Tag: 77007

Commercial Real Estate
12/29/08 12:02pm

Heights Village: It Was All Just a Good Old Fashioned Dream

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Development Strategy, Houston Heights, Mixed Use, Parking, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers, Washington Corridor
20 Comments

Here’s something we can all feel tingly and nostalgic about: Developer Bobby Orr’s Heights-ish fantasy — of brand-new old-timey storefronts facing long streetside parking lots off Yale St. and Heights Blvd. just south of I-10 — is dead. The Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff drops news of the demise of the Heights Village dream as an aside to her update on the stalled-out High Street development.

The entire 4.9-acre property, across Heights Blvd. from the ArtCar Museum, is back on the market, at $75 a square foot.

Sadly, Cushman & Wakefield’s listing for the property doesn’t include any misty watercolors to memorialize what might have been. But Swamplot remembers! Here’s a brief trip down invented-memory lane . . . in 3 quick images:

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First Ward
12/18/08 9:47am

Coming Soon to the First Ward: Bikes from the Heights

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New Construction, Transportation
5 Comments

Sent in by a reader: Another view of construction along the new MKT/SP Hike and Bike trail meant to connect the Heights to Downtown bikeways. The photo, taken from around here, shows the scene along Spring St. in the First Ward, a couple blocks west of Houston Ave.

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Nightlife
11/26/08 12:44pm

Coming Soon: Late Night Rice Military Action

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Rice Military, Washington Corridor
53 Comments

COMING SOON: LATE NIGHT RICE MILITARY ACTION Some Rice Military residents are feeling a little antsy about the “4 to 5” new bars scheduled to open on the 4 blocks of Washington Ave. between Roy and Detering. The list includes The Pub on Washington coming to 5102 Washington and Tap’s House of Beers coming to 5120 — plus 3 more rumored newcomers at 5110, 5129, and 5317 Washington. A message making the rounds in the neighborhood reports that each has applied for late-hour permits, which would allow alcohol to be served until 2 a.m. [Swamplot inbox]

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Homes for Sale
11/18/08 10:47am

Still Available: Heights Hippie Workshop Compound with Next-Door Crash Pad

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Houston Heights, Office Space
19 Comments

No, this isn’t the Neighborhood Guessing Game. But there’s got to be a story behind this place.

The 2,714-square-foot “workshop” building on the corner of 9th and Harvard in the Heights, which apparently dates from 1920, has been for sale since March. It’s listed, along with a 911-sq.-ft. bungalow next door along 9th St., for $430,000 — marked down from $472,000 with 2 stops along the way.

Wanna peek inside?

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Buying and Selling
11/17/08 12:19pm

Last Stand at Park Memorial

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Hazards, Neighborhood Disputes, Rice Military
No Comments

If any of those holdouts at Park Memorial are still trying to camp out in their condos, it had to have become a whole lot tougher for them after Saturday. That’s when the city cut off power to the complex and chained the gates.

Among the Park Memorial Forever crowd, a source tells Swamplot, is a family that went to court seeking an injunction against the city — on grounds city officials had no legal right to evict them for safety reasons because the safety issues applied to a different building on the same property. That request has been one of the obstacles holding up the sale of the entire complex, to a so-far-secret buyer.

Photos: HAR (Park Memorial grounds) and HAR (gates)

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Buying and Selling
11/12/08 9:43am

Park Memorial: Just Sitting There

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Hazards, Rice Military
12 Comments

Walkway at Park Memorial Condominiums, Rice Military, Houston

All the residents have moved out, the court battle’s been lost, and the homeowners of the Park Memorial condo complex on Memorial Dr. at Detering are just waiting for a “secret” buyer, KPRC’s Ryan Korsgard reports:

The homeowners continue to pay mortgages, property taxes and association dues, plus pay for a new place to live. The city first posted notices over the summer for structural problems. Owners protested and went to court, but a judge sided with the city.

“The ruling by the courts basically reaffirmed the position the city had in regards to the safety and well-being of the tenants of this townhome,” Houston Public Works Department spokesman Alvin Wright said.

The city said it is illegal to stay without power or water.

Photos of Park Memorial Condominiums: HAR

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Art
09/17/08 5:37pm

Ike’s Revenge: Paul Is Dead

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Disaster Aftermath, First Ward
1 Comment

Beatles Sculpture by David Adickes, Minus Paul McCartney

Discovered in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike: David Adickes’s giant Beatles sculpture on Summer St. is now one member short. That’s 7,000 pounds of McCartney-ish concrete rubble under that black tarp.

Think this is some kind of hoax? Further photographic evidence of Paul’s fall . . . below:

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Gardening
09/09/08 10:37am

Indoor and Outdoor Landscaping in Glen Cove: Flowers Make the Dining Room Table

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Glen Cove, Homes for Sale, Real Estate Marketing
No Comments

Flowers on the Dining Room Table, 6023 Rose St., Glen Cove, Houston

Lou Minatti finds a very lush garden in back of the house at 6023 Rose St. in Glen Cove, featured in this past weekend’s open house tour:

This house built in 1948 features a koi pond. I am not impressed with the interior staging, but I will say the outdoor landscaping is beautiful. In fact, the landscaping is the best part of of property. What the current owner has done outside is gorgeous. Go look at the gallery.

But what about the Dining Room?

Update: It just occurred to me. Do these people eat flowers for dinner?

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Glen Cove
09/05/08 8:38pm

Weekend Open House Tour: Glen Cove

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Homes for Sale, Open Houses
6 Comments

Something old, something new; some styles borrowed, some rather expensive houses sitting on the market for quite a while! Yes, it’s time to tour a few open houses in Glen Cove, tucked just under Memorial Park’s right wing. Here’s what you’ll find if you venture out this weekend:

6023 Rose St., Glen Cove, Houston

Location: 6023 Rose St.
Details: 3 bedrooms, 3 baths; 1,885 sq. ft.
Price: $619,000
The Scoop: Lushly landscaped 1947 bungalow with small freestanding guest house in back but no garage. Remodeled Kitchen; lots of diagonally placed slate tiles. Window wall overlooks back yard with koi pond. On the market for 3 weeks.
Open House: Sunday, 2-5 pm

Wanna see more?

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Development Strategy
09/05/08 11:41am

Lounging Around: A Thicker Idea for Center and Washington

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First Ward, Landscape, Redevelopment, Streets, Washington Corridor
1 Comment

Section of Proposal for Center St. between Sawyer and Sabine by Taizo Horikawa

Landscape students attack the Washington Ave. Corridor! A modest proposal for widening Washington and Center St. between Sawyer and Sabine — from LSU student and SWA summer intern Taizo Horikawa:

During Week 3 I focused on the area along Washington Avenue between Sawyer Street and Sabine Street, pushing the idea of Colors of Ribbons forward. The underused area between Washington Avenue and Center Street is developed as a human-scale, vibrant commercial area with two-story commercial buildings. The north-side sidewalk of Washington Avenue is widened to be 30 feet with a row of shade trees. It works as linear plaza where people spill out from the commercial buildings and lounge around.

After the jump: one-way streets!

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Quicklink
08/25/08 5:47pm

A Tour of Washington Ave. Eateries

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Restaurants, Retail, Washington Corridor
8 Comments

A TOUR OF WASHINGTON AVE. EATERIES Wabash Antiques & Feed, the Daily Grind, El Rey Taqueria, that big new Benjy’s, and more: Katharine Shilcutt Gleave’s hungry person’s guide to Washington Ave., illustrated: “. . . the first thing you’ll notice is the abundance of new construction. Not only homes, but restaurants, banks, strip malls — a mad jumble of conflicting styles and materials that assaults the eyes. But if you look past the ubiquitous boxes of townhomes and the spaghetti-like telephone wires that crazily line the street, you’ll catch glimpses of old Houston in the tiny row houses, old brick storefronts and 1930s-era tile street signs along the curbs: Houston in a nutshell.” [Houstonist]

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Apartments
08/25/08 7:47am

Washington Ave.: Extending The Core?

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Demolitions, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments, Washington Corridor, West End
18 Comments

The Core Apartments, 3990 Washington Ave., Houston

A West End resident writes in with a question about plans for the former Trinity Steel plant off Koehler St. between Yale and Bonner:

They have recently begun demolishing the huge industrial warehouses that made up the Trinity Industries complex. Our Civic Club President seems to think they are building an extension of the The Core apartment complex that just went up at 3990 Washington Avenue (www.thecoreapts.com). That would be a disaster since the Trinity Industry property parcel is HUGE and if they are going to be ALL apartments, our narrow neighborhood streets will be clogged constantly with all that extra traffic.

I can’t find anything about who developed The Core to see if they have any updates on their website about future extension plans. Do you have any leads on what is going on and going up there?

The Core Apartments were developed by the Morgan Group. Any Swamplot readers have the scoop on future plans for the site?

Bonus question after the jump:

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Buying and Selling
08/19/08 11:40am

Condos Condemned: Park Memorial To Become Parking Garage Memorial

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Condos, Hazards, Rice Military, West End
15 Comments

Park Memorial Condos, 5292 Memorial Dr. at Detering, Rice Military, Houston

Sharp-witted observers, start your metaphors! Residents of the Park Memorial condos — who’ve been racing to sell their condo complex before any of the units start dropping into the parking garage that sits beneath them — have a new problem. City officials, terrified of a not-merely-figurative condo-market collapse, slapped bright orange notices on all the doors of the Memorial Dr. complex yesterday, notifying all 108 residents that they will need to permanently vacate their homes by September 15th.

The order came after a city inspector and an independent inspector both confirmed that the concrete parking garage structure underneath some of the condo units is in immediate danger of collapse. In late July, the city had warned residents that the garage “may experience catastrophic failure at any time.”

After the jump, a couple more photos of the condo campus . . . from the listing for a recent sale.

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Commercial Real Estate
08/06/08 2:46pm

Lookout for Townhouses: What Do You Make of the First Ward?

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Development Strategy, First Ward, Industrial Properties, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Marketing, Redevelopment, Townhomes
6 Comments

Bridge over Railroad Tracks, First Ward North of Edwards St., Houston

It seems son-of-a-son-of-a-guv Paul Hobby wasn’t quite clear at first what to do with a huge industrial site he bought in the First Ward:

Over the years, Hobby says, there was interest in turning it into an indoor soccer facility. There was also talk of growing lettuce inside the large warehouse. But a year ago, Hobby came up with the idea to create a data center in the space.

But that’s just the start of it. The site is the former Budweiser distribution plant Silver Eagle Distributors left behind when it built its new bunker further west on Washington Ave. Hobby bought the First Ward facility quietly from Silver Eagle in 2004 and leased it back to the company for a while before it left. The site stretches along Edwards St. from Sawyer to Silver, a few blocks north of Washington.

Indoor farm . . . server farm . . . why not? The possibilities are endless! But then, there’s always . . . townhomes!

A row of eight to 10 townhomes are slated to be built along Edwards Street. And an undetermined number of units are being considered for the eastern-most part of the property.

Of course! But it gets better . . .

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