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

01/14/11 1:32pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: CLEAR PROOF THAT THEY WERE ONTO SOMETHING BIG, BEFORE IT ALL CAME CRASHING DOWN “well it would appear there’s lots of wind up there for harvesting!” [movocelot, commenting on Pieces of Wind Turbine Fall Onto Street from Top of Hess Tower Downtown; Blades on “Lockdown”]

12/07/10 5:43pm

From the window of his office behind the Galleria, Swamplot reader Warren Pattison snaps this view showing a crane installing a large sign on the site of a new office tower scheduled to go up at 3009 Post Oak Blvd. That’s the former site of Tony’s Ballroom, wedged between the Water Wall and the West Loop. An executive with the U.S. unit of Swedish project development and construction company Skanska announced back in January that the project should begin construction by the end of this year, but the company didn’t close on the deal to buy the land — from a subsidiary of Hines — until September. The company will be financing the building by itself. A fanciful view of the design for the now-19-story tower, by local architecture firm Kirksey, as it might appear if no buildings or billboards were nearby, and everybody abandoned the West Loop:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

08/09/10 3:10pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: SECRETS OF THE METRONATIONAL DEATH STAR — REVEALED! “Could this be an air traffic control tower for getting the Chemtrail plane patterns accurately placed in skies… for desired weather pattern chemical fallouts… aluminum oxide, barium oxide and ethylene dibromide… very harmful to us. No one is allowed to go to these top five floors all owned by MetroNational Bank (who own the whole building plus more). The rest of the floors 28 and under are doctors offices and hospital. I thought that was a bit odd. It just looks so much like an air traffic control tower… but with no airport near-by… then one must ask…”what in the air.. are they controlling… if not planes landing?” Possibly Chemtrials floating? I invite any comments. Please research Chemtrails first. I am not a conspiracy theory person nor do I believe in UFO’s, ghosts, or [Morgellons] disease.” [CLD, commenting on There Will Be No Tours of the Death Star, and Other Details About the Hospital in the Belly of the Memorial Hermann Tower] Photo: Tony Sava

07/15/10 10:57am

HELPING CEOS WITH THAT VISION THING The head of the giant monkey wrench is still under construction Downtown, but already Hines has lowered rents and begun looking for smaller-scale tenants at MainPlace, Nancy Sarnoff reports. And now . . . they’re staging it! “Hines has built out mock offices on three floors so prospective tenants can get a better idea of what their offices may look like. Depending on the audience, the models can make an impression. ‘If you bring over a CEO, it registers with them a little more,’ said Chrissy Wilson, vice president of leasing for Hines.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Skyscraper Page user Johnme

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]

05/25/10 11:15am

A CONDO OWNERS FAN SITE FOR SHAYA BOYMELGREEN Still waiting for the developer of the twin-tower condo development proposed for San Felipe near the end of Woodway to provide an update on the project? Some New Yorkers would like a word with him too. The residents of the Newswalk Condominium in Brooklyn have created a website called Shame on Shaya, documenting in Russian, Hebrew, and English the “extraordinary number of construction defects” in developer Shaya Boymelgreen’s first high-profile development, constructed in 2002: “The building is now undergoing a two-year, $7 million construction remediation project. Newswalk residents are currently in legal action against Boymelgreen with a suit seeking no less than $10 million in damages.” Spokesman Michael Rogers explains: “Many of us got to know Shaya in the early days of Newswalk, and found him friendly and likeable. He may not fully understand what the residents of Newswalk are suffering, and this campaign is a way to bring him up-to-date.” [Previously on Swamplot]

04/12/10 3:35pm

ASHBY HIGHRISE DEVELOPERS DROP NAMES, MOVE TO DISTRICT COURT What do the Fairmont Museum District, La Maison on Revere, Millennium Greenway, and 2121 Mid Lane apartments, the Medical Clinic of Houston, and the trigger-happy Sonoma development in the Rice Village have in common? They all make cameo appearances in the latest version of Buckhead Investment Partners’ lawsuit against the city of Houston. The claim: that none of those projects were subjected to the same traffic restrictions as Buckhead’s proposed 23-story tower on the corner of Bissonnet and Ashby, next to Southampton: “The Ashby high-rise developers re-filed their lawsuit April 7 in state district court, where it will focus more heavily on claims the project was denied permits for its original design because it was subjected to ‘capricious and unreasonable’ standards. Court documents submitted by attorneys for the Buckhead Development Partners, show the suit against Houston continues to center on the city’s application of the driveway ordinance as a basis to refuse a final building permit. The city has said it is correct in its application of the ordinance and the inclusion of ‘trip-count’ standards to guarantee safety and ensure streets in the neighborhood remain passable.” [River Oaks Examiner; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Buckhead Investment Partners

04/05/10 2:02pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: STILL WAITING FOR PARK 8 TO ARRIVE IN THE LAND OF OZ “Do you have any update on this project? I’m very curious to find out more about the status and what the projected outcome will be for the many buyers of this condo that is 3 years behind schedule.” [Caroling, commenting on Park 8 Chinatown Condo Project: Parked?] Rendering: Marketing Park8

03/15/10 10:15am

If our math holds, 10 or 11 condos have sold or otherwise gained occupants over the last 5 months at 2727 Kirby. Last October, the developers of the new 30-story highrise near Westheimer reported that 20 units in the tower were occupied.

Now the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff reports that the building’s owners have turned over management of the building to a separate agency:

The group has hired Houston-based Association Management to take over now that the building has more residents, said Sherri Atlas, who owns the unsold units in the high-rise with another investor. Fortress is the lender on the project.

Atlas said occupancy is at about 40 percent in the building, which has 77 high-end units.

Photo: Ziegler Cooper Architects

02/18/10 12:16pm

How has that condo conversion of the former Commerce Building at the corner of Main St. and Walker Downtown been working out?

The building has 122 finished units and a two-story-tall penthouse that has not been built out yet.

A total of 69 units have been sold, and another 25 have been leased. [Commerce Towers sales and leasing agent Susan] Speck said some of the renters are interested in buying.

Prominent Houstonian Jesse Jones built the first part of the structure in 1928, and added onto it in the 1930s, Speck said.

An entity named Premier Towers bought the building in 1999. It was redeveloped by New York-based Whitney Jordan Group with Tarantino Properties Inc. of Houston.

The first condo units were finished and people starting moving in during 2002.

Photo of Commerce Towers, 914 Main St.: Sandra Gunn Properties

02/12/10 1:06pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: ASHBY HIGHRISE GAME ON “Ultimately, the developers used the intricacies of the city code to try to slip this by the neighborhood. Then they complained when the neighborhood used the intricacies of the city code to block it. Boo effin’ hoo.” [Fatt Fistery, commenting on Ashby Highrise Lawsuit: It’s On!]

02/11/10 3:21pm

ASHBY HIGHRISE LAWSUIT: IT’S ON! Gee, who’da thunk it would come to this? “The developers of the Ashby high-rise sued the city of Houston today seeking more than $40 million in compensation after repeated denials of their permit application. ‘The city must learn that it cannot misapply the law to please a select few or to achieve de facto zoning regulations that our community has consistently rejected,’ said Kevin Kirton, the chief executive of Buckhead Investment Partners Inc., the company that sought to build the 23-story tower at 1717 Bissonnet near Rice University.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]

01/22/10 9:38am

An executive with Skanska USA tells the Houston Business Journal‘s Jennifer Dawson that the American subsidiary of the Swedish project development and construction company will build and finance this new freeway-side Galleria spec office building all by itself. Design work for the 14-story tower and 8-story parking garage, though, was farmed out to Kirksey.

Where will it go? The 2.3-acre former site of Tony’s Ballroom at 3009 Post Oak Blvd., across the street from the Water Wall Park. Metro will likely want a piece of that property too: A thin, mostly triangular sliver along the property’s western edge is needed to accommodate the new Uptown Line set to run down Post Oak.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

01/19/10 2:32pm

At the end of a long article chewing over the possibility that Shell Oil might move out of its longtime Downtown office-tower home, real estate writer and promoter and longtime mustache-wearer Ralph Bivins finally reveals why he likes One Shell Plaza so much: Long ago, the 50-story concrete building with the travertine facing saved him and his brother-in-law from a possible night in the slammer.

A few decades ago, the Houston Police Department employed some officers who had a sore spot against guys with long hair and other suspected hippies. Anytime, you could get pulled over because having long hair and a mustache was “probable cause” for HPD to make a traffic stop. I was in the passenger seat late one night when my slightly shaggy brother-in-law got pulled over in the Montrose area. Even though we were doing nothing wrong, the policeman gave him general hassle, scrutiny and in-depth questioning.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY