01/25/11 11:44pm

Details on the 6-story mixed-use building being planned for the corner of Studewood and 11th 1/2 St. in the Heights will be announced “very soon,” a representative of the new property owner promises Swamplot. A couple readers wrote in earlier today with questions about the new construction fence that just went up on the 25,000-sq.-ft. lot, directly behind the Someburger stand on 11th St. Here’s all the owner, a new firm called Vita Nuova, is willing to say about the project — dubbed Studewood Place on city permits:

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01/20/11 4:14pm

Update, 1/21: Hey, what happened here? Urban Land Institute Houston executive director Ann Taylor writes in: “I’m sorry that we had to remove the New Hope Housing at Brays Crossing video, but it was not ready for prime time…still being edited to include more ‘before’ images and to add footage of the courtyards and gardens. It and all of the Awards Finalist videos will be screened for the public at the ULI Houston Development of Distinction Awards on Tuesday, Jan. 25.” We hope to post the finished video after that date.

Video: Cosmic Light Productions

12/29/10 12:24pm

The Village News is reporting that the Hanover Company has purchased the 4.5-acre site in the Rice Village once slated for Randall Davis’s Sonoma development, and is ready with plans to build a large — though far less grandiose — retail-and-apartment project on the site. Davis and partner Lamesa Properties made a mess of the site 2 years ago, purchasing a stretch of Bolsover St. from the city and demolishing several buildings’ worth of retail and office space before facing the credit markets and figuring out they wouldn’t be able to get financing for the project.

Hanover’s project, called Plaza View Hanover at Rice Village, is scheduled to include 385 “high-end” apartments, 14,000 sq. ft. of retail or restaurant space, and a multi-level parking garage, all in what its designers label a pedestrian-friendly design. What’s that plaza we’ll be viewing? An almost-17,000-sq.-ft. public space along Morningside, with a “water feature, grass lawn, large trees, and restaurant dining spaces.” According to Hanover executive veep John Garibaldi, 55,000 sq. ft. of retail space, 34,000 sq. ft. of office space, and an 8,000-sq.-ft. grocery store were cut from the earlier Sonoma plans. Much of the towering nouveau pomposity of the Sonoma design has been cut too. Along Kelvin St., Hanover’s buildings will reach 6 stories tall; 5 stories along Morningside and Dunstan.

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12/23/10 3:55pm

ALL THEY WANTED FOR CHRISTMAS WAS THE SKYLANE WEST Here’s a heartwarming holiday story. Embarrassed by media reports that all residents of the Skylane West apartments on I-10 were being kicked out of their homes with only 10 days’ notice just days before Christmas, the property’s new owners have given tenants, many of whom pay weekly, a wonderful Christmas present: Now they’ll be kicked out of their homes just days before New Year’s. Sonia Azad reports the new owners of the property just across the Beltway from CityCentre is Houston Garden Centers, which operates a nursery next door to the ratty complex and plans to tear it down. In the holiday spirit, the company “extended family leases through December 29 and gave them each $500 Walmart gift certificates. In an email, the new owner says, ‘We had no idea that there were children living here.'” [abc13] Image: 39Online

12/01/10 9:35am

APARTMENT INSPECTION REPORT How’s that new apartment-inspection program going? The city has given the new owner of the Garden Oaks Place Apartments across Griggs Rd. from the Palm Center until the middle of this month to make required repairs, after an inspection in August found broken railings, rusted-out columns, exposed wiring, and a host of other problems with the complex. But reporter Ted Oberg says at their current pace it’ll take inspectors 14 years to get to everyone. “According to the law, city crews are supposed to inspect every apartment complex in the city. So far, they’ve visited 217 — less than one a day.” [abc13; previously on Swamplot]

11/24/10 11:49am

Here’s a more complete version of the short video posted by the Houston Press yesterday, showing a few problems with apartment 2105 at the Crescent Park Apartments at 2310 Crescent Park Dr. (near Westheimer and Kirkwood), home to Quiana Brown and her daughter for a little more than a year. The tenant’s mother, Eugenia Brown, who’s narrating, tells reporter Paul Knight she “doesn’t understand why one part of the government pays for an apartment that another part says isn’t fit to live in”: She says the apartment has failed several inspections by the Harris County Housing Authority, but apparently that hasn’t affected the apartment managers’ ability to continue to collect federal funds: According to Knight, Quiana Brown pays the $640 monthly rent with Section 8 vouchers.

Eugenia Brown says her daughter has requested to switch apartments several times. (In a separate series of hazy YouTube videos from earlier this month, Eugenia Brown documents similar unrepaired conditions in her own apartment in the complex, No. 1502 — including daily refrigerator and dishwasher leaks, sparking light switches, and combustion-friendly fixtures.) Strangely, none of the documented problems are evident in this promotional video for the apartment complex, produced almost 3 years ago:

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11/05/10 2:43pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HEIGHTS PLAZA RESIDENTS, TELL US YOUR STORIES “I’d be curious to know what happens to these people after the wrecking ball has come through. Will the folks be homeless? Will they have found their way elsewhere? I’m assuming the latter, but I don’t really know and I think it’s pretty uncommon for many publications to follow-through on this type of article.” [tcv, commenting on Walmart Coming — Everybody Out!]

11/05/10 12:14pm

WALMART COMING — EVERYBODY OUT! What residents of the Heights Plaza Apartments at 205 Heights Blvd. found on their doors Wednesday: Letters explaining that the Ainbinder Company has bought the entire complex and that no tenants’ leases will be renewed. For residents whose leases are up in December, that’s 30 days’ notice. Ainbinder will be extending Koehler St. through the property and building 2 strip centers on the remaining portions — as part of the Washington Heights District development that will include a new Walmart. “Although the sale of the complex to the Walmart developer wasn’t a surprise,” explains reporter Miya Shay, “the pace of the move out did catch some residents off guard. Developer Michael Ainbinder says he’s willing to work with residents who can’t find a place before their lease expires. . . . The last lease runs out at the end of April, and the developer says as soon as that happens, they will begin demolishing the property.” [abc13; previously on Swamplot]

10/22/10 5:24pm

The 31-year-old man who lived in unit 2 of this fourplex at 601 Fairview in Montrose apparently didn’t get out much; at the moment he’s being evaluated at the Harris County Mental Health Service Center. The body of his 66-year-old mother, Abigail Saucedo, was discovered in the apartment yesterday morning; it will soon undergo an autopsy. The wafting odor of her decomposing corpse had been noted even across the street — at the original Barnaby’s Cafe, where patio diners over the weekend couldn’t quite place that curious smell. Ultimately, a neighboring tenant found the unidentified stench too much to bear, and called the police. The tenant at No. 2, who had been living in the property for 8 months, at first told the cops that the smell was probably from a dead animal underneath the property, and that he didn’t want to let them in to check out his place because it might disturb his mother, who was not feeling well. Earlier, he’d turned away the property manager with a similar excuse — that his mother was asleep and he didn’t want to wake her.

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10/21/10 1:21pm

OH, THAT’S JUST MOM What was that awful stench emanating from the fourplex at 601 Fairview in Montrose, directly across the street from the original Barnaby’s Cafe? The rotting corpse of a tenant’s mother, it turns out: Wayne Donawho, who took over management of the property in August, tells Houston Press reporter Richard Connelly he had trouble investigating complaints because the tenant of the apartment where the smell seemed to be coming from told him his mom was sleeping and that he didn’t want to disturb her. And yes, that’s what the tenant told the cops this morning, too — before they got inside and found the decomposing body. “I don’t know if she died and he was keeping her to get a Social Security check or what — the police are there now looking at everything,” Donawho tells Connelly, and adds: “I always thought he was just a little weird, but I never thought it would turn into something like this.” [Hair Balls]

10/18/10 4:19pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: MULTIFAMILY MADNESS “It’s crazy that there are still so many [multifamily] properties trading at such a low price considering the land value, anticipated land value, and strong rental market/income. I’ve been buying whatever I can and suggest readers to the same. Some of the property is commercial (5+ unit) and extremely hard to get loans on (full discloser: I have a 5+ unit for sale with seller financing offered), however there is a lot of 1-4 family buildings that are fully occupied where instantly you’d be buying a building that would easily pay all costs (mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc.). And those are very simple for most people to get. No one seems to be going after them which is keeping prices low. I just bought four 4plexes at near land value where the rental income is about 2x the payment. Not sure how they were not snatched up earlier.” [Cody, commenting on Montrose H-E-B Market: What Happened To That Grocery Store on Stilts?]

10/18/10 11:42am

A reader sends in these high-level photos of the scene around noon on Saturday over Memorial Dr. just east of Studemont, where a 300-ton crane was completing the installation of a few beams of the new Rosemont pedestrian bridge. The vantage point: the 20th floor of the Memorial by Windsor apartments — yes, that’s the new name for the Legacy at Memorial apartment tower, as of a few weeks ago.

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10/15/10 10:14pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: APARTMENT COMPLEX SEO “It’s not just for marketing. Some naming is also for search engine optimization. If someone is searching for an apartment in a specific area, apartments are naming themselves to come up in as many area searches as possible. So Alexan Heights becomes Midtown Heights so a web search will pick it up when someone types in “Midtown” or “Heights” and “apartments” in Houston.” [Heights Weirdo, commenting on Top City Development Officer: What Makes the Heights So Special?]

09/28/10 6:51pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOUR CHANCE TO PICK NEW COLORS FOR THE SKYLANE APARTMENTS “Feel free to e-mail me some color schemes using a paint mfgr color names. I’m terrible at picking out colors. I didn’t plan on changing 219’s colors right away since they just painted it (albeit using colors that I wouldn’t have selected) but if someone can come up with a good look for both, I’ll do it.” [Cody, commenting on A Neighbor’s Plans for the West Alabama Skylanes]

09/28/10 10:54am

The new owner of the 2 “infamous” Skylane apartment complexes on West Alabama is already at work making changes. Montrose apartment investor and real-estate agent Cody Lutsch picked up the 2 foreclosed and red-tagged properties from Enterprise Bank earlier this month. For the 25-unit building at 502 West Alabama (on the corner of Garrott), Lutsch has plans to replace the window units with small ductless split A/C systems, fix some structural issues, switch to monthly instead of weekly rentals, and change the name. Also: He’d like to reduce the crime associated with the property, by adding gates, lights, security cameras, larger trash bins, and maintaining the landscaping.

Lutsch has fewer changes planned for the 32-unit Skylane across the street from Spur 527 at 219 West Alabama (above): He says he’s already begun addressing criminal and safety issues at the property, but otherwise plans to let it run “as it’s been running,” as a pay-by-the-week complex. Lutsch says he hadn’t planned to buy that property originally, but decided the property’s land size, rental income, and location might make it attractive to other investors later on.

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