Too hot for the squirrels, apparently.
This latest edition of Seen on the Street sticks close to the pavement. First up: Artist David Cook snaps this hot photo of . . . no, that’s not an egg frying on Kirby. Just a street button with . . . culinary aspirations?
What’s more to see around town when you keep your head down?
What’s all that heavy equipment doing on the former Sonoma battleground in the Rice Village? Is the project back from the dead?
No. The West University Examiner‘s Michael Reed reports that the fenced-in site of the sacrificed commercial building along Bolsover between Kelvin and Morningside is being used as a staging area for the portion of the Kirby Dr. reconstruction project that stretches between Quenby and Bissonnet. And:
Public Works Department spokesman Alvin Wright said the agreement to use the land was entered into by the Kirby project contractor and Lamesa [Properties], not the city of Houston.
What about those other big ideas for using the liberated land?
Additionally, the Examiner has learned negotiations between the property owner and a residential civic group are under way to make another portion of the property a community garden.
Photo of former Sonoma site from Dunstan Rd.: West University Examiner
More comments on Greenwood King’s April market report, which focuses on real estate activity in Houston’s higher-end neighborhoods. A second reader focuses on prices, determined to find storm clouds in the report’s silver lining:
While some avg. sales prices are higher, this is most likely due to builders no longer buying lots to build on for b/t 400 and 500k.
Last week you had a poster ask to see the evidence of price declines and an eroding market. Here is further evidence of a declining market. Moreover, the poster requested to see comps that show declines. I think I have proof. Can we get a Realtor to confirm that a prime West U. property–3128 Lafayette–sold for 700,000 over two years ago and now has been recently reduced to 699,000. Welcome back to 2007–[how] much further do we have to go?
One problem with finding these declining comp examples (and I think there are more, and more on the way), is that the Realtors control all of the data and are reluctant to admit that the prime inner loop area that has been so good to them is begining to substantially turn negative.
Photo of 3128 Lafayette St. in West University: HAR
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MOVIN’ ON UP! “The Upper East Side of Manhattan was once all single family mansions and townhouses (after it was farmland). Most of them are now gone, replaced with highrises; some of the most expensive on Earth. I’m sure most people in West U, Southampton, Broad Acres, etc . can’t imagine Bissonnet, North, South, or Sunset being lined with highrises some day, but I’m equally sure that the residents of Fifth, Park, and Madison didn’t imagine it either.” [John, commenting on Ashby Highrise: The 9th Is the Time for Charm]
Plans for the Ashby Highrise were rejected by the city for the 9th time last week. But . . . this rejection appears to be a bit kinder than the others have been.
How much kinder? The West U Examiner‘s Michael Reed explains:
. . . the tone of the city engineer’s remarks seemed less perfunctory than in the project’s recent permit denials.
In his comments dated March 16, Mark Loethen said “conflicts in drawings sets have been addressed and revised†since the previous rejection Feb. 13.
Saying the city is still concerned about the distance between a proposed entrance on Bissonnet Street and the Dunlavy Street intersection and the volume of left-turns during peak traffic hours, Loethen offered a potential solution.
“Increasing distance between (the) entrance driveway and Dunlavy along with other mitigation measures may be considered,†his comments read.
That sure makes it sound like a building permit for the 23-story highrise — which developer Buckhead Investment Partners still insists on calling 1717 Bissonnet — isn’t that far away from actual city approval. Can’t these tiny remaining details just be worked out in a friendly little get-together?
RICE-BAYLOR MERGER: YUP A joint statement just out from the presidents of Rice University and the Baylor College of Medicine: “We are pleased to announce that the governing boards of Rice and BCM this week approved the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that lays out a broad framework for formal negotiations about a possible merger of our two institutions. While no decision on a merger has yet been made and many issues remain to be resolved, our boards have concluded that a closer affiliation has abundant potential benefits for both institutions, as well as for our home city of Houston.†[Swamplot inbox]
THE GREAT INNER-LOOP TEARDOWN BACKUP “Since builders cannot get credit to build spec homes right now, they are not buying older “tear-down” homes in West U and Bellaire. As a result, the $400K-$499K price range in West U and Bellaire is a strong buyer’s market with inventories stacking up.” [Strictly a Buyer’s Agent]
An update on recent comings and goings:
More twists and turns:
NEW WEST U BUFFALO PARKWAY “West University Place’s Zoning and Planning Commission recommended a proposal Monday night to be sent to City Council, which includes a zoning ordinance amendment that would allow driveway stubs and parking areas in front of homes on Buffalo Speedway. A 2003 amendment allowed such driveways on Kirby, Bellaire/Holcombe and Bissonnet, but not Buffalo Speedway. Upon moving to West University Place from the Champions area, [Belma] de Berardinis immediately forecasted a traffic snarl in front of her home and tore up her front lawn with the intent of building a paved maneuvering area. City officials delivered the news that, under West U. law, this was not permitted. De Berardinis had the lawn replaced and every morning . . . confronted angry motorists as she made the dangerous drive in reverse onto traffic.” [West University Examiner]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE NEW KIRBY TREES “. . . the stretch of Kirby south of Rice Village to Brays Bayou is finished. It now has a center median. The tree planting is identical to the Kirby project from Westheimer to Richmond. Tree plantings on both sides of the road and in the median. The bonus of the Westheimer to Richmond section is that all the power lines will be underground. So the trees will be able to grow freely unlike the ones that were removed!” [kjb434, commenting on West Ave School of Loud but Muffled Knocks]
Hey, what happened to Monday? Swamplot spent most of it fighting off a few tech demons. But hey, here’s some news!
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WEST UNIVERSITY HOMES FOR SALE “You can see the collapse happening in West U. Noticed what I thought were an unusually high number of for sale/for rent signs there in late January, so started keeping an eye on the number of listings. (There’s an easy link on the chron.com site and then you can click on a neighborhood.) At the beginning of Feb. there were 297 residences listed. It has climbed more or less steadily over the past 6 weeks and stood at 353 today. A drive down Edloe from Westpark towards Holcombe is almost scary. There is a combination of developers finishing the last of the giant McMansions for this cycle and likely reseting of adjustable rate mortgages and job losses. There will probably be a cascading effect as very expensive places that can’t be sold get reduced and put pressure on prices of smaller places that have to be cut in turn. . . .” [MikeRG, commenting on Those Wet and Wild Houston Mortgages: 18 Percent Now Underwater, 7 Percent More Still Paddling for Air]
The Chronicle’s Mike Snyder comments on the the Ashby Highrise’s latest failing grade:
Since March of last year, [Matthew] Morgan and [Kevin] Kirton have submitted various versions of their permit application eight times, and the city has rejected it eight times.
Since one definitition of insanity is taking the same action repeatedly and expecting a different result, some observers have speculated that the developers were building a record for a lawsuit. The language in their timeline shows they’re prepared to take this step, whether or not it’s been part of their strategy all along.
The developers are portraying this case as an example of heavy-handed and inequitable city regulation that all developers should worry about. How much support they’ll get from their industry colleagues if they choose to go to court remains to be seen.
But Jennifer Dawson, writing in the Houston Business Journal, notes that Buckhead Investment Partners has been fiddling with those plans they keep submitting:
We’ve got a prize to give away!
Here are the neighborhoods you guessed in this week’s game: Walnut Bend, Crestwood, Sugar Land, Katy, Spring, Kingwood, Willow Meadows, the Memorial Villages, Bellaire, West U., the Houston Country Club area north of Woodway, Clear Lake, Boulevard Oaks, south of Memorial Dr. between Beltway 8 and Wilcrest, Southampton, Southgate, and Hunter’s Creek. Plus: 2 each for River Oaks and Memorial. And 3 guesses for Tanglewood.
JPSivco, ears glued to the photos, wins a year-long individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance for this dead-on but airplane-obsessed entry:
I can’t believe you people don’t hear the jet planes flying over this place!!!
Whoosh, there goes another one. This sucker is right under the Hobby flight path.
Rooms are really big. The “master†bedroom looks like it could be on the second floor since EVERY room on the first floor has low cielings except the gabled window. I bet it is 2 stories, with all of the ceiling fanned bedrooms “up†as the Realtors(r) say, making it really big, 4,000 sf or more.
Soooo…….Southhampton/gate …somewhere near Southgate over which they execute a slight turn for final approach.
Congratulations! A very close second was tcpIV:
I’m going for an ‘old money’ Boulevard Oaks. There’s plenty of room for chic 70s/80s vaulted additions. The kids, a boy and a girl, have been gone for a few years. Daddy just sold his partnership in the law firm so he and mother are packing their Storehouse stools, English windsor chairs, mahogany sideboard, Harris Sanders upholstered pieces and heading off to ‘the camp’ on the Guadalupe.
So where is this home exactly?
WHERE’S A STINKIN’ FEMA TRAILER WHEN YOU NEED ONE? Trailer sculptor Paul Villinski, on the difficulty of procuring the raw material for his Emergency Response Studio, now on display at the Rice Art Gallery: “I thought, OK I’m going to go get a FEMA trailer, because they’re selling them online through the government – you know, the GAO Web site – at that very moment, it seemed, FEMA basically stopped releasing the trailers into the marketplace. And not only did they do that, they bought back all the ones that they had already sold. . . . And the back story with that is basically that the plaintiffs in this class-action suit need a couple of FEMA trailers so they can really study the indoor air quality and FEMA and the manufacturers do not want them to have them. So they’ve been ordered by the judge in the case to release the trailers, and they haven’t done it yet. So that made it impossible for me to actually get a FEMA trailer, which is why I wound up finding a 30-foot Gulfstream Cavalier, but it was built a couple of years before the FEMA trailers were.” [Arts in Houston; previously in Swamplot]
