05/10/16 9:15am

UTAH’S MALAWI’S PIZZA TO PLANT FAKE TREE NEXT TO DOUBLE MATTRESS FIRM IN SIENNA PLANTATION 8731 Highway 6 Center, Sienna Plantation, Missouri City, 77459Malawi’s Pizza (which currently has 3 locations sprinkled along a stretch of northern Utah between Salt Lake City and Provo) is planning the first of some 20 Houston-area locations, writes Katherine Feser. The fast-casual-with-fine-china chain’s main shtick, other than the life-size acacia tree model in each restaurant? The company says it donates nutritional supplements and allotments of grain to folks in Malawi in proportion to the number of pizzas sold each month. The first Houston spot is planned for 8731 Highway 6 Center (a new retail strip immediately west of the double Mattress Firm on Highway 6) in Missouri City.  Another location may be on the way to Central Square in Midtown; the company says it hopes to open 4 Houston-area locations by the end of 2017, while also expanding to Dallas and Virginia. [Houston Chronicle] Rendering of Highway 6 Center: Hunington Properties

05/04/15 12:45pm

Mattress Pro and Mattress Firm, 8735-8741 Hwy. 6 South, Sienna Plantation, Missouri City, Texas

Mattress Pro and Mattress Firm, 8735-8741 Hwy. 6 South, Sienna Plantation, Missouri City, TexasIf you thought it was kinda adorable how those 2 same-owner mattress stores are snuggling up right next to each other at the corner of Westheimer and Montrose Blvd. in Montrose, you’re sure to be enthralled by the suburban version of the same like-kind pair-up down about Sienna Plantation, what with their separate, straight-laced façades and separate showrooms. Mattress Firm has been open for a couple years already at 8741 Hwy. 6 South in Missouri City; the same company’s slightly larger Mattress Pro just opened up next door at 8735 last month. Better yet, the buildings are for sale, together!

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Bedroom Community
08/29/11 6:28pm

FORT BEND PARKWAY WILL GROW SOUTH, STAY AWAY FROM THE LOOP The Fort Bend County Toll Road Association plans to start construction of a $20 million, 2.3-mile southern extension of the Fort Bend Parkway from Hwy. 6 to the Sienna Parkway later this year. (The Hwy. 6 underpass will cost an additional $20 million). Plans to to build a 3-mile-long northern extension the Fort Bend Parkway — from Rte. 90A through Westbury, so it connects to the southwest corner of the 610 Loop — have been on the books for more than a decade, but Harris County officials aren’t interested in building it. [Houston Chronicle] Map: HCTRA

04/06/09 5:34pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: GUESSING GAME MARKDOWN “This home was custom built as wheelchair accessible. The features noted are the obvious accessibility features. What makes this home a great example of universal design are the lack of thresholds and the curved radius walls which lessen the chance of crashes, but they also look great! The owners are not handicapped at all and are relocating. They now cannot imagine having shower doors and thresholds to trip over in their next home. The price has been reduced to $555,000.” [Thomas A B Johnson, commenting on Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: First Chair]

03/12/09 5:06pm

Are all the votes in? Okay, then. We have a winner!

First, a big thank you to Robert Gadsby’s brand-new Bedford Restaurant in the Heights, for sponsoring this week’s prize: a $100 gift certificate to the restaurant.

Now your guesses for this week’s home: They were all good. You doubled up on Clear Lake, Cypress, Bentwater, Missouri City, Kingwood, Lakes on Eldridge, and Memorial. Sugar Land got 3 guesses. The rest: Silverlake, Cinco Ranch, West University, Spring Valley, “somewhere east of champion forest, south of spring cypress, north of cypress creek, and west of i45,” the eastern portion of Cypresswood and Louetta near I-45, Cypress Estates, “Kickerillo, Energy Corridor-ish,” Lakes of Parkway, April Sound, near Lake Conroe, “northwest, north of 290, outside of 1960,” Richmond, Pecan Grove, River Oaks, Upper Kirby, Cole’s Crossing, Copperfield, near the Sweetwater or Sugar Creek Country Clubs, Sugar Lakes, Barker Cypress and I-10, Bellaire, Atascocita, Linkwood, Braes Heights, Twin Lakes, Summerwood, Spring, Montgomery, Humble, Friendswood, Pasadena, Dickinson, “Highway 90a between Stafford and the little regional airport,” and Tomball.

Lots of new participants this time. See? It’s not hard! Unless, of course . . . you want to win!

No player narrowed this one down to the actual neighborhood name. But of the two players who mentioned Missouri City, CK had the better explanation, and wins the $100 gift certificate to Bedford. Congratulations! The runner-up was houstonre.

The standout entries, of course, were from flake, who earns an extremely honorable mention for visualizing the hidden wheelchair:

The shower was redone so a chair can get in it. The kitchen counters were lowered and made so a wheelchair can fit underneath comfortably – microwave, sink (plumbing exposed out of necessity) now all within easy reach. Front-loading new washer/dryer put in as well. Also explains the large barca-loungers in LR & bath. And no area rugs to trip up wheels. Mom or Dad is the disabled one – not Grandma.

and later:

ooh, ooh, the light switches are lowered as well. I think they worked with the original builder before the house was built. This just doesn’t feel like a remodel.

Excellent work! Alas, picking up on those clues didn’t lead to the actual location.

Now: A little more about that house!

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01/22/09 4:19pm

To counter the all-shutterings edition of Openings and Closings posted on Swamplot earlier this week, here’s a mostly debuts version:

  • Opening: With the opening of Bryan Caswell’s Little Big’s, Montrose’s late-night restaurant row is complete — at least on weekends, when the burger shack will be open until 3 a.m. Writes Katharine Shilcutt in Eating Our Words:

    In addition to sliders, fries and shakes, Little Big’s also offers wine and beer at extremely reasonable prices, which will all but ensure their popularity. Once the large, welcoming patio is completed, it’s a sure bet that this will be the new hot spot in Montrose.

    This Little Big’s is in the former Ming’s Cafe on Montrose just north of Westheimer; the next one will be in Hermann Park.

There’s more!

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11/18/08 9:13am

MAYBE SIENNNA IS AVAILABLE? Marketing new themed apartments has got to be tough these days — all those great Southern European-y names are already taken! “Out-of-state developers thought they had coined a great name for their senior living apartments in Katy. Then they found out a nearby master-planned community had already claimed the same name. A joint venture led by Georgia-based Formation Development Group LLC broke ground in May on The Sienna at Cinco Ranch apartments at 24001 Cinco Village Center Blvd., west of Houston. But the site was a little too close for comfort to the Sienna Plantation master-planned community located south of Cinco Ranch in Fort Bend County. So Formation Development formulated a slight change of plans — The Sienna at Cinco Ranch is now going to be called The Solana at Cinco Ranch. ‘There was a little bit of confusion,’ says Karen Thompson, a spokeswoman for the development firm. ‘They wanted to have something that was going to be unique to their property.'” [Houston Business Journal]

10/04/07 12:34pm

Plan of Grandeur ParkHouston’s middle-age spread continues:

Plan of Grandeur Park: Kickerillo Companies