New Construction: Residential

Ferndale
01/12/09 3:09pm

Bammel Lane Park Homes: Still Going On?

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Homes for Sale, New Construction: Residential
1 Comment

Speaking of abandoned residential projects, another reader wants to know if this development qualifies:

I have noticed the Bammel Lane Park Homes project appears to have ceased development. The houses are between Bammel Lane and Eastside. There are 3 or 4 very large homes that looked completed. ( I cannot figure out if they are occupado) Then, they were painted stark white? Not so good. The sign advertising the project is still up but it appears they are at a stand still. Can you ask the readers or let me know if you have any scoop?

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Cancellations and Delays
01/12/09 12:20pm

Half Off New Construction: Where?

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New Construction: Residential
23 Comments

A reader writes in wanting to know where all the half-built houses are. Sure, High Street came to a halt after producing a naked frame, but what neighborhoods in the greater Houston area feature finer examples of similarly dramatic frozen-in-time residential work that a real-estate gawker could appreciate? Abandoned slabs, lonely stick frames, flapping Tyvek — that sort of thing?

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Apartments
01/09/09 4:59pm

Mosaic Avoids Foreclosure, Files for Bankruptcy

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Condos, Condos for Sale, Financing, Foreclosures, Hermann Park, Highrises, New Construction: Residential
9 Comments

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:

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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.

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Apartments
11/18/08 9:13am

Maybe Siennna Is Available?

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Cinco Ranch, Fort Bend County, New Construction: Residential, Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing, Senior Living, Sienna Plantation
3 Comments

MAYBE SIENNNA IS AVAILABLE? Marketing new themed apartments has got to be tough these days — all those great Southern European-y names are already taken! “Out-of-state developers thought they had coined a great name for their senior living apartments in Katy. Then they found out a nearby master-planned community had already claimed the same name. A joint venture led by Georgia-based Formation Development Group LLC broke ground in May on The Sienna at Cinco Ranch apartments at 24001 Cinco Village Center Blvd., west of Houston. But the site was a little too close for comfort to the Sienna Plantation master-planned community located south of Cinco Ranch in Fort Bend County. So Formation Development formulated a slight change of plans — The Sienna at Cinco Ranch is now going to be called The Solana at Cinco Ranch. ‘There was a little bit of confusion,’ says Karen Thompson, a spokeswoman for the development firm. ‘They wanted to have something that was going to be unique to their property.'” [Houston Business Journal]

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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.

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Apartments
11/10/08 12:12pm

Mosaic Splits in Two

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Condos, Hermann Park, Highrises, New Construction: Residential
No Comments

Aerial View of Mosaic Tower with Montage Tower Under Construction, Houston

The soon-to-be-complete second Mosaic tower on Almeda across from Hermann Park will have a different name, reports Nancy Sarnoff in the Chronicle. It’ll be called the Montage, and all 394 units will be rentals, as predicted.

“The market is not supporting sales in two towers,” said Thomas Cervone of Camelot Realty Group, which was hired over the summer to sell units in the building.

Leasing on the second building will start in January, with the units renting for an average of $2.25 per square foot.

The new name will help distinguish the southern tower from the first one, which apparently also features a large number of rentals, even though it remains officially a condo building.

Photo: Aerial photo of Mosaic from July: Aero Photo

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New Construction: Residential
11/04/08 9:09am

Mobile Home of the $20 Taco

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Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing, Restaurants, Townhomes
No Comments

MOBILE HOME OF THE $20 TACO The upscale taco truck makes a perfect sales vehicle for themed luxury townhouse developments: “‘Most people won’t even stop at a taco truck,’ [Armandos restaurant co-owner Armando] Palacios said during an event he catered at the Spanish-inspired Caceres development, where townhomes starting at $600,000 were touted to potential buyers, sellers and scenesters. . . . ‘This is a taco truck which we’ve driven to a $5 million home. You arrive, and the truck becomes part of the party.’ Instead of simply bringing chafing dishes filled with taco fixings to a catering gig, Palacios drives his $100,000 truck and cooks food to a client’s order. . . . But Palacios’ truck is a more ostentatious version of the typical taco truck. Just like MTV program Pimp My Ride upgrades clunkers, Palacios ‘pimped out’ a taco truck, giving it a custom paint job. He promotes the catering truck with the slogan, ‘We burn rubber and chipotles.’ ‘It’s like urban chic,’ said Cinda Ward, Armandos co-owner and Palacios’ wife.” [Houston Chronicle]

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Bellaire
10/10/08 12:12pm

The Real Story Behind the Bellaire Rotunda Craze

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Homebuilders, Homes for Sale, New Construction: Residential
No Comments

5607 Whitehaven St., Bellaire

From the website of Top View Builder — builders of this 6,017-sq.-ft. home at 5607 Whitehaven St. in Bellaire — under “Company History”:

Founded in 2007 by four well-rounded partners, the company is desitned to set the benchmark of excellence.

Maybe helps explain the bloated look, too.

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Demolitions
09/12/08 10:30am

How To Demolish New Construction Without Using a Hurricane

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Houston Heights, Neighborhood Disputes, New Construction: Residential
1 Comment

2203, 2205, and 2207 Rutland St., Houston Heights

New construction and demolition are the yin and yang of Houston’s real estate landscape. But what if they could be combined?

Neighbors of the properties at 2203, 2205, and 2207 Rutland St. in the Heights — mentioned on Swamplot earlier this week — are collecting signatures requesting that the unfinished new houses be demolished, reports a source. Supporting documentation claiming that “complaints to the City of Houston have resulted in a discouraging cycle of occasional citations, brief minor flurries of activity on the part of the builder, and subsequent inaction” was to have been submitted to city council members and Neighborhood Protection yesterday.

The petition claims that construction began on all three houses in November of 2006. But the house in the middle appears to have a different owner, and Bunny Bungalower Annie Sitton says construction on that property was begun this year.

Below the fold: more pix . . . from before Hurricane Ike!

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Houston Heights
09/09/08 10:15am

New Home Construction on Rutland: It Takes Time

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New Construction: Residential
4 Comments

2203, 2205, and 2207 Rutland St., Houston Heights

Not far from her own Bunny Bungalow, Annie Sitton finds three houses under construction on Rutland St. just north of 22nd:

The house on the left and the one on the right were begun in 2006 and are not yet completed. Construction on the house in the middle was begun this year and is progressing slowly.

Below: View the open houses at 2203 and 2207 Rutland!

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Buying and Selling
09/09/08 9:03am

Royce, Centex, and Roadkill: Touring New Construction in Katy

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Development Strategy, Homebuilders, Homes for Sale, Katy, Morton Ranch, New Construction: Residential, Real Estate Marketing
2 Comments

[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!

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Condos
08/27/08 1:50pm

2727 Kirby: Enough with the Crane

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Highrises, New Construction: Residential, Upper Kirby
7 Comments

Condo Tower at 2727 Kirby Dr., Under ConstructionThe 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.

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Apartments
08/25/08 7:47am

Washington Ave.: Extending The Core?

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Demolitions, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments, Washington Corridor, West End
18 Comments

The Core Apartments, 3990 Washington Ave., Houston

A West End resident writes in with a question about plans for the former Trinity Steel plant off Koehler St. between Yale and Bonner:

They have recently begun demolishing the huge industrial warehouses that made up the Trinity Industries complex. Our Civic Club President seems to think they are building an extension of the The Core apartment complex that just went up at 3990 Washington Avenue (www.thecoreapts.com). That would be a disaster since the Trinity Industry property parcel is HUGE and if they are going to be ALL apartments, our narrow neighborhood streets will be clogged constantly with all that extra traffic.

I can’t find anything about who developed The Core to see if they have any updates on their website about future extension plans. Do you have any leads on what is going on and going up there?

The Core Apartments were developed by the Morgan Group. Any Swamplot readers have the scoop on future plans for the site?

Bonus question after the jump:

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Freeways and Toll Roads
08/20/08 11:22am

Grand Parkway Homes by Lennar

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Hazards, Homebuilders, Homes for Sale, Lakes of Avalon Village, Master-Planned Communities, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments, Spring, Transportation
2 Comments

Lakes of Avalon Village Subdivision, Spring, Texas

Some brand-new houses sold by Lennar Homes will be very convenient to the new Grand Parkway!

Robert A. Hudson, a Spring developer who partnered with Lennar on the project, said builders knew the highway might come through the subdivision.

“We are not up there on a daily basis to make sure that the builders make it clear to everybody else,” he said.

Plans for the Grand Parkway have been on the books for 25 years, but only 28 of its proposed 185 miles have been built. Environmental and neighborhood groups have opposed the project.

It would include 11 segments traversing seven counties. The 12.1-mile Segment F2 would cut directly through the Lakes of Avalon Village, a subdivision with several hundred homes located on FM 2920 just west of Kuykendahl Road.

About 60 homes are in the right-of-way and would have to be demolished to make way for the parkway once construction began, [executive director of the Grand Parkway Association David] Gornet said.

Talk about offering transportation options! But it’s not just Lennar . . . J. Patrick Homes also is selling models in the Lakes of Avalon Village subdivision.

But hurry! The subdivision is in “close out”!

After the jump: pics of a Lennar Homes model for sale in this quaint little village in Spring!

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