Tag: Washington Corridor

Homes for Sale
04/03/09 7:43pm

Inside That Track-side Townhouse

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Interiors, Real Estate Marketing, Townhomes, Washington Corridor
11 Comments

Thanks to some helpful Swamplot commenters, we have more of the scoop on that railroad-track-side townhome featured on this site yesterday. The project, developed by Northgate Custom Homes, is called Villas at the Heights. And yes, units are still available!

114-M Heights Blvd., which has the front-row seat on the railroad track just north of Center St., is in fact listed at the same price it started at when it first hit the market, a week and a year ago. However, it’s been marked down three times and up twice since then, reaching a low of $296,900 last May and a high of $324,900 last August. Today, you could snap this place up for a mere $299,900!

If you like the track frontage but feel a bit nervous about owning a townhome that directly faces busy Heights Blvd., you might prefer Unit A in back, available for the same price. It’s the same model, which Northgate calls “The Blue Violet.”

A peek at the interiors of the development’s model home:

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New Construction
03/05/09 11:43am

Washington Ave. Nightlife Rumor Gauntlet: Who’s Ready To Pay the Bill?

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Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Washington Corridor
64 Comments

Yelp user Minh L. does his part to clear up all those Washington Ave. rumors. How many new bars are planned there? Really?

1. “The Lot” next to Pearl Bar will be open at 2 pm this Thursday.

2; The Daily Grind that closed down, the owners of Cork Screw has taken over the place, and is now currently being remodeled.

3. Owners of Whiskey Creek is opening a bar right next to “Busty La Rue” which is also right next to Pub Fiction new place on Washington. 5102 Washington Houston TX 77007

4. That Gawd awful yellow/stone place your talking about is called “Zen Ultra Lounge”

5. Owner of Pandora is opening another one down the street. Its that purple buidling. DBA is called “Blue Book” don’t think they have a name yet.

6. That really big one is called “Reign Lounge” One of the owners name is Luis. Very nice guy.

7. The old Pig stand is going to be called “Sawyer Sports Bar”

8. “Rare Bar” is opening soon on Durham & Washington

All in all there’s about 16 bars/club so far wanting to open on Washington, but we’ll see how many of them really open. These are all the ones I have time to confrm.

And where exactly does Minh L. get his info?

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Neighborhood Disputes
02/27/09 3:21pm

Washington Ave. Latest: Wrestler-Themed Tacos To Calm the Nightly Grind

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Nightlife, Old Sixth Ward, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Washington Corridor
5 Comments

Here’s a concept perfect for the former home of the Daily Grind coffee shop at 4115 Washington Ave.: A new bar!

But the Washington Ave. Drinkery will be very different from all those nightclubs Sixth Ward residents love to stand outside and videotape, owners Andrew and Doyle Adams explain to Allison Wollam of the Houston Business Journal:

“It will be a place where people will want to come to have a good time instead of wanting to be seen having a good time,” Andrew Adams says.

Unlike other high-end bars in the area, Adams says The Washington Ave. Drinkery is designed as an unpretentious, laid-back bar.

Sure, but what will all those down-to-earth customers do in the wee hours after the new bar closes?

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Development Regulations
02/09/09 12:07pm

Araiyakushimae Station, the Washington Corridor, and Those Narrow Private Drives

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Land Development, Quicklink, Rice Military, Streets, Washington Corridor
4 Comments

ARAIYAKUSHIMAE STATION, THE WASHINGTON CORRIDOR, AND THOSE NARROW PRIVATE DRIVES “So why does an aerial photo of Rice Military look just like Tokyo? A few things set Houston apart from most other American cities here. For one, American cities have long had a prejudice towards public streets. Development regulations stipulating that ‘every lot must have X amount of frontage on a public street’ date to the 1800s in most American cities, well before the age of zoning. Interior lots reached through shared access easements are a common feature of rural and exurban development, but Houston is relatively uncommon in allowing such arrangements in a high-density setting. This results in narrow alleyways more characteristic of cities in Japan and, on a larger scale, Great Britain.” [Keep Houston Houston]

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Cypress
01/19/09 11:01am

Openings and Closings: Daily Grind, On the Border, Frock

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Washington Corridor
7 Comments

Nothing new this time; Swamplot’s latest Openings and Closings report is just a list of old places going away:

  • Going: There’s nobody home at Washington Ave. coffeehouse The Daily Grind, reports Jason Bargas at Houstonist:

    A peek through a window facing the parking lot yielded a dining area devoid of tables. The cash register was no longer on the corner of the bar yet a ceiling fan twirled overhead. An industrial looking extension cord hung from the rafters perhaps indicating an intention to use power tools. But, no signs or bulletins indicated a remodel in progress nor a closing of the business.

    Signs or no, the restaurant’s most recent spate of online publicity renders a closing less than surprising. One comment on the Houstonist post notes a rumor that the coffeehouse will be reopening “next to Rudyard’s.”

  • Going: A poster on HAIF notes that the On the Border restaurant on the feeder road of the Northwest Freeway in Cypress appears to be toast: “Lights out, nobody home.”
  • Gone: And there will be no more Frock shopping: The Frock Boutique on Greenbriar near Westheimer closed late last year, but owner Marianne Mayeux says she will come to you.

Got the scoop on other retail openings or closings in your area? Send your tips to Swamplot!

Photo of The Daily Grind: Katharine Shilcutt Gleave

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Commercial Real Estate
12/29/08 12:02pm

Heights Village: It Was All Just a Good Old Fashioned Dream

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Development Strategy, Houston Heights, Mixed Use, Parking, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers, Washington Corridor
20 Comments

Here’s something we can all feel tingly and nostalgic about: Developer Bobby Orr’s Heights-ish fantasy — of brand-new old-timey storefronts facing long streetside parking lots off Yale St. and Heights Blvd. just south of I-10 — is dead. The Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff drops news of the demise of the Heights Village dream as an aside to her update on the stalled-out High Street development.

The entire 4.9-acre property, across Heights Blvd. from the ArtCar Museum, is back on the market, at $75 a square foot.

Sadly, Cushman & Wakefield’s listing for the property doesn’t include any misty watercolors to memorialize what might have been. But Swamplot remembers! Here’s a brief trip down invented-memory lane . . . in 3 quick images:

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Nightlife
11/26/08 12:44pm

Coming Soon: Late Night Rice Military Action

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Rice Military, Washington Corridor
53 Comments

COMING SOON: LATE NIGHT RICE MILITARY ACTION Some Rice Military residents are feeling a little antsy about the “4 to 5” new bars scheduled to open on the 4 blocks of Washington Ave. between Roy and Detering. The list includes The Pub on Washington coming to 5102 Washington and Tap’s House of Beers coming to 5120 — plus 3 more rumored newcomers at 5110, 5129, and 5317 Washington. A message making the rounds in the neighborhood reports that each has applied for late-hour permits, which would allow alcohol to be served until 2 a.m. [Swamplot inbox]

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Development Strategy
09/05/08 11:41am

Lounging Around: A Thicker Idea for Center and Washington

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First Ward, Landscape, Redevelopment, Streets, Washington Corridor
1 Comment

Section of Proposal for Center St. between Sawyer and Sabine by Taizo Horikawa

Landscape students attack the Washington Ave. Corridor! A modest proposal for widening Washington and Center St. between Sawyer and Sabine — from LSU student and SWA summer intern Taizo Horikawa:

During Week 3 I focused on the area along Washington Avenue between Sawyer Street and Sabine Street, pushing the idea of Colors of Ribbons forward. The underused area between Washington Avenue and Center Street is developed as a human-scale, vibrant commercial area with two-story commercial buildings. The north-side sidewalk of Washington Avenue is widened to be 30 feet with a row of shade trees. It works as linear plaza where people spill out from the commercial buildings and lounge around.

After the jump: one-way streets!

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Quicklink
08/25/08 5:47pm

A Tour of Washington Ave. Eateries

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Restaurants, Retail, Washington Corridor
8 Comments

A TOUR OF WASHINGTON AVE. EATERIES Wabash Antiques & Feed, the Daily Grind, El Rey Taqueria, that big new Benjy’s, and more: Katharine Shilcutt Gleave’s hungry person’s guide to Washington Ave., illustrated: “. . . the first thing you’ll notice is the abundance of new construction. Not only homes, but restaurants, banks, strip malls — a mad jumble of conflicting styles and materials that assaults the eyes. But if you look past the ubiquitous boxes of townhomes and the spaghetti-like telephone wires that crazily line the street, you’ll catch glimpses of old Houston in the tiny row houses, old brick storefronts and 1930s-era tile street signs along the curbs: Houston in a nutshell.” [Houstonist]

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Apartments
08/25/08 7:47am

Washington Ave.: Extending The Core?

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Demolitions, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments, Washington Corridor, West End
18 Comments

The Core Apartments, 3990 Washington Ave., Houston

A West End resident writes in with a question about plans for the former Trinity Steel plant off Koehler St. between Yale and Bonner:

They have recently begun demolishing the huge industrial warehouses that made up the Trinity Industries complex. Our Civic Club President seems to think they are building an extension of the The Core apartment complex that just went up at 3990 Washington Avenue (www.thecoreapts.com). That would be a disaster since the Trinity Industry property parcel is HUGE and if they are going to be ALL apartments, our narrow neighborhood streets will be clogged constantly with all that extra traffic.

I can’t find anything about who developed The Core to see if they have any updates on their website about future extension plans. Do you have any leads on what is going on and going up there?

The Core Apartments were developed by the Morgan Group. Any Swamplot readers have the scoop on future plans for the site?

Bonus question after the jump:

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Hotels
07/11/08 10:27am

Boutique Hotels Coming to Washington Ave. and Lower Westheimer?

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Montrose, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Washington Corridor
2 Comments

BOUTIQUE HOTELS COMING TO WASHINGTON AVE. AND LOWER WESTHEIMER? They’re not saying much, but two separate potential developers have targeted Inner Loop sites. No “immediate plans,” of course: “Liz Lambert, the businesswoman behind the hip Hotel San José in Austin, has a site on lower Westheimer earmarked for a possible hotel. . . . Sergio Ortiz, owner of Houston-based Orion Hotels Inc., is working on the development of a boutique hotel on Washington Avenue, one of the hottest emerging strips in the Bayou City.” [Houston Business Journal]

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Old Sixth Ward
03/17/08 11:58am

News from the Artist Front

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Openings and Closings, Retail, Washington Corridor
No Comments

View Inside Afront, 2205 Washington Ave., Houston

Razorblade and wheatpaste artist Give Up gives up this photo preview of the Artist Front (AFront for short) boutique and skate shop, opening March 21st on Washington:

anthony correa and matt fuller have decided to take their combined years of experience in pretty much every facet of the skateboard industry and turn it into something a little more physical. offering up a new skate/boutique/gallery space under the name A-FRONT. located at 2205 washington next door to the darkhorse tavern, A-FRONT is like houston’s answer to supreme or huf or ftc. with an even stronger emphasis on art. a fully functional gallery space, the shop’s grand opening will also be the opening of their first show.

Another inside photo of Afront — from the front — after the jump.

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Apartments
03/17/08 8:06am

Redeveloping the Memorial Heights Apartments: The Inside Story

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Demolitions, Memorial Heights, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Washington Corridor
1 Comment

Aerial View of Archstone Memorial Heights Apartments Showing First Area to be Redeveloped

Armed with only a camera and a healthy sense of curiosity, Swamplot reader and longtime Memorial Heights Apartments resident Michael W. Jones pokes around his apartment complex and unearths evidence of Archstone-Smith’s redevelopment plans. His conclusions:

  • Buildings 7, 8, and 9, in the southwest quadrant of the complex facing S. Heights Blvd, will be the first to come down. All tenants have been out of these buildings since March 1. The first of six new four-story apartment buildings will be built here.
  • The dingbat-Modern-style office building at 225 S. Heights Blvd. outside the complex will likely be torn down:

    The fact that the building is not on the tax roll leads me to believe that 225 is actually owned by Archstone-Smith, and will be brought down as part of the redevelopment. The current state does give sign that there may have been some interior demolition already done, and it’s waiting for the wrecking crew to come in to finish the job.

  • Though tenants have been hit with some large rent increases in the last two years, Archstone-Smith isn’t going out of its way to let them know what’s happening to their homes:

    To date, other than the tennants in the buildings affected by the pending demolition, the rest of the complex has not been made aware of the pending changes. It is only through research and infomation from other sources have I been able to piece the information you see here together.

After the jump, photos — and a few more details — from Jones’s report.

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