October 7, 2009 – 4:57 pm
A reader reports that the long-shuttered and fallow former Target store on the northbound 59 feeder just north of Bellaire Blvd. (and across the freeway from the Sharpstown Mall) will finally be used for something productive — though it’s “probably not the kind of use the Greater Sharpstown Management District had in mind.” What’s that?
The new owner, Golden Sharpstown Inc, is reportedly in the process of turning the 160,000 square foot building into the new home of Texas Jasmine, “the leading wholesaler for C-Store Owners.” (That’s Convenience Store, for the uninitiated.) Texas Jasmine is out of space at their old location [at 7800 Harwin near Fondren, pictured above], and does a thriving business supplying gas stations and convenience stores throughout Houston with everything from dill pickles-in-a-bag to pipe tobacco.
Well, who doesn’t need a dill pickle in a bag now and then? How convenient for the convenience-store owners, no?
Sure, says our tipster, but:
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Read more about: 77074, Convenience Stores, Leasing, Retail, Sharpstown, Vacant Buildings
October 2, 2009 – 3:50 pm
Swamplot reader ms. rosa reports on tonight’s scheduled demolition of the 1906 Savoy Apartments building (later the Savoy-Field Hotel) at Main St. and Pease Downtown: “Just spoke with Cherry [Demolition]. They will start tearing down the building tonight (Friday, October 2, 2009) at 7:00pm. It will not be imploded (as hoped!)” [Swamplot; previously]
Read more about: 77002, Apartments, Demolitions, Downtown, Environmental, Hazards, Vacant Buildings
September 24, 2009 – 11:17 am
City officials have decided to give the owner of the original 1906 Savoy Apartments building on Main St. Downtown an extra week to knock down the structure before going ahead with their own emergency demolition plan. The building’s owner — listed in Harris County records as Michael Nassif — will now have until midnight next Friday, October 2nd, to have a contractor of his own choice begin dismantling the structure. If that doesn’t happen, the city-selected contractor will complete the demo that weekend — and leave the property with a lien for the $448,600 cost.
While negotiations have focused on how quickly work can begin, residents of the Beaconsfield across Pease St. may be more interested in how long the demo will take — and how it will be done. Architect David Hall, who has studied the building for several developers, spoke to abc13 reporter Gene Apodaca about the asbestos embedded in the building’s crumbling interior plaster:
“It’s full of environmental issues. There are pathogens that are a result of the pigeon droppings, there are areas of the building I measured where pigeon droppings were six inches thick,” said Hall.
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Read more about: 77002, Apartments, Demolitions, Downtown, Environmental, Hazards, Vacant Buildings
September 18, 2009 – 5:50 pm
Houston’s first-ever highrise apartment building will be demolished next Friday, September 25th, a spokesman for the Houston Police Department announced today. Neighborhood Protection inspectors have determined that structural problems with the vacant-and-crumbling 1906 Savoy Apartments building (later the Savoy Hotel) require it to be taken down as quickly as possible. The Houston Press’s Craig Malisow reports:
[HPD's Mark Curran] said the police have had difficulty contacting the owner, who is currently in Lebanon. (Curran didn’t remember his name off-hand, but a 2007 Press story identified him as Michael Nassif). The owner has 10 days to file an appeal, Curran said.
The nearby Metro line will need to be closed during the demolition – hopefully not longer than Friday-Sunday, Curran said.
Curran also said that the building would be guarded continuously until it is torn down.
The original Savoy Houston’s first public building to have electricity. Not included in the demolition order: the building next door with the big Savoy Houston sign on top. After that portion was built in 1961, the entire complex was operated as the Savoy-Field Hotel.
Photo of 1906 Savoy Apartments, in front of 1961 Savoy-Field Hotel: Flickr user oooch2
Read more about: 77002, Apartments, Demolitions, Downtown, Houston History, Vacant Buildings
“A group of doctors and entrepreneurs” calling itself New Era Hospitality is the mystery buyer of the long-abandoned 31-story former Days Inn-former Holiday Inn-former Heaven on Earth Plaza Hotel on St. Joseph Parkway between Travis and Milam, reports Nancy Sarnoff in the Chronicle:
. . . demolition has already started on the interiors, which are being gutted and will be replaced with 340 modern suites, 60 standard guest rooms, 32,000 square feet of meeting space and a swimming pool and bar on top of the attached garage.
That’s down from 600 rooms in the original structure. New Era is hoping either Sheraton, Marriott, or . . . Holiday Inn (again!) will operate the property when it’s finished, in January 2010.
Photo: arch-ive.org
Read more about: 77002, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Downtown, Hotels, Renovations, Vacant Buildings
A reader points us to the latest rumor swirling around HAIF: The long-vacant, 31-story shuttered hotel on St. Joseph Pkwy. between Travis and Milam downtown finally sold . . . 3 weeks ago! To . . . somebody!
The hotel was built in 1971 as a Holiday Inn and later converted to a Days Inn. In 1992 an organization affiliated with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (yes, the one the Beatles consulted) purchased the by-then-rather-shabby structure for $2 million and renamed it the “Heaven on Earth Plaza Hotel.” The irony was not lost on city officials, who shut the building down in 1998; it’s remained (at least officially) vacant since.
If news of a sale sounds familiar, it should be. As Houston Press reporter Craig Malisow wrote last year in a feature on the Holiday Inn and two other vacant properties downtown, the hotel sold in 2004:
The Maharishi people sold it for $8.5 million to a group of investors that included a Colorado Springs outfit called LandCo. Michael Raider, a Houston native who works for LandCo, told the Houston Business Journal in 2005 that the property would be slated for apartments or condos.
Another LandCo guy, Don Nicholas, told the Houston Chronicle in 2004: “An ugly duckling downtown will become a swan.”
Unfortunately, the swan kicked the bucket when the investors defaulted on the $8.5 mill, and the hotel went back to the yogis.
Better luck this time?
Photo: arch-ive.org
Read more about: 77002, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Hazards, Hotels, Vacant Buildings
