Tag: 77079

Flooding, Memorial, Memorial Glen, Quicklink, Water Quality, West Houston

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WEST HOUSTON CAN NOW FLUSH IN GOOD CONSCIENCE When last we (and the aircraft supplying aerial images to NOAA) left the West District wastewater treatment plant along Buffalo Bayou just outside Beltway 8 at the flooded southeast corner of Memorial Glen, it looked like this: shut down and surrounded by muddy floodwaters sorely in need of its services. That was September 3rd. As of this morning, the city’s Office of Emergency Management reports, both this plant and the one on Turkey Creek off Eldridge between Briar Forest Dr. and Memorial have been restored to full operation. This means persons in ZIP Codes 77024, 77041, 77043, 77055, 77077, 77079, 77080 and 77094 who had been following guidelines to limit their water use are once more free to shower, flush, brush, and otherwise send wastewater down their drains without special consideration of the consequences. [Alert Houston; previously on Swamplot] Aerial image of West District plant from September 3: NOAA

77024, 77041, 77043, 77055, 77077, 77079, 77080, 77094, Disaster Aftermath, Flooding, Hurricane Harvey, Memorial, Memorial Glen, Wastewater Treatment Plants, West Houston

Homes for Sale

06/15/17 5:15pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: The Vault

Interiors, Westchester

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14759 Oak Bend Dr. [HAR]

77079, Bathrooms, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Westchester

12/27/16 5:00pm

A Quick Flyover of Houston’s New Used Car Vending Machine Midrise

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Carvana vending machine, 10939 Katy Fwy., Memorial, Houston, 77079

Along with starting up service at the new 8-story glass car dispensation machineÂ on the former Big Tex Tree Nursery lot on I-10 this month, Carvana has released a bit of drone footage of the new facility (shown above). It doesn’t show the tower in action (though a video of a coin-triggered run-through of the original Nashville machine, which boastsÂ only 5 stories of car-storage tower space, can be found here). The fly-by does show off some new grassy parking lot landscapingÂ and the billboard that Carvana leased out to explain themselves, as well as a few of the residences on Lasso Ln. directly behind the machine. (That’sÂ the east-bound Katy Fwy. on the left, withÂ the flying ramps of Beltway 8 visible in theÂ early morning haze.)

Previously on Swamplot:Â Used Car Vending Machine Germinates in Former Big Tex Nursery Lot;Â Paving the Way for the Automobile Vending Machine Headed for the Katy Fwy. at Beltway 8;Â The Coin-Operated Car Vending Machine Planned for Big Tex’s Former Katy Fwy. Spot;Â Big Tex Tree Nursery Uprooted from Katy Freeway

Photo of Carvana facility at 10939 Katy Fwy.:Â elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Video: Carvana

I-10 Stackup

77079, Auto Dealerships, Freeways, Memorial, Openings and Closings, Robots

Energy Corridor

12/14/16 12:45pm

BP Moving Onshore HQ Out of Houston, Way Further Onshore

Quicklink

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BP MOVING ONSHORE HQ OUT OF HOUSTON, WAY FURTHER ONSHORE Helios Plaza, Energy Corridor, Houston, 77079 BP announced today that it plans to move the main office for its onshore oil and gasÂ branch to Denver at the start of 2018, starting with aboutÂ 200 employees (compared to about 450 currently in the Houston office). The company announced late this summerÂ that it was pulling its employees out of the WestLake 4 towerÂ (about 7 years before that lease would’ve beenÂ up); that news was followed up a few days later with an announcement thatÂ BP would alsoÂ sell offÂ its LEED-platinumÂ Helios PlazaÂ building (pictured above), which it built in 2010 as a trading office. The plan at the time was to lease backÂ space in Helios from the new owner; the rest of the company’s Energy Corridor employees will stay in the WestLake 1 office tower, which BP also owns. [BP Media Affairs via Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Helios Plaza at 201 Helios Way: BP

77079, Buildings for Sale, Energy-Corridor, Jobs, Office Buildings, Office Space, Sublease Market

Highrises

11/29/16 5:00pm

ConocoPhillips To Leave 62-Acre Energy Corridor Campus for Something More Cozy Across I-10

Quicklink

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CONOCOPHILLIPS TO LEAVE 62-ACRE ENERGY CORRIDOR CAMPUS FOR SOMETHING MORE COZY ACROSS I-10 Leasing Flier for Energy Center 4, 925 N. Eldridge Pkwy., Energy Corridor, Houston, 77079 ConocoPhillips told its employees at the 62-acre complex at 600 N. Dairy Ashford Rd. today that the energy giant will be pulling them out of its 1980’s campus and moving them across I-10 into that empty 22-story Energy Center 4 highrise the company has been trying to sublet since earlier this year. Nancy Sarnoff says that the move is planned for mid-2018Â after the highrise gets built out, noting that so far, the new building “has remained an empty shell as ConocoPhillips has tried to sublease the space.” Before then, the campus will be getting some new nextdoor neighbors, as Shell’s nearby Woodcreek campusÂ takes on some of the employees being moved out of One Shell Plaza downtown. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Energy Center 4 at 925 N. Eldridge Pkwy.: CBRE

77079, Energy-Corridor, Highrises, Leasing, Oil

10/11/16 3:45pm

Memorial Dr. Gas Station Back to Selling Gas After Deadly Memorial Weekend Shooting Spree and Pump Fire

Wilchester

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Memorial Conoco Car Care, 13202 Memorial Dr., Wilchester, Houston, 77079

The Memorial Conoco Car Care station at Memorial and Wycliffe drives is now fully back in the swing of things following theÂ shootout and subsequent fire at the station over Memorial Day weekend, a reader notes. The station reopened its garage forÂ repair and maintenance servicesÂ within about a week of theÂ May incident, during which police and aÂ SWAT team faced off with a gunman who had begunÂ to unload an AR-15 on passers by. The shooting spreeÂ resulted in 2 deaths (including the gunman), 6 injuries (including 2 officers and an armed guy mistaken for another gunman), and the gasoline fire that burned down the fuel pumps and canopy; the reader reports that the station is back to dispensing gasoline as of last week. That’s a new peaked canopy visible in the background over the sign shown above — here’s what the old one looked like:

Tanks Full on Wilchester

77079, Fires, Gas Stations, Guns, Openings and Closings, Wilchester

08/16/16 10:15am

Used Car Vending Machine Germinates in Former Big Tex Nursery Lot

Memorial, New Construction

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Carvana, 10939 Katy Fwy., Memorial, Houston, 77079

The frame of the octagon-footed tower now rising atÂ 10939 Katy Fwy. suggests that Carvana’s first Houston used vehicle vending machine may be a few stories taller than the 5-story Nashville machine that opened last year (the one featured dispensing a car in the mostly-online company’sÂ noisy promotional video). Reader Tyler Battenfield sends the rainy day update above, showing the tower rising in place next to a more down-to-earth part of the structure, asÂ shown in the construction plan preview that made its way to Swamplot back in early March:

Katy Fwy. Auto Auto Dealership

77079, Auto Dealerships, Memorial, New Construction, Robots

Buildings for Lease

08/02/16 3:45pm

Now a Second Entire 20-Story Energy Corridor Office Building Is Available for Lease on I-10

Energy Corridor, Leasing, Office Buildings, Office Space

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Westlake Four, 200 Westlake Park Blvd., Houston Please don’t turn around and stare, but suddenlyÂ another entire office tower in the Energy Corridor has becomeÂ available for lease — all 20 floors of it. AnyÂ takers?

So far, only one of the 2 extremely available towersÂ appears to qualify as a genuineÂ see-through building — that would be the 22-story completed-but-never-occupied Energy Center Four, at N. Eldridge Pkwy. and I-10, which back in JuneÂ ConocoPhillips announced it was giving up on moving intoÂ but hoped some other company (or 32) would sublease from them. And nowÂ fromÂ Nancy Sarnoff comes the other dropping shoe: energy company BP, announcing that by early next year it plans to vacateÂ Four Westlake Park, aka WestLake Four, a little more than a mile west along the freeway feeder road, at 200 Westlake Park Blvd. BP has 7 years to go on its lease for that 22-year-old property from New York-based Falcon Real Estate Investment Management.

BP puts more office space onto crowded sublease market [Houston Chronicle]
ConocoPhillips offers up Energy Corridor tower as sublease glut grows [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of Westlake Park Four: Steven Baker

Getting Lonely on the Katy Fwy.

77079, Buildings for Lease, Energy-Corridor, Leasing, Office Buildings

Demolitions

08/01/16 1:00pm

Gasoline-and-Burgers Mashup at Wilcrest and I-10 To Be Replaced By Innovative Fuel-and-Fast-Food Combo

Openings and Closings, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Wilchester

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Exxon Gas Station with McDonald's, 11035 Katy Fwy., Wilchester, Houston

Do not mourn the Exxon station with the McDonald’s inside on the eastbound feeder road of the Katy Fwy. Yes, there’s a new fence around the property, and it’s about to be demolished. But the replacement is well worth waiting for: It’ll be a brand new Exxon station — with a brand new McDonald’s! Ah, but the more things stay the same, the more they change: A reader who contacted the burger chain’s regional office reports the new McDonald’s willÂ sport McDonald’sÂ “next generation” design, and will feature free wifi when it opens — around ~~mid-October~~ Election Day.

Photos: Swamplot inbox

Exxon and McDonald’s, Together Again

77079, Demolitions, Fast Food, Gas Stations, Openings and Closings, Redevelopment, Wilcrest

06/20/16 5:00pm

Mural-Slathered Memorial Mansion Tones Down to Original $1.5 Million Pricetag, 3 Couches and a Jukebox

Memorial Plaza

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12930 Memorial Dr., Memorial Plaza, Houston, 77079

AÂ perennial contender for theÂ dubious honorÂ of Houston’s gaudiest mansion may be trying to shake its claim to the title. The mansion at 12930 Memorial Dr. is back on the market this month for at least the sixth time in 5 years — and back down to an asking price ofÂ $1.5 million, after aÂ 2014 upward jumpÂ and subsequent slow decline. Ownership of the house was traded back and forth between Costello family members until an April sale to an entity called Triple Gate Investments;Â the new sellers seem to beÂ aiming for a moreÂ understated presentation. In this round of listing photos, all but a few of the house’s 11,760 sq. ft. have been stripped ofÂ furniture, chandeliers, andÂ giant high-heel statuary, allowing distraction-freeÂ contemplation of the colorful interior.

Even the apply-your-own-head wildlife has been reset to its original state:

New Management

77079, Faux-Finishes, Home Listings, Homes for Sale, Memorial Plaza, Real Estate Marketing

Homes for Sale

03/03/16 5:15pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: You Hide It Well

Interiors

4 Comments

759 Thistlewood Dr., Energy Corridor, Houston, 77079

759 Thistlewood Dr. [HAR]

77079, Energy-Corridor, Home Listings, Homes for Sale, Pools

03/02/16 5:00pm

Paving the Way for the Automobile Vending Machine Headed for the Katy Fwy. at Beltway 8

Land Development, Memorial, Proposed Developments, Retail

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Carvana Vending Machine construction site, 10939 Katy Fwy., Memorial, Houston, 77079

Carvana has confirmed that the work going on now at the former Big Tex Tree Nursery lot at 10939 Katy Fwy. is setup for the giant car vending machine referenced in September bid documents labeled with the site’s address. Building permits issued in January were applied for under the name of largely-non-digital used-car chain DriveTime, an investor in the Phoenix-based startup that also allows Carvana to borrow facilities to prepare vehicles for sale.

The new vending machine could be the first in Texas; Carvana opened a vending machine in Nashville last November, and also has a pickup site in Atlanta for those who don’t want to deal with delivery service. A reader sends some fresh shots of the action at the site, as well as a glimpse at a building plan:

Going Digital on I-10

77079, Auto Dealerships, Freeways, Katy Freeway, Memorial, Robots

02/24/16 1:00pm

The Coin-Operated Car Vending Machine Planned for Big Tex’s Former Katy Fwy. Spot

Memorial, Proposed Developments

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Update, 3/2: A Carvana spokesperson has confirmed to Swamplot that the company’s first Houston vending machine will be located at 10939 Katy Fwy. This story has been updated.

Online car dealership Carvana appears to have been planning to place a multi-story robotic car delivery system on the I-10-side lot that Big Tex Tree Nursery vacated after the December holidays wrapped up. A reader notes some construction bid documentation dating from September listing a project for the company at the 10939 Katy Fwy. address: The documents show a search for construction contractors for a ‘car vending machine’, scoped to involve multi-level car storage and an automated lift to bring vehicles down to the 1st floor on command.

~~But it looks like those plans fell through — at least as far as the location on the former Big Tex lot.~~ Permits were issued last month to non-digital car dealer chain DriveTime for construction of a new sales building on the site. DriveTime currently has 4 locations around the Houston area, including one further west on the Katy Fwy. past Highway 6.

Carvana plugged in its first vending machine in Nashville last November, after jumping into the Houston market in October. The above video shows the Tennessee machine in action: cars are shuffled down from their glassy perch after users place a Carvana token into a coin slot.