NOT GOING WEST The Energy Corridor won’t be extending to Katy just yet. KBR’s big move to a new 8-building campus a mile east of the Katy Mills Mall has been scrapped — “for now”: “‘We hope it is a delay, not a change in plans,’ said Will Holder, president of Trendmaker Homes. The development division of the company is building Cross Creek Ranch, a 3,200-acre master-planned community in Fulshear. KBR announced its project in May, saying it wanted to be closer to its growing employee- and customer-base in west Houston, where it would be joining the likes of BP and ConocoPhillips. The campus was designed to include more than 910,000 square feet of space in a series of low-rise buildings at the southwest corner of Interstate 10 and Grand Parkway. Construction was expected to start by year’s end, with estimated completion in 2010. The company was going to lease the facility from developer Trammell Crow Co., which was going to build it on a 123-acre parcel along with shopping centers, restaurants, additional office buildings and hotels.” [Houston Chronicle]
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Katy
Readers obsessed with the Katy house designed by Wylie W. Vale that was featured in last week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game will be interested to see these additional views of the 1952 home — in all its original “little bit country, little bit Mod” glory. They were taken by architectural photographer (and yes, game winner) Ben Hill on a quick visit early last year.
Just what was it that made this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game the most popular ever? Carol tries to explain:
It’s not just the cool mod furniture and decorations, or the funky taxidermy room. Maybe it’s that the house looks like the family was so much fun. Maybe it represents the family we all want to go home to on holidays, when Grandma pulls out the Betty Crocker cookbook and makes the greatest stuffing ever and Grandpa tells his hunting stories for the thousandth time. Maybe this was the real American middle class dream of the 1950s. Cue the violins and the teardrop. I second the call for a field trip. Realtor: Please schedule an open house!
Here were your guesses: Garden Oaks, Garden Oaks near Shepherd, Spring Branch (3 votes), Sharpstown (2 votes), Meyerland (2), off Braeswood near the Braeburn Country Club, Bellaire, Garden Villas (2), Braeswood, Glenbrook Valley (2), Spring Valley, Willowbend, Linkwood (2), Memorial Bend, South Braeswood near Stella Link, Tanglewood, Memorial (3), Hunters Creek, Pasadena (3), Meadowcreek, Allendale, Mount Vernon, Ayrshire, Piney Point, Katy, Braeswood (2), South Houston, East Harris County, Deer Park, Baytown, Memorial Villages (3), Marilyn Estates, “Briargrove, or one of those Briar places,” off Briar Forest inside the Beltway, Willow Meadows, Riverside Terrace, between Spring Valley and Hedwig Village, Lake Jackson (2), Texas City, Mt. Pleasant, Creekside, Tynewood, Westbury, and Park Place.
How far are you willing to travel for that open house?
The winner was BenH, who in accordance with rule 3 “guessed” Katy. He’s visited the house, but deserves credit for reporting about it on HAIF last week (shortly before another reader wrote to Swamplot with the suggestion). He says the photos don’t do it justice.
Many fine and original comments this week! Honorable mentions go to JT, for some never-mind-the-carbon dating (but what if the home truly was ahead of its time?):
The house is definitely in the 1954-1958 era with the pale yellow kitchen tile counters and the MCM signature pink adobe brick being the telltale. Mrs. Matron loved her draperies but, Lord, can anyone open them up? It looks like some prime windows are hidden.
and Jessica, for expressing the spirit of many in the group, before outing herself as one of those crazed, antler-worthy fans:
You might not want to post the address of this place – I fear the homeowner might be fighting hopeful furniture buyers off with a stick! (Or a pair of antlers – plenty of those handy.) I am totally obsessed with this house, and would also like to see what’s inside the kitchen cabinets!
Eager to have a better look at this house yourself? Here’s some more detail:
This place is huge! 6000 sq. ft. of living space, reads the listing:
Includes 4 Big Bedrooms, 2 full baths, Large Formal Dining, Huge kitchen w/gas cooking, Granite Counters, Porcelain sink, walk-in pantry, breakfast bar, serving bar and tile floor. Living/Family area w/gas fireplace, wood laminate floors. large inviting entry. Study or 5th bedroom.
That’s a lot of home! How could anyone furnish it all?
Not a problem!
MOVING THE KATY PRAIRIE, ONE CLUMP AT A TIME Threatened patch of prairie? Shovels to the rescue! “The 90-acre patch at Saums and Greenhouse roads north of I-10 is a subtly spectacular example of what the dwindling Katy Prairie looked like before development spread west out of Harris County. Sometime later this fall, construction on the extension of Greenhouse Road, plus a detention pond, will start there. Folks in straw hats, with shovels, buckets and bug spray, spent several mornings digging up clumps of this mature prairie for transplanting to other sites. . . . Digging up clumps of little blue stem, rattlesnake master and bee blossom gives prairie gardens a jump start they couldn’t get from seeds – and seeds are hard to come by.” [Inside Fort Bend]
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pf-c5jVm1g 400 330]
Pay no attention to that dying possum by the side of the road! Lou Minatti takes a bike ride through a neighborhood of new Royce and Centex homes in Katy and finds lots of building going on — and plenty of “sold” signs!!! But . . . is anybody actually living here? And uh, some of those signs look awfully familiar — from a ride through this same area back in May.
After the jump: some of the same scenes, 4 months ago!
PLENTY OF ROOFING WORK IN KATY! “There are thousands of homes built by companies like Pulte in this part of town circa 1994-1997. Their margins were very thin because houses were so cheap. These companies used the lousiest of building materials they could get away with. Lots of these houses now need new roofs, and their owners may not even know it. Houses with rotted decking.” [Lou Minatti]
WHY WE NEED THE GRAND PARKWAY BETWEEN 290 AND I-10 “If the commissioners approve it, it’s because they want new subdivisions built in the open space of the Katy Prairie. We’re building a highway for people who don’t live here yet in hopes that developers will build houses for them and that they will want to live on a toll road 30 miles from Downtown in a world of $4 gas.” [Intermodality]
A story by Paul Knight in this week’s Houston Press adds a little color to the Houston foreclosure map:
Houston’s 77449 ZIP code, on the northwest side, made the top 100 in the nation for 2007. The area saw rapid growth in the early part of the decade, with retail strip centers and a sea of new homes popping up almost overnight.
“They started developing that area really aggressively,” says Erion Shehaj, a Houston realtor who specializes in foreclosed homes. “Like clockwork…[foreclosures] have been popping up one after another, because they were pushing them to people that couldn’t really afford them in the first place.”
Large signs are now planted along the roadside, advertising housing deals such as “Inventory Clearance!” and “Closeout Specials.”
One subdivision in the area that was hit particularly hard is Bear Creek Meadows. The neighborhood was developed about five years ago, with houses priced in the $120,000 range and marketed to first-time buyers.
Below the fold: More on Bear Creek Meadows, plus a few photos to illustrate Knight’s reporting on foreclosure cleanups.
Here’s the kind of project that ought to excite every truly patriotic Houstonian: County Commissioner Steve Radack wants to build a 500-acre lake — for fishing — on the Katy Prairie! How will it get filled? With rain, of course . . . and those regular floods from Cypress Creek! Apparently, they’ll have to excavate five Astrodomes worth of dirt. Where will they put the other four?
Best yet: Radack’s gonna name it after the Pope!
Them Katy birds want their wetlands? We’ll give them wetlands!
Of course, there are some naysayers:
Because the lake will not have a constant source of flowing water, biologists remain worried that there will not be enough oxygen in the lake to support a viable fish population, said [Donna] Anderson of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Texas Parks & Wildlife has also questioned whether nitrates and fertilizer from farm runoff might pollute the lake, said Jamie Schubert, coastal biologist with the department.
Yeah, we’ve heard that line before. Isn’t that what they said about the Gulf of Mexico? Hey, maybe we’ll find oil here, too!
- Katy prairie someday may be an angler’s paradise [Houston Chronicle]
- Dead zones regularly haunt coast [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of snow geese on Katy Prairie: Houston-Galveston Area Council
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Blogger and head Michael Pollack cheerleader Lou Minatti posts this street-level video report on the state of the real-estate market in Katy and West Houston, and includes the following odd claim:
I’ve never seen a stucco house in Houston before.
- Houston Real Estate, Valentines Day Edition [Lou Minatti]
The wave of foreclosures sweeping over neighborhoods at the outer edges of town has . . . an upside!
Remember back when these neighborhoods were new — like, four years ago? Well, for buyers it’s just like those good old days all over again . . . only cheaper! That’s right: if you’ve settled on one builder model, you can be pretty picky about which upgrades and finishing touches you really want — even though the builder has moved on.
If you’re shopping for a home in Bear Creek Meadows in Katy, for example, you’ll find the four distinct residences pictured above listed on MLS. That’s right, those are four different houses. But they’re all the same model — The Cairns, Plan 509, by Legend Homes — and they’re all resales!
Which one is right for you? Clockwise from top left, the contenders are: 19411 Billineys Park Dr., 19606 Ballina Meadows Dr., 19906 Brisbane Meadows Dr., and 19510 Buckland Park Dr.
After the jump, a look at the differences between these four newish but back-on-the-market homes!
Honey, stop the car! 2300 square feet, new construction, in-ground pool, spa, game room, on a man-made fake lake. $209k. Bonus: The Relitter actually typed in “HONEY STOP THE CAR!!” as a description.
That’s blogger Lou Minatti’s punchline, after a brief tour of tiny, chain-linked-fenced, or apparently leaning homes available at similar prices in Los Angeles.
Also in the description of the Katy home is this paradox:
POPULAR LENNAR FLOORPLAN! . . . A ONE OF A KIND GEM!
After the jump: more pics, plus the sad news about this some-of-a-kind Katy home.
Sure, Metro talks a lot about transportation in this city’s central districts. But a Houston Business Journal profile shows us Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority Chairman David Wolff is also enthusiastic about Houston’s westward spread:
Many developers are building various types of commercial properties west of Houston and beyond.
The city of Katy, with an estimated population of 205,000, sits square in the path of Houston’s westward growth pattern.
“The whole city is going that way,” Wolff says. “I think Katy is going to be the next Sugar Land.”
He recalls the creation of Park 10, and how much the area has grown over the last three decades.
Says Wolff: “It was just rice fields. That was really the edge of the world then.”
After the jump, the METRO Board Chairman’s exciting projects way out west, plus how to get folks in the “next Sugar Land” to build freeway on- and off-ramps for your developments!
Katy residents upset with the prospect of a new low-income housing development in their community have won a round: Elrod Place, a 126-unit, 25-acre project proposed for 3700 Elrod Place—near Katy’s Bridgewater subdivision—won’t be able to get the $12 million in state housing tax credits the developers had applied for. The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs has denied the application by Barry Kahn of Hettig/Kahn Holdings.
- State denies tax credits for low-income housing project [Houston Chronicle]
- Is more low-income housing in store for the Katy area? [Inside Katy]
- Low-Income Housing: Any Takers? [Swamplot]
- Clay Rd. & Elrod Rd. [Google Maps]