east of Downtown,” Midtown, South Houston, near Fuqua, “between 290 and 45, 610 and Little York,” Friendswood (2), Mission Bend, Timbergrove Manor, “the Heights/near North Side around Airline,” Heritage Park in League City, Pearland, Southwyck in Pearland, Ponderosa Forest, Olde Oaks, Memorial Northwest, Dickinson, League City, Santa Fe, “off Stella Link,” “the swath between 45 North and 59 North, within train horn distance of the Hardy Toll Rd.,” Aldine Bender, Aldine Mail Rd., “off Post Oak South, east of the Meyerland area and south of 610,” “all of the areas not chosen between Katy, Highway 90, Ft. Bend Tollway/Beltway 8, and I-10,” “the Crosby/Highlands area,” the Energy Corridor, Thornwood, LaPorte, Seabrook, “from 225 to the Kemah bridge on the bay side of 146,” Shoreacres near the Houston Yacht club, “an unincorporated semi-rural subdivision in the wild woods of Metro Conroe,” Atascocita, Brazosport, Fondren Southwest, “Lakewood/Grant and Jones/Eldridge area,” Santa Fe, the Bear Creek area, Baytown, Bellaire, West Columbia, Spring, Tomball, Magnolia, Galveston, Cypresswood, Enchanted Oaks, outside Alvin, Tiki Island, San Leon, Lake Jackson, the Houston Ship Channel, “off 59 near Lake Houston,” and Sugar Land.

That’s a lot of running around town!

The winner of this week’s (and, in fact, last week’s) prize — the new HIWI: Ike book, the original HIWI book, and that “Hunkered Down” stencil kit from Houston. It’s Worth It. — is marmer, for this:

What a strange place! I agree it looks like a manufactured home, but it’s just too big and there are too many details in the bedrooms to really convince me. I agree it’s quasi-industrial, too. Has anyone guessed the sketchier part of the Heights/near North Side? Kind of around Airline?

Not exactly a correct guess. But can we focus in on just those last two words — and ignore the rest . . . ?

Congratulations, marmer!

Our two runners-up are Jessica1 — who wisely chose to stretch an earlier guess north of Little York, but veered too far west to Jersey Village — and Harold Mandell, who set up camp on the wrong side of I-45.

Let’s take a look at this place, shall we?

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04/24/09 10:22am

CLOSING THE GREATER GREENSPOINT SPRAWL GAP That 1,000-acre undeveloped green space south of Beltway 8 and just west of I-45 North will soon become Houston’s largest office/warehouse distribution business park: “The marketing package announces sites for sale within the business park ranging from five to 300 acres in size. A site plan indicates that Ella Boulevard, Greens Crossing Boulevard and Fallbrook Drive will be extended through the property. . . . Pinto Realty’s business park is comprised of 500 acres that have been owned by the Cockrell family for some 50 years, [Greater Greenspoint Management District president Jack] Drake says. The other 500 acres were used as a tree farm for many years before the Cockrells acquired that portion of the land from ExxonMobil Corp.” A unit of Sysco is completing a 585,000-square-foot distribution center on 50 adjacent acres the company purchased from the Cockrells 2 years ago. [Houston Business Journal]