ATLANTA COMPANY UPGRADING ENERGY CORRIDOR, WOODFOREST APARTMENT COMPLEXES FROM COUNTRY TO CITY 
A note on the purchase of 2 Houston apartment complexes by Atlanta’s Radco Companies noted in this morning’s roundup of Headlines: Urbanization — in advance or in recognition of actual changes-on-the-ground — appears to be part of the plan. In taking over the properties from Fannie Mae, Radco has renamed the 122-unit Country Place apartments at 1015 Country Place Dr. in the Energy Corridor to City Terrace. And the 458-unit Saddle Ridge apartments (pictured here) at 12800 Woodforest Blvd. at the northern tip of Riviera East, east of Uvalde Rd., is shedding its rural shadings under new ownership as well: It’s new name is City Crossing Apartments. The company also plans to spend an average of $13,300 per unit in upgrades. [Real Estate Bisnow; more info] Photo: Radco Companies
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Sources tell Swamplot that the River Oaks Baptist School is buying the building occupied by Walgreens at 3900 Westheimer Rd., at the southern end of the school’s campus on Willowick Rd. The school will reportedly use the 1.8-acre property vacated by the drug-store chain (and pictured above) for a “possible parking garage and secondary exit onto Westheimer.”
Walgreens won’t be leaving the Highland Village area, however. Workers are already transforming the former Fresh Market grocery store at 3745 Westheimer Rd. (pictured below) into a new Walgreens. It’s currently scheduled to open in March:
Rice Epicurean to Fresh Market to Walgreens
Another section of the former Shell Tech Center on Bellaire Blvd. in Southside Place is hitting the dirt this week, this time for a townhome community proposed by builders Rohe & Wright, whose previous developments include 30 Sunset, Winfield Gate, and Cáceres. The company is planning to build a townhome development on the site at 3747 Bellaire Blvd. called Crain Square — for which, the company’s website declares (without much more detail), “the classic American townhouse featuring southern traditional architecture is the muse.” (E.L. Crain was the founder of Southside Place.) The Village News provides more info, reporting that the company plans to fit 62 townhomes on the 5.5-acre center section of the former research complex — which occupied 3 properties totaling 9.7 acres.
Actual Zoning
- 7 of the Nation’s 20 Top-Selling Master-Planned Communities in 2014 Are in the Houston Area [HBJ]
- Atlanta Company Buys Country Place Apartments at 1015 Country Place Dr., Saddle Ridge Apartments at 12800 Woodforest Blvd. [Prime Property]
- Construction Begins on Best Western Plus on Seawall, Replacing Reef Resort Apartments Damaged By Ike [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Houston Real Estate Market Likely To Cool But Not Crash This Year, but Watch for the ‘Psychological’ Threat, Says Texas A&M Economist [Houston Chronicle]
- Oporto Fooding House & Wine Now Open on the Ground Floor of Post Midtown Square Apartments at 125 W. Gray [Food Chronicles]
- Harris County OKs $20M Loan To Help Finance Construction of Tomball Tollway [Houston Chronicle]
- 4 Construction Workers Robbed, 1 Shot at Atascocita Rd. Site [Click2Houston]
- Promoters of Plan To Turn Astrodome into Park Need To Make the Practical Business Case for Proposal [Next City; previously on Swamplot]
- Mala Sichuan Taking Over Just-Closed Dua, former Mo Mong Space in Lower Westheimer Shopping Center; Will Open by End of February [Culturemap]
Photo of Memorial Dr. at Waugh: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Forty or so years of a family’s ownership of a 1958 rancher in Briargrove north of San Felipe Rd. is likely ending soon with the midblock property’s listing for $899,000 earlier this week. Briargrove Elementary School sits 3 blocks to the south. Painted paneling, a plethora of shuttered windows and built-ins, and laminate counters in the kitchen indicate some updates have been made over the years to the home, which displays original hardwood flooring — and a lot of tended landscaping front and back.
Shutterstock
- 101 Glynn Way [HAR]
WORLD’S LARGEST AIR CONDITIONING MANUFACTURER TO BUILD GIANT COMFORTPLEX AT NORTHERN REACHES OF KATY PRAIRIE 
Ah, Houston industry! Oil may be down, but air conditioning is booming — and ready to do its part to further our fine city’s sprawl-ward spread. Ralph Bivins reports this morning that Japanese HVAC giant Daikin Industries, which paid $3.7 billion back in 2012 to buy Houston’s Goodman Global, will build a $417 million, 4,000,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing and logistics campus on virgin prairie southeast of Hockley, off U.S. 290 a good 3 miles west of the Grand Parkway. Dubbed the “Comfortplex,” the facility (portrayed in the rendering above) will consolidate current company operations in both Tennessee and Texas, and increase the company’s Houston-area workforce to approximately 4,000 employees. The Comfortplex will replace an existing 525,000-sq.-ft. Goodman air-conditioner factory near Loop 610 and 290 when it opens in 2016, Bivins notes. The company produces ducted and ductless AC systems under the Daikin, Goodman, and Amana brand names. [Realty News Report] Rendering: Daikin Industries
THE SWAMPLOT AWARDS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED 
Did it seem like the holiday season went by in a glittery flash? If so, maybe you didn’t have time to take in the wonders of the 2014 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. It’s the annual chance for this publication’s readers to honor local standouts with an assortment of accolades. 2014 may be over, but you can still revel over who or what your peers tagged as their Favorite Houston Design Cliche, Best Demolition, Best Sign of the New Houston, and other honorifics in 7 separate categories — simply by reading this accounting of the winners. Equally entertaining and informative is this roundup of the runners-up. Thanks again to all the worthy contestants and commentators — your rich contributions to this city (and this website) make the Swampies an annual endeavor worth repeating.
The Austin-based developer of 3 Houston apartment communities was arrested Saturday in Virginia for his role in a failed coup of the West African nation of Gambia. According to an affidavit prepared by an FBI special agent, Cherno M. Njie provided funds for the ill-fated venture, and was to have been installed as Gambia’s president if it had been successful. Prior to the surprise military venture in his native country, the University of Texas graduate served as the tax credit manager of the Texas department of housing and community affairs, which during his tenure awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in federal tax credits to developers of affordable housing. Njie resigned from the agency in 2001 following the bribery conviction of a board member and founded Songhai Development, whose later contributions to the Houston landscape include the Chelsea Senior Community (pictured at the bottom of this story) and the Little York Villas apartments near Acres Homes and the Langwick Senior Residences (pictured at top) near Greenspoint. He also served as president of Songhai’s sister company, CMB Construction.
In 2011, 3.2 acres of land Njie donated next to the Langwick project at Langwick Dr. and W. Hardy Rd. were turned into a park designed for senior citizens — named Ida Gaye Gardens, after Njie’s mother. (The photo at right above, posted on Songhai’s website, shows Njie at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the park with Greens Bayou Corridor Coalition’s Regina Lindsey.)
From a Greenspoint Park to a Gambia Coup
The end comes for the former Shamrock Hotel ballroom, now known as the Edwin Hornberger Conference Center. And a few more holdovers:
- Houston Ranks Second Behind New York City as Top U.S. City for Multifamily Construction, Says CBRE [Prime Property]
- Mischer Investments Developing 29K-SF Medical and Office Facility for Cypress Creek Lakes [Realty News Report]
- Pearland’s First Full-Service Hospital To Host Grand Opening on Friday [Houston Business Journal]
- Kiran’s Not Relocating to Kirby Grove; Will Stay at 4100 Westheimer [Food Chronicles]
- Cincinnati-Based Grilled Cheese Restaurant Tom+Chee To Open 5 Locations in Texas, Including Sugar Land and Katy [HBJ]
- After Long Delay, 6 of 39 New Light Rail Cars To Start Rolling on Red Line Today [The Highwayman]
- 20-Month-Old Bike Safety Ordinance Has Yielded Fewer Than a Dozen Citations [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Tootsie’s, West Ave: Lisa Garvin
Headlines
Three years ago, this 2011 custom Oak Forest home with porch and pool sold for $460,000. Now? A listing over the weekend of the Craftsman-with-stuck-on-stone property carries a $750,000 price tag. That’s where price reductions from a previous listing by the same agent had landed after an initial ask of $799,500 in November 2014 and pre-holiday drop to $775,000. If the back yard’s oasis doesn’t provide enough of an escape, Oak Forest Park is a (very long) block up the street, which is located east of Rosslyn Rd.
Cabana Club
- 14 Farnham Park Dr. [HAR]
Signs have gone up around the former metal foundry site at 3617 Baer St. in the Fifth Ward indicating that a hearing is scheduled for this Thursday to get city approval for the latest rejiggering of homesites on the 35-acre tract. Developer Frank Liu of Lovett Homes, InTown Homes, and a few other local builder brands plans to put a total of 538 homes (down from 589) on the EPA-monitored property, known as the MDI Superfund Site after the last owner of the metal-casting operations, Many Diversified Interests, which shut down in the early 1990s (previously, the plants were owned by TESCO). The property, which lies just south of I-10 about 2 miles of east of downtown, was listed on the EPA’s list of priority Superfund sites in 1999, after tests showed the soil and groundwater was contaminated with lead and other hazardous metals.
Living Green
