Swamplot Archives by Tag: Wilshire Village

Monday, January 25, 2010

Tying White Ribbons ’Round the Doomed Oak Trees: Is H-E-B Coming to Wilshire Village?

January 25, 2010 – 7:43 am

The trees remaining on the site of the former Wilshire Village Apartments at the corner of West Alabama and Dunlavy are sporting some colorful new tags as of late last week, reports a nearby resident:

All the trees have ribbons around them. Trees along Alabama have green ribbons. All the other trees (on about 3/4 of the property) have white ribbons. Exception: green ribbons for 2 live oak trees that flank the old property entrance at Sul Ross. If white ribbons mean TEAR DOWN, then the property will be virtually denuded.

Of course white ribbons don’t mean TEAR DOWN. They mean SURRENDER.

And then there’s the new rumor our informant just heard and is passing along:

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7:43 am | 16 Comments | Read more about Landscape, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place, Trees
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Thursday, November 5, 2009

Dilick: Pay No Attention to Chapter 11

November 5, 2009 – 12:23 pm
   

A well-timed bankruptcy filing earlier this week by the entity that owns Wilshire Village did in fact prevent the almost-8-acre vacated property at West Alabama and Dunlavy from foreclosure: “Matt Dilick, whose name is listed on the Secretary of State’s web site under registered agent for Alabama & Dunlavy Ltd., said his role is that of development manager. His company, Commerce Equities, ‘is proceeding with its development plans on the property and continues to market the property,’ Dilick said. He recently told me that the property was being offered for sale, but there was a chance he’d still build something on the land.” [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]

12:23 pm | 1 Comment | Read more about Bankruptcies, Foreclosures, Land for Sale, Neighborhood Disputes, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place, Quicklink
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Friday, October 30, 2009

Inside the Dilick Pickle: Those Trustee Sale Documents for Wilshire Village

October 30, 2009 – 2:52 pm

By popular demand — and in hopes that even more exciting or sordid detail might be gleaned from the legalese therein — we’re making available the trustee’s sale notices for Wilshire Village that were sent to Swamplot yesterday. The notices describe the foreclosure peril faced by Alabama & Dunlavy Ltd., the limited partnership apparently controlled by Matthew Dilick of Commerce Equities. That partnership owns the 7.68-acre now-vacant property at the corner of West Alabama and Dunlavy.

Here they are:

Think there’s more — or less — to these documents than meets the eye? Find any clues, factoids, or muck hidden between the lines? Think any of it helps explain the bizarre sequence of events that’s taken place at Wilshire Village over the last few years? Let us know!

Photo of Sign at Wilshire Village, 1701 West Alabama St.: Swamplot inbox

2:52 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Financing, Foreclosures, Land for Sale, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place
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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Comment of the Day: Sweet Ass Wilshire Village Park

October 29, 2009 – 5:36 pm
   

“Some quick math… 7.68 acres = 334,541 SF. Amegy loan = $10,742,000 = 32.11 PSF. Wedge loan = $3,000,000 = 8.97 PSF. Total loans = $41.08 PSF. It seems to me that the dirt should be worth a lot more than $41 PSF. . . . Amegy doesn’t appear to have a lot of risk of loss in the deal. . . . It’s clear they’ve decided to force the owners hand rather than sit back and let the owners try to sell for max $$$, which ain’t easy in this market. A BK by the owner will only delay the process for so long. Amegy obviously wants their cash back. Even without a foreclosure, it seems that this parcel is going to trade hands soon. Somebody needs to round up some cash real quick and buy this prime piece of dirt and turn it [into a] sweet ass park.” [Bernard, commenting on Surprise! Wilshire Village Facing Foreclosure]

5:36 pm | 6 Comments | Read more about Comments, Financing, Foreclosures, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place, Parks, Quicklink
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Surprise! Wilshire Village Facing Foreclosure

October 29, 2009 – 1:34 pm

The Wilshire Village soap opera continues: A source sends Swamplot two trustee’s sale notices for the now-demolished 7.68-acre apartment complex at the corner of W. Alabama and Dunlavy.

How deep into it is the owner? There’s a first lien of $10,742,000 to Amegy Bank, now “wholly due and payable”! That lien dates from January 31, 2006 — the same date, according to HCAD, that the owner, a limited partnership named Alabama & Dunlavy Ltd., took over the property.

The second notice documents problems with Alabama & Dunlavy Ltd.’s separate mezzanine financing with Wedge Real Estate, in the amount of $3 million. That separate promissory note appears to date from May 30th of 2008. Both trustee’s sale notices are dated earlier this month.

Our source comments:

It is rather interesting that Wedge Holdings is the mezz lender, with Wedge being Mayor Bill White’s former company. I feel certain that Matt [Dilick] will avert foreclosure by filing bankruptcy, if he has not already done so.

Oh but if if if foreclosure somehow isn’t averted, where and when might eager Swamplotters be able to snap up this fine scraped property?

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1:34 pm | 19 Comments | Read more about Demolitions, Development Strategies, Financing, Foreclosures, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place
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Monday, October 26, 2009

Dilick: How About We Throw Up Some Townhomes Where Wilshire Village Was?

October 26, 2009 – 1:42 pm

The purported owner of the Wilshire Village complex at the corner of West Alabama and Dunlavy, who managed to stay out of the media spotlight while the 69-year-old 8-acre complex was emptied and then torn down after a sequence of peculiar events earlier this year, appears at the end of Nancy Sarnoff’s phone line to make a few pronouncements about the property.

First, that big Commerce Equities sign on the property that says “Available”? Well, here’s what it really means:

“We would consider an outright sale if the appropriate user was identified,” owner Matt Dilick of Commerce Equities said.

That’s right: Dilick might wanna do a little creatin’ there himself!

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1:42 pm | 3 Comments | Read more about Development Strategies, Neighborhood Disputes, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Townhomes
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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Comment of the Day: Wilshire Village Logic

September 16, 2009 – 2:18 pm
   

“I am really amazed at this debate. The principle is very simple. The land is too valuable for the revenue generating capacity of existing structures. You can’t rent those spaces for enough money, no matter how you remodel. This is definately a high density project and could be high-rise site in a better market, where are you going to find north of 7 acres in an area like this? The Fiesta across the street is in the Cohen family, so that could be in play. The Cohen family is surrounded by real estate guys. The real shame here, is that you have complicated personalities that probably prevented any new construction during a time in which it would have been viable, so now they are trying to market a property in a climate that almost no one can get financing that would make a deal work. A new project would have provided comfortable living space in a convenient and desirable location, with maybe even a mixed use component. You tear down 40+ year old properties, that have a great deal of deferred maintanence, for marketing purposes, and now they can showcase those beautiful magnolia trees, which I hope they can preserve as many as possible, but it has to make economic sense. I am sure that if someone will make a fair market value offer, and they are a credible buyer, they would sell. Death to rumors. The dirt could be as much as $100 a foot, if you turned back the clock 2 years. It is special so may still demand it.” [Alexander, commenting on All Cleaned Up and Ready for Sale: What Can We Get for Wilshire Village?]

2:18 pm | 12 Comments | Read more about Buying and Selling, Comments, Commercial Real Estate, Land Sales, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place, Quicklink
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Monday, September 14, 2009

All Cleaned Up and Ready for Sale: What Can We Get for Wilshire Village?

September 14, 2009 – 1:13 pm

Here’s a view of the new sign up at the now-scrubbed site of the former Wilshire Village Apartments at the corner of West Alabama and Dunlavy. It’s . . . for sale! Apparently, all that demolition work was just for staging.

Can we get a closeup on that sign?

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1:13 pm | 45 Comments | Read more about Demolitions, Land for Sale, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place, Real Estate Marketing
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Monday, August 31, 2009

Comment of the Day: Cue the Wilshire Village Sale and Redevelopment Rumors

August 31, 2009 – 2:45 pm
   

“I heard (not joking) that KB homes (I think, or another home builder) was looking at this site for a new style of very small and relatively inexpensive 1,000 sf-ish single family hyomes on very small lots. The [target] pricepoint was about $150k I believe.” [Charlie, commenting on Boyd’s Wilshire Village Prayer, with Photos]

2:45 pm | 35 Comments | Read more about Comments, Home Design, Homebuilders, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place, Quicklink, Redevelopment
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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Boyd’s Wilshire Village Prayer, with Photos

August 26, 2009 – 1:25 pm

From Robert Boyd’s blog, Wha’ Happen?:

Wilshire Village is officially no more. . . .

I am interested in what happens next. Certainly something new will be built there, but in today’s economic environment, getting loans for development is hard. So it may sit for a while. But I will be watching and taking photos whenever I notice a change in status.

Here’s what I hope. I hope that the new development there, whatever it is, is a reasonably high density development, like the one it replaces. I hope that the new development preserves the beautiful trees on the site.

I hope the new development is people-oriented and community-oriented. I hope that it engages the street and is pedestrian-friendly. I hope that it is architecturally interesting. I hope it has no fake stucco, no faux-Tuscan features. I hope it has no turrets or oversized, penis-shaped entryways. I hope it doesn’t have big garages that face the streets.

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1:25 pm | 33 Comments | Read more about Demolitions, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place, Redevelopment
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Friday, August 21, 2009

The Wilshire Village Apartments, All Gone

August 21, 2009 – 6:48 pm
   

The demolition of the Wilshire Village Apartments across from the Fiesta Market on Dunlavy is now pretty much complete, readers tell Swamplot. The last buildings to come down were the ones on West Alabama. “The smell of crushed, still-good lumber was very sharp, and very poignant,” writes one correspondent who drove by late yesterday. Reader OkieEric comments: “The good news is that most of the trees are still there.” [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot]

6:48 pm | 6 Comments | Read more about Demolitions, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place, Quicklink
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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

At Home in Houston’s Wilshire Village Apartments, Back in the Day

August 4, 2009 – 4:24 pm

Note: Updated below.

So tell me, whatever happened to . . . those Wilshire Village Apartments? Houston photographer Sarah Lipscomb stumbled across a couple of classic interior shots of the then-new apartment complex while poking through old photos a few months ago with her aunt, Johnna Lee Muller.

Writes Lipscomb:

They didn’t have internet in those days but they got to smoke, read magazines and look at globes.

Another view of home entertainment in the early 1940s, Wilshire Village-style:

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4:24 pm | 21 Comments | Read more about Apartments, Demolitions, Home Decor, Houston History, Interiors, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place
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Monday, August 3, 2009

Scenes from a Demolition: Wilshire Village on the Outs

August 3, 2009 – 3:35 pm

A few of the Wilshire Village apartment buildings have been leveled already. A Swamplot reader sends in a few photos from the scene near the corner of Dunlavy and West Alabama, taken this weekend and earlier today:

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3:35 pm | 10 Comments | Read more about Apartments, Demolitions, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place
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Friday, July 31, 2009

It’s Sure Looking Like Demolition at Wilshire Village Now

July 31, 2009 – 1:47 pm

The West University Examiner’s Mike Reed reports that portions of the brick walls of at least two buildings on the 8-acre site of the Wilshire Village Apartments at Dunlavy and West Alabama have been hauled away. (Yes, Swamplot commenter OkieEric made similar observations earlier this week.)

And then there’s that sign that’s gone up on Dunlavy, which kinda takes all the guesswork out of it.

Photo of Wilshire Village Apartments: Mike Reed, West University Examiner

1:47 pm | 11 Comments | Read more about Apartments, Demolitions, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place
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Monday, July 27, 2009

Comment of the Day: The Trees of Wilshire Village

July 27, 2009 – 2:09 pm
   

“Actually, it seems that efforts *may* be taken to spare at least some of the trees on the Wilshire Village property. From my vantage point across the street, I can see orange plastic fencing surrounding a number of trees…I can also see at least two bulldozers on the property, as well as a lot of broken-up pavement in the parking lots behind the apartments. I fear that the end is near and that I am soon bidding farewell to an old friend–but if we *do* see some of trees spared, that is at least some solace.” [M. Martin, commenting on Wilshire Village Apartments: Actual Tenants Actually Being Evicted]

2:09 pm | 5 Comments | Read more about Comments, Demolitions, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place, Quicklink, Trees
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