A CONDO OWNERS FAN SITE FOR SHAYA BOYMELGREEN Still waiting for the developer of the twin-tower condo development proposed for San Felipe near the end of Woodway to provide an update on the project? Some New Yorkers would like a word with him too. The residents of the Newswalk Condominium in Brooklyn have created a website called Shame on Shaya, documenting in Russian, Hebrew, and English the “extraordinary number of construction defects” in developer Shaya Boymelgreen’s first high-profile development, constructed in 2002: “The building is now undergoing a two-year, $7 million construction remediation project. Newswalk residents are currently in legal action against Boymelgreen with a suit seeking no less than $10 million in damages.” Spokesman Michael Rogers explains: “Many of us got to know Shaya in the early days of Newswalk, and found him friendly and likeable. He may not fully understand what the residents of Newswalk are suffering, and this campaign is a way to bring him up-to-date.†[Previously on Swamplot]
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Condos
How does the city look after a long, heavy shower? If you’re stepping out to grab a towel in the north-facing master bath of a 26th-floor unit in the Warwick Towers on Hermann Dr., maybe something like this. Which will lead you to the little perch below, one of the nicest we’ve seen set up for someone who’s naked, dripping wet, and maybe trying to get a little work done:
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.
For many years until her passing this January, this Woodway penthouse was the home of Ann Sakowitz, known locally as a patron of the arts and matriarch of the last link of a once-famous retail chain. Under the leadership of her son, Robert, the Sakowitz department stores drowned in debt in the late eighties. But Ann Sakowitz gained national attention in the early nineties as the poised but distraught mother on the witness stand, taking her son’s side in a nationally publicized courtroom feud with the family of her own daughter, sparkling international socialite Lynn Wyatt.
Ah, but can’t we put all that rancor behind us now? Let’s just enjoy the wine, the views, and the early . . . uh, tusk’n interior:
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
COMMENT OF THE DAY: STILL WAITING FOR PARK 8 TO ARRIVE IN THE LAND OF OZ 
“Do you have any update on this project? I’m very curious to find out more about the status and what the projected outcome will be for the many buyers of this condo that is 3 years behind schedule.” [Caroling, commenting on Park 8 Chinatown Condo Project: Parked?] Rendering: Marketing Park8
Remember that fun feud between a few residents of the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby condominiums and the tiny bar directly to its west? Well, now it looks like there’s a brand new bar getting ready to open directly to the tower’s east!
When last we left the 16-story Rice Village condo tower, residents had been placed under a court order prohibiting them from “running or pouring water or any other liquid” and “throwing any object whatsoever” onto Hans’ Bier Haus — after the bar’s owners complained to district court judge Patricia Hancock about an ongoing liquid and projectile campaign mounted against their partly open-air establishment by its eastern neighbors. (For good measure, the judge similarly prohibited the proprietors of the courtyard bar from trespassing on or “interfering with [residents’] peaceable use and enjoyment” of the condo building next door.)
But just as the legal and dousing action on the tower’s west side appears to have subsided comes the prospect for more neighborly interaction on the tower’s east: From Swamplot’s tip line we find these photos of another small building directly adjacent to the tower. What’s that new sign posted on the front window?
If our math holds, 10 or 11 condos have sold or otherwise gained occupants over the last 5 months at 2727 Kirby. Last October, the developers of the new 30-story highrise near Westheimer reported that 20 units in the tower were occupied.
Now the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff reports that the building’s owners have turned over management of the building to a separate agency:
The group has hired Houston-based Association Management to take over now that the building has more residents, said Sherri Atlas, who owns the unsold units in the high-rise with another investor. Fortress is the lender on the project.
Atlas said occupancy is at about 40 percent in the building, which has 77 high-end units.
- Hiring out the managing [Houston Chronicle]
- 2727 Kirby coverage [Swamplot]
Photo: Ziegler Cooper Architects
A commenter named Jamie fills in the details on this “Stairway To Nowhere” — which also appears to include a ramp — found on the corner of 18th and Ashland streets in the Heights. Blogger Viula of The Heights Life, who snapped the photo, is curious about where the stairs came from:
“They really struck me as part of a time gone by in the Heights,” she writes.
And what a time it was! Reports Jamie:
How has that condo conversion of the former Commerce Building at the corner of Main St. and Walker Downtown been working out?
The building has 122 finished units and a two-story-tall penthouse that has not been built out yet.
A total of 69 units have been sold, and another 25 have been leased. [Commerce Towers sales and leasing agent Susan] Speck said some of the renters are interested in buying.
Prominent Houstonian Jesse Jones built the first part of the structure in 1928, and added onto it in the 1930s, Speck said.
An entity named Premier Towers bought the building in 1999. It was redeveloped by New York-based Whitney Jordan Group with Tarantino Properties Inc. of Houston.
The first condo units were finished and people starting moving in during 2002.
- Commerce Towers goes back to sales push [Houston Business Journal]
- Previously on Swamplot: Eye-Opening Parking Garage Design
Photo of Commerce Towers, 914 Main St.: Sandra Gunn Properties
A loyal Swamplot tipster alerts us to a copy of a letter that appeared on a neighborhood email list late last week. The letter is signed by Mark Thuesen, president of the condominium association at the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby condos. Loyal Swamplot readers, of course, will recognize that name — Thuesen is one of 3 condo residents named in a lawsuit by the owners of Hans’ Bier Haus, the little outdoorish bar that’s next door to the 16-story Rice Village residential tower. The lawsuit claims that Theusen and 2 others attacked patrons at the bar several times, throwing beer cans, bottles, and eggs at them from above, as well as spraying performing musicians with water.
Unsurprisingly, Thuesen does not specifically mention those allegations in his letter, which we presume is meant for fellow condo residents. But he is kind enough to include a copy of the temporary injunction handed down by Judge Patricia Hancock last week, which specifically prohibits Theusen [sic], 2 codefendants, and all residents of 2520 Robinhood from “throwing any sort of object whatsoever” or “intentionally running or pouring water or any other liquid upon” Hans’ Bier Haus.
Thuesen does, however, draw attention to the now-famous incident on December 13th of last year, in which Hans’ Bier Haus co-owner Bill Cave stormed into the condo lobby and dragged the concierge by his tie into an elevator — on a quest to turn off the water that was spraying onto bar patrons and musicians from a hose connected to the patio of an upper-story condo resident:
That condo in The Huntingdon belonging to Ken and Linda Lay may soon have company on the market. Randi Stanford, daughter of alleged swindler Robert Allen Stanford — who’s lived in a 2,803-sq.-ft. condo in the same highrise at 2121 Kirby for the last 3 years — has agreed to vacate her unit by the end of March.
The agreement ends a longstanding dispute. The court-appointed receiver for the assets of the Stanford Financial Group will put the unit up for sale.
According to HCAD records, Unit 16NE is owned by an LLC whose address is listed as 5050 Westheimer Rd. — the former headquarters of Stanford Financial Group. Writes the Chronicle‘s Mary Flood:
A report by an accountant working for the receiver showed that Allen Stanford paid for the condo with
 $1.3 million in early 2006. It shows that at least $44,000 paid for condo maintenance came directly from company funds, and that $34,000 of that came from the certificates of deposits issued by Stanford’s bank in Antigua that are at the heart of the alleged fraud.
- Stanford’s daughter will leave condo linked to his firm [Houston Chronicle]
- Stanford’s daughter agrees to vacate condo [Stanford Watch]
- A Look Inside Ken and Linda Lay’s Lonely Highrise Castle Retreat [Swamplot]
- Westheimer Office Building and All: Allen Stanford Says Sell! [Swamplot]
Photo of The Huntingdon: HAR
When will the ongoing feud between Hans’ Bier Haus and the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby condos be optioned for television? Fortunately for the scriptwriters among you busy preparing your treatments, the tale of the little open-air bar in the Rice Village and the residents of the 16-story condo tower next door who like to pour water and heave beer cans, bottles, eggs onto its patrons isn’t just a simple melodrama. It’s a simple melodrama with a rich lineup of stock supporting characters. Reporter Angela Grant introduces a few of them in her report on yesterday’s court hearing:
The helpful concierge. Reggie McGowan, the condo-building concierge Bill Cave dragged by the necktie into the elevator on the night of December 13th, had no idea what was happening, and feared the angry and shouting Bier Haus co-owner was going to bring him up to the roof and throw him off:
When the pair exited the elevator onto the 4th floor, McGowan said he heard Cave say that water was spraying the bar and he wanted to turn it off.
“I said oh, I understand. I can take care of that,†McGowan said. “I had already picked up the hose Wednesday morning of that week.â€
The disgruntled former employee. Condo management company employee Alton Smith was fired on December 15th, after a confrontation with 2 of the 3 condo residents the lawsuit claims had been throwing items at the bar. Conveniently, both of those men — Mark Theusen and Richard Booker — “happen to serve on the condo association’s board of directors, which is responsible for firing decisions,” writes Grant.
The water that rained down on partygoers at Hans’ Bier Haus two nights earlier came from a hose that was connected to a spigot on a patio belonging to Robert Souders, the lawsuit’s 3rd defendant. But Smith told the court he had seen the hose in the same Bier-Haus-soaking configuration at least 2 times before that night. Writes Grant:
“Angry about his firing, Smith approached the Hans’ Bier Haus owners, told them what he knew about the incidents and he named the three defendants as the perpetrators.”
More bit parts that may soon be available:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: FAST FOOD TOWNHOUSES “I’ve been in Houston for 3 years and I’ve noticed how many expensive townhouses and condos back up to fast food restaurants and other potentially noisy businesses. It would drive me nuts but I would also look around the neighborhood before I purchased or rented something there. I can’t imagine having to listen to the Jack-in-the-Box drive-through traffic all night long. ‘YA WANT FRIES??'” [Apartment dweller, commenting on 2520 Robinhood Vs. the Merry Men of Hans’ Bier Haus: It’s Come to This]
Real estate agent Sandra Gunn informs us that the Montage, the second glass Almeda St. tower across from Hermann Park, was foreclosed on yesterday. Originally named Mosaic to match its adjacent twin directly to the north, the Montage has been a rental property since it was completed.
Almost exactly a year ago, the developer of both buildings — a limited partnership between Phillips Development & Realty and Florida Capital Real Estate Group — declared bankruptcy in order to avoid foreclosure on the Mosaic, which at the time was officially a condominium tower. And Florida Capital’s chief operating officer expressed hope that the Montage’s separate $71 million loan with Corus Bankshares could be renegotiated.
