Swamplot Archives by Tag: Rice-Village

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Shakespeare at the Village Corner

We have a winner! The . . . same winner.

Where is this home? There were 2 guesses each for West University, Riverside Terrace, Idylwood, Montrose, and the Heights. The rest: “near Hobby Airport,” Pearland, Southampton, Southgate, Clear Lake, Spring Valley “or the area a little east of there,” “around Rice,” “Longpoint near Spring Branch Med Center,” Meyerland, “MacGregor/Riverside,” “outside the Beltway just south of I-10, maybe near Kirkwood or Dairy Ashford,” Friendswood, “off Lawndale and 45,” Westbury, Garden Oaks, “somewhere in the vicinity of Rice and Rice Village,” “one of the various neighborhoods along Greenbriar and Shepherd between Rice Village and West Alabama,” Oak Forest, Pasadena, and Deer Park.

The winner — for the third week in a row! — is Matt Mystery, who blanketed the Rice University area with a series of guesses, making sure to mention the Rice Village:

That converted attic to me is really the main clue along with that curious mail slot which seems to indicate there is also an entry. So it is in an older neighborhood where even the smaller houses, and this was probably a smaller house with several rooms added on, were a little more “upscale” than normal. One story but with a high-pitched roof which as I recall allowed for better cross-ventilation which kept the house cooler and of course added more storage space in the attic itself. It could be out in the boonies somewhere but my feeling is it’s “inside the loop” and somewhere in the vicinity of Rice and Rice Village although it could be further north in one of the various neighborhoods along Greenbriar and Shepherd between Rice Village and West Alabama and the various neighborhoods between West Alabama and 59 in the Montrose area. Draw a circle using Rice University as the center and I suspect this house is somewhere within a 5 mile radius.

Congratulations, Matt! Our runner-up this week is Carol, who also thought the home was “around Rice.”

Where is it exactly?

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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Openings and Closings: Down the Donut Hole

Just a couple items this time:

  • Closing: The Dunkin Donuts at 5406 Bellaire Blvd. near Bissonnet, after more than 2 decades in the same spot. When it’s gone, there’ll be just 4 of the chain’s locations left in the Houston area. The Bellaire Examiner’s Steve Mark:

    [Owner Henry] Tsao’s current agreement with the donut chain is expiring; the company requires new agreements to last a 10-year duration with a new set of parameters for facility and mechanical upgrades totaling as much as $400,000. Tsao, 62, doesn’t want to make a long-term commitment at his age and isn’t inclined to make the required financial reinvestment, so his store will close Oct. 24.

  • Moved to the Rice Village: Dog- and baby-friendly Olivine has taken over the former location of Back Be Nimble at 2405 Rice Blvd. Making the trip from Uptown Park: owner Helen Stroud’s collection of linens, loungewear, and reproduction and slipcovered furniture. In the back: baby clothes. Cote de Texas’s Joni Webb reports:

    Helen spent all of September getting the new shop ready – and if you ever wanted to check out wall to wall seagrass, this is your chance – I think she bought out all the rolls of it available in town.

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Friday, July 10, 2009

Main Street Theater Reaches the Renovation Stage

Main Street Theater’s lease on its Rice Village building — which it’s held for 27 years — went month-to-month last year. So the 34-year-old company has announced it wants to buy and renovate the building at 2540 Times Blvd., near Kirby. (The theater also stages productions at a separate facility in Chelsea Market, at 4617 Montrose Blvd.)

This dramatically lit rendering from Studio Red Architects is meant to attract donors to the organization’s $3.5 million capital campaign. It shows what a theater-owned and renovated building might look like shortly before an evening performance — if, say, no one decided to park in front of it.

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Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Solving the Late-Night Parking Problems at Sunset and Morningside

From the Village News:

“Johns” may be sad to see the Southampton brothel close, but the neighborhood is glad to see the nuisance gone.

The location of Asian Massage Villa, 2401 Sunset at Morningside, appeared vacant after a notice of eviction was served by the property owner. . . .

“Their little driveway was always full at night and people were parking wherever they could. HPD and the city attorney’s office really did a fabulous job with this,” said [Southampton Extension Civic Association President Ann] Hightower. . . .

[The establishment's] little door was around the side and towards the back on Morningside. There was no sign, just a lighted doorway and some stickers indicating donations to emergency responders.

Photo of 2401 Sunset Blvd.: LoopNet

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Thursday, June 4, 2009

Rumbling Behind the Village Fence: A Sonoma Defeat Garden?

What’s all that heavy equipment doing on the former Sonoma battleground in the Rice Village? Is the project back from the dead?

No. The West University Examiner’s Michael Reed reports that the fenced-in site of the sacrificed commercial building along Bolsover between Kelvin and Morningside is being used as a staging area for the portion of the Kirby Dr. reconstruction project that stretches between Quenby and Bissonnet. And:

Public Works Department spokesman Alvin Wright said the agreement to use the land was entered into by the Kirby project contractor and Lamesa [Properties], not the city of Houston.

What about those other big ideas for using the liberated land?

Additionally, the Examiner has learned negotiations between the property owner and a residential civic group are under way to make another portion of the property a community garden.

Photo of former Sonoma site from Dunstan Rd.: West University Examiner

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Openings and Closings: Bars and Barbecue

An update on recent comings and goings:

  • Now Open: “A small group of cocktail freaks,” including former Beavers bartender Bobby Heugel, have at last opened the doors of Anvil Bar & Refuge on the Westheimer Curve. The location was originally a Bridgestone-Firestone tire shop, but was known more recently as the home of the Daiquiri Factory and Sliders.
  • Closed: In advance of that new 25,000-sq.-ft. Spec’s opening up in the former Linens ’N Things in Weslayan Plaza, owner Christopher Massie decided to shut down Cepage Noir, his considerably smaller wine shop on Times Blvd. in the Rice Village.

More twists and turns:

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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Village Chocolate Bar: Now Serving Cake and Ice Cream in Plus Sizes

Just opened in this . . . uh, extra-wide storefront at 2521 University in the Rice Village, just a few doors down from Candylicious: a second — and considerably larger — location for the Chocolate Bar. A reader sends in this night-time photo, providing evidence that the retail space was formerly the home of . . . yes, a Lane Bryant.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Village Burrito Mission Accomplished

Major wrapping operations ended last Saturday at the Mission Burrito on Morningside Dr. in the Rice Village, a Swamplot reader reports:

We went to the W. Alabama location and had our tortilla soup, but I was just really surprised that the Village location tanked so soon.

The Village Arcade location opened last May. A new Mission Burrito opened on FM 1960 in Atascocita just last month.

Photo of Mission Burrito, 5510 Morningside Dr.: Mission Burritos

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What’s Next for That Parked Bolsover Sonoma Block

A tidbit from Lamesa Properties, proud owner of that block of Bolsover St. in the Rice Village that was supposed to turn into a grand plaza for Randall Davis’s Sonoma development, but for now is just a fenced-off lot:

Company representative Julie Tysor said that while construction is on hold, the firm is open to ideas for the site to have some “long-term benefit to the community.” For now, plans are under way to make the unpaved area a green space, and the paved area may be used for much-needed Village parking.

Photo of Sonoma Site on Bolsover St.: Miya Shay

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Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Empty Sonoma Site Update

   

One possible future for the site of the shelved Sonoma development in the Rice Village: nothing — for a long time. “The 2400 block of Bolsover could remain undeveloped and in the possession of Lamesa Properties another seven-and-half years, according to the terms of the ordinance approving the street’s abandonment. A spokesman for the city said Monday in addition to the five years the agreement allowed for the completion of the retail-residential project and some traffic-related construction, an additional three-year extension can be granted at the ’sole discretion’ of the director of Public Works. Under the terms of the sale of the street, the additional time could be allowed ‘for extenuating circumstances,’ city spokesman Alvin Wright said.” [West University Examiner]

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Friday, November 21, 2008

Sonoma Walgreens: Not a Survivor

The River Oaks version of Michael Reed’s Examiner story about Sonoma’s failed financing efforts quoted here yesterday has an additional Walgreens update appended. The halt in plans for developing the Sonoma won’t change anything:

Meanwhile, Walgreens spokesman Robert Elfinger said Monday the Rice Village store will close Dec. 31 as planned and will not be relocated.

Photo of demolition on Bolsover St. last year: Jackson Myers

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Thursday, November 20, 2008

Sonoma Developers: We Were So Close, Really!

Sonoma’s would-be developers try to explain to West U Examiner reporter Michael Reed why the Rice Village retail-and-condo project was put “on hold” only a few weeks after the sales team sent out an email to prospective buyers claiming it had received financing:

Julie [Tysor], president of the Appelt Companies, said in an e-mail response to Examiner questions about the financing, “We had secured a substantial majority of the financing for the south building through the cooperation of some local lenders who have also supported this project since its inception.”

She said a number of factors contributed to the financing falling through, “not the least of which is historical world economic crisis that is unprecedented…”

So what’s going to happen to the site — which includes that block of Bolsover St. purchased from the city — now?

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Friday, November 14, 2008

Sonoma in Translation: Not Gonna Happen

Rendering of Proposed Sonoma Development, Bolsover St., Rice Village, Houston

Last month, a Sonoma sales rep told the West U Examiner that the project had secured financing — which turned out to be condo-sales-speak for “Maybe if people think we’re definitely going ahead we can still sell units and somehow find a way out of this mess.” Now Nancy Sarnoff reports in the Chronicle that the developer of the condos-and-retail complex slated for what used to be Bolsover St. in the Rice Village has told her that the project “is being put on hold ‘for the short term.’” This appears to be developer-speak for “We’re toast.”

Was the problem just “economic uncertainties and tumultuous credit markets”? After developer Lamesa Corp. and partner Randall Davis pulled their switcheroo, deciding to start with the project’s second phase because they couldn’t get the more grandiose first phase financed,

they went back to the market and were negotiating for a $70 million loan with 40 percent equity to build the smaller second phase of 85 units.

At that point they had nearly 70 buyers who had put down deposits. More than half were interested in the second building.

Translation: Almost half their buyers bailed.

There’s good news for the trashed 2-block section of the Village Sonoma leaves behind, though:

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Friday, October 24, 2008

Go-Aheads for Sonoma

   

Randall Davis’s Sonoma development couldn’t get financing for its first phase, but the condos-and-retail project’s sales team is now saying it has financing for its second phase, planned for the south side of Bolsover St. And requirements for taking over the block of Bolsover between the two projects have been fulfilled: “In an e-mail sent Saturday, sales team member Keith Kaposta said groundbreaking at the Rice Village site was still expected in February following the expiration of Walgreens’ lease on the property at 5313 Kelvin St. In another development, the city of Houston said Tuesday that developer Randall Davis property owner La Mesa Corp. had successfully completed all work that was required by the extended deadline of Oct. 27. . . . [Public Works Department spokesman Alvin] Wright said even if the work covered under the letters of credit was not completed by the deadlines, the city would not get the property back. [West University Examiner; previously]

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Thursday, October 9, 2008

Will the Village Get Its Bolsover Back?

The West U Examiner’s Michael Reed points out that Randall Davis has a looming deadline to complete some work on the block of Bolsover St. in Rice Village that was purchased from the city:

A condition, passed by the Houston City Council at the time of the sale, specified that some changes to the site of the high-end condo over retail project must be completed within one year.

The block was sold in August of last year so that Davis could use it as part of his Sonoma mixed-use development. Since then, Davis has run into problems finding financing, and the project has changed considerably. He now wants to build the smaller second phase — on the south side of the street — first. But the Walgreens currently on that site has a lease that won’t be up until January.

What needs to get done by the end of October?

The plugging and abandonment of the 8-inch water line within the street, and the relocation of the existing storm sewer inlets to Bolsover and Morningside.

The developer is “required to eliminate the appearance of the public street” at the intersections of Bolsover and both Kelvin and Morningside.

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