Saturday, May 6, 2017 • Page 1B
Crescere begins work at 34th/Ella
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“It was amazing to see what they were able to get done on the building pad sites and as they started moving some dirt around,” he said. “We were able to get some samples of the dirt sent out and to dig out the building pads.” As the team reached the conclusion of its first week on the job, Hotze can already see their vision coming together. When completed, he hopes the space will reflect the vibrancy of the Oak Forest and Garden Oaks community, and has even reached out to the community
Helping kids lift themselves up By Jennifer Layer jennifer@theleadernews.com In 1974, following the research from the University of Houston School of Social Work on programming with the intent of addressing the needs of Houston’s children, a group of concerned and devoted citizens established the non-profit organization Houston Achievement Place (HAP).
Contributed Photo Students participate in activities at Houston Achievement Place. HAP aims to serve the community through foster care/adoption services and helping students develop social skills.
HAP serves the community in two major ways. Since its initiation, HAP has served Houston’s abused and neglected children through foster care services, therapeutic foster care, and adoption services. While working with Child Protective Services, HAP serves nearly 160 children a year. “The focus is children, and helping them be safe, cared for, and equipped with support and relationships in order to succeed,” said Paul Gilford, Executive Director of Houston Achievement Place. The program has seen a lot of children through the most difficult time in their life and into a new established life with a caring family. “Just yesterday, there was a married couple who adopted three Burmese children they had been fostering,” said Gilford. “It’s an amazing success story in that these kids have come from very unstable, victimized, and disadvan-
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taged backgrounds and here they find a family that’s going to provide them permanency and love and the things we wish for all of our kids.” Gilford attributes most of the success of their child placement program to the nearly 30 families that dedicate their lives to making lives better for these children. In addition to their foster care services, HAP also runs a program called Project CLASS, which stands for Children Learning Appropriate Social Skills. Project CLASS began in 1997 and only reached small groups of students in four schools. Although HAP realized the need for social skills training in children, the severity of the need was not realized until HAP first initiated the Project CLASS program and saw just how many students could benefit from the program. Today Project CLASS serves about 30,000 children in 60 schools. Project CLASS is a constellation of training and program initiatives set to music and movements that help teachers and parents strengthen their teaching abilities to improve the social skills of their children and that help children develop core social skills in ways that are engaging, simple, and fun. “Many of the kids are not learning ready when they go to school,” said Gilford. “There are many reasons for this; you know, 55 to 60 percent marriages end in divorce and what should be happening in the family is not happening in the family. And if it doesn’t happen in the family then it needs to happen in the community, churches, schools and so forth.” “In a number of respects, what the schools are inheriting these days is not only the need to academically educate these kids but also, by default, to parent our community’s kids,” said Gilford. “So we collaborate with schools to basically equip the kids with core foundational skills: how to pay attention, how to follow instructions, how to have good eye contact, and basically how to See Achievement P. 6B
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in hopes of discovering what they would like to see. “It’s great to see it coming to life as we move to improve the intersection of 34th and Ella and provide quality retail to all those who live in the Garden Oaks and Oak Forest area,” he said. Merwin also told Swamplot in May of 2016 that he sees the development as a “neighborhood center with hip, ‘aspirational’ retail . . . a place where parents, children, and neighbors connect with their community on a daily basis.”
The Shops at Oak Forest has a prominent retail space available. The space is being vacated by T-Mobile and is 1,463 sf. For information contact Tony Armstrong at 713-222-2737.
Airline Farmers Market to be sold
The Chronicle reports that MLB Capital Partners will buy the long standing farmers market which started as a co-op in 1942. The Farmers Marketing Association, a private corporation, currently owns and operates the site. Canino Produce Co. is one of the more well-known produce operations on the property. Lawrence Pilkinton, whose family has owned Canino’s for 59 years, expanding it from a one-counter operation selling just a few crates of fruits and vegetables, told the Chronicle that grocery stores have diluted the business. Plans call for cleaning up property, and improving bathrooms and the parking area. MLB said that tenants won’t change much for the first year and that new buildings could come later.
SDI Realty develops corner of 290 and 34th SDI Realty which owns several properties on 34th near 290 is developing the space vacated by Jason’s Deli before its rebuild. A freestanding Taco Bell is now complete and there are additional properties being built which abut the 290 feeder. An auto parts store is one signed tenant. Other space is available.
T-ShirtWorks to close
Owner Vicki Martin announced the close on social media: “After 30 years I have decided to close my production facility at T-ShirtWorks. I would like to thank you all for your business and friendship over the years. I am still working in the screen printing and embroidery business as an independent sales rep. Please feel free to contact me if I can help you. shirtchick@yahoo.com.” The facility was located at 3574 W. T.C. Jester Blvd.
Urban Movement reopens in new facility
Formerly in the Heights, Urban Movement, which offers parkour classes for all ages has opened in a new facility at 1718 W 23rd St. Teens (13+) and adults wishing to attend their regular evening and weekend classes start on Saturdays with the Intro Seminar. First class is free. See https://www.urban-movement.com/.
Project Bulldog
A group recognizing all Reagan alumni and friends is supporting a SPARK Park project to celebrate their 90th birthday. This project will consist of an outdoor large steel mascot situated on a proposed learning center within the southeast corner of the campus. There is a request for your monetary support to bring this project to realization. All donations are tax deductible. All donors will be recognized. To donate, go to: http://sparkpark.org. Contact Gus Kopriva (1966) at gakopriva@aol.com or 713-854-4246 for more information.
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Contributed Photo Shown here is an aerial rendering of the 33 1/3 @ ThirtyFourth development by Crescere Capital Management. Crews began work on the establishment at the southeast corner of 34th and Ella last week.
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Pushing through In another video posted online by Crescere last weekend, Hotze said he was blown away by what builders have accomplished on the development last week (the first week of construction), despite being down and delayed for days due to inclement weather.
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Development is booming in The Leader’s area — nowhere more so than at the corner of 34th and Ella. From Bryan Danna’s revelations in recent months to the 33 1/3 @ Thirtyfourth development by area developer Chris Hotze, it’s open season—and the latter development is now on the ground running. The second phase of demolition on the site for 33 1/3 @ Thirtyfourth from Crescere Capital Management was completed in January, and now cranes and movers appear to indicate that Crescere owner Chris Hotze and Gensler Houston architects Peter Merwin and Ted Rubenstein have begun work on the lot on the southeast corner of Ella Boulevard and 34th Street. In an online video posted in February, Hotze said the 2.5acre multi-tenant site is not meant as an intrusion on what gives Oak Forest its name. Rather, he sees an opportunity to make better use of the site so it can be properly utilized and make a significant impact on the Garden Oaks and Oak Forest community. “You can see the space is re-
ally wide open and looks back nicely at the intersection,” he said. “For Houston, this is one of the last intersections with so much traffic that drives by it every day that has not been redeveloped, so we’re happy to have a site that can really impact Garden Oaks and Oak Forest.” Crescere’s newest creation is set to include green space at the intersection, plus a high overall parking ratio and varied buildings with soaring ceilings to help draw exciting concepts to the bustling corner site. Current plans call for a total of 18,850 sq. ft. of retail and restaurant space, according to a Swamplot report in July. Gensler’s initial renderings also showed a freestanding restaurant building fronting 34th Street, which includes room for patio seating beneath and around an extensive building canopy.
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