NO PLANS TO REDEVELOP GRAMERCY PLACE APARTMENTS, SAYS NEW OWNER 
Here’s what Fred Sharifi, the new owner of the Gramercy Place apartments on Portland St., has to say about those rumors that the old apartments will be torn down and replaced by something as tall as the Museum Tower on Montrose that they sit behind: “[T]here will be no midrise built,” Sharifi’s property manager writes in an email, “and he has no plans at this time to redevelop the property. If he does eventually build on the property it will be town homes . . . .” [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
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Tag: Museum District
TENANT: GRAMERCY PLACE APARTMENTS TO REMAIN RENTAL UNITS An update: Though the other rumor suggests that the Gramercy Place apartments behind the Museum Tower on Montrose Blvd. will be torn down and replaced by 2 residential midrises, a tenant there reports that the new owners of the 5 buildings on the 200 block of Portland St. have seemed “adamant” that the 31 apartments will remain as rental units and have said they intend “to respect” their “historical quality.” [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox Update, 2:15 p.m.: The owners confirm what the tenant had heard. Read more here.
Note: Read an update to this story here.
What’s left of the Gramercy Place apartments on the 200 block of Portland St. were sold this month. A few of the apartment buildings, which date to 1935, were torn down before being replaced in 2002 by the Museum Tower on Montrose. Now, the seller’s agent says that the remaining 5 buildings and 31 units that records show have been owned for the past 15 years by an entity controlled by Rebecca Parsons were closed on two weeks ago.
And the buyer? The seller’s agent wouldn’t say. But a Swamplot reader with knowledge of the transaction shares a document and some rumors that suggest the buyer is an LLC presided over by Hungry’s Cafe and Bistro owner Fred Sharifi. And the document states an intent to smash the rest of the apartments and put up “residential rental midrise buildings.”
- 6 W. 11th Pl. [HAR]
The old Warwick — now Hotel ZaZa — provided one of the most beautiful views in the world, as far as Bob Hope was concerned, but that was long before photos of the Main St. hotel’s Room 322 showed up on Reddit. User joelikesmusic started a thread on Monday in which the room — booked for a colleague by mistake, apparently — is described as a “goth dungeon closet.” And the photos do reveal the room’s peculiar decor:
Ah, Friday: Why not take a stroll down Binz St. in the Museum District and have a look at what’s going on? Let’s head east from here: the corner of La Branch and Binz, near the Children’s Museum.
Our guide, Swamplot reader David Hollas, provides the photos and the observations:
Seen any images floating around of the new building Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts is planning for the northwest corner of the Bissonnet and South Main, next to the Cullen Sculpture Garden? Well then, this watercolor-and-charcoal “concept sketch” for the building by architect Steven Holl from a year and a month ago may interest you. It’s going up for auction tomorrow — as part of a fundraiser for the nonprofit Architecture for Humanity. Holl was selected from a group of 3 finalists this past February, beating out LA design firm Morphosis and Oslo’s Snøhetta for the MFAH commission of a new structure to house 20th- and 21st-century art.
Arquitectonica’s row of contemporary townhomes has punched up a mixed-residential block in the Museum District since 1986. Remodeled in 2004, this tower-tipped end unit’s natural lighting gets a boost from a tented skylight in the roofline ridge (at right), framed-in-color glass brick accents, and expanded east-facing windows on two levels.
The property popped onto the market Tuesday, priced at $446,000. It’s been for sale before, with no luck — most recently a little more than a year ago. Back in February 2010, under a different broker from the same agency, it sported an asking price of $650,000; several reductions and 18 months later, the listing expired last September at $495,000.
For the home she’s building for her family on Banks St., on the former site of a carefully disassembled Ranch house in Ranch Estates, architect Karen Lantz tried to make sure every product was made in the United States. But the breaking point came with cabinet hardware, Mimi Swartz writes: “‘This one?’ Lantz said, picking up the pull on the left and turning it over for my inspection. ‘From Italy. Nine dollars.’ She picked up the one on her right. ‘This one?’ She paused. ‘China. Four dollars.’ The U.S.-made pull that was closest to what she wanted cost $72. She called company after company trying to do better. When she asked why the American pulls cost so much more than those made overseas, the answers ranged from ‘We make them here’ to ‘It’s a classic.’”
Pick a path. Each leads to this duplex-turned-single-family residence in Southmore, but only the left fork heads to its front entry. The 1930 home is on a street of octogenarian 2-unit houses and newer 3-story townhomes just north of Southmore Blvd. in the Museum District’s transforming hinterlands. This newly listed two-for-one is asking $395,000.
Since the reworked interior retains much of the original floor plan and features, the home’s next owner might want to undo the conversion. Or not:
 in Southmore... "Pin It")
Back in April, former Bootsie’s Heritage Cafe chef Randy Rucker gave up on plans to open a new restaurant in the holdout parcel (above and at bottom right in the photo at right) behind the Asia Society Texas building. Now that property’s owner, Balcor Commercial, is giving up on it as well. The 3,624-sq.-ft. former doctors’ office on a 11,700-sq.-ft. lot at 5219 Caroline was listed for sale earlier this month for just a tad under $1.5 million. The property traded hands for $907K back in July of 2010, when Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi’s steamy building next door was just a muddy construction site. Renovations of the Caroline building for Rucker’s conÄt never began. “Unfortunately, converting the Caroline property into a fully functional restaurant while maintaining the integrity and design of the structure turned out to be a challenge,” an owner’s rep tells Swamplot.
A couple of readers are curious about some Museum District action, catty-corner from the Children’s Museum. “Could hardly believe my eyes this morning,” writes one. “SOMETHING is going on at the empty lot at Binz & LaBranch (next to the soon to be opening Lucille’s). Old foundations and stumps have been dug up. There’s even a port-a-potty on-site. What I don’t know, however, is WHAT is being planned for this site. I thought maybe the readers would have a clue.” Well, here’s an old one:
WHAT TO MAKE OF THE MUSEUM GARDENS SALE 
Residents of the Museum Gardens Apartments at 1123 Bartlett St. received notices taped to their front doors this week announcing that both the ownership and management of the 28-unit courtyard-style ensemble a couple blocks northwest of the Contemporary Arts Museum has changed. Contact info for the new owner matches that of real estate, construction and development, homebuilding, REIT, and mortgage firm Jetall Companies. A reader wants to know if Jetall might actually manage apartment complexes too — and asks “Is this lovely old complex a goner?” Photo: Midtown Houston Real Estate
A MUSEUM DISTRICT RESTAURANT CONVERSION CUT SHORT 
How far along did Randy Rucker get turning the 3,624-sq.-ft. former doctors’ office directly behind the Asia Society Texas Center into a restaurant — before the plug was pulled? Restaurant conÄt will not be opening at 5219 Caroline St., the lone holdout on the Museum District block demolished for architect Yoshio Taniguchi’s first freestanding new building in the U.S., which opened officially earlier this month. Rucker writes he’ll “continue to search for a location to help give life to restaurant conat & make it a reality”; he’d been working on the project with pastry chef Chris Leung. The partnership with building owner Balcor Commercial, announced last August, has been called off. [29-95; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia
A full block of Calumet St. in the Museum District has been blocked off from traffic with a new landscaped and fenced median, notes Swamplot reader Katie White. Her photo above shows the new view from Austin St. looking towards Calumet; the street appears to have been closed between Austin and Caroline, directly south of the Holocaust Museum.
- Does the museum own the land now? [Twitter]
Photo: Katie White
