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The Langley: Residential High-Rise At 1717 Bissonnet St.


musicman

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  • 5 months later...

Slightly off topic, though something I think is interesting...

 

While viewing the site on google's most recent street view, the smoke from Axis apartment fire last March can be seen from Ashby street. 

 

the street name, ASHby, coupled with the smoke in street view and the angry NIMBYs is a pretty ominous sign.  

 

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  • 5 months later...

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Ashby-casts-long-shadow-over-Houston-land-use-7213635.php

The Houston developers have said construction of the tower will not be affected by the appeals process. They plan to move forward. Construction costs have risen during the course of the legal proceedings and the developers need to find a new contractor before they break ground, said Fred Cook, an attorney for the developers.

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  • 3 months later...
Quote

TEXAS’S FOURTEENTH Court of Appeals overturned part of the 2014 decision on the Ashby Highrise case yesterday, declaring that no, the developers of 1717 Bissonnet don’t have to pay the tower’s would-be neighbors $1.2 million as compensation for property value losses. Nor are the highrise planners on the hook for all those legal fees incurred by the various stages of the case — those were handed back to the homeowners as well, along with all costs incurred by the appeal.

http://swamplot.com/ashby-highrise-appeal-judgment-no-payment-for-damages-by-an-unbuilt-project/2016-07-01/

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Friends were discussing this over lunch today, and someone has read and heard a couple of folks saying this latest court ruling was a victory for the homeowners.  It was a huge loss.  One person knows the developers, and their partner is so rich, it could afford to buy every home in the subdivision at 150% of value, ie, uber rich.  All the delay has done is change the numbers upward, including the prices people will pay to the developers for a first class highrise.  The homeowners seem to be affluent who seem to see themselves as either 'special' (entitled) OR victims who chose to make a very ill-advised decision to fight this in the City of Houston, where they never really had a chance (despite one lower court victory) to win this fight.  Until huge changes in the law occur (and the City Planning Department), and not just favorable comments from one or a few city politicians, nobody could have won this fight in the Capital of Private Property rights.  Sad war, and yet I feel badly for the ill-advised plaintiffs.  The defendants will roll when they see a timeline to their now well-deserved profits.

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  • 2 weeks later...

If you haven't heard yet, Nancy and Erin have a new real estate podcast. It has been good so far. Check out the tweet below!!!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Looped In podcast listeners: We&#39;re talking to the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ashbyhighrise?src=hash">#Ashbyhighrise</a> developers tomorrow. Got any questions for them? <a href="https://t.co/AU9I3elV8b">https://t.co/AU9I3elV8b</a></p>&mdash; Nancy Sarnoff (@nsarnoff) <a href="https://twitter.com/nsarnoff/status/753706438665482241">July 14, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I don't know how to embed a tweet, so here's Nancy's tweet today:

 

Looped In podcast listeners: We're talking to the #Ashbyhighrise developers tomorrow. Got any questions for them?

Edited by lockmat
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  • 1 month later...
1 hour ago, samagon said:

still wish that the owner had decided to build low income housing instead.

 

All of the problems with the Ashby highrise would have been exacerbated with low income housing - and the developers wouldn't have the promise of a huge pay day at the end to keep fighting for it.  It would have just resulted in demolition of the old apartment complex, and a perpetually vacant lot

 

Low income housing is for sure needed, but I don't think it realistically would ever have been made here.

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1 hour ago, cspwal said:

 

All of the problems with the Ashby highrise would have been exacerbated with low income housing - and the developers wouldn't have the promise of a huge pay day at the end to keep fighting for it.  It would have just resulted in demolition of the old apartment complex, and a perpetually vacant lot

 

Low income housing is for sure needed, but I don't think it realistically would ever have been made here.

The way to make cash would've been to not shoot for the moon before the recession hit, build a bunch of 3-story townhomes here, cash out.

On the homeowners end, the smart way would be to avoid expensive lawsuits ongoing, just enough to hold off construction to get a special zoning rule for their neighborhood pushed through the city and forced the developers to abandon the project.

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20 hours ago, cspwal said:

 

All of the problems with the Ashby highrise would have been exacerbated with low income housing - and the developers wouldn't have the promise of a huge pay day at the end to keep fighting for it.  It would have just resulted in demolition of the old apartment complex, and a perpetually vacant lot

 

Low income housing is for sure needed, but I don't think it realistically would ever have been made here.

 

there's lots of government grants they could have received, and building something on the scale of the apartments they removed would have been impossible to block, if it's pretty much exactly what was removed.

 

sure, it wouldn't have been the biggest payday, but I'm not concerned about the developer making money. I'm thinking about how awesome it would have been to watch from the sidelines.

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  • 11 months later...

Once again there was a crew on site this morning.  Perhaps their annual "dig up some dirt and then leave for a year" exercise?

 

They had an excavator and several trucks and had already dug up some piles of dirt.  This is the same corner where they were working a year ago, but a much bigger operation than last time.

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1 hour ago, rechlin said:

Perhaps their annual "dig up some dirt and then leave for a year" exercise?

 

Haha, the developer waits just long enough that the neighborhood calms down and thinks the project is dead, then sends out a random construction crew to play mind games and increase the anxiety of the homeowners..

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On 5/24/2014 at 4:54 PM, Triton said:

Great article on Houston history and the Ashby highrise:

 

 

 

http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/ashby-high-rise-lawsuit-houston-developers-sprawl

 

HoustonAshby_920_680.png

 

There might be a newer rendering, but 2014 seems recent enough for it to be relavant

This doesn't seem that much taller than the high rises that have gone up since in the area

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  • 1 year later...

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