REGISTERED AGENTS FOR CONDOS A bill recently passed by the Texas Legislature — inspired by problems encountered in contacting the 150 separate owners of Candlelight Trails in northwest Houston — would make it a whole lot easier for the city to demolish decrepit condo complexes. “The bill by Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, applies only to Houston. It requires every condo development to maintain a registered agent to accept service of legal papers; if any development fails to do so, the Texas secretary of state automatically becomes the agent. The law will take effect Sept. 1 if Gov. Rick Perry signs it or allows it to become law without his signature. Perry will review the measure carefully before deciding, spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said. Current law requires each owner to be served either in person or through a legal notice in a newspaper. Defendants served through publication have two years to file a motion for a new trial. ‘It is extremely time-consuming, expensive and allows the substandard and often dangerous conditions to continue while the city struggles to obtain personal service on each owner,’ Ann Travis, Mayor Bill White’s governmental affairs director, said in a background document explaining the bill.” [Houston Chronicle]
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Okay, whichever of you folks has been doing that weird secret ceremony thing with the chicken and the bone and all down at the cemetery at West Dallas and Gross St.? Well, the gig is up! Swamplot is on to you! Or . . . at least a couple of camera-wielding readers are:
College Park Memorial Cemetery on W. Dallas (where Jack Yates among others is buried) is getting cleaned up and cleaned out, the better to walk the dog through. Interestingly enough, it may be getting used for other purposes as well. We have seen two dead chickens – having never seen any live ones there, and just yesterday, after discovering the second chicken, we also found a tableau of objects at the base of a hollow tree – a large, LARGE bone (about 15 in long), conch and scallop shell, nicely arranged, and a dead bird, stretched out to show his skeleton.
Hmmm . . . could this have anything to do with that 28-story Regent Square condo tower that’s slated to go up next door?
Parade of shocking, non-vegetarian-friendly photographic evidence follows:
Why would a couple of Bellaire Realtors want to build new hangar condos out by the Houston-Southwest Airport in Arcola? Because the hangar rental market there sucks, apparently.
With an option on a 60-year ground lease with the airport — near the intersection of Almeda and Highway 6 in Fort Bend County — owners Curtis Lawson and Ryan Dodds of CityLife Realty are now marketing 27 units in the Southwest Executive Hangars, featuring “75,000 square feet of hangarage” in 2 box-shaped buildings.
But this place isn’t just for storage and maintenance. There’s also that hangar condo lifestyle:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: CANDLELIGHT TRAILS, DIMMED “My family lived there for 17 years (1985-2001) and we watched this place transform from a luxury conodo complex into a complete waste. We frequently revisitied the complex on several occaisions and it stayed just about the same from the late 1980s until now. The danger of living there really showed its true colors when we went onto the abandoned property last January and discovered a murder scene in our old condo. For many reasons I want this place torn down, but for the most reasons, I don’t want this place down mainly because that used to be my home and where I grew up and seeing it go into the ground might be too much of a sight to bear on my part. Despite this, I rest easily knowing that the complex will never be torn down because it was one of those ‘take action for a day and feel good about it but forget about it the next day’ types of situations so there is no doubt in my mind that the buildings will remain standing as long as I live.” [John, commenting on Lights Out for Candlelight Trails?]
Here’s a view of the 28-story condo tower New York’s Handel Architects is designing for Regent Square, the 15-acre mixed-use project GID Urban Development Group is planning for North Montrose. The 450,000-sq.-ft. tower is meant for Regent Square’s westernmost reaches: the corner of West Dallas and Greenwich Place, just east of the College Memorial Park Cemetery.
Each of the 150 condos in the building has a balcony. All the units on the western face, shown above, have indented double-height outdoor spaces. The sleek eastern face, looking toward Downtown, is very different: It has a floor-to-ceiling curtainwall. Handel expects the building to be LEED-certified.
More images:
Just how did a group of Israeli investors get stuck with 114 condo units in this quaint converted apartment complex in League City? And why are they now suing the project’s developer and property manager?
The Galveston County Daily News‘s Laura Elder explains:
The investors never intended to live in the units but instead were seeking to generate income by renting them to others, according to the lawsuit. Through agreements, the units owned by the investors were put in a rental pool managed by the defendants, according to the lawsuit.
But while Westcorp Management Group, of which Roni Amid is vice chairman, had been collecting rent from tenants, it failed to pay proceeds to the mortgage company or the investors for some units, according to the lawsuit.
Without rental income, some of the investors are unable to pay their mortgages, leading lenders to begin foreclosure proceedings on at least 30 units in the complex, said Danny Sheena, a Houston attorney representing investors.
The suit also claims the defendants used the investors’ units at the Fairways at South Shore as collateral for a $23 million loan from Deutsche Bank obtained behind their backs last August. Which means, the suit claims, the investors can’t sell their units.
And that Israeli connection? Looks like it’s all in the family:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: LIVING THE WILDLIFE AT MOSAIC “It’s a Damn shame about those nesting rare birds but look on the bright side, if these condos keep selling like they have there will only be rare birds living there and trees growing up through the lobby anyway!” [james cianci, commenting on Mosaic Avoids Foreclosure, Files for Bankruptcy]
Plans for the Ashby Highrise were rejected by the city for the 9th time last week. But . . . this rejection appears to be a bit kinder than the others have been.
How much kinder? The West U Examiner‘s Michael Reed explains:
. . . the tone of the city engineer’s remarks seemed less perfunctory than in the project’s recent permit denials.
In his comments dated March 16, Mark Loethen said “conflicts in drawings sets have been addressed and revised†since the previous rejection Feb. 13.
Saying the city is still concerned about the distance between a proposed entrance on Bissonnet Street and the Dunlavy Street intersection and the volume of left-turns during peak traffic hours, Loethen offered a potential solution.
“Increasing distance between (the) entrance driveway and Dunlavy along with other mitigation measures may be considered,†his comments read.
That sure makes it sound like a building permit for the 23-story highrise — which developer Buckhead Investment Partners still insists on calling 1717 Bissonnet — isn’t that far away from actual city approval. Can’t these tiny remaining details just be worked out in a friendly little get-together?
Here’s a surprise: a construction permit for a new 23-story Chinatown Asiatown condominium tower was issued yesterday for Park 8 Place. Remember Park8? That’s the freeway feeder megastrip project planned for just across Brays Bayou from Arthur Storey Park, along Beltway 8 south of Bellaire Blvd. The one that called itself “The Land of Oz.”
The entire development was supposed to include three 20-something-story residential towers, a hospital, two 2-story retail-and-office strips, and a couple of parking garages — all in a quaint freeway-and-park-side setting. A foundation was poured for the first condo building last year, but Park 8 CEO David Wu put the project on hold after he was unable to secure financing. So the construction crane came down.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT HAPPENED TO CARTER’S GROVE? “I still go back to Carter’s Grove Apartments as an example of restoration vs. teardown. They were the shame of Garden Oaks and a proven hazard to residents with over 240 municipal court violations resulting in a $100K fine for the owner. Take a drive around North Shepherd at 34th and see what restoration hath wrought with minimal disruption to the area and improvements on utility infrastructure as well as property values. If those ratholes can have a future life as pricey condos, anything is possible.” [Hellsing, commenting on Wilshire Village Fire Hazard Sale: Everyone and Everything Must Go!]
The Chronicle’s Mike Snyder comments on the the Ashby Highrise’s latest failing grade:
Since March of last year, [Matthew] Morgan and [Kevin] Kirton have submitted various versions of their permit application eight times, and the city has rejected it eight times.
Since one definitition of insanity is taking the same action repeatedly and expecting a different result, some observers have speculated that the developers were building a record for a lawsuit. The language in their timeline shows they’re prepared to take this step, whether or not it’s been part of their strategy all along.
The developers are portraying this case as an example of heavy-handed and inequitable city regulation that all developers should worry about. How much support they’ll get from their industry colleagues if they choose to go to court remains to be seen.
But Jennifer Dawson, writing in the Houston Business Journal, notes that Buckhead Investment Partners has been fiddling with those plans they keep submitting:
Allen Stanford’s international “banking” empire is falling apart. How’s his work as a Houston real estate developer holding up?
Stanford Development Corporation still owns a couple of units on the top floor of the Stanford Lofts, the 5-story East Downtown condo building topped with a starred tiara that the company completed in 2002, just a few blocks east of Minute Maid Park. But owning the condos didn’t prevent the condo owners association from filing a construction-defect lawsuit against the Stanford Lofts developers and builders in 2007, charging Stanford Development with “breach of contract, Deceptive Trade Practices, breach of warranty, fraud, and negligent design, construction, and supervision.”
The summary of problems with the building included in the original complaint is 9 pages long, and includes failure to meet building codes, wall cracks and leaks, structural movement, and a series of defects causing continuing problems with water infiltration. The repair estimate: more than $2 million.
The case has dragged on for some time. Attorneys for the Stanford Condo Owners Association complained that Stanford Development was dragging its feet, arguing last year in response to a stay request:
“Ronald McDonald will soon have all of his parking spaces back,” writes Swamplot tipster Michele, who also sends in these photos from yesterday. They show the sales office for Randall Davis’s canceled Titan highrise — which hung out in the McDonald’s parking lot on Post Oak for many months — boarded up and readied for its next location and rebranding assignment.
The developer of the Mosaic highrise overlooking Hermann Park — a limited partnership between Phillips Development & Realty and publicity-shy Florida Capital Real Estate Group — declared bankruptcy earlier this week to avoid foreclosure on a $71 million loan from Chicago lender Corus Bankshares. Florida Capital, originally the equity partner, will be taking over as the general partner.
The bankruptcy covers just the first Mosaic tower. The second tower, rebranded the Montage, has not yet defaulted on its separate $71 million Corus loan.
So how have sales been going at the Mosaic? It depends, the Houston Business Journal‘s Jennifer Dawson learns, who you ask:
Swamplot mentioned the cancellation of Randall Davis’s Titan condo project in passing yesterday, announcing at the same time that the project had scored the first-place spot in the hotly contested Most Grandiose Development category of the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. But really, if any 2008 event in Houston real estate deserves its own separate post on Swamplot, this is it.
Davis told the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff that slow sales convinced him to shut down the 25-story highrise project. There’ll be no rearranging of the deck chairs, no putting the project “on hold,” no “My Heart Will Go On.” It’s all over.
But the Titan will be sorely missed.
