lwood

It's in the Heights (bad sign), is a Cajun place that serves wine, is planning on hosting cooking lessons, offers "Pan-Asian" catering services, and will host a special Easter brunch; therefore it is most likely tainted by The Great White Culinary Plague, a voracious strain of suckage that affects WASPy communities in denial of their cultural identity and that lack taste buds.

"Our attitude toward life determines life's attitude towards us.” ~ John N. Mitchell

wow condos already? will be interesting to see what happens to the businesses there longterm.

I am bringing an old topic to life. Does anyone live at Rise or have current knowledge of the building? Any comments on Rise are appreciated.

Your story changes more than my hypercolor shirt did in 1987.

Enjoy living next to walmart, I'll enjoy shopping there.

Dale Carnegie.

Hey Niche, back up a bit. Perhaps you ought to take a look in to the indoctrination mirror, especially from the "douchey" angle. Not everyone who lives in the Heights is a low-earning Mexican. There are quite a few high-earning Mexicans, as well as low-earning families from all the other categories you seem to be preinclined to reference, living in the Heights. Citing a stereotypical image of several generations of a Mexican family being packed in to a car is, dare I say it, douchey? Can I be just as tired of packing several generations of my anglo family in to a car to drive basically the same distance as the closest Wal-Mart to hit an H-E-B?

IMHO H-E-B has better quality products, wider selection, better customer service, and much better employee morale (due to Charles Butt actually caring about his employees)than Wal-Mart. H-E-B is a better neighbor than Wal-Mart. They care much more about the local community. Check out what they invest annually back in to the communities, not to mention their support of public schools. Don't believe me? Then you try to help out your local public school's annual Fall Festival, Spring Picnic or whatever. Ask your local H-E-B for a donation of food, water, gift cards, whatever, and you will be pleasantly surprised. Ask WalMart and you're lucky if you get a small, and I do mean small as in buy a couple of candy bars, gift card.

All I am saying is that I would much rather have someone who is vested in the prosperity of the local community, as H-E-B is, than a company like WalMart who is constantly in the press for all the new ways they have come up with to screw the little guys.

Thank you. Well said.

I have seen a lot of activity at the warehouse on the north side of the Dowling-Polk intersection. They have replaced all of the windows and the upper level has been given a new stucco exterior finish with green-toned paint. Looks like it could be highrise lofts or something like that. Anyone know for sure?

That project started about 5 years ago. It's sure been open to the elements for a long time.

For a while, they were competition with Live Oak Lofts, nearby. I was told that Live Oak was marketed to investors from the east and west coasts but most of the units then went into foreclosure.

View

Snobbery and/or Exclusivity

Security (real or perceived)

Phallic Symbology

Some people like one thing while others like something else. No reason to put them down.

Has anybody seen this small plot of land right by 2222 Smith and Spec's? I drove by the other day and noticed a sign on it that said something like "Travis Lofts". It looks like it would be a pretty small building, but can anyone confirm? I was in a hurry so my eyes could be wrong.

Houston Business Journal of August 22 - 28, shows a building permit applied for "Travis Lofts LLC multi-family residence at 2510 Travis St. (condo/apartments) $2,500,000."

That's on page 31A of HBJ.

This is amazing. We've all seen slumlords forced to renovate decrepit apartments, but I've never seen a condo complex shut down, especially one where the residents have spent tens of thousands of dollars maintaining it. I know. I used to own one of these units.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/17226067/detail.html

There was an article in Houston Business Journal recently stating that a broker was trying to pull together a deal for every owner to sell to a developer. The complex would be completely torn down for the value of the land. Based on the relatively low market value of the units, each owner would probably come out better if everyone sold out.

Hi - I'm from Minnesota and planning to move to Houston in January -- I've noticed a bunch of listings for these units on har.com, but it's hard to tell from the photos the quality of the finishes in the units. The millwork in the kitchens/bathrooms all look like cheap veneers (can you confirm/deny?), and the drywall looks like it could use some sanding and repatching.

How is the sound attenuation between units? I noticed it was a loft, so my guess is the sound carries pretty readily through the concrete slab, unless they installed a good subfloor, which I doubt...and reading through the thread it appears it was formerly an apartment complex -- how good are the party walls? Can you even tell yet? Do you have enough neighbors that you could anyone making sound to judge against?

I'm really interested because of location (bums don't scare me too much if there is a locked main entry). How do the public spaces look compared to the photos on har.com?

No parking. Resale?

Does anyone have any new opinions on the Spires?

It's a classy building. I don't live there but I wish I did. The maintenance fee good, especially when you consider all that it includes. I believe this bulding has a chilled water AC system for the AC. Great services. If you choose one of the units on HCAD, click on ownership record, you will see that they are relatively slow to change hands. There are typically only 7 or 8 on the market at any one time. That's less than 3% of the building.

The Realtor Shirley Sanders has a great high rise report on her web site. Units sold and units for sale, by building.

The Chronicle recently had a story that said that in 8 years the medical center will be larger than downtown. As long as the medical center is there, I think this building will do well.

There is a sign on the property immediately west of Onion Creek. The rendering of the building shows 4 levels of parking with 9 levels of apartments above. "For lease information call Ed Rizk Properties 281-531-0808".

Have I been missing it or is this sign new? Any info available?

One does have to question the wisdom of building Discovery Green with public dollars and having this park bounded by two-block megastructures on the north and south and a five-block monoculture on its principal side. The remaining side is likely to have Discovery Tower, One Park Place, and Embassy Suites. That accounts for the entire perimeter. The fact that downtown Houston is the biggest employment spot in the South or Southwest and yet every downtown park and plaza is vacant except at lunch hour suggests that Discovery Tower (and probably Embassy Suites) is not going to enliven the park. One Park Place's handful of residents will be the only Houstonians likely to use the park for whom it won't be "out of sight, out of mind" for a lot of the times of the day at which they might use it. The GRB and 59 will obstruct any future pedestrian traffic from the east that it might have been used by, and will provide a thousand feet of dead-zone frontage that no area resident will have a reason to cross the park to get to. This is a major blow to its function as anything other than a periodically used garnish. So that leaves us with convention hotel guests (primarily evening and possibly morning use), affluent restaurant patrons, and people in between sessions of a meeting at the convention center (sporadic use throughout the day). It's a nice park for all that money, but it's not going to mean much to distracted visitors.* Having large structures with pitifully few points of entry or nodes of dense activity deactivating the edges of the Green, where fresh pedestrian flows from streets might have fed in - something that Central Park, by comparison, utterly relies upon - means that it really will be sort of a yard for businesspeople with business there, and not someplace that a Houstonian population would have much reason to wander into. On the other hand, if the double block on the north is perforated and made very permeable at ground level, it's still conceivable we could eventually have a neighborhood public space on our hands. But if all goes as appears to be planned, we'll have gotten a speculative real estate development spark plug for all our hopes and civic efforts - and from that development, more additional showpiece property tax dollars than actual human use.

*much as I want to believe otherwise, believe that it at least contributes to their minds some of the shade and the healthy division between hard work and unpresentable repine that Houston's fabric, out where conventioneers will never get to go, demonstrates and brings to grand scruffy life.

Wow.

I actually know the loft that you are looking at. I live in the 4th floor of St. Germain and its an awesome place to live in!!! You won't regret it.

I have heard that you can hear your neighbors in the next unit. Is this true in your situation? The building seems to have that reputation because I have heard that comment from different people. Also, is the maintenance fee based on square footage or do the small units pay the same as the large units?

Hi, Im curious if anyone may have photos of 3525 SAGE condos. I have heard alot of good and alot of bad about this place but would like to see what all has been built around it since I last saw 3525 in 1992. (what may be blocking good views etc.)

I know that THE MARK has since been built. I first saw 3525 in 1987 and loved the place. I believe it was only 2 years old then and the brochure I still have from back then starts the units off @ $79,900. I have been doing a search through HAR and have found some units well up into the 400's.

I am planning on moving back to Houston this next year and would love to take a look again at 3525. I heard that the units had been rentals but are now being remodeled and sold. It's so interesting to look at this brochure for 3525 and see the sister building that never did get built (where THE MARK stands) it would have been an identical 3525 but taller.

I hope i posted in the correct place! I looked around several hours hoping this might be ok to ask about photos.

Glad to be among like minded folks here on the site, can't wait to get back to Houston.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Rob

The location is good the price is good and the maintenance fee is right. However, if I remember correctly, the ceiling height is 8-feet. That made the unit feel somewhat confining. I was told the lobby flooded during Allison.

Oh! I should have figured that out. Sorry. Wow, Prince's? Where on Shepherd?

On Shepherd, almost across from Mak Chin. That's just north of the railroad tracks, on the right if you are north bound.

Correction: Not on Mid Lane

Per the story:

"Highland Tower, a 15-story 99-unit condominium building, at the northeast corner of Bancroft Lane and Bettis Drive.

A sales office will open Sept. 15 at 4410 Westheimer on the corner of the property being developed by Fort Worth-based Trademark Property Co.

"Trademark has let us use their corner for our sales and marketing until they begin construction of a high-end retail center," says Derek Darnell, vice president of Pelican Builders Inc. "

The "high-end retail center" is High Street, which will be at Westheimer at Mid Lane. Can we separate this thread so the confusion stops.

I stopped by Highland Tower's sales office today. Design by ZCA Residential. Very high end finishes. slightly rounded fronts of the building face east and west. 825 sq. ft. units on floors 3 - 12 range in price from $300,000 to $400,000. Sizes and prices go up from that. Eight units have deposits in the first week. 25 units have to be under deposit for the project to move forward, per the sales person. Move in date estimated to be about 24 months out.

Edith Personnette is handling the marketing of the property. You may remember her marketing the Spires in the 1980's. This builder recently completed the Briarglenn nearby.

The photo that includes The Parklane is great. I've always liked the looks of the Parklane. The original sales literature described it as "nautical" in design. Thanks for the photo.

Does anyone know what's up at the Kirby Lofts on Main St? Was full after Katrina, but doesn't seem to be very occupied now. Especially compared to other downtown resid. props.

We toured the building yesterday. One bedroom units overlooking Main were in the low 200's for roughly 1,100 sq. ft. A corner two bedroom was in the 260's. The downside is that the building has no parking. Maintenance fee if 44 cents/sq. ft.

Anyone have the scoop on Kirby Lofts?

They look neat.

There are on Main next to CVS/1001 McKinney.

I just spoke with the listing agent. One bedrooms overlooking Main Street are priced at $204,900 on the third, seventh and eighth floors. Not a bad deal. 1,191 sq. ft.

I noticed they are now selling these units and some are listed on har.com. I wonder if these would be a good investment with the new park, Houston Pavilians, and the new building replacing the New West Building.

$195K for 1100 sq. feet doesn't seem too bad for downtown; I just wonder what the maintenance fee is?

The listing agent said the maintenance fee is 44 cents/sq. ft. The listing states that some units face Main. It is probably like the other lofts in that the lower priced units face a back alley. I do agree that the price seems reasonable depending on what the maintenance covers.

The point I'm trying to make is that Galveston ain't the prettiest beach on the gulf coast...BY FAR!! Nobody on here can have a difference of opinion unless you and your cult join together to insult somebody. If you think that Beaumont is responsible for the Texas...not just Galveston, waters looking like mud, then maybe your the one that needs to do research. So I like Destin. So what! Just because I found the only group of people in Houston who feels Galveston is natural "beauty" does not mean everybody has to agree with you!!!

Comments made with tact are more productive and puts a better light on the author.

Cityview Lofts had an open house this weekend and I took a look at these lofts. Cityview says they are 65% sold and the units should be complete by early 2008. The prices aren't too bad (for dowtown) and the maintenance fees are only $.20 per sq. ft. They are also trying to preserve as much of the building as they can.

This area seems prime for development wth the ballpark so close and all of the surface lofts. I figured this side of downtown would be a miniture Wriglyville by now but that hasn't hapened. Does anyone see this area booming within the next few years? Do the Astros own all of these parking lots, or are they privately owned?

What was your opinion of the building? Have you seen other loft conversions that you could compare it to?

Mikeybob2...Those pics were hillarious!!! . When talking about vistiors...most of those are Houstonians who can't afford to drive anywhere else. As someone who lives here, I wouldn't go to Galveston (for pleasure) to save my life. We do drive the 628 miles to Destin, FL were you can lay in sand instead of laying on sand that's hard as concrete. Brown is Galveston's como. I believe many other people would drive away as well if gas wasn't so expensive. There's not very many beaches that have one of the nations largest cities 47 miles up the road. Also some vegitation would be nice, you know, palm trees and such. Refer to the pics of Key West above.

Rivers drain in other parts of the country...not just the Texas Coast. There is no excuse, besides lazyness, why the beaches look the way they do. If they'd clean them up and clean that town up, people would be tempted to go there and development would also boom. The more development, the more people that come. Raise the standards! The Mississippi coast (pre Katrina) had brown water as well, but the beaches were nice and the town of Biloxi was clean and had lots of stuff to do! I'd go back. I'd go there before I would ANY Texas beach...that includes South Padre.

Wow.

Anyone know how Kirby Drive got its name? I found an old story from the 1986 Chronicle about street names, but it doesn't talk about Kirby. Anyone know?

The Kirby mansion still stands at 2000 Smith.

A bit unrelated, but quick question for you older people. Was the Houston House used in the movie 'Urban Cowboy' with John Travolta? Was it the place where John picked up the gal at the bar and went back home to? I saw it the other day on some cable channel and it looked like it.

2016 Main.