Tag: Washington Corridor

Proposed Developments, Renovations, Washingto Corridor, Washington Ave

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Landing with a thud on the city planning commission’s dais this week: the rendering above depicting what Arizona-based beer and pizza chain Bottled Blonde wants to do to the former Weiner’s Dry Goods Store No. 12 at 4901 Washington Ave. Most of the building’s original architectural details — for instance, the signage and storefront entrance shown above at Durham Dr. —Â are long-gone according to Tim Cisneros of Cisneros Design Studio, the firm responsible for the planned makeover.

And so the renovations Bottled Blonde has planned will look more forward than backward in order to reshape the structure from what it is now, a shuttered Cash America Pawn branch:

4901 Washington

77007, Bars and Clubs, Proposed Developments, Renovations, Retail, Washington, Washington Corridor

11/16/18 3:00pm

4 Stories of Offices Hoping To Tuck in Between Neighboring Apartment Pair North of Washington

Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Washingto Corridor

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Here’s an eastward look at the new office building that could tuck in between the District at Washington and Pearl Washington apartments along T.C. Jester Blvd. north of Wash Ave. Not pictured: the parking garage and adjacent parking lot that the developer proposes to build — both to the north along Schuler St. Last week, Houston’s planning commission deferred a variance request for the site, calling the 3 curb cuts the developer had proposed along Schuler St. “excessive” and recommending it get rid of at least one before resubmitting plans.

Marshall Construction’s office and yard complex occupies the site right now and includes a southeastern carve-out for a couple of townhomes along Detering St.

Off T.C. Jester

Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Washington Corridor

10/31/18 1:00pm

Plucking the Cloverleafs off Waugh Dr. at Memorial So Extra Park Space Can Take Their Place

Parks, Renovations, Washingto Corridor

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Here’s another highlight from the city council’s meeting this morning: Plans to get rid of the cloverleaf interchange that moves traffic between Waugh Dr. and Memorial Dr. got the green-light and will be sent over to the Houston Galveston Area Council as part of an application for funding. The idea first emerged in the Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s 2002 Master Plan as a way to make room for more bayou-side park space at the crossroads. Right now, all the land adjacent to the ramps — shaded gray in the map above — is vacant, except for the portions lassoed by the circular roadways, where 4 isolated tree groves continue to undergo seasonal color changes. You can see they’re gone in the east-facing rendering at top included in the Partnership’s plan — replaced by inlets, islands, stormwater detention, and what looks to be a boathouse at the southeast corner of the 2 roads — all accessible from a network of new walkways that link up to existing bayou-adjacent trails.

In total, 16 new acres are expected to become part of the park — providing a continuous swath of green between Spotts Park and Cleveland Park, shown below on opposite sides of Waugh in a map from the 2002 plan:

Traffic Lights Likely

77007, North Montrose, Parks, Renovations, Roads, Washington Corridor

08/14/18 5:15pm

New Wash Ave MURAL Replaces Historical Wall Art as Shell Shack Primes Old Social Junkie Space for Seafood

Sixth Ward

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The biggest eye-level change to the former Social Junkie restaurant building is the one shown over the Acura in the photo at top. And while it’s definitely less of a statement than its predecessor — a nod to the Texas Real Estate & Co. office across the parking lot — what exactly it means is more of a mystery. Renovators are still putting the finishing touches on the structure — blackwashed earlier this year — so the lettering could just be a sign of things to come.

Or maybe it’s there to stay, like the 2 Shell Shack signs and adjacent menu teasers that went up not long ago beneath the butterfly roof:

Art Goes Here

77007, Murals, Renovations, Restaurants, Washington Corridor

08/02/18 1:00pm

Pi Pizza, Star Fish Lease Lockouts Hit Both Ends of the Heights Blvd. Strip by the Bayou

Restaurants, Strip Centers, Washington Corridor

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Both Pi Pizza and Star Fish have been locked out of their leases in the Washington Heights shopping center building on Heights Blvd. just south of White Oak Bayou and roughly across the street from the Art Car Museum, leaving the strip absent its 2 endcap tenants. Star Fish picked up where Bradley’s Fine Diner left off in the building’s north side about a year and a half ago, and the pizza parlor took over from Funky Chicken on the south end of things in 2016.

Pictured below is the notice a Swamplot reader found stuck to Pi’s storefront right around lunchtime:

Off the Menu

77007, Lockouts, Restaurants, Strip Centers, Washington Corridor

06/19/18 5:15pm

New Otto’s Barbecue To Plant Restaurant and Catering Complex Where Luke’s Icehouse Bit the Dust on Durham

Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Washington Corridor

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Coming soon to the block across Durham from W Grill, just south of Washington: Otto’s Barbecue & Catering. The 67-year-old chain has plans for its first standalone location since the original on Memorial Dr. was sold in 2009 (for less than its owners felt it should’ve been) and demolished to make way for a collection of strip buildings.

Until last November, Luke’s Icehouse (pictured above) was the only structure standing in the way of the planned new restaurant on the corner of Lillian St. and Durham — but after shuttering last June, its building was torn down 5 months later. The rendering above shows Otto’s taking over the site from the north above Durham, where a courtyard fronts a covered patio adjacent to a parking lot.

Inside, the site plan indicates that 3,293-sq.-ft. would be devoted to the restaurant, while 1,722 would make up an attached catering kitchen:

77007, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Washington Corridor

Smoke Signals

06/18/18 10:45am

New Restaurant from B&B Butchers Owner Now Shacking Up in Caddy Shack’s Abandoned Space Across Wash Ave

Renovations, Restaurants, Washington Corridor

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B&B Butchers owner Benjamin Berg has a new restaurant in the works for the former Caddy Shack Bar & Grill building pictured at top, across the street from his existing venue’s parking lot on Wash Ave and 2-doors down from the redone building now housing Gus’s Fried Chicken. An entity connected to Berg filed a permit last Friday to prep 1809 Washington for the new business it’ll host, dubbed Cafe Lemon.

Caddy ShackÂ (not to be confused with Candy Shack, the drive-through daiquiri spot 2 miles west on Washington) debuted in the 1,968-sq.-ft. structureÂ 6 years ago following the Broken Spoke Cafe’s shutdown and posthumous fire. After a brief stint as Turkey Leg Hut — a Cajun restaurant which brought hookahs to the patio pictured above — the space rebranded back to Caddy Shack before shuttering for good around the end of last year.

Previously on Swamplot: Repairing the Broken Spoke: A New Bar in the Burned-Out Washington Ave Cafe; Breaking Through the Smoke at the Broken Spoke

Photos: Gil G. (Caddy Shack); Te Y. (patio)

Cafe Lemon

77007, Renovations, Restaurants, Washington Corridor

06/14/18 10:00am

How a Fleet of Food Trucks Might Park Along White Oak Bayou Between Heights Blvd. and Yale

Parks, Proposed Developments, Washingto Corridor

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Only about 250 ft. separate I-10’s eastbound feeder from White Oak Bayou between Heights Blvd. and Yale — and within that never-developed span, Texas C.R.E.S. and an adjacent landowner are hoping to plant a food truck park, as advertised on the sign up near the southeast corner of the site. The conceptual plan above from architectÂ Marshall Porterfield — not yet okayed by the city — indicates parking spaces for 10 vendors (and 6 patrons) accessible via entrances on the feeder and on Heights Blvd., across from theÂ Heights Business and Mediation Center. A deck seating island in the middle of the parking lot provides someÂ dining room within the third-acre site, owned by the current pair of developers since last year.

The rest of the land is devoted to park space for people and dogs. It backs up to an imagined spur of the White Oak Bayou Trail (currently only accessible on the other side of the bayou) that curves to the south.

Photos: Jason Cockerell. Site plan: Marshall Porterfield via Texas CRES and Delux Realty/Michel Coret

South of I-10

77007, Parks, Proposed Developments, Washington Corridor

04/27/18 11:30am

Big Brothers Big Sisters Now Looking After the Centerpoint Substation to Its East at Washington and I-45

New Construction, Washington Corridor

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The airy eastern faÃ§ade of the new Big Brothers Big Sisters building at 1003 Washington opens it up to the adjacent parking lot, and beyond that — across a short north-south street — the one-and-a-quarter-acre Centerpoint substation that’s bounded by I-45. Previously, the half-acre parcel that now plays host to the volunteer organization housed Health Masters Clinic of Massage Therapy. Its warehouse structure — pictured from the east in the photo above — bit the dust in April, 2015. Two months later, Big Brothers Big Sisters’ previous home met the same fate off Hillcroft Ave. in Gulfton.

Here’s a cloudier view of the new building looking east along Preston St.:

77002, New Construction, Washington Corridor

All Grown Up

Apartments

04/16/18 1:00pm

Restaurants, Retail, and Apartments Planned Between Shepherd and Durham, a Block North of Washington

Proposed Developments, Washington Corridor

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The marketing materials for Hunington Properties’ new apartment building planned in place of Bethel Church a block north of Wash Ave come chock full of cultural references. There’s the Seinfeldian restaurant sign depicted on the corner of Shepherd and Center St, pick-up and drop-off zonesÂ adjacent to the parking garage’s entrances labeled Uber (sorry, Lyft!) in the site plan — and if that’s not enough, the leasing brochure notes that tenants “will be given latitude to incorporate unique elements into their storefronts promoting their individual brand identity.â€

Of the 4 corner retail segments planned — 25,000 sq. ft. total — 3 include patios.Â To accommodate them, Hunington is requesting several modifications to the setbacks: on Center St., on Durham, and the boldest on Shepherd — where the patio would sit only 5 ft. from the roadway, 20 ft. closer than is typically allowed. Last Thursday, Houston’s planning commission deferred the variance request. It’s now waiting on more information regarding the proposed patios before reconsidering the developer’s plans.

Bethel Church’s building currently takes up half of the block:

77007, Apartments, Proposed Developments, Washington Corridor

The Interpose

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

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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:

Openings and Closings, Washington Corridor

La Roux-ined

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

Bars and Clubs

07/25/17 10:30am

Washington Ave’s Social Junkie Reaches the End Zone

by Swamplot

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One clue that the Social Junkie Sports Bar has come to the end of its almost-4-year run at the northwest corner of Washington Ave and Sawyer St.: The end-zone-styled valet parking lot pictured in the above recent photo is empty — all the way to the 25-yard line. Another clue: the “It’s been real . . . we out” goodbye notice posted to the establishment’s Instagram feed over the weekend. A reader tells us the place is shuttered and everything inside has been “thrown away.”

77007, Bars and Clubs, Openings and Closings, Washington Corridor

Gone Braun

07/19/17 1:30pm

Johnny Frank’s Auto Lot Gearing Up To Serve Drinks to Sawyer St. Silo-Goers in Next Life as an Ice House

by Swamplot

First Ward

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The self-styled “House of a Million Parts” at 1225 Sawyer St.Â once known as Johnny Frank’s Auto Parts Company was torn to pieces last summer. Freshly applied to theÂ chain-link fence surrounding the now-vacant lot: a new TABC notice, announcing to passers-by that an establishment named the Sawyer Ice House is hoping to sling cocktails on the premises before too long. The land is across the road from those arted-up rice silos on Sawyer St., which are across Edwards St. from the Shops at Sawyer Yards. It appears to be another of the projects in that neck of the woods that trace back to Lovett Commercial, which is working on parking lots and a slew of other developments in the area as well. Here’s what Sawyer Ice House might look like, per what appears to be the bar’s new save-the-name Facebook page:

Mixed Use, Proposed Developments

Car Lot Reincarnation

77007, First Ward, Ice Houses, Industrial Areas, Permits, Proposed Developments, TABC, Washington Corridor

Brunner

05/30/17 12:00pm

Bethel Church’s Entire Center St. Block Now Sending Mixed Use Messages

by Christine Gerbode

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Catty-corner to the southwestÂ of the area’s newest self-storage midrise,Â the block at N. Shepherd Dr. and Nett St. housing Bethel ChurchÂ is now broadcasting plans forÂ aÂ mixed-use developmentÂ from several large signs standing around on the property. A couple of readers reported the new decorÂ from various angles late onÂ FridayÂ (including the one above, which includes a glimpseÂ ofÂ finallyÂ settled, named, and openedÂ FM Kitchen + Bar on the former Alva Graphics lot across the street). The church’s 1.48-acre blockÂ (bounded by Durham Dr. and Center St. on the other 2 sides) hit the market last summer, and looks to be getting wrapped into the Hunington development fold.

The conversion of the church property would put a mixed-use developmentÂ right next to the Azure ApartmentsÂ midrise currently going up right across Durham: