Tag: North Montrose

06/17/11 11:40pm

Beer, Wine, Art, and BBQ on Tap: Here’s Your New Whole Foods Market, Montrose

Openings and Closings, Retail

24 Comments

The Montrose Whole Foods media frenzy has begun! Did the company’s Walmart-alum store-development manager really tell the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff that Whole Foods decided not to build the store at Waugh and West Dallas on top of 2 levels of structured parking because “the amount of concrete required . . . would have created a ‘huge heat island’”? Meanwhile, bullet-pointed fact sheets announce the 45,000-sq.-ft. store’s smaller-scale innovations: Like LED lighting, 2 electric-vehicle chargers out front, a bike station with tools and an air pump, and much more parking lot than you’ll find in front of the Kirby store. Plus: fascinating facts, like the number of linear feet devoted to prepared items in the chef case (18), bulk foods (44), a beer cooler (32), and smoked seafood (8)! Take a look for yourself:

77019, Grocery Stores, North Montrose, Openings and Closings, Retail, Whole Foods

06/16/11 2:41pm

This Kind of Whole Foods Thing, Getting Real on Waugh at West Dallas This Weekend

Openings and Closings, Parking, Retail

11 Comments

Okay, okay! It ain’t exactly here, but y’all want to see this, so here ya go. North Montrose’s little bit in this game doesn’t open until . . . this weekend.

Previously on Swamplot: North Montrose Whole Foodsâ€™ Rendezvous with Groceries, Austin Powers the New North Montrose Whole Foods, The New Whole Foods at West Dallas and Waugh, Whole Foods Galleria and North Montrose: Still on Track, In and Around the New North Montrose Whole Foods, A Few Signs the Montrose Whole Foods Market Is On Its Way

Video: Fog and Smog Films

77019, Grocery Stores, North Montrose, Openings and Closings, Parking-Lots, Retail

Comments

06/01/11 10:35pm

Comment of the Day: Just Checking

North Montrose, Quicklink

3 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: JUST CHECKING “As a member of the board of the College Park Cemetery Association and ‘head volunteer’ for the cemetery the past few years, I felt comfortable opening the new coffin at College Park on a visit yesterday. Unfortunately my hopes for a large cash donation towards the cemeteryâ€™s restoration were dashed when I found the box was empty.” [Randy Riepe, commenting on Caught on Camera: Mysterious Coffin, Out and About in North Montrose Cemetery; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Courtney Zubowski, KHOU 11 News

77019, Cemeteries, Comments, North Montrose

05/27/11 10:57am

Historic Houston Salvage Warehouse Going Out of Business, Selling Everything at Auction

77019, Construction Materials, North Montrose

7 Comments

It looks like those last-ditch fundraising efforts that might have saved Historic Houston’s Salvage Warehouse from undergoing its own salvage operation weren’t enough. A local auction company will be selling all remaining inventory at the local building-parts-preservation group’s warehouse next week, in what the nonprofit is clearly labeling a “going out of business” sale. Everything at the 1307 W. Clay warehouse will be up for sale: doors, windows, flooring, lumber, plumbing fixtures, tools and equipment for DIY salvagers who’d like to carry on in Historic Houston’s 7-plus-year tradition, office furniture. And yes: Even the organization’s black and white twin Dodge trucks. A page on the website of Worstell Auction Company features photos of many of the vintage goodies, including a screaming “Eisenhower Wins in Landslide” cover from an old Houston Chronicle. (No R-value provided, though. You’ll need to test that out yourself.) Auction date: next Thursday, June 2, at 10 am on the warehouse grounds.

Historic Houston Salvage Warehouse Auction [Worstell Auction Co.]
Previously on Swamplot: Can Historic Houstonâ€™s Salvage Warehouse Be Salvaged?

Photos: Historic Houston

Hazards

05/25/11 4:48pm

Solving the College Memorial Park Cemetery Casket Case: Teevee News Crew on the Scene!

4 Comments

“What’s that photo — a coffin?” Ladies and gentlemen, if you’ve got a casket problem in your neighborhood, you know now that reporting it to Swamplot will get you results. Yes, just minutes after Swamplot posted photos of the mysterious burial chamber that a reader found tanning itself on the grounds of the College Memorial Park Cemetery on West Dallas St., intrepid KHOU 11 News reporter Courtney Zubowski was live on the scene, ready to investigate. Of course, if you’re with a TV news team it certainly helps to have someone else — with maybe some eye protection — on hand to do any heavy, uh, coffin prying that might be necessary. (That’s KHOU photographer Gregg Ramirez hard on the case in Zubowski’s photo, above). You know, just in case something pops up unexpectedly.

77019, Cemeteries, Hazards, North Montrose

Hazards

05/25/11 2:10pm

Caught on Camera: Mysterious Coffin, Out and About in North Montrose Cemetery

18 Comments

As promised, Swamplot’s original tipster sends in photos of the freelance coffin first spotted last night at the College Memorial Park Cemetery on West Dallas St. in North Montrose, a couple blocks northeast of the River Oaks Shopping Center. It’s likely been some time since this cemetery has seen a new burial. And yet — hello there! These photos are from this morning:

77019, Cemeteries, Hazards, North Montrose

05/25/11 8:23am

Coffin Up, What? The Light After Dark at the College Memorial Park Cemetery

5 Comments

There’s no word — or any photos — back yet this morning from the tipster who reported spotting a coffin sitting out on the grounds of the normally dead-quiet College Memorial Park Cemetery on West Dallas near Gross St. late last afternoon. Is that . . . good news or bad news? In the meantime, a 10-point follow-up report has come in from another reader who wandered into the scene, camera in hand, as night fell — you know, just to check it out:

1) walked by late like 8:30
2) could only see 1/3rd the way in
3) couldn’t see a coffin
4) instead saw a light coming from in there (see photo [above] in middle on ground)
5) no fing way I’m going in there to check that out
6) see HPD hanging outside Juvie across the street
7) we check it out together (not that guns/tasers would help with zombies)

Zombies???

77019, Cemeteries, North Montrose

05/24/11 7:03pm

Are We Talkin’ New Coffin — or Used Coffin?

Quicklink

2 Comments

ARE WE TALKIN’ NEW COFFIN — OR USED COFFIN? “I don’t want to panic anyone,” reports a longtime Swamplot reader and tipster who frequents the area by West Dallas and Gross St. “But there’s a coffin perched atop the ground over at College Memorial Park Cemetery. I was going to take a photo but I was too skeered. I suddenly turned into a terrified sixth grader at the sight of it.” What??? No photo? Our correspondent promises to send someone braver over with a camera — but “before it gets dark.” [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot]

77019, Cemeteries, North Montrose

Montrose

05/19/11 12:35pm

North Montrose Whole Foods’ Rendezvous with Groceries

New Construction, North Montrose, Openings and Closings, Retail

24 Comments

Opening date for the brightly colored new 40,450-sq.-ft. Whole Foods Market on West Dallas and Waugh: June 22, the company reports. What about farther afield? A Whole Foods spokesperson says the company has no current plans for a store in Katy, but Nancy Sarnoff reports sources have told her the grocery retailer “is in negotiations to put a 30,000 square-foot store at the corner of Grand Parkway and Fry Road.”

Photo: Candace Garcia

77019, Grocery Stores, Montrose, New Construction, North Montrose, Openings and Closings, Retail, Whole Foods

Apartments

04/25/11 5:57pm

The Apartments Taking the Place of the Houston Ballet on West Gray

North Montrose, Proposed Developments

15 Comments

The apartment complex the Richdale Group is planning to put in place of the just-vacated Houston Ballet building at 1916 West Gray will indeed have retail space on the ground floor — if you count the facility’s leasing office, that is. Also right in front on the first floor: 2 apartments and 4 head-in parking spaces, for potential tenants only. The parking garage will go in back, accessed from Bell St. A plan for the development, labeled the Graybelle subdivision, was submitted as part of a variance request for this Thursday’s planning commission meeting. The developers are requesting a 15-ft. setback along West Gray in place of the usual 25 ft. requirement. The lot is directly west of Randall Davis’s gargoyle-festooned Metropolis condo building.

77019, Apartments, North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Retail, Variances

Apartments

04/21/11 12:41pm

Apartment Building Replacing Tavern on Gray Won’t Have Any Retail, But Really Wants To Hug the Street Anyway

Development Regulations, North Montrose, Proposed Developments

74 Comments

Houston’s own Hanover Company wants to build this 5-story apartment complex on the current site of the Tavern on Gray, just east of the shopping district that extends along West Gray to Shepherd. And it’s hoping to get a variance from the planning commission that would allow the buildings to have smaller setbacks than current regulations allow: 15 ft. along Waugh (where 25 would otherwise be required) and just 5 ft. along West Gray (otherwise they’d need 15). Sure, the Hanover West Gray project would have 2 floors of parking (one of them underground) underneath 4 residential floors — but the extremely persuasive variance request kinda makes it hard not to wish the place had conditions that were less — you know, tough and urban:

77019, Apartment Complexes, Development Restrictions, North Montrose, Pedestrians, Proposed Developments, Variances

04/15/11 1:34pm

Pulling Out All the Stops at the Historic Houston Salvage Warehouse Extended Goodbye Sale

North Montrose, Openings and Closings, Recycling

7 Comments

As of this morning, Historic Houston has been able to raise only $13,000 of the $50,000 executive director Lynn Edmundson had figured the organization would need to keep its North Montrose building-parts salvage warehouse in operation for just 3 more months. After this weekend, she tells Swamplot, she will have lost all employees other than her crew. That means the warehouse at 1307 West Clay St. will only be able to be opened by appointment. This Saturday from 10 to 4, though, she’ll be holding a last-ditch 50-percent-off sale with a bonus: All purchases will be tax-free.

As a nonprofit, Historic Houston is allowed to hold 2 sales-tax-free sales a year. Similar events put on by the organization in past years have been “pretty big successes,” according to Edmundson. “There seems to be something about not paying taxes” that really encourages people to buy, she says.

77019, Construction Materials, North Montrose, Openings and Closings, Recycled Materials

03/22/11 10:30am

Can Historic Houston’s Salvage Warehouse Be Salvaged?

North Montrose, Openings and Closings

5 Comments

Note: The discounting has begun. See update below.

A weekend and a day after she sent out word that Historic Houston’s 7-year-old recycled-house-parts warehouse at 1307 West Clay St. would be shutting down, the nonprofit organization’s founder and executive director says she’s currently evaluating a few options that might allow her to keep the salvage operation in business. “Some very incredible offers came forward on Friday,” Lynn Edmundson tells Swamplot, “and I am spending the next day or two investigating each one to see if any of them will work out . . . as an interim strategy to keep the warehouse opened and operating for a few more months.”

Edmundson also says numerous supporters of the organization asked her to “calculate what cash we would need to stay afloat for 3 months — and then ask for it.” Which she did in a follow-up email she sent out Friday, seeking 500 donations of $100 each. Edmundson says she was encouraged by the immediate response: The first $1,000 was raised within 5 minutes of sending out the request. “We may not raise all that we need,” she says, but whatever amount is raised might “buy us a little more time to explore the options that have been offered.”

77019, Construction Materials, North Montrose, Openings and Closings, Recycled Materials

03/18/11 10:17am

Historic Houston Ending Its Salvage Program, Shutting Down North Montrose Salvage Warehouse

North Montrose, Openings and Closings

21 Comments

Local nonprofit Historic Houston is no longer accepting donations of building materials, and is closing its salvage warehouse and ending its salvage program, reports the organization’s founder and executive director, Lynn Edmundson. The organization stored and sold donated historic building materials reclaimed from doomed houses at a leased warehouse and yard at 1307 W. Clay and a separate “overflow” facility across the street at 1214 Joe Annie. Historic Houston’s 9-year-old salvage program typically removed and saved doors, windows, flooring, shiplap, siding, stair rails treads, and plumbing and lighting fixtures from old houses slated for demolition.