Tag: New Construction

Memorial City
09/02/11 1:47pm

The Cranes Come to Bunker Hill

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New Construction, Office Buildings, Shopping Centers
19 Comments

What’s that looks-kinda-huge project going up on the southwest corner of I-10 and Bunker Hill Rd., just east of the Memorial City Mall? A reader writes in with some info, but wants to know more: “Anslow Bryant, the company responsible for the lotus-blossom-topped Memorial Hermann Tower, is handling the project. There’s a couple of cranes doing crane things and a temporary fence lining the spot already. In addition to spicing up that desolate parking lot, the project means the demise of the nearby Spec’s and the other four or so forgettable places that line that dilapidated strip center, too. Do y’all know anything? Tell me it’s something cool and not just an office building or a La Quinta.”

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Lawsuits
08/10/11 3:15pm

St. Agnes Drops Suit

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Neighborhood Disputes, Nightlife, Quicklink, Schools, Sharpstown
14 Comments

ST. AGNES DROPS SUIT St. Agnes Academy has officially ended its lawsuit meant to prevent a nightclub called El Corral — planned for the former Finger Furniture store in PlazAmericas — from receiving a liquor license. The suit was filed last Friday against the nightclub’s owners, the city of Houston, and the TABC. A spokesperson for the all-girls private school, which is building an athletic facility across Bellaire Blvd. from the former Sharpstown Mall, tells Swamplot “any future plans regarding the suit are to be determined,” but offered no further comments. [Previously on Swamplot]

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East Downtown
08/10/11 2:49pm

That New Track Metro Is On

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New Construction, Public Transportation
13 Comments

Seen at this morning’s Purple Line kickoff on McKinney St. near Ennis in East Downtown, a sight not seen around Houston since before 9/11: What it looks like when Metro contractors lay track for a new light-rail line . . . or pour the concrete pad for it, anyway.

Photo: Metro

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New Construction
08/09/11 1:58pm

Metro Rail Gets Back on Track Tomorrow

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Public Transportation
66 Comments

Has it really been 10 whole years since any new tracks have been laid for any Houston light-rail lines? Not exactly. It’s been 9 years and 11 months. To celebrate the occasion, Metro is holding a small ceremony tomorrow to place the concrete base for the very first tracks on the new Southeast, or “Purple” line. Tomorrow’s morning pour will take place at 2979 McKinney St. near Ennis in East Downtown, but the 6.6-mile Southeast Line will run all the way from a new station on Smith St. to the Palm Center, with stops at Fannin (change here for the existing “Red” line), Crawford (baseball, anyone?), Bastrop (soccer?), Leeland, Elgin then Scott St. (both at the western edge of UH, crossing the path of the proposed University Line), Wheeler and MLK (on the other side of campus), and MacGregor Park along the way:

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Lawsuits
08/09/11 12:40pm

El Corral and the Fields of St. Agnes

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Neighborhood Disputes, New Construction, Nightlife, Sharpstown
16 Comments

St. Agnes Academy has already begun constructing an athletic complex on the site of the former Gillman Auto dealership at the corner of Bellaire and Fondren in Sharpstown. The 18.7-acre property, which it bought last fall, will have 3 athletic fields, 2 softball diamonds, 8 tennis courts, plus weight rooms, conference rooms, and meeting rooms. But administrators of the all-girls private school aren’t too happy with a development planned across the street in PlazAmericas, the former Sharpstown Mall. Last Friday, the school filed suit to prevent a nightclub from opening in the mall’s former Finger Furniture store.

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Comments
08/02/11 11:38pm

Comment of the Day: The Case for Building Crap

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New Construction, Quicklink, Real Estate Investing, Retail, West End
No Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE CASE FOR BUILDING CRAP “i’m no developer, but being that this is off Yale (and not washington) across from a wal-mart it’s safe to assume they’re not going to be pulling in high-margin clients. there’s no point building a nice shopping center catered to the area if you can’t lock-in clients that can afford the rent. rent’s are already going to be well above average for houston. better to have a generic crappy strip center than a bankrupt high-end strip center. they know they’re building in the middle of a double-dipping economy in an area that certainly has high average incomes, but is still in flux none the less. better to build crap and establish a proven income stream with sensible margins before going overboard and losing money. as for the store selection, it’s certainly nothing i’d patronize but it’s an expected utilitarian lineup. we live in the internet age, what do you really expect, an amazon pick-up storefront? it’s easy to criticize, but it ain’t my money so i’m not going to call people out for doing sensible things with theirs. you can’t run a business and support employees livelihoods by taking risks for communities that may never support you in the first place.” [joel, commenting on Piggybacking on the Washington Heights Walmart: Stripalicious Yale St. Retail at Heights Marketplace]

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New Construction
08/02/11 1:55pm

Piggybacking on the Washington Heights Walmart: Stripalicious Yale St. Retail at Heights Marketplace

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Retail, Sprawl, Strip Centers, West End
46 Comments

What’s this we’re looking at? New pedestrian-friendly retail going in along Yale St., right across from Ainbinder’s Walmart-anchored center on Yale and Heights Blvd. in the West End? No, silly. That’s a ghost head-in-parked car hidden behind the artfully-placed starburst in the bottom left corner of the rendering. All those figures in front are just walking back and forth between the fish-taco joint at one end and their dentist on the other. Yes, work has already begun on this new strip center at the corner of Yale and Koehler St., called Heights Marketplace. The developer promises it’ll be finished before the end of the year, with the first stores opening next March.

If Ainbinder missed a few strip-center clichés in its Washington Heights District shopping-center plan, this Orr Commercial development, back-to-back with one of Ainbinder’s Heights Blvd.-facing strips, is here to take up the slack:

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New Construction
07/22/11 12:51pm

Early Driving Tours of Metro’s Next Light Rail Lines

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Transportation
15 Comments

If you can’t wait just those few more years to hop on the new light-rail line serving the East End, this automotive video approximation might tide you over. HAIF poster ricco67’s tracing of the drivable portions of the route from the new Smith St. station on the western edge of Downtown (shared with the new Southeast Line) to the Magnolia Transit Center provides snapshots of construction progress and a steady diet of orange construction barrels. Also available: these shorter tours showing progress on the Southeast Line and the coming extension to the existing North Line:

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Comments
07/19/11 6:59pm

Comment of the Day: The Meyer Park Shopping Center’s Sitting Ducks

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Critters, Meyer Park, New Construction, Quicklink, Retail, Shopping Centers
11 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE MEYER PARK SHOPPING CENTER’S SITTING DUCKS “Is anyone but me concerned about the poor ducks I see constantly killed in the Walmart parking lot at MeyerPark? I saw another one yesterday, killed with 2 of his buddies near his body, waiting to be killed by the throngs of people there. Their breeding ground is becoming a Kohls and they are unsafe, in danger, and being killed off. The management company should pay to have them relocated before they are all killed.” [Sharron Reilly, commenting on Comment of the Day: Mystery Neighbor for the Meyer Park Walmart?]

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East Downtown
07/14/11 10:01am

Up in the Air Over the Dynamo Stadium Site

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New Construction, Photography, Real Estate Marketing
12 Comments

The scene captured last Saturday by that drone videocamera flight, showing excavation on the site of the East Downtown stadium at Texas and Dowling, plus a high-end view of Downtown’s back side . . . and a very round earth. Like a more steady ride? Here’s a still:

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Institutional Buildings
07/11/11 4:44pm

M.D. Anderson’s Big Step Over the Bayou

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Medical Buildings, New Construction, Office Buildings, Texas Medical Center
4 Comments

Here’s the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center’s massive new 1MC (for “Mid Campus Building 1”) at 7007 Bertner Ave., just a short hop into the medical frontier south of Brays Bayou. 25 stories, 1.4 million sq. ft., $350 million. All to consolidate various leasing tenants from 8 sites around the Med Center, plus get some space for future expansion. Swamplot reader Stephen J. Alexander hopped from parking garage to parking garage to capture these views:

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Midtown
06/30/11 2:10pm

Artisans Filling Out the Mix in Midtown

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New Construction, Restaurants
4 Comments

Two sets of self-proclaimed artisans are hard at work on the southernmost space in Midtown’s super-urban Mix building at 3201 Louisiana. First, there’s Artisan Builders, now building out the 4,800 sq.-ft. restaurant space on the corner of Stuart St., which a source at the construction company says will include a small outdoor patio in front. Then there’s the French restaurant getting ready to move in 4 to 5 months from now, which will now be called Artisans Restaurant. (That’s a change from an earlier name: Chef’s Table.) In charge of the interior: Austin’s Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, of Austin and Houston Uchi fame. Hsu and Artisan Builders also collaborated a few years ago on Sushi Raku at the other end of the building.

Photo: InnerLooped

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Art
06/29/11 1:35pm

New Sicardi Gallery Gets the Go-Ahead

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Mandell Place, Montrose, New Construction, Proposed Developments
10 Comments

After a 3-year delay, construction is ready to begin on the new Sicardi Gallery at 1506 West Alabama, catty-corner from the Houston Center for Photography at Mulberry St. and across the street from the Menil parking lot. A groundbreaking ceremony was held yesterday. There’s been at least one design change from Brave Architecture’s earlier versions of the project: The latest rendering (above) shows a large window in the building’s formerly blank south-facing forehead, looking onto the parking lot in front.

Rendering: Brave Architecture

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Demolitions
06/28/11 5:04pm

Sherman’s March: The New Northside Elementary

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Institutional Buildings, New Construction, Northside Village, Schools
9 Comments

A reader passes on these renderings showing the new Sherman Elementary School planned for the school’s current location at 1909 McKee St. in Northside Village. Construction of the 86,000-sq.-ft. structure is on target to begin within 2 months, after the existing school is demolished. The new school will serve students from Crawford Elementary, which will then be closed.

Renderings: HISD

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Downtown
06/24/11 11:49pm

Swamplot Street Sleuths: Whiff!

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Galleria, Melrose Place, New Construction, Restaurants
8 Comments

Got a question about something going on in your neighborhood you’d like Swamplot to answer? Sorry, we can’t help you. But if you ask real nice and include a photo or 2 with your request, maybe the Swamplot Street Sleuths can! Who are they? Other readers, just like you, ready to demonstrate their mad skillz in hunting down stuff like this:

Are we batting only .500 here?

  • Midtown: There’s more new to the Houston House Apartments than just that exterior paint job. Catching an elevator has been a bit tough and there’s the occasional burst pipe or AC interruption, but otherwise the ongoing renovation is looking good so far, a resident reports: “The new carpet on the residential floors is a geometric pattern with a good mix of cool and bold colors. The units are looking much improved with new finishes and appliances. The appliances are pretty low end but definitely an improvement. The lobby’s looking great. The color-scheme there is a brown and orange and white palette. I’m not a huge fan of the two accent walls of orange dots but the new lettering and signage in the lobby is a great addition. I haven’t been up to the renovated 9th floor (lounge, gym and pool) in a while . . . but when I last saw it it was looking fantastic with a cleaned-up, opened-up, and really bright feel.“
  • Melrose Place: Next act for the former Monarch Cleaners building at 2815 South Shepherd, known more recently as the Fox Diner, Cafe Serranos Cantina, Crome, and then Pravada, as several readers pointed out: former Textile chef Ryan Hildebrand‘s new triple threat, Triniti. MC²‘s design for the currently gutted restaurant will include a garden and — judging from some recent construction photos — some colorful applications of perforated metal panels:

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