FM 1960

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09/23/14 11:45am

Build-It-Yourself Burgers for the Downtown Tunnel and Feeder Road Crowds

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FM 1960, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Strip Centers
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eT Craft Burgers & Beer, 19841 Northwest Fwy., Houston

eT Craft Burgers & Beer, 19841 Northwest Fwy., HoustonAlonti Catering has done so well with the build-your-own burger spot it’s been operating in the Downtown tunnels since 2010 that it’s taking the concept straight to a feeder-road strip center — a mere 21 miles away at the intersection of Hwy. 290 and ring road FM 1960. The new eT Craft Burgers & Beer taking the place of Kim Kim Vietnamese and Paragon Pools in the end slot at 19841 Northwest Fwy. is scheduled for an official opening this Thursday, and will feature interiors by Uchi designer Michael Hsu and the entrance to the nearby Starbucks drive-thru around back.

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FM 1960 and Underground
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Crime
10/09/12 12:35pm

County Attorney Strips Bikini Off FM 1960 Strip Center Babes

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FM 1960, Lawsuits, Quicklink
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COUNTY ATTORNEY STRIPS BIKINI OFF FM 1960 STRIP CENTER BABES In the suit filed yesterday against the operator of strip club Babes North at 10610 FM 1960 just east of Jones Rd., Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan accuses the club, formerly known as the Bikini Wing Bar, of flouting the laws governing sexually oriented businesses. “Babes is not a bikini bar. It is a topless and bottomless den of prostitution and drug dealing.” Notably, the lawsuit is also directed at the owners of the pad site in the Cypress Plaza Shopping Center, PJM Properties — for not taking reasonable measures to prevent criminal activity on its premises. [Cypress Creek Mirror] Photo: Click2Houston

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Champions
01/15/09 9:32pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game: Cutten Close

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Cutten Green, FM 1960, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game
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Some wide ranging — but very sharp — guesses in this week’s game!

There were 2 votes each for Spring, the Woodlands, and Fort Bend, plus 1 each for Quail Valley, Missouri City, “the newer parts of Missouri City/Sugar Land, off Highway 6 and the powerline easement,” Mission Bend, and First Colony. The rest: “Memorial just outside the Beltway,” Newcastle at Bissonnet, Westchase, Sagemeadow, Sageglen, Katy, Pearland, “near Spears Rd. and Veterans Memorial,” “one of the 1980s subdivisions off of Dixie Farm Rd.,” Champions, “off Briarforest, just inside Highway 6,” Oak Forest, Copperfield, Bear Creek-Highway 6, Blackhawk, and “the 1960/Cypress area off 249.”

This week the top prize goes to 3 players, for their almost-triangulating guesses. First, CK, who went out on a nearby limb with that tossed-off “near Spears Road and Veterans Memorial,” after naming a whole bunch of far-flung suburbs. Why that intersection? Because

There’s crap like this out there too.

Even closer was Scott, who guessed Champions, then almost threw off the judges by declaring himself “bad at this game.”

The “1960/Cypress area off 249″ guess came from movocelot, who also earns points for narrowing down the home’s age with this insightful “could be seventies, could be eighties” accounting:

These say 1980s to me:
windows with low sills, drywall returns, tiny little transoms, black appliances, tympanum Levolour shade in Master.

“Things that make me go ‘70s:”
heavy ceiling texture, shiny, built-on-sight cabinets & plywood/applied-molding ‘paneling’, small baseboard, chair rail & crown, white 4×4 ceramic bath surround, bold stained glass (I don’t see how folks can tell it’s plastic… looks like HO has a hobby)

And now . . . will the real neighborhood please stand up?

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Apartments
07/24/08 1:29pm

Help for the Huntwick

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Buying and Selling, FM 1960, Foreclosures, Neighborhood Disputes, Real Estate Investing, Renovations
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Huntwick Apartments, 5100 FM 1960 Rd., Houston

A Dallas real-estate firm is ready to rescue the Huntwick Apartments on FM 1960 near Wunderlich Rd. from receivership — and also from its management, before that, by Louisiana real-estate investor Michael B. Smuck.

As of last year, just as it prepared to file for bankruptcy, Smuck’s Louisiana-based MBS Companies owned 65 apartment buildings in Texas — 33 of them in the Houston area. Even prior to that, the company’s property-maintenance skills had reached legendary status. The president and executive vice president of the Houston Apartment Association relayed complaints from residents and neighbors of MBS apartments to the Wall Street Journal last year, and reported that the griping had only increased after the influx of residents fleeing Hurricane Katrina in late 2005.

Here’s a commenter on the Houston Politics blog back in April (quoted in Swamplot), describing the scene at the 288-unit Huntwick:

Balconies have collapsed, lots of overgrown vegetation, the paint is peeling, there is obviously a total lack of maintenance. A large tree split in half on their property adjacent to Coral Gables Dr., and after the dead half lay on the ground (in plain view) for over 6 months, a crew finally cut it into smaller pieces, which then lay in the same spot for another 6 months.

After the jump: What’s happening to the Huntwick, plus the complete Michael B. Smuck Houston apartment roster!

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Crime
07/14/08 11:32am

Oak Creek Village Meth Lab: Strong Enough To Kill Plants

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FM 1960, Oak Creek Village, Quicklink
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OAK CREEK VILLAGE METH LAB: STRONG ENOUGH TO KILL PLANTS “The first firefighter who went inside had to be carried out by two others because he was overcome by the fumes. Investigators say something was so strong that it killed trees and grass adjacent to the garage.” Following the strange but apparently contradictory laws of TeeVee and web journalism, the print version of the report removes all references to the name of the neighborhood and the street address. (It’s 15022 Falling Creek Dr., Oak Creek Village, just north of FM 1960). [abc13]

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FM 1960
07/10/08 1:22pm

FM 1960 Corridor: The Thrill Is Gone

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Quicklink
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FM 1960 CORRIDOR: THE THRILL IS GONE “‘At one time, that was the place to move to,’ [real-estate consultant Roger] Galatas said. ‘But as more developments occurred that were not connected to each other, they built rather ugly retail centers that took advantage of the traffic and created more traffic. People started moving away, and you’ve got declining home values, empty retail centers and a declining tax base. The only thing still functioning is a very wide strip of concrete called FM 1960.’” [Houston Chronicle]