Tag: 77022

Homes for Sale
01/28/10 4:31pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Acres Away

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Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game
6 Comments

None of you guessed the location of this week’s mystery home. But . . . we do have a winner of that one-year individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance!

Two readers sent in links to the listing — and helped to mix things up by posting fake guesses. We’ll award the prize to Jennifer, who did so first, and volunteered some extended commentary about the property:

I’ve actually been to see this house. I haven’t been inside, but drove to find the property to see what in the world it was after seeing it on har.com

It’s sort of an island paradise. It’s bounded on the east by a creek and on the west and south by a drainage ditch. It borders another property to the north. The house in the pictures is the main house, but there is another ramshackle house on the property plus the barn.

The entire area is smack in the middle of the revamped FEMA flood maps 100-year floodplain. A neighbor came out and told us that the area had never flooded and that they are in the middle of fighting it in the courts because the change in the flood maps has decimated their property values.

I have no idea if it would be safe to live in this area. We drove the entire area to get a look at it from all sides. The street itself is kind of isolated and the neighbor said it was safe, but just across the drainage ditch on the west side is the kind of apartment complex that shows up on the news, and not in a good way.

Thanks and congratulations, Jennifer! Karen came up with the other fake guess. We’ll call her the runner-up.

And now the details:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Airline
11/10/09 1:36pm

Where the Sidewalks End

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Public Safety, Quicklink, Transportation
21 Comments

WHERE THE SIDEWALKS END “On Airline Drive, for example, up to 40,000 people arrive every weekend to visit flea markets that line both sides of the road. The neighborhood’s management district is gearing up to spend $2.9 million on pedestrian improvements, including two new, signalized crosswalks on Airline, as well as sidewalks on nearby streets that are heavily used by local residents. . . . [Harris County] has a policy of not installing sidewalks when it builds a new road, unless a group or city provides the extra money. ‘It’s an expense that doesn’t have to do with transportation,’ said Mark Seegers, a spokesman for Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia. ‘The county does not do sidewalks; it’s not what gets cars from point A to point B.’ . . . In the eight-county region that includes Houston, an average of 100 pedestrians died every year between 2003 and 2008, and an average of 1,175 were injured, mostly within Harris County, according to statistics compiled by the Texas Department of Transportation. More than half of all pedestrian deaths occur on [high-capacity, high-speed roads called ‘arterials’], often as people are trying to cross to reach retail shops or bus stops.” [Houston Chronicle]

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Construction Materials
05/13/09 11:18am

Recycling Houston Building Parts

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Green Design and Development, Independence Heights, Quicklink, Recycling
2 Comments

RECYCLING HOUSTON BUILDING PARTS A new city-run Reuse Warehouse that’s been open for just 2 weeks at 9003 N. Main St. (just north of Crosstimbers) is designed to reduce the amount of excess building materials dumped into landfills. The warehouse accepts donations of extra building materials, and offers them for free to nonprofit organizations. What can you donate? “Cabinets, copper, doors, electrical fixtures and equipment, fans, flooring material, glass, gutters, hardware, lighting, lumber, metal, mirrors, pipe, plumbing, plywood, roofing material, screens, sheetrock, sinks, showers, trim, tubs, wall coverings, or windows” but no paint. “More than one-third of the waste stream in the Houston area is made up of construction and demolition material.” [Green Houston, via Hair Balls]

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Apartments
04/10/08 10:51am

More Repair Work for Vo

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Hazards, Neighborhood Disputes, Real Estate Investing
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Courtyard Apartments, 950 Villa de Matel, Houston

Chronicle reporter Matt Stiles has found two more properties owned by State Rep. Hubert Vo: The Northpoint Apartments, at 74 Lyerly St., just north of the Northpoint Mall; and the Capewood Apartments, at 4335 Aldine Mail Rd., outside city limits.

And, uh, they’re not in great shape:

Tomasa Compean, 58, has lived for 18 years in her one-bedroom unit, where she pays $450 a month and has never received new carpet or paint. White powder bug poison outlines her baseboards, and a leaky faucet has left a large patch of rust and mildew in her tub, which apartment officials have covered only with paint.

“There are a lot of defects in the apartment,” said Compean, speaking in Spanish. She also complained about a lack of security at the complex. “The worst things are the roaches and mice. That’s just too much.”

Carmen Aguilar, whose two-bedroom apartment faces a dusty courtyard next to a swimming pool filled with opaque green water, pointed to a buckled wall and a large, moldy hole above her bathtub.

The Chronicle also found other potential violations at the complex, including an entry gate bent to a 45-degree angle, discarded furniture, masonry damage and busted breezeway lights. Workers could be seen Wednesday making some repairs, a day after the Chronicle asked the city about the property. . . .

Among other potential city violations at three complexes were overflowing Dumpsters, damaged parking lots and an algae-filled swimming pool — all conditions that could prompt criminal fines.

Vo, who has owned the properties for years, took blame for the problems Wednesday, saying he had not done enough to ensure the complexes were maintained. He said he would improve the conditions, pledging personal inspections of individual units, cooperation with city officials and outreach to residents to encourage them to report concerns.

One thing that will help: Vo is apparently a quick study with repair estimates. A year ago, Houston Press reporter Ruth Samuelson spoke to him at Thai Xuan Village near Glenwood Valley, just north of Hobby Airport, after it was threatened with demolition. Mayor White had asked Vo to serve as a liaison between residents of the complex and the mayor’s office:

. . . Vo thinks the community can’t tackle this project; it’s far too big. Vo, who owns several apartment complexes, says he walked the perimeter of Thai Xuan Village when he was there mid-March.

“I believe the structure could be okay, maybe some railings need to be fixed,” he says. “But the face-lift of the property needs to be done.” After a quick examination, he said the project would cost well over $100,000.

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Shopping Centers
06/18/07 7:49am

Shopping Center Update: Franchises, Anchors, and All Those Nail Salons

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Strip Centers
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Three items from the world of Houston shopping-center development:

  • A suburban shopping-center developer complains to the Chronicle about Houston’s glut of bland suburban strip centers:

    Retail developer Bobby Orr says the suburbs are overridden with unanchored strip centers, so his company is developing projects closer to the center of town . . .

    Orr believes there are “only so many nail salons and dry cleaners” that can fill up suburban centers and that there’s pent-up demand in urban areas where housing density is increasing.

  • As if on cue, two former Subway franchise owners tell the Houston Business Journal that they’re going to flood the Houston market with more than a hundred new Submarina sandwich shops. The first store opens the beginning of August, at I-45 and Airline.
  • And speaking of anchors, the HBJ also reports that Staples will soon be rescuing shopping centers all around Houston from that nail-biting anonymity:

    Staples officials are tight-lipped about the company’s plans for Houston, but local retail sources say they’ve seen Staples stores on as many as 11 different site plans for future retail developments ranging from Katy, to League City to Spring, as well as a close-in site at Post Oak and San Felipe.

    Staples has already signed a lease for a new store at I-45 South and Almeda Genoa.

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