Swamplot Archives by Tag: 77479

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Satellite Dish: Museum of Natural Science Leaves Mall, Takes Prison

August 13, 2009 – 1:51 pm

Opening October 3rd in Sugar Land: A branch of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, smack dab in the center of the former prison farm now known as Telfair. The museum is a rehab of the old Central State Farm Prison building, but it has a better-sounding new address: 13019 University Blvd., at the corner of New Territory Blvd.

Meanwhile, far to the north, HMNS’s Woodlands Xploration Station in the Woodlands Mall is shutting down on September 7th. The Woodlands Children’s Museum next door to it will close a little less than a month later. Going into those vacated spaces: Forever 21.

Photo of new Houston Museum of Natural Science at Sugar Land: HMNS

1:51 pm | 4 Comments | Read more about Adaptive Reuse, Historic Preservation, Institutional Buildings, Malls, Neighborhoods: Sugar Land, Neighborhoods: Telfair, Neighborhoods: The Woodlands
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Friday, July 10, 2009

Apartment Inspections in Sugar Land

July 10, 2009 – 11:11 am
   

Sugar Land requires single-family rental units to be inspected each year. And the city council has just voted to require the same for multifamily apartments: “The multifamily ordinance must be approved on second reading at a future meeting to become law. If approved, the measure will require apartment owners to pay an annual fee of $8 per rental unit. Sugar Land Community and Environmental Director Mike Goodrum told City Council members on Tuesday that the fee would equate to an annual cost of about $2,000 to $2,400 for the typical apartment complex in the city. Most of those complexes, he said, are owned by Gables Residential of Atlanta, Ga., which was consulted during creation of the new proposed policy. . . . Since apartment complexes typically have somewhat rapid tenant turnover, city inspectors would annually inspect those units that are vacant on the day the inspector schedules a visit, Goodrum indicated.” [Fort Bend Now]

11:11 am | Add a Comment | Read more about Apartments, Development Regulations, Neighborhoods: Sugar Land, Quicklink
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Openings and Closings: Bars and Barbecue

March 24, 2009 – 6:02 pm

An update on recent comings and goings:

  • Now Open: “A small group of cocktail freaks,” including former Beavers bartender Bobby Heugel, have at last opened the doors of Anvil Bar & Refuge on the Westheimer Curve. The location was originally a Bridgestone-Firestone tire shop, but was known more recently as the home of the Daiquiri Factory and Sliders.
  • Closed: In advance of that new 25,000-sq.-ft. Spec’s opening up in the former Linens ’N Things in Weslayan Plaza, owner Christopher Massie decided to shut down Cepage Noir, his considerably smaller wine shop on Times Blvd. in the Rice Village.

More twists and turns:

Continue Reading This Story >

6:02 pm | 4 Comments | Read more about Neighborhoods: Lower Westheimer, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Neighborhoods: Rice Village, Neighborhoods: Riverside Terrace, Neighborhoods: Sugar Land, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
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Friday, June 6, 2008

Weekend Open House Tour: Greatwood

June 6, 2008 – 11:54 pm

Greatwood. Where the builder floor-plan numbers are still fresh, and the sellers are eager to exit their mortgages. Stop by for a visit this weekend — maybe you can help! Here’s our tour of 7 Greatwood homes:

6614 High Knoll Dr., Sugarland, Texas

Location: 6614 High Knoll Dr., Sugarland
Details: 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths; 2,185 sq. ft.
Price: $174,549
The Scoop: 1992 brick 2-story by Ryland Homes in Greatwood Knoll. Tile floors in Entry, Kitchen, and Breakfast Area; carpet everywhere else. Covered back patio with built-in gas grill. Listed since the beginning of May; price cut more than $14K.
Open House: Sunday, 2-6 pm

The tour continues below . . .

Continue Reading This Story >

11:54 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Fort Bend County, Neighborhoods: Greatwood, Neighborhoods: Sugar Land, Open Houses
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Fig. Leaves: Miraculous Advanced LipoDissolve Works on Retail Locations Too!

December 11, 2007 – 10:15 am

Collage of Diagrams from fig. Medical Body Shaping Website Showing How Advanced LipoDissolve Is Supposed To Work

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.)

Continue Reading This Story >

10:15 am | Read more about Neighborhoods: Galleria, Neighborhoods: Sugar Land, Neighborhoods: The Woodlands, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers
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Friday, November 16, 2007

Sugar Land Whole Foods: Water on the Roof, Sweet Peas Inside

November 16, 2007 – 1:23 pm

Whole Foods in First Colony, Sugar Land, Texas

Is all that blue stuff that looks like it’s on the roof of this drawing of the new Whole Foods Market in Sugarland supposed to be water, or are those architects just coloring outside the lines again? The giant leaf-shaped structure in front is part of a rooftop rainwater-collection system, but with gravity and all, you’d expect the water to spill into that non-blue-colored round area of the roof to the left.

Oh, but maybe we’re looking at this picture the wrong way . . . that’s right, the blue stuff isn’t water on the roof, it’s the water in Brooks Lake, right behind the store. D’oh! That’s where rain that misses the roof will go. Brooks Lake is shaped a lot more like a river than a lake, but that sure comes in handy when you’re hawking waterfront property.

The 50,000-square-foot Whole Foods will anchor Planned Community Developers’s Lake Pointe Town Center at the intersection of Highway 59 and Highway 6 in First Colony. The store opens December 5th.

The rain collected from the roof will be used for watering the extensive parking lot and plaza landscaping. The store’s Sweet Peas Clubhouse will take children aged 3 to 7 off your hands while you shop.

Update, 12/5/07: It’s open. Anyone wanna send us a report?

1:23 pm | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Neighborhoods: First Colony, Neighborhoods: Sugar Land, Retail, Shopping Centers, Uncategorized
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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Sugar Land: New O.J. H.Q.

October 30, 2007 – 10:03 am

Minute Maid is moving to Sugar Land. The Minute Maid Building near the Galleria has been sold.

Should we expect added sweeteners in our O.J.?

Cameron Management, Wachovia Bank and a group of local investors recently purchased the 351,000-square-foot office building at 2000 St. James Place for an undisclosed amount.

Minute Maid, a Houston-based division of Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, will lease back 150,000 square feet of space until its new home is ready in late 2008. Coca-Cola is negotiating a lease for 120,000 square feet in an office building that Planned Community Developers Ltd. began constructing last July in Sugar Land Town Square at U.S. Highway 59 and State Highway 6.

Why not . . . Pearland? Probably less appealing.

And what will happen to the empty building on St. James after the juice is gone?

In preparation for Minute Maid’s move-out, Cameron is marketing the 12-story building, located between Westheimer and San Felipe, as the largest block of contiguous office space in the Galleria area.

Sweet.

10:03 am | Read more about Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Fort Bend County, Leasing, Neighborhoods: Sugar Land, New Construction, Office Buildings
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