Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
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- Duncan Family To Buy Shell’s Downtown Headquarters for Record $550M [Prime Property]
- Energy Corridor Building Boom: At Least 17 Office Projects Planned Along West Belt, I-10 [Houston Chronicle]
- The 17 Projects Planned or Under Construction in the Energy Corridor [Prime Property]
- Houston’s 2,800 Apartment Properties Slow To Earn Voluntary ‘Blue Star’ HPD Safety Certification [Houston Chronicle]
- Pleasure Pier Closer to Full Operation with Last Week’s Opening of Galaxy Wheel, Stage [Galveston County Daily News]
- Shellside in League City ‘Just Getting Started’ on Addressing Neighborhood’s Flooding Problem [Galveston County Daily News]
- Grogan’s Mill Residents Concerned Neighbors’ Drainage Ditch Modifications Could Lead to Flooding [Woodlands Villager]
- Bacteria Alerts Up at Galveston County Beaches This Summer [Galveston County Daily News]
- Councilman Wants to Bring ‘Parklets’ to Houston, Allow Parks in Metered Spaces [Houston Chronicle]
- City of Cleveland Unlikely To Face Penalty for Breaking Contract, Removing Red Light Cameras [Cleveland Advocate]
- Building Your Own Bat House To Help Combat Mosquito Problems [Click2Houston]
- A Walk Through DuZER, Palmer Schooley’s Futuristic Zero Energy Duplex Residence in Brookesmith [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of US-59: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MONTROSE, GOING VEGAS “. . . It took Montrose it’s whole lifetime to get to ~7000 units. Yes there is strong demand, no one would doubt that . . . which is why you have people building. But they’re building at a frantic pace. So while it took Montrose it’s whole life to ~7000 units, we’re about to DOUBLE that in a few years. So strong demand brings strong supply. I believe turds is saying that the supply is coming so strong that it’ll outpace demand and thus create the need for incentives. Personally I think we’re going to have a Vegas (strip) style disruption in econ 101 where supply tends to CREATE demand. As these units come online, they’ll make the area better, and increase demand to live here. These units won’t be for the people living here. They’ll be for new people coming here. So I think Montrose can take these units on and be just fine (with respects to multifamily operator demand).” [Cody, commenting on What To Make of the Museum Gardens Sale]
UT’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center plans to build this 8-ish story pavilion, called The Pavilion, in front of the Alkek hospital at the corner of Bertner and Bates streets in the Med Center — replacing the pavilion-like rotunda that stands there now. The new building will house the center’s interventional radiology department (on its third floor) as well as 11 new operating rooms. The 185,000-sq.-ft. structure, designed by Dallas’s HKS, includes 2 partial-height floors for maintenance above the operating rooms plus a mechanical floor at the top. Construction is expected to cost $102 million, and be complete by the end of 2015. An accompanying $96 million renovation of the adjacent Alkek hospital will extend into 2019.
- M.D. Anderson embarks on $198M construction project in Texas Medical Center [Houston Business Journal]
Rendering: HKS, via M.D. Anderson
Residents of the Cambridge Court Apartments at 6500 S. Gessner will get to stay until the end of their leases, but after that they’ll need to find new homes. That’s the word from the complex’s neighbor and new owner, Strake Jesuit. The Catholic boys’ high school is also the property’s old owner; the 7.55 acres the apartments sit on is a portion of the land Strake Jesuit lost as a result of a 1971 bankruptcy. Developer Harold Farb built what was then called the Newport Apartments on the site 6 years later.
School officials plan to tear down the complex “at the earliest possible date” and use the land, which sits just north of the school’s Gessner driveway, for parking and athletic fields. The acquisition will also allow planners to “re-examine where it will construct its new Science and Engineering Building on the campus without a net loss of parking or green space,” the school announced.
- Jesuit Reacquires Portion of Land Lost 40 Years Ago [Strake Jesuit]
Photos: Strake Jesuit (aerial), Apartments.com (Cambridge Court Apartments)
- Heights Homeowners Sue City over Historic Preservation Ordinance [Off the Kuff]
- Atlanta Real Estate Firm Planning $51M in Houston Deals [Houston Business Journal]
- New Galveston Housing Authority Board Slated To Discuss Moratorium on Mixed-Income Plan Today [Galveston County Daily News]
- Keys To Last Home in Montgomery County Ike Replacement Program Handed Out [Courier of Montgomery County]
- Buffalo Bayou Partnership To Begin Park Overhaul Next Week Near South Bank of Sabine, Allen Pkwy. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Texas Forest Service Sees Rise in Drought-Stricken Trees Falling on Properties [KUHF]
- League City Lifts All Water Restrictions [Bay Area Citizen]
- Woodlands’ Sawmill Park Reopens after 18-Month Makeover to Extend Pool, Remove Iron Bars [Courier of Montgomery County]
- Dixie Farm Rd. Overpass at I-45 Closing for 3 Months Starting July 20 [Bay Area Citizen]
- Work on Stalled SH 105 Bypass Resumes, Cleveland Relief Route Nears Completion [Cleveland Advocate]
- Battleship Texas Likely To Reopen This Saturday [KUHF]
- Menil’s Damaged Picasso Out of Emergency Surgery, Doing ‘Very Well’ [Art Attack]
Photo of Galveston beach: Candace Garcia via Swamplot Flickr Pool
COMMENT OF THE DAY: LIGHT RAIL FOR THE PEOPLE “One very interesting upshot to delaying Uptown and University is that it heads the ‘LRT is elitist’ argument off at the pass. If you open the E, SE, and N lines without Uptown and University then you’ve just created an LRT system that predominantly serves black and hispanic neighborhoods. Possibly the first such new-start system ever built in [the US and Canada]. Opposition to the ‘white man’s train,’ whether it takes a grassroots, Los Angeles Bus Rider’s Union form, or whether it’s simply a talking point for people who will always think rail is a ‘boondoggle,’ is thus impossible. Considering that H-town will be minority-majority by the 2020 census, I think it’s kinda cool. And I’m an elitist white dude.” [KHH, commenting on Light Rail Scorecard: 6 Miles Down, 9 To Go, Culberson Blocking Goal]
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: COWARDS SHAPE THE CITY “. . . Has it ever occurred to you that developers (whose core competency is development) develop apartment complexes for long-term investors and operators? What you refer to as cutting and running is actually just an element of their business model. It is a hand-off of ownership from one entity preferring stability to another that demands it. Neither entity is assured of stability, however. A developer can’t pretend (with a straight face) to know what is in store for a nation, a metropolitan area, or a submarket over a five-year period of planning, permitting, financing, construction, the first year of lease-up, the second year of burning through concessions, and the third year of stability so that they can generate a reliable set of T-12 profit and loss figures. As it turns out, they have to make an educated guess about the future, close their eyes, hold their nose, and jump in. The business model may be different, however the same lesson is analogous for subdivision developers and home buyers, too. They can only try their best to make the right decision, then hope for the best. But eventually . . . they all sell. Everybody sells. The only consequential purpose in owning real estate is to be able to sell it. If selling something is cutting and running, then our entire society is founded on cowardice.” [TheNiche, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Shelf Life of Apartment Complexes]
For the last 7 or so years, the atomic-ranch-era front of this 1929 bungalow at 1710 Welch St. served as the Scott Childress Studio, a hair salon. If you recognize that name, you likely know at least the outline of the rest of the story that goes with it: Childress was found on the floor of the property one Friday morning this past January, beaten to death with a pipe wrench; his roommate, Reginald Eaglin, was charged with the murder. The home was listed for sale in late February, but there’s a contract pending now. How that ends likely depends on a planning commission hearing scheduled for this afternoon. Up for approval: plans by Carnegie Homes to replace the modern-front house and the 2 apartments behind it — all on 7,500 sq. ft. — with 4 townhome lots along a central drive.
Photo: HAR
WHAT TO MAKE OF THE MUSEUM GARDENS SALE 
Residents of the Museum Gardens Apartments at 1123 Bartlett St. received notices taped to their front doors this week announcing that both the ownership and management of the 28-unit courtyard-style ensemble a couple blocks northwest of the Contemporary Arts Museum has changed. Contact info for the new owner matches that of real estate, construction and development, homebuilding, REIT, and mortgage firm Jetall Companies. A reader wants to know if Jetall might actually manage apartment complexes too — and asks “Is this lovely old complex a goner?” Photo: Midtown Houston Real Estate
- City Forgives Landry’s Back Taxes in Exchange for Demolishing Old Fire Alarm Building Near Aquarium [Houston Chronicle]
- Johnson Development Planning 550 Homes in Katy, South of I-10 at Pederson Rd. [Houston Business Journal]
- Frontier Equity Buys 15-Story Kirkwood Tower III in Energy Corridor [Houston Business Journal]
- Courtyard by Marriott at Mixed-Use Nassau Bay Town Square Development Next to JSC Opens July 17 [Houston Business Journal]
- Galveston Industrial Board Votes to Help Farmer’s Alloy Fabricating Expand with $250K in Sales Tax Money [Galveston County Daily News]
- Galveston at Risk of Losing $586M in Federal Disaster Money if New Mayor Halts Rebuilding Public Housing Damaged by Ike [Galveston County Daily News]
- Total Value of Houston Construction Contracts Down 11% From Last Year, Finds Study [KUHF]
- Lenwood Johnson Trying To Preserve Freedmen’s Town’s Last Rowhouses [Hair Balls]
- West U Once Lured Residents with Low Lot Prices, Wide-Open Spaces, Frequent Flooding [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of mascot, BRC Gastropub: Karen Dressel
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE SHELF LIFE OF APARTMENT COMPLEXES “. . . please drive by the Belmont Apartments on Bissonnet between Buffalo Speedway and Kirby. They were built in 1991 and pretty much kicked off the modern era of apartment development in Houston (post 80′s bust). They are in FINE condition at the ripe old age of 21 years. There are plenty more early 90′s vintage complexes around that are also going strong and aging well. Vanderbilt Square (1995). Inverness (1991). Pin Oak Green etc. (1991). City Scape. City Walk. And MANY more. There is nothing wrong with these 20 year old complexes. Finally, take a look at Westchase or Avalon Square and you’ll see 50 year old apartment complexes that are still fine places to live. Yes. Buildings age. And deteriorate over time. But well located assets in high demand sub-markets where the rental rates are high enough to finance proper maintenance can stand the test of time.” [Bernard, commenting on Apartments Replacing Park Memorial Condos in Rice Military: More than Triple the Density]
Beneath all the pine trees of this Spring Oaks property there’s a redwood-sided garage big enough for a RV, or so says the listing. Although the single-story 1955 home has been updated a few times, most of the remodeling appears to be a decade — or two — old. Still, the $790,000 metal-roofed home comes with nearly a half-acre of land, a pool, some patios, plus that extra-large, multi-purpose car barn.
