A HELIPORT LANDS IN SPRING BRANCH EAST 
A Swamplot reader is wondering what the story is behind a new helipad that’s landed on the almost-12-acre former industrial site at the northwest corner of the intersection of N. Post Oak Rd. and Westview Dr.: “About a month or more ago they cleared all the brush. A couple of weeks ago they took out the crappy wire fencing. Then they put up a nice tall wooden fence around about half the property. Last week, a helicopter showed up! Google Earth shows the nice new helicopter landing pad, along with a support building. The last thing I expected in Spring Branch was a heliport!” County property records show the lot at 1495 N. Post Oak Rd. was purchased in April of last year by an entity called NPO 1495 LP. A new driveway blocked by a keypad-operated gate now extends off of N. Post Oak and leads to the pad, in the northwest corner of the site, our copter-spotter continues, and adds: “It’s damned weird.” Photo: Swamplot inbox
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Tag: 77055
Spaces are configured in unusual ways in this 1992 contemporary home in Spring Branch’s Shady Villa Annex neighborhood, located south of Westview and east of Antoine near Spring Valley. The home’s deep setback on a double lot, for example, puts outdoor amenities like a pool and grotto on the side and gives the stone-and-steel exterior’s towering stairwell a twist of wood-and-glass finishes.
Twists and Turns
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE BOOM IN SPRING BRANCH 
“This part of Spring Branch has seen the median listing price go up from ~$150k to ~$250k over the past two years. Listings all over SB get multiple cash offers on the first day; a $400k listing will get bid up well into half-mil territory by week’s end. If this ball keeps rolling, we could start to see the first teardowns north of Long Point before the end of the year. Decision, decisions . . . best to buy now, or sit tight and wait for the pop?” [Rodrigo, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Auto Air] Illustration: Lulu
- 2038 Marnel Rd. [HAR]
Spring Branch Creek runs past the ravine lot of this updated 1978 Pine Creek Village home in Hilshire Village. The property tested the market waters with a listing in October 2013, but withdrew it within a month. When relisted earlier this week, the tidy contemporary on a cul-de-sac kept its previous asking price: $745,000. The home’s varied roofline translates into various ceiling heights and treatments. In the living room, for example, exposed beams in the half-vault (top) lead the eye to the wood-burning fieldstone fireplace and views out several sliding glass doors overlooking the back deck. And somewhere beyond the treetops lies the water, though it’s a vista curiously absent from the listing.
Where’s the Water?
Over in Brighton Place, an earthbound 1978 home with minimalist brickwork and window detailing is finishing out the year with a freshly painted multi-surfaced interior. Its floor plan adds some extra roomage. The property’s listing earlier this week carries a $669,900 asking price.
Ceiling Light
It’s not exactly over the rainbow, but a tinted-window office over the garage of a 1959 property in Silber Terrace does catch a groovy UV glow. The ranch-style home morphed at some point into a live-work spread on an oversized, unrestricted lot fronting Antoine Dr.’s southbound lane north of I-10. Beyond the back yard’s treeline, Woodlawn Cemetery extends westward views. This mid-November listing comes with a $775,000 asking price.
With Cemetery View
- 1109 Ridgeley Dr. [HAR]
A NEW MIXTURE OF USES FOR THE OLD SPRING BRANCH MED CENTER 
The proud new owners of the 300,000-sq.-ft. Spring Branch Medical Center say they plan to flip the 18-acre property on Long Point Rd. into a residential and retail development. Investor Bruce Phillips tells the Houston Chronicle that the old medical buildings, most of which were built in the ’80s, might not have to come down to make the change happen and could be repurposed. The purchase was led by BlackSwan, which is also developing with Stream Realty that 25-story office tower near Washington on Waugh and Barnes. [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot] Photo: MAM Jobs Network
- 7826 Wedgewood Ln. [HAR]
- 7819 Bryonwood Dr. [HAR]
The deeply set lot of a porchified plantation-ish spread in Ridgeley Place lends a Southern — or maybe just South Fork — feel to this 6-year-old home in Hilshire Village. The south-facing Acadian-style structure also features plenty of pull-up-a-chair gathering spots inside.
- 1536 Jacquelyn Dr. [HAR]
The rather restrained and carefully appointed front lawn of this 1980 brick-box home makes the barely tamed nature center installed on its back lot an unexpected twist. A series of wooden decks, patios, terraces, garden follies, and walkways meander through the half-acre ravine property like a theme park’s winding queue, peppered with distracting greenery. The outdoor ensemble overlooks Spring Branch Creek, beyond which a detention pond and the Katy Freeway feeder road lie:
