Hazards

Apartments
12/01/08 10:18am

A Collection of Sticks: Costco Apartment Construction Collapse

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Greenway Plaza, Hazards, New Construction: Residential
12 Comments

A 3-story section of The Collection, the Morgan Group’s 528-unit apartment complex under construction behind the new Costco on Weslayan and Richmond apparently collapsed early Sunday. A Swamplot reader sends in these photos of the scene following the accident, along with a few sharp comments:

The 4 story “stick built” apartment facility known as “The Collection” (www.collectionliving.com) became a “collection of sticks” early Sunday morning. It seems as if the contractors and the Morgan Group were in a Thanksgiving hurry to get home for turkey and giblets and forgot to “tie in” to the adjoining 3 and 4 story section of the main building.

Good thing it was a Sunday as Monday morning will bring back a tribe of contractors to push to get this facility on the Harris County Tax Roll by Summer 2009….Someone could have been seriously hurt if not killed. The Morgan Group should be “thankful” this Thanksgiving that it was not the case – and that they can “rush” to completion.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Apartments
11/26/08 10:15am

Vista Bonita Apartments: Still Open for the Holidays!

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Hazards, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, South Houston Gardens
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VISTA BONITA APARTMENTS: STILL OPEN FOR THE HOLIDAYS! Where’s everybody going? Sure, the gas is turned off, but really, what’s the rush? “Most residents have moved, but those from about 20 apartments remain in the 144-unit complex near the Gulf Freeway and Airport Boulevard, [Vista Bonita Apartments owner Nanik] Bhagia said. Many of those who remain are close to finding apartments, but are embittered that Bhagia has given them such short notice. . . . Bhagia on Tuesday said residents don’t have to move out immediately — if they need more time, they can have it. State law generally affords tenants — depending on their lease — more time than a few days to move out. Bhagia’s notice to vacate is not a formal eviction process. But he could seek to evict tenants who don’t leave.” [Houston Chronicle; previously]

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Apartments
11/19/08 8:46am

Vista Bonita Apartments Closing Monday

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Hazards, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, South Houston Gardens
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VISTA BONITA APARTMENTS CLOSING MONDAY The owner of a rundown apartment compound on the edge of South Houston where a boy drowned late last month has decided to shut down the entire 144-unit complex rather than correct unsafe conditions identified by the city: “In a brief phone interview Tuesday, [owner Nanik] Bhagia repeated his pledge to refund November rent and security deposits. He said he also would pay residents’ application fees at new complexes, but ended the call when pressed for specifics. Some tenants have said the office often is closed, and they were not sure Tuesday how to take advantage of his offer. Bhagia later e-mailed the Chronicle to say that tenants ‘will be paid when they turn in the keys and do not take away any of our appliances. We are not running away.’ The child’s death prompted more scrutiny from city inspectors, who descended again on the property and issued dozens of new citations. Residents say Bhagia blamed conditions on Hurricane Ike, but the city has been issuing tickets for years.” [Houston Chronicle; previously]

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Buying and Selling
11/17/08 12:19pm

Last Stand at Park Memorial

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Hazards, Neighborhood Disputes, Rice Military
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If any of those holdouts at Park Memorial are still trying to camp out in their condos, it had to have become a whole lot tougher for them after Saturday. That’s when the city cut off power to the complex and chained the gates.

Among the Park Memorial Forever crowd, a source tells Swamplot, is a family that went to court seeking an injunction against the city — on grounds city officials had no legal right to evict them for safety reasons because the safety issues applied to a different building on the same property. That request has been one of the obstacles holding up the sale of the entire complex, to a so-far-secret buyer.

Photos: HAR (Park Memorial grounds) and HAR (gates)

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Freeways and Toll Roads
11/12/08 11:57am

Developers “Not Likely” To Build Homes in Proposed Path of Grand Parkway

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Hazards, Homebuilders, Homes for Sale, Lakes of Avalon Village, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments, Spring, Transportation, Willow Trace
2 Comments

Lakes of Avalon Village Subdivision, Spring, Texas

The attorney for Lakes of Avalon Village developer Robert A. Hudson is now saying that economic conditions make it “unlikely” that Lennar Homes and J. Patrick Homes will build on homesites in the path of a new proposed route for Segment F2 of the Grand Parkway in Spring.

But there’s no need to give up hope entirely: Lennar and J. Patrick apparently encountered few difficulties building and selling 60 homes sitting on the new highway’s earlier proposed route, in a different portion of the same subdivision. The developer’s stated reluctance to repeat the trick means the homebuilding market must be pretty tough now.

The new route would swing around the homes that have already been built and into not-yet-developed areas of Lakes of Avalon Village and neighboring Willow Trace.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Buying and Selling
11/12/08 9:43am

Park Memorial: Just Sitting There

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Hazards, Rice Military
12 Comments

Walkway at Park Memorial Condominiums, Rice Military, Houston

All the residents have moved out, the court battle’s been lost, and the homeowners of the Park Memorial condo complex on Memorial Dr. at Detering are just waiting for a “secret” buyer, KPRC’s Ryan Korsgard reports:

The homeowners continue to pay mortgages, property taxes and association dues, plus pay for a new place to live. The city first posted notices over the summer for structural problems. Owners protested and went to court, but a judge sided with the city.

“The ruling by the courts basically reaffirmed the position the city had in regards to the safety and well-being of the tenants of this townhome,” Houston Public Works Department spokesman Alvin Wright said.

The city said it is illegal to stay without power or water.

Photos of Park Memorial Condominiums: HAR

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Hazards
11/10/08 10:41am

New Homes from Royce Builders: Back from the Dead and Available for Sale!

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Homebuilders, Homes for Sale, Openings and Closings
44 Comments

Map of Royce Homes Neighborhoods

What’s a failed homebuilder to do when it hurriedly goes belly-up . . . but still has a huge chunk of inventory on hand?

Welcome to the Royce Builders Already-Gone-Out-of-Business Home Sale!

How’s it work? Well, if you’re a lucky real-estate agent, you receive a mysterious message with a couple of attachments listing the more than 300 homes in the Greater Houston area the . . . uh, former company still has available! In 49 different neighborhoods around town! And all at discount prices!

Included with the list: a map of the neighborhoods Royce graced (shown above), demonstrating the company’s vast exurban spread.

Of course, the email message doesn’t come from Royce Builders, because Royce is . . . no longer with us. (And, to judge from the comments coming into Swamplot from recent Royce buyers, employees, and vendors, it is sorely missed!) The list comes instead from an email address on the h-smith.com domain. That hyphen, of course, stands for “ammer.” Didn’t Hammersmith Financial, Royce’s sister mortgage company, also go out of business?

But the property list is so much more fun than a collection of random way-far-out addresses:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Apartments
11/07/08 9:49am

La Casita Apartment Takeover: How Does This Happen?

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Foreclosures, Fraud, Hazards, Northline
2 Comments

Late last night city officials were able to get an emergency court order allowing a trustee to take over the La Casita Apartments at 313 Sunnyside near Northline. And MGC Mortgage, the company left holding onto the foreclosed property, has “transferred oversight” of the 600-unit complex behind Gallery Furniture to a new management company. The agreements, along with other interventions by the city, mean the more than 1,000 residents of the all-bills-paid apartments will not be evicted, have their water or electricity shut off, or lose credit for the monthly rent they just paid:

Residents of the La Casita Apartments already felt neglected by managers who let buildings run down, even before Hurricane Ike broke windows and tore patches off roofs. But instead of starting on repairs to make the apartments livable after the storm, management skipped town, keeping the rent money and leaving the bills unpaid.

The apparent owner of La Casita is an Indiana company named Briarwood Houston LP. The complex failed a Houston Housing Authority inspection last month. Police officials are investigating the management company’s handling of the payments.

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Foreclosures
11/06/08 1:46pm

Foreclosure Hits Northline Renters

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Hazards, Neighborhood Disputes, Northline, Quicklink
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FORECLOSURE HITS NORTHLINE RENTERS Residents of the La Casita Apartments are worried that they may be kicked out of their homes or have their water turned off. The all-bills-paid complex is being foreclosed on. Representatives from the city are planning a meeting this evening at Northline Elementary to discuss the situation with the more than 150 1,000 people who live in the complex, which sits behind Gallery Furniture just east of the North Freeway. Officers carrying assault rifles arrived at La Casita yesterday after apartment manager Ed Thomas called the police. After a notice was posted on the property informing the renters that they would be forced to move out immediately, upset residents had blocked Thomas’s car, complaining that he wasn’t giving them acceptable answers about their situation. [abc13]

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Alief
11/06/08 12:59pm

Just Another Day in Alief

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Apartments, Hazards, Quicklink
No Comments

JUST ANOTHER DAY IN ALIEF “I live in a piece of **** Apartment. It always has and will probably always be a grand royale of common apartment miseries. Drunken neighbors stomping around at all hours including 4am, another neighbor who likes to play his Tejano music really loud, stray dogs, animal abuse, street traffic. To name a few. . . . I persist on staying thinking it’ll get better but it doesn’t. This morning at around 4am, as usual, a steady stream of water came pouring out of our bathroom ceiling onto everything down below. A great way to start a Thursday. I think to myself this is nothing, just a little upset, there a people out there dealing with real issues in the middle of the morning, but what’s really going on is growing unseen to my tired eyes. It’s black, moldy, and by all means making me sick.” [Working On It]

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Critters
11/05/08 6:46pm

Hurricanes: The Devil Galveston Will Know in Advance

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Galveston, Hazards, Medical Buildings, Openings and Closings, Quicklink
1 Comment

HURRICANES: THE DEVIL GALVESTON WILL KNOW IN ADVANCE The brand spanking new Galveston National Laboratory, which will be home to the world’s nastiest bacteria and most infectious viruses, officially opens next week. “Yes, at first blush it seems daft to build a nearly $200 million facility with the world’s deadliest biologicals in hurricane country. But the reality strikes me quite differently. In fact, there’s an advantage that comes from being able to know a couple days in advance of a hurricane’s threat. This offers time to lock down the lab, which simply wouldn’t be possible in an area threatened by tornadoes or earthquakes.” [SciGuy]

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Apartments
10/30/08 12:27pm

The Case Against Going Paperless

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Hazards, Quicklink, South Houston Gardens
No Comments

THE CASE AGAINST GOING PAPERLESS At least 72 safety-violation cases against the owner of a run-down apartment complex just outside South Houston were dropped last year because the paperwork was lost, say city officials. A toddler drowned in the apartment’s pool earlier this week. “Randy Zamora, the city’s chief prosecutor, said an outside company hired to digitally scan some 7 million archived and pending tickets might have misplaced the documents. The error allowed [Nanik] Bhagia, who did not return telephone and e-mail requests for comment on Wednesday, to delay for a year facing a jury or making repairs to the Vista Bonita Apartments, 9313 Tallyho. . . . Police investigators said the boy may have reached the murky pool by stepping through a damaged fence or a faulty gate, both of which are violations of city code.” [Houston Chronicle]

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Apartments
10/24/08 5:14pm

The Hanover Company: Closing Up Shop?

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Commercial Real Estate, Hazards, Openings and Closings
1 Comment

It’s Friday afternoon . . . and the rumors are flying! It’s looking like the shelving of the company’s planned Boulevard Place apartment highrise is only the beginning of a much-more-serious towering hangover for Hanover. Word has begun to spread that the private multifamily developer is shutting down its local office. The Hanover Company is based in Houston.

Employees with brand-new pink slips: Got any details you’d like to share? Swamplot’s completely anonymous tell-all line is open.

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Apartments
10/01/08 10:25am

More Photos of the Messiest Apartment in Houston

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Hazards, Home Decor, Renting
20 Comments

Bedroom of Extremely Messy Apartment in North Houston

Swamplot’s story last week on that extremely dirty apartment in North Houston left out a few photos the photographer originally posted in the Houston-Imports forum. Our photo editing choices were meant to highlight the more “artistic” qualities of the display. And really, how much filth do you need to see?

More than we showed, apparently. The story was one of the most popular ever posted on this site. Who are we to prevent smut-hungry readers from viewing the trash they so obviously want to see?

So here they are, fresh from the . . . uh, cutting-room floor: 11 more photos of the messiest apartment in Houston. Ever. We hope.

A word of warning to the easily nauseated: Yes, there are a few images of the bathroom. No, it is not pretty.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Disaster Aftermath
09/25/08 5:23pm

Ike’s Toxic Imprint

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Environmental, Hazards, Quicklink, Toxic Sites, Water Quality
1 Comment

IKE’S TOXIC IMPRINT “So far, regulatory officials have identified 228 sites potentially poisoned with gasoline, industrial chemicals, feces and other contaminants from Greater Houston to Lake Charles, La. But none of the reported spills is considered major, authorities said. Cmdr. Virginia Kammer, who leads the U.S. Coast Guard’s cleanup efforts along the Texas coastline, said the largest spill was about 3,000 barrels, and the responsible facility moved quickly to get the problem under control.” What about the region’s 28 Superfund sites? No word yet, but the EPA has “started to investigate.” [Houston Chronicle]

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