WEST AVE READY TO PUSH WEST 
Catie Brubaker reports that West Ave is set to begin construction on an expansion in January, consisting of 270 new apartments and 150 new retail parking spaces. The new development will go in the fenced area west of the existing garage, north of Kipling St. and just south of the Regency House condos. Isn’t this area marked “Phase III” on circulated site plans? Yes. The much larger development originally labeled Phase II — stretching all the way south to West Alabama and west to Virginia St. — has now apparently been switched to a later, third phase. Planned for that much bigger extension: “350 multifamily units, a 175-key hotel, 100k SF of office, and an additional 275k SF of retail. Nick [Hernandez of Page Partners] says Page is ‘way down the road’ on preleasing, especially for restaurants.” [Real Estate Bisnow; previously on Swamplot] Photo: West Ave River Oaks
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Apartments
The owner of 4 vacant apartment buildings and 4 carports just north of the future site of the Idylwood Walmart now has 9 days left to get a permit and tear them down — or the city will do it for him and send a bill. Zion Ohana bought the already somewhat-decrepit properties bordering Idylwood at 6634 Sylvan Rd. in January 2009, a few years after the previous owner — who had lived in one of the units — passed away. About 20 neighborhood residents and representatives of nearby businesses showed up to yesterday’s city hearing, but Ohana didn’t, and didn’t send anyone to speak for him. One Idylwood resident thinks that might be part of the reason the owner ended up with a $72,000 fine for leaving the structures in their current condition — $1,000 per day per structure for the 9 days since a notice was posted on the properties.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE NEIGHBORHOOD VET “Since when are criminal background checks needed to rent an apartment. Ever heard of ‘paid your debt to society’? How are we to rehabilitate the formerly incarcerated if the only place you want them to live, is with other criminals? Be fair, and a little more forward thinking.” [Bill, commenting on The Apartments Taking the Place of the Houston Ballet on West Gray]
The apartment complex the Richdale Group is planning to put in place of the just-vacated Houston Ballet building at 1916 West Gray will indeed have retail space on the ground floor — if you count the facility’s leasing office, that is. Also right in front on the first floor: 2 apartments and 4 head-in parking spaces, for potential tenants only. The parking garage will go in back, accessed from Bell St. A plan for the development, labeled the Graybelle subdivision, was submitted as part of a variance request for this Thursday’s planning commission meeting. The developers are requesting a 15-ft. setback along West Gray in place of the usual 25 ft. requirement. The lot is directly west of Randall Davis’s gargoyle-festooned Metropolis condo building.
Houston’s own Hanover Company wants to build this 5-story apartment complex on the current site of the Tavern on Gray, just east of the shopping district that extends along West Gray to Shepherd. And it’s hoping to get a variance from the planning commission that would allow the buildings to have smaller setbacks than current regulations allow: 15 ft. along Waugh (where 25 would otherwise be required) and just 5 ft. along West Gray (otherwise they’d need 15). Sure, the Hanover West Gray project would have 2 floors of parking (one of them underground) underneath 4 residential floors — but the extremely persuasive variance request kinda makes it hard not to wish the place had conditions that were less — you know, tough and urban:
In 2007, Houston’s city council sold a block of Bolsover St. in the Rice Village to the developers of Randall Davis’s Sonoma project so that it could be used as a private drive and restaurant plaza linking two phases of the development. Davis and Lamesa Properties did manage to demolish the neighboring buildings, but Sonoma was never built. Now, the Hanover Company is saying it’s ready to build portions of a 6-story mixed-use building directly on top of part of that street. Plans for the new project, called Hanover at Rice Village, show a large plaza with restaurant seating on the eastern portion of what used to be Bolsover, facing Morningside. But the west half of the block is slated for retail space, apartments, and a private courtyard for residents:
The proud new owner of the scuzzy former Skylane Apartments on the corner of Richmond and Hazard St. is the same real-estate agent who snapped up and renovated the 2 smaller Montrose Skylane Apartments (on West Alabama) last fall — local apartment collector Cody Lutsch. Those of you keeping score at home (or using the stats to play your own round of Fantasy Montrose Landlord) will note that the addition of the 44 apartments on the half-acre site at 1901 Richmond jettisons Lutsch into the Number 5 Montrose Property Owner position — by number of units. Lutsch expects that status to be short-lived, though — as long as the expected sale of some of his other neighborhood properties goes through.
Today, two and a half years after city officials shut down the Gables of Inwood apartments and ordered all its tenants to move out, demolition crews began tearing down the squatter-friendly 163-unit, 10-building, 4 1/2-acre Inwood Forest complex — a process expected to take 6 weeks. City officials say they hope to recoup the $400,000 cost of the demo from the owner, Collins Ofoegbu of El Sobrante, California. But that may not be so easy. As of August 2009, Ofoegbu ranked as Houston’s top scofflaw, having racked up more than 700 building-code violations for issues with the property at 5600 Holly View Dr. His attorney told the Chronicle at the time that the warrants couldn’t be resolved until Ofoegbu settled a dispute with his insurance company, which he said had refused to pay for damages resulting from a fire at the complex.
- It’s Demolition Day for Northwest Houston Apartment Complex [39 Online]
- Previously on Swamplot: City Shuts Down Gables of Inwood; Park Memorial Condos Next?, Daily Demolition Report: Out with the Gables of Inwood
Photo: 39 Online
Having awarded a “development of distinction” award last night to New Hope Housing’s Brays Crossing project, ULI Houston is now letting y’all see the promo video, a slightly different version of which we posted briefly last week. Details and videos on other award winners here.
- Distinction Awards [ULI-Houston]
- Previously on Swamplot: What Happened to the Houtex Inn, A “Deep Renovation†Gone Wrong
Update, 1/21: Hey, what happened here? Urban Land Institute Houston executive director Ann Taylor writes in: “I’m sorry that we had to remove the New Hope Housing at Brays Crossing video, but it was not ready for prime time…still being edited to include more ‘before’ images and to add footage of the courtyards and gardens. It and all of the Awards Finalist videos will be screened for the public at the ULI Houston Development of Distinction Awards on Tuesday, Jan. 25.” We hope to post the finished video after that date.
- Brays Crossing [New Hope Housing]
- Previously on Swamplot: A “Deep Renovation†Gone Wrong
Video: Cosmic Light Productions
The Village News is reporting that the Hanover Company has purchased the 4.5-acre site in the Rice Village once slated for Randall Davis’s Sonoma development, and is ready with plans to build a large — though far less grandiose — retail-and-apartment project on the site. Davis and partner Lamesa Properties made a mess of the site 2 years ago, purchasing a stretch of Bolsover St. from the city and demolishing several buildings’ worth of retail and office space before facing the credit markets and figuring out they wouldn’t be able to get financing for the project.
Hanover’s project, called Plaza View Hanover at Rice Village, is scheduled to include 385 “high-end” apartments, 14,000 sq. ft. of retail or restaurant space, and a multi-level parking garage, all in what its designers label a pedestrian-friendly design. What’s that plaza we’ll be viewing? An almost-17,000-sq.-ft. public space along Morningside, with a “water feature, grass lawn, large trees, and restaurant dining spaces.” According to Hanover executive veep John Garibaldi, 55,000 sq. ft. of retail space, 34,000 sq. ft. of office space, and an 8,000-sq.-ft. grocery store were cut from the earlier Sonoma plans. Much of the towering nouveau pomposity of the Sonoma design has been cut too. Along Kelvin St., Hanover’s buildings will reach 6 stories tall; 5 stories along Morningside and Dunstan.
ALL THEY WANTED FOR CHRISTMAS WAS THE SKYLANE WEST 
Here’s a heartwarming holiday story. Embarrassed by media reports that all residents of the Skylane West apartments on I-10 were being kicked out of their homes with only 10 days’ notice just days before Christmas, the property’s new owners have given tenants, many of whom pay weekly, a wonderful Christmas present: Now they’ll be kicked out of their homes just days before New Year’s. Sonia Azad reports the new owners of the property just across the Beltway from CityCentre is Houston Garden Centers, which operates a nursery next door to the ratty complex and plans to tear it down. In the holiday spirit, the company “extended family leases through December 29 and gave them each $500 Walmart gift certificates. In an email, the new owner says, ‘We had no idea that there were children living here.'” [abc13] Image: 39Online
APARTMENT INSPECTIONÂ REPORT How’s that new apartment-inspection program going? The city has given the new owner of the Garden Oaks Place Apartments across Griggs Rd. from the Palm Center until the middle of this month to make required repairs, after an inspection in August found broken railings, rusted-out columns, exposed wiring, and a host of other problems with the complex. But reporter Ted Oberg says at their current pace it’ll take inspectors 14 years to get to everyone. “According to the law, city crews are supposed to inspect every apartment complex in the city. So far, they’ve visited 217 — less than one a day.” [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
Here’s a more complete version of the short video posted by the Houston Press yesterday, showing a few problems with apartment 2105 at the Crescent Park Apartments at 2310 Crescent Park Dr. (near Westheimer and Kirkwood), home to Quiana Brown and her daughter for a little more than a year. The tenant’s mother, Eugenia Brown, who’s narrating, tells reporter Paul Knight she “doesn’t understand why one part of the government pays for an apartment that another part says isn’t fit to live in”: She says the apartment has failed several inspections by the Harris County Housing Authority, but apparently that hasn’t affected the apartment managers’ ability to continue to collect federal funds: According to Knight, Quiana Brown pays the $640 monthly rent with Section 8 vouchers.
Eugenia Brown says her daughter has requested to switch apartments several times. (In a separate series of hazy YouTube videos from earlier this month, Eugenia Brown documents similar unrepaired conditions in her own apartment in the complex, No. 1502 — including daily refrigerator and dishwasher leaks, sparking light switches, and combustion-friendly fixtures.) Strangely, none of the documented problems are evident in this promotional video for the apartment complex, produced almost 3 years ago:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HEIGHTS PLAZA RESIDENTS, TELL US YOUR STORIES “I’d be curious to know what happens to these people after the wrecking ball has come through. Will the folks be homeless? Will they have found their way elsewhere? I’m assuming the latter, but I don’t really know and I think it’s pretty uncommon for many publications to follow-through on this type of article.” [tcv, commenting on Walmart Coming — Everybody Out!]