01/09/15 12:30pm

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Behind this row of 9 live oak trees along Leeland St., one block north of the Gulf Fwy. (and the southern edge of East Downtown), Talia Homes is planning a development of 75 gated homes called Talia Village — on the site of what was, until last summer, the Spencer Company’s Florabunda wholesale nursery at 1609 Ennis St. South of the development is the Metro Auto Storage tow lot; to the east lies what a reader describes as “uh, a large pasture next to the bike trail which is used by somebody’s horses fairly often.”

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Talia Village Greenery
01/08/15 11:30am

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Another section of the former Shell Tech Center on Bellaire Blvd. in Southside Place is hitting the dirt this week, this time for a townhome community proposed by builders Rohe & Wright, whose previous developments include 30 Sunset, Winfield Gate, and Cáceres. The company is planning to build a townhome development on the site at 3747 Bellaire Blvd. called Crain Square — for which, the company’s website declares (without much more detail), “the classic American townhouse featuring southern traditional architecture is the muse.” (E.L. Crain was the founder of Southside Place.) The Village News provides more info, reporting that the company plans to fit 62 townhomes on the 5.5-acre center section of the former research complex — which occupied 3 properties totaling 9.7 acres.

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Actual Zoning
11/13/14 5:00pm

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Colors a-blazing and juxtaposed vibe big time within a 2004 townhome in Crosby Place that popped up on the market a week ago. Its location is in the cluster of brightly painted townhome developments on the eastern edge of the Fourth Ward near Midtown. On listing day, the metal-clad property appears to have briefly flirted with a $330,000 asking price but reverted to its original $324,900. Today, fresh listing photos brought in crisper staging of the space . . .

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Primary Residence
11/05/14 3:15pm

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Facing a courtyard and across from a waterside swimming pool, a 2006 Tuscan townhome anchors its corner of Clear Lake’s Armandwilde development. A pond roped off from Mud Lake, the final form of Armand Bayou as it flows into Clear Lake, laps at the property’s shore, which is located off Space Center Blvd. north of E. NASA Pkwy. The old Jim West Mansion, once a repository for moon rocks but now an anchor haberdashery for Hakeem Olajuwon, is nearby. This stucco-and-tile clad unit, one of the larger for the development, was listed last week at $299,000. That’s nearly $200K less than its $495,000 ask back in the heady days of 2008, but that offering expired after 4 months on the market.

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Over a Pool, on a Pond, on 2 Lakes
11/05/14 1:00pm

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What happened to that Fortress French development of enormous $2.2-million-plus townhomes (pictured at top) planned for the former site of Urban Retreat across the street from River Oaks on the corner of San Felipe and Revere St.? Builder Rohe & Wright has scrapped plans for the 10-unit Saint Honoré at 1900 Revere St. — in favor of a reconfigured development that will lack its predecessor’s continental pretensions:

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Wilde Associations
10/20/14 5:00pm

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It’s not the largest of the townhomes lining West University’s Northern border, but it might be the tallest — and it’s certainly the whitest. The stucco contemporary’s listing at $485K mid-month points out the home was built in 1983, not the 1973 found on HCAD. A 3-story design amid 2-story neighbors, the front loader comes with a crow’s nest view north and west that takes in Greenway Plaza. H-E-B’s Buffalo Market is across and down the street.

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Decked Out
10/20/14 2:00pm

115 Arnold St., Rice Military, Houston

The steel-framed doubled-up home at 115 Arnold St. in Rice Military (pictured above) owned by Houston restaurateur Ouisie Jones and her husband Harry Jones earned its demolition permit yesterday, a few months after the property was sold to a developer — for $2.2 million. (It was asking $2.65 million this past March, when Swamplot featured it.) The 24,915-sq.-ft. property is being joined with the slightly larger plot of land under the adjacent warehouse building at 5202 Chandler St. to make space for an F-shaped 22-townhome development.

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Redevelopment on the Menu
10/09/14 5:00pm

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A renovated and expanded Richmond Place property near the curve of S. Shepherd Dr. pairs its detail-rich cottage (middle) at curbside with a more modern garage-topper behind. Should the 11-year-old back-of-lot building be scored as tony quarters or swish open-plan townhome? Either way, the property is restricted to single-family use, as noted in the $763,250 listing posted last Friday.

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Stones and Sticks
09/25/14 5:15pm

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Seating tiers up for a wide view of creeky woods out the full-height (and then some) window wall of a 1982 townhome in the Pine Briar enclave. The balcony out front, however, hangs over a no-nonsense brick facade. The barred entry and double-wide driveway front the shared motor court of the gated community, which is located east of Chimney Rock Rd. near some of the bends in Buffalo Bayou between Woodway and Memorial drives. The last time the property changed hands (in 2011) it sold for $625K after reductions from the initial $780K asking price. Back on the market as of 2 weeks ago, the property is now aiming for $999K.

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Squeegee Not Included
08/06/14 1:45pm

Sure, high-above drone still shots now regularly pepper real estate listings, but a reader wonders whether the effort shown above — and included in this for-sale website — might constitute the first video tour by quadcopter ever to appear in Houston’s MLS. It probably isn’t, if only because (as of early this afternoon), the 3-story townhouse at 1611 W. Clay St., which backs up to the TJ Maxx store on W. Gray St., isn’t actually listed for sale on the MLS (it last sold in 2012, for $462,060). But the video was only posted on Monday, so give it some time. Asking price: $560,000.

The flying-remote-camera footage begins with an awe-inducing golden-hour survey of the home’s exterior and moves onto the amazing views of downtown and the surrounding neighborhood that might be available were the townhouse to be 3 or so stories taller than it is. But more notable is the moment about 44 seconds in, when the flying-around-the-house quadcopter camera footage cuts directly into an interior walkthrough, starting from the front door (leaving out, of course, the awkward around-the-side-of-the-garage entrance common to homes of this type).

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Real Estate Listing Innovations