02/14/11 2:20pm

That was fast: Yesterday, just a day before Valentine’s Day — and almost exactly 2 weeks after a seemingly candid photo of one of the home’s 2 full bathrooms gained attention all over the internet — the owner of this well-appointed condo in Crescent Park Village accepted a purchase offer. Congratulations! On January 30th, a photo that just happened to include what looked like a 9- or 10-inch uh, stress reliever mounted on the back of the toilet was taken down quickly — followed, in short order, by the entire listing. Really? Some sellers would do anything for that kind of attention. Well, maybe a different kind of attention. But with a new MLS number, the offending photo removed, and a sub-$70K asking price, this home still got noticed. Of course, we’re all hoping the buyer’s likely-to-be-very-careful home inspection won’t turn up any additional surprises.

For any of you who might have missed it the first time, Swamplot’s uncensored photo home tour from the original listing is reprised here:

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01/31/11 12:27pm

It’s not clear exactly who it was that first noticed the oh, maybe 9- or 10-inch-tall object sitting upright in the background of a bathroom photo included in the for-sale listing on Cressida Glen Ln. in Crescent Park Village. The listing for the Alief property — just minutes from the Westpark Tollway! — was first posted 15 days ago, but it wasn’t until early yesterday morning that email and online discussions about it really got going. The photo caption read “Large master with jacuzzi tub” and showed the sink, toilet, and a bit of the shower curtain, but that’s not what caught your attention. “I called [the real estate agent] to give her a heads up and she hung up [on] me so I took a picture to post on the internet for eternity,” a Reddit user commented around 1 pm. An hour or so later, the photo was gone from the listing.

What photo? The NSFW one below:

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01/25/11 11:44pm

Details on the 6-story mixed-use building being planned for the corner of Studewood and 11th 1/2 St. in the Heights will be announced “very soon,” a representative of the new property owner promises Swamplot. A couple readers wrote in earlier today with questions about the new construction fence that just went up on the 25,000-sq.-ft. lot, directly behind the Someburger stand on 11th St. Here’s all the owner, a new firm called Vita Nuova, is willing to say about the project — dubbed Studewood Place on city permits:

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01/24/11 6:17pm

Note: Now there’s video! See below.

All is back to normal at the Warwick Towers condominiums across from Hermann Park after last Friday’s frightening flying dinosaur episode. For Houstonians more accustomed to tracking dinosaur migrations below the earth’s surface, the appearance of a full-scale ankylosaurus dating from the early 1960s hovering high in the sky above its recent home at the Museum of Natural Science must have been a harrowing sight:

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01/20/11 1:21pm

“Can’t wait to find a buyer for this condo!” writes real-estate agent Veso Kossev. “Too bad I can’t take [anyone] to see it…..” Huh? Oh, yeah . . . it’s unit E5 at the Park Memorial Condominiums, otherwise known as the 4.85-acre land of limbo just north of Memorial Dr. at Detering. As of a few days ago, you can pick up this 2-bedroom, 2-bath, only partially smashed condo for the low, low price of just $47,000. But you won’t be able to have it inspected — or see it yourself — because the entire complex has been condemned by the city. Where’d these lovely interior photos in the listing come from, then?

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11/30/10 9:56am

HANS’ BIER HAUS ON THE ROCKS Restraining orders may have put a little damper on the back-and-forth between Hans’ Bier Haus and some of the fun-loving residents of the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby condo building that towers over it next door, but Miya Shay reports things are back to uh, normal now. Bar owner Bill Cave tells her he “believes a big chunk of ice crashed through his roof and into the bar” in the wee hours of this past holiday weekend. But gosh, where’s the evidence? (Note: Video posted with the story is out of date; Hans’ Bier Haus already renewed its license.) [abc13; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Jack H.

11/29/10 5:51pm

THE SELLOUT CROWD AT PALISADE PALMS A Florida real-estate developer who bought up 17 condos in the Palisade Palms towers on Galveston’s East Beach at low, low pre-construction prices 5 years ago was finally able to unload 10 of them at an auction earlier this month, taking what he describes as “a 40 percent haircut. Mark Shapley tells the HBJ‘s Jennifer Dawson he’s “done in Galveston,” even though he’s still stuck with 3 units in the 287-unit development. (He’d already sold 4 others). Only 50 people showed up to Shapley’s sales event — less than one-tenth of the draw of a June auction where the buildings’ original developer was able to get rid of 27 units. And Shapley sold his units for much less too: from $170,500 for a 1,044 sq.-ft. 2-bedroom to $742,500 for a 2,659-sq.-ft. penthouse. [Houston Business Journal] Photo: Palisade Palms

11/04/10 3:59pm

Residents of the east-facing condos in the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby tower jealous of all the fun their neighbors in the west-facing units have been having with late night partiers at Hans’ Bier Haus next door now have their very own partly open-air next-door bar to mess with: Hudson Lounge opened earlier this week, at 2506 Robinhood. And hey: on this side of the tower, there’s no pesky parking garage to get in the way of any nightclub-condo interaction.

Brothers Adam, Alexander, and Andre Klieber carved the new straight-Mod space out of the former office HQ of Adam and Alexander’s other business, Southampton Homes — after business there slowed down. New swiveling steel doors on the front and back of the 1950 building open to a patio and separate bar pavilion in back.

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10/25/10 1:31pm

Just what is it that’s allowed construction on the Mirabeau B. condos on the corner of Hyde Park and Waugh to go forward when so many other projects have stalled? How about a little thing called . . . zero debt. After flirting with turning the building rental last year, developer Joey Romano now says he’s back to the original plan of selling all 14 units in the 4-story building — though he’ll also consider leases with purchase options “on a case by case basis.” Construction began in May; Romano expects the building to be complete by next July.

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10/15/10 12:08pm

Welcome home to Park Memorial! More than 2 years after city officials ordered the entire Memorial Dr. complex evacuated, the coast may now be clear for owners of the Park Memorial Condominiums to move back into their homes! Except, umm . . . some of those sheet-rock, copper-wiring, and AC-unit removal operations that have been going on in the meantime on the locked and officially empty grounds might make moving back in a little rough. 11 News’s Gabe Gutierrez reports that a Harris County district judge has ruled that the city’s order to vacate the property violated the state’s due process rules because there was no prior notice or hearing, and that there was “no evidence that there was any emergency or immediate danger that justified” requiring the residents to leave without one. The city plans to appeal the ruling.

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09/17/10 11:46am

Mayor Parker, after a stint behind the controls of JTB Services’ excavator at yesterday’s demolition of the Candlelight Trails condominium complex north of Tidwell:

My most fun day yet as Mayor. Make all the jokes you want. I operated a giant backhoe as we demolished an abandoned property off Antoine!

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09/16/10 11:09am

CANDLELIGHT TRAILS IS GOING DOWN The demolition of the 11-acre Candlelight Trails empty-condos-and-crime site could begin as early as today. Officials at city hall tell 11 News reporter Sherry Williams that a judge approved the demolition of the abandoned complex — in the 5500 and 5600 blocks of DeSoto, off Antoine north of Tidwell — this morning: “The city recently sued about 150 of the condo owners to get them to sign off on the demolition. Some of those lawsuits added up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties. . . . ‘As long as they agree to sign over their title to the city, then we’re not going after them for money,’ said Houston City Councilwoman Jolanda Jones. ‘It’s really sad that they bought into a place where the people who ran it absconded with their money, but I’m thankful that we are not further, I don’t know, kicking them while they’re down.’Update: The demolition is now scheduled to begin at 1:30 pm, according to the Near Northwest Management District. [KHOU; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Matt Stiles

08/30/10 3:50pm

Neighbors in the Freeland Historic District who imagined the nationwide economic downturn and neighborhood protests a few years ago would have been enough to kill a threatened 65-70-condo development on a wooded tract next to the new Heights hike-and-bike trail have been buzzing about the project’s apparent reappearance. On the agenda for this week’s planning commission meeting: the Emes Place Subdivision, which will give the long-landlocked site access by connecting Frasier St. and E. 5th St. across the trail, just north of White Oak Bayou. The subdivision plat is listed as a “consent item,” meaning its approval is not scheduled to be put up for a separate vote.

Viewpoint at the Heights, slated for that subdivision, is a project of Canada’s Group LSR, which goes by the name Inner Loop Condos in Houston. The company developed the Serento Condominium near the Med Center and the Piedmont sorta near River Oaks. Freeland residents have heard the building being proposed for the 1-acre site will be 4 or 5 stories tall.

07/14/10 11:07am

EVEN IF SHAYA BOYMELGREEN CAN MAKE IT THERE, HE WON’T BE BUILDING TOWERS HERE In his first interview with a reporter in 3 years, international developer-in-distress Shaya Boymelgreen tells the New York Observer he’s back in Manhattan, scouting for “new development opportunities,” and singing an old movie tune: “Unless I get an offer I can’t refuse, I would like to concentrate now in Manhattan. I believe this is now the opportunity and the time. If I cannot make it in Manhattan, I don’t know where else I can make it.” Translation: His long-threatened twin condo tower development planned for San Felipe at the end of Woodway in Houston is officially toast. [New York Observer; previously on Swamplot]

07/08/10 10:04am

WHO GOT THE POLICE TICKET FOR THE HANS’ BIER HAUS MEAT BOMB? In an update to its previous story about the 20 or 40 pounds of rotting meat that was unceremoniously dumped in the private alley between Hans’ Bier Haus on Quenby and the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby condominiums over the weekend, abc13 is now reporting that police following up on the incident have issued a citation to “one person” for “causing a nuisance” with the festering stink bomb. Another fun fact from the latest teevee report: “According to the city health department, the property where the meat sits belongs to neither the bar nor the condo, but a third party with [groan] no stake in the case.” Update, 7/9: abc13 has updated its story again, this time removing the name of the person previously identified as having received the citation. We’ve followed suit. [abc13; previously on Swamplot]