Swamplot Archives by Tag: New Construction: Residential

Friday, October 30, 2009

Comment of the Day: Memorial Real Estate Imperatives

October 30, 2009 – 1:51 pm
   

“The house is old. The house must be torn down. The house will be replaced by one with separate rooms for every task imaginable. The house will have a six car garage - the new four car garage. A realtor will advertise the property with ‘old growth trees’. This must be done.” [tcpIV, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Taking from Friar Tuck and Little John]

1:51 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Comments, Demolitions, Development Strategies, Neighborhoods: Sherwood Forest, New Construction: Residential, Quicklink, Redevelopment
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Monday, October 26, 2009

Comment of the Day: The Value of Failed Developments

October 26, 2009 – 2:29 pm
   

“The financial failure of Mosaic is not related to zoning or neighborhood protection. Mosaic represents a massive mixed-use project that will (eventually) fill up and further the civic goals of increasing population density and adding positively to the streetscape. In the mean time, the FDIC and out-of-state investors are paying the property tax bill on units that aren’t occupied by people that would stress our infrastructure. Where’s the downside in that? If the alternative were a vacant lot, Mosaic is far preferable from a civic perspective. . . .” [TheNiche, commenting on Only the Towers Remain Standing: Mosaic and Friends Break the Bank]

2:29 pm | 10 Comments | Read more about Comments, Condos, Development Strategies, Financing, Highrises, Neighborhoods: Hermann Park, New Construction: Residential, Quicklink
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Friday, October 23, 2009

Only the Towers Remain Standing: Mosaic and Friends Break the Bank

October 23, 2009 – 12:22 pm

With its most recent achievements, the Mosaic earns its place in Houston’s spec-development record books: Last month the 29-story condo tower near Hermann Park — wedged between Almeda and 288 — scored the loan-default trifecta, having notched a bankruptcy, mass foreclosures, and an attendant bank failure to its credit all within a single calendar year.

Chicago’s Corus Bankshares, which held a $71 million loan for the Mosaic, foreclosed on all 271 unsold units (out of 394 total in the building) in September, just days before the bank itself was seized by the FDIC. A few weeks later, the federal agency sold 40 percent of the bank’s real estate loans to a team of private-equity firms calling itself Northwest Investments and led by Starwood Capital Group — for 60 cents on the dollar.

Any further fun at the Mosaic will be courtesy of the FDIC, reports Nancy Sarnoff:

Continue Reading This Story >

12:22 pm | 40 Comments | Read more about Apartments, Bankruptcies, Condos, Financing, Foreclosures, Highrises, Neighborhoods: Hermann Park, New Construction: Residential
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Monday, October 19, 2009

2727 Kirby: Refunds Are on Their Way

October 19, 2009 – 5:14 pm

The Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff, after a tour of 2727 Kirby:

Developer Jerry Brown said 20 units are occupied in the 78-unit building.

The least expensive floor is priced at $575 per square foot, he said, and the average unit is about $2 million.

Maintenance fees are 65 cents per square foot.

While Brown said he’s seeing more traffic these days, there have been some snags.

I recently came across some lawsuits against the developer filed by buyers who canceled their contracts, but didn’t receive their earnest money back like they were promised.

“If they’re entitled to their money, they’ll get their money,” Brown said.

Photo of 2727 Kirby: Ziegler Cooper

5:14 pm | 17 Comments | Read more about Condos, Condos for Sale, Highrises, Neighborhoods: Upper Kirby, New Construction: Residential
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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Condo Spies in the Night: Investigating Sales at 2727 Kirby

September 16, 2009 – 4:15 pm

Sure, we all want to know how well the condos at the newly completed 30-story 2727 Kirby tower have been selling. But a couple of dedicated readers decided to investigate on their own:

[We] have been musing that 2727 Kirby looks awfully dark for a building for which the Chronicle proffers “all but 18 units have been sold”

Well, we put on our trench coats and went parking garage climbing to find out exactly how many souls live in that wraithlike monument to a bygone era.

These scary night pictures were taken on a Tuesday evening at around 8 pm. This was a prime time for at least a sampling of residents to be at home among their new Imported Stone Flooring and European Cabinetry. The night photos were taken from atop the parking garage on West Alabama that is the home of Fleming’s and from the Parking lot on Westheimer that serves Taco Milagro/Downing Street.

And they show . . . ?

Continue Reading This Story >

4:15 pm | 33 Comments | Read more about Condos, Condos for Sale, Highrises, Neighborhoods: Upper Kirby, New Construction: Residential, Real Estate Marketing
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Friday, September 4, 2009

Secret Powers of the Cordell St. Shipping-Container House

September 4, 2009 – 12:26 pm
   

The Brookesmith home of Kevin Freeman and Jen Feldmann — fashioned from shipping containers by Numen Development’s John Walker and Katie Nichols — meets a national audience in the pages of the latest issue of Dwell: “The meat distributor [across Cordell St.] begins loading trucks as early as 5:30 a.m., but the couple imagines themselves as hipsters living in New York City’s meatpacking district, and that makes it okay. . . . The corrugated steel of the container that houses the master suite becomes a textured wall for writing messages in the home’s entrance. ‘When we were furnishing the house, I thought, “Oh no! Our fridge isn’t magnetic for Eli’s artwork,” but then I realized the whole house is magnetic,’ Feldmann says. ‘We’ve become magnet connoisseurs,’ Freeman adds.” [Dwell; previously in Swamplot]

12:26 pm | 1 Comment | Read more about Construction Materials, Green Design and Development, Home Design, Homebuilders, Neighborhoods: Brookesmith, New Construction: Residential, Quicklink, Transportation
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Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Low-Income Veterans’ Housing in Bridgeland

September 1, 2009 – 11:28 am
   

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates presented the keys to a new lakeside cul-de-sac home in Bridgeland yesterday to Purple Heart recipient Capt. Daniel Moran, USMC (Ret.). Moran, who was severely injured twice while on duty in Iraq, qualified for a low-cost housing program for disabled veterans administered by HelpingaHero.org. “The new 3,300-square-foot home was funded by the Strake Foundation, Rex and Marilyn King and the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund. Perry Homes built it with special accommodations for Moran’s physical condition. It features tinted windows, a high-efficiency air conditioner and heating system and other enhanced temperature-control measures because Moran is no longer able to control his body temperature. The lot was selected to allow the least amount of direct sunlight into the home. The house also includes an extended covered porch to allow him to spend time outdoors with his two children, Trey 4, and Macy, 2, without direct sun exposure.” [DefenseLink]

11:28 am | 4 Comments | Read more about Home Design, Homebuilders, Neighborhoods: Bridgeland, Neighborhoods: Cypress, New Construction: Residential, Quicklink
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Monday, August 24, 2009

A Little Winter St. Front Yard Action

August 24, 2009 – 4:15 pm

A reader sends in this photo, wanting us to

check out this newly built house in the first ward. On the dirt road aka Winter st. just east of White.

Who would build a house with the train running through their front yard?1?

Only in Houston.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

4:15 pm | 18 Comments | Read more about Gardening, Home Design, Neighborhoods: First Ward, New Construction: Residential, Transportation
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Thursday, July 16, 2009

Timbergrove’s Waterfall House: Half Off

July 16, 2009 – 1:20 pm

The reader who first brought that humongously discounted house in Timbergrove Manor to our attention earlier this spring writes in to report that the tall courtyard home’s asking price has been further reduced. The 6,000-sq.-ft. home at 6204 Queenswood Ln. was originally listed for $1.8 million, but was cut to $1 million in April.

As of last week, the home has been relisted with an even-further-reduced price: $749,999. Why the continuing freefall? Writing in May, a commenter on our earlier story offered some details:

. . . the listing agent indicated that the home had sustained water damage during Ike due to broken windows. She also let me know that the home would soon be going into a short sale, which is now listed on the Agent side of the MLS Listing. . . . Unfortunately, the home did suffer major damage, which in reality looked like the roof leaked throughout the house. The sheetrock has been removed from all ceilings and top ¾ of the walls on the entire second floor. All the molding has also been removed throughout the house. The floorplan is amazing with large rooms, wide hallways and high ceilings. It is really an amazing place!

The photos in the new listing are considerably different from those in the first, and reveal some of the extent of the damage. Here’s the latest view of the central courtyard, scene of that dramatic waterfall:

Continue Reading This Story >

1:20 pm | 20 Comments | Read more about Disaster Aftermath, Homes for Sale, Neighborhoods: Timbergrove Manor, New Construction: Residential, Price Reductions
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Monday, July 6, 2009

Houston Rent Deals

July 6, 2009 – 10:21 am
   

A broker tells reporter Amy Wolff Sorter that no new multifamily apartments — beyond the 14,000 units currently “in the pipeline” — are likely to be built in the Houston area until 2012. MPF Research says the multifamily occupancy rate for this area is hanging at around 89.7 percent, not too far from where it was last year: “. . . rents continue to hold steady and concessions aren’t being jacked up in response, though they do exist. [MPF's Greg] Willett points out that about 38% of the product on the market today has some sort of concession, with the typical giveaway hovering at a 9% discount, which translates to a little more than one month of free rent. Still, ‘that really hasn’t moved,’ Willett remarks. ‘We’ve been at that 9% figures for awhile.’ Both [Apartment Realty Advisors' Matt] Rotan and [CB Richard Ellis's Craig] LaFollette say that the infill locations are faring better than the outer submarkets, which are giving away up to two months free rent.” [Globe St.]

10:21 am | 3 Comments | Read more about Apartments, Forecasts, New Construction: Residential, Quicklink, Renting
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The $99k House Competition Winner Opens Up

June 17, 2009 – 3:45 pm

How’d that $99k house project turn out? One reader tells Swamplot he’s impressed that a custom-designed house that “may be LEED accredited” could be completed for that price:

The event was great, if very hot ( it was a Noon yesterday). The mayor and principals involved in the project all spoke briefly, and we toured the house.

More photos from yesterday’s official opening on Jewel St. in the Fifth Ward:

Continue Reading This Story >

3:45 pm | 17 Comments | Read more about Green Design and Development, Home Design, Neighborhoods: Fifth Ward, New Construction: Residential
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Friday, June 12, 2009

Nesting Time: New Home of the Skeeter Eaters

June 12, 2009 – 1:59 pm

Brazoria County correspondent Banjo Jones documents the local construction boom from his front porch:

I give them credit for their engineering skills, not to mention their “work ethic” to use a cliché from the tiresome sports parlance of our times.

They started by building a thin ledge composed of moist red dirt. That base went up an inch or so, then they started bringing in black moist soil to continue building upward. Mixed into this, of course, is the re bar – yellowing dead grasses.

They’re at it all day from sunup to sundown.

Who’s using yellowing dead grasses for rebar?

Continue Reading This Story >

1:59 pm | 2 Comments | Read more about Brazoria County, Critters, New Construction: Residential
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Friday, June 5, 2009

Getting Houston Right: The Toll Brothers Come to Town

June 5, 2009 – 3:41 pm

Houston, the Toll Brothers have been looking for just the right home for you:

“We have been studying the Houston market for a long time and have been looking for the right opportunity to enter it,” Robert Toll, chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “In 2008, Houston was the second-largest home building market in the nation.”

Actually, the “nation’s leading builder of luxury homes” is headed to The Woodlands. The Pennsylvania-based company, which already operates in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio, promises its first houses in the Village of Creekside Park will be complete early next year. Sales will begin this August.

Toll Brothers at Creekside Park will offer homes on 80′ wide home sites and will showcase five floorplans with multiple exterior designs.

A Swamplot reader comments on the photo accompanying the announcement that appeared in the Houston Business Journal:

The story includes a photo of one of the exterior choices: A French provincial pastiche. What in the name of pete does anything like this have to do with the climate and traditional architectural style of the Gulf Coast? Do the Toll Brothers even pay attention?

Well, that may not have been the company’s intent. On its own website, Toll Brothers illustrates its press release with this separately tuned sample:

Continue Reading This Story >

3:41 pm | 21 Comments | Read more about Homebuilders, Homes for Sale, Master-Planned Communities, Neighborhoods: The Woodlands, New Construction: Residential
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Monday, May 18, 2009

Timbergrove Manor’s Biggest Price Cut Ever

May 18, 2009 – 10:39 am

Why oh why won’t anyone buy this Timbergrove Manor pleasure palace? A Swamplot reader writes in to note that the 6,000-sq.-ft., 5-bedroom home at 6204 Queenswood Ln. — “the biggest house by far in Timbergrove” — endured a rather dramatic price cut recently.

The home has been listed since last August — presumably during construction — for a whopping $1.8 million. As of late April, though, it’s been available for just $1 million! That’s a reduction of about two neighboring houses!

Continue Reading This Story >

10:39 am | 85 Comments | Read more about Homes for Sale, Neighborhoods: Timbergrove Manor, New Construction: Residential
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Thursday, May 7, 2009

Withering Townhouses of the First Ward

May 7, 2009 – 10:25 am

A First Ward resident wants the scoop on a nearby development that’s “really going to pasture” on the 1500 block of Bingham, just west of Houston Ave. and across from Brock Elementary.

It is a townhouse project that got started 1-2 years ago, was never finished, and is now becoming a huge eyesore (broken doors, windows, garage doors…they got as far as putting mesh siding but stopped short of actually getting the stucko on there).

I have lived in the first ward for about 2 years in a renovated bungalow. it makes me sick to see all these properties built on spec to make a quick buck that are becoming abandoned, and only after demolishing what was there in the first place.

A few more photos our reader sent in:

Continue Reading This Story >

10:25 am | 19 Comments | Read more about Construction Problems, Neighborhoods: First Ward, New Construction: Residential, Redevelopment, Townhomes
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