COMMENT OF THE DAY: ENDEAVOUR RESCUE PLAN “Original asking prices for the 80 unit tower ranged from $425k to $2.5 million. After all the hype about sales, it looks like the developer was only able to sell 36 units. Now Regions has unloaded 44 units for an average price of $216k plus back taxes and interest. OUCH! And what can we read between the lines of this comment? ‘The group also said it would pay normally budgeted homeowner assessments for 2010 for any condo owner current on their assessments for 2009.’ It sounds to me like MANY of the 36 original buyers are behind on their maintenance fees. Wonmore is trying to incentivize them [to] get current by offering to pay all their fees for 2010??? That sounds like an awfully big incentive? Are they trying to solve an awfully big problem? When condo associations go broke, look out below. . . .” [Bernard, commenting on Wonmore in Bankrupt Endeavour]
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Clear Lake
WONMORE IN BANKRUPT ENDEAVOUR The sale of 44 unsold condos in high-flying developer Robin Parsley’s bankrupt Endeavour highrise on Clear Lake in Pasadena was approved by a court last week. “The winning bidder was a partnership named Wonmore Ltd. The group agreed to pay $9.5 million plus past-due taxes and interest, according to Houston attorney Walter Cicack, who represented Wonmore. The group also said it would pay normally budgeted homeowner assessments for 2010 for any condo owner current on their assessments for 2009. . . . The 30-story Endeavour, at 4821 NASA Parkway, had been in legal limbo since earlier this year when its developer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection the day before the building was scheduled to be sold in a foreclosure auction. Regions Bank was listed as a creditor in the bankruptcy with a claim of $20.8 million.” [Houston Chronicle]
One more reason to get excited about the possibility of another Depression: It could save the Jim West Mansion in Clear Lake!
Two years ago, a real-estate company controlled by former Houston Rocket Hakeem Olajuwon bought the mansion with plans to subdivide its 41 acres for sale to developers. At one point, the mansion seemed about to be razed. At another, it seemed likely to become the centerpiece of a luxury complex for retirees.
But as of yet, no deal has solidified. And that’s where [Clear Lake schoolteacher Linda] Sansing finds a strange upside to talk of a new Depression: With credit tight, it seems unlikely that a for-profit developer will swoop in.
Great! But . . . will that make raising money for preservationists to buy the property any easier?
Linda Sansing’s nonprofit group, Preserved in Time, aims to raise $100,000 in earnest money, so it can make an offer on the mansion and some of its grounds. She figures that, ultimately, the group will need $11 million to buy the mansion and some of its land. Some of that money could come from opening the mansion to the pubic for rentals and tours. Some could come from grants. But she knows she has a long way to go.
- Preservationists hope to rescue West mansion [Houston Chronicle]
- How the West won [Houston Chronicle]
- Saving the Jim West Mansion [Houston Public Radio]
- Jim West Mansion Photo Story [Preserved in Time]
Video: Preserved in Time
Just west of Pine Brook in Clear Lake — and draped loosely around the Bay Oaks Country Club and Golf Course — is our latest tour venue: Bay Oaks! Here’s a preview of four neighborhood open houses open this weekend:
Location: 14418 Lofty Mountain Trail
Details: 5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths; 3,538 sq. ft.
Price: $425,000
The Scoop: 1990 Georgian-like home across from golf course. Windows have simulated keystones and shutters, thin sashes. Kitchen recently overhauled. Listed for a little more than 3 weeks; price dropped $4.9K today.
Open House: Sunday, 3-5 pm
More Bay Oaks fun below!
Commune with nature in Clear Lake Forest, or hobnob with aging astronauts in Timber Cove! This weekend’s open-house roundup runs through both neighborhoods in the city of Taylor Lake Village.
Location: 4311 Parkmead Dr.
Details: 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths; 2,420 sq. ft.
Price: $174,900
The Scoop: Brick 2-story 1972 Clear Lake Forest home with tiny pond in front. Beamed ceiling and stone fireplace in Living Room. Some wood floors. Covered porch in back; overlooking second-story patio. On market since mid-March.
Open House: Sunday, 2-5 pm
The tour marches on . . .
A restaurant scheduled to open today just beyond Beltway 8’s southeastern elbow is the first “Certified Green Restaurant” in Houston approved by the Green Restaurant Association. Cullen’s Upscale American Grille completed 17 of the GRA’s environmental guidelines.
The grille’s proprietor is first-time restaurant owner Kevin Munz, who previously built a chain of 13 Houston-area pawn shops. He sold the Mr. Money Pawn shops to Cash America International in 2006. Two years before that, he bought 92.8 acres of undeveloped land at the eastern edge of Ellington Field and began planning Clearpoint Crossing, a series of strips along the west side of newly extended Space Center Blvd., featuring retail/lease space, a professional-office park, and a multifamily residential project.
Cullen’s is intended to be Clearpoint Crossing’s main attraction: a 37,000-sq.-ft. Las Vegas-style eatery with seven private dining rooms — including one built of glass and suspended over the main dining area — a ballroom, space for outdoor dining, and seating for 700 diners. Customers will have their choice of china: Wedgwood, Versace, or “the Titanic.” Munz spoke to the Houston Chronicle‘s David Kaplan about his plans for Cullen’s last year:
“I’ve been all over the U.S. and looked at restaurants. It’s the best of a bunch of different concepts and putting them into one, Munz said. “It’s the same thing I did with pawnshops.”
Munz told the South Belt-Ellington Leader he hopes to attract customers driving from as far northeast as Baytown and as far south as Galveston to his green restaurant, saying he “wouldn’t have done this in town.”
Munz expects the Clearpoint Crossing’s land value to “go up the day I open the restaurant,” he told Kaplan. That would be today!
After the jump, a plan of the whole Clearpoint Crossing development. Plus, a few of the restaurant’s green features!
From the gratuitous celebrity references in the listings to the one-minute-before-the-hour open-house start times: Some agents know all the tricks! This weekend: four open houses in Pine Brook, tucked between Ellington Field and Armand Bayou.
Location: 3422 E. Pine Brook Way
Details: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths; 2,615 sq. ft.
Price: $335,000
The Scoop: “IF GEORGE CLOONEY LIVED IN PINE BROOK HE WOULD LIVE HERE” screams the listing for this 12-year-old brick home, which also includes six mentions of Tuscany or Italy. L-shaped pool with covered patio; open Kitchen. On the market since the end of February.
Open House: Sunday, 1:59-4 pm
The Clear Lake celebrity European home tour continues this way . . .
