Tag: Midtown

Midtown
10/10/13 3:35pm

Planting a Beer Garden in Midtown

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Proposed Developments
14 Comments

Here’s one more place where you will be able to drink some beer in Midtown: A reader sends these photos that show one of those TABC signs and peek over the weed-draped chain-link fence that surrounds this property next to Luigi’s Pizzeria on the 3700 block of Almeda, just around the corner from HCC and the Station Museum. It appears that something called the Victory Beer Garden is intended for this site, which county records show is owned by an entity controlled by Urban Deal’s Adam Brackman. As it happens, Urban Deal owns several parcels of land in the surrounding area. And a marketing flyer for one such parcel reveals an early version of a site plan for this garden of drinking . . .

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Apartments
10/01/13 10:00am

Big Plans Around That Rail-Riding Midtown Development Emerge

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Midtown, Mixed Use, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Retail
12 Comments

Here are a couple of new renderings from Gensler and more of the details for that pedestrian- and transit-friendly development proposed to go up beside the light rail in Midtown: The Houston Chronicle reports that RHS Interests is planning for the west side of the 3500 and 3600 blocks of Main St. a 363-unit apartment building dubbed the Lofts of Mid Main, a 773-space parking garage, and 30,000 sq. ft. of retail.

And that huge garage would be shared by the cool cats coming to and from the MATCH, the Ensemble Theater, and those other restaurants, bars, and shops there around the Ensemble/HCC station between Alabama and Holman.

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Apartments
09/18/13 10:10am

A Look at Plans for a Train-Centric Development on Main St. in Midtown

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Midtown, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Retail
38 Comments

Here are the first renderings of Mid Main, what appears to be a 2-block, mixed-use development planned to stand along the Red Line in Midtown. And it appears to be an active project, too, though details are still pretty skimpy. Rogers Architects is partnering with Gensler and Rice prof and architect William T. Cannady on the designs. The text accompanying these renderings posted briefly on the architect’s website indicates that 70 percent of the development would comprise studio apartments, and the renderings themselves suggest plenty of parking, pocket parks, young people, and ground-floor retail.

It appears that the development would go in around the Ensemble/HCC light rail station on the 2 blocks bound by Main, Travis, and Holman, most of which are now surface parking lots. A commenter on HAIF asserts that Berry St., which provides access to those lots, would be abandoned.

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Midtown
08/26/13 4:00pm

A Substandard Structure To Become Sterling House Bar in Midtown

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Proposed Developments, Renovations
17 Comments

This wobbly 108-year-old house in Midtown, remodeled in 1999, might be fixed up one more time and converted into a bar. Or it might be demolished to make room for something new, says the reader who sends this photo and word of a recently secured TABC license for the so-called Sterling House here at 3015 Bagby St., just 1 block north of Elgin. The 1905 2,850-sq.-ft. house, sitting on a 4,918-sq.-ft. lot at the corner of Bagby and Rosalie, changed hands back in 2009, but it appears to have been waiting around for something to happen since then.

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Midtown
08/12/13 12:05pm

The Gas Station Coffee Patio Coming Soon to Midtown

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants
9 Comments

THE GAS STATION COFFEE PATIO COMING SOON TO MIDTOWN The Houston Chronicle reports a few more matter-of-fact details about Retrospect Coffee, the cafe that Tacos-A-Go-Go owners are planning to open in — but primarily around, it appears — that oft-painted former gas station at the corner of W. Alabama and La Branch near HCC and the Station Museum in Midtown: “It will serve beer and wine in addition to coffee. . . . The building will hold espresso machines and perhaps a counter for patrons. . . . Most of the seating will be outdoors. Furniture will be bright orange to represent the old Gulf logo that once hung on the gas station.” [Houston Chronicle ($)] Photo: Allyn West

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Homes for Sale
08/08/13 2:00pm

A Square Deal Reworked in Midtown

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Interiors, Midtown
10 Comments

Once a duplex, a box-on-box 1965 home two blocks from Baldwin Park in Midtown endures as newer townhomes sprout around it. The fenced-in side lot provides some yardage otherwise missing at the back of the property, which is light on windows (at right), but big on built-in storage cubes (top). Last weekend, the freshly painted, previously updated residence appeared on the market with a $760,000 price tag.

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Midtown
08/06/13 4:00pm

From the River Bottom to the Docks in Midtown

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Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Restaurants
17 Comments

Swamplot commenter drlan34 reports (and that Dumpster in the photo above would appear to confirm) that a good gutting is going on to renovate the old dive bar Brazos River Bottom into a new restaurant, identified on that yellow permit window dressing as Docks on Brazos. The building here at 2400 Brazos and McIlhenny in Midtown shares a parking lot with the also-being-renovated Bremond Street Grill and backs up against the opened-just-a-few-months-ago Dogwood Houston, a bar paid for by a team from Austin that includes one-time reality teevee hunk Brad Womack and his identical twin brother.

Photo: Allyn West

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Midtown
08/02/13 11:00am

A Pair of New Bars Prepping Old Midtown Spots

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Openings and Closings, Renovations, Restaurants
9 Comments

A reader sends these photos and news of bars getting ready to give it a go in Midtown. The photo above shows the former Opium nightclub undergoing renovations in the Midtown Shoppes on Travis and Anita St.; the reader reports that sometime this fall that spot will become the 3030 Pub. It’s catty-corner from where the Midtown Superblock has been proposed.

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Midtown
07/30/13 12:15pm

Farrago Forced To Leave Costly Midtown Ground Floor

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants
17 Comments

FARRAGO FORCED TO LEAVE COSTLY MIDTOWN GROUND FLOOR After 13 years of serving mimosas in Midtown, Farrago World Cuisine is closing. Catty-corner from the under-construction Midtown Park and one of the first ground-floor participants in that two-block urban walkability experiment around the Post Properties buildings at Gray, Webster, and Bagby, Farrago announced the shuttering in a recent Facebook post that suggests how primo the ‘hood is becoming: “We endured the construction, paid parking and towed customers. Alas, the over double rent was more than we could bare.” [Facebook; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Farrago World Cuisine

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Institutional Buildings
07/29/13 10:00am

A Place for Men To Get Clean in Midtown

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Midtown, New Construction
28 Comments

A new residence hall for men rehabbing from drug and alcohol addiction looks to be shaping up in Midtown. Designed by Roesler Architects, the 4-story, 26,000-sq.-ft. building will hold 64 efficiency units meant to house 2 men at a time; each unit, according Roesler, will have a microwave, refrigerator, built-in desk, and a coffee bar. There will also be what Roesler describes as a “Linear Courtyard” — a fenced-in landscaping feature, presumably — that will be accessible from the dayroom on the first floor. The new building is located at the corner of Alabama and San Jacinto, east of the Men’s Center headquarters across Main St. from the construction of Broadstone 3800, the 5-story apartment complex facing the light rail line on Main.

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Midtown
06/24/13 2:45pm

Redoing a Red Line Restaurant in Midtown

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Openings and Closings, Renovations, Restaurants
8 Comments

Sporting some of the more evocative ghost signage in Midtown, the vacant former Saigon Cafe #2 seems to be in the process of becoming the future Cafe Helene. This TABC sign is dated May 24, and a rep from the building’s leasing company says that the new sandwich shop should be open here at 3101 Main St. in the next few months. Located between the Ensemble/HCC and McGowen stops, the 8,000-sq.-ft. building dates to 1948, county records show, and it’s catty-corner from the not-quite-3-acre swath of the Midtown Superblock and that back-of-a-strip-center mural that was painted in April. For now, a thorough gutting of the building seems to be underway, at least judging from the size of the pile of scrap in the back:

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Midtown
05/07/13 10:00am

Improvements Coming to a Trio of Midtown Parks

by
Parks, Renovations
13 Comments

What used to be just a corner lot and one of those green tell-tale signs in Midtown is becoming a little more parklike, it seems: Parks department rep Estella Espinosa says that Elizabeth Glover Park at Elgin and Austin will be closed through August while crews upgrade lighting and drainage systems and install new features, including a crushed granite plaza, dog run, and bocce ball court. According to a post yesterday at Midtown Houston Rocks, there are 2 other parks getting a similar treatment: Midtown Park at Gray and Bagby and Baldwin Park between Crawford and Chenevert on Elgin, a few blocks southeast of here.

Photo: Allyn West

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Comments
04/26/13 1:00pm

Comment of the Day: My Central Square Dorm Dream

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Midtown, Quicklink
5 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: MY CENTRAL SQUARE DORM DREAM “When I was at school at UH-D, I would take the rail up to campus everyday and see those two buildings there. To best contribute to the urban fabric, I often would imagine that someone would redevelop them as dorms, and the block that is between it and the rail line could be repurposed as a plaza with a few cafes that would link the building to the rail. The private dorms could serve UH-D, HCC Central, South Texas Law, the medical schools, and even UH and TSU once the University line is complete. Having students commute from the various schools to this central location would add vibrancy to the area and could bring about good academic fellowship. Not sure of the economic feasibility, but it would wildly popular (if the dorm fees were reasonable). Since it’s college kids, renovations need only consist of low cost furnishings, concrete floors, bare ceilings, and maybe a gym and cafeteria. Gotta dream big.” [VMel, commenting on New Owners of Central Square Plaza Want To Make Something of It]

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Freeways and Toll Roads
04/25/13 11:00am

How To Ease the 59 Northbound Bottleneck Between Shepherd and the Spur

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Traffic
28 Comments

The Problem: “As traffic backs up on 59 past the Spur, drivers are faced with a dilemma. Do I sit and queue here in the right three lanes, which aren’t moving? Or do I get over and zoom past until right before the split? Many, understandably, choose the latter. But what this does is create a new bottleneck at the point where the Spur diverges, because traffic is merging into the left lane and then trying to cross over to get to 288 or stay on 59.” The (Not So Obvious) Solution: “Add a couple miles of barrier and put the split (‘gore point’ in traffic engineer speak) at Shepherd. If you’ve driven this route once, you can see how it would immediately shave several minutes off the trip to Downtown/Midtown/Montrose. The Spur is never jammed in the reverse direction, so anything that effectively lengthens the Spur lengthens the distance of hassle-free 60mph cruising. But such a configuration would also help drivers continuing on 59.”

Photo: Flickr user jfre81 [license]

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Buying and Selling
04/25/13 10:00am

New Owners of Central Square Plaza Want To Make Something of It

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Commercial Real Estate, Midtown, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Renovations
28 Comments

Central Square Plaza has been sold, and new owner Keeley Megarity, whose LLC closed on the 1-acre Midtown property at 2100 Travis St. about a week ago, says that a decision about how to renovate these buildings — and what to renovate them into — will be made in the next 30-45 days.

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