07/24/09 7:48pm

Judging from its debut in this morning’s demolition report, it’s looking like the end of the line for the classic 1960 steel-and-glass home at 6040 Glencove St., near Bayou Bend and Memorial Park.

What’s going away?

The house had the kind of wide-open spaces that modernists love, and its floors were marble – cool, [original owner André] Crispin says, under bare feet in the summer.

At 4,600 square feet, the house was large for its era, plenty big enough for the Crispins’ four children and their grand-scale entertaining. When Crispin and his wife hosted musical events, 200 to 300 guests thronged their dramatic living room. There, those guests could admire the wall of glass 14 feet tall. It offered a view of the untamed back yard, a rolling ravine filled with sassafras trees, rabbits and armadillos.

The home was designed by Houston architect Talbott Wilson, 2 years before his firm created the Astrodome. Its current owner, David Mincberg, was appointed by Mayor White earlier this week to serve on the board of commissioners of the Houston Housing Authority. Mincberg bought the property last spring from an owner-broker who employed an innovative marketing plan: the Midcentury Modern came free with purchase of the dramatic 1.35-acre homesite.

What did Mincberg end up paying?

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07/20/09 4:43pm

Remember back in ’83, when that couple that had bought a new home in Crosby’s Newport subdivision came across a couple of graves from what appeared to be an old slave cemetery as they dug a new swimming pool in their backyard? Okay, how about that Patty Duke TV movie they made out of the story? Remember that?

Well, it looks like those ghosts are . . . still hanging around!

Just look at all the orbs that show up in these photos by a newly minted actual probationary Houston firefighter! Blogger Marissa in Houston recently joined a few fire-station buddies for a little nighttime ghosthunting adventure around Poppets Way:

We found a church that seemed to have no one there and butted up right against that creepy forest. We drove back and right up to the wooded area. This time, I did NOT get out of the car. I couldn’t. I felt so much around me just sitting in the seat that there was no way I could even fathom of being out there. As I sat there and snapped pictures from my Jeep fortress, I kept watching the three others out in front of the car. Once, I saw a pair of legs standing next to the guy on the end. Just the legs, nothing else. Another time, I was looking at something that Mitchell had on the laptop screen ( he was sitting in the front passenger seat and I was leaning through the middle), and the illuminated shadow of someone walking in front of the drivers side head light caught my eye. I thought it was one of our people and turned to say something, but there was no one there. I vividly remember the motion of someone walking and the shape of a person. It was undeniable to me.

Creepy! What else is going on in the neighborhood?

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07/08/09 4:25pm

A reader sends photos from a recent visit to the Centre at Post Oak shopping center, across Westheimer from the Galleria:

It’s been a while since I’ve been by here, so maybe this is old news, but … are the shopping cneter owners hurting so bad they’ve got to resort to selling ads for overactive bladder medications in the parking lot?

The parking lot sign suggests empathetic readers go to the conveniently named website www.overactivebladder.com. There you can take a brief urination quiz, view bladder illustrations, and read extensive advertorial content from Pfizer, makers of Toviaz — a pill “clinically proven to significantly reduce bothersome symptoms of OAB like strong sudden urges to go, frequent bathroom visits, and accidents.”

The reader continues:

I wonder how many urgent visits from highly suggestible customers this has brought to the stores there. How’s the Mattress Firm holding up?

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06/29/09 1:23pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: SPECULATIVE DEMOLITION FOR FUN AND PROFIT “I don’t see how scraping an income-producing property to make it look better for potential buyers makes economic sense, either. Can’t buyers just imagine what the property would look like without the apartments there?” [RWB, commenting on Cleaning Up After the Westheimer Park Apartments]

06/26/09 5:15pm

Hey, what’s happening to those fancy solar-powered recycled shipping containers on the corner of Hyde Park and Waugh, meant to attract eco-minded buyers to the $400K+ condo units in the Mirabeau B.?

Up and away they go! Did the Mirabeau B. meet its sales target? Nope . . . but it’s time for construction anyway, developer Joey Romano tells Swamplot:

Our financing is in place and we have signed our contract with Mission Constructors who have commenced work on the site. If all goes to plan at the City, the building work will begin in the next few weeks.

How’d that happen? With a little switch: to rental. But Romano says none of the project’s “green” features will be changed:

We’ll still plant our green roof; our 15 KW solar PV system will still power all common areas; and our rainwater retention system will still irrigate our native Gulf Coast plants. Our units will be large, open, and spacious, offering unique, high-grade finishes, high-end energy efficient appliances, and natural light in every bedroom.

So where are the shipping containers headed?

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06/26/09 1:25pm

CLEANING UP AFTER THE WESTHEIMER PARK APARTMENTS “Austin-based Falcon Southwest expects the demolition to be complete by July on the 185-unit complex at 9235 Westheimer, between Fondren and Gessner. Phil Capron, president of Falcon Southwest, says the property was under contract late last year to an apartment developer who wanted to build a five-story complex on the 4.8-acre site. The developer, whom he won’t name, could not get financing because of market conditions. Falcon Southwest will plant grass on the site before relisting it because “it will show better totally clean,” Capron says. He hopes to sell the tract for $30 to $35 per square foot, which would put the price between $6.3 million and $7.4 million. Falcon Southwest also owns the next door Westheimer Terrace Apartments, which are not for sale now, but Capron says will be at some time in the future.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]

06/03/09 12:02pm

A reader calls attention to the listing for 902 Rhode Place Unit C, heralding a brand-new 4-story multi-pack townhome with a singular location:

UNIQUE 4 STORY ROOF TOP TOWNHOUSE OVER LOOKING DOWNTOWN AND MEMORIAL PARK. 1 BLOCK FROM MEMORIAL PARK‘ALLEN PKWY AND TAFT.

The listing photos include the requisite Downtown skyscraper and Memorial Park jogger views shown above. So . . . what else is within eyeshot?

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05/11/09 7:07pm

And it’s . . . off! The building designer who had planned to demolish a 1920 bungalow in the newly designated Freeland Historic District and build two 4-story townhomes in its place has now backed out of the deal completely. In a letter to neighborhood residents, Jack Preston Wood and his wife, Samantha Wood, say they’ve canceled their purchase contract for 536 Granberry, in the soppy southern reaches of the Heights.

What made them change their minds? Maybe . . . the gentle encouragement of their would-be neighbors?

We received mean spirited mail, emails, blogs, and visits to our business website all because we were planning on tearing down a house in very poor condition and replacing it with a new compatible home.

The Woods say that after the city historical commission rejected their demolition and construction plans in mid-March, they abandoned the double-townhouse idea and decided instead to replace the bungalow with a new 2800-sq.-ft. 1-1/2-story bungalow. But the neighbors kept at it:

Even though we had sent a response that we were not going to build our original plans and we were working on new plans the neighborhood still held a protest and plastered Freeland with signs. As we watched the news clip on the protest we began to realize that any new home, no matter how compatible, would not be accepted because the Freeland mantra was to remain an “intact” neighborhood. . . .

About three weeks into the six weeks, we realized that we had become the “Poster Child” to deter and slowdown development in the area.

Lots more fun in the full text of the Woods’ letter, reprinted — along with a neighbor’s response — below:

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05/07/09 2:57pm

A reader has a question:

I was looking at listings online recently and was surprised to find several homes in my neighborhood that I had thought had sold, still listed for sale. The reason I had thought they had sold was that the signs in front of them had come down some time ago. But the listings showed them as still on the market.

So I drove by a couple of them and nope, signs are still gone.

Was wondering if just “taking down the sign” was a common practice, maybe a way for houses that are bound to sit on the market for a long time to try to avoid the stigma of seeming to just sit there . . .

04/29/09 9:53am

Enjoy your spring, everyone! Armed with a few pointed charts fueled by the latest data from HAR, Swamplot’s spreadsheet-wielding correspondent writes in again, this time with comments on March’s residential real-estate market report:

The Realtors always speak breathlessly of the “Spring Selling Season” with an almost religious reverence. Well it shows in the data. Home sales are 60-100% higher in the warm weather months. Prices are 10-20% higher, too. . . .

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04/29/09 8:51am

Swamplot reader Scott Broschart sends in a photo he took last Monday from the roof of the Herrin Lofts in East Downtown, looking west toward the GRB Convention Center. “Take a look in the windows of the yellow town houses across the street,” he says.

Okay . . .

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04/27/09 10:08am

ONE PARK PLACE REJECTION LETTER That letter Mayor White sent out in January touting One Park Place as “THE residence of choice downtown” was apparently meant as a consolation prize for the Finger Companies, which had sought public assistance for the project. White refused to support Finger’s request for a tax abatement — and offered the letter in its place, according to emails recently made public. “[Developer Marvy] Finger added that he appreciated the mayor’s willingness to write the letter, and that he hoped at the time it would help, although he does not believe it earned any additional lessees. ‘If someone rented because of that letter, I’m unaware of it,’ he said. The documents were obtained through an open records request that was originated by Texas Watchdog, a Houston-based nonprofit that promotes open government and investigative journalism.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]

04/21/09 2:59pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: UPPER MIDTOWN “Talking of rimshotting onto the popularity of neighboring areas did anyone else notice that the Alexan Height[s] apartments became the Midtown Heights after changing hands despite the fact that they are at I-10 and Oxford. Exactly how big is Midtown these days?” [Jimbo, commenting on Watch for Cottage Cheese Dropping from Heights]

04/21/09 7:45am



This 1,300
-square-foot, 2-bedroom, 2-bath home planted in a lot-sized subdivision in Shady Acres called “Cottages in the Heights” just shed $5K from its asking price and is resting at $184,000 after a month on the market. But Heights home shopper John Whiteside still isn’t buying it:

These things always seem like the real estate equivalent of conjoined twins with birth defects. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but your children are stuck together, and their garage doors are bizarrely oversized, and their internal organs are jumbled around in unfortunate ways.”

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04/16/09 1:35pm

Ever wonder what’s really going on in some of the houses listed for sale on MLS? Sure you do. In real estate, everyone’s a voyeur.

The trick for agents, now that so many houses are just sitting there — is finding a way to appeal to that urge to look.

Swamplot’s been keeping this house in Riverview under surveillance. It’s just south of the Gulf Freeway and Telephone Rd., not too far from the Orange Show. It has 2 or 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, and dates from 1945.

What’s the story here?

C’mon, wouldn’t you like to . . . peek around the house a bit for yourself?

Oh, yeah. You know you want to . . .

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