October 28, 2009 – 2:33 pm
The 283,841-sq.-ft. Central Park Northwest off Dacoma St. and the 100,600-sq.-ft. Jester Plaza near Oak Forest are the latest industrial properties to leave the Weingarten Realty fold. And there’s more to jettison: “The company’s vice president/director — industrial properties Kelly Landwermeyer told GlobeSt.com the disposition of the industrial service center on 3500-3582 W. T.C. Jester Blvd. is part of Weingarten’s overall disposition strategy of non-core industrial asset, which includes service centers and flex properties. He says another asset is under contract and scheduled to close within the next few weeks. ‘There are another half-dozen on various pre-contract stages in the pipeline,’ he explains, adding that there are no set deadlines for closings by the end of 2009.” [Globe St.; previously on Swamplot]
Read more about: 77018, 77092, Buying and Selling, Dacoma, Industrial Properties, Oak-Forest, REITs, Weingarten Realty
October 23, 2009 – 10:47 am
The Buffalo Bayou Partnership helped the City of Houston and the Harris County Flood Control District acquire a just-under-2-acre site Downtown for $7.3 million last week: “The property, which is currently being used as a surface parking lot, is sandwiched between Buffalo Bayou on the north and Commerce on the south, stretching from La Branch to Caroline. Roughly half of the land was acquired from a 15-person investment group led by David Loftus. The other half was bought from members of the Loftus family. Loftus says he acquired the site in 2002 with plans to erect a parking garage. After hearing about civic leaders’ intentions for the land, Loftus says he decided to wait and sell it instead. The land will be used to widen the bayou in an effort to mitigate flooding. The site will also double as a park with hike and bike trails during dryer times. Both projects are a part of long-term visions for the bayou system.” [Houston Business Journal]
Read more about: 77002, Buying and Selling, Downtown, Flooding, Parks
October 20, 2009 – 5:32 pm
HAR is out with its September home-sales figures, giving Swamplot’s spreadsheet-side correspondent a chance to eulogize the spring-summer selling season:
Home prices and volumes are flying south for the winter. With this volume downturn for the year, we have most likely seen the highs and sales volumes will now complete their third year of contraction. Prices were down 2-3% in the month, depending on whether you follow the median price or the average price. Pending sales are well below sales for the month, suggesting a further seasonal contraction in October.
This month featured an upturn in foreclosure sales as a percentage of the total. Foreclosure sales were 18.6% up from 16.7% the prior month. Luckily, foreclosure sales are still way down from the 32% peak in January.
But aren’t all those foreclosures going away soon?
Continue Reading This Story >
Read more about: Buying and Selling, Forecasts, Foreclosures, Home Prices, Houston Data, Price Trends
October 7, 2009 – 12:37 pm
Those gargoyles-on-sticks facing Downtown from Randall Davis’s Metropolis condo building get to keep their view. Nancy Sarnoff reports that two post offices offered for sale earlier this year (including the River Oaks P.O. adjacent to the Metropolis) have been taken off the market: “‘Bids were just so low we stopped that project for the time being,’ said Charlie Phillips, postal operations analyst for the [U.S. Postal Service]. Those properties are at 1900 West Gray at Dunlavy and 2802 Timmons, near West Alabama.” No report yet on the outcome of bidding for the Downtown Post Office at 401 Franklin St. [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
Read more about: 77019, 77027, Buying and Selling, Greenway Plaza, Public Buildings, River Oaks
October 5, 2009 – 10:29 am
Houston Rockets owner and real-estate power forward Les Alexander appears to be doing his single-handed best to boost the upper end of the New York City real estate market. Who’s gonna help him out? Last week, he finally closed on a 6,321-sq.-ft. empty penthouse atop a new Robert A.M. Stern waterfront condo building in the West Village — for $25 million in cash. After pausing to take a deep breath, Alexander then put the unit back on the market — for $39.5 million.
New York real estate blog Curbed says Alexander’s move “has to be the most audacious and downright crazy real estate move of 2009 (though there’s still time!):”
In a matter of hours, the penthouse has gone from selling for $3,955/sf to asking $6,249/sf. Talk about appreciation!
Didn’t the buzzer on that game already sound?
The bare-bones pad features 4 corner terraces, but just a single bathroom and small Kitchen — enough to meet city requirements. The condo building is named Superior Ink, in honor of the factory that was torn down to construct it.
Photo: Related Companies
Read more about: Buying and Selling, Flipping, New York City
September 16, 2009 – 2:18 pm
“I am really amazed at this debate. The principle is very simple. The land is too valuable for the revenue generating capacity of existing structures. You can’t rent those spaces for enough money, no matter how you remodel. This is definately a high density project and could be high-rise site in a better market, where are you going to find north of 7 acres in an area like this? The Fiesta across the street is in the Cohen family, so that could be in play. The Cohen family is surrounded by real estate guys. The real shame here, is that you have complicated personalities that probably prevented any new construction during a time in which it would have been viable, so now they are trying to market a property in a climate that almost no one can get financing that would make a deal work. A new project would have provided comfortable living space in a convenient and desirable location, with maybe even a mixed use component. You tear down 40+ year old properties, that have a great deal of deferred maintanence, for marketing purposes, and now they can showcase those beautiful magnolia trees, which I hope they can preserve as many as possible, but it has to make economic sense. I am sure that if someone will make a fair market value offer, and they are a credible buyer, they would sell. Death to rumors. The dirt could be as much as $100 a foot, if you turned back the clock 2 years. It is special so may still demand it.” [Alexander, commenting on All Cleaned Up and Ready for Sale: What Can We Get for Wilshire Village?]
Read more about: 77098, Buying and Selling, Comments, Commercial Real Estate, Lancaster Place, Land Sales, Wilshire Village
September 14, 2009 – 10:58 am
HAR’s consumer site won’t let you search for data in new fields that indicate whether a home has LEED or NAHB Green certification, AC with a high SEER rating, or other energy-related features yet, but listing agents have at least begun filling in the blanks: “For now, the word is still getting out – I doubt that all homes with Green features are being noted as such. There is also evidence that some of the homes are tagged incorrectly -Not even 90 days in to having these fields available there is not enough data yet to state whether or not homes with certain features definitely sell for more money than those without . . . Personally I have been amazed at the number of homes in the Houston area that have Solar PV or Solar Hot Water. The other trend that appears to grow by the week in MLS is the number of homes with Tankless Hot Water Heaters and Older homes with Low-E windows.” [Turning Houston Green, via Swamplot inbox]
Read more about: Buying and Selling, Green Design, Real Estate Marketing
September 9, 2009 – 4:24 pm
Globe St.’s Amy Wolff Sorter says the buyer of the foreclosed Greenbriar Park North apartments near Greenspoint has “a strong track record” of rehabbing complexes. That should help:
Wade Schmitz with Hendricks & Partners’ Houston office tells GlobeSt.com that CNC Investments was the former owner and like many owners during the mid-2000s, had bought too much with too much debt that couldn’t be refinanced. Schmitz, who marketed the asset for Bank of America adds that the 1980s complex at 818 Richcrest Dr. attracted a great deal of interest. . . .
“There were down units that needed to be brought back online,” Schmitz says. “The property had been neglected, and needed someone to take care of it.”
How neglected? Of 400 units in the complex, only around 60 are occupied.
Don’t want to miss out on all the foreclosed-apartment-complex rehab fun? Be patient, more is coming:
Continue Reading This Story >
Read more about: 77060, Apartments, Buying and Selling, Foreclosures, Greenspoint, Renovations
August 19, 2009 – 12:39 pm
HAR’s real estate sales report for July is out! And Swamplot’s housing-market reader-analyst uses the data to piece together a better picture of Houston’s still-somewhat-mysterious foreclosure scene:
The press releases in 2009 have included a running commentary on the % of foreclosure sales in the month. This month’s release featured an interesting nugget — foreclosure sales from the prior year’s month! It is new information, and a few future monthly releases of it will allow us to fill in the data gap in the graph [above].
The foreclosure graph can be looked at in two ways. The glass half full crowd can cite the fact that a wave of foreclosures has been passed through the system — like a painful kidney stone — and it hasn’t led to piles and piles of unsold homes on top of each other in a negative feedback loop. Inventory is down to 6.5 months, backing this view.
And what if you aren’t sure there’s enough water in that glass to, uh . . . pass those stones?
Continue Reading This Story >
Read more about: Buying and Selling, Forecasts, Foreclosures, Home Prices, Houston Data, Price Trends
Weingarten Realty is continuing its multi-year property selling spree. The REIT is trying to unload a big chunk of its industrial properties, which make up a quarter of its holdings, but are typically easier to sell than retail centers: “Weingarten owns or has a stake in 18.6 million square feet of industrial properties in six states, with approximately 7 million square feet in the Houston area. Of the local holdings, nearly 890,000 square feet is up for grabs. In Houston, two properties with a total of 211,000 square feet are under contract for sale and another two facilities with 349,000 total square feet were expected to go under contract this week, according to Landwermeyer. Spec’s became the first local buyer when it acquired a 201,000-square-foot building last week. But as a core asset, that property would not have been sold had it not been for Spec’s existing retail ties to Weingarten.” [Houston Business Journal; more on the sale to Spec's]
Read more about: Buildings for Sale, Buying and Selling, Industrial Properties, Weingarten Realty
Judging from its debut in this morning’s demolition report, it’s looking like the end of the line for the classic 1960 steel-and-glass home at 6040 Glencove St., near Bayou Bend and Memorial Park.
What’s going away?
The house had the kind of wide-open spaces that modernists love, and its floors were marble - cool, [original owner André] Crispin says, under bare feet in the summer.
At 4,600 square feet, the house was large for its era, plenty big enough for the Crispins’ four children and their grand-scale entertaining. When Crispin and his wife hosted musical events, 200 to 300 guests thronged their dramatic living room. There, those guests could admire the wall of glass 14 feet tall. It offered a view of the untamed back yard, a rolling ravine filled with sassafras trees, rabbits and armadillos.
The home was designed by Houston architect Talbott Wilson, 2 years before his firm created the Astrodome. Its current owner, David Mincberg, was appointed by Mayor White earlier this week to serve on the board of commissioners of the Houston Housing Authority. Mincberg bought the property last spring from an owner-broker who employed an innovative marketing plan: the Midcentury Modern came free with purchase of the dramatic 1.35-acre homesite.
What did Mincberg end up paying?
Continue Reading This Story >
Read more about: 77007, Buying and Selling, Houston Architects, Land Sales, Memorial, Modern Design, Real Estate Marketing, Talbott Wilson
“The increase in local unemployment reported this week is sickening,” reports Swamplot’s local financial correspondent. But don’t the latest HAR numbers show Houston home prices at some sort of record high?
Historically, the peak for home prices comes in July or August every year. The increase in the median and average over the past several months has been due to two factors. First, seasonality –summer prices are always the highest. Second, a change in the “product mix” of Houston homes –the % of foreclosed homes has fallen every month for several months straight . . . So the change in the product mix means that the value of any given house probably has not risen, only a change in the product moving through the system is reflected in the numbers.
Is it okay to get excited about the foreclosures, then?
Continue Reading This Story >
Read more about: Buying and Selling, Forecasts, Foreclosures, Home Prices, Houston Data, Price Trends
Hey, what’s happening to those fancy solar-powered recycled shipping containers on the corner of Hyde Park and Waugh, meant to attract eco-minded buyers to the $400K+ condo units in the Mirabeau B.?
Up and away they go! Did the Mirabeau B. meet its sales target? Nope . . . but it’s time for construction anyway, developer Joey Romano tells Swamplot:
Our financing is in place and we have signed our contract with Mission Constructors who have commenced work on the site. If all goes to plan at the City, the building work will begin in the next few weeks.
How’d that happen? With a little switch: to rental. But Romano says none of the project’s “green” features will be changed:
We’ll still plant our green roof; our 15 KW solar PV system will still power all common areas; and our rainwater retention system will still irrigate our native Gulf Coast plants. Our units will be large, open, and spacious, offering unique, high-grade finishes, high-end energy efficient appliances, and natural light in every bedroom.
So where are the shipping containers headed?
Continue Reading This Story >
Read more about: 77006, Apartments, Buying and Selling, Condos, Development Strategies, Green Design and Development, Houston Architects, Hyde Park, Montrose, Portable Buildings, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing, Shipping-Containers, Solar Power
“All of you people are batsh!t crazy if you think you can get a house like that in Idylwood for the low $200’s. If houses LESS than 1300 sq ft have been selling for just under $200,000 or $145 to $150+ a foot. Do the math. 500 more sq ft, a second bath that not all of the other sales had and more upgrades for only $10,000 or so more? . . . This house has closed. It sold for $242,000 as well it should.” [Robert, commenting on Idling in Idylwood: Where’s a Friendly Appraiser When You Need One?]
Read more about: 77023, Appraisals, Appraisers, Bungalows, Buying and Selling, Comments, Home Prices, Idylwood
“Austin-based Falcon Southwest expects the demolition to be complete by July on the 185-unit complex at 9235 Westheimer, between Fondren and Gessner. Phil Capron, president of Falcon Southwest, says the property was under contract late last year to an apartment developer who wanted to build a five-story complex on the 4.8-acre site. The developer, whom he won’t name, could not get financing because of market conditions. Falcon Southwest will plant grass on the site before relisting it because “it will show better totally clean,” Capron says. He hopes to sell the tract for $30 to $35 per square foot, which would put the price between $6.3 million and $7.4 million. Falcon Southwest also owns the next door Westheimer Terrace Apartments, which are not for sale now, but Capron says will be at some time in the future.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
Read more about: 77063, Apartments, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Land for Sale, Real Estate Marketing
Comment of the Day: Wilshire Village Logic
“I am really amazed at this debate. The principle is very simple. The land is too valuable for the revenue generating capacity of existing structures. You can’t rent those spaces for enough money, no matter how you remodel. This is definately a high density project and could be high-rise site in a better market, where are you going to find north of 7 acres in an area like this? The Fiesta across the street is in the Cohen family, so that could be in play. The Cohen family is surrounded by real estate guys. The real shame here, is that you have complicated personalities that probably prevented any new construction during a time in which it would have been viable, so now they are trying to market a property in a climate that almost no one can get financing that would make a deal work. A new project would have provided comfortable living space in a convenient and desirable location, with maybe even a mixed use component. You tear down 40+ year old properties, that have a great deal of deferred maintanence, for marketing purposes, and now they can showcase those beautiful magnolia trees, which I hope they can preserve as many as possible, but it has to make economic sense. I am sure that if someone will make a fair market value offer, and they are a credible buyer, they would sell. Death to rumors. The dirt could be as much as $100 a foot, if you turned back the clock 2 years. It is special so may still demand it.” [Alexander, commenting on All Cleaned Up and Ready for Sale: What Can We Get for Wilshire Village?]