ASHBY HIGHRISE: STUCK ON THE DOCK That last city permit is proving difficult for developers of the Ashby Highrise, as the city denied the variance request for a loading dock last week: “In comments for the Public Works and Engineering Department, city engineer Mark Loethen said the at-grade loading dock from Bissonnet Street will not be allowed because its use would obstruct lanes of traffic. In his Sept. 4 comments, Loethen said the variance was rejected for the same reason, citing Sec. 40-86 of the code of ordinances. ‘Such a driveway, as proposed, would excessively interfere with the normal use of the Bissonnet Street right of way,’ he said.” [West University Examiner; previously]
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Condos
Having torn down an entire block of buildings in the Rice Village for a condo project the company can’t get financed, Randall Davis has a better idea: Why not demolish the buildings on the other side of Bolsover — so they can build the second phase instead?
The Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff reports that Davis and company have been unable to get a $100 million construction loan for the Sonoma mixed-use condo development he’s been marketing for a couple of years. Hey, that’s no problem! Just move on to the next project, and double down on the demo:
Now they’re negotiating for a $70 million loan with 40 percent equity to build the smaller second phase of 85 units.
“Hopefully they’ll respond positively since we have so many sales,” said Davis.
The sales, however, are for the first phase of the project, which has been 50 percent pre-sold.
And the second phase is on the south side of Bolsover, where Walgreen’s has a lease until January.
After the jump: marginal views of phase two!
The new sales center for the Mirabeau B. is looking pre-fab! Now at the northwest corner of Hyde Park and Waugh: two 20-ft. recycled shipping containers, outfitted with a solar array on a digitally fabricated rack. The website for Metalab, the architecture firm in charge of the project, claims the solar panels will generate 180 kilowatt hours per month. What’s that figure converted to condo sales?
Oh, but selling condos is apparently only this structure’s day job for now:
Solar panels on the roof can fold shut at night or during bad weather, said Andrew Vrana from Metalab.
“We would like to further develop this as a solution,†he said. “People could have one of these made and put in their backyard and supplement their energy with solar power.â€
Below: more pics!
How could anyone hope to top the opening line of River Oaks Examiner reporter Kirsten Salyer’s story about the Mirabeau B. condos?
Pigs flew over Hyde Park as residents and developers came together to promote Houston’s first green condominium.
This full-priced condo building is slated for the former site of Half Price Books, at the corner of Hyde Park and Waugh in Montrose. The 4-story development will have 14 units, priced mostly from $400,000 to $600,000 — though one penthouse unit will go for a cool million.
If they can sell 6, developer Joey Romano tells Salyer, they’ll actually build it!
And here’s some of the promised greenishness: The Mirabeau B. will leave 5 large oak trees and a large open space on the site. There’ll be a green roof, a solar array to shade one of the walkways, and cisterns to capture runoff. Harvest Moon Development says it’ll use low-flow plumbing fixtures, low-E glass, and low-VOC paints. A single central heating-and-cooling system to save energy. Attention to natural light in each unit. An in-condo recycling area. And actual native plants!
Plus a few more things that go with the hoped-for LEED-Silver rating: 10 percent of all building materials will contain recycled content, and 20 percent will come from within 500 miles. Half of all construction waste will be recycled.
What’s the punchline? How about . . . the architecture firm is from Austin?
More images of the Mirabeau B. below!
ASHBY HIGHRISE: DOWN TO A LOADING DOCK? Buckhead Investments has resubmitted plans for the proposed Ashby Highrise for the single permit standing in the way of construction. “[Developer Matthew] Morgan said the developers have asked for a variance concerning the design’s loading dock, adding that ‘plenty of examples’ of similar configurations ‘can be found on thoroughfares and collector streets’ in the area. One example he cited is the new high-end, 236-unit apartment complex called Fairmont Museum District at 4310 Dunlavy St. ‘It seems to have loading docks that you can’t pull through,’ Morgan said. ‘Dunlavy is a collector street. We don’t feel like the same criteria was used.’ [West University Examiner; previously]
The crane at 2727 Kirby is coming down today and tomorrow, reports a reader who’s been watching the construction.
A larger version of this up-to-date photo showing the incredible shrinking construction crane — and a rendering of the completed condo tower — are waiting for you after the jump.
Sharp-witted observers, start your metaphors! Residents of the Park Memorial condos — who’ve been racing to sell their condo complex before any of the units start dropping into the parking garage that sits beneath them — have a new problem. City officials, terrified of a not-merely-figurative condo-market collapse, slapped bright orange notices on all the doors of the Memorial Dr. complex yesterday, notifying all 108 residents that they will need to permanently vacate their homes by September 15th.
The order came after a city inspector and an independent inspector both confirmed that the concrete parking garage structure underneath some of the condo units is in immediate danger of collapse. In late July, the city had warned residents that the garage “may experience catastrophic failure at any time.â€
After the jump, a couple more photos of the condo campus . . . from the listing for a recent sale.
“Sonoma is mystery,” proclaims Randall Davis near the end of an excruciatingly long promotional video posted at the project’s recently updated website. Part of the mystery, of course, has been when — or whether — construction might actually begin on the 7-story condos-shops-and-parking Rice Village layer cake. Since the buildings on the site were demolished and the block of Bolsover between Kelvin and Morningside was fenced in last fall, not much has happened.
Nancy Sarnoff has some details on the delay:
Sonoma, an upscale condo and retail project planned in Rice Village, was supposed to break ground in April.
The land has been cleared to start building, but the developers have a loan commitment for just half of what it will take to build it.
“We’re ready to put a shovel in the ground,” said Julie Tysor, president of Lamesa Corp., owner of the project. “The speed of the changing lending markets wasn’t really anticipated by any of the people involved.”
- Builders hit by credit crunch as banks tighten cash flow [Houston Chronicle, via HAIF]
- Experience Sonoma [Randall Davis]
- Previously in Swamplot: Sonoma Units Available?, Council Bowls Over, So No More Street, It Takes the Village: New Mixed Use
Rendering of Sonoma: Ziegler Cooper Architects
CANDLEWOOD GLEN: RENO OR DEMO? Near Northwest residents ask City Council for help with the squalid Candlewood Glen and Candlelight Trails complexes. “A sign posted at the entrance to the complex would suggest there were plans to reopen the buildings under a new name. They would be called Palm Terrace, and phase one was scheduled for construction during the summer of 2008. But it’s now August, and there is no sign of construction.” [11 News, previously in Swamplot]
A reader asks:
Has anyone else heard the rumor that Mosaic Hermann Park’s South Tower (already under construction) is going all rental once complete?
It would be kinda cute if the second condo tower did end up switching to apartments, since the first tower went in the opposite direction:
[Phillips Development managing director Donald] Phillips says the company financed the first Mosaic tower as a rental property because that was the only way to secure funding.
“We did whatever we had to do to get the thing built,” he says.
- Mosaic orders double-dip as second condo tower moves forward [Houston Business Journal]
- Mosaic: Second Tower Rising [Swamplot]
- Mosaic: More Condos Available! [Swamplot]
Photo: Aerial photo of Mosaic from June: Aero Photo
City officials posted signs at the Gables of Inwood Apartments near Antoine Forest yesterday notifying residents that they need to vacate the property by Monday. The owner of the 165-unit complex, Collins Ofoegbu of El Sobrante, California, has received notices of more than 240 violations from city inspectors since purchasing the property in 2006.
Some received the news from orange “notice to vacate” signs affixed to their doors. The signs also warned residents that power would be disconnected Monday.
“I need, like, two or three months,” said an agitated Jolanda Hernandez, who waved a recent rent receipt while complaining in Spanish. “I need time so I can move out of here.”
Matt Stiles’s report in the Chronicle indicates there are also problems at a closer-in property with a much larger group of owners: the Park Memorial Condominiums near the corner of Memorial and Detering. Stiles says city inspectors planned to post notices at the condominiums at 5292 Memorial warning residents that the parking garage is unsafe and “may experience catastrophic failure at any time.”
After the jump: More highlights from reporter Matt Stiles’s personal collection of dangerous-apartment photos!
Group LSR, aka InnerLoopCondos.com, wants to build a new condo building in Montrose — and you get to play the stylist! What should the new development look like? Entry-arches-gone-crazy Apartment Romanesque? Inigo Jones’s Last Stand at the Alamo? Shangri-La Festival Palace Moderne? Mountainside Office Park Tinted-Glass Tech? Or something a little more home-ly, like that building with the curvy hairdos they’ve done a couple of versions of already?
Yeah, it’s kinda hard to choose, but don’t sweat it — you can vote for as many of the six choices (shown above) as you want! They’re all pictured (and yes, they’re the only options) in an online questionnaire sent out by the company earlier this month, apparently meant to gauge consumer interest in a development the company is planning on the 800 block of West Alabama, near Audubon Place. Yes, that includes the site of the recently shuttered Bistro Vino. As a commenter to our earlier story deduced, Group LSR is the mysterious “unnamed residential developer.”
The survey sez:
Our decision to develop this project will greatly depend upon the feedback we receive from Houston condominium buyers regarding the location. . . .
If you were in the market to purchase, please indicate what type of architecture would you prefer in your next condominium home?
Your theme choices matter!
- Potential Condominium Development In Neartown Houston [InnerLoopCondos.com]
- Our Communities [InnerLoopCondos.com]
- Buyer revealed [Houston Chronicle]
- Bistro Vino: The Honeymoon Is Over [Swamplot]
Images: InnerLoopCondos.com
This updated rendering of Regent Square’s central square, showing a ghost-like tower looming in the not-so-distant distance, has been posted to CBRE’s leasing page for the project, notes sharp-eyed HAIF user ChannelTwoNews. A reader sent it to us, too.
What is it?
Two condo towers are planned for the first phase of the project. In a rendering leaked to us back in May, the condo towers are are drawn as shadowy boxes. But this new ghost tower isn’t one of them.
After the jump: the ghost of Regent Square’s future!
Lou Minatti notes that the construction crane parked on the site of the Park 8 condo tower project on the west side of Beltway 8 between Bellaire and Beechnut has at long last been dismantled and removed. Is it time to say goodbye to the Land of Oz?
More bad news for fans of the 3-tower (plus hospital and strip center) project: The video originally embedded in our story about the project from last year is down too. But don’t worry . . . YouTube has a copy! See it again — and relive some of that Oz highrise magic — after the jump.
Well, where were we? This week’s mystery sky-pad fetched individual guesses of: Greenway Plaza, Museum District/Med Center, “near Woodway,” Gessner and Memorial, Memorial between Shepherd and Westcott, The Woodlands, Champions, Champion Forest, Riverside Terrace, Sugarland, Missouri City, River Oaks, Glendower Court (actually, “North of Westheimer and probably west of Shepherd, in that town-house filled area south of River Oaks”), and the Galleria.
Some of you guessed particular buildings. Two of you took a stab at Regency House, 2 1/2 fell for Four Leaf Towers, and 2 said it was the Timber Top. We also had guesses of the Huntingdon, the Willowick, Bayou Bend Towers, “the highrise near the Medical Center and Hermann Park” (the Parklane or the Warwick Towers or the Mosaic?), the Endeavour, “a small mid-rise apartment complex” on Augusta between San Felipe and Westheimer, the St. Clair Condos near the Post Oak YMCA, 14 or 15 Greenway Plaza, Hermann Towers (?), and the Spires.
The winner is LawrenceDean, who was first to name the Timber Top highrise in Champion Forest — and threw in this bit of color commentary:
I’m going to go with this being a glimpse of the lifestyle of a (very old) northside baller…..
However, this came after some excellent advance work by Bernard, who is apparently expert in staring out of windows:
I don’t see how it can be “in townâ€. Take a look out the window. There’s nothing but green space. It’s hard to imagine a high rise in town that wouldn’t have a view of at least a couple tall buildings popping up from the tree tops.
It’s clearly a two story unit. Must be a penthouse. But it doesn’t look too high up. The building can’t be more than 15-20 stories.
Maybe it’s on the west side of town with a west facing view. It would suck to have a penthouse facing the wrong direction. . . .
There are two patches of green out the window. Is that a golf course? Maybe some forward thinking developer stole (I mean borrowed and never repaid) some S&L money and built a mini-high-rise out in The Woodlands or Champions. I don’t know those ares very well.
If only you had! That’s enough for an honorable mention, though!
Special recognition goes to our two fully authorized troublemakers this week — Jeff and GoogleMaster — who identified the listing to us privately and then vied to keep easily swayed guessers focused on inside-the-Loop neighborhoods. This loopy comment by Jeff, in particular, is priceless:
Seriously, only an Inner Looper would have elephant tusks next to their couch.
After some initial overreaching, this Timber Top penthouse has been sitting on the market for quite some time. How long? See our summary:
