Tag: Disaster Aftermath

Disaster Aftermath
07/20/09 1:47pm

When the Spindletop Stops

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Downtown, Openings and Closings, Restaurants
8 Comments

A longtime fan of the rotating Spindletop Restaurant perched on top of the Hyatt Regency Hotel Downtown writes in to note the passing . . . of the restaurant’s website:

I last called them in January to see about a reservation but they were still closed from Hurricane Ike. The gentleman who answered insisted they would re-open someday soon and I was intrigued. I continued checking their website for an announcement every few weeks but it never arrived and then the site itself disappeared Sadly, when websites revert to parking pages, it’s all but assured the business behind them has folded.

If the Spindletop is indeed gone, a slowly revolving icon of Houston’s oil boom days, what would the Hyatt do with such a, umm, unique structure perched atop it’s hotel? Landry’s Heliport and Cloud Bar? Rennovate it to become *the* foremost penthouse in the city? “Hey baby, not just the bed rotates, but the whole penthouse!” Perhaps just another semi-adequate restaurant with a unique and stunning view?

What was the city perch like in its glory pre-Ike days?

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Disaster Aftermath
07/16/09 1:20pm

Timbergrove’s Waterfall House: Half Off

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Homes for Sale, New Construction: Residential, Price Reductions, Timbergrove Manor
20 Comments

The reader who first brought that humongously discounted house in Timbergrove Manor to our attention earlier this spring writes in to report that the tall courtyard home’s asking price has been further reduced. The 6,000-sq.-ft. home at 6204 Queenswood Ln. was originally listed for $1.8 million, but was cut to $1 million in April.

As of last week, the home has been relisted with an even-further-reduced price: $749,999. Why the continuing freefall? Writing in May, a commenter on our earlier story offered some details:

. . . the listing agent indicated that the home had sustained water damage during Ike due to broken windows. She also let me know that the home would soon be going into a short sale, which is now listed on the Agent side of the MLS Listing. . . . Unfortunately, the home did suffer major damage, which in reality looked like the roof leaked throughout the house. The sheetrock has been removed from all ceilings and top ¾ of the walls on the entire second floor. All the molding has also been removed throughout the house. The floorplan is amazing with large rooms, wide hallways and high ceilings. It is really an amazing place!

The photos in the new listing are considerably different from those in the first, and reveal some of the extent of the damage. Here’s the latest view of the central courtyard, scene of that dramatic waterfall:

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Disaster Aftermath
07/14/09 11:08am

No Mercy for Galveston Street Trees

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Galveston, Quicklink, Streets, Trees
18 Comments

NO MERCY FOR GALVESTON STREET TREES Hundreds of Galveston residents have been calling the city’s tree-appeal hotline, arguing that particular street trees targeted in the massive post-Ike chainsaw sweep should not be cut down. After seeing new leaves on the 3-story Live Oak in front of his Avenue L home, one resident offered the city $1,000 not to chop it down. His tree got a re-evaluation, but didn’t exhibit enough new growth to get a reprieve. “If the city could give the trees more time to recover, and if it rained soon, a few more might stand a chance of survival, [Texas Forest Service urban forester Pete] Smith said. But the city will get reimbursed only for the expensive removal process through Sept. 12. Between now and then, crews are scheduled to remove an estimated 11,000 trees in the public right of way and about 30,000 trees on private property. Live oak tress must have at least 30 percent of their leaves to be spared. Other varieties must have at least 50 percent of their leaves.” [Galveston County Daily News]

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Demolitions
06/30/09 11:59am

Roller Coaster on the Pier: Crunch Time for the Flagship Hotel

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Disaster Aftermath, Galveston, Hotels, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment
18 Comments

There may be a buyer for Galveston’s Flagship Hotel, reports Laura Elder in the Galveston County Daily News. The hotel suffered about $7 million in damage from Hurricane Ike last year. But Landry’s Restaurants, the current owner, has a fallback plan in case the sale doesn’t go through:

If the 225-room property at 25th Street and Seawall Boulevard doesn’t sell, Landry’s likely would demolish the hotel and develop a “pleasure pier” with amusement rides, officials say. . . .

Landry’s is pricing demolition for the hotel, built in 1965 as a show of confidence after Hurricane Carla, Jeff Cantwell, senior vice president for development, said.

Perched on a pier overlooking the Gulf, the Flagship fell into disrepair on its own after 1990, when The Flagship Hotel Ltd. took over management.

Landry’s paid the city $500,000 for the hotel in 2004, saying it planned to spend $15 million transforming the property into an entertainment plaza with amusement rides, including a roller coaster.

Landry’s attempted to move ahead, but was stymied by agreements that gave Daniel Yeh, head of The Flagship Hotel Ltd., control of the hotel until 2031.

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Bolivar
06/19/09 8:45am

Growing Property Lines on the Beach

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Crystal Beach, Development Restrictions, Disaster Aftermath, Gardening, Quicklink, Singing Sands
1 Comment

GROWING PROPERTY LINES ON THE BEACH The owners of more than 2 dozen properties on the Bolivar Peninsula have been planting grass and shrubs along the edges of the dunes on the seaward side of their land. Why? The General Land Office prohibits new construction beyond the natural vegetation line. “‘The front row (of beach houses) is gone, and they are hoping to establish the vegetation line where it was before,’ said Dan Peck, 54, whose neighbors planted a swath of grass about 250 yards long. . . . Peck’s house in the Singing Sands subdivision near Crystal Beach was in the fourth row from the beach before Ike swept away the front three rows of houses Sept. 13. The vegetation line is established by the General Land Office, but Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said he may wait as long as two years after the storm before marking the formal line that could determine the fate of many Gulf properties.” [Houston Chronicle]

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Disaster Aftermath
06/10/09 9:07am

The Great Galveston Summer Tree Carving Festival

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Galveston, Trees
7 Comments

Salt water from Hurricane Ike damaged 11,000 trees on city property in Galveston — and as many as 31,000 more on private property will need to be cut down. The Chronicle‘s Allan Turner reports:

The process will involve a tree-by-tree examination, the Texas Forest Service’s Pete Smith said. Candidates for cutting will include most tree varieties that have lost 50 percent or more of their canopy. Live oaks with at least 30 percent of their leaves may be spared. The live oaks, Smith said, are “either recovering or dying,” and more time is needed to determine which is the case.

Officials hope to remove doomed trees [on city property] by the middle of September, thereby qualifying for federal payments that could cover up to 75 percent of the city’s removal cost.

. . . Removing every dead tree on both public and private land could cost about $5 million, according to city estimates, although the federal government will pay to remove only those in the city right of way.

Photo: Flickr user lutzman–

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Disaster Aftermath
05/06/09 9:56am

High School Documentary: The Hurricane That Totally Blew Galveston Away

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Galveston
2 Comments

Here’s the latest version of the trailer for Ike: A Documentary: The Story of a Torn City Rebuilt by Everyday Heroes. The movie was created by students in Mr. Weiss’s film class at Galveston’s Ball High School.

It all began on the first day of school after the hurricane as students sat together in the advanced media technology class and talked about their storm experiences.

Some students had lost everything. Austin [Almanza]’s family lost their house. William [Gomez] got separated from his family and spent the storm at the high school, which became an emergency shelter during the storm.

As they discussed the storm, “I posed the question,” Weiss recalled. “Do you think we should do a documentary about this?”

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Demolitions
04/17/09 12:46pm

Augusta Demo and Storage

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Disaster Aftermath, Galleria, Land Sales, New Construction, Quicklink
6 Comments

AUGUSTA DEMO AND STORAGE The new owner of a small Galleria-area office building directly across the street from the parking garage for San Felipe Plaza plans to tear down the 2-story 1977 structure, which suffered a roof collapse and $2.7 million worth of damage from Hurricane Ike. “[Seller Robert] Clay is under the impression that a self-storage facility will be built there. In fact, four parties interested in buying the site wanted to build development storage units there, he says. [Hasad Development’s Sam] Amber, the buyer, has developed several ProGuard Self Storage locations around town. However, a company spokesman in Houston would not comment on future plans for the nearly one-acre site. Based on buyer interest, Clay concludes that, ‘This location is a perfect private mini-storage location.’” [Houston Business Journal]

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Bankruptcies
04/06/09 11:03am

Camera Stores Shuttered

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Disaster Aftermath, Openings and Closings, Retail
1 Comment

Ritz Camera, which filed for bankruptcy protection in February, will be closing more than 300 of its Ritz, Wolf Camera, and Kits Camera stores nationwide, the company announced late last week. Not surprisingly, the Wolf Camera in Sage Plaza at 5161 San Felipe — less than a quarter-mile from the Wolf Camera on S. Post Oak in the Galleria — is one of the victims. Also closing: Ritz Camera stores in the Katy Mills Mall, at 5706 Highway 6 in Missouri City, and in the Royal Oaks Shopping Center at 11691 Westheimer.

Ritz is also shutting down its entire 130-store Boater’s World chain, including the 6,000-foot location in Webster. Its Galveston store never reopened after Hurricane Ike.

Photo of Wolf Camera in Baybrook Square, Webster (where the lights are staying on): David Stall

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Attractions
03/13/09 5:00pm

The Woodlands’ Bigger Tent Revival

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Disaster Aftermath, The Woodlands
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The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion will have twice as many seats, and a greatly enlarged tension-fabric structure to cover them, when it reopens for its first concert on May 1.

A new section of about 2,000 additional reserved seats is being constructed behind the existing uncovered seating area. The new canopy structure will cover all 6,387 seats. The result will be 2,147 fewer seats on the lawn, cutting the venue’s overall capacity by about 460, to 16,040.

The original Teflon-coated Fiberglas-fabric roofs were torn to shreds — and their support structures seriously damaged — by Hurricane Ike:

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East Downtown
03/04/09 11:16am

Openings and Closings: Super Happy Baking Brothers

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Linkwood, Museum District, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
1 Comment

As the retail churns . . .

  • Reopening Soon: The original Three Brothers Bakery next to Brays Bayou in Linkwood, closed since Hurricane Ike, has a permit in hand to rebuild. Cynthia Lescalleet reports in the River Oaks Examiner:

    While the exterior of the building, 4036 South Braeswood Blvd., will retain the colors, 60s-vintage architectural elements and windows of its past, the inside has been reconfigured a bit to be “cozy,” with a more efficient layout.

    Among the tweaking are the addition of a small room for wedding consultations and staff offices that look out over the interior so they can see and connect with the customers they’ve missed since Hurricane Ike damaged the business, [co-owner Janice] Jucker said.

    “We’re almost like therapists over the bakery counter,” she said.

    But: no plans to return to the River Oaks Shopping Center or Sugar Land.

    Any future expansion would likely be into properties the bakery would own and build itself, she said: “We want control over our destiny.”

    Near the end of the 10- to 12-week building project, the building’s crooked sign will be re-set. If you see a straight sign, that’ll mean the bagels are almost ready.

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Art
02/09/09 3:43pm

Seen on the Street: Vultures, Galveston Vacancy, Rice Trailer

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Attractions, Critters, Cypress, Development Strategies, Disaster Aftermath, Galveston, Rice University, Utilities
2 Comments

A few fun pics from around and about town! First, this crowd of black vultures ponders its next real-estate venture from atop a communications tower parked in a gated community in Cypress. Photographer Karen Morris happened upon the scene on Eldridge near Grant Rd.:

It was an awesome sight. Personally, if they adorned my rooftop every evening, I’d clean the roof, sell the house and move to the other side of town. . . . Black Vultures/Buzzards are a bit smaller and less colorful that the Turkey Vulture. They tend to follow the Turkey Vulture because it has a keener sense of smell and can find it’s meal through use of that sense. They eat dead animals and occasionally capture small live animals (field mice, etc.). Although they do not build a nest, they will take an abandoned nest. Often roost together as seen in this set of photos. If startled while roosting, they will regurgitate with power and accuracy.

More local habitat:

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Disaster Aftermath
01/15/09 1:16pm

Was Hurricane Ike Worth It?

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Real Estate Marketing
3 Comments

ttweak, the usually lower-cased folks behind the Houston It’s Worth It campaign, are hoping to put together a sequel to 2007’s HIWI: The Book, a breakthrough publishing event in the urban resignation genre. The subject of the new group project? Hurricane Ike.

Why bother?

Obviously this subject is still an open wound for many of our neighbors and we don’t want to be insensitive to those who still have a road of recovery ahead. Rather, we want highlight the camaraderie and support brought about in the storm’s aftermath – refrigerator cookouts/recipes, extension cord jungles, neighborhood cleanups. Tell us your stories or poems, dig up a “day ten without power” journal entry, find that song you penned by candlelight and of course, send us your photographs (even those taken on your iPhone or BlackBerry); if you made a hurricane song playlist, go ahead and send that too.

The HIWI: Ike upload page is waiting!

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Disaster Aftermath
01/08/09 2:46pm

The Baptist Church, the Hooters Waitresses, and the Hurricane Victims

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Oak Island, Quicklink, Religious Facilities, Restaurants, Southgate
3 Comments

THE BAPTIST CHURCH, THE HOOTERS WAITRESSES, AND THE HURRICANE VICTIMS A 9-year-long relationship between congregants of the Rice Temple Baptist Church in Southgate and a group of Hooters waitresses led to a bit of help for residents of Ike-devastated Oak Island over the holiday. “Over the years, the church has found additional ways to develop the relationship. The church has been a sponsor of an annual Hooters golf tournament, giving away Bibles. They have also worked with the restaurant’s employees on Habitat for Humanity building projects. . . . The waitresses have even joined with the congregation in walking through the neighborhood singing Christmas carols. ‘You could tell they hadn’t gone Christmas caroling before, because they all showed up in high heels,’ [Pastor Clint Reiff] recalled.” [Associated Baptist Press]

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Disaster Aftermath
01/07/09 3:25pm

The End of Galveston As We Knew It

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Galveston, Quicklink
3 Comments

THE END OF GALVESTON AS WE KNEW IT John Nova Lomax tours the unsung wreckage from Hurricane Ike: “In Galveston, the progress looks superficially impressive. Scaled-back and/or rescheduled editions of major tourist draws like Dickens on the Strand and the Lone Star Biker Rally went over fairly well. Things seem to be getting back to normal, and here in Houston, the second our power came back on, the lines dwindled at the corner gas station and the streetlights returned to working order, most of us ‘moved on.’ Hasn’t Galveston as well? In a word, no.” [Houston Press]

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