- 331 Gershwin Dr. [HAR]
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Tag: 77079
We’re counting no fewer than 5 construction cranes in this view looking east along the north side of I-10 from N. Eldridge Pkwy. But what’s that one-story building going up in the center of the photo on the north side of the I-10 feeder, south of Shell’s Woodcreek campus and east of ConocoPhillips, on N. Dairy Ashford? It’s a new daycare facility for Shell.
Photo: David Elizondo
Shell Games
The Alamo-style flattened humps shown at left that once marked the entrances of the now-shuttered DiMassi’s Restaurant on the south side of I-10 just west of Yorkchester appear to have been removed in the course of ongoing renovations to the 8,000-sq.-ft. property. The latest view of the property is shown above. What’s prompting the lumpectomy? The space’s conversion into a new Twin Peaks “mountain lodge”-themed sports bar. But the tasteful removal of the high-mounted flashy rounded appendages appears not to have assuaged a group of nearby residents who have complained to the city about the arrival in their neighborhood of the Dallas-based chain that features breasted waitresses inside: “We feel very strongly that anybody exercising common sense will see that a Twin Peaks in this location so close to so many children, smack in the residential area doesn’t speak to any of his values, it just doesn’t make sense,” a mother who lives in the adjacent neighborhood tells KTRK reporter Miya Shay. The 80,000-sq.-ft. feeder road lot backs up to Britoak Ln. and sits directly across the street from Wilchester Elementary School.
- Parents fighting plan to open Twin Peaks off I-10 near Kirkwood, near Spring Branch ISD schools [abc13]
- Breastaurant shocks and outrages parents in a Houston suburb: Kids cannot be near boobs! [Culturemap]
Photos: abc13 (construction); LoopNet (DiMassi’s)
Strange but True
- 14107 River Forest Dr. [HAR]
WHERE THE FOOD TRUCKS ARE PARKING ON HWY. 6 
One advantage of the new Energy Corridor-area food truck park that officially debuted last week at 800 Hwy. 6 South, backing up to the Addicks Reservoir: the 3.5-acre grounds mean there’s room enough for a variety of trucks — as well as seating areas that comply with City of Houston regulations by keeping 100 ft. away. Katharine Shilcutt finds plenty of parking, music, fire pits, and ambition there too: “‘We want to make a farmers market over there,’ [My Food Park HTX co-owner Liz Gandy] told me, pointing to a series of metal structures that already form the shape of a roadside produce stand. ‘We get so much shade in the afternoons right here. It’s just beautiful.’ Behind the future market area, the acreage goes from gravel to grass, surrounded on three sides by dense thickets of trees. Back here, where many people choose to dine, it’s quiet. You can barely hear the traffic from Highway 6; you feel like you’re in the country.” [Houstonia] Photo: My Food Park HTX
Note: Story updated with an additional rendering.
More action from Skanska: Now, the Swedish development and construction company has begun work on West Memorial Place, which for now will comprise a single 12-story, 325,000-sq.-ft. office building on the site of the demolished ARCO building in the Energy Corridor. It’ll be accompanied by a 9-story parking garage. Though the rendering above shows a pair, only one building is going up; the second, a PR rep tells Swamplot, depends on the market. The HOK-designed building will stand on 12 acres at 15375 Memorial Dr., between Westlake Park Blvd. and Southmayde Creek Dr., bumping up against the hike and bike in Terry Hershey Park. Petroleum Geo-Services has already signed on to occupy about 122,000 sq. ft.
Kirksey designed both of these 7-story, 175,000-sq.-ft. office buildings for PM Realty, which expects construction to begin on the first of them — dubbed Jacobs Plaza — here at 12140 Wickchester Ln. this month. They’re part of a proposed office park north of the Katy Fwy. and east of N. Dairy Ashford that, as this rendering shows, will comprise a manmade pond and pedestrian paths that lead out to the nearby Addicks Reservoir. Houston Business Journal reports that the primary tenant and namesake for the first building will be Jacobs Engineering.
- PM Realty to break ground on Energy Corridor office complex [Houston Business Journal]
Rendering: Kirksey Architecture
Here’s a look at the design from Morris Architects for the new 17-story Energy Tower IV. Does it seem familiar? That’s because it’s going to be identical to 2 existing ones: Energy Towers II and III. Construction, reports the Houston Business Journal, is expected to start next month. Developed by Mac Haik Realty, the new tower is planned to be 450,000 sq. ft., bringing the total amount here in the Energy Plaza at Kirkwood and I-10 to more than 2 million sq. ft. of office space. Prime Property adds that the building will be open in 2014.
- Houston developer to add new tower to Energy Corridor [Prime Property]
- Mac Haik Realty to move forward on next Energy Corridor tower [Houston Business Journal]
- Previously on Swamplot: All Those New Energy Corridor Office Buildings
Rendering: Mac Haik Realty
Trammell Crow seems to be planning another of its Alexan-brand apartments here — at the southwest corner of the Katy Fwy. and Wilcrest Rd. This would be about 9 miles west of Trammell Crow’s so-called Alexan Silber at 7777 Katy Fwy. This photo from a reader shows what remains of the Phillips 66 station, one of the structures on the site bound on the south by Lasso Ln. that the reader says the Wilchester Homeowners Association has learned will be demolished; the station’s underground tanks are already being torn up.
- 14002 Britoak Ln. [HAR]
Set back behind the trees along I-10 and Memorial Dr. and beside the trails of Terry Hershey Park, the ExxonMobil Chemical Company Headquarters have gone up for sale. Marketing firm HHF says that the sale of the 35-acre Energy Corridor property was precipitated by the company’s impending consolidation northwest of here at the under-construction 385-acre campus behind other trees in Spring. Standing now on the property at 13501 Katy Fwy. are a 5-story, 576,968-sq.-ft. office building and a 20,463-sq.-ft. conference center.
Looks like this mile and a half extension of a hike and bike trail leading north out of Terry Hershey Park is ready to go. Photos popped up on HAIF yesterday that follow the trail as it dives beneath the Katy Fwy. and banks west between Highway 6 and Eldridge Pkwy. along the Addicks Dam.
According to the Terry Hershey Park website, this extension now makes a continuous ride possible from neighborhoods around Wilcrest, Kirkwood, and Dairy Ashford to the Addicks Park and Ride to the northwest.
Here are a few more photos of what you’ll see:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: ENDING THE GAYWOOD EMBARRASSMENT “As a longtime resident of Gaywood, I can tell you we have had a lot of fun with that name. In fact, I have even entertained making the following motion at one of our homeowners’ association meetings: ‘In order to end the embarrassment we all suffer because of the name of this subdivision, we should remove that offensive, misleading, double-entendre word from the name. Therefore, I propose that we rename our subdivision . . . GayFOREST.’†[Scott, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Capping Haddick]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A NARROW, GENTLE EARTHQUAKE ZONE ON HOUSTON’S WEST SIDE “. . . The Long Point fault cuts straight through the area, hitting brittmore just south of I-10, crossing saint mary’s just to the west, then going through wycliffe and Wilchester, crossing Kirkwood just south of Memorial. It goes all the way down to around Whittington just west of Dairy Ashford. But if you don’t buy a house directly on the fault, you’ll be fine. Judging from the location of this house and where the Long Point fault map shows the fault, this house should be fine. Its neighbor to the west, maybe not.” [Lost_In_Translation, commenting on Yards of Yard in Britmore Oaks]
A day after this Memorial West home hit the market late last month, its price rose by $15,000 to $465,000 — where it remained until today. Now, in honor of the new deep discounts on the iPhone 4S, it’s been cut to $425,000. The tidy ranch-style home sits upon the clipped suburban grasslands of Britmore (one “t”) Oaks, a neighborhood that appears to have pine trees and magnolias as well as the namesake oaks. Like its neighbors, It’s a mid-fifties single-story. The street is 2 blocks south of I-10 off Brittmore Rd. (2 “t”s), has drainage gulleys, dead-ends 9 homes in, and takes a bit of a jog right out front of the property.
