Tag: Redevelopment

Featured Posts
12/09/13 3:15pm

Turning On the Brights in a $225K Shearn Cottage

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, Redevelopment
2 Comments

2008-shearn-01

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It measures only 768 sq. ft., but a brightly painted 1930 home trims out its few rooms and doles them out in squared-off 12-ft. increments. The aquatic property is in the Shearn subdivison, located a block south of the Heights Hike-and-Bike trail and up the street from the back of Crockett Elementary’s campus. (Spring Street Studios is also nearby.) The little cottage’s entirety would likely fit inside the footprint of one of the towering townhome units cropping up nearby; waves of redevelopment are drawing nearer. Over the weekend, the property’s relisting by a new agency dropped the price to $224,000;  an initial listing in August 2013 got the ball rolling at $237,900. Will a wrecking ball be next?

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A Little House That Might
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Featured Posts
11/20/13 10:15am

Apartments and Retail for Westheimer and Montrose Corner? Not Until Half Price Books and Spec’s Scoot

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Houston Landmarks, Montrose, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Redevelopment, Retail, Strip Centers
16 Comments

APARTMENTS AND RETAIL FOR WESTHEIMER AND MONTROSE CORNER? NOT UNTIL HALF PRICE BOOKS AND SPEC’S SCOOT Half Price Books in Westmont Shopping Center, 1011 Westheimer Rd., Montrose, HoustonThe owner of the once-Art Deco but now slathered-with-stucco shopping center at the southwest corner of Westheimer and Montrose says it’s willing to wait 7 to 10 years for the center’s leases to run out before building something new on the site. Unless, of course, they can negotiate an early exit (or time-out while construction takes place) for the Half Price Books, Spec’s, Papa Johns, 3-6-9 China Bistro and Jack in the Box currently on the site. If they can’t buy out the tenants, PM Realty’s Wade Bolin tells Shaina Zucker, they’ll start leasing out the still-vacant spaces in the former Tower Community Center, which the company calls the Westmont Shopping Center. “PM Realty Group did not share early design plans,” Zucker adds, “but several sources confirmed the mixed-use structure could include residential with retail on the ground floor.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: PM Realty

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Buying and Selling
11/18/13 11:46am

Apartment Developer Buying Montrose Blvd. ‘Skybar’ Building

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Commercial Real Estate, Montrose, Office Buildings, Redevelopment
19 Comments

3400 Montrose Office Building, Montrose, HoustonSnooping around county records, HBJ reporter Shaina Zucker discovers that apartment developer Hanover Company has placed the long-vacant 10-story office building at 3400 Montrose Blvd. under contract. The developer wouldn’t respond to Zucker’s questions, but an officer of the Montrose Management District hints strongly that Hanover plans to tear down the structure across Hawthorne St. from Kroger and build — surprise! — “luxury apartments” in its place: “There’s no way they could remodel.” Scott Gertner’s Skybar — and Cody’s before it — once occupied the building’s top floor.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

3400 Montrose
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Downtown
11/04/13 10:00am

Here’s the Hilcorp Building Replacing the Demolished Foley’s Downtown

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Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment
31 Comments

Corner views of the 23-story office building Hilcorp has been planning for the now-rubble-filled site of the former Foley’s (and more recently, Macy’s) retail box on Main St. between Lamar and Dallas surfaced on a few websites last week. The drawings of Ziegler Cooper’s design show a glass-faced structure doing the half-podium trick, blending 7-or-so garage levels into the main tower shape on one side, but letting it stick out on the other. That “other” side faces Main St.; on the Travis St. side (pictured above and in the last rendering below), the hide-a-car floors fit into the building’s northwest-facing curve, which pulls back to make room for a vehicle drop-off driveway loop and a couple of corner plazas. But what’s happening on the rail side?

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Comments
10/28/13 2:30pm

Comment of the Day: When Townhomes Come to Lindale Park

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Lindale Park, Quicklink, Redevelopment, Townhomes
21 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHEN TOWNHOMES COME TO LINDALE PARK “Most of the best appreciation in the Heights is in sections that are already deed restricted for lot size or have adopted the minimum lot size under chapter 42. Lindale is not like Midtown or parts of Montrose that have already been torn apart by non-residential development or have been chopped up with lots of townhomes. It looks more like Oak Forest did ten years ago. And if comps were a deterrent, no one would be replacing 1200 sq. ft. ranch homes in Oak Forest with 3500 sq. ft. custom homes. When a neighborhood gets bought out for town homes, the incentive to maintain the existing housing stock is lost. Your house is only worth what the dirt is worth. A foundation that has $5,000 of repairs to get it level looks just the same as one without after an afternoon with back hoe ripping through it. The result is that the existing neighborhood will go way downhill while the new construction takes over.” [Old School, commenting on Headlines: A Giant Kroger for Kingwood; Inn at the Ballpark Rebranding] Illustration: Lulu

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Demolitions
10/03/13 10:00am

Reliant Park Crews Plan To Begin Astrodome Demolition Next Monday

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Houston Landmarks, Public Buildings, Redevelopment, Reliant Park, Stadiums
23 Comments

Not the whole stadium — not yet, anyway — but Mark Miller, the general manager of Reliant Park, says that all the Astrodome’s exterior features will be knocked down as early as next week. And that appears to include everything that leads right up to the Dome’s walls: Not just the ticket booths that appeared Wednesday in the Daily Demolition Report, but also the concrete stairs, ramps, grass berms, substations, and transmission lines that you can see in the photo above.

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Redevelopment
09/17/13 5:00pm

Bar Takes Old Guadalajara Spot on Washington

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Renovations, Restaurants, Washington Ave, Washington Corridor
6 Comments

A reader has spotted some signs hanging on the fence outside 4003 Washington near Leverkuhn, where the Guadalajara Bakery used to be: The slick one in the photo above for La Roux, and another just a few feet away indicating that La Roux has applied to sell alcohol. County records show that the 1930 4,368-sq.-ft. building at 4003 Washington and 2 nearby vacant lots — the 5,100-sq.-ft. one at 4011 Washington, and the 28,045-sq.-ft. one at 4015 Washington — are all owned by Kaplan Kalan Properties.

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Development Strategies
09/13/13 2:30pm

Mayor Parker’s Downtown Retail Task Force Suggests Developing Lots of Retail Downtown

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Downtown, Hotels, Redevelopment, Retail, Shopping, Shopping Centers, Streetscapes
67 Comments

That retail task force that Mayor Parker put together about the same time that Macy’s announced it was closing the Downtown store came through with its first report yesterday, recommending that Dallas St. between Milam and La Branch — or between the hotels on the west side of Downtown and the hotels, Discovery Green, and George R. Brown Convention Center on the east — be prettied up into a kind of retail promenade. And the task force recommends that it happen sooner rather than later, in time to capitalize on the disposable incomes of the hordes coming to town for the NCAA Final Four in 2016 and the Super Bowl in 2017.

The rendering above, included in the report, shows a Kardashian body double strolling through the intersection of Main St. and Dallas; the Sakowitz building, catty-corner across from the to-be-demolished-in-a-week Macy’s, would pair with GreenStreet to anchor the linear district and provide similar photo opportunities. It appears that the task force hopes to lure national retailers and rally existing tenants and landowers, like Hilcorp, to the cause with tax breaks and other incentives, including waiving the city ordinance requiring that signage Downtown be no taller than 42.5 ft.

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Apartments
09/11/13 10:00am

Apartments Could Replace Closing Landry’s on Westheimer

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Briarmeadow, Demolitions, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Restaurants
8 Comments

APARTMENTS COULD REPLACE CLOSING LANDRY’S ON WESTHEIMER The Landry’s Seafood House at 8816 Westheimer Rd. has lost its lease, apparently, and will close: This Sunday, reports Food Chronicles, brings the restaurant’s 20-year run in this spot to an end. But it doesn’t appear that the 4.5-acre site at Westheimer and Fondren will remain without activity for very long: “The landlord . . . sold the property to an apartment builder. According to Landry’s, the restaurant and other buildings . . . are slated for demolition.” [Food Chronicles] Photo: Landry’s Seafood

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Commercial Real Estate
07/25/13 4:05pm

Some Real-Life Occupants for Galveston’s Long-Abandoned Brewery?

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Galveston, Galveston, Industrial Properties, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Redevelopment, Toxic Sites
13 Comments

SOME REAL-LIFE OCCUPANTS FOR GALVESTON’S LONG-ABANDONED BREWERY? The endangered historic Falstaff Brewery that once harbored a bunch of scared architecture students in a horror flick might become a real refuge for Galvestonians looking for cheap housing — or so Culturemap’s Tyler Rudick seems to think, divining a hint about Dallas developer Matthews Southwest’s plans for the property from the very title of the rep he interviews: “Company officials are unable to reveal the full details until a purchase is finalized,” cautions Rudick. “But [we] spoke with current project leader Scott Galbraith, whose position as Matthews Southwest’s vice president of affordable income development suggests the company’s larger plans for the complex.” Perhaps, but Galbraith is also quick to point out that Matthews Southwest is keeping its options open while studying the site; previous environmental investigations have found plenty of asbestos in the 313,000-sq.-ft. building and soil contamination around it. [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia

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Commercial Real Estate
07/12/13 3:00pm

Richmond Strip Not Down for the Count?

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Nightlife, Quicklink, Redevelopment, Richmond Strip, Strip Centers
5 Comments

RICHMOND STRIP NOT DOWN FOR THE COUNT? Real estate reporter Shaina Zucker cruises Richmond Ave., tallying up the evidence that she suggests might just point to a resurgence of that once-lively strip between Hillcroft and Chimney Rock: “30 — The number of For Lease signs visible; 4 — The number of For Sale signs visible; 6 — The number of empty lots visible; 5 — Number of active adult entertainment locations (strip clubs, novelty stores, etc.); 8 — Number of other active clubs/bars facing Richmond; 6 — Number of open fast-food locations; 20 — Number of auto sales/retailer locations; 3 — Number of active construction projects; 35,127 — Richmond at Fountain View average daily traffic volume by number of vehicles; 33,720 — Richmond at Chimney Rock average daily traffic volume by number of vehicles.” [Houston Business Journal] Photo of La Bare at 6234 Richmond: City Data

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Houston Landmarks
06/13/13 11:15am

Hatching Baby Businesses at the Astrodome

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Proposed Developments, Public Buildings, Quicklink, Redevelopment, Reliant Park, Stadiums
5 Comments

HATCHING BABY BUSINESSES AT THE ASTRODOME One of those 19 private bids that the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation didn’t quite get around to asking for and yet still received just in time for Monday’s deadline comes from entrepreneur Tim Trae Tindall, who suggests that the Astrodome might be the perfect environment to trap heat — so to speak — as a business incubator: Click2Houston’s Gianna Caserta reports that Tindall’s bid for this “one-stop shop location” would provide “consultants, restaurants, investors, IT support, and office space. There would even be an extended-stay area for visitors to have accommodations while scoping out the Houston business climate.” (Having investors there on the spot? Now that beats cold calling.) Tindall, who says he’s trying to raise the money to fund the project, seems to think that a fledgling business would be drawn almost naturally to the decaying Dome: “What we intend to do is seize upon the notoriety of Houston’s greatest landmark.” [Click2Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West

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Comments
05/14/13 1:45pm

Comment of the Day Runner-Up: Bogarting the Astrodome

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Public Buildings, Quicklink, Redevelopment, Reliant Park
7 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: BOGARTING THE ASTRODOME “The only roadblock to redevelopment of the Dome, as I see it, are two self-interested organizations that are afforded an unwarranted and undeserved say in the matter.” [TheNiche, commenting on Headlines: Itemizing Astrodome Tax Expenses; El Tiempo Cantina Heading South]

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Apartments
05/10/13 1:00pm

Comment of the Day: An Atmosphere of Mistrust

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Comments, Development Stategies, Museum District, Quicklink, Redevelopment
13 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: AN ATMOSPHERE OF MISTRUST “I’m inclined to believe the owner on this one. Who knows better what Sharifi plans to do with the property, than Sharifi himself? It’s not just that he said there were no immediate plans to develop the property – how many times have we heard that one — it’s the good brick award and the quip about townhomes that does it — for me at least. The real story here is the level of mistrust that exists between the public and the building community (developers but also architects, engineers, and contractors). It’s a nationwide phenomenon that’s especially strong here in Houston. There’s a common misconception that our lack of zoning leaves us more vulnerable. We’ve suffered a lot of bad development since the 1960s. It has made us paranoid. And with affordable garden apartments Inside the Loop falling one-by-one to luxury mid rises, it’s understandable that people in complexes like the Gramercy Place Apartments would be especially paranoid.” [ZAW, commenting on The Confusing Continuing Story of the Gramercy Place Apartments]

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Comments
05/02/13 1:00pm

Comment of the Day Runner-Up: Looking for a Multi-Dome

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Public Buildings, Quicklink, Reliant Park
9 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: LOOKING FOR A MULTI-DOME “I also remember how impressive it was to see the bare-steel framework during construction. So, the ‘strip it down to structural elements’ idea does resonate with me. In any case, most of the non-demolition proposals I’ve read about are for a single use facility of one kind or another. In contrast, I think our best hope for success is to remake it into a facility that serves different aspects of the public that have different interests. The dome’s footprint is big enough to accommodate a variety of multiple uses. I’ve tossed about ideas for some possibilities for different parts: hotel, golf driving range and/or putting greens, artificial ponds for fishing, tropical gardens (this might require the roof + AC), additional meeting-room and display space for conventions. These are just some thoughts, all of which have worked elsewhere, but may or may not work here. My main point is that we should be considering multiple uses, not just one that could sink the entire project’s success.” [Guido, commenting on Astrodome Stripped Bare by the Architects, Even]

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