Tag: Renovations

10/11/18 11:30am

New Holes Have Opened Up the Center of the Westheimer Center

Hyde Park, Montrose, Renovations, Retail, Strip Centers

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A Swamplot reader reports that renovations to the shopping center on Westheimer across from Light Bulbs Unlimited “suddenly stopped about a month ago,” leaving a few gaping holes open in the face of the strip. Pictured at top is the space where Radio Shack once stuck out a few ft. from the rest of the building before it shut down along with the rest of the chain and sat vacant prior to the remodeling that began earlier this year.

Despite their presence on the marquee shown above, a number of the other tenants recently hit the road from the center as well: Tanacious Tanning, which occupied the spot (also wide open) just west of Radio Shack; Stars Cleaners, located off Commonwealth St. to the far west; and Consign It!, which punctuated the building’s eastern end. Their spaces are all up for lease right now, according to a LoopNet listing posted back in June. Nidda Thai Cuisine and its next-door neighbor Erotic Cabaret on the other hand appear to be sticking around.

An Inside Look

77006, Hyde Park, Montrose, Renovations, Retail, Strip Center

Bars and Clubs

10/01/18 12:30pm

Moon Tower Inn’s Old Patio Is Now Completely Plowed Following the 3-Day Farewell Bender It Hosted Last Week

Renovations, Second Ward

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Drink specials set the stage not only for what Moon Tower Inn billed as a â€œgluttonous celebrationâ€ of its 8-year anniversary 2 weeks ago, they also helped management get rid of all its inventory so that the venue could close down while workers install a new patio in place of its old one. Following 3 days of clearance festivities, the bar ran dry in the afternoon last Sunday — although some â€œcheap assâ€ food remained in stock until Friday, August 25, when it finally shut its doors. Now, a Swamplot reader sends the photo at top showing what used to be the Moon Tower’s covered patio transformed into an earthen field. From it, the new heated and cooled outdoor seating area will materialize with help from the equipment pictured above.

Itâ€™ll span the yard between the corner of Canal and North Ennis streets and the shipping container that architecture firm Kinetic Design Lab repurposed for the barâ€™s reopening in 2012:

3004 Canal St.

77003, Bars and Restaurants, Renovations, Second Ward

09/27/18 4:30pm

Empty 19th St. Building Signs Up for a Makeover in Order To Attract Hairy Men

Houston Heights, Proposed Developments, Renovations, Retail

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Tune Up: The Manly Salon got the city’s approval yesterday to start renovating the building shown above into the latest member of its barber-shop chain, now roughly 20-stores strong. Following those locations’ lead, the 626 W. 19th St. shop — next to the former Southern Goods — would appeal to guys by offering them free drinks and access to an arcade stocked with video and old-fashioned games while they wait to get groomed. Hair care services include standard cuts, beard trims, straight shaves, and eyebrow waxing. Perhaps less manly are the cosmetic offerings: manicures, pedicures, and a mani-pedi combo for 4 bucks less than the cost of the two combined.

Photo: LoopNet

Making the Cut

77024, Houston Heights, Proposed Development, Renovations, Retail

09/26/18 4:30pm

Car-Wash-to-Coffee Conversion Now Brewing for the Corner of Houston Ave. and Alma St.

Proposed Developments, Renovations, Retail, Woodland Heights

The building with a roofÂ that’s bigger than its body at 3024 Houston Ave. is now slated to become a cafe operating under the name Uncle Bean’s Coffee Shop.Â The photo at top — posted to the venue’s fledgling Facebook page this morning views the structure from the west side of the road, just south of Alma St. Its most recent occupant: Mr. Details Hand Car Wash.

White paint hit the exterior sometime during the former tenant’s tenure, washing out the yellow splat marks that once graced its north and south sides:

Woodland Heights

77009, Proposed Developments, Renovations, Retail, Woodland Heights

Bars and Clubs

09/21/18 5:00pm

Wabash Feed & Garden’s Growth Spurt Sets the Scene for Nightlife

Renovations, Rice Military

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Here’s what the former Wabash Feed & Garden Store on Washington looks like with a second level stacked on top of its original storefront. Workers are now climbing around the outdoor portions of the new upstairs, setting the scene for what’s coming next.

What exactly they’re planning hasn’t shown up in the form of any physical signage yet, but some digital breadcrumbs dug up by a HAIF poster hint at what they’ve got in mind. Two active Facebook pages — one for something called Warsaw Houston, the other for “Axis & Alibi” currently sport similar branding and claim Wabash’s address as their own. Late last year, another page with the title Van Nuys made its internet debut with a 5701 Washington address, too — but it’s since been taken offline.

5701 Washington

77007, Bars and Restaurants, Renovations, Rice Military

Avondale

09/18/18 3:00pm

Montrose Mining Company Sheds Its Back Patio as Part of Postino Wine Bar Redo

Bars and Clubs, Renovations

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As heralded by strange sensations earlier this month, crews have begun transforming the former Montrose Mining Company into Houston’s second Postino Wine Bar by stripping the covered patio shown above from the building’s east side. So far, the rest of its gray brick exterior remains unchanged, except a portion of the facade on Grant St. that’s recently gone yellow as part of the redo:

805 Pacific St.

77006, Avondale, Bars and Restaurants, Renovations

09/11/18 10:30am

El Ahorro Setting Up Shop in Former Airline Dr. Kroger

Quicklink, Renovations

EL AHORRO SETTING UP SHOP IN FORMER AIRLINE DR. KROGER A whole ‘nother crop of building permits filed recently on the north end of the strip Kroger abandoned last year confirm that specialty supermarket El Ahorro is now getting situated there. It’s been working for the better part of this year on the property at 6749 Airline — which backs up behind the parking lot shown above to abut a house on the corner of E. Parker Rd. and Mano St. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Kelly Regan

77076, Northline, Quicklink, Renovations, Strip Centers

09/10/18 12:45pm

Cloud 10 Creamery Number 3 Heads to Shepherd and Colquitt Corner

Renovations, Restaurants, Upper Kirby

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The ice cream shop has plans to shoot the gap between its existing Heights and Rice Village locations with a new spot at 3502 S. Shepherd, in the house next to the Richmond Ave strip where Burgerim’s getting situated. Although Cloud 10’s summer menu — includingÂ mozzarella and black tea-cornÂ flavors, as well as a sundae made with “freeze dried blueberries” — is still on rotation in the 2 current locations, it’ll probably be replaced by a whole ‘nother roster by the time the new store opens.

Five head-in parking spots line the building’s northern frontage along Colquitt St. They’ve been empty for the most part since hair salon All Decked Out checked out of the building, leaving it open to new arrivals.

Previously on Swamplot:Â Bungalow Full of Weird Ice Cream Flavors Now Open on Heights Blvd.;Â Where Cloud 10 and All Those Extra Parking Spaces Will Fit Into Heights Mercantile; Cloud 10 Hitting Sweet Spot in the Village

Photos: All Decked Out Hair Salon (first); Tenavox (second)

The Scoop

77098, Renovations, Restaurants, Retail, Upper Kirby

09/04/18 10:30am

Sweet Bribery Is the Final Ingredient in Braun’s 19th St. Antique Store Remix

Houston Heights, Proposed Developments, Renovations, Restaurants

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A recent tax filing reveals Sweet Bribery is the moniker of the corner ice cream shop Braun Enterprises has been showing in its site plan for 250 W. 19th St. without daring to speak its name. It’s the last of the 5 new tenants that the developer’s been ushering into the former Chippendale Eastlake Antiques store since buying it in 2015. (One of which — an ice cream offshoot of Leeâ€™s Fried Chicken & Donuts called Lee’s Creamery — appears no longer bound for the building.) Pictured above is the western flank it’d occupy, which backs up to Urban Float sensory deprivation spa’s entrance off Rutland St.

Next door to the creamery, clothing stores Mary & Moss and Proper are already doing business along 19th St.:

250 W. 19th St.

77008, Houston Heights, Proposed Developments, Renovations, Restaurants

08/29/18 12:00pm

Riverside Terrace’s LaDet Motel Now Looking Redder Than Ever

Renovations, Riverside Terrace

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The bright red paint job that began creeping up the front face of the closed-down LaDet Motel at 2612 Riverside Dr. a few weeks ago has now reached its eaves, leaving the street-facing portion of the building completely recolored. It’s pictured at top in its current state, behind a trio of off-hue red tags stuck on the gate that closes it off from the street.

The original house — built between 1928 and 1929 — is wrapped on 3 sides by apartments put up decades later. Portions of them — the 2 side walls fronting the entrance driveway and the gables along the street — have gone red as well:

Katharine Mott House

77004, Historic Buildings, Houston Architects, Paint, Renovations, Riverside-Terrace

08/28/18 2:00pm

BBVA Compass Plaza Ushering New Firmspace into Its 10th, 11th Floors

Galleria, Office Space, Renovations, Uptown

The latest generically named Houston co-working space is on its way to the BBVA Compass Plaza office building at 2200 Post Oak. Despite the corporate moniker, the brand isn’t all business. Its existing locations offer a few options for blowing off steam, like workout and shower facilities in the Austin Firmspace, as well as weekly catered lunches and “after hours events” both there and in Denver. (There’s even a private Firmspace social network that allows you to take your office relationships digital.) Topping things off are the picturesque views; the Austin location overlooks Lady Bird Lake, and Denver: the Rockies.

Setting the scene outside the planned Houston location: the Galleria. It’s just a block away from BBVA Compass Plaza, buffered from the tower by the Centre at Post Oak shopping center. Since going up in 2013 on the site of the former 15-stories-shorter Compass Bank building, the 22-floor tower shown above has changed hands once — in 2015 for what veteran real estate reporter Ralph Bivins then termed Houstonâ€™s new per-sq.-ft. record high price: $524.

Nice Coworking if You Can Get It

77056, Galleria, Office Space, Renovations, Uptown

08/28/18 9:45am

Tiger Noodle House Seizing Ten Thousand Villages, Handful of Parking Spots

Renovations, Restaurants, Retail, Rice Village

2424 Rice Blvd., Suite A. is about to become part of Katy Chinese chain Tiger Noodle Houseâ€™s 2-restaurant dynasty. Since nonprofit home goods shop Ten Thousand Villages left the storefront — its last in Houston — between H&R Block and neighboring occult shop Serenity Studio, all of its meterless parking spots have been hogged by the dumpster shown above.

It’s been on standby as renovators take things out of the 2,664-sq.ft. interior.Â Now, they’re about to start putting things in: a building permit filed yesterday gives clearance for the restaurant conversion to begin.

Photo: Swamplox inbox

Village Arrivals

77005, Renovations, Restaurants, Retail, Rice-Village

Demolitions

08/24/18 1:45pm

The Secret Building Inside the Bank of America Center Has Been Unearthed

Downtown, Office Buildings, Renovations, Skyscrapers

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The brick Western Union building shown in black and white on the corner of Louisiana and Capitol streets vanished from the downtown landscape in 1983 — although it didn’t go anywhere. Because the longtime regional switching center was too expensive to move, architect Philip Johnson simply designed his much larger landmark — then-called RepublicBank Center Center — around it, sealing the telecom structure off from public view. Inside the skyscraper’s lobby, the dead building takes up nearly a quarter of the floor space, with its west corner wedged into the Bank of America Center’s own, catty-corner to Jones Hall.

Last year, renovations were announced that’d add a new restaurant and cafe in the doorless andÂ windowless portion of the Bank of America Center’s ground floor where the building is entombed. Crews began stripping away portions of the office building’s exterior earlier this year in order to make room for new openings to access the eateries. They’ve now busted all the way through the red granite, revealing the decades-older facade that lies behind it.

It’s still mostly obscured by the scaffolding that looms over the Capitol St. sidewalk :

Western Union Sees the Light

77002, Demolitions, Downtown, Houston History, Office Buildings, Renovations

Renovations

08/24/18 10:30am

Hogg Middle School Hopes To Bring Order to Its Backyard Free-for-All with Sports Field, Playground, Batting Cages

Schools, Sports Facilities, Woodland Heights

Without any formal backyard practice facilities, students make their own fun behindÂ James Hogg Middle School’s Woodland Heights building. But a set of plans the school calls Outside Hogg now aims to tame things at the north end of the property along E. 11th St.

The idea is to redo it as a proper sports field, complete with a scoreboard and bleachers: