THE BUILDUP TO TEAR THINGS DOWN FOR THE NEW I-45 HAS BEGUN 
“I’ve noticed a trend in lower Fifth Ward to start building or planning to build in the path of the upcoming I-45 reroute,” writes a Swamplot reader. “Is there a chance that developers can make more money on their buyout if they have developed plans?” Developed or not, there’s certainly been some action along the right of way that TxDOT plans to crater for the new highway segment — like that recent buying and selling in East Downtown across from the GRB. No one’s signed up to build anything new on those parcels yet — but with roadwork not slated to start until 2020, that’s plenty of time to get something ready ahead of the demolitions the highwaymen have planned to make way for the reroute. [Previously on Swamplot] Diagram of I-45 reroute: TxDOT
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Tag: Lower Fifth Ward
The lights have been changed again in the vacant office building at the center of Midway’s newly renamed East River site on Buffalo Bayou in the Fifth Ward. The 12-story former Building 3 on the KBR campus the development firm bought last year has progressed from referencing Amazon minus a couple of vowels to spelling out our city’s well-accomplished hometown baseball team minus its initial A. The view above was captured by a Swamplot reader from Clinton Dr. last night
The AMZN lettering lives on, though, at the end of a promo video Midway produced to rep Houston — and its mostly vacant 150-acre former industrial site:
’Stros in Lights
Here’s the backside of the 12-story former KBR office building that Midway has for the last week lit up with a new message in hopes of signaling to Amazon and avian passers-by that it buys into the concept underlying many of Jeff Bezos’s business decisions. Also: That the surrounding 150-acre property on the north side of Buffalo Bayou east of Downtown Houston that the company has renamed East River would make a fine second headquarters campus for the online and offline retailer. Day 1 is the name assigned successively to 3 different Amazon buildings in Seattle, the latest a new 37-story downtown tower that itself features a lit-up sign on its lower floors that reads HELLO WORLD. Day 1 is also a common catchphrase in the company, a reminder to itself, among other things, to focus on outcomes rather than process and to make decisions quickly, even if you have less information available than you’d like.
Day 1 for this Houston sign was October 2nd. As a reader reported last week, since then the vacant building has been sporting the company’s NASDAQ ticker symbol on the opposite side to match:
Day 1 on Clinton Dr.
The tallest of the 5 vacant structures remaining in the 136-acre former KBR campus fronting Buffalo Bayou east of Downtown that new owner Midway has dubbed East River has been sporting a new night-time look as of this week. The lights in the photo above, taken last night by a reader, spell out the NASDAQ ticker symbol of Amazon — which has announced a nationwide search for a second headquarters campus.
Previously, the lights in the 12-story office building at 4100 Clinton Dr. in the Fifth Ward had been tuned to HTX:
Hey Lookie Here!
COUNTRY LIVING IN THE LOWER FIFTH 
Nancy Sarnoff surveys the collection of repurposed structures moved from Montrose, River Oaks, and Milby St. cobbled into the 4-block Japhet Community run by landlords Jim Ohmart and Eileen Hatcher near Clinton Dr. and Emile St. in the Lower Fifth Ward, off Japhet Creek just north of the Ship Channel-bound Buffalo Bayou: “The rental application for Ohmart’s properties includes questions like: ‘How would you contribute to the neighborhood to make it better?’ and ‘What skills do you have that you’d be willing to share with everyone?’ About 20 people of various ages live there, including several photographers, a professor, nurse and commercial painter. Some are families. Three babies were born in the community last year. Ohmart says he tries to keep the rents affordable, but the taxes have gone up. The cheapest house is $350 a month and the most expensive — a three-bedroom — rents for $980. . . . Ohmart would like to build more housing on a 4½-acre tract adjacent to the community the couple bought in 2003. He’s considered a multifamily development, perhaps with solar power, where tenants could share common facilities, but no official plans have been made.” [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Megan Parks
