There’s a sign up for the bank that financed the project, but that’s about it for a large construction project that just got going in Blodgett Park. Crews are digging on the southeast corner of Blodgett and La Branch streets, south of the 59-288 crotch and one block north of MacGregor Elementary. A few 75-year-old duplexes stood on the site until last month.
And they are digging — about 8 ft. deep so far, says reader Seán Murphy, who passed by the site at 1508 Blodgett St. and sent photos of the scene: “They’ve got piles keeping back a make-shift retaining wall up against the adjacent townhomes” (see photo at left). Going into that spot: a 36-unit apartment structure on top of a podium garage. According to permits approved earlier this month, the project is being called The Hampstead.
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- Previously on Swamplot: Daily Demolition Report: Triple Hazard Removal
Photos: Seán Murphy
By the description, it sounds like this thing might be pretty tall. Any details on that?
It must be luxurious – the name is all English-y!
From the Builders Exchange Website: http://www.virtualbx.com/projects-bidding-today/6856-the-hampstead-museum-district.html
“The Hampstead – Museum District consisting of a new four (4) story 36-unit apartments over a two (2) level parking garage…”
I wonder what prospective tenants will think of the convenience store across the street (along with the, ahem, gentlemen, who frequent it)?
Hopefully the immigrants that are coming into Museum District (see what I did there?) can deal with the fact that not everyone is a fancy luxury-apartment/condo-dweller like them. Compared to even 2 years ago, J-Mart is a lot less sketchy, and if people who are “black” “occasionally loud” and “sometimes high/drinking publicly” is going to horrify potential neighbors, then maybe those people can’t handle living in central Houston. There’s plenty of room in this neighborhood for all sorts (I have no problem with my “fancy” neighbors as long as they have no problem with my no-class-having self and the run-down apartment I live in) but I do hope that newcomers will understand that Museum District was not uninhabited land before their arrival, and that just ’cause rowdier members of the lower classes make them uncomfortable, doesn’t mean people who aren’t gentile and able to afford 600k$ town homes have no right to continue to live in the neighborhood they’ve been in for years or decades. This is not a high crime area. There is not any large risk of random violence in the street. I’ve always felt safe here- even frequenting J-Mart. That is a local business whose owners have always been friendly and recognize me and even go out of their way to make special orders of my favorite drinks, even if they don’t normally stock them (just try to do that at Walgreens) I hope the new residents of all the nearby development can be open-minded enough to see that family-run businesses that are worth supporting aren’t just of the hip & greenwashed variety.
I would worry more about the burnt-out hole across the street. (Was it a laundromat?) But the other tenants of that strip mall are quite upscale–an art gallery specializing in contemporary art and African tribal art and a fancy custom furniture boutique. The entire life-cycle of gentrification is embodied in that one strip mall!