DOING THEIR LEVEL BEST Latest poster child for the approximately 9,000 abandoned, vandalized, or dangerous structures the city is working bit by bit on demolishing: the 43-unit Park Place Apartments at 7410 Park Place Blvd., near the corner of Long Dr. and Telephone Rd. in southeast Houston — which neighbors say has been vacant of paying tenants for at least 20 years: “More than $84,000 in back taxes is owed on the property, according to the Harris County Tax Assessor Collector. Owner Rodolfo Yannarella, 67, said he fell on tough times and wants more time to get a loan so that he can repair the place, which he called his last chance for retirement. ‘It is very Draconian,’ Yannarella said of a Houston police order earlier this month that it be leveled. ‘I plead with you, I want to repair this property. It is my only future,’ he said moments before he was told the building would have to come down. Five years ago, the city delayed demolition and gave him a chance to fix it up. He claims he was making progress until Hurricane Ike ripped it further apart in 2008 and he fell ill. Then, thieves ripped apart the walls and ceilings in search of copper piping and wires, he said.” [Houston Chronicle]
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Tag: Apartments
The Hospitality Apartments at 7300 Bertner just north of OST are “not posh. But they’re perfectly nice,” explains Ann Hightower, whose husband Joe founded the organization that runs them 42 years ago. “Totally functional, with linens, dishes, a stove and oven, a microwave, TVs and access to free laundry.”
Where’s the swimming pool? There isn’t one, but that’s not usually too much of a concern of the people staying there. All the residents of the 42-unit complex are out-of-towners undergoing treatment at the nearby Texas Medical Center.
Joe [Hightower] estimated the apartments have been filled “99-plus percent of the time†over the years.
“You could probably have four projects this big in Houston and just barely meet the demand,†Ann said after the organization’s annual meeting on Super Bowl Sunday. “And then you would uncover another layer of need.â€
Residents stay anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months — for free.
The nonprofit has never applied for or received money from any government agency. The organization has relied on personal fundraising efforts by the Hightowers and friends and the generosity of Houston congregations, private foundations and hundreds of individual contributors. It has no debt, pays no salaries and operates each apartment for less than $10 a day.
Swamplot has been covering the whole sorry Wilshire Village debacle since longtime tenants of the decrepit 1940 garden apartment complex at the corner of West Alabama and Dunlavy received a rather curious eviction notice early last year. You can find all our posts on the topic — in reverse order — starting here. But even Swamplot readers haven’t heard the full story of Wilshire Village. It’s now become apparent that — as compelling and absurd a plot as the whole soap opera has seemed to follow — a whole ’nother equally gripping drama was taking place behind the scenes.
Since our last post on the subject earlier this week, a whole bunch of new documents have appeared covering what appears to be an ongoing legal battle over the property between Matthew Dilick and Wedge Real Estate Finance. And they’re all available online here. (Click on the “documents” button to see them — but you’ll need to sign up for a free account to get access.) Frankly, we need your help to sift through all the paperwork and figure out what really happened. There’s a lot to look through, but we’ve already discovered some rather startling details, which we’ll be reporting on soon.
If you’ve got legal training, or just fancy yourself an armchair courthouse sleuth, we’re happy to receive any document summaries or commentary you can send us. But what we’d really like to assemble is a definitive timeline of events. And that’s the format we’d prefer to receive your submissions in: A date, an event, and a specific reference to the document that confirms it.
What’ll it all add up to? Maybe a better picture of the secret real-estate history of one large Inner Loop site in Houston. Maybe — more. Who knows? But we can’t see what the jigsaw puzzle shows until we find all the pieces and fit them together. Can you help?
Photo of apartment at Wilshire Village (now demolished): Katharine Shilcutt
Wilshire Village rubberneckers: Pull on over; you are in for quite a treat! The gift that keeps on giving — the tragicomedy of real estate errors at the corner of West Alabama and Dunlavy in Montrose — has come through with another rich round of jaw-dropping twists. It’s up to us to recount and gawk.
We’re still combing through documents filed in the recent lawsuit for more goodies. But a reader who’s a few steps ahead of us has dug into them already and found these gems:
The property has been appraised at $26.8 million. Alabama & Dunlavy (“the partnershipâ€) claim that they were jerked around by Wedge [Real Estate Finance, LLC] as follows:
At the instruction of Wedge, the partnership demolished the buildings on the property. They did this in an effort to prepare the site for development and increase its value by “millions of dollars.†Wedge demanded that this be done because Wedge purchased the Amegy $10 million loan, held the $3 million Wedge loan, and wanted to foreclose. Wedge allegedly stated that if the partnership demolished the buildings and increased the value of the property, Wedge would work with the partnership to avoid foreclosure.
So, the partnership – at great expense – “evicted squatters†and demolished the buildings. But, alas, Wedge decided to foreclose on the partnership and also seize $1,000,000 the partnership held in an amegy account that the partnership planned to use to help fund development.
Among the juicy tidbits…
What? There’s more!?
Having trouble keeping track of all the homes, condos, and apartments financier, philanthropist, and accused Ponzi schemer Robert Allen Stanford had set up for his relations in Houston? With all the recent news reports, following it all can get confusing.
We hadn’t encountered a comprehensive account from local media coverage. But we hadn’t checked the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, either. It turns out that reporter Patsy R. Brumfield — who is currently in the throes of withdrawal from a 6-year-long Nexium habit — had put together this quick survey of the sites of Stanford’s Houston-area comings and goings for the Tupelo, Mississippi, paper last August:
[Stanford] and his wife, Susan, now estranged, lived in the upscale Tanglewood area at 5476 Holly Springs Drive. The Spanish-style home, with red-tile roof and white stucco exterior, looks comfortable but not particularly impressive among a neighborhood of near-mansions.
His fiancée’, Andrea Stoelker, and Stanford maintained a home in the multi-storied Museum Tower at 4899 Montrose Blvd. Stoelker still lives in No. 1304 while a federal court document says Stanford’s son and daughter, Ross and Allena Stanford, and their mother, Louise Sage, who moved to Houston from Dallas, are living in the same apartment building in No. 1905.
Another reason for Stanford to ride those Museum Tower elevators:
CITY TO SHY APARTMENT OWNERS: SHOW US YOUR STUFF! The Houston Apartment Association reports that only about 800 properties have been registered so far at the city’s new Multifamily Rental Property website. Under new regulations passed by City Council in November aimed at eliminating dangerous conditions at apartment complexes, all rental properties consisting of 3 or more units on a single lot are required to be registered by the end of January — or face fines. Inspections will begin in April. [HAA; registration website]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: FAST FOOD TOWNHOUSES “I’ve been in Houston for 3 years and I’ve noticed how many expensive townhouses and condos back up to fast food restaurants and other potentially noisy businesses. It would drive me nuts but I would also look around the neighborhood before I purchased or rented something there. I can’t imagine having to listen to the Jack-in-the-Box drive-through traffic all night long. ‘YA WANT FRIES??'” [Apartment dweller, commenting on 2520 Robinhood Vs. the Merry Men of Hans’ Bier Haus: It’s Come to This]
Real estate agent Sandra Gunn informs us that the Montage, the second glass Almeda St. tower across from Hermann Park, was foreclosed on yesterday. Originally named Mosaic to match its adjacent twin directly to the north, the Montage has been a rental property since it was completed.
Almost exactly a year ago, the developer of both buildings — a limited partnership between Phillips Development & Realty and Florida Capital Real Estate Group — declared bankruptcy in order to avoid foreclosure on the Mosaic, which at the time was officially a condominium tower. And Florida Capital’s chief operating officer expressed hope that the Montage’s separate $71 million loan with Corus Bankshares could be renegotiated.
Hey, good one! Remember all those revisions Buckhead Investment Partners finally made to the Ashby High Rise plans — cutting out a bunch of the ground-floor retail space, enlarging the restaurant, and putting that big driveway loop on Bissonnet — so that the city might finally approve the Southampton-side tower? Yesterday the developers told the Chronicle‘s Mike Snyder they were really just part of an elaborate fake-out maneuver:
Between July 2007 and August of this year, city officials rejected applications for the project 11 times on grounds that traffic it generated would increase congestion on nearby streets to unacceptable levels.
In August, the city approved a 12th application after [Buckhead’s Matthew] Morgan and [Kevin] Kirton removed all the commercial uses except the restaurant and reduced the number of residential units. The developers said Wednesday that they changed their plans to test whether the city would approve their project under any circumstances, but never intended to build anything other than the project they designed in 2007.
Aw, c’mon: If you actually did go ahead and build the approved plans, that would be a great stunt too! But how did these fun-loving developers happen upon such a wacky strategy? Snyder provides some insight into their inspiration:
Driving around North Montrose, a reader is surprised to find the Allen House Apartments still standing. Weren’t those units part of the Allen House that was demolished more than 2 years ago — so the land could rest for a bit while Regent Square tries to get some funding?
I am curious as to why 2 buildings of the erstwhile allen house were left untouched. Was Regent square never expected to cover these lots or is this allen house a new entity with no links to the GID Urban Development Group ? Are these going to be demolished in the future?
Communications director Vance Muse tells the River Oaks Examiner‘s Michael Reed that the foundation’s board won’t replace the bargain-rent Richmont Square Apartments in a way that’ll change the character of the Menil campus:
“It’s on our mind that we could, in a low-key Menil way, build a (residential) property along Richmond Avenue,†he said.
Apartments at Richmont Square range from $650 for one-bedroom, one-bath units of 575 square feet to $955 for two-bedroom, two-bath units of 1,064 square feet. Deposits are between $250 and $300.
Asked about the possibility of the Menil plan including dwellings that are priced similarly to what would be replaced, Muse said specifics have not been discussed yet.
“We’d like to keep it bohemian, if at all possible,†he said. “There has always been a commitment (by Menil) to offering a break.â€
- Moderately priced rentals a thing of the past? [River Oaks Examiner]
- Previously on Swamplot: Chipperfield Sculpts the New Menil: Goodbye, Richmont Square
Photo of Richmont Square parking lot, 1400 Richmond Ave.: River Oaks Examiner
East End blogger Dana Jennings was eager to see what the owners of what was once the Avalon Theater at the corner of Lawndale and 75th St. — just east of the Forest Park Cemetery — had in mind for the property. From last month:
It’s most recent use was as a church. Usually alot of traffic, both foot and vehicular, was seen on Sundays. They’ve moved to a more hopeful location about 2 years ago.
I always thought this would be remodeled into apartment homes. It’s right across the street from La Michocana Meat Market and Grocery, the 99 Cent store, CVS pharmacy, fast food and the Washateria. The bus line runs along Lawndale. It’s a lively corner, active, but again, and I know I’m repeating myself, it’s not threatening. In other obvious words, it would make a great place for new apartments.
The building, still labeled “Living Hope Church,” was demolished September 4th. So what’s the latest on the property?
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:
The Richmont Square apartments on Richmond Ave. get knocked down in the new master plan for the Menil Collection campus. Speaking at a public forum last night, British architect David Chipperfield referred to the Menil’s big multifamily property as “this thing getting in our way.”
Cite magazine’s Raj Mankad describes more details of the Chipperfield plan:
The car park along Alabama would be strengthened with the new bookshop, cafe, and auditorium nearby. The key change would be to connect West Main across the site [to Yupon] through the area occupied by the northern end of Richmont Square. The complete street grid would surround a new green space that would also be made possible by the clearing of the north side of the apartments. It would connect, slightly off axis, with the current Menil park between the main building and the Rothko. The Drawing Institute and Study Center and Single Artist Studios would be sited around the new green space. And along Richmond itself, the plan calls for dense residential and commercial development.
DOWNTOWN’S PIGEON POOP POWDER KEG WILL NOT GO BOOM Swamplot reader ms. rosa reports on tonight’s scheduled demolition of the 1906 Savoy Apartments building (later the Savoy-Field Hotel) at Main St. and Pease Downtown: “Just spoke with Cherry [Demolition]. They will start tearing down the building tonight (Friday, October 2, 2009) at 7:00pm. It will not be imploded (as hoped!)” [Swamplot; previously]