TAKARA SO AND BEYOND: MORE OF ALLEN STANFORD’S HOUSTON REAL ESTATE VENTURES Long before the Stanford Lofts debacle, Guardian International Investment Services — Allen Stanford’s former real-estate company — bought and sold or developed a number of Houston properties. Nancy Sarnoff follows the trail: “The properties include the 77-unit Takara So at 1919 W. Main and the 66-unit Severne at 7650 Moonmist. They were later sold, according to records from the Harris County Appraisal District. In 1989, Stanford built the patio home project [on Mimosa Drive, just east of Kirby and south of San Felipe], which he named Stanford Oaks, and hired [Martha] Turner’s company as the exclusive marketing agent to sell the homes. They started at about $400,000. Turner said the company didn’t have to borrow money to get it built. ‘They had their own money. They were financing their own stuff,’ she said. A couple years later, Guardian started a new enclave of homes called Le
 Voisinage on Bammel Lane south of West Alabama.” [Houston Chronicle]