Tag: Apartments

Apartments, Development Strategies, Highrises, Home Design, Real Estate Marketing

07/23/09 9:08am

Breaking Apartments News: Demolition Begins at Wilshire Village

Demolitions, Lancaster Place, Quicklink

3 Comments

BREAKING APARTMENTS NEWS: DEMOLITION BEGINS AT WILSHIRE VILLAGE A reader reports the long-anticipated demolition of the Wilshire Village apartments at the corner of Dunlavy and W. Alabama has begun: “At 7:19 AM this morning demolition started. It is one single piece of equipment.” [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot]

77098, Apartments, Demolitions, Lancaster Place, Wilshire Village

07/22/09 9:21am

Rejected Again: The Ashby Highrise’s Latest Failing Grade

Boulevard Oaks, Condos, Development Regulations, Highrises, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Southampton, Traffic

44 Comments

Wondering what’s been going on with the Ashby Highrise? Developer Matthew Morgan tells the River Oaks Examiner that Buckhead Development intends to respond to “the city’s attempts to reach an agreement” with a new submission for the proposed 23-story residential tower on Bissonnet, next to Southampton.

But the city rejected the highrise’s plans again yesterday . . . for the 10th time. The city said its own analysis showed the project as currently proposed would result in an “F” level of traffic at the corner of Shepherd and Bissonnet:

However, â€œA significant reduction in peak-hour trips, including appropriate trip offsets, could have a potential to address heightened concerns,â€ a city engineer, Mark L. Loethen, wrote in his comments.

Computing traffic level involves a formula that rates intersection flow from â€œAâ€ (no traffic) to â€œFâ€ (very slow).

The rejected plans were submitted April 7, making the three months until they were returned to the developers unusually long.

Ashby gets delayed 10th rejection [River Oaks Examiner]
Ashby Highrise coverage [Swamplot]

Rendering of proposed Ashby Highrise, 1717 Bissonnet: Buckhead Investment Partners

77005, Apartments, Ashby Highrise, Boulevard-Oaks, Condos, Development Regulations, Highrises, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Southampton, Traffic

07/21/09 10:01am

Slow Highrise Recognition School: Is This Place Really in Houston?

Highrises, Home Design

1 Comment

It seems Swamplot readers have had a little trouble identifying the highrise building discussed in yesterday’s Slow Home Design School video exercise. It’s new, it’s “Downtown,” and this west-facing apartment is on the 17th floor, says instructor and architect John Brown.

But is it even in Houston? Really?

What does Brown have to say about the floor plan?

Apartments, Highrises, Home Design

07/20/09 2:28pm

What’s Wrong with This Highrise Apartment?

Highrises, Home Design

37 Comments

“Do you know which building this is?” a reader asks. The video is today’s presentation in Canadian architect/real-estate agent/developer/plan doctor/entrepreneur John Brown’s Slow Home Design School. The topic: a 2800-sq.-ft. highrise apartment . . . in Houston.

Where, exactly? “It’s on the 17th floor of a new building that’s been built in Downtown Houston.” Hmmm. . . .

You have until tomorrow to present your findings! The floor plan under discussion:

Apartments, Highrises, Home Design

07/17/09 12:54pm

Spreading the Wealth: Annotated Midtown Apartment Walking Tour

Development Strategies, Midtown, Parking, Streetscapes

7 Comments

Blogging at NeoHouston, Andrew Burleson declares that the connections a building has to the world around it — what he calls its interface — have a big effect on value:

A house may be great, but if it doesnâ€™t have a nice front yard it wonâ€™t be worth as much as the house next door that does. Likewise, homes in an area with lots of big trees tend to be valued higher than places without them. The interface is better.

Well, sure. Big trees is nice! But Burleson also claims that the value effects of interface success — and suckage — can travel:

Interfaces are highly radiant, they have a significant impact on the values of surrounding properties, and this value has a tendency to spread. If a street is truly beautiful, every adjacent property is likely to be highly valued. If a street is very ugly, every adjacent property is likely to be somewhat undervalued, even if some individual structures on that street are highly valued.

So why are we jumping over fences in Midtown? It’s all part of Burleson’s photo tour of the “interfaces” of 3 apartment complexes within a few blocks of each other: The Post Midtown Square (the good), the Camden Midtown Apartments (the bad), and 2222 Smith Street (the so-so).

77002, Apartments, Development Strategies, Midtown, Parking-Garages, Streetscapes, Tours, Walkability

07/17/09 9:16am

The Bats of West Bellfort

Critters, Park Glen, Quicklink

3 Comments

THE BATS OF WEST BELLFORT KHOU-TV has tape of the newest residents of the Idlewood Park Apartments at 11675 West Bellfort, just east of Kirkwood: A colony of bats that’s been living inside the walls of at least one building. An animal removal specialist from Trutech has installed a bat valve on a portion of the building’s second story. “They come out during feeding time which is between 5:30 a.m. and 6:15 a.m. They may have been in there for weeks, possibly months, but residents didnâ€™t tell management until earlier this week. A resident shot video of the bats leaving for the morning and showed it to management. . . . ‘We will be here every day for two weeks to monitor whatâ€™s happening and to see what occurs with this. Because of the video, we saw there were a large number of bats, so this wonâ€™t be overnight where they are going to get out and fly out,’ said [Trutech’s Derek] van Delft.” [11 News]

77099, Apartments, Bats, Critters, Park Glen, Videos

07/10/09 11:11am

Apartment Inspections in Sugar Land

Development Regulations, Quicklink, Sugar Land

No Comments

APARTMENT INSPECTIONS IN SUGAR LAND Sugar Land requires single-family rental units to be inspected each year. And the city council has just voted to require the same for multifamily apartments: “The multifamily ordinance must be approved on second reading at a future meeting to become law. If approved, the measure will require apartment owners to pay an annual fee of $8 per rental unit. Sugar Land Community and Environmental Director Mike Goodrum told City Council members on Tuesday that the fee would equate to an annual cost of about $2,000 to $2,400 for the typical apartment complex in the city. Most of those complexes, he said, are owned by Gables Residential of Atlanta, Ga., which was consulted during creation of the new proposed policy. . . . Since apartment complexes typically have somewhat rapid tenant turnover, city inspectors would annually inspect those units that are vacant on the day the inspector schedules a visit, Goodrum indicated.” [Fort Bend Now]

77478, 77479, 77498, Apartments, Development Regulations, Public Safety, Sugar-Land

07/06/09 10:21am

Houston Rent Deals

Forecasts, New Construction: Residential, Quicklink, Renting

3 Comments

HOUSTON RENT DEALS 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.]

Apartments, Forecasts, New Construction: Residential, Renting

06/29/09 10:46am

Wilshire Village Farewell Photo Shoot

Demolitions, Lancaster Place

6 Comments

Fenced and forlorn, the Wilshire Village Apartments at West Alabama and Dunlavy are ready for the wrecking. But . . . not yet. Swamplot reader Robert Boyd sends a few pics of the lonely scene from this weekend:

77098, Apartments, Demolitions, Lancaster Place, Wilshire Village

06/26/09 5:15pm

Solar-Powered Shipping Containers Flee; It’s Apartments for the Mirabeau B.

Buying and Selling, Condos, Development Strategies, Green Design and Development, Houston Architects, Hyde Park, Montrose, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing

1 Comment

Hey, what’s happening to those fancy solar-powered recycled shipping containers on the corner of Hyde Park and Waugh, meant to attract eco-minded buyers to the $400K+ condo units in the Mirabeau B.?

Up and away they go! Did the Mirabeau B. meet its sales target? Nope . . . but it’s time for construction anyway, developer Joey Romano tells Swamplot:

Our financing is in place and we have signed our contract with Mission Constructors who have commenced work on the site. If all goes to plan at the City, the building work will begin in the next few weeks.

How’d that happen? With a little switch: to rental. But Romano says none of the project’s “green” features will be changed:

Weâ€™ll still plant our green roof; our 15 KW solar PV system will still power all common areas; and our rainwater retention system will still irrigate our native Gulf Coast plants. Our units will be large, open, and spacious, offering unique, high-grade finishes, high-end energy efficient appliances, and natural light in every bedroom.

So where are the shipping containers headed?

77006, Apartments, Buying and Selling, Condos, Development Strategies, Green Design and Development, Houston Architects, Hyde Park, Montrose, Portable Buildings, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing, Shipping-Containers, Solar Power

06/26/09 1:25pm

Cleaning Up After the Westheimer Park Apartments

Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Land for Sale, Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing, Tanglewilde

5 Comments

CLEANING UP AFTER THE WESTHEIMER PARK APARTMENTS “Austin-based Falcon Southwest expects the demolition to be complete by July on the 185-unit complex at 9235 Westheimer, between Fondren and Gessner. Phil Capron, president of Falcon Southwest, says the property was under contract late last year to an apartment developer who wanted to build a five-story complex on the 4.8-acre site. The developer, whom he wonâ€™t name, could not get financing because of market conditions. Falcon Southwest will plant grass on the site before relisting it because â€œit will show better totally clean,â€ Capron says. He hopes to sell the tract for $30 to $35 per square foot, which would put the price between $6.3 million and $7.4 million. Falcon Southwest also owns the next door Westheimer Terrace Apartments, which are not for sale now, but Capron says will be at some time in the future.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]

77063, Apartments, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Land for Sale, Real Estate Marketing

06/24/09 9:58am

The Wilshire Village Apartments Have Permission for Demolition

Demolitions, Lancaster Place

27 Comments

As noted in today’s Daily Demolition Report below, 20 structures of the Wilshire Village garden apartments at the corner of Alabama and Dunlavy received demolition permits yesterday.

Aren’t there only 17 buildings in the complex? Maybe everyone’s just trying to be extra sure to get them all.

If you’re coming late to this story — or if you just feel the need to relive all the excitement, mystery, and wackiness surrounding the long decline, eventual abandonment, and destruction of a 69-year-old Montrose icon — you can read all of Swamplot’s posts on the topic here. For full effect, start at the earliest story, at the bottom of the last page, and work your way backwards. And don’t miss the many entertaining and informative comments contributed by Swamplot readers along the way.

Daily Demolition Report: The One with Wilshire Village in It [Swamplot]
Wilshire Village coverage [Swamplot]

Photo of Wilshire Village Apartments, 1701 W. Alabama St.: Jim Parsons, from GHPAâ€™s Houston Deco

77098, Apartments, Demolitions, Lancaster Place, Wilshire Village

06/15/09 2:13pm

Comment of the Day: Which Will Roll First?

Comments, Demolitions, Lancaster Place, Lanier Place, Quicklink

1 Comment

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHICH WILL ROLL FIRST? “Speaking of demolition, the Chicken â€˜nâ€™ Egg Roll building is still standing. On the day of the supposed demo, there was a little Bobcat or mini-dozer in the parking lot. A couple days later I noticed a CoH red tag in the window. But the building is still there. Wilshire Village is still standing, too, for the most part. The windows are gone, gaping, and empty, meaning that the interiors have been exposed to the weather (such as it is these days). Some of the buildings have been tagged. The complex used to just look old, but inhabited. Now it looks vacant and sad, very sad.” [GoogleMaster, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Meat Beater]

77098, Apartments, Comments, Demolitions, Lancaster Place, Lanier Place, Restaurants, Wilshire Village

06/11/09 12:10pm

Comment of the Day: Kicking Back on Washington Ave.