Townhomes

Featured Posts
11/13/18 3:00pm

Bonus Copyright Lawsuits Mean Urban Living Could Have Another Thing Coming

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Lawsuits, Townhomes
3 Comments

The 2016 lawsuit that just last week resulted in a multi-million dollar judgment against Houston developer Urban Living isn’t the only litigation the firm’s caught up in right now. Since the beginning of the year, the same plaintiff, Preston Wood & Associates, has filed 4 more suits against the developer and its partners, alleging that at least 6 more Urban Living projects were based of derivatives of the design firm’s copyrighted townhome plans.

One of the projects, dubbed The Modern on Sabine, is shown at top on the corner of Sabine and Bingham streets. Another, The Modern on Austin, went up in place of a few row houses torn down at Austin and Tuam near the end of 2013:

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The Kicker
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Featured Posts
11/13/18 10:15am

Urban Living Beats Frank Liu to the Punch at MDI Superfund Site with Construction on Inaugural Townhome Cluster

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New Construction, Redevelopment, Townhomes, Toxic Sites
10 Comments

Aside from the presence of workers, the only hint you’ll find that construction has begun on the MDI Superfund site is the sign now standing at the location itself (and the HAIF thread where a user first called attention the whole scene). It’s facing toward the end of Gillespie St., a tiny Fifth Ward road that crosses over Hirsch Rd. and some railroad tracks 3 blocks north of Clinton Dr. before petering out into the eastern edge of the vacant, 35-acre industrial site. There, 3 acres are now giving rise to 42 new townhomes put there Urban Living, the Houston developer that received a multi-million dollar bill in court last week for copying copyrighted townhome plans at a handful of other sites. It’s calling this latest batch East River Yards (an apparent nod to the other industrial tract just south, the gradually crumbling KBR campus that’s been redubbed East River.)

The East River Yards houses will cluster around 3 shared driveways, all of which let out onto Press St.:

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East River Yards
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Featured Posts
11/08/18 3:00pm

Urban Living Gets $29 Million Penalty for Copycatting Townhomes

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Lawsuits, Townhomes
21 Comments

Just this morning, a federal judge ordered developer Urban Living to pay nearly $28 million to Houston home design firm Preston Wood & Associates. Preston Wood sued Urban Living in 2016, claiming that the developer and its business partners made unauthorized use of copyrighted townhome plans Preston Wood had provided 2 years earlier.

The plans were used to build and market 5 developments — including Patterson Street Landing, shown at top just north of Wash Ave. Another, EaDo Place, went up on Polk between Nagle and Live Oak. in 2015:

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Infingement Lawsuit
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Featured Posts
08/21/18 2:15pm

31 Townhome Sites Are Gaining Ground in the Second Ward Before Anything Gets Built on Them

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New Construction, Second Ward, Townhomes
4 Comments

Mounds of soil are now piled up behind La Familia Meat Market, where InTown Homes is in the early stages of construction on its latest townhome cluster, Williams on Commerce. A commercial fill and grade permit issued for the site back in mid-April gave the developer permission to jack up 31 of the lots it plans to build on using the dirt pictured above. Now that much of it’s been dumped in place, a few PVC pipes are starting to sprout from it.

Other infrastructure waits patiently on the sidelines:

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Featured Posts
09/08/17 1:15pm

The New Concrete-Block Homes on a Fifth Ward Block by the Tracks

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Fifth Ward, New Construction, Townhomes
24 Comments

Going up along Rawley St. just east of Gregg St. in the Fifth Ward: A row of five 3-story freestanding concrete-block townhomes from a company called Castro Novum. The photos were taken earlier this week — after Harvey storms had cleared out of the area. The homes are 2 blocks north of Lyons Ave. and back up to Union Pacific’s Terminal Subdivision freight-rail line. This one is furthest along:

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5 in a Row
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Featured Posts
07/11/17 3:00pm

Can You Beat This Townhome Gap?

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Fifth Ward, Townhomes
16 Comments

Here’s a first entry in what appears to be an impromptu, informal competition among Swamplot readers — to track down and photograph the narrowest findable gap between townhomes — and then speculate on what methods might be employed one day to repair or repaint the exteriors of the adjoining walls. The photo here shows a pair of townhomes lining Cage St. just north of Melva St. in the lower Fifth Ward, amidst a slew of similarly dimensioned homes in a larger complex. Think you can find a gap in the Houston area tighter than this one? Send pics and addresses to Swamplot’s tipline.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

 

Do Not Touch!
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Comments
06/29/17 2:00pm

Comment of the Day Runner-Up: How To Address the Townhome Gap

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Maintenance, Quicklink, Townhomes
20 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: HOW TO ADDRESS THE TOWNHOME GAP “I’ve always wondered how it will be possible to maintain (or one day have to replace) the fiber cement siding in between all those 3-story homes separated by what looks like mere shoulder width. Super thin scaffolding?” [Progg, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Real Difference Between a Townhome and a Patio Home] Photo of 3108 Baer St., Fifth Ward: HAR

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Comments
06/28/17 4:00pm

Comment of the Day: The Real Difference Between a Townhome and a Patio Home

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Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing, Townhomes
12 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE REAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A TOWNHOME AND A PATIO HOME “I see you crossed out townhouse and wrote patio home. So just what makes it a patio home? Does a 4 x 6 ft. space outside constitute a patio? Are all town-homes devoid of outdoor space?” [icerad, commenting on If You Like the Idea of Living Upstairs from Kay’s Lounge, Here’s the Next Best Thing] Illustration: Lulu  

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Featured Posts
06/27/17 11:00am

If You Like the Idea of Living Upstairs from Kay’s Lounge, Here’s the Next Best Thing

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New Construction, Proposed Developments, Rice Village, Townhomes
6 Comments

Newly posted to MLS: a listing for 1 of the 6 townhomes patio homes from Frasier Homes intended for the site of the former Kay’s Lounge. Garages, spare bedrooms, and side yards only will grace the ground floors of the properties in this shared-driveway 6-pack, however, because Kay’s Lounge itself — an establishment that was founded back in 1939 — was demolished last year. The new residential compound covers both the Kay’s lot, formerly known as 2334 Bissonnet, and the one immediately to the west at 2332 Bissonnet, which formerly housed an adjacent structure as well as longtime bar’s parking lot.

But if it’s the idea of living very close to storied nightlife that attracted you to this property in the first place, don’t be disappointed: Just next door to this property, in the former Bissonnet Auto Service Center at 2322 Bissonnet, a new brewery and lounge called Baileson Brewing Company is about to open. The fourth-floor patios at the top of the homes at 2332 Bissonnet (pictured at top right in the rendering above) will overlook Baileson’s driveway-turned-drinking-patio directly.

Here’s the second view from the listing, showing how the shared-drive fronts of the 3 units on the Baileson side might look if they’re completed before the other 3 are begun (they’d be in the foreground):

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New Neighbors in Rice Village
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Featured Posts
10/05/16 1:45pm

Little Thicket by Little Thicket Park To Be Plowed Under For Fresh Crop of Townhomes

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Interiors, Shady Acres, Townhomes
18 Comments

Proposed Rio Vista townhomes from Titan Homes, Shady Acres, Houston

Check out the first 6 of what Titan Homes says will be 18 townhomes planned for the area alongside Little Thicket Park off W. 25th St. in Shady Acres. The land for the project, which was purchased by the builder in 2014, isn’t technically part of the park, though its leafy coverage runs up to the edge of the property and blends in. The first set of 6 homes — to be called Rio Vista North — appear to come in 3 styles of crinkle-cut top-offs to the facade, and will sit north of a to-be-extended stretch of W. 25th St.

The 6-by-1 arrangement will back up to the property immediately north, which BMRJ Development is seeking to subdivide for a separate 3-by-2 sixpack facing Ohsfeldt. That potential development isn’t shown in this north-facing rendering of the Titan project’s back yard:

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Growing in Shady Acres
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Demolitions
07/08/15 2:15pm

Willowbend Strip Center Soil Ready for Planting of New Townhome Farm

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Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Townhomes, Willowbend
4 Comments

Demolition of Strip Center at 4122 Willowbend Blvd., Willowbend, Houston

The 1959 strip center that once hid the top-secret bar known as Carolyn’s — as well as the Fruit of the Spirit Community Church — is all gone now. Demolition crews tore down the 18,600-sq.-ft. center at 4122 Willowbend Blvd. 3 blocks west of S. Main St. last week and the week before (see in-action shots below, sent to Swamplot by an area resident). And in late May, the planning commission approved a couple of variances to allow the all-in-a-line seeding of 29 3-story townhomes on the lot, in 2 rows facing Willowbend, like so:

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Summer Crop
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Buying and Selling
07/02/15 1:00pm

Westbury Square Buyer Says All 11 Remaining Buildings Will Be Destroyed in 30 Days for Townhome Lots or Maybe Something Else

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Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Townhomes, Westbury
16 Comments

Westbury Square, West Bellfort Ave. Near Chimney Rock Rd., Westbury, Houston

Westbury Square, West Bellfort Ave. Near Chimney Rock Rd., Westbury, HoustonConfirming a rumor Swamplot noted last week, the HBJ’s Roxana Asgarian reports that “one of the largest residential developers in Houston” has plans to transform two-thirds of the site of former pedestrian shopping district Westbury Square into 100 to 125 townhomes. Camelot Realty Group’s Tom Cervone tells Asgarian a group of developers going by the name of Villas at Westbury Square has the property on West Bellfort near Chimney Rock and West Bellfort under contract from its longtime owner, Alfred Antonini.

All 11 remaining Westbury Square buildings — including the longtime home of the Company OnStage theater group — will be torn down in 30 days, the real estate agent says. Two of the more dilapidated structures from the complex were demolished last year; the Home Depot next door (visible in the distance in the photo below) was built on land that previously belonged to the complex.

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