08/02/12 12:52pm

If it’s, say, 1980, and you’re trying to get rid of a dead body, burying it at the foundation level of a brand-new condo complex going up over the reported site of an ancient cemetery might sound like a perfect after-offing disposal plan. But in Houston, you never know what’s going to get dug up next. HPD detective Carlos Cardenas tells Chronicle reporter Mike Glenn he doesn’t think the partial skeleton unearthed by construction workers yesterday on the site of the recently demolished Park Memorial Condominiums at 5292 Memorial Dr. (pictured above in a late stage of assisted decomposition) belongs to the native American graveyard reported to have existed there previously.

Forensic testing should give a clearer answer, but the circumstances of the body’s burial appear to tell a story on their own: The human remains were discovered along Chandler St. near Arnold, at the far northeastern corner of the complex, wedged between a retaining wall and a concrete slab that workers were taking out. The body was likely concealed there when the Park Memorial Condos were built, police detectives tell Glenn.

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07/02/12 1:10pm

Plans for the 5- and 6-story complex Wallace Garcia Wilson Architects has designed for the new owners of Park Memorial at 5292 Memorial Dr. show that the former grounds of the park-like 108-unit Rice Military condo complex (pictured in better days above) will soon be home to 372 new apartment units. The new project by JLB Partners, currently out to bid, will fit buildings surrounding 2 courtyards, a narrow 7-level garage, and a detention pond onto the 4.85-acre site at the corner of Memorial Dr. and Detering. That’s the plan at the top. And below are a couple of elevations, in different scales, of the west and east sides:

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06/06/12 1:24pm

“There are at least 3-4 dozers making fast work of the demo” of the abandoned Park Memorial Condos on Memorial Dr. at Detering, reports Swamplot reader and real-estate agent David Hille, who lives nearby and snapped these photos of the onsite action this morning. The sale of the festering, overgrown property — which required the willing or resigned participation of 108 locked-out condo owners — was completed last month, and demo permits for 4 of the structures were granted yesterday.

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05/24/12 3:19pm

After more than 3 years of negotiations and court battles, the fenced-off 4.85-acre property covered with overgrown and vandalized buildings once known as the Park Memorial condos has at last been sold. Owners of the 108 properties at 5292 Memorial Dr. who were able to hold onto their units after the city declared them unsafe and barred anyone from living there in 2008 (or who snatched them up for low, low prices later) should be receiving their checks soon. The buyer is JLB Properties from Dallas, developers of the Ava apartments on Highmeadow near Hillcroft. The company is reportedly planning a new apartment complex on the Park Memorial site, which sits north of Buffalo Bayou at the corner of Memorial Dr. and Detering.

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04/03/12 2:00pm

Some burger stand, street signs, a car wash, bungalows: So many little Heights-y things muck up the foreground in development blog Going Up! City’s construction pix of the 6-story concrete-and-brick condo building going up just north of the restaurant-heavy corner of 11th St. and Studewood. 1111 Studewood Place, which at last report included 9,000 sq. ft. of retail space on its ground floor, has a website up which for now carefully avoids use of the word “condo.”

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02/02/12 2:01pm

Where’s Randall Davis gonna find buyers for the glitzy condos in this new 24-story Uptown highrise he’s planning — you know, the kinds of carefree, fun-loving sophisticates who’d regularly leave all the lights on in their bedrooms at night just to make sure the whole building glows like this? In other countries, probably. But they’ll be moving to Houston soon!

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01/18/12 11:24am

WHERE O WHERE HAS KEN LAY’S CONDO GONE? Accustomed to seeing Ken and Linda Lay’s castle-like penthouse suite on the 33rd floor of The Huntingdon at 2121 Kirby for sale at a steadily decreasing price month after month (it’s been on the market since the fall of 2009), a reader is shocked to discover that the 12,827-sq.-ft. trifle — at last note listed at $6.99 million, nearly half off its original asking price — is no longer listed on MLS: “Did it sell?” [Swamplot inbox] Photo of 2121 Kirby Dr. Unit 33: HAR

11/16/11 3:44pm

3-year-old 11-building condo complex at the intersection of Beltway 8 and Hwy. 59; great feeder-road-U-turn access to IAH. Swimming pool — okay, it’s a retention pond — at the center. And bank-owned. Well, not anymore. Interra Capital Group bought 112 of the 128 flex-space industrial condo units at the High Ridge Business Park from the lender last month, and for the 60-some units still available, it’ll be lease only.

Photo: Commgate

10/03/11 12:27pm

A reader who spotted a group of “official looking folks with hard hats and fluorescent vests” looking at the grounds of the Park Memorial Condominiums at 5292 Memorial Dr. last week (and sent in photos of the group congregating at the Detering St. entrance to prove it) wants to know if the visit means something is about to happen to the abandoned property. Swamplot’s most recent first-person report on the complex came from a runner who passed through with a group in March, to admire the mosquito-infested pool and “creepy” surroundings. Condo owners have been stuck in limbo for the last 3 years, since city officials ordered the property vacated. Attempts to sell the property to a third party for redevelopment have failed so far because condo owners have been unable to agree on terms.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

07/15/11 3:21pm

Whatever happened to that Park 8 condo tower, hospital, and strip-mall development planned for Beltway 8 next to Arthur Storey Park, just south of Bellaire Blvd.? The Chronicle‘s Purva Patel surveys the wreckage of the self-styled “Land of Oz”: The highrise project has long been in bankruptcy, the contractor and lender are battling over ownership of the land in court, and 2 different groups of investors and condo buyers are suing developer David Wu for their investment losses (totaling more than $2 million), alleging he has or had no intention or ability to complete the project, and that he misled them about funding and leasing commitments. Neither Wu nor his attorney would respond to the reporter’s questions.

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06/03/11 9:54am

Is this what the mysterious new 6-story concrete-frame mixed-use building going up behind the 11th St. Someburger in the Heights is supposed to look like? Sort of, but not exactly. The rendering of the project above (and a whole bunch more, below), found on the website of ZDA Architecture in San Antonio, shows a decked-out version of the more boxy structure that’s pictured on this new sign and that showed up on the corner of Studewood and 11th 1/2 St. yesterday:

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03/28/11 4:19pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: VIEWING THE PARK MEMORIAL CONDO POOL PARTY FROM THE AIR “On Google Earth’s time slider tool, the pool turns from a light aqua blue to a dark green pea soup between Jan. 2008 and Sept. 2008.” [Superdave, commenting on The Park Memorial Condo Wildlife Refuge]

03/28/11 9:27am

THE PARK MEMORIAL CONDO WILDLIFE REFUGE A participant reports on a local running group’s visit last week to a thriving wilderness area off Memorial Dr. — otherwise known as the campus of the Park Memorial Condos: “We ran around the Rice Military area heading south, then ran into the parking garage under Park Memorial, winding our way into the courtyard gate and the path that leads to the swimming pool. [We] had a “beer check” (kind of like a water stop, but, you know, with beer) right by the mosquito-infested pool. This was about 8:30 p.m. and it was pitch dark (the moon hadn’t yet risen). It was creepy and also awesome. I was really surprised by how easy it was to get in there. We just walked right through the gate, then walked right back out. Several of the apartments’ doors were wide open too. It was rather spooky. I expected to see homeless squatting there but we never encountered anyone . . . . It was pretty cool to finally see what the inside of the complex looked like, but sad to see the state of disrepair they’re under.” [Swamplot inbox; previously]

03/21/11 5:29pm

A “massive” sheet of glass from a wall surrounding an outdoor recreational area of the 2727 Kirby condo tower fell from the 7th floor to the street and damaged a car sometime after June 21st of last year, according to a lawsuit filed against the developer by the building’s owners. No one was injured, but the incident sparked a round of investigations into the building and the discovery, according to the lawsuit, of additional construction problems: with the glass railings on the balconies of individual units, portions of the metal wall-panel system and the exterior tile cladding, the fire sprinkler system, and the building’s waterproofing, among other things. The lawsuit follows an earlier confidential settlement agreement for other claims against the developer that was worked out last year. Oh, and for those of you keeping score at home, a spokesperson for the building owner says 38 of the building’s 77 units have been sold so far.

Photo: Michael Bludworth