A Dallas real-estate firm is ready to rescue the Huntwick Apartments on FM 1960 near Wunderlich Rd. from receivership — and also from its management, before that, by Louisiana real-estate investor Michael B. Smuck.
As of last year, just as it prepared to file for bankruptcy, Smuck’s Louisiana-based MBS Companies owned 65 apartment buildings in Texas — 33 of them in the Houston area. Even prior to that, the company’s property-maintenance skills had reached legendary status. The president and executive vice president of the Houston Apartment Association relayed complaints from residents and neighbors of MBS apartments to the Wall Street Journal last year, and reported that the griping had only increased after the influx of residents fleeing Hurricane Katrina in late 2005.
Here’s a commenter on the Houston Politics blog back in April (quoted in Swamplot), describing the scene at the 288-unit Huntwick:
Balconies have collapsed, lots of overgrown vegetation, the paint is peeling, there is obviously a total lack of maintenance. A large tree split in half on their property adjacent to Coral Gables Dr., and after the dead half lay on the ground (in plain view) for over 6 months, a crew finally cut it into smaller pieces, which then lay in the same spot for another 6 months.
After the jump: What’s happening to the Huntwick, plus the complete Michael B. Smuck Houston apartment roster!
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Read more about: 77069, Apartments, Buying and Selling, FM 1960, Foreclosures, Neighborhood Disputes, Real Estate Investing, Renovations
Shopping options reduced on N. Main. And a house falls on Forest. Take a quick gander at today’s short list, below:
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Read more about: Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
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Read more about: Notices
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“Look for crews next week to bring down the 14,000-square-foot building at 711 25th St. that most recently housed Galveston Medical Supplies. Businessman Mony Shlomo Hamo, known for island souvenir chain Dolphin World, said he plans to build a convenience store and a Phillips 66 gas station at the site.” [Galveston County Daily News]
Read more about: 77550, Demolitions, Galveston, Proposed Developments
Trammell Crow Residential and Morgan Stanley are ready to sell the 224-unit Alexan Lofts, the Second Ward apartments just northeast of Downtown on the site of the failed El Mercado del Sol. Multi-year historic tax credits on the property expire in September. [Globe St.]
Read more about: 77003, Apartments, Buying and Selling, Historic Preservation, Second Ward
It’s difficult to imagine anything more perfect for 21st-century coastal Texas than this: A 2.7-million-sq.-ft. self-contained year-round indoor ski resort on a 21-acre site . . . on the “outskirts” of Houston.
Some details on this proposed development are available on the website of S333, an architecture firm based in the Netherlands. The firm’s London office has worked hard to pack hotels, indoor water parks, “extensive recreation areas,” a parking garage, retail space, timeshare apartments, and five separate ski slopes into what appears in the company’s drawings to be an 18-story terrace-roofed megastructure.
Inside the building, the different ski slopes and play areas are arranged side by side to form a continuous landscape of snow surfaces. New advances in scenography, acoustics and building technologies will be employed to create the ultimate feeling of ‘still being outside’ on a mountain.
The external shape and form of the building continues the landscape theme that is established in the building’s interior. The rising geometry of the ski slopes is extended as a series of stepped terraces. These terraces accommodate on one side private apartments and gardens, and on the other more public amenities such as restaurant, pavillions, gardens, terraces and a central water park of pools and weirs. The water cascades down the roof and links with the water feature at the centre of the leisure complex. This iconic landscape will attract attention to the site, brand the location and help establish a dramatic back-drop to the lake and water-side retail facilities.
More details and drawings below:
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Read more about: Artificial Environments, Attractions, Proposed Developments
A short list of demos today. Don’t blink while you try to read it:
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Read more about: Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
If the city will cough up $4 million, developers will turn a former temporary UH dorm next to Fingers furniture on the north side of the Gulf Freeway into a 220-unit housing project for Houstonians who are currently homeless. Mayor White supports the Magnolia Glen project, but district councilman James Rodriguez and some residents of nearby Eastwood don’t like the location. “Former Councilman Gordon Quan, a member of the blue-ribbon commission, said . . . money helps determine where sites can be found. ‘People say, “Why don’t you put this in River Oaks or Memorial?” We couldn’t afford the land in River Oaks. But we are cognizant that these need to be spread around,’ he said.” [Houston Chronicle]
Read more about: 77003, 77023, Apartments, Eastwood, Homelessness, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Renovations, Temporary Housing
Group LSR, aka InnerLoopCondos.com, wants to build a new condo building in Montrose — and you get to play the stylist! What should the new development look like? Entry-arches-gone-crazy Apartment Romanesque? Inigo Jones’s Last Stand at the Alamo? Shangri-La Festival Palace Moderne? Mountainside Office Park Tinted-Glass Tech? Or something a little more home-ly, like that building with the curvy hairdos they’ve done a couple of versions of already?
Yeah, it’s kinda hard to choose, but don’t sweat it — you can vote for as many of the six choices (shown above) as you want! They’re all pictured (and yes, they’re the only options) in an online questionnaire sent out by the company earlier this month, apparently meant to gauge consumer interest in a development the company is planning on the 800 block of West Alabama, near Audubon Place. Yes, that includes the site of the recently shuttered Bistro Vino. As a commenter to our earlier story deduced, Group LSR is the mysterious “unnamed residential developer.”
The survey sez:
Our decision to develop this project will greatly depend upon the feedback we receive from Houston condominium buyers regarding the location. . . .
If you were in the market to purchase, please indicate what type of architecture would you prefer in your next condominium home?
Your theme choices matter!
Images: InnerLoopCondos.com
Read more about: 77006, Audubon Place, Condos, Montrose, Neartown, Proposed Developments, Theming
If it’s Tuesday, this must be the Neighborhood Guessing Game. Wanna play? Read the rules if you’re new to it . . . then dive on in with your guesses!
Where in Sam Houston is this place? When you’re ready to see more interior pics, see below!
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Read more about: Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game
A little commotion down by Greens Bayou . . . and a few crunchy final acts for an assortment of Houston-area homes. It’s all in our daily address list, below.
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Read more about: Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
There’s trouble in Sherwood Forest: Newman Branch, a stagnant finger of Buffalo Bayou that traipses between Little John and W. Friar Tuck Lanes, had fire hydrants running full force on Friday to flush out raw sewage that mysteriously appeared in the waterway, reports Allan Turner in the Chronicle:
Houston oilman Dewey Stringer, who lives near the point where the bayou passes Memorial, said similar pollution has periodically plagued the waterway for at least five years. Generally, however, heavy rainfall dilutes the contamination.
Stringer, who was among residents to report the pollution to authorities, said the odor was so severe that he and his wife found it difficult to sleep. He had planned to relocate to Galveston this weekend and commute to work.
Stringer said he has developed eye irritation from vapors rising from the bayou and both he and his wife have developed persistent coughs.
Read more about: 77024, Buffalo Bayou, Hazards, Memorial, Pollution, Sherwood Forest, Sludge, Toxic Sites
The contested case hearing for the proposed expansion of the Blue Ridge Landfill on the western edge of Shadow Creek Ranch has been postponed — to October or November at the earliest — reports Natalie Torentinos in the Journal of Pearland. But the the buzzards are already circling:
Like passing dark clouds, incomparable and scary odors have traveled through Jamie Lee’s neighborhood in Shadow Creek Ranch, the smell seeping through the garage, laundry, even the water faucet. “This morning at 8 a.m. I left to take my daughters to school, and I could barely breathe outside,” Lee said. “It was nauseating.” . . .
Additional issues are geology and drainage –regarding contaminated groundwater and increased flooding, respectively. The landfill is attracting scavenger animals such as vultures, seagulls and rodents. [Attorney Richard] Morrison showed pictures taken of buzzards perching on the roofs of several homes, located in Green Valley Estates north of the landfill.
Allied Waste wants its pile of trash to expand to 784 acres and reach a height of 170 feet. Current restrictions limit the landfill to 302 acres and 60 feet.
Photo of Shadow Creek Ranch: Flickr user Sean Brady [license]
Read more about: 77584, Fort Bend County, Fresno, Hazards, Landfills, Pearland, Shadow-Creek-Ranch, Toxic Sites
A groundbreaking ceremony was held Saturday for a $4.5 million yoga center on 60 acres in Rosenberg. Yoga guru Swami Ramdev announced the project on Wednesday during a 4-day-long yoga camp at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
The Press Trust of India reports that $4 million has already been raised for the project, including $2 million in 2 hours at a fundraiser held in Houston on July 18th:
The project includes a clinic to treat chronic ailments, housing for active seniors and retirees; a herbal garden, retreat centre, vedic Gurukul school for young children and a University.
Two people involved with the project said the center will open early next year.
Photo of Swami Ramdev yoga camp at George R. Brown: Keith Plocek, Houston Press
Read more about: 77469, 77471, Institutional Buildings, Proposed Developments, Rosenberg
