ALLEN STANFORD’S NEXT CENTURY R. Allen Stanford, the former Houston real estate investor who made it to the big time before being convicted earlier this year of heading up a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, could be spending the next turn-of-the-century in federal prison — if he works it right. The former chairman of the Stanford Financial Group has been imprisoned since June 2009. In a Downtown Houston courtroom today, after Stanford maintained he “didn’t defraud anybody,” U.S. District Judge David Hittner sentenced him to 110 years. [L.A. Times; ; previously on Swamplot]
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Poke along Polk St. in the Woodleigh area of “Greater Eastwood” to find this vintage brick bungalow. Since it’s next to an auto repair service, the home acts as a bookend shoring up one end of a mostly residential block. A convenience store caps the other end; a shopping center is in the next block.
The listing’s location close to Cullen Blvd. means both current and future public transportation options. Metro buses, for example, stop nearby and Polk St. itself has a bike lane. Meanwhile, Metro Rail has 3 stations pending in the area, though each might turn out to be a bit of a hike from the home. It’s about three quarters of a mile to the future Green Line’s York and Lockwood/Eastwood stations. The Purple Line’s Leeland/Third Ward stop is going up just over a half-mile away.
The house boasts classic features of 1929 domicile design: porches, wooden trim, interior archways. Listed earlier this month at $124,900, the property is offered “as is.” Here’s what — at least as the photos show it — that means:
WE’RE BUILDING MORE HOUSES IN HOUSTON 
“The New York Metro areas has more than 3 times as many workers as the Houston metro area,” notes UNC professor and Forbes economics blogger Karl Smith after looking at a bunch of graphs, “but can’t keep up with the pace at which Houston is permitting new housing.” One of the several charts Smith assembled from Federal Reserve data shows that the number of construction permits issued in the Houston metro area surged ahead of the number issued in the New York-New Jersey-Long Island area beginning toward the latter end of 2007, just as the recession hit, and has stayed ahead. (The pace of new permitting in both cities accelerated in 2005, but fell off in New York a couple years later, after a big spike.) Over the last couple of years the Houston area has accounted for between 3.5 and 6.5 percent of all newly issued U.S. housing units. [Forbes]
- H&M at Willowbrook Mall Opens June 28 [Culturemap]
- Toby Keith To Open Country Bar in West Oaks Mall with 95-ft. Guitar-Shaped Bar [Houston Business Journal]
- LoneStar Marine Shelters Debuts Offshore Living Quarters That Can Mount a Crane on Its Roof [Galveston County Daily News]
- PageSoutherlandPage/DLR Group Named Architects of UH’s New Football Stadium [Press Release on KHOU; previously on Swamplot]
- Emerald Galveston Holdings Shortens Name, Lowers Price of Seawall Condos in Push To Sell Units [Galveston County Daily News]
- Caldwell Cos. Launches ‘Custom’ Homes Section of Towne Lake Master-Planned Community [Houston Business Journal]
- Real Estate Sector Produces $31B of Houston’s Gross Product, Finds Biz Journals [Houston Business Journal]
- Homeowner Association Scammer Gets 35 Years in Prison [Click2Houston; previously on Swamplot]
- Hiram Clarke Residents Upset over Mobile Home Parked in Median [The Isiah Factor]
- Moving at Half a Mile per Hour, League City Oak Pushed 1,500 Ft. into New Home [Galveston County Daily News]
- Montgomery County Fire Official Warns Burning Last Summer’s Dead Trees Could Start This Summer’s Wildfires [Magnolia Potpourri]
- Voluntary Water Restrictions Set for The Woodlands [Courier of Montgomery County]
- Lawndale’s ‘Famous Monsters’ Mural Painted Over; New Mural To Debut Aug. 24 [Glasstire]
Photo of Hiram Clarke mobile home: The Isiah Factor
COMMENT OF THE DAY: ZIP ON THIS SIDE “I live in the 77092 portion of Oak Forest. Luckily, our brick ranch houses have been spared the wrecking balls hitting on the little bungalows across the bayou.” [marcy, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Airline Farming]
In 2009, the now-10-year-old Betz Art Gallery housed in a 1947 cottage-scale venue on West Gray gained a 3-story appendage to expand its exhibition space. Now the gallery towers over itself. Listed in January at $599,000, the property’s asking price dropped to $549,000 at the end of March. That’s around the time artist Lori Betz opened the Betz Art Foundry at the Summer Street Studios, up in the artsy warehouse district off Houston Ave. Although the Montrose-area gallery remains open, it’s moving later this year, a gallery staff member says.
A mashup of modern and vintage structures, the bi-level gallery-home is listed as ADA compliant and reported to be “very energy efficient.” Maybe it’s the dearth of windows. Glass panes that remain post-redo have light-diffusing panels.
- 5533 Windsor Forest Dr. [HAR]
University of Houston officials have asked Metro to move a portion of the Southeast Line, currently under construction, off its planned route — and off campus. Work on portions of the line on Wheeler and Scott streets near Robertson Stadium came to a standstill 2 months ago, West U Examiner reporter Michael Reed notes. Metro and UH officials have apparently been negotiating on the layout of the light-rail route since that time, but so far, according to Reed, there’s been no agreement.
Metro’s planned design for the line requires the transit agency to purchase a total of 4.48 acres of UH property, much of it in a strip along the eastern side of Scott St., just west of the stadium. A plan submitted to the Department of Transportation for funding last year shows the line and a Scott/Cleburne station on the east side of Scott St., on part of what’s currently a stadium parking lot. (The map, below, also shows that Metro adjusted the plan from a 2008 layout that would have eaten up more UH property.)
SERVER UPGRADE 
There is nothing wrong with your internet set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are, uh . . . improving the transmission today with a long-overdue server upgrade. It may take a bit of time for identifying info about Swamplot’s new location to propagate across the internets, though, so hold on for a few bumps. Photo: Tony Young [license]
- Woodlands Trader Joe’s Opening This Friday; Montrose Store To Follow on Sept. 21 [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Under New Owner, Leases on the Rise at Fake-Venetian Vintage Park Shopping Center [Houston Chronicle]
- Momentum Breaks Ground on 7-Story Audi Dealership at Greenbriar and 59 [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- Galleria-Bound Arhaus Furniture Store Breaking into Furniture Store-Crowded Area [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Lawsuit Aims To Close 4 ‘Illegal’ Massage Businesses on West FM 1960 [Click2Houston]
- West U Completes New Lighting, Irrigation, Landscaping for City Hall Entrance [West University Examiner]
- Historic Battleship Texas in Houston Ship Channel Springs a Leak [KUHF]
- Survey Ranks Houston 11th Most Expensive U.S. City, Behind Dallas [Houston Business Journal]
- Cartoon Dinosaur Billboards for Kentucky’s Creation Museum Going Up in Houston, Other Cities [Houston Chronicle]
- Smelly Corpse Flower About To Bloom in Galveston’s Moody Gardens [KUHF]
Photo of Wiley Robertson mural: Candace Garcia via Swamplot Flickr Pool
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOME IS WHERE YOU PUT YOUR EXTRA CARSEAT “I have the exact same thing in my music room, except it’s a removable bench seat from the minivan instead of two captain’s chairs. I’ll bet this is more common than you think in houses with a pre-2008 Dodge/Chrysler minivan parked out front, or almost any three-row SUV.” [marmer, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: The Commute from Home]
- 3339 Arbor St. [HAR]
The letters on the totem sign for the former Alabama Theater at the corner of S. Shepherd and West Alabama went back up yesterday. The letters were taken down late last month; they’ve since been painted and had the neon lights hiding behind them replaced. The gutted theater will soon be showing a Trader Joe’s, but the sign still spells “Alabama.”
- Previously on Swamplot: Weingarten: We’re Saving the Alabama Letters, Taking Down the Letters on the Alabama Theater Sign
- Alabama Theater coverage [Swamplot]
Photos: Amanda Andriola (top), Weingarten Realty (bottom)
