Tag: Townhomes

Buying and Selling
01/22/08 8:36am

Third Ward Demo Duplex: Dressed Up To Get Messed Up

by
Demolitions, Development Strategy, Homes for Sale, Real Estate Marketing, Renovations, Third Ward, Townhomes
No Comments

Interior of 2103 Berry St., Third Ward, Houston, Under Construction

Renovate or demolish? It’s a false choice, really. Now you can do both!

If ever one listing encapsulated the essential paradox at the heart of the Third Ward’s uh . . . “resurgence,” it’s the one just posted for 2103 Berry St.

Contractors are hard at work completely renovating this Third Ward duplex . . . so that you can buy it and tear it down. Then you can start over and build brand-new townhouses! The brand-new listing features the construction-site photo above and the following description:

GREAT DUPLEX UNDER RENOVATIONS LOCATED MINUTES AWAY FROM DOWNTOWN,MIDTOWN, TOYOTA CENTER AND MINUTE MAID PARK. CORNER LOT SURROUNDED BY NEW CONSTRUCTION. PHENOMENAL OPPORTUNITY FOR A DEVELOPER’S OR INVESTOR’S TO BUILD TOWNHOMES.

Who says you can’t have it all?

After the jump: Can’t we just slather the stucco over the exterior brickwork and call it even?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , , , , , ,
Buying and Selling
01/08/08 4:01pm

Joel Osteen Townhome Sales Technique: Give and Ye Shall Receive Full Asking Price

by
Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Marketing, Townhomes
No Comments

Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential, by Joel OsteenThere’s more to the story of the Lakewood Church pastor’s amazing house flip: How were Joel and Victoria Osteen able to unload their townhouse in order to buy that house they made so much money on?

Readers of Joel Osteen’s previous book — Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential — already know the answer. From page 265:

Victoria and I had been married a few years when we decided that we wanted to sell our townhome and buy a house. We put the townhome on the market for six or eight months, but we never had a serious offer. Hardly anybody looked at it, even though we were praying regularly, asking God to help us sell it.

We really wanted the other house, but we couldn’t afford it until we sold our townhome. Finally, we decided to do more than pray. We needed to sow a special seed in faith, believing for that townhome to sell.

There’s more!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , ,
Buying and Selling
01/03/08 11:40am

Welch St. Townhouse: The Holiday Premium Is Over

by
Homes for Sale, Montrose, Real Estate Marketing, Townhomes
No Comments

705 Welch St., Montrose, HoustonSome curious price fluctuations on this 2006 turreted Montrose townhouse: Last week the asking price was reduced from $525,000 to $350,000. Which is pretty dramatic, though only slightly more dramatic than the $140K increase recorded on MLS the day after the property was listed, in early December.

, , , , , ,
Development Strategy
12/11/07 1:22pm

Not So Gaudi on Antoine: Barcelona Villa Boxes!

by
Home Design, Homes for Sale, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Real Estate Marketing, Spring Branch, Townhomes
No Comments

Villas of Antoine Ad

Houston is such an international city! If you’ve been here a while, you’ve probably already found Tuscany in Houston and Hong Kong in Houston, and perhaps also Charlottesville, New Delhi, Versailles, New York, Mexico City, Cairo, Dubai, Atlanta, and maybe even some Lubbock in Houston as well.

Well, here’s a new one: Now you can discover Barcelona in Houston too. And it’s in Spring Branch!

Fortunately, for those of you tired at the thought of all that around-the-world-in-eighty-themed-apartments travel, this little bit of the Spanish Mediterranean comes in the familiar form of a Houston townhome six-pack: two rows of bright yellow tightly fit stucco-coated boxes facing a bare concrete driveway.

So really, it shouldn’t seem so foreign after all.

After the jump, more pics!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , , , , , ,
Condos
11/09/07 1:27pm

Forty-Two New Condos in the Old First Ward

by
Development Strategy, First Ward, Homebuilders, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Parking, Proposed Developments
No Comments

Site Plan for Sawyer Brownstones by Terramark Homes at 2110 Shearn St., Houston

How do you pack so many condos into an old warehouse building in Houston’s First Ward? Easy! You knock the warehouse down, build a gate around the block, and pack ’em in!

Permit in hand, Terramark Homes begins construction on the Sawyer Brownstones at 2110 Shearn St. The forty-two units will take up the block surrounded by Shearn, Hemphill, Spring, and Henderson Streets, just south of I-10.

No images of the outside yet, so it’s hard to say if these brownstones will indeed have brown stone or just be brownstone-like. But continue after the jump and we’ll show you the secret to shoehorning so many townhome-style condos into a single block!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , , , , , , , ,
Apartments
10/29/07 11:07am

The Belle Meade: Apartments Step Onto the Podium

by
Midtown, Museum District, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, River Oaks, Texas Medical Center, Townhomes
No Comments

Belle Meade at River Oaks Elevation Drawing

Belle Meade at River Oaks on Westheimer

A permit was issued late last week. And so sitework begins for the 119-unit, 168,398-square-foot Belle Meade at River Oaks, on Westheimer between Ferndale and Sackett, developed by Grayco Partners:

The project is a 6-story epicore (light steel) construction on top of a 2-story podium garage. The boutique building will resemble the look of turn of the century, old New York hotels in brick with cast stone details, while spacious interiors will include such amenities as hardwood floors, 10-foot ceilings, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and individual wine chillers. Community amenities will include conditioned interior corridors, heated pool, fitness facility, business center and a resident recreation room.

Grayco is also developing Museum Place, at Fannin and Oakdale in Midtown—a “contemporary design” also on a two-story podium. And Braeswood Place, on North Braeswood just east of Stella Link: the more usual four-story stick apartments hugging a parking garage, but it’ll also include 21 townhouses. It’s meant to look like Rice. All three properties will be managed by Camden Property Trust.

, , , , , , , , , ,
Cinco Ranch
07/19/07 9:31pm

Developer To Take “Tuscany in a Parking Lot” Concept Nationwide

by
Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Fort Bend County, Katy, Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Parking, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, Sprawl, Townhomes
No Comments

Aerial Rendering of Villagio Shopping Center in Cinco Ranch

A Woodlands developer has decided its latest creation—a not-yet-opened shopping center in Katy—should be replicated statewide and beyond. Marcel Inc. CEO Vernon Veldekens told GlobeSt.com that

the concept behind Villagio involves smaller, mixed-use centers in neighborhoods rather than fronting freeways or interstate highways. “This gives a more intimate relationship with the community, similar to a European town square,” he says. “We feel like we can put these all over town in mid- to high-end areas and have the same success as we have in Cinco Ranch.”

The Villagio at Cinco Ranch, a boutique lifestyle center slated to open this fall on a 12-acre site at the corner of Westheimer Pkwy. and Peek Rd., is almost three-quarters leased. The center combines 112,285 square feet of retail and office space in a parking-lot-like setting. The developer’s marketing director told the Houston Chronicle that the Villagio will have a “Tuscan look and Tuscan feel to it.” Many of the cars in the 307 spaces surrounding the buildings and the 225-space garage will likely be European as well.

The project is a departure for Marcel Inc., a property development and management firm whose base portfolio includes more mundane shopping centers and a gas station and convenience store, and which previously developed a motorcycle superstore and a handful of Family Dollar stores. Already, the firm has plans for Villagios in north Austin and The Woodlands, and is contemplating additional locations in Round Rock, San Marcos, New Braunfels, and Dallas, according to Globe St.

After the jump, more views of the expanding Tuscan landscape, including the Tuscan villas on the lot!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , , , , , , , ,
Galleria
06/05/07 10:22am

New Listings: The Turquoise Townhouse

by
Homes for Sale, Interiors, Townhomes
No Comments

2604 Yorktown Place Interiors

What’s your favorite color? Maybe a seafoam green? Looking for a townhouse?

This $439K unit has it all: The light, seafoam entry hall, the deep-green dining room, the aqua bedrooms. All in a gated, Galleria-area enclave, where you can enjoy your hue obsessions in private.

More pics, including the Laundry Room (guess what color?) after the jump.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , ,
Buying and Selling
05/22/07 9:44am

Won’t Touch This: $492K Freeway Townhouse

by
Homes for Sale, Riverside Terrace, Townhomes
No Comments

2232 Riverside Dr.

What happens when townhomes don’t crack half a million? Sellers get mighty cranky:

This unit has a great view of downtown. It features a large balcony, spacious rooms, high ceilings, both wood & carpeted floors, an elevator, fireplace, beautiful kitchen and much more! It is being sold ‘AS IS’. The seller will do NO REPAIRS.

Don’t want to deal with this kind of unwillingness to negotiate? For a mere $200K+ more, you can buy the townhouse next door. And that seller isn’t saying what will or won’t be repaired—at least not in the listing.

A nice view of 288 from the balcony, plus an interior photo, which you can scan for evidence of a need for repairs the seller won’t make, after the jump.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , ,
Buying and Selling
05/16/07 10:48am

Selling Your Home: How To Give Buyers a Good First Impressionism

by
Condos, Galleria, Interiors, Townhomes
No Comments

2078 Augusta Dr 6/49 Living Room

Home buyers want a masterpiece! So why should your home listing suffer from bad, poorly lit, unimaginative photographs? Why, with a little bit of camera-phone artistry, you can make your home look like a Van Gogh!

Here’s a great example. Yes, this beautiful, Galleria-area impressionist interior can be yours, for a mere $165,000:

2 Bedroom, 2 1/2 bath Townhome with living room, kitchen and half-bath downstairs and bedrooms up. Master bedroom has cathedral ceiling and there is a large round skylight in the staircase. Light and bright throughout. Great location . . .

No, we didn’t alter the photo above (okay, we did enlarge it). But we do recognize artistic genius. Great photos like this hide carpet stains, too!

How can you make your home look like it’s worth a lot of Monet? Learn from the masters! After the jump, more of ERA broker Al Rafat’s unadulterated images of this notable home.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , , , , ,
Homes for Sale
05/08/07 11:06am

The Google Townhouses Are Coming!

by
Lofts, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Software, Townhomes
No Comments

Missouri Street Lofts by Catera Development

Just last year, the Wall Street Journal warned homeowners about the dangerous consequences of taking new easy-to-use consumer software design tools into their own hands. Now Houston gets to see what happens when developers commandeer these same computer programs.

Coming soon: The Missouri Street Lofts, a six-pack of townhouses now under construction in the heart of Montrose. You can see them online now, though, modeled in cartoon-worthy earth tones using Google Sketchup—free 3D drawing software anyone can download and learn in just a few minutes.

After the jump, townhouse developers demonstrate their mastery of Sketchup’s ultra-wide camera angles, giving us bird’s-eye views of tight interiors and more!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

, , , , ,
Townhomes
04/18/07 10:24am

Where Townhomes Go Next

by
No Comments

If, for some reason, buyers are still interested in new inner-loop townhomes perched on former industrial sites a few years from now, Mir Azizi will be well situated. The townhome and Herrin Lofts developer is the proud new owner of a now apparently doomed 279,400-square-foot warehouse in the industrial area north of Memorial Park, just west of the occasionally lapping waters of White Oak Bayou.

“He’s thinking perhaps it will be a future town home development, but isn’t deciding right now,” the listing broker told GlobeSt.com.

, , ,
Home Design
04/18/07 9:18am

Why We Won’t Get Urban Developments in Houston: Not Enough Land

by
Kingwood, Townhomes
No Comments

Regent Square Brownstones with Park

Residents of the new Regent Square Brownstones will “enjoy the sophistication of ‘in town living’” . . . in Kingwood.

Regent Square Brownstones in Kingwood TwilightThis is beginning to sound like a theme now, huh? Perhaps tired of bringing suburban-style homes and strip centers to the center parts of Houston, enterprising builders are now setting about to even the score, placing downtownish-looking buildings in park-like festival-village settings out in the burbs. As long as they don’t actually drag Central City teardowns to the Woodlands, it should be safe.

But why the urban flight? Homebuilder Robert Davis, whose firm is building Regent Square in Kings Harbor Village on prime Kingwood waterfront, spills the beans to the Chronicle:

Q: You are developing a lot of brownstone urban communities in the suburbs. Why not in Houston?

A: They can assemble and synergize the community with brownstones, whereas in Houston it’s very difficult to build townhome projects and say OK, here is your walk to the grocery store, because we have 5-foot sidewalks in Houston.

Suburb communities are building large promenades to connect things.

You would think that Houstonians have a more urban mind-set, but the people in the suburbs are actually going to get it.

In Houston, you cannot buy enough property to assemble that urban district.

We’re probably just not tearing down enough big, contiguous buildings in town.

Bonus: Davis reveals the secret sex code of successful homebuilders:

You’ve got to really design the home for the woman. Men are becoming more and more involved into the aesthetics, but you still need to make sure the woman is satisfied.

You’ve got to have the right kitchen, the right master bathroom. Natural light is extremely important. Men like the dark wood, caves. And women like the light and airy and bright, and if you miss that, you will miss big time.

Read more in the upcoming bestseller, Men are from the Enclosed Toilet Room, Women are from Lanai.

, , , , , ,
« Previous Page