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UP IN THE AIR AND ROTATING AT THE CORNER OF MONTROSE AND HAWTHORNE Construction Crane, 3400 Montrose Blvd., Montrose, Houston Here’s your photo proof that the construction crane for Hanover’s new 30-story 3400 Montrose apartment building going up at 3400 Montrose Blvd., on the site of the 3400 Montrose office building torn down earlier this year, went up before Christmas 2014. A reader sends in this shot from the catty-corner corner at cross street Hawthorne. The crane was assembled on site last week. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox

77006, Apartments, Montrose, New Construction

Daily Demolition Report

12/24/14 9:15am

Daily Demolition Report: Ovid Metamorphosis

1 Comment

1720 Ovid St., Beauchamp Springs, First Ward, Houston

There is poetry in exile. Even if there is no return.

Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions

Headlines

12/24/14 8:30am

Another Restaurant Closing Near Washington Ave; The Fight Against Rising Commercial Property Valuations

by Meredith Deliso

1 Comment

phillips-66-tree

Webster Master-Planned Community Edgewater Has Sold 34 Out of 40 Available Townhomes [Prime Property]
Texas Building Owners and Managers Association Campaigning To Reform Property Appraisal Process [Houston Business Journal]
Washington Ave-Area Restaurant Katch 22 Has Closed [Culturemap]
Sugar Land Wants Convention Center, But Only as Part of a Hotel-Based ComplexÂ [Your Houston News]
How Independence Heights-Based Company Houze Builds Zero-Energy Homes [The Leader]
ExxonMobil Considering Additional Transit Services To Ease Commutes To Its Corporate Campus [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of Phillips 66 HQ, Beltway 8: Swamplot inbox

Headlines

Home Prices

12/23/14 4:30pm

Tanking Oil Prices Place Houston Second on Fitch’s Overvalued Housing Market List

13 Comments

TANKING OIL PRICES PLACE HOUSTON SECOND ON FITCH’S OVERVALUED HOUSING MARKET LIST overpriced-homes-sign300 With homes selling on average 19 percent above their value, Houston trails only Austin as an overheated U.S. market, says mortgage securities group Fitch Ratings. “What we’re most worried about is speculative buying and selling,” says Fitch analyst Stefan Hilts. “People aren’t buying houses because they need to; it’s because they can. That’s causing a big market distortion.” Sub-$60 oil gets much of the blame, but there are several other factors at play: student debt, rising home prices, the tendency of the millennial generation to delay home ownership, and high apartment rents hampering the ability of would-be homeowners to save for a down payment. [Houston Business Journal] Photo of Gary Sweeney sign at Art Guys World Headquarters: Shawna Mouser

Housing Prices

Apartments

12/23/14 3:15pm

Five of Old Hardy Rail Yard’s 50 Acres To Become a Mostly Affordable Near Northside Apartment Complex

18 Comments

hardy-yards-residences-panorama

A teaser website is now up and more work is underway on the Residences at Hardy Yards, touted as a component of the Near Northside’s very first mixed-use development. The apartments — “part of a comprehensive, mixed-use redevelopment of the Hardy Rail Yard site,” per city documents — are going in on 5 acres of the long-neglected former Southern Pacific and Union Pacific rail yard near the corner of N. Main St. and Burnett St., 2 blocks north of I-10, hard by the new MetroRail line, and just east of UH-Downtown.Â

Earlier this month City Council approved a performance-based loan of $14,500,000 in federal hurricane relief moneyÂ to the Houston and Financing Corporation-created entity HY FS LLC to build a 350-residential unit development on part of the 49-acre recently guerrilla-gardened property.

One condition of the loan: that 179 of the total of 350 one- and 2-bedroom units be affordable:

Tracks To Flats

77020, Affordable Housing, Fifth Ward, Mixed-Use Properties, Near Northside, New Constructions

Homes for Sale

12/23/14 1:30pm

A Woodside Rancher Is Remuddle-Ready

by CALwords

8 Comments

3707-durhill-20141222_0001

3707-durhill-20141222_0005

Shaggy carpet, lots of louvers, and plenty of boldly patterned wallpaper from a longÂ ownership tenure cling to a 1960 rancher in Woodside.Â Its midblock lot curves slightly to fit the mid-neighborhood roadway that spans from Latma to Timberside. In its listing late last week, the property’s asking price was set atÂ $359K.

Carpet Diem

77025, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Woodshire

Hyde Park

12/23/14 12:30pm

Who Was Shelley, and Why Is Her Name Inscribed Over the Front Door of My Hyde Park Fourplex?

12 Comments

shelley-montrose

Hyde Park resident Michael Draper writes: “I live at Maryland and Yupon and my fourplex has the name Shelley inscribed above it. Down the street at Rudyard’s/Next Door Bar it had a similar inscription that read LALA. There are many others including Axelrad and more. My question is what purpose did these serve?”

“Were they family names and perhaps a trend during home construction of that era or is there another purpose? Every amount of research I’ve done had yielded no answers….It is an interesting feature and partially a reason I decided on this property to rent.”

Photo: Michael Draper

The Writing On The Walls

77006, Houston History, Montrose

Homes for Sale

12/23/14 10:00am

End of Year Montrose Home Clearance

10 Comments

END OF YEAR MONTROSE HOME CLEARANCE 1225 Welch St., Hyde Park, Montrose, Houston Looking for that last-minute, low-cost, blockbuster Christmas gift for a certain someone who has . . . a place to put anything? Over on Craigslist, someone is offering this well-worn, 2-bedroom, 2-bath 1925 bungalow in Hyde Park for the gotta-grab-it-now price of free. What’s the catch? Just explain it to the gift recipient as a New Year’s resolution: The home must be removed from its lot at 1225 Welch St. by January 15th. (Which will certainly end up costing a fair bit more than free.) Meanwhile, the same home is still listed for sale on MLSÂ — with its 5,000-sq.-ft. lot — for a somewhat higher price: $525,000. [Craigslist; HAR]

77006, Homes for Sale, Housemoving, Hyde Park, Montrose

Daily Demolition Report

12/23/14 9:15am

Daily Demolition Report: Clean Out

No Comments

12310 Boheme Dr., Frostwood, Houston

Your blouses, I presume?

Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions

Headlines

12/23/14 8:30am

Mapping the Rise and Fall of Texas Home Values; Decreasing the Number of Solo Commuters

by Meredith Deliso

3 Comments

River-Oaks-Blvd-holiday-lights

An Interactive Map of Where Texas Home Values are Rising and Falling [Houston Business Journal]
Construction Begins on Shenandoah’s First Full-Service Hotel [Prime Property]
Liberty Kitchen To Open a Memorial City Location Late Next Year [Houston Business Journal]
West Houstonians Discuss Future Transit Options in Burgeoning BurbsÂ [Houston Chronicle]
Houston-Galveston Area Council Hopes To Decrease Percentage of Region’s Solo Commuters By 12-15% in 2015 [Houston Public Media]
Doctors Beat Architects in AIA Gingerbread Build-Off [Culturemap]
Holiday Lights, Decorations Making a Comeback on Oak Forest and Shepherd Park Plaza Houses [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of River Oaks Blvd.: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines

Memorial Park

12/22/14 4:30pm

Memorial Park Pool Proposal Reps Houston, Flanks 50 Meter Competition Pool with Twin 100 Meter Training Pools

24 Comments

htown-pool-memorial-park-closeup htown-pool-memorial-park-airplane

Local designer Paul Kweton submits for reader review his proposed Bayou City-proud Memorial Park outdoor competition and training pool for swimmers and triathletes.

“The pool offers a 50m competition pool flanked on both sides with 100m training pools,” writes Kweton, who is also known as “Paulbaut.” Hence the functional Nazca Line-like proposal’s name: the H-TOWN Outdoor Pool.

H Marks The Spot

77007, Parks, Proposed Developments, Swimming Pools

Apartments

12/22/14 2:00pm

The Soggy Demise of Richmont Square Apartments’ Back Third

1 Comment

richmont-demo1

Behold Friday’s sodden wreckage of the northernmost 33 percent of the Richmont Square apartment complex at 1400 Richmond, which is currently being erased to make way for the Menil’s upcoming drawing institute.

Menil On The Move

77006, Demolitions, Menil Collection, Richmond Ave., Richmont Square

Sprawl Vortex at S. Shepherd and W. Alabama Will Turn Roeder’s Pub into Drive-Thru, Cat Clinic Houses into CVS

46 Comments

shep-alabama-cat-demo

As of December 10 heavy equipment was already on site at the southwest corner of W. Alabama St. and S. Shepherd Dr., where a bevy of venerable-by-Houston-standards small businesses — including quirky jewelers Fly High Little Bunny, laid-back Roeder’s Pub,Â a cat clinic and stray adoption center, and late-night hang Ruchi’s Taqueria — are eating it to make way for a CVS and a roughly 24,000 sq.-ft. pad site.

Back when news of the development broke, some Swamplot commenters criticized it, site-plan unseen, as overly suburban-looking for its location, just across W. Alabama from the old theater and adjoining strip mall that now houses Trader Joe’s.

And now developers Read-King have released the site plans: