Tag: Redevelopment

Redevelopment, Rice Military

6 Comments

Residents of the Memorial Club apartments at 955 Westcott St. now have 5 months left to beat it from the complex in order to make way for a new residential building that’s set to rise in its place. According to a letter that landlord Greystar sent out on June 11, the deadline to vacate is December 31. Up until then, the company “is engaging a relocation specialist” to assist tenants with their moves.

The photo at top shows the apartment’s yard sign, with an arrow (since covered up) pointing across Westcott to where its leasing office once sat within the demolished eastern portion of the complex. Greystar tore that section down in 2014, about a year after buying both halves of the complex and announcing a 2-phase redevelopment plan for the land, to include 550 units spread across a pair of buildings.

297 of them are already housed across the street in the 6-story Elan Memorial Park building — pictured below — that the developer put up in 2016:

Exodus on Westcott St.

77007, Apartments, Redevelopment, Rice Military

06/06/18 3:00pm

How Fifth Ward CRC Plans To Fit 110 Housing Units into the Shuttered Elizabeth Hospital on Lyons St.

Fifth Ward, Hospitals, Redevelopment, Renovations

5 Comments

Current and proposed views from high above Lyons Ave. show what the St. Elizabeth Hospital would look like repurposed as a 110-unit housing complex, as the Fifth Ward CRC proposes. The biggest change architectÂ Van Meter Williams Pollack has in store for the place is a teardown of the central wing that runs back behind the 3-story north face — pictured above — to make room for a new parking courtyard.

Behind that lot, a newly-constructed, 3-story building would front Chisum St.:

St. Elizabeth Place

Affordable Housing, Fifth Ward, Hospitals, Redevelopment, Renovations

06/06/18 10:00am

East Downtown’s Houston Post Building Now Airing Out in Preparation for What’s Next

East Downtown, Mixed Use, Redevelopment

9 Comments

Asbestos abatement crews are on the scene at the formerÂ Houston Post building on the corner of Polk and Emancipation that Lovett Commercial plans to redevelop. The photo at top from St. Charles St. looks east to show the building’s parking lot — now serving as a staging area for contractors that have been there all week, according to a Swamplot reader. The other shot views the building’s corner at Polk and St. Charles, which — according to a site plan put out by Lovett last May — would be demolished to make room for more parking.

Fronting all those parking spaces would be a CVS at Polk and Emancipation and a newly-constructed Sprouts Farmers Market off Bell St.:

Seeds of Sprouts?

77003, Adaptive Reuse, Asbestos, East Downtown, Redevelopment

06/04/18 4:30pm

Your Guide to East River Candyland

Fifth Ward, Maps, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments

12 Comments

The map above — taken from this week’s city planning agenda — provides a candy-colored indication of how Midway plans to divvy up the 136-acre former KBR site along Buffalo Bayou, east of downtown, that it’s redeveloping into an office, retail, and residential neighborhood dubbed East River. Among the more colorful land uses revealed for the site: a park-fronting hotel slated for the semi-circular red parcel to the east, as well as a nameless museum — shown in grape — that’s planned along Buffalo Bayou near the neighborhood’s western edge.

Sprinkled along the water is an extension of the existing trail that runs along Buffalo Bayou’s north bank. It would traverse the entire development, from its western edge to the boat dock planned at its eastern boundary. Along the way, “Pedestrian bridges are being discussed with Buffalo Bayou Partnership to connect the two sides of the bayou,” according to the plans Midway submitted to the city.

Those 7 consecutive yellow blocks at the north end of the site along Clinton St. represent the citadel of townhomes that’ll look out onto the surrounding Fifth Ward. It’s bookended by 3 blocks of retail to the east along Hirsch Rd. and one to the west on Jensen Dr.

As heralded by the sign — pictured below — now hanging the site’s construction fencing, Houston’s city planning commission will take up the special exemption request that Midway submitted for the development later this week:

Sweet Deal

77020, Fifth Ward, KBR Site, Mixed-Use, Redevelopment

05/18/18 10:00am

Neo Baguette To Pick Up Where North Loop Auto Supply Left off on the Corner of E. 20th and Harvard

Houston Heights, Restaurants, Signage

No Comments

All car-related signage has come down from the Heights building North Loop Auto Supply once occupied 9 blocks south of the North Loop on the northeast corner of Harvard and E. 20th. In its place, a banner for new restaurant Neo Baguette now hangs over the building’s 20th-St. doorway. An entity connected to developer Steve Radom bought theÂ 2,331-sq.-ft. freestanding structure late last year and set about reworking it into something more suitable for a restaurant tenant to occupy.

Included in that effort: gardening work to add the tufty beds of flora that now front 20th St., the removal of the front gates and awning from the storefront entrance, the addition of new windows, and the erection of the 4 steel columns now attached to the building’s face. A parking lot to the east separates it from its next-door neighbor, Revive Salon and Spa.

Photo: Ken Barnes (Neo Baguette); LoopNet (auto parts)

Sandwich Signage

77008, Houston Heights, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Signage

05/17/18 11:45am

Boxing Gym Joining Wireless Store, Hair Salon, Braun Realty HQ in Former Bathhouse on Fannin St.

Midtown, Redevelopment, Retail

7 Comments

Title Boxing Club is the latest tenant on its way to the block-long former Midtowne Spa at 3100 Fannin St. Braun bought the building the same year the bathhouse shuttered in 2016, set up a 4,664-sq.-ft. office on the second floor, and began ushering other tenants into the building. Two months ago, Verizon opened at the south end of the structure, on the corner of Elgin and Fannin. In between it and the national boxing chain’s new location, a Bishops hair salon is planned.

The bathhouse — pictured above from the north before its recent whitewashing treatment — had been in the building since at least the ’80s. Other locations still operate under the same brand in Denver and Los Angeles.

Its first floor included this swimming pool and hot tub setup:

No Longer Midtowne Spa

77004, Midtown, Redevelopment, Retail

03/13/18 12:00pm

All the Body Parts Now Signed Up for Braun’s New Center at Shepherd and W. 24th

by Swamplot

Houston Heights, Leasing, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers

7 Comments

The teeth, eyes, and . . . uh, overall shape of the new shopping center Braun Enterprises is planning for N. Shepherd and 24th St. can be considered taken care of, now thatÂ Lovett Dental, Eyes on the Heights Optometry, and Club Pilates have each signed leases for space in the development. That leaves 11,555 sq. ft. still available in 3 separate end-cap spots for any nail salon, podiatrist,Â or dermatology clinic that wants to fill out the theming for the complex, which would go on the block catty-corner to the H-E-B Heights Market currently under construction.

This would fit in with N. Shepherd’s ongoing transformation: Braun plans to demolish the Miller’s Auto Body Repair Experts facility (as of now still open for business) as well a building formerly occupied by Auto Electric Service on the site in order to construct the 24,000-sq.-ft. shopping center, which includes structured parking as well as a parking lot on the roof of one of the 2 buildings.

A full human-body-part-focused buildout for this planned complex at 2401 N. Shepherd Dr. isn’t so far-fetched: the latest renderings released for the development include generic signage for both aÂ nail salon and a fitness club:

Body Shop to Body Shopping

77008, Commercial Real Estate, Houston Heights, Leasing, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Retail, Shopping Centers

Bars and Clubs

12/27/17 12:30pm

Zadok Trashing Washington Ave Nightclub, Getting Back to Business with Former Guadalajara Bakery Building

Demolitions, Redevelopment, Washington Ave, Washington Corridor

5 Comments

The pile of mangled disco parts beyond the fence pictured at top is all that remains of the less-than-2-year-old La Roux nightclub building at 4011 Washington after crews brought down the house last week. In March, a real estate company connected to Zadok Jewelers bought the entire 39,000-sq.-ft. block on Washington between Leverkuhn and Jackson Hill St.Â La Roux was evicted earlier this year.

The club’s entrance was off Leverkuhn:

La Roux-ined

77007, Bars and Clubs, Demolitions, Redevelopment, Washington Ave., Washington Corridor

12/14/17 12:45pm

The First New Tenant in 7800 Washington’s Warehouse Redo Won’t Hang Around for Long

Openings and Closings

No Comments

The former packaging warehouse at 7800 Washington — on its way to being reworkedÂ so that offices, furniture showrooms, and a restaurant can move into it, likely next year — already has a new tenant in place:Â The Study, a pop-upÂ gallery and shop selling prints, greeting cards, and design-y gifts.Â Los Angeles-based artist Jacqueline LevineÂ runs the store, which opened late last month in the southeast corner of the 66,000-sq.-ft. building.

Levine’s father, Larry Levine, is hoping a restaurant will take over the space once more of the building is ready for tenants. He’s the president of Levcor, the development firm that bought the building last year. The Study will be open through January, although it’ll take some holiday time off beginning on December 24.

The Study

77007, Adaptive Reuse, Cottage Grove, Openings and Closings, Popups, Redevelopment, Warehouses

12/12/17 3:30pm

8 Letters and a Big Eye Spell Out the Beginnings of Washington Ave Warehouse’s Transformation

1 Comment

Study the photo at top carefully and you’ll see 2 eye-catching features that were installed in November: the gaping, cyclopticÂ sculptureÂ at the entrance to the parking lot outside 7800 Washington, as well as new letteringÂ spelling out THE STUDYÂ on the warehouse’s awning. DeveloperÂ Levcor bought the 66,000-sq.-ft. brick building — at that time home to Brian Thomas Display & Packaging — last year and filed construction permits in September to begin renovating it into a space for offices, furniture showrooms, and a restaurant.

Before and after views show how the building’s front side on Washington, just northwest of the Katy Fwy., will be transformed:

Cottage Grove

77007, Adaptive Reuse, Mixed Use, Redevelopment, Warehouses

12/06/17 3:15pm

Warehouse Removal Project Begins on Commerce St., Where the Block Will Extend to Canal

Demolitions, Mixed Use, Redevelopment, Second Ward

2 Comments

A Swamplot reader sends photos of the partial demolition now underway along Commerce St. just off Colby in the Second Ward just north of East Downtown.Â Ancorian bought 3 warehouses between Commerce and Canal St. last November and plans to redevelop the site into a single dock-front buildingÂ with a parking lot along its west side. The new development, dubbed The Block, would consist of 44,000 sq. ft. ofÂ “creative workspace and retail.â€

Here’s an aerial viewÂ looking west along Commerce St taken from before the demolition.:

Second Ward Redo

77002, Adaptive Reuse, Demolitions, Mixed-Use, Redevelopment, Second Ward, Warehouses

Boulevard Oaks

12/06/17 12:15pm

The Real Demo at the 4949 Convenience Store Is Finally Complete

Demolitions, Redevelopment

No Comments

The 4949 Convenience Store, heir to the Sunrise Grocery spot on the northeast corner of Bissonnet and Shepherd, has been demolished — this time in its entirety, and with a little less fanfare. Back in September,Â crowds gathered to watch ceiling-mounted wrecking balls bust up parts of the building’s interior as part ofÂ a “site specific, kinetic installation” by artist Trey Duvall.

Cherry Demolition’s more conventional performance took place yesterday, a reader tells Swamplot; the photo at top shows the lot after it was cleared out this morning.Â A 3-story office building with a street-level cafeÂ is planned for the site.