A Pair of Backups To Fill In Behind the Museum Tower?

Note: Read an update to this story here.

What’s left of the Gramercy Place apartments on the 200 block of Portland St. were sold this month. A few of the apartment buildings, which date to 1935, were torn down before being replaced in 2002 by the Museum Tower on Montrose. Now, the seller’s agent says that the remaining 5 buildings and 31 units that records show have been owned for the past 15 years by an entity controlled by Rebecca Parsons were closed on two weeks ago.

And the buyer? The seller’s agent wouldn’t say. But a Swamplot reader with knowledge of the transaction shares a document and some rumors that suggest the buyer is an LLC presided over by Hungry’s Cafe and Bistro owner Fred Sharifi. And the document states an intent to smash the rest of the apartments and put up “residential rental midrise buildings.”

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The reader says that “midrise” could mean in this case 2 buildings as tall or taller than the Museum Tower, the back of which is shown here. However, the seller’s agent says that there hasn’t been any indication what, if anything, Sharifi was planning to do with or to the apartments — which are, for the time being, anyway, under new management.

Messages left with the buyer’s agent and Hungry’s for more information haven’t been returned.

Photos: Swamplot inbox

18 Comment

  • Let’s just kill all that made the Museum District unique.

  • Lovely old buildings; sorry to see them go. I had friends who lived there happily for many years back in the 1980s-90s.

  • Where’s that famous poster with the fork all bent out of shape and the caption “Just because you’re unique, does not mean you’re useful”.

  • what a shame lots of friends resided there in the 70ies..so unique..sad to see Montrose disappearing bit by bit…living on the river in oHIo does have its advantage…

  • If you haven’t experienced that block, go while the apartments are still there. It’s like stepping back in time. I really love it.

  • Awww, I always wanted to live there. Boo all the mid-rises.

  • *groan*

    Always wanted to live here when i was in college.

  • Yes!!! More development…so glad to see Houston getting more dense…those apartments looked craptacular… I’m glad to see the Mid rises coming!

  • Craptacular? You must be from bizaarro planet earth. Those are beautiful buildings.

  • Wow. I lived there in 1979, in the building at the end of the street. It might be gone by now. Lovely rooms and setting. I had two bedrooms, a small dining room and even smaller kitchen, These apts even had back stairs and I had a tiny one car garage I paid extra for. Rent might have been as much as $125 a month.

    My other claim to fame is living at Isabella Court in the late ’60s :)

  • No reason to live there now.

  • This is great news and everyone’s nostalgia is embarrassing. Yes this is picturesque and I even spent many nights drinking with friends in these apartments during college after all night bike rides, but we live in a doughnut city and are in need of inner loop population density. Whatever residential and commercial projects fill up the urban prairie that lies between the Museum District and Downtown is fine by me.

  • Heyzeus…yeah those apts were craptacular..whatever planet youre from must have aboslutley no sense of style…so just put on the walmart sweats and go back to Katy and call it a day…deal with it …you nimby

  • Yeah, put high rises on a dead end street. That’s a good idea, especially with the single-family residences right across the street.

    I live there and all the tenants love it. There was, at some point, an initiative to gain historical stature. Leave it up to Houston to tear down history.

  • I am all for density, but only when it is well planned. Seriously, why would anyone think the possibility of two 20+ story residential towers on a small neighborhood street that essentially only has one means of egress is a good idea? Would 1 developer please build a project like this in Midtown (views would be excellent, infrastructure exists to support it).

  • >> but we live in a doughnut city and are in need of inner loop population density.

    Yea, sure. I think you played too much SimCity in your former days.

  • This is horrid. These obtuse philistines who are all about tearing down the entire inner loop for cookie cutter cheap mid rise garbage need to go back to Jasper or Woodville or wherever they’re from, they certainly are not Native to Houston, otherwise they would care about its history. I live in San Antonio, but grew up in the Rice Area and I appreciate how San Antonio cares about its history. It takes an act of Congress to tear any old building down here, and yet it has plenty of modern developements being built, but they’re done really cool, like The Pearl or The Quarry, not cheaply like all that Mid Town cheap prefab trash built over the remains of cool pre war buildings. Houston is such a whore for new developement not matter how horrid it looks.

  • @Shannon, are you the final word on what is and is not historic and what is and is not of good architectural value? The bottom line is that the powers that be do not agree with you and the powers that be are the ones with power.