Tag: Buying and Selling

04/25/13 10:00am

New Owners of Central Square Plaza Want To Make Something of It

Commercial Real Estate, Midtown, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Renovations

28 Comments

Central Square Plaza has been sold, and new owner Keeley Megarity, whose LLC closed on the 1-acre Midtown property at 2100 Travis St. about a week ago, says that a decision about how to renovate these buildings — and what to renovate them into — will be made in the next 30-45 days.

77002, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Midtown, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Renovations, Vacant Buildings

Apartments

04/22/13 3:00pm

A Pair of Backups To Fill In Behind the Museum Tower?

Buying and Selling, Museum District, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Investing

18 Comments

Note: Read an update to this story here.

What’s left of the Gramercy Place apartments on the 200 block of Portland St. were sold this month. A few of the apartment buildings, which date to 1935, were torn down before being replaced in 2002 by the Museum Tower on Montrose. Now, the seller’s agent says that the remaining 5 buildings and 31 units that records show have been owned for the past 15 years by an entity controlled by Rebecca Parsons were closed on two weeks ago.

And the buyer? The seller’s agent wouldn’t say. But a Swamplot reader with knowledge of the transaction shares a document and some rumors that suggest the buyer is an LLC presided over by Hungry’s Cafe and Bistro owner Fred Sharifi. And the document states an intent to smash the rest of the apartments and put up “residential rental midrise buildings.”

77006, Apartments, Buying and Selling, Cotswold Court, Museum District, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Investing

04/15/13 4:45pm

What Will Become of This Rice Military Corner?

Commercial Real Estate, Rice Military, Signage

5 Comments

“It looks like someone has bought the whole block between Feagan, Westcott, and Knox in Rice Military next to the Commonwealth Title office building,” a reader writes in accompaniment of a series of photos. “There are several old cottages with for sale signs showing the houses as ‘to be moved’ although they don’t look salvageable to me.” What, the reader wants to know, is going to happen here?

77007, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Rice Military, Signage

Bellaire

03/27/13 3:00pm

San Jacinto Stone To Reopen at Wholesale Gardens in Bellaire

Buying and Selling, Openings and Closings

4 Comments

The new home of a new San Jacinto Stone is being set up here, behind the begonias and bamboo shoots at Wholesale Gardens in Bellaire. The stoneyard, dating to 1947, closed at 195 Yale St. at the end of last month when longtime owners Sarah and Don Hunt sold the 8-acre property near the Washington Heights Walmart to a commercial developer. Greg Thompson, owner of the landscape architecture firm Thompson + Hanson that runs Wholesale Gardens, says that the Hunts agreed to sell the San Jacinto Stone name — and the remaining inventory, too, after that February fire sale.

77401, Bellaire, Buying and Selling, Landscaping, Openings and Closings

03/20/13 12:34pm

Apartments in Old Humble Oil Building Downtown To Go the Way of Its Hotel Neighbors

Downtown, Hotels, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Renovations

9 Comments

APARTMENTS IN OLD HUMBLE OIL BUILDING DOWNTOWN TO GO THE WAY OF ITS HOTEL NEIGHBORS Back in 2003, 2 of the 3Â Humble Oil buildings at 1212 Main and Dallas St. were turned into hotels. The oil-to-hospitality transformation will soon be complete, reports the Houston Business Journal’s Shaina Zucker: A Maryland company has acquired the 3 buildings for about $80 million and says it will convert the last of them into another hotel. Presently, that tower at 914 Dallas St. holds 82 apartments. By 2015, reports Zucker, it will become a 166-room SpringHill Suites, joining the 191-room Courtyard and the 171-room Residence Inn — each of which is now dubbed a “Houston Downtown Convention Center” hotel. [Houston Business Journal]Â Photo: Wikimedia Commons

77002, Apartments, Buying and Selling, Downtown, Hotels, Proposed Developments, Renovations

02/20/13 4:15pm

Office Monopoly

Commercial Real Estate, Franchises and Chain Stores, Quicklink, Strip Centers

8 Comments

OFFICE MONOPOLY Note: Story has been updated. Houston Business Journal reports thatÂ Office Max and Office Depot are combining into one global office force to be reckoned with. The $1.17-billion, all-stock deal between the two big-box paper pushers is expected to create a single company — with less overhead and less overlap, too, you’d thinkÂ — that’sÂ worth $18 billion. Also, theÂ Houston Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff reports that developerÂ Ed Wulfe says that “9 or 10 of the 40 Office Depots and 19 Office Maxes in greater Houston are close enough to each other that one will have to close.” One of those, pictured here, is located in the strip center at Richmond and Kirby. [Houston Business Journal; Prime Property]Â Photo: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston

Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Franchises and Chain Stores, Quicklink, Retail, Strip Centers

Commercial Real Estate

02/19/13 4:00pm

The Luxury Post Oak Immigrant Experience Next to McDonald’s

Highrises, Land Sales, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Uptown

20 Comments

THE LUXURY POST OAK IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE NEXT TO MCDONALD’S Randall Davis has completed the purchase of (most of) theÂ 1405 Post Oak property where that long-standingÂ McDonald’s was getting in the way of his Astoria development (the rendering of which is shown here), reports the Houston Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff: The McDonald’s that appeared in last Monday’sÂ Daily Demolition Report is expected to beÂ replaced with a smaller one near the edge of the ~~30,466-sq.-ft.~~ 1.23-acre property, making room for the 70 28-story luxury tower — with 3-bedroom units going for $1.3 million — that’s being marketed as a path of upward mobility: “Davis has been luring investors through the federal government’s EB-5 visa program where wealthy would-be immigrants can put $500,000 or $1 million into a job-creating commercial enterprise and become lawful permanent residents of the United States.” [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Randall Davis Company

77056, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Highrises, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Randall Davis, Uptown

02/13/13 9:30am

Admiral Linen Leaving Montrose Location for Northwest Houston?

Commercial Real Estate, Industrial Properties, Office Buildings, Spring Branch

10 Comments

Will the recent purchase, a reader wants to know, of aÂ 105,000-sq.-ft. building out near Spring Branch by Admiral Linen & Uniform Services mean anything for the company’s much-smaller headquarters at 2030 Kipling St.? Well, Admiral Linen isn’t available for comment.

The company closed just after Christmas on the building at 8020 Blankenship Dr., near Hempstead and Bingle. Since 1998, according to city records, it’s owned the three-building, 24,000-sq.-ft. headquarters a block ~~west~~ east of South Shepherd and directly behind the Randalls on Westheimer.

77055, 77098, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Industrial Buildings, Montrose, Spring-Branch

Land Development

01/11/13 11:30am

Hanover Reaping More Rice Village Property, Garden Gate Shutting

Land Sales, Mixed Use, New Construction: Residential, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Retail, Rice Village, Southampton

14 Comments

A January newsletter from The Southampton Civic Club informs members that Hanover, building the mixed-use midrise pictured above, has purchased additional property on Morningside in Rice Village “just north” of the current construction site. The newsletter states that Hanover is planning to begin Phase II: a 12-story, 200-unit residential building with no retail. The newsletter’s language suggests that the property is bound by Morningside, Tangley, Dunstan, and Kelvin; that’s where the Village Commons, the Tangley Building, the Village Apartments, and Garden Gate are — at least for now.

77005, Buying and Selling, Hanover, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Retail, Rice-Village

Uncategorized

01/09/13 2:51pm

Adding to Convention Center District Easy as 1-2-3 . . . 4-5-6-7

17 Comments

Downtown has been missing out, RIDA President Ira Mitzner tells Bisnow: “A CVB study found we lost 630,000 room nights from conventions” between 2008 and 2012 because of a “lack of activity” around the George R. Brown Convention Center — Â the largest in Texas, says Mitzner, but only the fourth-most booked. Swamplot reported in December that RIDA worked with Morris Architects to develop a 30-story, 1,000-room Marriott Marquis — you might remember the rendering of a Texas-shaped lazy river on the roof. And other developments are coming. Houston First COO Peter McStravick lays them out to Bisnow step by step:

1 is the Marriott Marquis. 2 is owned by HISD and will be aÂ high school for visual and performing arts, and the western half of block 3 may become a limited-serviceÂ hotel. 4 is Houston Firstâ€™s tract (1.5 blocks) and 5 is the site of the new [1,800-space parking] garage. 6 will house theÂ Nau Center for Texas Cultural Heritage, and 7 (two blocks) will be the Finger 8-story tower.

Houston First wants that tract to become apartments and retail; the Finger towerÂ of apartments and retail is planned for the same site where theÂ Ben Milam Hotel stood until it wentÂ crumbling down in a cloud of glory in early December.

Convention District Makeover [Bisnow]
Morris Architects unveils downtown convention center hotel design features [Houston Business Journal]
Previously on Swamplot: A Texas Island on the Next Convention Center Hotel

Map: Bisnow

77010, Buying and Selling, Downtown, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment

01/08/13 3:11pm

Prep School Buys Honky-Tonk: Will Blanco’s Go Blank?

Land Sales, River Oaks, Schools

21 Comments

St. John’s School has purchased 13 acres of land, expanding its 29-acre campus in River Oaks. Headmaster Mark Desjardins tells the Houston Chronicle that the school on Westheimer won’t be developing the new acreage right away and hasn’t decided what will become of the businesses already there at the intersection of W. Alabama and Buffalo Speedway. Those include a fortune teller, the River Oaks Plant House, known for its oversized topiary-like Chia pets (dancing at left), and Blanco’s Bar & Grill, sitting there in a dusty parking lot as though it’s on a far-flung farm road and not right across the street from the 23-story Lamar Tower. (It’s hiding behind the Blanco’s sign in the photo above.)

Exclusive private school buys River Oaks-area land [Houston Chronicle ($)]

Photos: Adam Rice (bears), Blanco’s

77027, 77098, Bars, Buying and Selling, Land Sales, River Oaks, Schools

Commercial Real Estate, Land Sales, Reliant Park

12/14/12 9:47am

Rodeo Buys Half of AstroWorld To Use as 48-Acre Parking Lot

by Swamplot

28 Comments

Longtime speculation that the entire vacant 104-acre site formerly occupied by the AstroWorld amusement park might someday be turned into some sort of singular mixed-use development took a hit yesterday as the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo announced it is buying the entire western half of the property, which sits across the 610 Loop from Reliant Park. The charitable organization hopes to close on the 48-acre tract by the end of the year. The purchase price is listed on its website as approximately $42.8 million, or $20.50 per sq. ft., “after charitable considerations by the seller.” That’s a Dallas investment firm known as the Mallick Group, which has owned the vacant property since 2010.

What will it rodeo do on all that land?

77054, AstroWorld, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Land Sales, Parking-Lots, Reliant Park, Rodeo

12/10/12 3:52pm

Comment of the Day: The Short Timers

by Swamplot

Comments, Development Strategy, Oak Forest, Quicklink

3 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE SHORT TIMERS “Iâ€™ve lived in Oak Forest now for 11+ years, zoned to OFE, in an original house just north of 43rd, west of Ella and about 5 years ago began receiving sporadic letters to buy the house site unseen. That stepped up a bit a year ago and we now get 2-3 a month from random builders/real estaters trying to purchase our house with promises to close within 30 days. Granted not all the original homes are gems, some need to be torn down, but there arenâ€™t many of those now left, and other originals are well maintained and still solid, smaller by todayâ€™s standards, but thatâ€™s a preference for me. The kids enjoy the bigger yard. I donâ€™t mind the new bigger homes that much, but unfortunately the new homes on the block have had owners that lived there for about a year before they put it back on the market. Both are back up for sale again at the same time. The block is pretty tight, we know each other, but really never got to know the folks in the new builds. That is the underlying issue for a lot of the folks in the neighborhood with the old vs. new, itâ€™s the perceived mindset or commitment to the neighborhood.” [greg, commenting on Comment of the Day: That Brand-New Neighborhood Called Oak Forest]

77018, 77092, Buying and Selling, Comments, Oak-Forest