April 23, 2013 – 11:30 am
Chalk this one up to wishful thinking: Over the weekend, the Fifth Ward CRC, led by a pair of interns from Rice University, hung a basket of chalk and this chalkboard on the exterior wall of a vacant corner grocery (with an awning seemingly inspired by Charlie Brown’s T-shirt) at 4101 Lyons. One of the interns, Heidi Kahle — who’s minoring at Rice in “Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities,” a brief bio states — says that the idea’s for Fifth Ward residents to compile a wish list for their community by completing the sentence and filling in the blank: “I wish the Fifth Ward . . . .” As of yesterday, the project’s blog adds, all the blanks had been filled in, with such wishes as “Prosperity” and “Nonviolence” and “Overflow Blessings.”
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Read more about: 77020, Art, Fifth Ward, Public Art, Vacant Buildings
February 12, 2013 – 11:45 am
At 2020 Hardy St., this building dates to 1900. Previous owners the Espinosa family managed rental properties from here; it’s also been home to the Monte Carlo Lounge and pool hall and a grocery. The 5,000-sq.-ft. building, lying about 2 miles north of Downtown in the Fifth Ward, was bought in early January by 2011 Good Brick Award winners David and Bennie Flores Ansell, who have spent the past month sweeping and clearing out the interior — which came to them unbidden with cases of unopened tostadas, garbage bags of discarded mail, shelves stocked with ’80s perfume, sunglasses, and self-help videos, broken billiards trophies with tattered replica baize, etc. They hope to have the building transformed into offices and apartments by this summer.
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Read more about: 77026, Apartments, Buildouts, Fifth Ward, Historic Preservation, Houston Architects, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Renovations
November 28, 2012 – 5:34 pm
Missing from today’s announcement by KBR that the company has completed the sale of its Ship-Channel-front 136-acre former headquarters campus at 4100 Clinton Dr. in the Fifth Ward: any mention of the buyer — or the sales price. Both details were available earlier in the week on a different sale the engineering, construction, and military contracting company was involved in — of the 40-story Downtown office tower that KBR leases and partially owned. (The tower at 601 Jefferson went to an affiliate of New York’s W.P. Carey, for $174.6 million.) [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Image: HFF
Read more about: 77020, Buying and Selling, Fifth Ward, Houston Ship Channel, Land Sales
Catie Dixon comes up with a few gems in her interview with the team marketing the 136-acre campus HQ at 4100 Clinton Dr. in the southern portion of the Fifth Ward just east of Downtown that Halliburton spinoff KBR has just put up for sale. HFF has given a name to what may be the “largest infill site” near a major U.S. Central Bus District: “Cityscape on Buffalo Bayou.” And members of the sales team believe it’s ripe for a mixed-use development, now that KBR’s industrial buildings have been demolished. Five office buildings dating from the early seventies (totaling 720,000 sq. ft.) and a 36,000-sq.-ft. employee center are still there. The property’s outstanding “water feature” is a mile of frontage on Houston’s scenic Ship Channel. [Bisnow] Image: HFF
Read more about: 77020, Fifth Ward, Houston Ship Channel, Industrial Properties, Land for Sale, Real Estate Marketing
February 7, 2012 – 1:06 pm
“They have been taking down buildings like crazy the past few weeks and we are wondering what is planned,” writes a reader from the lower Fifth Ward, who wants to know what’s going on along Clinton Dr. near Jensen. More’s been coming down, apparently, than just the former KBR warehouses. “This morning,” read a note sent to Swamplot yesterday, “there was a Sheriff substation across the street, this afternoon it is a pile of twisted metal.” The demo work on Clinton Dr. just east of Gregg St. continues: “I can hear the bulldozer over there piling up debris as I send this,” reads a note from this morning. And here’s a pic from today of what’s left of it:
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Read more about: 77020, Demolitions, Fifth Ward, Industrial Areas, Landscape
January 24, 2012 – 10:23 am
Oh, what will they think of next to scare you away from the Fifth Ward? “I thought I read something odd” while driving by the “abandoned mess” at 1919 Elysian St. north of Lorraine St., reports reader Robert Searcy, who sent in these pix. “So I had to circle the block to see if what I thought I read was really what I read . . .” [Swamplot inbox] Photos: Robert Searcy
Read more about: 77026, Fifth Ward, Real Estate Marketing
October 7, 2011 – 1:49 pm
Charles Kuffner spots demographic shifts in the Fifth Ward: “To interview the candidates in District B, I made several visits into the Fifth Ward, which is a neighborhood I can’t honestly say I’d been to before. One of these interviews took me past Fifth Ward Jam, which was cool to see. But what really struck me as I drove around was how close this all was to downtown. Gentrification and whirlwind change may not be a part of the Fifth Ward today, but I think it’s inevitable, and frankly is probably just around the corner. If you look at the neighborhoods surrounding downtown, it’s what’s left for redevelopment. The Heights, the Washington corridor, Neartown, the Museum District, Montrose, and Midtown are all pretty much built out — for sure there’s little if any cheap property available in any of them. EaDo and the Near Northside are getting there. But east of 59 and north of I-10, it’s as Gray describes it. If you’re a real estate developer, you’ve got to see the potential there.” [Off the Kuff] Photo: Robert Boyd
Read more about: 77020, Fifth Ward, Redevelopment
September 12, 2011 – 12:04 pm
Something was missing, it turns out, in this brand-new home Mayor Parker turned over to Mary Porras in a “housewarming” ceremony on August 4th. Built by a contractor hired by the city, the single-story replacement house at 4005 Lila St. in the Fifth Ward had no insulation, an inspector from the state’s General Land Office discovered about a week later — after Porras had already moved in.
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Read more about: 77026, Construction Problems, Disaster Aftermath, Fifth Ward, Hurricane Ike, Insulation
August 19, 2011 – 12:53 pm
Sculptor Dan Havel sends in photos of the construction he and fellow demo artist Dean Ruck have been working on for months in a new pocket park at 3705 Lyons Ave. More than a month before its debut as the backdrop for a community concert (yes, that’s a stage poking out from the front), Havel says their project is “substantially complete,” though there are still a few more details to fill in, including stairs for the stage and some landscaping. Working from a ready-to-be-knocked-down house from a couple miles northeast at 3012 Erastus St., Havel and Ruck added, ahem, a whole lot of support to the interior, as these photos taken earlier in the summer show:
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Read more about: 77020, Art, Bungalows, Construction Materials, Fifth Ward, Openings and Closings, Parks, Public Art, Recycled Materials
January 13, 2011 – 9:34 pm
“There is a 2 acre plot of land beside the parking lot at the Houston Food Bank’s new headquarters on I-10 east and that organization is looking for someone to build a demonstration garden there. Meanwhile, Covenant Community Capital is assisting a group of chefs including Randy Evans from Haven who are looking for a spot for a cooperative restaurant garden. Last Organic Outpost and the Harris County AgriLife extension office are looking for ways to help both groups. One idea under consideration is to turn the Houston Food Bank lot into a composting facility — at least to get that project started. The search for a restaurant garden is focusing on vacant lots in the Fifth Ward.” [Texas Eats; previously on Swamplot]
Read more about: 77020, 77029, Fifth Ward, Gardening, Harbordale, Restaurants
December 14, 2010 – 12:53 pm
The City of Houston permitting office has worked its artistic magic: There’s a house now sitting on the lot at 3705 Lyons Ave. in the Fifth Ward that’s officially classified as a sculpture. Last week, it was just a run-down bungalow a couple of miles to the northwest, at 3012 Erastus St. At what point along its journey — which after several postponements finally took place last Thursday night — did the transformation occur? City officials and demo artists Dan Havel and Dean Ruck can’t pinpoint it. But we’ve got a few photos of the move. Maybe someone can point out for us the exact moment the art began?
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Read more about: 77020, Art, Demolitions, Development Regulations, Fifth Ward, Housemoving, Parks, Proposed Developments, Public Art
Comment of the Day: Looking for Houston’s Neighborhood-Alikes
“I think the math is already starting to work for some people. Remember the guy who was concerned that he had 30 days to vacate the Andover Richmond property in Montrose? The 3rd and 5th Wards may be a good option for tenants like him, — as older, more affordable properties continue to disappear from Montrose. Of course it’s a while before anyone would drop $3,000 a month for an apartment in that area.
The New York Times had an article in January titled ‘So You’re Priced Out, Now What?‘ They looked at neighborhoods, sometimes miles from each other, in very different price points, but that looked like each other. They had pictures of a street of gorgeous brownstones in Manhattan’s Upper West Side; and an equally gorgeous street in more reasonable Prospect Heights Brooklyn. You’d swear they were side by side; not miles away. The same thing happens in Houston, and Montrose versus the 3rd and 5th Wards is starting to be like that.” [ZAW, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Rent Isn’t Too Damn High]