07/03/09 11:54am

There’s a new $2 million bed and breakfast going up in Midtown? The Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff reports that the project’s developers were “able to persuade a lender” to finance construction of their 3-story “New Orleans-style” B&B, which has already broken ground at 2800 Brazos, at the corner of Drew St.:

“It was a little challenging early on in the process,” [developer Genora] Boykins said. “The thing that made the difference is we really didn’t give up on the vision we have.” . . .

That sort of positive thinking is apparently nothing new for Boykins, an attorney for Reliant Energy who serves on the Downtown Management District board of directors — along with her La Maison partner, Centerpoint Energy community relations VP Sharon Owens.

Kirbyjon Caldwell, the pastor of 14,000-member Windsor Village United Methodist Church, provides more insight into Boykins’s real-estate techniques in Chapter 3 of his now-decade-old bestseller, The Gospel of Good Success: A Road Map to Spiritual, Emotional and Financial Wholeness:

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12/03/08 2:42pm

THE FEDEX IRVINGTON SITE GOES TO AVENUE CDC Avenue Community Development Corp. will be working with the Houston Housing Finance Corp. to build 80 to 100 homes and 180 to 250 apartments on the site of a former FedEx facility it bought near Moody Park. The redevelopment of the 20-acre tract at 4004 Irvington Blvd., just south of Calvacade Street, is the nonprofit organization’s biggest to date, according to Avenue CDC. . . . Construction will begin in 2009.” [Houston Business Journal]

10/30/08 2:25pm

Hannah Project Row House CDC Duplexes on Francis St. Under Construction, Third Ward, Houston

Division St. Duplexes Behind Project Row Houses, Third Ward, HoustonRow House CDC has completed a second group of 8 duplexes for low- to moderate-income residents — on Francis St. between Dowling and Live Oak. That’s just north of the growing Third Ward campus of Project Row Houses, the CDC’s sister organization. At least 6 units are still available, reports Robin Foster in the Chronicle:

The units range from 700 to 900 square feet; 10 are family-sized with three bedrooms and 1½ baths and six have two bedrooms and one bath.

[Row House CDC executive director Alain] Lee said funds for the project were stretched to allow the builder to frame-in back porches. If additional money can be found, the porches will be finished as part of a courtyard envisioned for both the new and original housing complexes, he said.

All 16 duplexes were based on designs by students in the Rice Building Workshop at Rice University.

Photo of Francis St. duplexes under construction: Flickr user b2tse; photo of original duplexes along Division St.: Row House CDC

10/28/08 12:49pm

NEW PARK FOR GREENSPOINT

Redemption Community Development Corp. has raised $10,000 out of $75,000 it needs to turn a 16-acre site at 822 West Greens Road from a gang hangout to a park: “The corporation selected the site just [west] of Interstate 45 because it is surrounding by low- to moderate-income apartment and mobile home communities that do not have easy access to recreational facilities, said [RCDC executive director Evelyn] Ogletree. To take a property utilized for less-than-positive purposes and transform it into a park has been a long-standing dream. The ‘phase one’ park plan includes a covered basketball pavilion, playground, nature gardens, walking/jogging trail, benches and picnic tables.” The remainder of the funds will likely come from grants. [Houston Chronicle]