Montrose

Apartments
08/02/12 5:31pm

Report: Castle Court Midrise Planned for Andover Richmond Apartments Site

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Castle Court, Demolitions, Montrose, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment
23 Comments

A resident of the Andover Richmond Apartments at the corner of Richmond and Graustark passes on word to Swamplot that a “midrise luxury style residence” is being planned for the 2.9-acre site near Graustark — after the courtyard-style apartments that have stood there for more than 50 years are demolished. Residents with month-to-month leases will be given 35 days’ notice to vacate, the resident reports. Those with time left on their leases will be dealt with individually and possibly given incentives to vacate before the end of next January. Swamplot reported the sale of the complex to an arm of REIT factory Behringer Harvard yesterday. According to the tipster, some residents have already been told that their homes will be torn down, so they can beat the expected “flood” of residents looking for similarly priced apartments in the area.

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Comments
08/02/12 2:17pm

Comment of the Day: Montrose Over 40 Years

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Montrose, Quicklink, Redevelopment
22 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: MONTROSE OVER 40 YEARS “. . . Montrose is getting better by the day and there are NO signs that it will stop. The junk is being removed and improved. The process started in earnest 20 years ago and has another 20+ years to go. Every year the Montrose area gets more dense, more affluent, and more dynamic. Greater Montrose is where people want to live. Close to downtown? Check. Close to Galleria? Check. Close to Memorial Park? check. Close to Rice U? Check. Close to Med Center? Check. Close to bars, restaurants, and night life? Check. Close to museums and cultural events? Check. Smart people with money to invest have spent BILLIONS of their own dollars to buy and improve Montrose. There are mega trends at work here. If you can’t see it you’re not looking.” [Bernard, commenting on Changing of the Guard at a Castle Court Complex]

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Apartments
08/01/12 3:11pm

Changing of the Guard at a Castle Court Complex

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Buying and Selling, Castle Court, Montrose
29 Comments

Tenants of the Andover Richmond Apartments at 1301 Richmond Ave. near Graustark got notice today that the complex has been sold to an entity connected to investment company Behringer Harvard. One of them writes in: “I hope the Swamplot team can stay on top of this one since this 2.9 acre plot was earlier rumored to be on Trammell Crow’s Alexan radar. BH is a big REIT player but I can’t find much information about their history regarding redevelopment of acquired properties. I fear same fate will befall us here as those at Chateau on Greenbriar.”

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Montrose
07/23/12 1:19pm

Redo Plans for the Office Building at 3400 Montrose Blvd.

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Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Renovations
30 Comments

Sure — you wanna hear the scoop behind this set of drawings showing the vacant and forlorn 10-story office building at 3400 Montrose Blvd. across Hawthorne St. from the Montrose Kroger transformed into a glassy white figure with real big numbers. Unfortunately, the tipster who sent these pix to Swamplot didn’t include additional info on any possible plans for the structure, which since last September has been the property of real estate firm Global Paragon. The rendering shows a building that’s jettisoned its distinctive limestone panels in favor of a more conventional office-building grid. Progress in that de-facing process began last fall. A watermark in the bottom right corner of the image reads “Lizard House, Inc.”

Images: Swamplot inbox

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Lancaster Place
07/16/12 3:28pm

Scenes from the Dunlavy Fiesta Farewell Shopping Experience

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Montrose, Openings and Closings, Retail
48 Comments

Last night at the Fiesta on Dunlavy was the last night at the Fiesta on Dunlavy. Photographer-about-town Sarah Lipscomb, who began shopping at the store on the corner of West Alabama back when it was a Safeway, grabbed a few shots of the grocery store’s interior as she strolled the aisles there one last time:

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Apartments
07/06/12 11:48pm

Comment of the Day: Montrose, Going Vegas

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Comments, Montrose, Quicklink
18 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: MONTROSE, GOING VEGAS “. . . It took Montrose it’s whole lifetime to get to ~7000 units. Yes there is strong demand, no one would doubt that . . . which is why you have people building. But they’re building at a frantic pace. So while it took Montrose it’s whole life to ~7000 units, we’re about to DOUBLE that in a few years. So strong demand brings strong supply. I believe turds is saying that the supply is coming so strong that it’ll outpace demand and thus create the need for incentives. Personally I think we’re going to have a Vegas (strip) style disruption in econ 101 where supply tends to CREATE demand. As these units come online, they’ll make the area better, and increase demand to live here. These units won’t be for the people living here. They’ll be for new people coming here. So I think Montrose can take these units on and be just fine (with respects to multifamily operator demand).” [Cody, commenting on What To Make of the Museum Gardens Sale]

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Buying and Selling
07/05/12 1:46pm

Giving Up the Ghosts of Hyde Park

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Crime, Homes for Sale, Hyde Park, Montrose, Redevelopment, Townhomes
10 Comments

For the last 7 or so years, the atomic-ranch-era front of this 1929 bungalow at 1710 Welch St. served as the Scott Childress Studio, a hair salon. If you recognize that name, you likely know at least the outline of the rest of the story that goes with it: Childress was found on the floor of the property one Friday morning this past January, beaten to death with a pipe wrench; his roommate, Reginald Eaglin, was charged with the murder. The home was listed for sale in late February, but there’s a contract pending now. How that ends likely depends on a planning commission hearing scheduled for this afternoon. Up for approval: plans by Carnegie Homes to replace the modern-front house and the 2 apartments behind it — all on 7,500 sq. ft. — with 4 townhome lots along a central drive.

Photo: HAR

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Demolitions
06/29/12 12:11pm

Seen from the Street: Sunset, Sunrise

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Hyde Park, Lancaster Place, Lower Midtown, Montrose, Renovations
2 Comments

“I like how this view makes it look like Fiesta is exploding,” writes engineer and Metro board member Christof Spieler of this photo he snapped last night at dusk. No fire clouds are expected, but the Montrose Fiesta Mart will be closing for good on July 15th — to make way for a Finger Companies apartment complex on the site. Spieler’s photo was taken from the shelter of the half-year-old H-E-B across Dunlavy, just south of West Alabama.

More building-turnover photo fun:

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Buildings for Sale
06/27/12 2:09pm

Spur-Side Mansion a Mixed-Use Bute

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Home Design, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Mixed Use, Montrose, Office Space
2 Comments

Some might know this Milam at W. Main property as the former home of Milam House, a social services agency that operated within until 2007. Some might recognize it as a building they view peripherally and from above while zipping out of downtown on Spur 527. Behind the automated gate, however, the mansion-turned-commercial space holds a doctor’s practice downstairs and unrelated professional offices upstairs.

The building combines the presence and proportions of a 1950 home with the more modern upgrades of a 2007 renovation, which also subdivided — only temporarily, the listing agent says — several first floor rooms. Described as an historic property in the Bute section of the Montrose area, this new listing fronting an access road is asking $1,350,000 — regardless of whether its future use remains commercial, resumes residential status, or blends a bit of each. Its neighbors include 2-story apartments next door and 3-story offices-over-parking across the street.

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Demolitions
06/27/12 1:09pm

A Brief Illustrated Guide to Bungalow Removal

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Hyde Park, Montrose
23 Comments

Courtesy of a Swamplot reader who watched some of Houston Habitat for Humanity’s work dismantling the 1925 bungalow at 1310 Welch St. in Hyde Park, here’s an abbreviated photographic guide to the process. Above: the home on June 7th. And here’s how it looked just last weekend, with all the work complete:

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Apartments
06/26/12 11:18pm

Comment of the Day: Pack Them In

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Comments, Lancaster Place, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Retail
35 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: PACK THEM IN “Swamplotters crack me up. If this site were home to a bunch of crack houses and Fiesta wanted to tear them down and build this exact strip center (with or without decades of deferred maintenance) with a giant parking lot out front, every one would be up in arms about because it’s not dense enough, or urban enough, mixed use enough or pedestrian friendly enough. I see an eyesore going away, just [like] that dump that used to be across the street. I see $40-50 million of additional tax base that will toss another $1 million each and every year toward HISD and local government. I see room for 500-600 new residents in Houston’s core who will drop countless millions of dollars into bars, restaurants and retail stores and help Houston become an even more dynamic and vibrant city. I see progress. And I like it. Companies are hiring in Houston. People WANT to live in Houston. I say we accommodate them rather than force them to the next mile of empty prairie in the suburbs while letting our own city rot from the inside out.” [Bernard, commenting on Montrose Fiesta on Dunlavy Will Close Forever in Less Than a Month]

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Apartments
06/26/12 1:35pm

Montrose Fiesta on Dunlavy Will Close Forever in Less Than a Month

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Lancaster Place, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Retail
53 Comments

Fiesta Mart announced today that it will shut down its store at the corner of Dunlavy and West Alabama — across the street from the newly built modern H-E-B Montrose Market — on July 15th. Developer Marvy Finger plans to build a 6-to-8-story “Mediterranean-style” apartment complex on the 3.68-acre site, which he bought last fall. Fiesta has operated the former Weingarten grocery store on the site since 1994.

Photo: Candace Garcia

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Buying and Selling
06/19/12 2:24pm

Strip Center at the Corner of Westheimer and Montrose: Sold

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Commercial Real Estate, Houston Architects, Houston Landmarks, Lower Westheimer, Montrose, Strip Centers
20 Comments

The half-empty strip center left over from a series of unfortunate redos of City Hall architect Joseph Finger’s 1937 Tower Community Center (which once served as an art-deco companion piece to the former Tower Theater across the street) is now under contract to a new owner, along with the entire 2.86-acre block at the southwest corner of Westheimer and Montrose. That’s the word from a posting on the property’s listing site noted by Going Up! City, but the listing brokers at HFF aren’t providing any additional information.

Unless someone wants to spill the beans on the purchaser’s identity or any plans for the current home of Half Price Books, Spec’s, Papa John’s, and 3-6-9 China Bistro (along with the standalone Jack-in-the-Box at Montrose and Lovett) before then, you’ll have to wait until the seller issues a press release — which will happen sometime next week, a source tells Swamplot — for additional details. The property went on the market in early March.

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Art
06/13/12 5:44pm

West Gray Gallery Home a Montrose Mixed-Use Mashup

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Buildings for Sale, Commercial Real Estate, Interiors, Mixed Use, Montrose
No Comments

In 2009, the now-10-year-old Betz Art Gallery housed in a 1947 cottage-scale venue on West Gray gained a 3-story appendage to expand its exhibition space. Now the gallery towers over itself. Listed in January at $599,000, the property’s asking price dropped to $549,000 at the end of March. That’s around the time artist Lori Betz opened the Betz Art Foundry at the Summer Street Studios, up in the artsy warehouse district off Houston Ave. Although the Montrose-area gallery remains open, it’s moving later this year, a gallery staff member says.

A mashup of modern and vintage structures, the bi-level gallery-home is listed as ADA compliant and reported to be “very energy efficient.” Maybe it’s the dearth of windows. Glass panes that remain post-redo have light-diffusing panels.

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