02/04/15 2:00pm

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Higher-density development has been closing in on a renovated 1938 property on a corner in Turner Court (a pocket of Museum Park). The same trend has been under way within, where sleek office spaces stack up — though the column-studded buildout is more elegant than found in a common cube farm. In its listing earlier this week, the home-or-office property’s asking price is identified as $549,999. Some NOLA-inspired ornamentals trick out both levels of the front porch, which faces south on a stub of Hermann Dr. with access to the South Fwy. feeder road. But it’s cut off from the section a block south that heads west through Hermann Park from a big intersection shared with MacGregor Way at MacGregor Park.

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Housework
02/04/15 1:00pm

Greenleaf Gardens, 803 Kipling St., Audubon Place Historic District, Houston

Greenleaf Gardens, 803 Kipling St., Audubon Place Historic District, Houston

Last week a for-sale sign went up at the 8,400-sq.-ft. vacant lot at the corner of Kipling and Stanford that’s been used for the past several years as an Audubon Place community garden. And there it was on MLS, available for $630K: the former homesite William Winkler had bought in 2012 and parceled out for neighborhood veggie-growing efforts, now offered as “the only lot in the Audubon Place Historic District that’s available to build a new construction home.

Greenleaf Gardens began operating on the site in May 2012, after Winkler purchasing the lot for $300,000. Subscribers rented out 4-ft.-by-20-ft. raised-bed plots on the property.

Winkler considers the garden operation a success; he says he’s selling only because of a change in his personal financial situation. Several users of the garden have indicated they’d be willing to pay significantly higher annual subscription fees. Earlier this week, Winkler sent out an email indicating he’s open to another option: selling the property to a nonprofit that would keep the garden running.

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Greenleaf Gardens
02/04/15 8:30am

beatles

Photo of Beatles Sculpture by David Adickes on Summer Street: Brandi Lynn via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
02/03/15 1:15pm

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For those who consume real estate like potato chips, here’s a 6-pack of homes in Kashmere Gardens that share a gated driveway on the north side. Identical in design, each home within the complex hit the market last week at $52,600. Although the tenant-occupied properties are located a block and a half south of the East Loop near Lockwood Dr., the banks of Hunting Bayou prevent direct access to the feeder road.

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All in a Row
02/03/15 12:00pm

West U Court Townhomes, Law  and Weslayan Streets, West University Place Texas

West U Court Townhomes, Law  and Weslayan Streets, West University Place Texas

Here’s a shadow sighting sure to knock the winter doldrums out of any emerging groundhog: Signs are up at the West U Court townhomes marketed by Urban Living at the corner of Weslayan and Law streets, dangling hefty Crate & Barrel, Restoration Hardware, and Best Buy gift cards — among other prizes — free, with your casual purchase of townhome. “It appears from the flier and the website that only one of the units has sold so far; they start at $699,900,” notes the reader who sent in these pics of the festooned not-sold-yet properties. . . . It looks like Urban Living is offering the same incentives on all of their properties.”

Photos: Swamplot inbox

Shiny!
02/03/15 8:30am

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Photo of Rice University: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
02/02/15 3:30pm

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Rice U.’s real estate appetite for Rice Village property just picked up another choice tidbit: 2445 Times Blvd. That’s the 1955 flat-topped 7,500-sq.-ft. retail property on the southeast corner of Times Blvd. and Kelvin Dr. that’s spooned by mega-neighbor Village Arcade (which Rice also owns). In its listing by Davis Commercial, seller Rinkoff Rice Village LP’s asking price for the “trophy” corner was $3.995 million, though it initially sought $4.2 million. Who’s currently on display behind all the storefront windows?

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Miss Saigon Goes to Rice
02/02/15 2:45pm

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Tiles run below, above, and in between the rooms of a 1967 Sharpstown Country Club Terrace home that’s also stocked with rustic, handcrafted wooden doors. In place of a garage, there’s a “casita,” its listing last week touts. Located north of Beechnut St. and east of Gessner St., the palm-fronted property has a $265K asking price.

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When Modern Went Heavy Tile
02/02/15 1:00pm

Mimosa Ln. Apartments, 2415 Mimosa Ln., Avalon Place, Houston

Mimosa Ln. Apartments, 2415 Mimosa Ln., Avalon Place, HoustonLast call came for the Mimosa Lane Apartments a couple of months ago — residents of the 1960 garden apartment complex in Avalon Place (along with those of its neighbor, the Argonne Forest Apartments) were given notice in early October of an end-of-November clear-out. That was apparently plenty of time to get word out about a goodbye party or 2.

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A Garden Apartment Sendoff
02/02/15 11:00am

412 Westheimer Rd., Montrose, Houston

A reader sends in this photo of the former Touch of Red salon at 412 Westheimer Rd. (just west of Taft St.), future home of a bar scored by Eater Houston earlier this month as number 21 of the season’s 33 “most anticipated openings” of Houston food-and-drink establishments. (Well, sort of: The list is alphabetical.) Passersby have been anticipating the Limehouse, to be operated by the Montrose Revival Group (aka Free Press Houston’s Omar Afra and Moon Tower Inn‘s Brandon Young), since mid-September, when a TABC application was first spotted on the front door. The building is connected to its neighbor at 408 Westheimer, a former bed & breakfast.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

Lower Westheimer