Brunner | Swamplot

06/30/17 1:30pm

New Pseudo-Heights Identities Being Forged for Former Ironworks Buildings at the Brunner-Katyville Border

You might not immediately gather, from the pastoral setting in the rendering above, that this is a view of what’s planned for the former Berger Iron Works property, tucked around back behind the Walmart at YaleÂ and Koehler streetsÂ in the section of Katyville last rebranded as Washington Heights.Â (The footprint of the land is marked asÂ aÂ little blue rectangle in the map above.) The new name Riverway Properties is applyingÂ toÂ the retail-redo-to-be appears to be Bonner HeightsÂ (presumably afterÂ Bonner St., which runs along the quiet western front of the property). Here’s how the 2 buildings on the site could be split up for leasing:

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Ironworks Rework

77007, Bonner Heights, Brunner, Commercial Properties for Lease, Katyville, Proposed Developments, Washington Heights

Brunner

05/30/17 12:00pm

Bethel Church’s Entire Center St. Block Now Sending Mixed Use Messages

by Christine Gerbode

Mixed Use, Proposed Developments

7 Comments

Catty-corner to the southwestÂ of the area’s newest self-storage midrise,Â the block at N. Shepherd Dr. and Nett St. housing Bethel ChurchÂ is now broadcasting plans forÂ aÂ mixed-use developmentÂ from several large signs standing around on the property. A couple of readers reported the new decorÂ from various angles late onÂ FridayÂ (including the one above, which includes a glimpseÂ ofÂ finallyÂ settled, named, and openedÂ FM Kitchen + Bar on the former Alva Graphics lot across the street). The church’s 1.48-acre blockÂ (bounded by Durham Dr. and Center St. on the other 2 sides) hit the market last summer, and looks to be getting wrapped into the Hunington development fold.

The conversion of the church property would put a mixed-use developmentÂ right next to the Azure ApartmentsÂ midrise currently going up right across Durham:

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N. Shepherd Conversions

77007, Brunner, Churches, Land Sales, Mixed-Use Developments, Proposed Developments, Washington Corridor

A Quick Inventory of Up-and-Coming Storage Centers North of Washington Ave.

by Christine Gerbode

Rice Military

7 Comments

Construction at Shepherd and Allen st.

Now rising at 1202 Shepherd Dr., atop the former sites of the Sarco Enterprise used car lot and its various adjacent industrial-retail odds and ends: aÂ 4-story self-storage building from Provident Realty. The Dallas-based developer (which is also behindÂ the redo of the former Texaco building Downtown and its potential futureÂ companion highrise) bought the land in October of last year from an entity called Shepnett Holdings, which also owns the land across Nett St. at 1112 Shepherd Â — on that site, theÂ former graffiti-slatheredÂ home of relocated art and framing shop Alva GraphicsÂ is being convertedÂ into theÂ burger restaurant initially planned forÂ the ex-Ruggles Grill lot on Westheimer.

The Provident storage facility will be conveniently located about 4 minutes by car from the ~~Uncle Bob’s~~ Life Storage building that just opened along Washington Ave across from the former Wabash Feed & Garden store.Â A storage-atuned reader in the neighborhood sends a few more angles on the newÂ building’s in-progress skeleton —Â the building extends from Nett St. toward the southern of Allen St.’s 2 parallel roadways, laid along either sideÂ ofÂ the Southern Pacific railroad line:

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Boxes of Brunner

77007, Brunner, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Storage Centers

Brunner

09/26/16 5:15pm

Online Gun Enthusiasts Attack Pi Pizza’s New Heights Blvd. Locale, Sales Blow Up

by Christine Gerbode

Restaurants, Retail

7 Comments

Pi Pizza, 181 Heights Blvd., Brunner, Houston, 77007

The newly opened stationary location of former food truck Pi Pizza got a huge boost in business this weekend after pro-gun-carry groups began leaving hundreds of negative online reviews of the restaurant, Eric Sandler reports this morning.Â Owner AnthonyÂ Calleo tells Sandler that Pi’s sales at the strip center spot south of I-10 where Funky Chicken used to roost were up nearly 20 percent on Saturday and 40 percent on Sunday.

What exactly triggered waves of gun activists (and counter-protesting pizza-supporters)Â to take to the restaurant’s Facebook and Yelp pages en masse? A casually dismissive and — sure — less-than-completely-diplomatic response to an initial 1-star review of the restaurant, by a userÂ who had never visited, based solely on Pi’s decision to opt out of open and concealed carry.Â Sandler notesÂ that Pi’s Facebook review page has been temporarily taken down, as the hundreds of negative reviews (and even larger numbers of positive comments and counterreviews, at least some of whichÂ alsoÂ appear to be from people who have never visited the restaurant) eventually escalated to public searches for Calleo’s home address by some of the more enthusiastic pro-carriers; the pizza joint’s Yelp page was still inÂ lockdownÂ as of this afternoon.

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Booming on Heights Blvd.

77007, Brunner, Guns, Online Resources, Open Carry, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, State Laws

Quicklink

08/30/16 3:00pm

Documenting Houston’s Townhousification, One Tweet at a Time

by Christine Gerbode

4 Comments

DOCUMENTING HOUSTON’S TOWNHOUSIFICATION, ONE TWEET AT A TIME @densifyingHOU While you’re waiting for Kuukibot’s polite butÂ insistent stream of air toxics tweetsÂ to come back,Â another Houston-obsessed account has just hit the Twittersphere — this one documenting the city’s infill development, as evidenced by dailyÂ before-and-after shots pulled from Google StreetviewÂ (like the 2-house-t0-7-townhome transition shown above,Â from near the intersection of Gibson and Snover streets in Brunner).Â Â The accountâ€™s Philadelphia-based author (who’s looking for submissions,Â by the way)Â points to the 1999 changes inÂ minimum lot size requirementsÂ as the catalyst for the subsequent waves ofÂ tightly-packedÂ townhouse do-overs in previously large-lot neighborhoods around town, as explained by Daniel HertzÂ earlier this summer: Hertz writes that Â the decision to allow lots as small as 1,400 sq.ft. within the Inner Loop (a decree later expanded city-wide in 2013)Â allowed the building of way more housing stock in the city’s core without a switch to multifamily-style buildings. “An important research project in the coming years ,” Hertz notes, “will be to see if Houstonâ€™s willingness to allow more housingâ€”and especially missing middle housingâ€”in the center of a growing metropolitan area can reduce the growth of housing prices and keep neighborhoods more diverse and affordable than they would otherwise be.” [City Observatory] Screenshot of Densifying Houston tweet: @densifyingHOU

Brunner, Demolition, Google Maps, Houston Heights, New Construction, Prevailing Lot Size, Tools, Townhomes

Brunner

12/10/14 4:30pm

More Apartments Coming Along Durham Dr. Just North of Washington Ave., Per This Variance Request

by John Nova Lomax

Proposed Developments, West End

4 Comments

center-st-variance-req

A reader sends in a pic of this variance request sign and vacant lot, possibly heralding the advent of another apartment complexÂ in the Brunner Addition block bounded by N. Durham Dr. and Sandman St. and Center St. and Nett St., in the immediate environs of Soma Sushi, Bethel Church, Woodrow’s Heights and the Esperanza School.

Proposed land use? Mixed-use, multifamily and commercial.

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Center Of The Nett

77007, Brunner, Proposed Develoments, West End

Brunner

01/24/13 4:00pm

Straddling the Live-Work Line in Cottage Grove

by CALwords

Buildings for Sale, Cottage Grove, Interiors, Office Buildings

2 Comments

Office building or home? It depends on which listing you read. One on LoopNet appears to have marketed the property for a while at $599,000 — as an office building. But it popped up as a single family item this week on HAR, asking $535,000. Built in 2001 and updated in 2010, the corner-lot custom live-work structure is 2 blocks south of the Katy Fwy. in the Brunner subdivision in Cottage Grove.

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77007, Brunner, Buildings for Sale, Cottage Grove, Interiors, Live-Work, Office Space

Adaptive Reuse

04/02/10 11:36am

The Sign of BRC Rises on Shepherd

by Swamplot

Brunner, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

14 Comments

“Robots need not apply” reads the recent ad for staff positions at the new BRC Gastropub at the corner of North Shepherd and Blossom. Hey, didn’t that building use to be a funeral monument and gravestone sales center? Reader photos show it ready to come to life — almost directly across the street from that former pool hall refashioned into Branch Water Tavern.

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77007, Adaptive Reuse, Brunner, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

Barker Cypress

10/15/09 3:13pm

Openings and Closings: Musical Restaurants Edition

by Swamplot

Brunner, Cinco Ranch, Houston Heights, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail

2 Comments

Updates on a few restaurants Swamplot has been following:

Reopened: Azzarelli’s, an Italian-American restaurant that began the year in Cinco Ranch’s Tuscan-themed Villagio Town Center, then (after a notable exit) camped for a while (as Azzarelli’s Corner CafÃ©) in another center at 6455 South Fry Road, opened last week in its 4th location within just a couple of years: 17754 Katy Freeway, Suite B, I-10 at Barker Cypress. “With this great location, I will be open 365 days a year,” owner Frank Triola tells his press-release copywriter.
Opening Soon: The restaurant going into the former Cue & Cushion pool hall at 510 Shepherd that Swamplot reported on earlier this fall now has a name: Branch Water Tavern — and a more palatable label than “gastropub.” Try “Modern American Tavern.” Chef David Grossman says it’ll open later this month, but the Houston Press‘s Robb Walsh, who’s toured the construction site, thinks Christmas is more likely.

More eats:

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77007, 77008, 77094, 77494, Barker Cypress, Brunner, Cinco Ranch, Houston Heights, Openings and Closings, Retail

Brunner

09/01/09 4:31pm

More Clues About the Cue

by Swamplot

Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Washington Corridor

8 Comments

This doesn’t sound so much like a deli now, does it? How long ’til they start calling this part of Shepherd The Gastrow?

A little birdie points Swamplot to more info about plans for the former Cue & Cushion pool hall, hiding on the uh . . . secret Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau website:

510 Shepherd, designed by award-winning hospitality designer Joel Mozersky, will be a unique neighborhood restaurant concept reminiscent of a traditional London gastro pub, yet modernized in design and updated to take into account American tastes.

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77007, Brunner, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Washington Corridor

Adaptive Reuse

09/01/09 10:44am

What About the Cushions?

by Swamplot

Brunner, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants

5 Comments

WHAT ABOUT THE CUSHIONS? “At 510 Shepherd, the old Cue and Cushion Pool Hall has been sold and is seeing some major changes. The billiards tables are gone and a dining room is under construction. The new place will be Cue Restaurant. Though unconfirmed, the on-site rumor is that it will be a New York style deli – something like Katz’s or Kenny and Ziggy’s, I am told.” Also, photos of the future locations of BRC Gastro Pub across the street and Burgerzilla in the Heights. [Fred Eats Houston; previously on Swamplot]