04/14/15 11:30am

Park Place Memorial Strip Center, 5801 Memorial Dr., Bayou Bend, Houston

A reader wanted to make sure Swamplot readers had a chance to see the sign that’s gone up on the construction fence surrounding the Park Place Memorial strip center at 5801 Memorial Dr. — on the south side of the street just east of Westcott St. near Bayou Bend — for the new Mattress One store. (It’s the red banner on the far right of the submitted image, above.) When the store opens this August (on the opposite side of the 10,000-sq.-ft. center from Dunkin’ Donuts), it’ll count as the Florida and Texas chain’s fifty-seventh Houston-area location. Also moving in: Express Rolls, Piada Italian Street Food, and Omni Cleaners.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

57 Varieties, Near Donuts
03/11/15 3:45pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE SIGHTS ON AND OFF THE MEMORIAL DR. STRIP Starbucks Drive Thru, Houston“. . . The whole thing of having this parkside expressway that drops to 35 and morphs into a suburban strip for all of 1/4 mile before resuming high-aesthetics high-speed is wonderfully convenient. Your last chance gas, your breakfast tacos and kolaches, your late-night eats . . . it’s all right there, no mucking about with U-turns or feeder roads required. And no, this stripmall won’t be a huge visual contribution . . . but who cares? The views just 100 yards to the south are about as aesthetically pleasing as one can find in our fair city, and after all, isn’t that what matters? So much discussion of the urban form boils down to complaining about what we see from our car windows. But if the view from home and office is nice, isn’t that really what matters?” [Purple City, commenting on How a Stretch of the Memorial Dr. Strip Earned Its Newest Strip Center] Illustration: Lulu

03/10/15 11:45am

Park Place Memorial Strip Center, 5801 Memorial Dr., Bayou Bend, Houston

Katherine Feser has the inside scoop on how the $7 million strip center portrayed above — but loaded with a Dunkin’ Donuts, a dry cleaner, and — yes, a mattress store — is coming to land in its rightful place along the south side of Memorial Dr. just east of Westcott, 2 doors down from the MFAH’s Bayou Bend Collection. Developer Amir Taghdisi tells Feser he and his brother Alan chose not to build a 3- or 4-story office building with below-grade parking on the site “because it would have been an outdated format from the beginning.” Instead, the 10,000-sq.-ft. strip center is now under construction at the back of the three-quarters-of-an-acre lot, with rows of parking facing Memorial Dr. and Knox St.

Why think so small? “I had all the big names wanting to do a 30-story high-rise for lease,” Taghdisi tells Feser. But he says the homeowners association of Bayou Bend Towers, directly to the south, wouldn’t let him.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

The Towers and the Strip
08/27/09 11:04pm

A lot of you had a lot to say about this week’s mystery property. But only one of you is walking away with that shiny new Rice Design Alliance membership!

There were 2 guesses each for South Houston, the Memorial Villages, Pasadena, Clear Lake, and Deer Park. The rest of your guesses? Bunker Hill, Piney Point Village, “far out Memorial,” “the area around Bellfort and Broadway,” Oak Ridge North, Meyerland, “the New Caney/Roman Forest/Porter area,” Humble, Porter, New Caney, Katy, Glenbrook Valley, “Northwest between Hollister and Sam Houston Tollway,” “just outside Beltway 8 around Briar Forest,” Fondren Southwest, “outside the North Belt,” “any subdivision,” Alvin, Alief, T.C. Jester or Ella Blvd. near 610, “southwest side,” “very close to Blue Ridge Mountain,” “somewhere southeast,” “somewhere off 2920, between 249 north and I-45 north,” “somewhere across Hempstead from Delmar Stadium near Freed Park,” “somewhere south of Hell,” Park Glen, Meadowcreek, Quail Valley, Oak Forest, Maplewood South, Sugar Land, Pearland, Northampton in Spring, “the Inwood area,” Oakbrook West, Friendswood, Baytown, LaPorte, Sharpstown, Northwest Houston, Candlelight Plaza, Shepherd Park Terrace, “the older parts of Champions,” “off Wilcrest below Lakewood,” and Huntwick.

The winner of a one-year individual membership in the RDA is JC, for this brilliant entry:

Why would you put a cooktop underneath a kitchen window? Even if it’s a downdraft cooktop, I’d feel more comfortable with the traditional kitchen sink underneath that window. Plus, the tile floors look somewhat newer, possibly replacing linoleum or carpet in some parts. What was dead on was movocelot’s guess that the makeshift home theater was the converted garage. With the amount of paneling still intact in the living room, I’m going to guess the house was built in the 70s, and judging by the kitchen cabinets and countertops, I’m going to go against my better judgement and say 1977.

You can notice details of upgrades here and there, mostly noticed by the mirror and sink/counter in the hall bath, which looks to be the same material underneath the bottle of McCormick vodka…

This house has the look of one that would be outside of the beltway. However, I’m going to take a guess here and say this one is in the Inwood area.

Congratulations, JC! This week’s runner-up, miss_msry, aimed just a little too far to the west.

The real prize this round, though, is Claire de Lune — who not only wrote in to suggest this listing in the first place, but came back to concoct this cock-and-bull story to try and throw y’all off:

There are so many places this could be, its hard to choose just one. But it strongly resembles a lot of the homes I saw when I lived in the Clear Lake area. Probably built in the 60s, and redecorated by the second wife (who had theatrical aspirations) in the mid 80s, judging from the abundance of floral crap and faux greenery. The toys belong to the visiting step-grandchildren. That sunken tub probably hasn’t been used in years.

I’m going to place this in Oakbrook West, or possibly the older sections of Friendswood. Whoever lives there is retired, has been in that house a LONG time, and takes “home theater” just a little too seriously. Anyone who would do that with what seems to be a renovated garage has WAY too much time on their hands. Good luck selling this litte gem!

What’s the real story on this place?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

06/25/08 10:07am

Some residents of Glen Cove St. have been encroaching on the Hogg Bird Sanctuary with their lawnmowers and destroying the birds’ habitat, complains an area resident. The sanctuary is nominally a part of Memorial Park, but is adjacent to Bayou Bend, the former Ima Hogg estate.

Abc13’s Miya Shay comments:

there are about a dozen homes whose own lawn shares a border line with the sanctuary. One of the women who actually lives there is complaining her some of her neighbors are mowing the grass, and putting up a hammock in what is technically city property. Instead of respecting land deeded by the Hogg Foundation, the neighbors are using the land as their own property.. for free.. forget the birds. As you can imagine, some folks are not so happy about it.. and demanding that the Parks department do a little more than just send angry letters and putting up “do not mow” signs….

Shay reports that City Council wants to get to the bottom of it . . . and maybe store some construction equipment in the sanctuary too!