Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
The Fink Apartments, ratted out.
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Commercial Structures
- Apartments, 2503 Chenevert St. 77004
Residences
- 2512 Prospect St. 77004 (garage only)
- 2622 Crocker St. 77006
- 1310 Nantucket Dr. 77057 (new construction by Prestige Builders)
Photo of Fink Apartments, 2503 Chenevert St.: HAR
Awww, more cute affordable apartments bite the dust.
I know, I know, where I go to buy my Oxy.
Because “apartment people” have no business inside the sacred loop.
Because somewhere these apartments are depriving some young hip couple of his and hers offices in their new townhome.
I get it.
The new City of H. habitability ordinance
requirements are forcing many 4-plex owners to just throw up their hands and give in to
the demolition craze. The Fink looks like
a sound 4-plex, but who knows what the city inspectors came up with . . . oh well, more
meaningless bland cheap-ass townhouses coming soon.
Apartment people have plenty of business inside the Loop, Darogr. In fact, there are at least 5,000 apartment units currently under construction (or very close) in the Inner Loop as we speak.
As for those “meaningless, bland cheap ass townhouses”… Swamplotters almost universally hate them, yet they’ve been selling like hot cakes for nearly 20 years. Go figure.
It’s a mystery to me who lives in these new construction apartments. I make considerably more money than the average wage earner in Houston, and I sure don’t live in one.
Look at The Fink and then look at the monstrocity next to it, with the huge a/c unit in front, constantly kicking on and off.
I think pod people live in those things and they keep their pods there. Think about it…do you ever really see someone who lives in those kinds of townhomes? You may occasionally see the huge garage door open and shut, but never see the people.
Where is the “rent is too damned high” party when you need it. No comment on habitability ordinance. I’ve had my own unpleasant dealings with COH. They basically mandate history be eliminated.
I live in the general neighborhood and these quadplexes typically look to be crime magnets. If such is in fact the case good riddance!
Bernard, people that buy those cheap ass townhouses probably do not read Swamplot.
If they did they’d know stucco is absolute sh!t. And the whole 3 story with an elevator notion is simply marking yourself a douche, with zero appreciation for history and or build quality. More money than sense..
When I lived in my cheap Montrose apartments, I was able to do all kinds of untrendy things like start my IRA (and contribute the staggering max of *gasp* $2000!) and buy a high-value whole life insurance policy with locked-in under age 25 rates. Of course, I had to hang out with fellow losers willing to overlook my not living in an amenity-filled complex, but them’s the breaks.
One great thing about being a dinosaur has been watching the housing trends come and go – the great Condo Crash of the ’80’s, the hottest address in town being Colonial House Apartments, complete with girls surfacing from the pool to hand new tenants a VCR. Ah, good times….
Re who buys those cheap-azz townhouses and condos… Not sure, but I see the same ones every week on har.com when I look at the list of open houses in 77006. I think the same ones are just going on and off market without selling.
e.g. MLS #30579742, 1516 Ridgewood. Thanks to the brand new nuhabitat.com site, even we non-REALTOR(R) peons can see that it will have been on the market for exactly two years on Sunday March 4th. It’s having yet another OH on both Saturday and Sunday, as it does nearly every Saturday and Sunday.
Or the Travis Lofts, AKA 2510 Travis #whatever. There are about 15 units built in 2009, described as “fabulous new construction”, i.e. three years old but never lived in. They have their open houses every Sunday. Multiple MLS #s, e.g. 93451245.
Or the Balconies of Bomar, e.g. MLS #74626439 326 Bomar, first listed 3/2/2009 and allowed to expire twice before being put up for lease.
I feel you, Darogr.
@ GoogleMaster–Quality construction with quality floorplans in quality locations sells. Slapdashed projects in not so great locations ( like next to the railroad tracks) usually sits around much longer.
As to what others are saying about “affordable” apartments within the loop ( really the western loop) being razed in favor of more expensive new construction, this is just bound to happen as the city increases population and density increases. Same thing has happened in places like New York, Chicago, and Washington at various points in their history as population exploded and land values increased. Maybe the artsy young demographic that inhabited cheap apartments in Montrose 20 years ago will in 5 or 10 years be staking out territory in what could be newly the hip East End or Gulfgate in 2020.
Try driving down Stanford for further proof. 3 story stucco monstrosities sit empty for months, years, every time a nice four square or brick bungalow goes up for sale it’s gone in mere days. Not everyone is stupid, nor are they all raising 75 year old houses to build lifeless stucco memorials to conspicuous consumption. I hope this trend dies an untimely death soon.
Get over yourselves. If you want older homes and apartments, there are plenty of great options east of 288 in the loop.
I happen to live in a 3-story townhouse and love it. There are plenty of older homes, 4-plexes in my neighborhood too, but yes, it’s basically becoming a 3-/4-story townhouse haven. While many people speak about the “history” of Houston in these homes, I find many of them to be dilapidated and run down (not all, of course). So, I see no reason to enjoy keeping up decrepit structures that 1) need to be remodeled or 2) demo’d. Don’t fool yourself — not everything that is old is built to last or of quality craftsmenship. There are a lot of cheap townhouses being put up, but there are also some very nice ones out there (including mine). Also, what’s the deal with everybody hating stucco? What makes ugly brick feel full of life and warm?
Maybe it’s the fact that I grew up outside of Texas that I don’t think some of the prices are so bad. I was shocked when I moved here to see homes in the burbs selling for
In come the rationalization crew and those with more excuses than logic. Your stucco home will look like **!t in under 20 years mark my words, and instead of remodeling you’ll be rebuilding thanks to the mold that will be growing inside your walls. You’re an out stater, that’s somewhat understandable, but real people prefer real History in Texas to a home likely built in under 3 days with the cheapest building materials and labor you could ever find, some things were built to last your stucco is planned obsolescence.
If it’s real stucco and not EIFS, fine. No reputable insurance company will write that garbage. Mortgage qualifications have tightened up and unless the buyer pays cash and self-insures, an EIFS townhouse could sit there for a loooooong time.
Bernard, people that buy those cheap ass townhouses probably do not read Swamplot.
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For the record:
1. I live in a 3-story townhouse;
2. I don’t consider it cheap ass;
3. It was built in 1994 and still looks great;
4. I love it;
5. My neighbors love theirs;
6. I like stucco and brick;
7. Mine has both;
8. Lived in Houston for 40+ years;
9. I smile when anything in my neighborhood appears on the Demo Report; AND
10. I read Swamplot.
Well then, since you do not consider yours a “cheap ass townhouse”, obviously you are not one of those people!
I guess there’s a limit on a comment length because mine got cut off. Oh well, I didn’t have much more to say than Houston has a lot of cheap housing. Really. From an outsider’s perspective, anything under $300K is cheap!
I don’t think people know their townhouses are ugly. If they did, they wouldn’t buy them, right?
I think most of us townhome “haters” are talking about the cheap ugly ones. Personally, I have no problem with a dilapidated house being torn down and replaced with a nice townhome. I do have a problem with a charming house being torn down for an ugly townhome that is going to look like a slum in 20, no make that 10 years.
I’ve already faced the fact that within 5 years there will be no moderately priced apartments in Montrose. If I stay in Houston, it’s to the burbs with me, I guess.
Darogr, couldn’t agree more. I don’t know what’s worse though, stucco or industrial looking metal sheeting and the very dutch modern architecture ie. boxy designs that seem to be popping up everywhere; they’re real eyesores. If the whole neighborhood was comprised of these it would be fine, and almost cool, but that sitting next to a bungalow on one side, and a 30’s era brick two story on the other, with ugly as all get out Stucco monsters across the street all lends to a seriously incongruous neighborhood that obviously lacks planning and oversight. I’ll save what little history is left in Houston while you lavish in your conspicuous consumption stucco with very water and stir architecture, color me unimpressed.
Oops add water and stir, I really should be working..
Agreed, Darogr.
i just wish i could base all my purchases off rigorous aesthetic and historical trends rather than the underlying economics and my base financial well-being. everyone has their personal priorities and should have the right to cater to those priorities as they see fit.
as for me, i fully intend on buying the cheapest and most efficient/utilitarian townhome to fit mine and my families needs, which is of course guaranteed to be ugly and of shoddy construction. if i choose to defer proper maintenance on it for 40yrs in exchange for a well-funded roth IRA and 401k, is that really so morally reprehensible (especially after what the boomers are doing to this countries finances)? on the positive side, in 40yrs time a much better and more efficinet home will be built making all those aesthetically pleasing and expensive townhomes of current years look out of place, again.
Darogr, try Oak Forest. The small houses were being marketed as “condo alternatives” a few years back. There are still a few blocks that Mel Reyna hasn’t hit – just stay away from Section 1. I picked up my co-worker on Monday and saw a “For Sale By Owner – $300K OBO” in the 1200 block of Wakefield for a bungalow. With a lot over 8000 sq. ft. and no plans to sell for another 7 years or so, she’s sitting on a gold mine.
20-30 years ago people couldn’t get out of the city fast enough, now it’s a gold rush to get back into the city proper, and one need not wonder why the suburbs have become littered with crime and undesirable elements. There’s gold in dem dar lots; hurry while the gettings good! Oak Forest meet gentrification (and or gentrifying Jesus)..