Buying and Selling

Buying and Selling, Museum District, Quicklink

24 Comments

WHAT TO MAKE OF THE MUSEUM GARDENS SALE Residents of the Museum Gardens Apartments at 1123 Bartlett St. received notices taped to their front doors this week announcing that both the ownership and management of the 28-unit courtyard-style ensemble a couple blocks northwest of the Contemporary Arts Museum has changed. Contact info for the new owner matches that of real estate, construction and development, homebuilding, REIT, and mortgage firm Jetall Companies. A reader wants to know if Jetall might actually manage apartment complexes too — and asks “Is this lovely old complex a goner?” Photo: Midtown Houston Real Estate

77006, Apartments, Buying and Selling, Museum District

06/19/12 2:24pm

Strip Center at the Corner of Westheimer and Montrose: Sold

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.

77006, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Houston Architects, Houston Landmarks, Lower Westheimer, Montrose, Strip Centers

06/13/12 12:45pm

UH Tries To Throw Metro’s Southeast Rail Line Off Track

Neighborhood Disputes, Public Transportation, University of Houston

44 Comments

University of Houston officials have asked Metro to move a portion of the Southeast Line, currently under construction, off its planned route — and off campus. Work on portions of the line on Wheeler and Scott streets near Robertson Stadium came to a standstill 2 months ago, West U Examiner reporter Michael Reed notes. Metro and UH officials have apparently been negotiating on the layout of the light-rail route since that time, but so far, according to Reed, there’s been no agreement.

Metro’s planned design for the line requires the transit agency to purchase a total of 4.48 acres of UH property, much of it in a strip along the eastern side of Scott St., just west of the stadium. A plan submitted to the Department of Transportation for funding last year shows the line and a Scott/Cleburne station on the east side of Scott St., on part of what’s currently a stadium parking lot. (The map, below, also shows that Metro adjusted the plan from a 2008 layout that would have eaten up more UH property.)

77004, Buying and Selling, Light-Rail, Metro, Neighborhood Disputes, Southeast Line, UH

Apartments

05/24/12 3:19pm

Out of Limbo: Creepy, Abandoned Park Memorial Condo Property Sells, Finally

Buying and Selling, Condos, Land Sales, Rice Military

5 Comments

After more than 3 years of negotiations and court battles, the fenced-off 4.85-acre property covered with overgrown and vandalized buildings once known as the Park Memorial condos has at last been sold. Owners of the 108 properties at 5292 Memorial Dr. who were able to hold onto their units after the city declared them unsafe and barred anyone from living there in 2008 (or who snatched them up for low, low prices later) should be receiving their checks soon. The buyer is JLB Properties from Dallas, developers of the Ava apartments on Highmeadow near Hillcroft. The company is reportedly planning a new apartment complex on the Park Memorial site, which sits north of Buffalo Bayou at the corner of Memorial Dr. and Detering.

77007, Apartments, Buying and Selling, Condos, Land Sales, Lawsuits, Park Memorial Condominiums, Rice Military

05/18/12 8:28pm

Comment of the Day: Your Basic Housemoving Deal

Buying and Selling, Comments, Housemoving

Comments, Quicklink

3 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOUR BASIC HOUSEMOVING DEAL “Weâ€™ll be moving a small house in the Heights off a lot that we are clearing for construction. Basically the removal company pays you $10 for the structure, and after they move it they scrape the lot to a demo standard. So you save the demo costs, maybe $5k, and you recycle the house. The house we bought was the childhood home of the man we bought it from — it had been in the family for decades — so it felt like the decent thing to do; the savings will be used to upgrade my future oven, and not much more, given the cost of building a new house. The movers sell the house for $20k—$30k, maybe more if its in good shape. So as long as their own costs for the demo and the move are less than the sale price, they make out okay. The houses tend to be used as rentals, starter homes, hunting camps, etc. It takes a good deal longer to clear a lot this way compared to a straight demo, and you run the risk that the structure will never sell. But if you have a bit of patience itâ€™s a good deal.” [KG, commenting on Bungalow on the Loose: Duplex Splits West Drew in the Middle of the Night]

05/17/12 1:35pm

The East Downtown Enron Mills Mall That Might Have Been

East Downtown, Houston History, Land Sales, Quicklink

3 Comments

THE EAST DOWNTOWN ENRON MILLS MALL THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN Long before he sold the land where the brand-new BBVA Compass Stadium for the Houston Dynamo soccer team now sits to the city, former council member and longtime land speculator Louis Macey had a deal ready to go that would have turned the vacant land into some sort of close-to-Downtown entertainment venue, Catie Dixon reports: “He ended up with six blocks around Bastrop and Texas, which attracted the attention of Katy Mills and Enron. They agreed to buy the site if he could get 12 blocks and an exit ramp off the highway. (He convinced TxDOT to put in the Polk Street exit.) The deal fell through at the last minute . . .” Macey began buying up the properties in 1997. [Real Estate Bisnow; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Real Estate Bisnow

77003, Buying and Selling, Dynamo Stadium, East Downtown, Houston History, Land Sales

05/11/12 9:34am

CityCentre Owner Buying Houston Pavilions

Downtown, Malls, Quicklink, Retail

6 Comments

CITYCENTRE OWNER BUYING HOUSTON PAVILIONS Houston’s Midway Companies, along with an unnamed New York Partner, is set to acquire Houston Pavilions from the receiver who took over the Downtown mall last year, according to a report in today’s HBJ. Reporter Jennifer Dawson notes reports to the bankruptcy court indicate that the development’s retail space is now 66 percent leased, and the property has a positive cash flow — before debt service. In the year before its default, Pavilions’ original developer made no payments on its original $120.6 million 2007 loan. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Haynes-Whalley

77002, Buying and Selling, Downtown, Houston Pavilions, Malls, Retail

05/02/12 2:06pm

The Laniers Downsize

Quicklink, River Oaks

10 Comments

THE LANIERS DOWNSIZE Heriz, Aubusson, and Kerman rugs; antique music boxes; Dresden porcelains; sterling silver tea sets; antique Limoges dinnerware; Roger Clemens-autographed baseballs; Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Alexandra Knight handbags; Manolo Blahnik alligator pumps, and a few lightly worn outfits from Yves St. Laurent, Bill Blass, and Prada are among the items you may expect to find at the upcoming garage sale being thrown by Port Commissioner Elyse Lanier and her husband, former Houston Mayor Bob Lanier. The occasion: the recent sale — after almost 3 years on the market — of their 13,386-sq.-ft., 11-bathroom River Oaks estate (pictured) at 3665 Willowick for more than $6 million, a bit more than half their original asking price, and another notch below the just-under $7 million they resigned themselves to when they dropped the asking price for the last time late last year. Why the sell-off? “I just don’t have room to fit it all,” Elyse Lanier tells society reporter Shelby Hodge. The Laniers will take only a subset of their stuff into the 2 apartments they’re combining on an upper floor at the Inwood Manor highrise on San Felipe. They’re jettisoning too much to fit into the Laniers’ old 3-car garage; the sale will take place at the Houston Design Center instead. [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: HAR

77019, Buying and Selling, River Oaks

Audubon Place

05/01/12 10:51am

Leasing Garden Apartments on a Vacant Lot in Audubon Place

Buying and Selling, Gardening, Landscape, Montrose

59 Comments

For almost 2 years after it caught fire in October 2008, the 2-story home at 803 Kipling St. in Audubon Place stood vacant on the property as a burnt skeleton. Now the recent purchaser of the lot that remained after the property was demolished has plans to turn the land into a community garden.

77006, Audubon Place, Buying and Selling, Gardening, Landscape, Montrose

05/01/12 9:24am

Blast Begins Total Houston Takeover of Bally Total Fitness

Franchises and Chain Stores, Quicklink, Retail

89 Comments

BLAST BEGINS TOTAL HOUSTON TAKEOVER OF BALLY TOTAL FITNESS Today’s the day all 18 remaining Texas locations of Bally Total Fitness — including 9 in Houston — are scheduled to switch over to control by their new owner, Blast! Fitness. Before it bought 39 clubs in 9 states from the struggling chain in a deal announced earlier this month, Blast was an operator of only 15 gyms in 4 northern states. Last year, Bally sold 171 clubs nationwide to LA Fitness, but held onto all of its Houston locations. Blast says it’ll honor all Bally memberships; transferred Bally members will also still be able to work out in the 60 remaining Bally clubs in other states. [Club Industry] Photo of Bally Total Fitness at 9801 Katy Fwy.: MetroNational

Buying and Selling, Chain-Stores, Retail

Commercial Real Estate, Redevelopment, Southside Place

04/26/12 12:45pm

Shell’s Tech Center Saying Goodbye to Southside Place, Piece by Piece

by CALwords

10 Comments

It’s 1 down and 2 to go for the properties comprising Shell Oil’s Bellaire Technology Center on Bellaire Blvd. A 3.2-acre slice leased by Shell for years is under contract for future redevelopment. The tech facility’s remaining 2 properties on the same megablock — one leased, one Shell-owned — will also hit the market as Shell ceases its 75-year presence in Southside Place later this year.

The oil company had announced in 2008 that it would close the center and relocate its operations to other facilities. City of Southside Place sources said the exodus ought to wrap up by the end of November.

Listed a month ago, 3747 Bellaire Blvd. (above) is at the west end of the block that stretches from Braes Blvd. to Poor Farm Ditch.Â The asking price was about $50 per sq. ft., Transwestern’s listing rep says. He had nothing to add about the buyer or plans for the property, which has 475 ft. of frontage on Bellaire and 300 ft. on Braes Blvd. It’s zoned (yes, zoned) for low-intensity mixed-use development. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year.

77025, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Southside Place, Zoning

04/20/12 2:08pm

What’s Brewing at AstroWorld? Chunk of Former Amusement Park Site Sold to Unidentified Developer

Commercial Real Estate, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Reliant Park

4 Comments

A 20-or-so-acre piece of the 104-acre part-time parking lot across the South Loop from Reliant Park formerly known as AstroWorld has traded hands, a developer tells HBJ reporter Jennifer Dawson. But the buyer hasn’t identified itself, and Dawson couldn’t get any of the parties involved to tell her who it is (Dawson says she spoke to 15 people to report her story). Who owns the remaining 80 or so acres of the giant parcel on the south side of the South Loop, between Kirby and Fannin, at the end of the rail line? At last report, a partnership controlled by Fort Worth’s Mallick Group, who bought it in 2010 for $10 cash — and a willingness to assume the previous owner’s $74 million loan.

But a consultant who claims to be involved in redevelopment efforts on the property would only refer to the owner of the main portion of the vacant lot as “an out-of-state land investor” — who has now, she says, created a master plan for the site. Heather Schueppert tells Dawson that details of a proposed mixed-use project — probably combining office, retail, medical and hospitality components — will be revealed quietly in the next couple of months, but won’t be unveiled to the general public for at least a year.

77054, AstroWorld, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, TIRZs

03/21/12 8:53pm

What Do They Want from the Third Ward?

Buying and Selling, Third Ward

Quicklink, Third Ward

6 Comments

WHAT DO THEY WANT FROM THE THIRD WARD? “I own a small lot [near Scott and Alabama] in the third ward area, it is a gated lot near UH. A real estate agent wrote a letter asking if I would be interested in selling the lot. I paid no attention to it but he called and asked if I would be interested in selling. I told him if he made an offer I would consider it. I asked him what are they going to building on the lot but I could not find out until I signed the contract. It looks like this real estate agent does residential properties but new homes don’t sell fast in that area of third ward. Do you have any idea of what he could developing in that area? Could it have something to do with the rail line? I am just curious as to what could be built in that area. My lot is 5000 sq ft and it is surrounded by residential lots.” [Swamplot inbox]

03/01/12 11:42pm

Comment of the Day: Live Humbly, then Cash Out