Tag: Signs

Quicklink, Signs

EMPTY LEELAND ST. FURNITURE WORKSHOP NOW HAS A WINE SIGN ON IT A reader tells Swamplot one of those TABC posters is up on the building at 3107 Leeland St., and the applicant it names: The Wine House, LLC. The last tenant Metamorphose Studios did double-duty in the 2,800-sq.-ft. space: dealing furniture and also guiding visitors in the art of refurbishing items themselves (“I recommend the chairapy class,” wrote the venue’s sole Yelp reviewer in 2016, adding that of the items for sale: “The hand painted and embellished cattle skulls are to die for!“) Despite its departure from Houston, the workshop lives on as part of an antique store up in Navasota. Photo: Metamorphose Studios

Bars and Restaurants, East Downtown, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Retail, Signs

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

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:

Rice Village Relics

77005, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Retail, Rice-Village, Signs

East Downtown

06/11/18 2:15pm

New Restaurant Comes Knocking at Warehouse by BBVA Compass

Quicklink, Signage

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NEW RESTAURANT COMES KNOCKING AT WAREHOUSE BY BBVA COMPASS A TABC flyer up on the front door of 612 Live Oak signals some impending action for the brick warehouse building, one block east of BBVA Compass Stadium’s frontage on Emancipation and south of the light rail line along Texas Ave. Brass Tacks Workspace LLC is applying for both mixed beverage and late hours permits. Residential developer Bercon bought the 5,000-sq.-ft. parcel on which the building sits —Â along with almost the entire rest of the block — in early 2017. However, there’s nothing residential about the new owner’s plans for this particular structure: a permit filed for it last month — 10 days before the liquor sign appeared — included plans to turn the building into a yet-to-be-named restaurant. Photo: Swamplox inbox

77003, East Downtown, Signs

06/11/18 12:15pm

Sign of Southside Flying Pizza Now Topping the Vacant Corner of the Shops on Navigation

Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Second Ward

Spotted from Canal St. just east of Navigation: signage for Southside Flying Pizzaâ€™s fifth location and first in Houston. The Austin restaurant chain is making its way into the southeast corner spot of the right-angled Shops on Navigation strip center that ~~Ancorian~~Â Hunington Properties built over the last 2 years. It’s mapped out in the image above from Ancorian, the developer behind another property just east of the corner strip. Aside from Southside’s next-door neighbor 9Round kickboxing gym, other existing cohabitants include Maldives Nail & Spa, Bottles Wine & Spirits, EaDo Dental, Go Cleaners, Cajun Town, and the largest of the bunch — a corner Frost Bank branch:

Second Ward

77003, Bars and Restaurants, Openings and Closings, Second Ward, Signs

03/27/18 12:00pm

St. Joseph’s Fallen Multi-Story Steel Crosses Now Lying in Pieces Alongside Building Lettering Next to Pierce Elevated

Midtown, Office Buildings, Renovations, Signs

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The massive illuminated crosses that once adorned the St. Joseph Professional Building next to the Pierce Elevated have been stripped from the structure’s east and west sides by its new-ish owner, but haven’t yet been removed from the block. West of the tower and adjacent to the highway, the fenced enclosure pictured above now holds the de-crucified metal parts along with the Scrabble-like remnants of the lettering that once spelled out the building’s name below the crosses.

The scrap yard borders the surface parking lot that fronts the 135,586-sq.-ft. building’s garage podium on La Branch St.:

Cross-Word Jumble

77002, Midtown, Office Buildings, Renovations, Signs

Bars and Clubs

03/05/18 4:15pm

Newest Tenant Headed for the Mid Main Lofts Wants To Bring Booze to Apartment Complex’s Travis St. Side

Midtown

Yet another sign of incoming retail is up on the Mid Main Lofts, where both Kura Revolving Sushi Bar and a 9Round kickboxing gym made their marks last week. Big Mike’s Entertainment LLC is the applicant named on the TABC notice that’s posted on the apartment building’s Travis St. side, near the corner at Holman and across the street from the Holman Draft Hall bar. The photo at top — taken by a Twitter user who’s been monitoring street-level activity outside the Lofts — shows where the storefront is situated, just north of the entrance to the garage that occupies nearly all of the complex’s frontage along Travis.

New TABC sign up [Natalie W]
Previously on Swamplot: Signs of Rotating Sushi, Roundhouse Kicks Now Appear on Mid Main Lofts

Photos: Natalie W

Big Mike’s

77002, Bars and Clubs, Midtown, Signs

03/05/18 11:45am

New Sushi Sign Tacked Up in Place of Vietnamese Sandwich Spot at Midtown’s Mekong Center

Midtown, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

A new banner is up in place of La Baguetteâ€™s lettering in the Mekong Center — on Milam St. between Drew and Tuam — announcing the coming Fukuoka Sushi Bar & Grill. The former Vietnamese sandwich shop shuttered in the space at the end of last year, leaving a void between Pho Saigon and the dentist’s office in the L-shaped retail center which includes parking on its roof. When the new raw fishery moves in at 2808 Milam, it’ll bring the Mekong Center back to full occupancy.

Also new in Midtown [Natalie W]

Photos: Chibuike O. (Mekong Center); Natalie W (Fukuoka Sushi Bar & Grill)

Below the Parking Pad

77006, Midtown, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Signs

Brookesmith

02/28/18 11:45am

The Part of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Building That Asia Market Thai-Lao Food Will Take Over

Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Signs

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Cricket Wireless shuttered in the northwest corner of the building on N. Main at Pecore St. a few years ago, leaving O’Reilly Auto Parts alone in the structure. Now, signage for Asia Market Thai-Lao Food is up on the carrier’s former location. The aerial photo above views the building at 3600 N. Main adjacent to Whataburger from up over El Taquito Ricoâ€™s former spot (also undergoing a turnover) on the narrow corner across the street.

The original Asia MarketÂ included a store in addition to the restaurant. Here’s what it looked like in the strip on Cavalcade between Norhill Blvd. and Michaux St. it occupied since 1987:

Under the Hood

77009, Brookesmith, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Signs

02/26/18 1:00pm

KHOU Call Letters Now Gone from Allen Pkwy.

North Montrose, Renovations

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Crews took down the letters on KHOU’s antenna tower one by one last Friday — as shown in the drone footage above — leaving the channel’s signage absent from the vacant studio next to Houston’s main drainage channel, Buffalo Bayou. At the beginning of this month, the station reported that an undisclosed buyer had the 1945 Allen Pkwy. property under contract.

For the past 5 months, the teevee crew has been broadcasting temporarily from Houston Public Media’s office at UH, which it expects to leave for a permanent home at the end of this year. The whereabouts of the new newsroom — which will incorporate the original KHOU signage in its design — haven’t been announced yet. However, plans were revealed last December for a coming satellite studio that’s slated to open opposite Discovery Green in the GRB before the station goes live from a new main headquarters.

Video: Shern-Min Chow

Channel Changes

77019, North Montrose, Quicklink, Renovations, Signs

02/26/18 11:45am

Midday Drinking Promos Have Vanished from the Postino Patio at Heights Mercantile

Houston Heights, Renovations, Restaurants

1 Comment

Postino hasn’t opened yet, but there’s already been a notable change to the decor at the Arizona-based wine cafe chain’s first Texas location. Gone from the construction fencing outside the restaurant’s patio are the signs pictured at top that read, “DRINKING WINE AT LUNCH IS NOT A CRIME.” In their place, new banners featuring only Postino’s name and social media handle have appeared. The photo above views them from the west side of the Heights Mercantile development at the corner of 7th St. and Yale.

Here’s another look at the current fence abutting Rye 51’s storefront on 7th St.:

Restaurant Rebranding

77007, Bars and Restaurants, Houston Heights, Renovations, Signs

10/24/17 4:00pm

Former Brown & Root Building 3 Moving on from Amazon Lure to World Series Contention

Fifth Ward, Office Buildings, Real Estate Marketing, Signs

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The lights have been changed again in the vacant office building at the center of Midway’s newly renamed East River site on Buffalo Bayou in the Fifth Ward. The 12-story former Building 3 on the KBR campus the development firm bought last year has progressed from referencing Amazon minus a couple of vowels to spelling out our city’s well-accomplished hometown baseball team minus its initial A. The view above was captured by a Swamplot reader from Clinton Dr. last night

The AMZN lettering lives on, though, at the end of a promo video Midway produced to rep Houston — and its mostly vacant 150-acre former industrial site:

â€™Stros in Lights

77020, Fifth Ward, Industrial Sites, Lower Fifth Ward, Office Buildings, Real Estate Marketing, Signs, Videos

10/09/17 4:30pm

The Fifth Ward Building with Amazon’s Wall Street Name and Jeff Bezos’s Fast-Action Concept in Lights

Fifth Ward, Industrial Properties, Real Estate Marketing, Signs

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Here’s the backside of the 12-story former KBR office building that Midway has for the last week lit up with a new message in hopes of signaling to Amazon and avian passers-by that it buys into the concept underlying many of Jeff Bezos’s business decisions. Also: That the surrounding 150-acre property on the north side of Buffalo Bayou east of Downtown Houston that the company has renamed East River would make a fine second headquarters campus for the online and offline retailer. Day 1 is the name assigned successively to 3 different Amazon buildings in Seattle, the latest a new 37-story downtown tower that itself features a lit-up sign on its lower floors that reads HELLO WORLD. Day 1 is also a common catchphrase in the company, a reminder to itself, among other things, to focus on outcomes rather than process and to make decisions quickly, even if you have less information available than you’d like.

Day 1 for this Houston sign was October 2nd. As a reader reported last week, since then the vacant building has been sporting the company’s NASDAQ ticker symbol on the opposite side to match:

Day 1 on Clinton Dr.

77020, Fifth Ward, Industrial Sites, Lower Fifth Ward, Office Buildings, Real Estate Marketing, Signs

10/06/17 1:00pm

A Sign of Amazon Interest in Houston’s ‘East River’

Fifth Ward, Industrial Properties, Real Estate Marketing, Signs

30 Comments

The tallest of the 5 vacant structures remaining in the 136-acre former KBR campus fronting Buffalo Bayou east of Downtown that new owner Midway has dubbed East River has been sporting a new night-time look as of this week. The lights in the photo above, taken last night by a reader, spell out the NASDAQ ticker symbol of Amazon — which has announced a nationwide search for a second headquarters campus.

Previously, the lights in the 12-story office building at 4100 Clinton Dr. in the Fifth Ward had been tuned to HTX:

Hey Lookie Here!

77020, Fifth Ward, Industrial Sites, Lower Fifth Ward, Real Estate Marketing, Signs

Buying and Selling

10/06/17 10:15am

The Pierce Elevated’s Great Uncrossing