Blogging machine Charles Kuffner returns to the scene of a Memorial Heights sidewalk he photographed 2 years ago, and finds it’s grown. The Ed Sacks Waste Paper Company building that stood at the non-intersection of Memorial and Studemont has been replaced by the 25-story Legacy at Memorial. That apartment tower opened recently, but the set of sidewalks that wraps around it is still under construction:
MICHAEL B. SMUCK IS GOING TO JAIL Longtime Louisiana and Texas real-estate investor Michael B. Smuck pled guilty this week to one count of mail fraud in connection with the sale of the Briar Meadows Apartments on Dairy Ashford, just north of Briar Forest Dr. An investment company controlled by Smuck purchased the complex in 2004. Smuck sold the property in 2007, according to federal prosecutors, but didn’t tell his investors. Instead, he used the almost $3.5 million in proceeds to pay debts owed by other business entities he controlled: “Smuck continued to send documentation to investors in Briar Meadows in order to give the fictitious appearance that the investment property was still active. Pursuant to the plea agreement entered into by the parties, Smuck faces a term of imprisonment of 30 months and a $250,000.00 fine. In an effort to make the victims of this crime whole, the United States has secured from the defendant an agreement to pay a minimum of $3,299,480 in restitution to investors in both Briar Meadows and Yellowstone Ranch, which are apartment communities in Houston, TX.” [U.S. Attorney’s Office; background; previously on Swamplot]
Renovations are scheduled to begin in the next few weeks on Downtown’s Houston House Apartments at 1617 Fannin, according to a notice distributed to residents yesterday:
These renovations will include, but are not limited to ALL APARTMENT UNIT INTERIORS, plumbing, HVAC system, domestic hot water, sprinkler systems, the lobby, 9th and 10th floors and the building’s exterior. There will be significant additions to our amenities as well.
Here’s the fun part: Everybody gets to relocate!
Just how big is the South Grand at Pecan Grove apartment complex in Richmond? Well, moving from one side of the complex to the other can cost you just south of $8 grand — and maybe a little hospitalization. Tentra Allen’s moving adventure last weekend began after she responded to a little Craigslist ad and signed a little contract with the moving company that showed up:
. . . Before unloading things, Andy said Allen had to pay the bill: $7,684. That included 35 units of shrink wrap for $2,800 and a “long walk†that cost $4,300.
Allen said Andy whipped out the contract, which said all previous verbal agreements were null and void and laid out a menagerie of outrageous charges in the fine print.
“If you don’t pay, we’re taking everything to Maine,†he threatened.
A reader sends us this view from the scene of the YMCA on Louisiana and Pease Downtown. A fire broke out in a resident’s room on the 9th floor of the 67-year-old building early this afternoon after someone left a lit candle unattended, according to news reports. YMCA officials tell Channel 2 News that 16 residents will need to be relocated as a result of the damages.
Of course, all 135 residents of the YMCA will need to be relocated after the new YMCA down the street at 808 Pease St. (at Milam) opens this October. The YMCA plans to demolish the Louisiana St. building, then sell the vacant 85,000-sq.-ft. property to Chevron, which owns the shiny former Enron building next door. The new Tellepsen Family Downtown YMCA now under construction contains no residences.
Late Update: Our correspondent sends in a later photo from the scene:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT I LEARNED EARLY IN THE HOUSTON REAL ESTATE BIZ “In 1993, I was with a firm that looked at buying many of the run down apartment complexes in Greenspoint. Our intent was to renovate them, thinking that the many class A office buildings contained many potential residents. Greenspoint was an enigma: awful multi-family and beautiful office development. You don’t often see the two side by side like this. When we got into town and started touring the area, we immediately saw the two critical falacies of our plan: 1. we needed to own and renovate all of the multi-family to turn the neighborhood. One holdout property would serve as a sanctuary for all that was bad about Greenspoint. Unfortunately, not every property was available for purchase. 2. Some of the properties, in particular those developed by Fred Rizk, were functionally obsolete. For example, sliding glass doors opening directly into parking lots–no way to easily dress this up. We never spent much time on the deals after that. On a more positive note, my boss at the time corrupted my by taking me to the St. James Club, and since that time I have considered it the best strip club ever.” [LandMan, commenting on Waiting for the Renaissance: What Could $32 Million Buy at Greenspoint Mall?]
Converted from an office building to apartments in 2004 by NBC Holdings’ Tracy Suttles and The Randall Davis Company, the Kirby Lofts at 917 Main Downtown went condo a little later. How did that ball get rolling? The federal government’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force suggests one answer: a few “sham sales” from January to October 2006. Indictments charging Veronica Frazier, Robert Veazie, and Felton Greer with several counts of conspiracy and wire fraud were unsealed Friday.
Frazier, 42, of Pearland, allegedly recruited buyers with good credit in 2006 to act as straw borrowers and use false information to apply for home loans, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. She and other unnamed co-conspirators then allegedly used the loan proceeds for themselves and to pay kickbacks to the fake borrowers.
Well, whaddya know? Graphic designer Chris Nguyen’s tiny Marshall St. apartment (featured on Swamplot just last week) ended up as the grand U.S. prize winner in Apartment Therapy’s Small, Cool 2010 design contest. No fluke: Nguyen was, uh . . . thinking small from the get-go. Intrigued by the design website’s annual competition and the idea of living in a tiny space, Nguyen began his search for an apartment in Houston last July:
I really wanted this to be about a different way of living and not about compromises, so it was important that all my furniture remained real-sized. I carefully selected what I thought I needed and put away in storage extraneous collections and junk that we all end up hoarding over the years. . . .
I think the bedroom in the house I was living in last was the same size as this entire studio. It was a big room in a big house that was filled with an incredibly increasing amount of big things. That’s how we do it in Texas, right? All the while, I always held an admiration for smartly designed small spaces more commonly found in highly urban dense metropolises or cool under appreciated neighborhoods. Houston is not the first of those things, so I looked for something purposefully small in the latter.
And he found . . . ?
Unfazed by Swamplot’s now 0-and-2 record in promoting local Apartment Therapy design contest submissions (no, that Venue Museum District apartment we showed last week didn’t get too far either), reader Chris Nguyen writes in to ask for votes in the finals of that website’s Small, Cool 2010 design contest. That’s right — entries in 4 divisions have been whittled down to Nguyen’s 450-sq.-ft. Westmoreland district apartment shown here (originally entered in the “Tiny” division) and some other dude’s Brooklyn flat from the “Little” division that’s more than a third larger. The final voting takes place this weekend. Can this tiny Houston pad win it all?
Win or lose, we hope to reveal a bit more about Nguyen’s certifiably small living space later. For now, though, have a look at these pics and the floor plan:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU SEE A WORN-OUT FOURPLEX, I SEE A WEST GRAY BAR WAITING TO HAPPEN “Looks like a great place to relocate the long dead but sorely missed Aquarium [Lounge]. Connect two. Demolish two for for parking. Win. Take a look behind the front room addition at Kenneally’s and you’ll find a building nearly identical to these: obsolete for housing, but many other uses.” [Bernard, commenting on Lovebird Hideaways: 3 Out of 4 Fourplexes on West Gray]
When last we heard from Vernon Caldera, the proprietor of the Keep Houston Rich video website was promoting a little 710-sq.-ft. apartment in Isabella Court for a design award from Apartment Therapy. This year, he’s on to bigger things — well, 53 sq. ft. bigger at least. It’s his and Adam Gibson’s new place a ways down Fannin St. at the Venue Museum District, and it’s up again for an award in the “little” category of the website’s Small Cool Places contest.
It’s all done with mirrors, Caldera explains to design voters:
Our favorite element is the beautiful view of Downtown Houston visible from the living and bed rooms. We placed a large mirror over the sofa in the living room to carry the view and light into the entrance. By adding a mirrored wardrobe in the bedroom we get much-needed storage and floor-to-ceiling views.
Oh, and there’s some art to look at here, too:
Three fourplexes in a row, plus a vacant lot that used to hold one, are for sale on West Gray between Stanford and Taft, across the street from Barnaby’s and next to the West Gray Café. And Swamplot brings you this exclusive color commentary from a former tenant:
. . . they’re roach motels inside. Plus, the back parking has potholes deep enough for cars to get stuck in. The maintenance was horrible while I lived there, and then they jacked up the rent. But, for the price, the apartments were quite large with central AC. Just had to ignore the mice, roaches, ants and leaks.
No idea why, but there have been instances of lovebirds using the back parking lot to get some privacy in the past. Guess they drank too much at Cecil’s.
Why is the listing agent insisting all 4 properties “must be sold together”?
ASHBY HIGHRISE DEVELOPERS DROP NAMES, MOVE TO DISTRICT COURT 
What do the Fairmont Museum District, La Maison on Revere, Millennium Greenway, and 2121 Mid Lane apartments, the Medical Clinic of Houston, and the trigger-happy Sonoma development in the Rice Village have in common? They all make cameo appearances in the latest version of Buckhead Investment Partners’ lawsuit against the city of Houston. The claim: that none of those projects were subjected to the same traffic restrictions as Buckhead’s proposed 23-story tower on the corner of Bissonnet and Ashby, next to Southampton: “The Ashby high-rise developers re-filed their lawsuit April 7 in state district court, where it will focus more heavily on claims the project was denied permits for its original design because it was subjected to ‘capricious and unreasonable’ standards.
Court documents submitted by attorneys for the Buckhead Development Partners, show the suit against Houston continues to center on the city’s application of the driveway ordinance as a basis to refuse a final building permit.
The city has said it is correct in its application of the ordinance and the inclusion of ‘trip-count’ standards to guarantee safety and ensure streets in the neighborhood remain passable.” [River Oaks Examiner; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Buckhead Investment Partners
Is it sweeps week already? Or did the La Maison at River Oaks just step up its marketing game? 11 News reporter Courtney Zubowski corrals the KHOU newschopper to provide some “over the top” coverage of that clothing-optional sundeck on the roof of the French Quarter-themed apartment complex at 2727 Revere St., south of Westheimer. Alas, no one is taking advantage of the facility when she shows up, and judging from the aerial shots used in the report, neither camera operator nor editor seem to know exactly where the thing is.
A Swamplot reader throws out some more theories:
LUXURY APARTMENT OPENINGS Eight years into it, Leon Hale still isn’t entirely accustomed to his fancy just-inside-the-West Loop highrise apartment: “I mean in all the other places I’ve lived I washed the windows myself, if they ever got washed. And I admit I’ve never gotten used to having doors opened for me. I’ve always been pretty well able to open doors for myself. But door-opening is the custom here, and who knows? Someday I might get so feeble I’ll need such help. That’s not one of my goals, though. In other ways life here is a lot the same as in several apartments I’ve lived in. Little things happen that usually don’t happen in free-standing homes. For instance, the apartment just below us is being renovated, and the other day somebody was drilling a hole in the ceiling down there. He drilled too far and punched a hole in our kitchen floor, right up through the tile, in front of the dishwasher.” [Houston Chronicle]
