COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT HAPPENED AT 301 STUDEWOOD 
“Tried to get Parks Board to purchase for years but they wouldnt go above $200k. They upped their offer to $600k in September of 2010, while property was under contract with restaurant group out of Austin which has 12 operating establishments in Texas.
Up against about the 8th round of foreclosure with a hard money lender who wasnt satisfied with his usurious rates of 21%+ per annum over three years and under pressure, lender ended up taking the property — taking a parks board offer and walking away with another $60k+ on top. Restaurant group pissed, owner still picking up pieces/dealing with lawsuits that should have been avoided. Restaurant group needed 30 more days, Parks would have taken 60. Lender would give no more time for either.
Should have filed for bankruptcy to stall the foreclosure and let deal transact but family was on last leg….after paying about $60-75k over 9 months to avoid repeated postings for foreclosure, as well as the ridiculous interest rates over the previous two years.
Lender also decided against paying the commission he promised for bringing the Parks Board deal. Real swell guy.
My apologies for the eyesore signs, maybe I will go reface them and at least get free advertising out of the deal.
Parks Board has no plans yet but turned down two offers in January from a Developer with backing out of the Mayors office. Demonstration housing. First offer they turned down was $800k, not sure about second offer but I can confirm it was turned down as well.
In regards to Parks, I had made some traction with GHORBA for an off-road bike park like they have in Austin, The topography, etc. would be rather perfect for that. Not sure where everyone is on the deal but I dont believe it is Parks highest priority at the moment. I will check in with everyone and let you know.” [JE, commenting on This is Woods. Park Is Not Available Right Now. May I Help You?] Photo: LoopNet
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: SOLAR ENERGY MARKETING SECRETS — REVEALED “As soon as these things can be leased at a price that’s less than the cost of electricity they produce, it’ll be a home run. No one seems to offer long term leases that would last the lifetime of the hardware. I’m not sure how many years of amortization it would take so that the payment was smaller than the savings, or even if they last long enough to ever pay themselves off, but if such a model could be devised it would be great. Then you’d have tons of buyers, which would drive costs down, getting more buyers, etc.” [Cody, commenting on Pods Appear on Downtown Building, Grab Solar Panels with Wrench and Garden Hose]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BETWEEN MARKET SEGMENTS “Well I guess my neighbors and I in the neighborhood no one knows what to call (Vermont Commons / Park) can now refer to our neighborhood as ‘the midpoint between the Kirby Whole Foods and the Waugh Whole Foods.’ Rolls right off the tongue.” [Bernard, commenting on Beer, Wine, Art, and BBQ on Tap: Here’s Your New Whole Foods Market, Montrose]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSE POOR OR FURNITURE POOR “Roche Bobois designs are a still a little too blobby (i.e., French) for my taste, but it makes [more] sense to me to buy a $400k mid century mod and fill it with nice Bobois furniture than to buy a $800k faux Tuscan Villa and fill it with Pottery Barn.” [Patrick, commenting on Internum Takes Over Where Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams Took Off]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE VIRGINIANS ARE COMING! ” . . . the article doesn’t say they are not moving people from other areas of the country. It says they have not decided. I have personally seen internal memos that tell their employees they are consolidating Houston campuses before they consider moving other offices around the country to this campus and that it would be 2015 before that would happen. I don’t think it is a stretch to read into this that they will be moving other areas of the country to this campus. As a Realtor I can tell you that people from their Fairfax campus have already begun buying homes in The Woodlands … somebody is pretty confident of being moved if they are doing that. I’m guessing they’re trying to avoid employees in those areas leaving (rather than move) before XOM is ready for them to.” [David Hageman, commenting on Welcome to the Land of ExxonMobil: A Tour of the Company’s New North Houston Campus]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU GO TO WORK WITH THE SPRAWL YOU HAVE, NOT THE CITY YOU MIGHT WANT OR WISH TO HAVE AT A LATER TIME “. . . The ExxonMobil development is right in between The Woodlands and Spring. Residents of these communities would cut 30-80 minutes off their round trip commute by working at the new facility versus going downtown. That is a very significant reduction in smog forming vehicle emissions. If a business doesn’t need to be in Houston’s central business district, then it is actually better to have them build closer to the work force than to cram more people on the highway for longer commutes. You can’t beat sprawl that is already here. The best you can do is mitigate it by creating smaller city centers in places like The Woodlands, Sugar Land and Clear Lake.” [Old school, commenting on Comment of the Day: ExxonMobil Takes the Forest]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: EXXONMOBIL TAKES THE FOREST “[It’s] awesome, but I thought the era of building suburban office campuses was close to gone. Not anymore, I guess. Just goes to show that there is still plenty a land for Houston to sprawl, and this illustrates no signs of slowing down. God that third outerbelt is just going to catalyze more of this crap (albeit ExxonMobil’s campus is pretty crap). I mean, if ExxonMobil really wanted to, they could’ve revitalized an entire swath of area in one of many industrial parts of Houston. No, but instead of utilizing an area that could be purposeful, they chose to destroy the environment. Yeah, Houston’s forests in the north are what keeps the area looking bad, but just a few more decades of this, and there will be nothing left to conceal this disgusting sprawl.” [Carlos, commenting on Welcome to the Land of ExxonMobil: A Tour of the Company’s New North Houston Campus]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE TRENDSETTING LESS FORTUNATE “I have a few friends moving to Houston who are going to live in the ’burbs – not because they’re into racial purity and strip malls but because that’s where they can actually afford to buy a home. The less fashionable an area becomes, the more affordable it is to people of modest means, which typically means the sneerers look a bit snobbish. Which suddenly turns the formerly unfashionable area fashionable (I believe the vogue term right now is “authenticâ€), and the sneering and budgeting just reverses itself. Laughing at the people who have tight budgets but aren’t poor enough to actually be considered poor is an old means to paint a veneer onto one’s classism, and it’s often couched in the argument over whether surbubanites or midtowners are morally and culturally superior. It’s utterly ridiculous, but it’ll never stop.” [Sihaya, commenting on ExxonMobil Fesses Up to Its Employees About That New North Houston Campus It’s Been Building]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: KEEPIN’ IT FRENCH “If a buyer does not appreciate authentic French construction or understand the architecture and passion involved to complete a showplace like this, keep moving. The basic bones are French and a crime to strip the beauty from it. . . . French rooms are meant to be ornate, lots of specialized woodwork, and rooms always separated from others. I know I just sold my parents authentic French home that took 4 years to build and 4 years on the drawing board. Every detail was studied and nothing too small to compromise the integrity of the house. They enjoyed the home for 15 years. I was privileged to live there and watch the delight on people’s faces as they toured the home. My point, a true French home only shines when it is in it’s original state. renovation of course. My parents loved Jerry Moore’s petite chateau. Keep it french.” [Meredith, commenting on On Second Thought, Nevermind: The $5 Million Gut-and-Flip of Jerry J. Moore’s Little French Castle in Houston]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BORDERTOWN “Don’t tell the people who live in NoMO or River Oaks Terrace that they don’t actually live in River Oaks. They get mad. I call it Montrose, except for when I lived there a few years back. Then I called it River Oaks — but I meant it ironically, of course.” [Mel, commenting on Comment of the Day: Report From That Neighborhood South of the River Oaks Shopping Center That Nobody Knows What To Call]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: JUST CHECKING 
“As a member of the board of the College Park Cemetery Association and ‘head volunteer’ for the cemetery the past few years, I felt comfortable opening the new coffin at College Park on a visit yesterday. Unfortunately my hopes for a large cash donation towards the cemetery’s restoration were dashed when I found the box was empty.” [Randy Riepe, commenting on Caught on Camera: Mysterious Coffin, Out and About in North Montrose Cemetery; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Courtney Zubowski, KHOU 11 News
COMMENT OF THE DAY: REPORT FROM THAT NEIGHBORHOOD SOUTH OF THE RIVER OAKS SHOPPING CENTER THAT NOBODY KNOWS WHAT TO CALL “Who says this is going to be townhouses? This is my neighborhood. While there are certainly plenty of townhouses in the area, the overall trend has moved decidedly toward single family homes. As I type, there are at least a half dozen new single family homes under construction within a few blocks of this site. While this house appears to be quite nice, I’m guessing whatever replaces it will be much nicer. I know it’s standard operating procedure for Swamplotters to hate everything new, but the single family homes (and even the townhouses) being built in this neighborhood are typically quite nice. This demo is more the exception than the rule. Most of what gets torn down around here is garbage.” [Bernard, commenting on Tiny Done-Up Woodhead Cottage Is Townhome Fodder]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR MAKES THE ASKING PRICE GO DOWN 
“Who thinks $300,000 is completely unaffordable? Seriously? I won’t be dropping that on this unique piece of history, but that’s a remarkable price for that house. You’ll have to put in another $300,000 to make it livable, but in a city where West U bungalows with 2 bedrooms and one bath go for that much, or a simple 4/2.5 goes for a cool million, that folly is a steal. All it needs is a dedicated, kooky restorer/designer and a ninth fence! From that top platform, you can see enough to pretend you’re in another neighborhood, or even Admiral Boom himself!” [Meg, commenting on Wichita St. Mystery House Goes on the Market Today: Your First Peek Inside]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A COLOR ANTHEM “You know what? Pink is UNDER rated. I’m not being sarcastic. Its period appropriate. Its Pantone’s color of the year (Honeysuckle). If I had $695K I would ROCK this house AS IS! Except for the carpet in the bathroom. BUT i would replace it with pink rugs FOR SURE! Replace the Hollywood Regency furniture with updated pieces and this place would be badassssssss!!!! Why do people bag on pink so much? Because it takes a super awesome person to pull it off and most people can’t decorate beyond copying the latest Pottery Barn catalog. Pink is bold! Pink is unique! Pink is more than a song from Funny Face or Aerosmith!! Pink for the WIN!” [brilliant.girl, commenting on 1956 Ranch from Del Monte Says Yes to Pink]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON’S GIVE AND TAKE “. . . COH is required by very clear and strict regulations to treat sewage to standards which make the effluent suitable for discharge into a waterway which can than have water extracted for purification into drinking water. A huge number of communities get their drinking water and discharge their sewage effluent into and from the same body of water. Think of the Trinity River. It’s no big deal.” [Spoonman., commenting on Comment of the Day: Bayou Overlook]