Tag: Rice Military

Buying and Selling
10/15/10 12:08pm

Park Memorial Condo Owners: Ready To Move Back In?

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Condos, Hazrds, Lawsuits, Rice Military
7 Comments

Welcome home to Park Memorial! More than 2 years after city officials ordered the entire Memorial Dr. complex evacuated, the coast may now be clear for owners of the Park Memorial Condominiums to move back into their homes! Except, umm . . . some of those sheet-rock, copper-wiring, and AC-unit removal operations that have been going on in the meantime on the locked and officially empty grounds might make moving back in a little rough. 11 News’s Gabe Gutierrez reports that a Harris County district judge has ruled that the city’s order to vacate the property violated the state’s due process rules because there was no prior notice or hearing, and that there was “no evidence that there was any emergency or immediate danger that justified” requiring the residents to leave without one. The city plans to appeal the ruling.

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Buying and Selling
03/26/10 1:22pm

Memorial Drive Scrape: The End of Otto’s and Bibas Greek Pizza

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Cancellations and Delays, Commercial Real Estate, Memorial, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Rice Military, Shopping Centers
3 Comments

How cheaply did the Ponderosa Land Development Co. pick up the 1.3 acres of land under Otto’s Bar B Que on Memorial Dr.?

“I won’t be able to ride off into the sunset with what I’m getting,” Otto’s co-owner June Sofka tells Jennifer Dawson of the Houston Business Journal. And that’s our only clue. Well, that and the fact that the shopping-center developers still had enough money left over to buy the property next door.

A new 2-story building on the 1.8-acre site between Asbury and Reinicke, on the southern border of Rice Military, is being designed by Kirksey.

The portion with Memorial frontage that will also be torn down to make way for the new project is owned by two sisters, one of whom is Wanda Greb. Their property contains Bibas Greek Pizza, M-T Nails, Memorial Barber Shop, Rich Cleaners and the hamburger restaurant segment of Otto’s, which is leased by the Sofkas.

Ponderosa intends to scrape the entire site and develop a 22,000-square-foot center with retail, restaurant and possibly some boutique office space. The project is expected to cost $6 million to $8 million, not including the land cost.

But wait, maybe not all of those businesses are disappearing from that location!

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Hazards
06/29/09 9:53am

Ditched off Washington Ave.: Nighttime Off-Roading Adventures

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Parking, Rice Military, Streetscapes, Washington Corridor
24 Comments

HAIF poster Htowngirl, who lives near the new Ei8ht nightclub at the corner of Roy St., complains about . . . uh, parking difficulties in her neighborhood. And posts a few photos of an early Sunday morning scene from a few weeks ago:

The parking for Ei8ht in the neighborhood is already horrendous, I can’t even imagine what it will be like when Taps, Busty LaRoue’s, and this new “country” bar open…

Sample of the parking issues… I live a few blocks off Washington, near Ei8ht…the scene outside my house at 3 AM Sunday Morning a few weeks ago. Drunk suburbanite 21-year-old drove into our ditch.

Still there in the morning…

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Development Regulations
02/09/09 12:07pm

Araiyakushimae Station, the Washington Corridor, and Those Narrow Private Drives

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Land Development, Quicklink, Rice Military, Streets, Washington Corridor
4 Comments

ARAIYAKUSHIMAE STATION, THE WASHINGTON CORRIDOR, AND THOSE NARROW PRIVATE DRIVES “So why does an aerial photo of Rice Military look just like Tokyo? A few things set Houston apart from most other American cities here. For one, American cities have long had a prejudice towards public streets. Development regulations stipulating that ‘every lot must have X amount of frontage on a public street’ date to the 1800s in most American cities, well before the age of zoning. Interior lots reached through shared access easements are a common feature of rural and exurban development, but Houston is relatively uncommon in allowing such arrangements in a high-density setting. This results in narrow alleyways more characteristic of cities in Japan and, on a larger scale, Great Britain.” [Keep Houston Houston]

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Buying and Selling
01/13/09 3:42pm

The Finger, the Gun, and Other Secrets of the Park Memorial Sale

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Neighborhood Disputes, Rice Military
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Some juicy emails to former residents of Park Memorial leaked to Swamplot reveal new information about the proposed sale of the shuttered 4.85-acre property off Memorial Drive. The emails were sent by the condo complex’s board of directors, which apparently has quite a few problems to work out before the sale can go through.

First, about that mysterious buyer — whose name had apparently been kept secret from condo owners. The buyer is “now known as Detering Acquisitions,” according to the latest email. Detering Acquisitions is also the name of an LLC managed by Marvy Finger, president and CEO of apartment developer The Finger Companies.

According to the emails, 97 out of 108 Park Memorial owners want to sell the complex to this “unnamed” buyer for an agreed-upon price of around $17 million. But 11 others are seeking separate negotiations with the buyer, even though the buyer has indicated that he “will not negotiate” with the group.

This is also the group of people that filed the actions against the City, and that is now suing the Association (along with individual directors, the realty company, and an attorney).

And . . . there’s even more quasi-legal fun!

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Nightlife
11/26/08 12:44pm

Coming Soon: Late Night Rice Military Action

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Rice Military, Washington Corridor
53 Comments

COMING SOON: LATE NIGHT RICE MILITARY ACTION Some Rice Military residents are feeling a little antsy about the “4 to 5” new bars scheduled to open on the 4 blocks of Washington Ave. between Roy and Detering. The list includes The Pub on Washington coming to 5102 Washington and Tap’s House of Beers coming to 5120 — plus 3 more rumored newcomers at 5110, 5129, and 5317 Washington. A message making the rounds in the neighborhood reports that each has applied for late-hour permits, which would allow alcohol to be served until 2 a.m. [Swamplot inbox]

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Buying and Selling
11/17/08 12:19pm

Last Stand at Park Memorial

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Hazards, Neighborhood Disputes, Rice Military
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If any of those holdouts at Park Memorial are still trying to camp out in their condos, it had to have become a whole lot tougher for them after Saturday. That’s when the city cut off power to the complex and chained the gates.

Among the Park Memorial Forever crowd, a source tells Swamplot, is a family that went to court seeking an injunction against the city — on grounds city officials had no legal right to evict them for safety reasons because the safety issues applied to a different building on the same property. That request has been one of the obstacles holding up the sale of the entire complex, to a so-far-secret buyer.

Photos: HAR (Park Memorial grounds) and HAR (gates)

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Buying and Selling
11/12/08 9:43am

Park Memorial: Just Sitting There

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Hazards, Rice Military
12 Comments

Walkway at Park Memorial Condominiums, Rice Military, Houston

All the residents have moved out, the court battle’s been lost, and the homeowners of the Park Memorial condo complex on Memorial Dr. at Detering are just waiting for a “secret” buyer, KPRC’s Ryan Korsgard reports:

The homeowners continue to pay mortgages, property taxes and association dues, plus pay for a new place to live. The city first posted notices over the summer for structural problems. Owners protested and went to court, but a judge sided with the city.

“The ruling by the courts basically reaffirmed the position the city had in regards to the safety and well-being of the tenants of this townhome,” Houston Public Works Department spokesman Alvin Wright said.

The city said it is illegal to stay without power or water.

Photos of Park Memorial Condominiums: HAR

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Buying and Selling
08/19/08 11:40am

Condos Condemned: Park Memorial To Become Parking Garage Memorial

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Condos, Hazards, Rice Military, West End
15 Comments

Park Memorial Condos, 5292 Memorial Dr. at Detering, Rice Military, Houston

Sharp-witted observers, start your metaphors! Residents of the Park Memorial condos — who’ve been racing to sell their condo complex before any of the units start dropping into the parking garage that sits beneath them — have a new problem. City officials, terrified of a not-merely-figurative condo-market collapse, slapped bright orange notices on all the doors of the Memorial Dr. complex yesterday, notifying all 108 residents that they will need to permanently vacate their homes by September 15th.

The order came after a city inspector and an independent inspector both confirmed that the concrete parking garage structure underneath some of the condo units is in immediate danger of collapse. In late July, the city had warned residents that the garage “may experience catastrophic failure at any time.”

After the jump, a couple more photos of the condo campus . . . from the listing for a recent sale.

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Antoine Forest
07/30/08 2:25pm

City Shuts Down Gables of Inwood; Park Memorial Condos Next?

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Apartments, Condos, Hazards, Openings and Closings, Public Health, Rice Military, West End
12 Comments

Gables of Inwood Apartments, 5600 Holly View Dr., Houston

City officials posted signs at the Gables of Inwood Apartments near Antoine Forest yesterday notifying residents that they need to vacate the property by Monday. The owner of the 165-unit complex, Collins Ofoegbu of El Sobrante, California, has received notices of more than 240 violations from city inspectors since purchasing the property in 2006.

Some received the news from orange “notice to vacate” signs affixed to their doors. The signs also warned residents that power would be disconnected Monday.

“I need, like, two or three months,” said an agitated Jolanda Hernandez, who waved a recent rent receipt while complaining in Spanish. “I need time so I can move out of here.”

Matt Stiles’s report in the Chronicle indicates there are also problems at a closer-in property with a much larger group of owners: the Park Memorial Condominiums near the corner of Memorial and Detering. Stiles says city inspectors planned to post notices at the condominiums at 5292 Memorial warning residents that the parking garage is unsafe and “may experience catastrophic failure at any time.”

After the jump: More highlights from reporter Matt Stiles’s personal collection of dangerous-apartment photos!

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Home Design
05/28/08 1:51pm

The Lease You Could Do: Rice Military Tin House

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Homes for Lease, Houston Architects, Rice Military, West End
4 Comments

5421 Dickson St., Rice Military, Houston

Remember when it looked like the entire West End was going to go . . . metal? It was going to be the Tin House District: Hot young architects inserting daring steel-sided homes between ramshackle bungalows . . . with great sensitivity to the sleepy little neighborhood.

Here’s a Rice Military home Natalye Appel designed for Sarah Balinskas in 1992. And it’s for lease! Have a peek inside . . .

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