COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE RARE MONTROSE BLOCK “Whatever happens to this property will be of little consequence to the rest of Westhiemer in Montrose. As noted above, this lot is a rare bird for Westheimer as, with the exception of the JITBox pad, it encompasses the entire block. Almost very other lot from Shep to midtown on Westheimer is split with residential lots behind the commercial lots that front Westheimer. Unless you can buy out a block of single family homeowners, you will never have another chance to build on a complete block like on this lot. Thus, whether it is a high rise, mid rise, or low rise mixed use or Walmart, it will not mean that the rest of the neighborhood will be likely to follow suit. I do not think that a high rise will go in because the capital markets are still risk adverse and would prefer something that will go up faster and provide a safer and faster return. Look for another 4-6 story apartment complex, hopefully with some ground floor retail. If the JITBox is an issue, it may end up staying a strip mall. There are plenty of people in town who could make a quick buck by sprucing it up and filling it with the usual junk. This is Houston afterall. Expect the worst, hope for something slightly better.” [Old School, commenting on Big Block on the Corner of Westheimer and Montrose Goes Up for Sale]
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Tag: Montrose
The real-estate fund that’s owned the half-vacant strip center at the southwest corner of Westheimer and Montrose for the last 4 years has put the entire 2.86-acre block up for sale. On the site now: Half Price Books, Spec’s Liquors, Papa John’s Pizza, and the 3-6-9 China Bistro in a stuccoed-over 41,838-sq.-ft. building once known as the Tower Community Center (to match the Tower Theater, now home to El Real Tex-Mex, across the street). Also included: the standalone Jack-in-the-Box on the corner of Montrose and Lovett. No list price, but broker HFF is indicating “price guidance” of $10 million or higher.
The Art Deco building still lurking beneath was designed by architect Joseph Finger in 1937, 2 years before he completed work for Houston’s city hall. Here’s how the shopping center looked then-ish, with a Walgreens on the corner of Yoakum St.:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE LURE OF THE NOT SO COMPLEX APARTMENT “I’ve personally lived in all types of Montrose apartments — funky one-bedrooms, duplexes, town homes, and anthills. While the charm is nice, the real amenity older stock apartments offer is proximity to the street. Many of the big complexes are difficult to navigate and make it almost impossible for visitors to get to you. I would gladly live in a big complex if it took the same amount of time to get from my door to the street as my current place.” [paulbtucker, commenting on Comment of the Day: Funky Montrose Apartments Are in High Demand]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: FUNKY MONTROSE APARTMENTS ARE IN HIGH DEMAND “Here’s what I am seeing in Montrose this year and last year: Every nice garage apartment, side-by-side duplex, fourplex, etc brings on multiple applicants. (Sometimes renting for more than the stated price.) With several to choose from, the Landlord’s pick will have excellent credit and high income — a lot higher than you would expect for say a garage apartment. These tenants could afford to live in those shiny new apartment complexes. Easily. But they don’t want to. They want to live in the neighborhood, on a residential street. This doesn’t apply to every tenant — obviously there are more who want to live in the beehive. But the demand for funky old Montrose housing isn’t diminishing — It is tighter than ever.” [Harold Mandell, commenting on The Coming Flood of New River Oaks-Area Apartments in Montrose]
THE COMING FLOOD OF NEW RIVER OAKS-AREA APARTMENTS IN MONTROSE Some local stats from research firm Axiometrics: 32 new apartment properties, holding a total of 8,700 units, are currently under construction in Houston. Of that total, 15 of them — accounting for 4,300 apartments — are in the “Montrose-River Oaks” area. Occupancy rates for similar existing properties in the same neighborhoods are currently in the mid-90-percent range; rents have been increasing at an annual rate of 9.1 percent as of January. [Real Estate Bisnow]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BUT A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR WILL HELP THE HISTORY GO DOWN “If you won’t drink coffee at the former Mary’s building, then you probably don’t want to know what went on at The Empire Cafe, when it was known as The Locker.” [Darogr, commenting on Restored Mary’s Mural on Westheimer Painted Over Again]
Hey, wasn’t that mural on the side of the former Mary’s bar recreated with great effort just last year? As of last night, it’s been covered over — except for a bit of blue painting tape that’s allowing the red border underneath to reappear. What happened?
UNDERBELLY AND THE HAY MERCHANT GOING WHOLE HOG TOGETHER 
Co-owner Bobby Heugel tells Amber Ambrose the craft beer bar he’s been carving out of the former Chances space at the corner of Westheimer and Waugh and the meat palace built from scratch next door for former Catalan chef Chris Shepherd will be attached but operate separately: “For the sake of efficiency and competitive pricing, the one area shared by both Underbelly and the Hay Merchant is the butchering room, with its massive double doors that can accommodate an entire cow, pig or other large animal. Certain cuts suited more for the restaurant’s menu will go into the kitchen at Underbelly and the remaining trim that make up the creative pub menu of dishes like burgers, sweetbread po’boys and crispy sweet and sour pig’s ears inside The Hay Merchant will go next door, although we suspect there will be plenty of sweetbreads and pig’s ears on Underbelly’s menu at times too. Otherwise, the two businesses are taking great pains to keep their identities separate, even going as far as banning employees of each from stepping foot into the other while they’re on the clock.” [Eater Houston] Photo: Candace Garcia
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE DEATH OF COOL “The FrankenTuscan style is a bit like a normalizing virus looking for a healthy, vibrant, diverse host. When countercultures build up and make cool certain neighborhoods, they are seen by developers as suddenly desirable, so the developers move in, hoping to capitalize on this cool authenticity. But rather than succumbing to the local conditions of Montrose, for instance (tattoo parlors and halfway houses and comic book stores and so on) they put a veneer of normalcy over it. Make it safe enough that yuppies with slight aspirations toward hipsterism can understand and participate. These developers market a lifestyle just cool enough that the West U set will move in, but not so cool that it veers into rebellious anti-establishment cool. As a result, what’s great and exciting about these progressive neighborhoods becomes slowly watered down, normalized, made monocultural again. This virus seeks sameness–it seeks to flatten any bumps, to smooth out any rough edges. It is insidious and impossible to resist. Montrose will FrankenTuscanified, whether we like it or not. As every cool neighborhood in the history of the world has been. . . .” [MJ, commenting on Comment of the Day: Moving on from Montrose]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MOVING ON FROM MONTROSE “You wouldn’t have expected that pioneers on the plains would’ve built teepees, would you? In the same vein, developers aren’t building $700k townhomes for the indigenous bohemians of Montrose (whom cannot afford them and often do not want them or see them as an affront to their being); the townhomes are built for the West U set. You must come to terms with the geographic displacement of your people and the natural resources that once provided for your subsistence. Resistance is futile, and would only be an impetus for conflicted political outcomes, and co-opted movements that veer into misanthropic endeavors. Prepare yourselves, and move to Houston’s eastern hinterlands. To remain on your sacred ground, your only alternative is to go back to school and get your MBA, so that you can adapt to the West U man’s strange ways and speak their tongue. But I think that you should go, and be with your people.” [TheNiche, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Origins of the FrankenTuscan Style]
Is the corner of West Alabama and Dunlavy the busiest intersection in Inner Loop real estate right now? Two months after the opening of the new H-E-B Montrose Market on the former site of the Wilshire Village Apartments on the southwest corner of that intersection, and just a week after developer Marvy Finger’s official announcement of his plans to replace the Fiesta Food Mart on the southeast corner with a 6-to-8-story “Mediterranean” apartment building, there is a report that the 2 apartment complexes on the northeast corner may be next to fall. It may be a bit more than a rumor: While taking these photos yesterday, Swamplot’s Candace Garcia came across workers who appeared to be surveying the site. For what?
The rather plain-looking headquarters of the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater company at the corner of Dunlavy and Fairview is getting more than just a new coat of paint. The building at 2311 Dunlavy is slated for a redesign by another building tenant, DiNunzio Lifestyle Architecture, which will create a new entrance facing Fairview and add several new materials to the exterior. “It is going to really catch your eye when it’s done!” reads a note on the architecture firm’s Facebook page.
The Sicardi Gallery’s impending move to its new Brave Architecture building currently under construction at the corner of West Alabama and Mulberry in Montrose (above) should send a few ripples through the local gallery landscape, art blogger Robert Boyd notes. Headed for the current Sicardi Gallery space at 2246 Richmond (across the street from Blue Fish House and the Hobbit Cafe), according to Boyd’s sources, will be Thom Andriola’s New Gallery:
ST. STEPHEN’S LOSES APPEAL; MONTROSE H-E-B BEER AND WINE SALES BEGIN THURSDAY 
A judge today denied an appeal by St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, allowing the new Montrose H-E-B on the corner of Dunlavy and West Alabama to begin pouring beer and wine for customers tomorrow at 2 pm. Earlier this month, County Judge Ed Emmett ruled that the St. Stephen’s building within 300 ft. of the new store’s property line at 1755 Sul Ross St. did not itself qualify as a private school under state alcohol rules, in part because fewer than 100 students attend courses at that particular location. [Prime Property; background; previously on Swamplot]
DRINKING FOR THE GREATER GOOD Among the goals of OKRA, the new business organization founded by a group of mostly Montrose-area restaurant and bar owners (including Anvil’s Bobby Heugel, Chris Shepherd of the upcoming Underbelly, and Greenway coffee couple David Buehrer and Ecky Prabanto): Opening a new, collectively run non-profit neighborhood bar as early this summer — preferably in the refurbished digs of some recently shuttered for-profit drinking establishment. All proceeds would go to a different charity each month, which drinkers would get to vote on. Also coming this spring from the group: “a multi-pig roast unlike Houston has ever seen.” [Facebook; more from 29-95, Culturemap, and Eater Houston]