Tag: Condos

Development Restrictions, Highrises, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Southampton

Townhouses at Ashby, 1717 Bissonnet, Ashby Highrise, Houston

How do you reduce development in . . . uh, sensitive Houston neighborhoods — without imposing new regulations?

It can be done! A free market provides its own land-use controls.

Matthew Morgan and Kevin Kirton of Buckhead Investment Partners, developers of the proposed 23-story residential highrise at the corner of Ashby and Bissonnet, show how it can work:

In the Feb. 5 meeting, Morgan and Kirton offered to reduce the size of their building to 19 stories or to build a six-story project while accepting a $2.65 million payment to recoup their investment.

Ashby high-rise developers remain hopeful for deal with neighbors [Houston Chronicle]
Previously in Swamplot: Uproar Update: Ashby Highrise, Canâ€™t Stop This: Southampton Pop-Up Tower

Street-level view of proposed Ashby Townhomes, 1717 Bissonnet: Buckhead Investment Partners

77005, Apartments, Ashby Highrise, Boulevard-Oaks, Condos, Development Restrictions, Highrises, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Southampton

Braeswood Place

02/12/08 12:50pm

Belgravia: The British Empire Strikes Back

Condos, Gramercy Park, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing

Elevation of Proposed Belgravia Condos at 4026 Bellefontaine, Houston

Nineteenth-century British architect John Nash is apparently staging some sort of comeback in Gramercy Park. Here’s some of the marketing copy for the Belgravia, a 44-unit midrise condo building planned for Bellefontaine St., just west of Stella Link:

Following the traditions of neo-classical design, by one of Englands greatest architects John Nash, The Belgravia takes us to one of the most exciting times of British innovation where the most remarkable landmarks were sought, built, and admired.

The planning commission recently approved Sunhill Development’s replat of the property, over some vocal neighborhood opposition.

After the jump, more pics of the former British Empire’s Braeswood Place outpost!

77025, Braeswood Place, Condos, Gramercy Park, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing

02/05/08 8:09am

Manhattan Penthouse: Still Falling

Condos, Galleria, Homes for Sale, Lofts

Living Room of Manhattan Lofts Unit 808, Houston

Here’s as dramatic a perch as any from which to enjoy a high-price-condo meltdown: the empty cupola atop the 8th-floor penthouse of the Manhattan Lofts building in Uptown. And hey, it looks like quite a fall to the floor below. Maybe stepping down slowly would make some sense?

Almost exactly a month after our original report on this over-the-top, oversized, and overpriced Manhattan penthouse, the price was cut a sixth time, to $1.65 million. How long before it breaks into six figures?

3030 Post Oak Blvd. #808 [HAR]
Whoâ€™ll Take Manhattan? [Swamplot]

77056, Buying and Selling, Condos, Galleria, Highrises, Homes for Sale, Lofts, Price Reductions, Uptown

01/28/08 1:45pm

Heights Esplanade I: Now Available with Less Irony

Historic Districts, Houston Heights, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments

Rendering of Proposed Heights Esplanade I at 1801 Ashland St., Houston

The Magnolia Lofts, planned for the site of the former Ashland Tea House, has a new sales trailer at 1801 W. 18th St. in the Heights and a new, less ironic name. The project is now called Heights Esplanade I — though the development’s website throws in an odd extra apostrophe for good measure. Best news: The same website declares that “At the Esplanade, urban loft living will take on a new meaning.” The building will be four stories high, contain forty condos, and sit on a two-story “partially submerged” garage.

A HAIF reader who stopped by the sales office reports that Conroe-area builders Garrett Austen are planning two additional phases, with 80 and 120 more condos respectively.

After the jump: floor plans for Unit 403, on sale now for $261,118.

77008, Condos, Historic Districts, Houston Heights, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments

01/23/08 11:52am

Nine and a Half Bathrooms: The Turnberry Tower Penthouse Evacuation Plan

Galleria, Highrises, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Interiors, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments

Plan of Top Floor Gramercy Tower Suite Penthouse of Turnberry Houston Tower Showing 9 and a Half Bathrooms

Do you experience the urge to urinate frequently? Do you suffer from recurring bladder infections? An enlarged prostate? And one more question: Do you have $8.5 million burning a hole in your (probably moist) pocket?

Well then, you’re certainly going to pee in your pants when you see the exciting floor plans for the two “Gramercy Tower Suite” penthouses on the top floors of Houston’s 34-story Turnberry Tower! Yes, this will be the height of luxury: 11,860 sq. ft. of living space on three separate levels of an Uptown highrise; an additional 3,535 sq. ft. of terraces; 4 bedrooms plus a Den, a Guest Suite, and a Staff Room for live-in help; a Media Room, two Lounges, and a 2-story Great Room; a private elevator entry; your own private pool and cabana; and so much more.

But forget all that. What makes this little pied-Ã -terre special is that even if all that space perched high in the sky (and the at-least-jaw-dropping panoramic views) gives you an unmistakable urge to evacuate, you’ll only be a few shuffling paces away from a toilet: Each unit comes with nine-and-a-half bathrooms. And if that’s not enough, there’s plenty of room to add more!

Read on for more of the scoop on where to poop: floor plans for the top two floors, with more porcelain palaces clearly marked. Plus: a closeup of Swamplot’s favorite Turnberry penthouse pit stop!

77056, Bathrooms, Condos, Galleria, Highrises, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Luxury Highrises, Proposed Developments, Swimming Pools, Turnberry Tower, Uptown

Apartments

01/17/08 5:52pm

River Oaks District Development Reaches Advanced Watercolor Stage

Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Mixed Use, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Retail, River Oaks, Shopping Centers

Watercolor of Proposed River Oaks District Mixed Use Development Planned for Westheimer by OliverMcMillan

With new bold, rich watercolor renderings now posted to its website, OliverMcMillan shows its mixed-use proposal for Westheimer is serious. The River Oaks District won’t be in River Oaks exactly, but it would mark a serious upgrade for this portion of Westheimer just inside the Loop, on a portion of the site of the Westcreek Apartments.

What’s planned here: 300,000 square feet of retail space, 300 fancy apartments, 250,000 square feet of office space, plus two hotels — rumored to be a W and a Le Meridien. The W Hotel will house 150 condos on its top floors.

After the jump: those shiny watercolors, plus plans and an aerial view!

77027, Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Mixed Use, New Construction, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Retail, River Oaks, River Oaks District, Shopping Centers, Westheimer

01/16/08 11:25am

1342 Rutland: How To Invest in a Collapsing Market

Condos, Houston Heights

Check out the discussion going on now in the “Real Estate Professionals” section of the City-Data online forum. A reader is excited about an amazing investment opportunity at the 1342 Rutland St. condos in the Heights!

The unit I’m interested in is as of now at $34K. This if from a high of $77.5. Yes wow the suspiciousness of the place even more intriguing.

I’m thinking I could pay cash for the place maybe borrow a little but (family borrow not bank borrow)… finish the interior (it’s not finished) and rent it out for a good monthly rate (good for me that is). It’s in one of the best/trendy/expensive neighborhoods in Houston . So from the steady fall of the price I’m thinking an offer of $25K would be good. That way I could pay it completely and take my time fixing it up for rent… or sale.

Wow, a $77,500 condo for only $25,000! Sounds like a great investment. But then there’s that nagging feeling inside that makes the would-be investor end with this question:

Just how scared should one be entering this building[?]

After the jump: Reader advice!

77008, Buying and Selling, Condos, Foreclosures, Homes for Sale, Houston Heights, Price Reductions

01/16/08 9:39am

A First Look at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Tower at Boulevard Place

Galleria, Highrises, Hotels, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments

Rendering of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Tower Proposed for Blvd Place, Uptown, Houston, by SOM A tipster sends Swamplot this sneak peek at the hotel tower planned for Uptown’s Boulevard Place development. That’s somewhere around 180 highrise condo units perched on top of a 225-room hotel, which the Chronicle reported this weekend would likely be a Ritz-Carlton.

A tower that’s tall, thin, sleek, and half-dressed would seem about right for the Galleria, no? We count about 31 stories in the hotel-tower drawings before our eyes get all buggy, but plans might call for a building even taller than that. Our source reports that the hotel tower might end up taller than the 55-story apartment tower the Houston Business Journal reported that the Hanover Company was also planning for the site.

After the jump: The view from above!

77056, Condos, Galleria, Highrises, Hotels, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Uptown

01/08/08 10:05am

That Fishy Tanglewilde Condo

Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Real Estate Marketing, Tanglewilde

3780 Tanglewilde St. #609, Houston

Here’s a great idea: Let’s deck out a 1980s two-bedroom, two-story Tanglewilde condo. It’ll look really sophisticated and sell fast, too! First, add the sleek blond leather furniture. Then build a dramatically lit aquarium into the dining area, so you can see the back of it . . . from the kitchen! That’s gotta help this baby sell for big bucks.

Except sixteen months later, it’s still on the market. The asking price has dropped from $129,900 to $109,900, but it’s been sitting at that last number for more than 10 months. And more reductions seem inevitable: Just a few doors down, an unstaged version popped up for sale 8 days ago, and has already reduced its price to $99,000.

After the jump, more pics of the Tanglewilde leather-and-aquarium bachelor pad!

77063, Condos, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Price Reductions, Real Estate Marketing, Staging, Tanglewilde

12/28/07 10:19am

Sterling Senior Condo Sales Staff Retires

Highrises, Memorial Villages, Proposed Developments, Senior Living

Sales Sign for Sterling at Memorial Villages Remember that fancy 27-story condo tower planned for Voss between San Felipe and Woodway? The one that was “for seniors only” and featured three floors of assisted living? Where you could buy a spacious 950-square-foot unit for just a tad under $500K?

Well, neither did we.

But if you were too busy pursuing an active lifestyle to notice that the sales center had shut down and the website disappeared, today’s Houston Business Journal makes the official announcement: The Sterling at Memorial Villages is dead, for lack of interest.

The project site holds a shuttered retail facility where a Chipotle formerly operated. The western-most part of the site, which is not owned by [Sterling developer] Sunrise Senior Living, is being marketed for sale by McDade Smith Gould Johnston Mason + Co. The eastern portion of the property — where the condo was to be built — is now being marketed by Wheless Properties.

The public company will see what offers it gets for the land, but [Sunrise Senior Living rep Jamison] Gosselin says it also is considering developing a rental property at the site.

Not mentioned in the article: Links to The Sterling of The Woodlands on the company website no longer work either.

Condo project flops as seniors fail to buy in [Houston Business Journal]
The Sterling

Photo: HAIF user BuilderGeek

77057, Canceled Projects, Condos, Highrises, Memorial Villages, Proposed Developments, Senior Living

12/19/07 1:57pm

Who’ll Take Manhattan?

Condos, Galleria, Highrises, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Lofts

Living Room of Manhattan Lofts Unit 808, Houston

This delightful unit has lingered on the market for a mere 22 months. That’s a long wait for a condo bubble that never happened. And hey, it ‘s a fun ride down the price ladder!

The grossly oversized two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath corner unit on the top floor of the misplaced Manhattan building in the Galleria was originally priced at $2.1 million, back in the swelled-heady days of February 2006. Five methodical price drops later, we’ve reached $1,695,000. That’s a lot of cuts, but we’re still not even down 20 percent: how low will the program-trading-style reductions go?

After the jump, more pics of the . . . uh, eclectic interior.

77056, Buying and Selling, Condos, Galleria, Highrises, Homes for Sale, Interior-Design, Interiors, Lofts, Price Reductions, Theming, Uptown

12/12/07 2:13pm

Tremont Tower Video: How Construction Problems Attract Foreclosure Pileups

Condos, Financing, Foreclosures, Fraud, Highrises, Mold, Montrose, Mortgages

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLqkHr77N0U 400 330]

So the actors aren’t likely to win any awards, but this new video posted to YouTube by Tremont Tower owner-victim-gadfly Heather Mickelson is notable for it’s uh . . . stirring illustration of the connection between construction-quality complaints and foreclosure train wrecks.

The Tremont is colorfully renamed “LemonTree Tower” in the video reenactment. If you’re new to the story, you’ll find better introductions to the sordid Montrose condo tale elsewhere. But if you’ve ever wondered why foreclosures seem to gather like flies around new developments that feature questionable levels of quality (and, say, water-tightness), this will make pretty good internet theater. No, the mortgage defaults aren’t the work of the millions of mold spores and the grim reaper, who together make cameo appearances in the video; they’re the ultimate result of the surefire sales techniques employed for undesirable properties — made so much easier, of course, by the subprime-mortgage boom.

Here’s the formula: Building with bad enclosure + poor disclosure = lots of foreclosure. Or just watch the video. At just over seven minutes, it’s still a lot shorter than Glengarry Glen Ross.

LemonTree Tower [YouTube]
Ownership Wrongs [Houston Press]
The Dirty Little Secret Behind the Montrose Foreclosure Hump [Swamplot]
The Collapse of 1342 Rutland [Swamplot]

77006, Buying and Selling, Condos, Financing, Foreclosures, Fraud, Highrises, Mold, Montrose, Mortgages, Tremont Tower

12/06/07 10:54am

Stanford Lofts: Your Parking Lot Is Safe from the Dynamo

Downtown, Lofts, Parking, Proposed Developments

Balcony of Stanford Lofts Unit 409

A resident of the Stanford Lofts just east of Downtown writes in to make sure everyone knows, after all, that the building’s view of Minute Maid Park is not going to be obstructed by . . . a view of a new soccer stadium for the Houston Dynamo directly across the street.

No, no official deal’s been announced. But this tidbit from a Chronicle story has allowed condo owners to breathe a sigh of relief:

The Dynamo first set sights on land owned by the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority just east of Minute Maid Park and U.S. 59, but have since decided against the property, which the Astros lease for stadium parking.

“We know for a fact (the property) is no longer being considered,” said Sports Authority head Kenny Friedman, who added that the Sports Authority is not actively involved in the negotiations.

The team might be looking to purchase private land near the same general area as the county-owned property, although Luck declined to confirm or deny it, saying only that a downtown venue is still planned.

So where will the Dynamo stadium go? Keep reading below the fold:

77003, Condos, Downtown, Dynamo Stadium, Lofts, Minute Maid Park, Proposed Developments, Stanford-Lofts

Attractions

11/09/07 11:33am

It Was Super Happy Fun While It Lasted

Houston Heights, Openings and Closings

Super Happy Fun Land on Ashland St. in the Heights

Houstonist reports that performance, concert, art, party, and . . . uh, barbecue venue Super Happy Fun Land is being kicked out of its brightly painted Heights bungalow:

Their current building (2610 Ashland St.) has been sold in order to make room for more condominiums, which some apparently delusional real estate-type creature has decided our fair city is lacking.

The last concert in that location will be at the end of January. Sure, it’s the end of an era, but it’s not as though the place is shutting down. Surely the club’s owners will be able to find a nice spot in a new strip center somewhere nearby.

Super Happy Fun Move? [Houstonist]
Super Happy Fun Land

Photo: Flickr user Shitface1000

77008, Attractions, Clubs, Condos, Houston Heights, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Strip Centers

11/08/07 11:22am

The Titan: Rocketship Condos on Post Oak

Galleria, Highrises, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing