Daily Demolition Report: Prologis Is Past Us

Gone with the wick of a willow:

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Commercial Structures

Residences

Photo of 3640 Willowick Rd.: HAR

18 Comment

  • thank God they finally tear down that hellhole on Willowick. I’m guessing the listing said in all-caps “being sold as-is for lot value only. will not tour the interior, only exterior property tour with appointment, thanks”

    …love this town.

  • Jesus Christ. Who would tear down that beautiful house on Willowick? Insane in the membrane.

  • Can’t wait to see the tasteful new addition to Willowick.

  • Wow, $8.5 million for a teardown. True, it’s over an acre and a half on the golf course, but still, there was probably nothing wrong with it other than “not new”.

  • There’s no way that Willowick home is a teardown. I’m hoping someone will get on here and clarify that it’s the garage or quarters being torn down. If it is the house, I wonder if the former owners had any idea what was in store for it, because it looks very well-cared for.

  • Ha. Got to love oilmen and things they do with their cash.

  • Hcad shows that a very prom oil man owns the property..so we build a new house in the grand style that we have become accustomed to only way to fly!!!!

  • $87,000 tax bill on the old house, just think what it will be on the new one!!!

  • I assume that â– El Chaparral is being torn down due to the 290/610 expansion??? That place needed to go along time ago with all the crime that was happening outside it.

  • @ Gary–he’s a pretty young one too! Maybe they needed more bedrooms for the kids?

  • @hardworkingwoman: Driving through that area of town is very depressing. More depressing is how many areas like it there are in and immediately around the loop.

  • This house will (sadly) be demolished. It was designed by Harvin Moore in 1940 for Mr. and Mrs. Sydnor Oden. The Odens had returned to Houston from living in Italy, and they wanted a house that reflected Italian architecture. I am thinking that a tear-down trend is on the rise.

  • Actually, I know the owners. They were just devastated to discover, when they were in contract to purchase the home, that it was FULL of toxic mold.

    Trust me, I echo everyone else’s sentiments about tear downs – and this house is spectacular – but the new owners do have small children and it’s simply not safe to live in it as is.

    People, do your research before you bash and belittle.

  • @ Jane, though I have no evidence to show your story about toxic mold to be untrue, I find it rather exceptional that someone purchasing a multi-million dollar property would not suspend a contract before closing if the inspection report came back showing toxic mold. Any purchaser of even a $75000 home in Texas would have legal standing not to proceed with purchase were mold found. That story as related doesn’t add up to me.
    However, since the Raymonds, and not I, own the home, they can do with it as they wish.

  • Yeah, what shadyheightster said.

    Smells fishy to me. Toxic mold is a good excuse when no one questions it. But for that much money, my bet is the ‘new owners’ would question it. They probably just wanted the location. And that’s fine, it’s their money and their property. No need to fabricate stories.

  • “Toxic mold” isn’t hard to get rid of. And you don’t tear down a giant mansion because of it.

  • Four cups water and one cup of bleach is all that is needed to get rid of “toxic mold”. Stachybotrys chartarum is the “toxic” mold that likes to grow in dry wall and other fiberboard materials that created hysteria in Texas. Texas trial lawyers got a massive verdict for a Corpus Christi woman claiming that the black mold in her house made her sick. This coincided with the mold problems with synthetic stucco siding and created a cottage industry of mold testing and remediation companies who will tell you that you will die within 24 hours if you do not make a claim on your homeowners insurance to pay them for mold remediation work. Mold is never a reason to demolish a structure. If it is bad, you just have to treat or replace the drywall and make sure the source of moisture is fixed.

  • I think that $120/sf is about right for a golf course lot in River Oaks seeing how looking at a sales map of lot sales in the area, I only see one lot that sold recently for less than 90/sf and that one is mostly floodplain. I’d bet that HCAD decides to jack everyones land value in this area up next year based on this sale.