Tag: Houston Heights

Comments, Demolitions, Houston Heights, Quicklink

4 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HEIGHTS PLAZA RESIDENTS, TELL US YOUR STORIES “Iâ€™d be curious to know what happens to these people after the wrecking ball has come through. Will the folks be homeless? Will they have found their way elsewhere? Iâ€™m assuming the latter, but I donâ€™t really know and I think itâ€™s pretty uncommon for many publications to follow-through on this type of article.” [tcv, commenting on Walmart Coming â€” Everybody Out!]

77007, Apartment Complexes, Apartments, Comments, Demolitions, Houston Heights, Moving, West End Walmart

Apartments

11/05/10 12:14pm

Walmart Coming — Everybody Out!

Demolitions, Houston Heights, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Retail, Strip Centers

28 Comments

WALMART COMING — EVERYBODY OUT! What residents of the Heights Plaza Apartments at 205 Heights Blvd. found on their doors Wednesday: Letters explaining that the Ainbinder Company has bought the entire complex and that no tenants’ leases will be renewed. For residents whose leases are up in December, that’s 30 days’ notice. Ainbinder will be extending Koehler St. through the property and building 2 strip centers on the remaining portions — as part of the Washington Heights District development that will include a new Walmart. “Although the sale of the complex to the Walmart developer wasn’t a surprise,” explains reporter Miya Shay, “the pace of the move out did catch some residents off guard. Developer Michael Ainbinder says he’s willing to work with residents who can’t find a place before their lease expires. . . . The last lease runs out at the end of April, and the developer says as soon as that happens, they will begin demolishing the property.” [abc13; previously on Swamplot]

77007, Apartments, Demolitions, Houston Heights, Proposed Developments, Retail, Strip Centers, West End Walmart

11/02/10 10:52am

Election Day in the Houston Heights

Neighborhood Disputes, Retail, Signs

9 Comments

“Closer inspection,” reports one of 2 readers who sent us photos of these heartwarming signs found on Studewood just north of Fitzgerald’s, “reveals these to be re-purposed campaign signs…Bill White ‘welcomes’ and Jessica Farrar ‘hearts’ Walmart, apparently.” Okay, so what have people been doing with the Rick Perry and Fernando Herrera signs?

West End Walmart coverage [Swamplot]

Photo: Swamplot inbox

77009, Big Box Stores, Houston Heights, Neighborhood Disputes, Signs, West End Walmart

11/01/10 2:13pm

Tacos a-Go-Going to the Heights; Hubcap Grill Expanding to Shady Acres

Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Shady Acres

19 Comments

Is there an Onion Creek magnet effect? Reader Mary Ellen Arbuckle notes a second location of stylized Midtown Mexican-food joint Tacos A Go-Go will be shimmying into this strip-center spot at 2912 White Oak, just a few doors down from the Onion Creek Coffee House. The location is the former home of the International Ballet of Houston; there’s a TABC application notice up in one of the windows. Also scheduled to move in nearby, closer to the Onion Creek vortex: Christian’s Tailgate.

Meanwhile, half a mile west of the Heights’ western border, owner Ricky Craig has leased the former home of Mi Cocina Victor’s Cafe at 1133 W. 19th St., where he plans to open a second non-mobile location of tiny Downtown burger joint Hubcap Grill:

77007, 77008, Houston Heights, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Shady-Acres

Galveston

10/26/10 9:21pm

Swamplot Street Sleuths: Calling the Kettle

Gulfton, Houston Heights, Montrose, New Construction

13 Comments

Got an answer to any of these reader questions? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Hereâ€™s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.

Galveston: Watercolor artist Don Springer, who makes a habit of rendering area oddities, wants to know more about the Galveston Kettle House on the San Luis Pass between Pirates Beach and Pirates Beach West he painted a few weekends ago. “I know that it was not the radio station KUFO which once broadcasted from the foot of the Flagship (That flying saucer is now a house on West Beach).” He passes on a story he heard from “credible sources” that the half-water-tower turned house was the home of a landscaper who recently passed away, but asks, “Can you use your unlimited resourses, connections, and talent to determine the history of this landmark before it rolls off into the sunset?” Readers? He’s talking to you.
Montrose: Chronicle tech guy Dwight Silverman wants to know what’s going into the building at 1721 Waugh, just south of the Commonwealth split; at about the same time, another Swamplot reader sends us this recent pic of what looks to be a refacing job on the building:

77006, 77008, 77057, 77554, Galveston, Gulfton, Houston Heights, Montrose, New Construction

Comments

10/22/10 6:17pm

Comment of the Day: How We’re Building the Heights

Development Strategies, Home Design, Homebuilding, Houston Heights, Quicklink

42 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW WE’RE BUILDING THE HEIGHTS “. . . Iâ€™ve been in the Heights for 17 years and I can count the ‘stucco mcmansions’ on one hand. 90% of new construction in the Heights is 3,000 to 4,000 sq. ft and at least gives a nod to some turn of the century style. A 4,000 sq.ft house is ALWAYS 2 stories and would . . . have an average footprint of about 2,400 sq.ft including porches. With a 500 sq. ft. garage that is a total of 3,000 sq.ft of coverage on a 6,600 sq. ft. lot, which, according to my calculations, is 45% of the lot. Where do I get my numbers? Iâ€™ve built about 50 of them and designed close to 200. All of my houses sell at the top of the market so I know EXACTLY what my competetors are building. The days of dividing a lot and building multiple units is over, at least for now. Prevailing Lot size and Building Line rules cover about 60% of the Heights and the market just doesnâ€™t want them, so nobody is even thinking of doing it. The exception on 15th and Rutland has been in the planning since 2003 and is going to fail badly. . . .” [SCD, commenting on The Houston Historic District Repeal Scramble Begins]

77007, 77008, Comments, Development Strategies, Home Design, Homebuilding, Houston Heights

Apartments

10/15/10 10:14pm

Comment of the Day: Apartment Complex SEO

Comments, Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing

6 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: APARTMENT COMPLEX SEO “Itâ€™s not just for marketing. Some naming is also for search engine optimization. If someone is searching for an apartment in a specific area, apartments are naming themselves to come up in as many area searches as possible. So Alexan Heights becomes Midtown Heights so a web search will pick it up when someone types in â€œMidtownâ€ or â€œHeightsâ€ and â€œapartmentsâ€ in Houston.” [Heights Weirdo, commenting on Top City Development Officer: What Makes the Heights So Special?]

Apartments, Comments, Houston Heights, Midtown, Real Estate Marketing

Development Strategies

10/14/10 11:23am

Top City Development Officer: What Makes the Heights So Special?

Houston Heights, Proposed Developments, Quicklink

87 Comments

TOP CITY DEVELOPMENT OFFICER: WHAT MAKES THE HEIGHTS SO SPECIAL? Where does Andy Icken get this kind of attitude, anyway? From . . . uh, reading some of the reader comments on Swamplot? The Chronicle‘s Mike Morris rummages through that stash of city emails about the West End Walmart and discovers “dismissive, and sometimes derisive, references to citizens opposed to the development” from Mayor Parker’s top development honcho: “For example, in response to a subordinate’s e-mail regarding potential fallout from a July 2 Chronicle report about Wal-Mart’s interest in the site, the city’s chief development officer, Andy Icken, wrote, ‘In that neighborhood I assume there are some who feel they have access to unique info that makes those folks uniquely qualified to decide what is good for everyone else. â€¦ Walmart deals with folks like this everywhere.’ Three weeks later, as neighborhood opposition intensified, Icken responded to a colleague’s comment about Wal-Mart’s growth in the Houston market by writing, ‘We have had 4 new ones built in the last 2 years without a community comment until they touched the effete in the heights!’” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]

77008, Big Box Stores, City Officials, Development Strategies, Houston Heights, Proposed Developments, West End Walmart

10/13/10 3:59pm

Christian’s Tailgate Opening on White Oak

Openings and Closings, Restaurants

12 Comments

Here’s a tailgater’s-eye-view of the former Heights Camphouse BBQ at 2820 White Oak, about to be reborn as the third location of Christian’s Tailgate Bar and Grill. The Heights Life blog posted a closeup view of the TABC notice posted on the front door earlier this week. Onion Creek Coffee House is less than 100 yards to the west.

I can hardly contain myself [Heights Life]
Previously on Swamplot: Wet and Wild: Strip Redo on White Oak

Photo: Aaron Carpenter

77007, Houston Heights, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

Development Strategies

10/04/10 11:22pm

Swamplot Street Sleuths: Trees for River Oaks Blvd.

by Aaron Carpenter

Houston Heights, River Oaks, Streetscapes, Trees

2 Comments

Got a question about something going on in your neighborhood youâ€™d like Swamplot to answer? Sorry, we canâ€™t help you. But if you ask real nice and include a photo or 2 with your request, maybe the Swamplot Street Sleuths can! Who are they? Other readers, just like you, ready to demonstrate their mad skillz in hunting down stuff like this:

Well, our readers didn’t come up with answers to these questions from last time, so Swamplot did a little digging:

River Oaks: Will the recently denuded River Oaks Blvd. host any actual oaks again? According to River Oaks Property Owners general manager Gary Mangold, that decision hasn’t been made yet. ROPO, the River Oaks Foundation, and boulevard residents will eventually vote on one of 3 separate proposals for reforestation.
Houston Heights: Design firm APD‘s Mark Van Doren tells Swamplot there never was a plan to put parking under the scooted-over and raised Perry-Swilley House now settling into its new digs at 1103 Heights Blvd., one lot north of its original site (see photo below). But there are plans to park an enclosed wine cellar and gameroom under about 30 percent of the house’s elevated footprint. What’s going into the lot on the corner of Heights and 11th St. the house vacated? Either a single-story commercial building or a 2-story house fitted for commercial purposes, Van Doren says. Either one would be “historically styled.” But nothing’s happening for now — the property owner is waiting for an anchor tenant to appear.

77008, 77019, Development Strategies, Historic Preservation, Housemoving, Houston Heights, River Oaks, Streetscapes, Strip Centers, Trees

Homes for Sale

10/01/10 3:59pm

For Sale: What the Esperanza School Is Leaving Behind

Houston Heights, Land for Sale, Schools

4 Comments

The little â€™uns have left the buildings: The Infant House, the Little Treasures House, the Wee-Bits House, the Toddler House, and the Bloomer & Sunflower House are all vacant now. The Esperanza School, a Heights daycare institution, has moved west to the former Ben Milam Elementary at 1100 Roy St., leaving its unique campus cobbled together from Heights Blvd. and Harvard St. houses behind. Founded in a grand Lovett Blvd. home in Montrose, the school moved to Heights Blvd. in the mid-eighties, expanding into adjacent and nearby kiddie cottages one at a time. And now they’re all for sale, in little mortgage-bite-size pieces!

Well, almost: all except the main school house at 639 Heights Blvd. (now under contract, snatched up before it could be listed), and the Discovery House at 429 Heights Blvd. (which the owner is keeping).

But 5 of the 6 listed and deed-restriction-free properties form an almost-contiguous (okay, there’s an alley down the middle) 35,700-sq.-ft. plot across 7th St. from Donovan Park. One reader comments: “The two on Harvard back up to two on the Blvd., so that is at least a dozen townhomes. No law against a high rise, either.” A quick tour of the homes standing in the way:

77007, Homes for Sale, Houston Heights, Land for Sale, Schools

Historic Preservation

09/21/10 11:25pm

Swamplot Street Sleuths: Where Are the River Oaks?

Houston Heights, River Oaks, Streetscapes, Strip Centers, Trees

5 Comments

Got an answer to one of these reader questions? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Hereâ€™s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.

River Oaks: A reader wants to know how River Oaks or the City of Houston could “get away with not replacing the 30+ trees they destroyed when resurfacing River Oaks Blvd. [(above)] . . . Isn’t there an ordinance requiring trees to be replaced?”
Houston Heights: Another reader has joined the saga of the traveling 1903 Perry-Swilley House (photo below) on the northwest corner of Heights Blvd. and 11th St., already in progress: “[They] moved the house across the lot and [then] raised the house by building brick columns underneath. I’m not sure what the point was.” Why, more strip centers and more parking — isn’t it always? The house was moved from the corner so the project’s developer might be able to fit in a small shopping strip with Heights Blvd. frontage; 2 years ago the city historical commission approved plans to raise the house so that parking could be fit underneath. But . . . what’s the current status of this project?

77008, 77019, Historic Preservation, Housemoving, Houston Heights, River Oaks, Streetscapes, Strip Centers, Trees

09/13/10 3:23pm

Heights Restaurant Mill

Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants

6 Comments

HEIGHTS RESTAURANT MILL Scott Tycer tells Cleverley Stone he’s planning to turn his unused restaurant space in the Heights’ former Oriental Textile Mill on 22nd St. at Lawrence into a “casual dining concept” called Kraftsmen CafÃ©. Tycer shuttered his Textile restaurant at that location in June, but kept the Kraftsmen Bakery operating. The cafe will feature pastries, breakfast tacos, beer, and wine, and will open in November, Tycer says. Meanwhile, former Textile executive chef Ryan Hildebrand is leaving to open his own new place, to be called Triniti — in a so-far-undisclosed location. [Cleverley’s Houston Restaurant Blog; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Heights Blog

77008, Houston Heights, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

Condos

08/30/10 3:50pm

Viewpoint at the Heights: Back from the Dead?