[lilyheights]

I just read this on the Home in the Heights section of the chron. The meeting is tonight:

November 06, 2006
Ashland meeting tonight

Just over nine months ago, the historic Victorian building of the Ashland Tea House at the corner of Ashland and West 19th, was demolished by a retaurant developed who said he intended to build a new restaurant on the site "with a Victorian theme." (You can see that story here.)

However, according to an e-mail from Houston Heights Association Land Use Committee chair Janice Evans-Davis, the development group behind that questionable effort has disbanded and the ``funding source'' has hired architect and Woodland Heights resident Tim Cisneros to do a feasibility study and conceptual designs for a condominium project on the site.

Cisneros will present those ides to the Land Use Committee at its meeting tonight (Monday) at 6:30 p.m. at the Heights Fire Station, 107 West 12th at Yale.

According to Evans-Davis, it would be a loft-style development, much like one Cisneros is currently designing in Galveston (maybe this one?). Evans-Davis said preliminary plans call for incorporating some retail space on the first floor along Ashland Street. There would be four or five stories with balconies and terraces facing both 18th and Ashland.

Evans-Davis noted that unlike the group behind the demolition of the Tea House, Cisneros wants to be open about the future plans for the site and personally asked to present the project to the Land Use Committee in order to ``gain ideas.''

Monday's meeting will also include brief updates on the historic district effort, proposed changes to the historic ordinance and proposed changes in the lot size/building line ordinances, all of which could be sent to city council before year's end.

For more information, e-mail Evans-Davis at landuse@houstonheights.org.

[TheNiche]

Malvoe, on Wednesday, November 8th, 2006 @ 9:16am, said:

Awesome. More condos. This is soooooo much better than having a nice, new restaurant. All the people in the heights who complained enough to get those plans scrapped have won a huge victory for condo developers everywhere

Think of it this way: more people get to enjoy living in your delightful neighborhood. You do care about people other than yourself, right?

[sevfiv]

i think the point was that since the house was demolished (and can't be undone) a restaurant might have been more favorable for the community than some crummy condos...

[west20th]

sevfiv, on Wednesday, November 8th, 2006 @ 11:47am, said:

i think the point was that since the house was demolished (and can't be undone) a restaurant might have been more favorable for the community than some crummy condos...

Dont know about that. Apartments with retail on the ground floor sounds pretty good.

[sevfiv]

west20th, on Wednesday, November 8th, 2006 @ 3:06pm, said:

Dont know about that. Apartments with retail on the ground floor sounds pretty good.

perhaps - i was just guessing from the tone of the previous post

[TheNiche]

Malvoe, on Wednesday, November 8th, 2006 @ 4:32pm, said:

This:
is a ridiculous comment. There are plenty of condo's/appartments/houses in the Heights. There are not plenty of non-Mexican nice restaurants. I happen to think it is hilarious that people totally freaked out about putting in that restaurant, and now they get condos there instead. I'm not at all surprised - I figured we would get something less desireable when the restaurant backed out. I AM happy it won't be another bank, CVS, or stgrip mall. And yes, it is a good sign that the developer is at least saying he will work with the community, so I hope they turn out nice. Still, a restaurant would have been MUCH nicer.

Oh, bull. You've got plenty of good restaurants with reasonably-priced fare. Housing prices seem to indicate that there is more demand than can be supplied, however.

I'll readily admit that a restaurant would be more desirable to current residents, but from the larger perspective, it seems like condos are the better use.

[heights_yankee]

danax, on Wednesday, November 8th, 2006 @ 6:08pm, said:

I don't think they opposed a restaurant but rather the tearing down of the historic house. I'm sure if they had turned the house into a restaurant the place would've been accepted.

The development group misjudged the neighborhood, it seems.

That is exactly what it was. No one was upset about a restaurant, especially a nice one a la Shade or Glasswall. It got nasty when people awoke one morning to find a historic structure demolished and a piece of Heights history was gone. The backlash was against the demolition, not the restuarant.

While I admit that condos are not my top pick for the spot retail on the bottom will be really nice, and I am glad that the residents sent a message to the development community that the Heights takes its history seriously. Whether we like what goes in the space or not, I think it was an important eye opener for developers (and part of why they are soliciting community involvement now).

This post has been edited by heights_yankee: Wednesday, November 8, 2006 at 8:41 PM

[lilyheights]

Before we beat ourselves up about speaking out: Are we sure that our grumblings were the root cause of the restaurant losing funding?

I'm sure there were other factors.

The report that it was Heights residents' fault comes from the person who tore down an historic building stating there was no other, better way to go about doing so.

I'm not saying he's being dishonest, but he did seem to oversimplify things the last time around. Is this loss of funding correlation another over simplification for why the project lost funding?

Maybe it was too lucrative to sell the property now that it was free of its historic nature...I bet the real picture has a lot more factors that lead to the decision to sell the property.

[dbigtex56]

Malvoe, on Thursday, November 9th, 2006 @ 7:45am, said:

Uh, housing costs in the Heights are relatively low, compared to the rest of the city and the rest of the country.
Uh, no. You might want to scan the HAR listings or the Sunday real estate ads before making such a bold statement. One would be hard pressed to find a property in the Heights under $200k, well above average home prices locally or nationally. And much of the desirability of the Heights comes from its historic character.

I realize the big hubbub was over the demolition of the old Ashland Tea House. It was the unreasonable behavior (IMHO) afterwards, when it was a done deal, that led to us getting condos instead of a restaurant. If people want to consider it some sort of moral victory, then that is their perogative. However, in 1 year or so, no one is going to remember the Ashland Tea House, and in that spot there will be yet another building full of generic, out of place, condos, rather than what could have been a decent restaurant.

Kindly do not tell me what I will or will not remember. Some of us are not that shallow. It's only by remembering the mistakes of the past that we can hope to avoid making the same ones in the future. If it wasn't for the activism of some Heights residents, it could have become another townhome hell, like Montrose. I applaud them for their efforts to preserve those qualities which makes the Heights such an attractive neighborhood. And where do you come up with this 'generic condos' stuff? It appears that the (new) developer of this property is showing some of the sensitivity so sorely lacking in the previous one. It appears that their "unreasonable behavior" has paid off.

[luvtheheights]

Malvoe, on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 @ 2:03pm, said:

After reading many anti-condo rants on this website, I think some of you are being more than a little disingenuous.

"And much of the desirability of the Heights comes from its historic character." Agreed, which is why I find it baffling that some of you are defending condos.

"it could have become another townhome hell, like Montrose"

And yet you are advocating new condos. Which are better that townhomes....how?

I forget where I saw an artist rendering of what the condos will look like, but when i saw them I thought that they would look good in midtown, not The Heights. Everyone is happy because the developer consulted with the hood, that's great and all, but are we to the point where we are happy with condos simply because somebody asked what we thought

[Double L]

I really like how they consulted with the land use committee to make sure that they liked the plans.

[lockmat]

Editor needs a new algorithm for the search engine, cuz it sucks. Merge or delete if a dup.

Anyway, I just saw this on the chron dot com:

http://chron.com/dis...ws/4881172.html

Quote

The project to build condominiums on the site of the prior Ashland Tea House at 1801 Ashland at 18th Street in the Heights has been expanded.

In addition to a 40-unit condominium building, the project now includes 40 town homes and garden villas on various plots of land near the site, according to architect Tim Cisneros of Cisneros Design Studio, who is drawing the plans for development company Regan and Reiley of Montgomery.

This post has been edited by lockmat: Friday, June 15, 2007 at 5:18 PM

[musicman]

hit search >search in titles only > put in ashland.

[lockmat]

musicman, on Friday, June 15th, 2007 @ 4:22pm, said:

hit search >search in titles only > put in ashland.

I usually do that but was too lazy this time. My bad.

This post has been edited by lockmat: Monday, January 28, 2008 at 4:06 PM

[Subdude]

lockmat, on Friday, June 15th, 2007 @ 5:18pm, said:

Merge or delete if a dup.

Anyway, I just saw this on the chron dot com:

http://chron.com/dis...ws/4881172.html

I went ahead and merged it.

[Porchman]

I hope this is the right thread. At one point, we seemed to have a bunch going on this.



I was starting to wonder if this project was a go. They haven't done much at the lot yet, save a little scraping of old asphalt. They are in sales mode now. They have a sales trailer on W. 18 (behind Heights Assembly of God)


HAR shows listings ranging from

about $450k on the high end

to about $170k on the low end.

[lwood]

Porchman, on Monday, January 28th, 2008 @ 10:25am, said:

I hope this is the right thread. At one point, we seemed to have a bunch going on this.



I was starting to wonder if this project was a go. They haven't done much at the lot yet, save a little scraping of old asphalt. They are in sales mode now. They have a sales trailer on W. 18 (behind Heights Assembly of God)


HAR shows listings ranging from

about $450k on the high end

to about $170k on the low end.

I went by their sales office yesterday. The builder is Garrett and Austen. I was told they are in the Montgomery/Conroe area. The first phase is for 40 units. Phase two is 80 units and the third phase is for 120 units. I could not get an answer to the question of which land they currently own. A two bedroom unit with about 1,100 sq. ft. is priced at $292,000. I understand that more details will be posted on the HAR listings this week.

[lockmat]

http://www.heightsesplanade.com/

http://swamplot.com/heights-esplanade-i-no...1-28/#more-1086

google map: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=U...p;z=18&om=0

live map: http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&...5&encType=1

Anyone know what corner it's on?

This post has been edited by lockmat: Monday, January 28, 2008 at 4:20 PM

[musicman]

lockmat, on Monday, January 28th, 2008 @ 3:13pm, said:

Anyone know what corner it's on?

read the info you posted. it might help.

[lockmat]

The developers website says the corner of 17th and Ashland, but there are four of them. And I don't know where the tea house is/was.

[Porchman]

lockmat, on Monday, January 28th, 2008 @ 4:35pm, said:

The developers website says the corner of 17th and Ashland, but there are four of them. And I don't know where the tea house is/was.

It's on the NW corner of 18th and Ashland.



The sales trailer is on the south side of 18th, which makes me wonder if they have not also procured property on that side, as well. I would think they woould have to if they're going to add more units in future phases per lwood's post.

[Porchman]

This appears to be officially dead. The land is for sale.

Nearby, Cushman Wakefield is reppping the sale of the HISD property on the east side of Ashland between W16 and W17.