It’s Friday afternoon . . . and the rumors are flying! It’s looking like the shelving of the company’s planned Boulevard Place apartment highrise is only the beginning of a much-more-serious towering hangover for Hanover. Word has begun to spread that the private multifamily developer is shutting down its local office. The Hanover Company is based in Houston.
Employees with brand-new pink slips: Got any details you’d like to share? Swamplot’s completely anonymous tell-all line is open.
From Jennifer Dawson in today’s Houston Business Journal comes confirmation of part of Swamplot’s report earlier this week on the two highrises planned for Boulevard Place. The Hanover Company’s planned 37-story apartment tower isn’t moving forward anytime soon:
Construction was supposed to start this month, but that’s not going to happen because it’s too difficult to get a construction loan right now, says Hanover President John Nash.
He says it would be impossible to predict when the credit market would allow the project to move forward, but it could be delayed as much as a year.
Tower rendering: Solomon Cordwell Buenz, via the Houston Chronicle
Remember the two 30-plus-story towers planned for Boulevard Place on Post Oak — the Ritz Carlton Hotel and the Hanover apartment tower? How have they been surviving the rumbling credit crunch?
A HAIF user last week
got slight confirmation that both the hanover tower and the ritz are going to be delayed at least slightly… they still expected both to happen, but they will be phased in.
Then yesterday came another comment:
i can confirm this in regards to hanover.
dont expect their tower to be built anytime soon.. i would consider it postponed indefinitely rather than slightly.
Followed by this:
As a sub on this project I will also confirm this. We have been told at least 6 months of delays.
But they still look great on paperscreen!
ASHBY HIGHRISE: STRIKE SEVEN! “The developers of the Ashby high-rise sent their plans back to the city of Houston just days before Hurricane Ike hit, and not long after the Public Works Department resumed operations, Buckhead Investment Partners were rejected for a seventh time. Records show the plans were filed again Sept. 11, seven days after being returned. They were denied a remaining permit again Sept. 29. In his comments, city engineer Mark Loethen said plans for a driveway permit contained no revisions and there was ‘no current justification’ for restriping plans on Bissonnet Boulevard at Ashby Drive.” [West University Examiner; previously]
More real-estate-firm troubles you haven’t read about in the newspaper: JPI, a multifamily developer based in Irving, Texas, earlier this week shut down or canceled all new development and construction projects — and laid off development, design, and construction teams. Existing projects already underway will be “completed and wrapped up by a small team that will remain behind until they are complete,” according to a company email provided to Swamplot. The email blamed “the ongoing credit crisis” and “the inability to obtain credit at any price” for the closings.
JPI did not appear to have any projects planned for Houston, but JPI Living does operate Jefferson Estates at Bellaire, an apartment complex at 4807 Pin Oak Park, just inside the Loop between Bissonnet and the Southwest Freeway.
Photo of Jefferson Estates at Bellaire: JPI Living
Swamplot’s story last week on that extremely dirty apartment in North Houston left out a few photos the photographer originally posted in the Houston-Imports forum. Our photo editing choices were meant to highlight the more “artistic” qualities of the display. And really, how much filth do you need to see?
More than we showed, apparently. The story was one of the most popular ever posted on this site. Who are we to prevent smut-hungry readers from viewing the trash they so obviously want to see?
So here they are, fresh from the . . . uh, cutting-room floor: 11 more photos of the messiest apartment in Houston. Ever. We hope.
A word of warning to the easily nauseated: Yes, there are a few images of the bathroom. No, it is not pretty.
Note: Updated below.
A tenant in a north Houston apartment complex has an overdue payment for more than a month. No one can get in touch with her. Eventually the bookkeeper goes inside to leave a note. And finds . . . this:
ASHBY HIGHRISE: STUCK ON THE DOCK That last city permit is proving difficult for developers of the Ashby Highrise, as the city denied the variance request for a loading dock last week: “In comments for the Public Works and Engineering Department, city engineer Mark Loethen said the at-grade loading dock from Bissonnet Street will not be allowed because its use would obstruct lanes of traffic. In his Sept. 4 comments, Loethen said the variance was rejected for the same reason, citing Sec. 40-86 of the code of ordinances. ‘Such a driveway, as proposed, would excessively interfere with the normal use of the Bissonnet Street right of way,’ he said.” [West University Examiner; previously]
THE MICHAEL B. SMUCK APARTMENT FLIPS BEGIN Triumph Land & Capital Management, the company that bought two other former Smucked apartment complexes, has already flipped a third: “‘The seller had bought the loan on Village at Loch Katrine, then foreclosed on it, then sold the property,’ says Russell D. Jones, vice president of Apartment Realty Advisors in Houston. He says Andrew Chong had signed the purchase agreement before Triumph Land & Capital foreclosed on the loan. Although Jones kept mum about the price, area sources believe the Village at Loch Katrine, situated at 16545 Loch Katrine Lane, sold for $6.5 million to $7 million.” [Globe St.; previously]
ASHBY HIGHRISE: DOWN TO A LOADING DOCK? Buckhead Investments has resubmitted plans for the proposed Ashby Highrise for the single permit standing in the way of construction. “[Developer Matthew] Morgan said the developers have asked for a variance concerning the design’s loading dock, adding that ‘plenty of examples’ of similar configurations ‘can be found on thoroughfares and collector streets’ in the area. One example he cited is the new high-end, 236-unit apartment complex called Fairmont Museum District at 4310 Dunlavy St. ‘It seems to have loading docks that you can’t pull through,’ Morgan said. ‘Dunlavy is a collector street. We don’t feel like the same criteria was used.’ [West University Examiner; previously]
Another apartment complex rescued from the clutches of famed real-estate investor and apartment-maintenance whiz Michael B. Smuck! This time it’s the Lodge at Baybrook, a 12-building, 322-unit compound on 13.7 acres just behind Baybrook Mall in Friendswood. Globe St.‘s Amy Wolff Sorter reports that Chicago-based Adams LaSalle Realty has bought the complex from Smuck’s bankrupt MBS Properties for “well below” the $28.6 million it first listed for back in 2006.
The Lodge at Baybrook was built just 9 years ago, but apparently there’s plenty of deferred maintenance for the new owners to take care of. No word of any impending name change.
Photo: CBRE
A West End resident writes in with a question about plans for the former Trinity Steel plant off Koehler St. between Yale and Bonner:
They have recently begun demolishing the huge industrial warehouses that made up the Trinity Industries complex. Our Civic Club President seems to think they are building an extension of the The Core apartment complex that just went up at 3990 Washington Avenue (www.thecoreapts.com). That would be a disaster since the Trinity Industry property parcel is HUGE and if they are going to be ALL apartments, our narrow neighborhood streets will be clogged constantly with all that extra traffic.
I can’t find anything about who developed The Core to see if they have any updates on their website about future extension plans. Do you have any leads on what is going on and going up there?
The Core Apartments were developed by the Morgan Group. Any Swamplot readers have the scoop on future plans for the site?
Bonus question after the jump:
CANDLEWOOD GLEN: RENO OR DEMO? Near Northwest residents ask City Council for help with the squalid Candlewood Glen and Candlelight Trails complexes. “A sign posted at the entrance to the complex would suggest there were plans to reopen the buildings under a new name. They would be called Palm Terrace, and phase one was scheduled for construction during the summer of 2008. But it’s now August, and there is no sign of construction.” [11 News, previously in Swamplot]
A reader asks:
Has anyone else heard the rumor that Mosaic Hermann Park’s South Tower (already under construction) is going all rental once complete?
It would be kinda cute if the second condo tower did end up switching to apartments, since the first tower went in the opposite direction:
[Phillips Development managing director Donald] Phillips says the company financed the first Mosaic tower as a rental property because that was the only way to secure funding.
“We did whatever we had to do to get the thing built,” he says.
Photo: Aerial photo of Mosaic from June: Aero Photo
INSPECTORS WILL VISIT MANY MORE MULTIFAMILY APARTMENT COMPLEXES Hundreds of multifamily apartments in Houston lack certificates of occupancy or compliance — documents which indicate the facility complies with the city’s basic building and safety standards. “The city wants all properties to submit to an occupancy inspection and obtain a certificate, while also correcting any immediate structural, electrical or other problems inspectors identify. Those that do not respond to the city’s efforts to get a certificate or make repairs could face closure, [Mayor] White said.” [Houston Chronicle]
