Tag: Openings and Closings

Featured Posts
07/27/18 1:45pm

Flying Biscuit Cafés Cleared To Land in Caydon’s Midtown Tower Trifecta, Across from Memorial City Med Center

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Memorial City, Midtown, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Restaurants
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Here’s another Midtown development development: Georgian breakfast restaurant Flying Biscuit Café is the first tenant to line up for a spot in the tower Caydon Property’s putting up off Main St., between Drew and Tuam streets. The 27-story building — viewed above from the east side of Fannin St. — is just south of the Art Supply on Main store that Caydon just recently snatched up and plans to replace with one in the threesome of towers that’ll eventually stretch up to McGowen.

Flying Biscuit’s other destination as part of its 2-pronged Houston entrance strategy: the west side of the strip on Kingsride Ln. off Gessner where Reginelli’s Pizzeria decamped earlier this month:

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Flightplans
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Featured Posts
07/26/18 10:15am

Houston Maritime Museum Sets Sail for Canal St.

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Museums, Openings and Closings, Second Ward
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Museum movers are now lugging cargo out of 2204 Dorrington St. as part of the Houston Maritime Museum‘s move to the Second Ward, where it’ll remain landlocked. Two years ago, the museum announced plans to build a new $50 million facility designed by architects at Gensler next to the dock for the Sam Houston boat that conducts tours of the ship channel. But nothing’s opened up yet along that section of waterfront, south of Clinton Dr. and east of Wayside Dr. in Denver Harbor.

In leaving behind its current converted house southwest of the Med Center for new 3-story office-building environs on the corner of Canal and Navigation, the museum will take on a more businesslike appearance than it’s sported so far.

It’ll also get used to sharing its space; existing tenants in the new building include The Polnick Law Firm and Andes Cafe, pictured below from the west:

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Anchors Up
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Adaptive Reuse
07/24/18 1:15pm

Vegan Food Truck Now Parking at Heights Waterworks on Nicholson St.

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Houston Heights, Quicklink, Renovations, Restaurants
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VEGAN FOOD TRUCK NOW PARKING AT HEIGHTS WATERWORKS ON NICHOLSON ST. Vegan food truck Ripe Cuisine is now well on its way to a brick-and-mortar spot in the soon-to-be redone Heights Waterworks utility turned retail complex on W. 20th St. According to a building permit filed yesterday, the owner is signing up for a 2,061-sq.-ft. renovation of one of the structures Braun Enterprises is leasing out. The map above from the developer — which began buying up portions of the property last year — marks the restaurant’s territory fronting Nicholson St. and its parallel bike trail with the bright red tomato logo that’s native to its food truck. But that’s not really the look to expect from the plant-based restaurant once its fully-grown; it’s rebranding to Verdine. Derived from the Latin for “green” and “truth,” explains the restaurant’s fledgling website, the name comes with a brand-new V-shaped logo, complete with a small bird nested in the crook of angled capital letter. [Previously on Swamplot] Map: Braun Enterprises

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Featured Posts
07/24/18 10:30am

Warby Parker Will Pick Up Where Yankee Candle Left Off in Rice Village

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Openings and Closings, Retail
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The storefront between Athleta and Altar’d State on University Blvd. won’t be vacant for much longer: a building permit filed yesterday indicates Warby Parker is about to move into the space. Before it gets there, a few renovations will overhaul the 2,500-sq.-ft. box pictured at top, which lost its Yankee Candle lettering (shown above) around January when the former tenant wrapped up its close-out sale and shut its doors for good.

Photos: Trademark (vacant store); Swamplox inbox (Yankee Candle)

Village Newcomer
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Apartments
07/13/18 2:00pm

Pools and Ponds Back To Holding Water Again After Flood Repairs Subside on Parkside at Memorial’s Amenities

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Energy Corridor, Memorial, Openings and Closings
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See that faint watermark in the aerial photo taken from up on the balcony? That’s the lap pool at the Parkside at Memorial Apartments just south of Memorial Dr., buried under more water than it’s designed to hold after the release of the Addicks and Barker reservoirs last August. Throughout the first floor of the surrounding buildings, the tide peaked at over 5-and-a-half ft. Workers spent the last 9 months helping the 4-year-old complex make a comeback; its leasing center officially reopened late last month — and on-site amenities now look less divey and more like the refurbished lap pool shown in the photo at top.

Other aquatic areas that took on more than they could handle include the complex’s other pool:

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The Deep End
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Featured Posts
07/13/18 10:00am

Your Odds of Winning a Year’s Supply of Chicken Sandwiches at Chick-fil-A’s Next Pearland Grand Opening

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Openings and Closings, Pearland, Quicklink, Restaurants
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YOUR ODDS OF WINNING A YEAR’S SUPPLY OF CHICKEN SANDWICHES AT CHICK-FIL-A’S NEXT PEARLAND GRAND OPENING One in 1,365, a little slimmer than the chance of landing heads on a coin toss 10 times in a row. The Chick-fil-A in question, Pearland’s fifth, opens at Hwy. 288 and Aldine-Fort Bend Rd. on July 25, and in keeping with custom, the store is giving away 52 free #1 meals (chicken sandwich, medium Waffle Potato Fries, and a medium drink) to a group of 100 lucky loyalists selected from those who spend the night before camped out at the location, reports the Chronicle’s Dana Burke. This time though, the franchise is taking measures to ensure that only hometown competitors 18-and-up get access to the prize by limiting eligibility by zip code. The challengers: 77584, 77581, 77588, 77578, 77048, and 77047 — home to 136,500 legal adult residents of Pearland, Brookside Village, Shadow Creek Ranch, Manvel, and parts of Southeast Houston including Crestmont. To keep things competitive, reports Burke: “All participants must remain in their designated spots the entire time, with the exception of bathroom breaks.” [Houston Chronicle] Photo of 2016 Chick-fil-A First 100 event in Prestonwood, Texas: Chick-fil-A

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Featured Posts
07/10/18 3:30pm

Vacant Second Ward Lot Now Embarks on Second Life as El Segundo Swim Club

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Openings and Closings, Second Ward
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Surf’s up at El Segundo Swim Club, the Second Ward swimming pool bar that’s now soaking up the sun on the formerly vacant lot at 5180 Avenue L, north of Navigation Blvd. The watering hole has been inviting swimmers in to take a dip over the past few days through a series of ticketed preview events that are planned to continue through this weekend.

Shade comes courtesy of the bright orange umbrellas now surrounding the pool deck — in place of the folded-up, gray ones shown above during the site’s transition phase back in February. A few modified shipping containers give visitors room to get out of the sun, too — except for the one on the left in the photo at top; it houses the bar.

The 15,000-sq.-ft. lot didn’t have much flora before the redo, but that’s changed thanks to these transplants:

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Wet Bar
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Featured Posts
07/09/18 3:00pm

ArtMix Studio Debuts in Times Blvd. Storefront That a Part of G&G Model Shop Still Won’t Let Go Of

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Openings and Closings, Renovations, Retail, Rice Village, Signs
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Since longtime Times Blvd. tenant G&G Model Shop left its storefront last August, the space has been whitened, renovated and snapped up by ArtMix Creative Learning Center — a children’s art school that relocated from 3701 W. Alabama St. earlier this year. But the model shop — located at 2522 Times for over 60 years — remains attached to the space. A G&G representative told Swamplot previously that the metal sign would follow the business over to its new spot in the strip center at the corner of 59 and Shepherd (home to a few more elderly Rice Village expats as well).

But just last Thursday, a poster on HAIF noted that address is still crowned by a temporary vinyl banner:

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Rice Village Relics
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Featured Posts
07/09/18 10:00am

What the Toys R Us on OST Looks Like Shut Down and Completely Cleaned Out

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Openings and Closings, Retail
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The lights are on but no one’s home anymore at the Toys R Us on OST, shuttered along with the rest of the chain’s 18 Houston locations (including Babies R Us stores) since the end of last month. Flyers advertising everything-must-go-style sales have come down from the building’s front windows — and they weren’t exaggerating: restroom signs, cash registers, and other normally priceless appointments were pawned off during the store’s last days, reported KHOU’s Jessica Borg.

But not all of them. A few extra glances through the glass fronting the parking lot reveals a good deal of hardware that last-minute shoppers didn’t manage or didn’t care to get their hands on:

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No More Fun and Games
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Bars and Clubs
07/05/18 2:00pm

Hops Meet Barley Meets Its End on W. Alabama

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Openings and Closings, Upper Kirby
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Permanent closing time has arrived at Upper Kirby bar Hops Meet Barley — which is now sporting leasing signage from Parkway Partners next to its own grains-themed marquee at 2245 W. Alabama St., between Revere and Greenbriar. The venue checked out just shy of a 2-year run in the space formerly home to Ãœberrito and more formerly Mission Burrito — both of which fronted a playground that once stood in the patio pictured above.

West of the building’s entrance, a parking lot wraps around and behind the structure as part of the 19,036-sq.-ft. lot it sits on: CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Tapping Out
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Condos
07/05/18 12:00pm

Mandell Montrose Leasing Office Shutters Next to Vacant Lot Where Midrise Hasn’t Risen

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Hyde Park, Montrose, Openings and Closings
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The sales center for the not-yet-built Mandell Montrose condo slated for Fairview St. is now closed, and a representative of its sales team tells Swamplot that the developer has no plans to reopen it. Since the building’s abandonment, signage outside the converted Hyde Park residence taken over by the agents has adopted a lower position than it previously held on the structure, pictured above.

And in the neighboring 12,493-sq.-ft. lot on the corner of Fairview and Commonwealth streets — where Midtown Uptown Development Partners planned a 7-story, 24-unit midrise to overtop the surrounding neighborhood — the tallest structures are still the signs stuck up there just over a year ago:

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Fairview and Commonwealth
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Featured Posts
07/03/18 5:00pm

Awesome Bites Will Take a Chunk Out of Shops at Sawyer Yards’ West Side

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First Ward, Restaurants, Sawyer Yards
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Coming soon to the west side of the warehouse-turned-Shops at Sawyer Yards building on the corner of Sawyer and Edwards streets: Awesome Bites, a health-minded bakery specializing in fruit- and vegetable-based muffins made without eggs, butter, or milk. A building permit filed last Friday for the strip at 2313 Edwards — the nearer building in the photo above — has the new 1,600-sq.-ft. venue slotted into suite 185. That puts it west of Pokeology in either the box labelled B above (where B&B Butchers once left its mark but never materialized) or potentially right next door to the raw fishery — if the adjacent, yet-to-be announced taco shop’s plans fall through.

Images: Lovett Commercial

First Ward
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Churches
07/02/18 2:30pm

What Kind of Afterlife Can Bethany United Methodist Expect on Linkwood Dr.?

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Meyerland, Openings and Closings
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Bethany United Methodist Church has officially closed its doors at 3511 Linkwood Dr. after 68 years of services, putting a question mark on the map between Timberside Dr. and Buffalo Spdwy. At the back of the 5.5-acre religious complex, a portion devoted to the Bethany Methodist Weekday School remains open. But the church — which occupies the majority of the structure’s 48,000 sq. ft. — has been shuttered since early last month.

The last time Bethany planned to use its land for non-clerical purposes, it signed off on a 4-story senior living development that would’ve gone right up on a portion of the church complex — but the midrise never got off the ground. Had it risen, it would’ve been the first real shakeup on the block since the late ’90s, when the decades-old Dome Shadows nightclub fronting Buffalo Spdwy. bit the dust and nearly 70 newly-built homes rose up in its place — just east of the church.

Here’s what the club looked like on one of its slower days:

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Latest Religious Relics
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Downtown
06/29/18 9:30am

First Floor of Downtown’s Henry Brashear Building Will Soon Be Caffeinated

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants
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Caffé di Firenze is the name of the coffee shop now on its way to the 127-year-old Henry Brashear building at 910 Prairie St., across from El Big Bad and Local Foods’s downtown location. Despite a renovation in 2016 that added red face-paint to the building’s formerly-black façade, its first floor has remained vacant for the past several years. Plans now call for that story to include a sidewalk seating area that’ll hang out in front of it.

Meanwhile, the building’s longtime owner is still working to get one or more tenants in the upper 2 floors — which include this outdoor patio:

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Coffee Grounds
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Bars and Clubs
06/25/18 3:45pm

Etro Lounge Has One Month Left in Montrose Before Shutting Down, Packing Up for Main St.

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Cherryhurst, Montrose, Openings and Closings
4 Comments

Get ready to bid goodbye to Etro Lounge’s current location on Windsor St., where it splits a building with Anvil. Tucked back from Westheimer behind the wider front face of its bar neighbor, the ’80s-themed club has been around for over a decade. Its plan now — after a last dance on July 28 — is to relocate to a twice-as-large downtown space on the 100 block of Main St.

That’s where developer Dan Zimmerman of NewForm Real Estate recently finished up renovations on the Raphael, Dorrance, and Brewster buildings — at 114, 110, and 108 Main, respectively — which he’s folded into a mixed-use complex dubbed Main & Co, pictured below:

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Anvil’s Other Half
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