Search Results: montage

Apartments
01/06/10 11:44am

And the Second Tower Too: The Montage Foreclosure

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Bankruptcies, Condos, Financing, Foreclosures, Hermann Park, Highrises
8 Comments

Real estate agent Sandra Gunn informs us that the Montage, the second glass Almeda St. tower across from Hermann Park, was foreclosed on yesterday. Originally named Mosaic to match its adjacent twin directly to the north, the Montage has been a rental property since it was completed.

Almost exactly a year ago, the developer of both buildings — a limited partnership between Phillips Development & Realty and Florida Capital Real Estate Group — declared bankruptcy in order to avoid foreclosure on the Mosaic, which at the time was officially a condominium tower. And Florida Capital’s chief operating officer expressed hope that the Montage’s separate $71 million loan with Corus Bankshares could be renegotiated.

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Featured Posts
02/04/19 3:00pm

Is Something About To Go Down at the Upper Kirby Building on Bissonnet?

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West University
8 Comments

The arrival of chain link fencing outside the arched office complex at 2715 Bissonnet known as The Upper Kirby Building last week caught the attention of several Swamplot tipsters, who’ve sent in photos looking across the street at the new perimeter and the vacant scene beyond it. The image at top looks southwest to show the complex’s largest building, an L-shaped structure that fronts the central parking lot on 2 sides. In the second photo, you can see where that building abuts its neighbor, a smaller, rectangular structure that runs along the east side of the parking lot on its way out to the curb. Not depicted: a pair additional small 2-story buildings and their adjacent parking lots to the west, which take up the rest of the block ending at Wakeforest St.

An entity connected to Cornerbrook Development bought the whole 1.56-acre tract housing the 4 buildings last December and since then has filed a few permits to disconnect the plumbing, but it hasn’t laid a hand on the structures themselves yet. They all went up in late ’60s and early ’70s and — though currently vacant — recently played host to Montage Bridal, Synergy Day Spa, an Allstate insurance office, and an assortment of hairdressers.

Photos: Swamplot inbox

West U.
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Apartments
11/17/17 2:00pm

Mosaic South Tower Only Now Going by Hanover Hermann Park

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Buying and Selling, Hermann Park, Highrises, Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing
2 Comments

MOSAIC SOUTH TOWER ONLY NOW GOING BY HANOVER HERMANN PARK The 29-story, 394-unit glass apartment building at 5927 Almeda Rd. known as the Mosaic South Tower, and before that the Montage, and before that the south tower of the Mosaic, shall henceforth (or until it sells again, probably) be known as the Hanover Hermann Park. (It’s pictured at right in the above photo.) Last week PGIM, the real estate division of Prudential Financial, bought the building, which fronts Hermann Park and backs up to 288 — along with the retail portion of the building’s gone-condo identical twin immediately to the north, still known not-at-all-confusingly as the Mosaic on Hermann Park. The seller was Winthrop Realty Liquidating Trust, which (in case it’s not obvious from that company’s name) is in the process of selling off every property it owns. In case the name change wouldn’t be enough of a clue, a note sent last week to residents by the seller indicates that the building will now be managed by the Hanover Company. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: elnina, via Swamplot Flickr pool

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Bars and Clubs
04/13/17 1:30pm

Watch an Adult Red Oak Get Craned into Place in Axelrad’s Tree-Bereaved Patio

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Lower Midtown, Midtown, Trees
7 Comments

Former Tree at Axelrad Beer Garden, 1517 Alabama St., Midtown, Houston, TX 77004Swapping in for the tubelight-bedecked elm that’s been standing in the middle of Axelrad Beer Garden at the corner of Almeda Rd. and Alabama St.: this way-past-sapling Shumard red oak, carefully trucked, tipped, and dropped into place earlier this week, as captured in the Yakety-Sax-tracked video montage above. The changeover comes at the end of the original tree’s years-long shuffle toward death, per the bar’s telling: the group was advised to evict the tree when they first started setting up the space — as it was already old, and had been hit pretty hard by that tire-revealing 2011 drought — but opted to keep it around for a few years instead.

Following a recent lightning strike from which it would never quite recover, the tree finally lost enough branches that the bar owners opted to put it out of its misery:

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Series of Tubes in Midtown
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Featured Posts
09/16/16 11:30am

Mosaic Penthouse Back With Half-Million Price Drop, Axes To Grind

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Hermann Park, Homes for Sale
7 Comments

5925 Almeda Rd. #12809, Hermann Park, Houston, TX 77004

Mosaic and Montage Towers, Hermann Park, HoustonThat mosaic-filled penthouse in the north tower of the split-up-then-stuck-back-together Mosaic highrise complex has been relisted once again as of Friday, this time down at $1.49 million. The unit hit the market in 2014 asking for $2.05 million (up from the $930,000 it originally sold for in 2012, in the wake of the original owners’ bank-rupturing bankruptcy). Since then, the listing has taken only a few quick days off here and there to step down the price. The customized 3-bedroom pad includes the mother-of-pearl show-off-whatever-you-want slots in the main entryway (shown above; sick guitar collection not included). Here’s a look around at some of the unit’s other tilework:

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Hermann Park Outlook
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Featured Posts
08/31/16 1:00pm

Got Anything To Say About the City Buying That Land at 288 and N. MacGregor for an H-E-B?

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Riverside Terrace, Third Ward
13 Comments

Former Site of Planned HCC College of Health Sciences’ Medical Science & Technology Early College Charter High School, Hwy. 288 and North MacGregor Way, Third Ward, Houston

A meeting is set for September 7th to take public input on the city’s plan to purchase the long-vacant land at the northeast corner of SH 288 and MacGregor to let H-E-B build a store on the site (at the edges of a few of Houston’s USDA-defined food deserts). The city says the meeting and comment period (which lasts through September 11) are standard parts of its 8-step program when developing within the floodplain — Brays Bayou is just to the left of the frame above (snapped back in 2014), which the southeastern corner of the land as the facade-and-foreclosure-twin Mosaic and Montage towers peek over from west of 288.

The land is currently owned by Houston Community College; the college system bought the tract (reportedly for the second time) back in 2013 as the proposed site of the elaborately monikered HCC Coleman College of Health Sciences’ Medical Science & Technology Early College Charter High School. The city would bundle the land together with some adjacent already-city-owned property to lease it to H-E-B, and the grocery chain would be able to buy the whole package once all 72,000 sq. ft. of new store are constructed and certified for occupancy. 

Photo: Swamplot inbox

Flood Plain Food Desert
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Condos for Sale
11/06/14 3:00pm

The Million-Dollar Views of Houston in This Mosaic Penthouse Will Cost You $2 Million

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Hermann Park, Highrises, Interiors
17 Comments

5925-almeda-1280902

Expansive vistas pan north, west, and south through barely-there walls of floor-to-ceiling windows in this swish penthouse atop the Mosaic at Hermann Park, one of the twin-ish 30-story condo towers across from the park’s eastern edge. Do the panoramas and high-end custom finishes from a 2012 update to the 2008 space merit the listing’s asking price of $2.05 million? It last sold in 2009 for $930K, but back then the FDIC and a group of investors had control of the property following sequential foreclosures on the condo tower and its neighboring rental twin (once named The Montage).

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Vision Quest
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Awards
12/30/09 4:35pm

The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate, 2009: The Winners!

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5 Comments

Who made out with what in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate? Find out here!

This announcement caps an almost month-long process that began with calls for nominations in 9 separate award categories. After the official nominees were presented, voting opened up to all readers.

Winners of the 2009 Swampies: We salute you for your special contributions to this city. It takes a lot to stand out in Houston’s real estate landscape. On Swamplot, Houston’s real-estate fans have noticed you!

Big thanks are due to the many Swamplot readers who’ve taken time to nominate, evaluate, vote, and comment on competitors in each category. Maybe this year there wasn’t so much glamor and excitement and tumult to recognize as there was in 2008. But you pitched in with some smart observations and nominations, and these awards — along with the list of runners-up — provide a pretty good snapshot of the local scene this year. Let us know what you think!

And now: The winners of the 2009 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate are . . .

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Awards
12/30/09 7:20am

The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate, 2009: The Runners-Up

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No Comments

The polls have closed and the votes have been tallied. Now here’s the moment you’ve almost been waiting for! Yes, it’s time to announce the second-place winners of the second annual Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate!

But first, a note of thanks — to all of you who voted, commented, nominated, and cajoled in support of your favorite candidates. You made this extended moment of reflection, recognition, and honor possible. The Swampies belong to you!

Should the actual award winners (we’ll announce them soon) be unable to fulfill their duties for any reason, these second-place winners are ready and willing to serve! Let’s have a big round of digital applause, please, for the 2009 runners-up in the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate — the Swampies!

They are:

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Awards
12/14/09 11:51pm

Best Vacancy: Vote for One of These Official Nominees

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48 Comments

Our second category in the 2009 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate has its official slate of candidates!

As the nominees are announced, voting can begin. You can cast your vote by entering a comment below or by sending Swamplot a private message indicating your preferences. This year you can also cast an extra vote from your Twitter account. More details about voting rules for the awards are available here.

The nominees for Best Vacancy are . . .

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Apartments
10/23/09 12:22pm

Only the Towers Remain Standing: Mosaic and Friends Break the Bank

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Bankruptcies, Condos, Financing, Foreclosures, Hermann Park, Highrises, New Construction: Residential
42 Comments

With its most recent achievements, the Mosaic earns its place in Houston’s spec-development record books: Last month the 29-story condo tower near Hermann Park — wedged between Almeda and 288 — scored the loan-default trifecta, having notched a bankruptcy, mass foreclosures, and an attendant bank failure to its credit all within a single calendar year.

Chicago’s Corus Bankshares, which held a $71 million loan for the Mosaic, foreclosed on all 271 unsold units (out of 394 total in the building) in September, just days before the bank itself was seized by the FDIC. A few weeks later, the federal agency sold 40 percent of the bank’s real estate loans to a team of private-equity firms calling itself Northwest Investments and led by Starwood Capital Group — for 60 cents on the dollar.

Any further fun at the Mosaic will be courtesy of the FDIC, reports Nancy Sarnoff:

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Apartments
07/28/09 6:52pm

Housebrand’s Home-Based Businesses: What’s Going on with That Mystery Highrise Apartment

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Development Strategies, Highrises, Home Design, Real Estate Marketing
14 Comments

When Canadian home-design expert John Brown featured an oddly designed 2800-sq.-ft. 3-bedroom Houston highrise apartment on the “What’s Wrong with This House” video feature of his online Slow Home Design School last week, Swamplot readers naturally wanted to know where the place was. A new west-facing 17th-floor apartment . . . somewhere “Downtown.” Hmmm . . .

You came up with a lot of good guesses: One Park Place, the Turnberry Tower, the Cosmopolitan, the Legacy at Memorial, Mosaic, Orion, 2727 Kirby, Commerce Towers, the Shamrock Tower, the Four Seasons, Titan, the Regent Square tower, Park 8 Place, the Royalton, and Four Leaf Towers.

So what’s the answer?

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Apartments
01/09/09 4:59pm

Mosaic Avoids Foreclosure, Files for Bankruptcy

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Condos, Condos for Sale, Financing, Foreclosures, Hermann Park, Highrises, New Construction: Residential
9 Comments

The developer of the Mosaic highrise overlooking Hermann Park — a limited partnership between Phillips Development & Realty and publicity-shy Florida Capital Real Estate Group — declared bankruptcy earlier this week to avoid foreclosure on a $71 million loan from Chicago lender Corus Bankshares. Florida Capital, originally the equity partner, will be taking over as the general partner.

The bankruptcy covers just the first Mosaic tower. The second tower, rebranded the Montage, has not yet defaulted on its separate $71 million Corus loan.

So how have sales been going at the Mosaic? It depends, the Houston Business Journal‘s Jennifer Dawson learns, who you ask:

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Apartments
12/30/08 5:15pm

Phillips Development at the Mosaic: Short-Term Rentals, Short-Term Stay?

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Condos, Foreclosures, Hermann Park, Highrises, Leasing
13 Comments

Need a place to crash somewhere in Houston for a short visit — say, a week — but don’t want to stay in a hotel?

Phillips Development & Realty, developers of the Mosaic and freshly rebranded Montage towers across Almeda from Hermann Park, is handling rentals of Mosaic condos owned by investors — as well as rentals of the many units the developer has been unable to unload. Now a source passes on a new rumor to Swamplot: Some of those available rentals may be extremely short-term.

Not a bad idea for a property that’s close to the Med Center! With that rumor, though, come a couple more:

Phillips’s Corporate Leasing Director will be taking over management of the Mosaic’s homeowners association from the company that had been running it since the building opened last year. But Phillips’s new tenure at the HOA may be a short-term one too. Why?

Because Florida Capital Real Estate Partners, the Mosaic’s lender, might just be foreclosing on Phillips’s property soon — both the Mosaic and an apartment complex in Tampa called the Casa Bella. Swamplot’s source also suggests that Camelot Realty Group — the company that’s clearly been very busy handling the Mosaic’s many condo sales — may already have had discussions with Florida Capital about taking over onsite rental duties from Phillips once the foreclosure takes place.

Photo of Mosaic and Montage: Swamplot inbox

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