Tag: Redevelopment

Houston Landmarks
04/18/13 2:50pm

Astrodome Stewards Announce Deadline for Redevelopment Proposals — Without Requesting Any

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Public Buildings, Redevelopment, Reliant Park
16 Comments

The Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation this week approved a June 10th deadline for all private proposals to redevelop the Astrodome. That’s a notable event not only because of the somewhat hurried timeframe, but also because the organization appears to have left out a possibly minor step: Formally requesting private proposals to redevelop the Astrodome in the first place.

If that sounds a little odd to you, rest assured this sort of oversight is entirely within character for the 13-year-old quasi-governmental body, whose major achievement has been to shepherd Houston’s most famous building on a steady path from viable sports, entertainment, and celebrity ball-shagging venue to decaying, moldy relic. Hasn’t the corporation been soliciting plans all this time?

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Commercial Real Estate
03/05/13 5:00pm

Houston Pavilions To Be Renamed, Rebranded

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Development Strategies, Downtown, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Redevelopment, Retail, Shopping Centers
11 Comments

HOUSTON PAVILIONS TO BE RENAMED, REBRANDED Clearly, former NBA star Earvin Johnson knows the value of renaming — and Houston Pavilions, which Magic and other investors bought back in August, will be given a new moniker of its own, reports the Houston Business Journal’s Shaina Zucker: Today, @HouPavilions tweeted an invitation to a party on April 4 at San Jacinto between Dallas and Polk during which the mall-ish complex will reveal its new name and new brand strategy. “[R]etailers and restaurants,” the invitation says, “will have booths featuring complimentary tastings and interactive activities including Wii Bowling, a basketball hoop-off for the chance to win a signed Houston Rockets basketball and more.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Flickr user cjt3

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Homes for Sale
03/05/13 12:00pm

Holding the Front as Rosewood Townhomes Up

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Interiors, Midtown, Rosewood
2 Comments

As a checkerboard of townhome development builds out the Rosewood neighborhood south of Midtown, this sunny yellow house with poppy red shutters rather emphatically states its enduring presence on a corner lot it has occupied since before the Southwest Fwy.’s south-of-downtown bypass cut a slice through the block 3 lots away. Today, the orderly 1930 property presents itself as an urban compound, though one softened by its back-in-the-day side porch, pergola, and garden.

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Comments
03/04/13 2:30pm

Comment of the Day: That’s a Different Kind of Growth in Oak Forest

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Oak Forest, Quicklink, Redevelopment
13 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THAT’S A DIFFERENT KIND OF GROWTH IN OAK FOREST “The new $550k mcmansions in Oak Forest are replacing other housing units one for one, and the types of households that are getting displaced were already reasonably well-off and were all also living in houses that were just as sufficient to accommodate large families as the houses that are replacing them. By comparison, neighborhoods like Montrose, the Washington Avenue Corridor/Rice Military, and Uptown/Briargrove have been actively displacing small lower-income households with vast numbers of affluent households. I’d wager that there isn’t much of an increase in the number of people per household either, but the sheer number is increasing in a way that the deed restrictions in Oak Forest or Garden Oaks ensure will never happen there. Meanwhile, a $550k mcmansion in one of the single-family neighborhoods in those parts of town is often pushing the $1 million mark, and I’m sure that that also correlates to the types and profit margins of groceries that are purchased. So if you’re wondering why you don’t have urban core amenities in the suburbs . . . it’s because you live in the suburbs. They got built out a long time ago, the retail base is already established, and improvements will be slow and incremental.” [TheNiche, commenting on Apartments To Be Knocked Down for New H-E-B, Apartments on San Felipe]

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Highland Village
01/29/13 2:00pm

The New Highland Village Anthropologie Across the Street From the Old Highland Village Anthropologie

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Redevelopment, Retail, Shopping Centers, Signage
1 Comment

There sure has been a lot of activity in the past few months here in Highland Village: the former Tootsie’s building is having a little taken off the top and being split in two for new J. Crew and Anthropologie stores coming this spring, though these recent photos of the building at 4045 Westheimer suggest that Anthropologie — or at least that mauve and understated storefront — is further along. But then J. Crew has farther to go: Anthropologie’s moving only across the street from its 4066 Westheimer store (shown at right).

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Fourth Ward
01/28/13 4:15pm

A Few Freedman’s Town Rowhouses To Be Relocated, Rehabbed

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Historic Districts, Historic Preservation, Houston History, Land Development, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Renovations
11 Comments

A City of Houston rep tells Swamplot that 3 of the 10 Freedman’s Town shotgun houses on Victor St. between Gillette and Bailey will be relocated in the Fourth Ward. (The photo shows a shingle-stripped one up on a trailer and ready to go.) A permit to demolish them was granted in 2011, but the city rep says that the owners have since agreed to donate some of the houses to the Fourth Ward Redevelopment Authority, which says it has plans to move them to a lot they own at 1414 Robin and rehab them into low-income housing. Swamplot reported this morning that the West Gray lot where the rowhouses are now located has been pegged for a 5-story mixed-use midrise called Dolce Living.

Photo: Chris C

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Alabama Place
01/23/13 12:38pm

Comment of the Day: Ode to a Doomed Alabama Place Bungalow, with Caveats

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Comments, Demolitions, Quicklink, Redevelopment
16 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: ODE TO A DOOMED ALABAMA PLACE BUNGALOW, WITH CAVEATS “Poor, poor 2205 Branard. I know the standard Swamplottian response is ‘if you’re so sad to see it go, buy it.‘ I know that it was built in 1939, and wasn’t necessarily meant to last past 1989. I know that it may have structural problems, need electrical updates, and have a tiny kitchen. I know all those things, yet I can’t look at this adorable brick house, this poor condemned soul with its neck on the chopping block, and not get a lump in my throat. What did this house do to deserve such a fate? Did it not bow down to the ballroom-sized bathroom trend? Did it refuse to tart itself up in stucco to suit the Tuscan-craving masses? Did it commit the crime of having only (gasp!) 8′ tall ceilings?! Perhaps it was simply the offense of having a pleasing ratio of height, fenestration, and visual interest that doesn’t say ‘screw you, street, I don’t care what I look like outside, because I have granite countertops, slate backsplashes and crown moulding!‘ Does this make me a house-hugger? Probably. Will this earn me a thorough flaming from other commenters? Definitely. [Pours some out for fallen soldier 2205 Branard]” [Jennifer Mathis, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: No, Virginia]

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East Downtown
01/22/13 3:30pm

Now Listed: The Slightly Bigger Half of That New Small Modern East Downtown Duo

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Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Redevelopment
10 Comments

Look familiar? Two weeks after its smaller look-alike housing unit appeared on the market, this bigger-by-a-bedroom version finishing up right next door listed for a bit more. And speaking of doors, this mini-mod’s entry is cool blue instead of the cheery yellow one marking its neighbor. Other differences include the roofline’s wider wingspan — to accommodate a broader, shorter driveway that bumps against that extra room downstairs.

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Commercial Real Estate
01/17/13 4:45pm

You Know What They Say About Social Security

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Leasing, Midtown, Office Buildings, Public Services, Quicklink, Redevelopment
4 Comments

YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY Has Midtown become too hip even for the federal government? The Social Security Administration is leaving, having lost its lease at the low-slung building at 3100 Smith (shown at right), reports CultureMap’s Whitney Radley: “Once a sort of wasteland, the surrounding neighborhood teems now with development, restaurants, bars, mixed-use complexes and multifamily units . . . . speculation that the building might be prime space for a restaurant or even torn down to make room for a mid-rise, is rampant.” [CultureMap] Photo: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston

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Uncategorized
01/09/13 2:51pm

Adding to Convention Center District Easy as 1-2-3 . . . 4-5-6-7

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17 Comments

Downtown has been missing out, RIDA President Ira Mitzner tells Bisnow: “A CVB study found we lost 630,000 room nights from conventions” between 2008 and 2012 because of a “lack of activity” around the George R. Brown Convention Center —  the largest in Texas, says Mitzner, but only the fourth-most booked. Swamplot reported in December that RIDA worked with Morris Architects to develop a 30-story, 1,000-room Marriott Marquis — you might remember the rendering of a Texas-shaped lazy river on the roof. And other developments are coming. Houston First COO Peter McStravick lays them out to Bisnow step by step:

1 is the Marriott Marquis. 2 is owned by HISD and will be a high school for visual and performing arts, and the western half of block 3 may become a limited-service hotel. 4 is Houston First’s tract (1.5 blocks) and 5 is the site of the new [1,800-space parking] garage. 6 will house the Nau Center for Texas Cultural Heritage, and 7 (two blocks) will be the Finger 8-story tower.

Houston First wants that tract to become apartments and retail; the Finger tower of apartments and retail is planned for the same site where the Ben Milam Hotel stood until it went crumbling down in a cloud of glory in early December.

Map: Bisnow

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Demolitions
01/02/13 2:09pm

Houston Club Building Will Be Demolished, Say Auctioneers

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Downtown, Office Buildings, Quicklink, Redevelopment
7 Comments

HOUSTON CLUB BUILDING WILL BE DEMOLISHED, SAY AUCTIONEERS Going, going . . . gone?: The company auctioning off the contents of the Houston Club ahead of its move to the 49th floor of One Shell Plaza gleefully reports on its website that the Jesse Jones-era 18-story office building at 811 Rusk is “scheduled for demolition!” That’s more than Skanska, which owns the building, has officially announced, though the Swedish construction firm’s own website does note that “future redevelopment” is planned for the Downtown site. [Lewis & Maese via CultureMap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Silberman Properties

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Apartments
11/29/12 12:43pm

Plans for Richmond and Buffalo Speedway Corner Include Hotel, Apartments, Restaurants, Demolition

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Greenway Plaza, Highrises, Hotels, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment
10 Comments

More details are out on the plans to pile taller buildings onto the southeast corner of Richmond and Buffalo Speedway that Swamplot reported on last week: PM Realty, which earlier this month bought the 5-acre site and the 5-story Solvay America office building that sits on the southern portion of it, plans to build the 18-story office tower pictured above on the park-like portion at the north end of the property — leaving in place a bank of oaks facing Richmond, as shown in this view, from the northwest:

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Apartments
11/21/12 2:30pm

Park Memorial Condos, New Apartments Built on Top of Old Rice Military Cemetery

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Condos, Demolitions, Houston History, Redevelopment, Rice Military
12 Comments

Spooked former residents looking for some sort of larger, more mystical explanation for the disastrous end of the Park Memorial Condos at 5292 Memorial Dr. now have confirmation of a first-class backstory to hang their storytelling hats on. A little late for Halloween, a medical examiner has determined that the human remains discovered this summer during the condos’ demolition — and the preparation of the site for its replacement, the Park Memorial Apartments — belong to bodies interred at a cemetery that once graced the site. That would be the Crooms Cemetery, Preservation Houston’s David Bush tells teevee reporter Deborah Wrigley. The African-American burial ground was named after Felix Crooms (who scored nearby Crooms St. as well), was in operation from approximately 1917 to 1937, and also served as the final resting place for members of St. Luke’s Missionary Baptist Church.

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Comments
11/19/12 3:05pm

Comment of the Day: Scrapping It All — or not — in Westbury

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Quicklink, Redevelopment, Renovations, Uncategorized, Westbury
18 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: SCRAPPING IT ALL — OR NOT — IN WESTBURY “So I have a home in Westbury that I purchased in the $190 range. It’s ok shape but I am living in another home inside the loop. As I am interested in a larger home and can’t find an affordable lot inside the loop, I am considering demoing my Westbury home and rebuilding on that lot. Does anyone have an opinion on this? I am only aware of one other Westbury new build from 2006. I love the neighborhood, I just need more space. Another option I am considering is building a second story to the existing home. Thoughts?” [Westbury Owner, commenting on A Londoners’ Guide to the Westbury Land Rush]

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Comments
11/13/12 4:44pm

Comment of the Day: Heading for Points Greener

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Development Strategies, Quicklink, Springwoods Village
35 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HEADING FOR POINTS GREENER “Unless I’m missing something, the whole thing seems like an egregious example of waste. You build Greenspoint 30 years ago and then for various reasons it’s no longer ideal, so do you improve it? Revamp it? No, you abandon it all and clear a new forest ten miles north for your new office park. And all the smaller companies that clustered around you there do likewise. And Greenspoint with its hundreds of acres of concrete just sits there like damaged goods. So what happens in thirty years when Springwoods Village is no longer ideal, when the new wears off? Do you improve it and make it work, or do you jump another ten miles north where there’s another waiting forest and build your new campus there? The irony is that I’m sure these buildings will be LEED-whatever certified and Exxon will tout itself as a great steward, but any environmentalist will tell you that the real way to conserve is to adapt & reuse, not just wantonly abandon & throw away.” [Mike, commenting on The Next Springwoods Village Rumor]

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