COMMENT OF THE DAY: THOSE KIDS “. . . Let me be clear. I know exactly where I live and knew where I was moving to 8 years ago. And contrary to what assumptions have been made, I love where I live and am proud of where I live. I love the history behind it. There are great people who live in all parts of this neighborhood all the way down the street to where crack is being sold. When I read this article the first thing that pops into my head is ‘park=kids=hangout.’ I am actually glad that they’re doing what they’re doing instead of putting up yet another apartment complex. The more green and conservation and beautification, the better. A park is a park, meaning where people will congregate which also means kids. Understand that when I posted this comment, I was fresh off of witnessing kids stealing a man’s phone and he being helpless to get it back. And the kids live in this neighborhood. Which just refreshed my memory of my neighbor getting his windows busted out while driving to his house by kids that live in this neighborhood who thought it would be fun to throw rocks at cars driving down the street. I think to when I was riding my scooter and kids that live in this neighborhood thought it would be fun to throw rocks at me while I was driving down the street almost causing me to wreck. I am aware that crime happens in every neighborhood. And despite the 3 instances I just wrote about I have no desire to move. I am happy to see historical sites preserved. In fact there were plans to pave some of the streets here, including mine. As many broken peices of brick there that makes it a pain on any car to drive over, the bricks are staying and will be preserved and I’m so glad! . . .” [Holly, commenting on New Fourth Ward Park of the Open Church]
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Tag: Comments
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A HOME TRIBUTE TO ROGER RASBACH “We own a Rasbach house and pinch ourselves everyday about how fortunate we are to benefit from his genius. We got to meet him a few months before his death and learned the story of the designing/building of our house (we are the second owners). A brilliant gentle man. His sense of scale particularly sets his homes apart.” [NOBSKA, commenting on On Track with a Huge Hacienda in Bellaire]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BABY, PLEASE DON’T GO DOWN THE BULK FOODS AISLE “That’s Lightnin’s corner. HELL NO!!!” [SYMWAFA, commenting on Conquering Flag of Whole Foods Market, Planted in the Third Ward]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: GROWING YOUR OWN WHOLE FOODS MARKET, FROM SEED 
“If I plant that same sign in Corpus Christi, will they come????????????????” [miss_msry, commenting on Conquering Flag of Whole Foods Market, Planted in the Third Ward]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SEPARATED AT DEATH? 
“The demolition photo makes the Turnberry building resemble that good old, lamented avant-garde 1980s Best Showroom in south Houston . . . the one that from day one looked as if part of it were being demolished, right down to its “loose†bricks . . .” [sabine waugh, commenting on Knocking Down Houston’s Turnberry Tower Without Even Building It] Photo: SITE
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE TEARDOWN DOGWHISTLE “I found that calling a property a ‘Charming Bungalow’ on MLS is a way to send a message to developers ‘Lot Value!!!’ without offending the hipsters in the neighborhood. Much like other beloved MLS code phrases . . . Fixer upper = Utter Dump, beware of tetanus!, Up and coming neighborhood = Sleep with one eye open and a finger on the trigger, Cosy = you’re better off living in a closet where you are now, Great Art Scene = Masses of unbathed malcontents roaming the streets and coffee shops.” [Commonsense, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Care for a Tower of Prayer]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE HERITAGE WEST BIKEWAY IS BACK ON TRAIL “If you had not heard, the construction contractor for this project had gone bankrupt, leaving the project dormant for quite a while. Good news is that the new contractor started working yesterday (8/13/12) and has 120 days to complete the bikeway project. Yes, this should mean that the project will be done by 12/31/12.” [Dan Raine, commenting on Did the Heritage West Bikeway Lose Its Way?]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: LOOKING FOR HOUSTON’S NEIGHBORHOOD-ALIKES “I think the math is already starting to work for some people. Remember the guy who was concerned that he had 30 days to vacate the Andover Richmond property in Montrose? The 3rd and 5th Wards may be a good option for tenants like him, — as older, more affordable properties continue to disappear from Montrose. Of course it’s a while before anyone would drop $3,000 a month for an apartment in that area. The New York Times had an article in January titled ‘So You’re Priced Out, Now What?‘ They looked at neighborhoods, sometimes miles from each other, in very different price points, but that looked like each other. They had pictures of a street of gorgeous brownstones in Manhattan’s Upper West Side; and an equally gorgeous street in more reasonable Prospect Heights Brooklyn. You’d swear they were side by side; not miles away. The same thing happens in Houston, and Montrose versus the 3rd and 5th Wards is starting to be like that.” [ZAW, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Rent Isn’t Too Damn High]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: NAMING THE NEW STUDEMONT KROGER “. . . It’s ‘Broger’ because the guys that hang out at the bars on Washington are ‘dude-bros.’ ‘Party Kroger’ makes it sound like a place where one might have a party, but ‘Broger’ describes the people who will be shopping there.” [Eric, commenting on Up Pops the Studemont Kroger]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE RENT ISN’T TOO DAMN HIGH “People who think that $3,000 plus for rent in a luxury high-rise in Houston is ‘outrageous’ have not been paying attention for the last 10 years. Museum Tower and several others have been at 95%-plus occupancy for years with similar rates. I think a lot of Houstonians have NO idea just how wealthy hundreds of thousands of their fellow Houstonians actually are today.” [Jon, commenting on Ashby Highrise To Start Rising on Bissonnet This Year]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE SAME BOAT “. . . When talking to people looking for stuff in Montrose, this is what I hear: 1) Nothing available 2) Over priced for what you get 3) By the time you try to take it, someone else already has 4) What you do get will have bad electric, bad roof, bad pipes, sketchy tenants, etc. 5) Was built in the 60′s most likely. Doesn’t have it’s cert of occupancy, no water pressure, low insulation, old windows, etc. Then I like to joke that this is what I hear from people trying to BUY apartments in Montrose. Point being, the challenges you face as a renter are the challenges you face as an investor. And the solutions are often the same: Network with owners, jump on something good if you see it, communicate with the property manager showing if you don’t like the place (this is big), look every day. . . .” [Cody, commenting on Comment of the Day: What’s the Thought Process?]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT’S THE THOUGHT PROCESS? “. . . There is one other thing that troubles me that maybe some of the developers on this thread might clear up. How much does humanity and civic duty factor into these decisions? I could quickly assume that the dollar and cent logistics is enough for anything like this to get green-lit, but I would rest a little more easily knowing that someone along the line questioned the implications of suddenly forcing so many people to find new places to live. Especially considering that, for students like me and my room mate, springing this change so close to the beginning of the coming semester only makes finding a new place that much more impossible to find. It might sound petty, but I hope someone somewhere feels at least a little guilty for the amount of hardship that has been dumped onto my lap.” [thisboy, commenting on Report: Castle Court Midrise Planned for Andover Richmond Apartments Site]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU’LL REMEMBER THE CHICKEN “All of you are completely missing the forest for the trees. What we have witnessed in the last week is one of the most brilliant marketing campaigns in the U.S. A restaurant chain that is pretty much concentrated in one corner of the U.S. has obtain national notoriety. Chik-fil-a the company already has and will continue to have a non-discrimination policy in regards to sexual orientation (i.e. they don’t discriminate against homosexuality). The president of the company being interviewed and making the statements that started all this was a calculated move. Chik-fil-a knew there would be a backlash and big support along with controversy. For all those anti-chik-fil-a posts in the social media, Chik-fil-a thanks you. Any publicity is good publicity. Because of these events (which the majority will forget in a couple of months), the name chik-fil-a will stick in a vast new audience that never heard of the chain. And all this will little marketing dollars spent. This is playing right into Chik-fil-a’s planned expansion across the U.S. Again, Chik-fil-a thanks all hate filled posts in the social media world. You just helped get it’s name out while knowing the masses won’t remember the controversy.” [kjb434, commenting on Headlines: Finding Ribs at Park Memorial; More Business for Chick-fil-A]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY THERE’LL BE NO 1301 RICHMOND REDO AT THAT SELLING PRICE “At 2.9 acres of physical land, and a purchase price of X (let’s assume priced to the dirt, likely $50/foot) they are in this deal for $6MM dollars day one. If they wanted to be in the business of renovating (This IS income producing property, not pride of ownership single family housing) and retaining the character of the original complex, look at the math . . . assuming a coverage ratio of 1/1, and average unit @ 1000 square feet, that gives you 120 units and 120,000 to renovate meticulously. Assuming you would have to put $20,000 into each unit to justify buying this deal, you’ve now got $6MM + $2.4MM in renovation dollars, plus the fact you’ve got to kick everybody out of their unit to renovate it, do the work, then relet the unit. So, that puts you at 1 year of ZERO revenue, and whatever associated costs there are there. For the sake of argument, your all-in is $10MM. THEN, after you have painfully restored a garden complex to the delight of yourself (I promise you the neighborhood won’t come out and bring you a check for your efforts to retain transient renters for another 50 years), here is your reality: 1) you would need to jump rents from $800/month to $1200 or greater, lease them all, then sell at a benchmark cap rate exit for such a non-conforming product, and that’s assuming you get your investors interested in the capital and scope in the first place, rather than buiding a 2.5:1 ratio development against $50 dirt 2) you would need to find an exit partner with just as much interest in running this model as you did creating it. institutional buyers that are willing to overlook the latest TCC Alexan product to buy a risky retrofitted low coverage ratio multi family deal in a market that has very little inventory of trailblazing like product. what i’m saying is this won’t exist, so you’re stuck with cash flow now. So . . . you have $10MM in it, and if you are the greatest level of execution here, you are 7 years of revenue before you are whole on your initial investment, and you have a huge chunk of change parked in it, with zero recap abilities. if i run a bank, i’m not cashing you out of that mistake.” [HTX Rez, commenting on Report: Castle Court Midrise Planned for Andover Richmond Apartments Site]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MONTROSE OVER 40 YEARS “. . . Montrose is getting better by the day and there are NO signs that it will stop. The junk is being removed and improved. The process started in earnest 20 years ago and has another 20+ years to go. Every year the Montrose area gets more dense, more affluent, and more dynamic. Greater Montrose is where people want to live. Close to downtown? Check. Close to Galleria? Check. Close to Memorial Park? check. Close to Rice U? Check. Close to Med Center? Check. Close to bars, restaurants, and night life? Check. Close to museums and cultural events? Check. Smart people with money to invest have spent BILLIONS of their own dollars to buy and improve Montrose. There are mega trends at work here. If you can’t see it you’re not looking.” [Bernard, commenting on Changing of the Guard at a Castle Court Complex]