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


musicman

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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...
3 hours ago, skooljunkie said:

Hmmm...I cannot see the link, but I am 99.9% certain this is being mixed up with ~800 apartments planned for the 17000 block of Bissonnet in Fort Bend County in the Camelia development just east of FM 1464. 

 

You're right. Someone mistakenly pinned the location as the site of the Ashby Highrise. 

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It is a beautiful highrise. Very elegant. Not taking sides on this. Don't want to set urban loving haifers off. Just saying some folks in the posh houses in the area may not like having a highrise near them. South and North Blvds have some beautiful older houses with large yards. Very enjoyable area to stroll.

 

Honestly, I do not know what legal leg the opposition can stand on. There are highrises going up everywhere and as far as I know there are no deed restrictions against this sort of thing. I suspect all they can do is fighting a delaying action.

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  • The title was changed to Ashby High-Rise: 1717 Bissonnet
  • 7 months later...
23 minutes ago, db650 said:

The Ashby high rise land is finally being put to use!

 

 

E084A391-70D0-4FED-A37C-16CCFAAAFABB.jpeg

I will never understand this project for what they spent fighting lawsuits they could have built this years ago... anywhere else in Houston... I can name off half a dozen places near the area , just off the top of my head

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I still think they should have built an apartment complex with the same number of units that existed previously and made them all low income housing. it wouldn't make as much as luxury high rise, but they would have lost less than they did by chasing the dream.

hell, if I win a billion dollars tomorrow night, I might just buy the property and do it myself.

Edited by samagon
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They've lost a ton of revenue when they tore down the existing apartments before they had permits in hand. If they were smart, they'd flip the cleared land and move on or propose a super high end for-sale condo project full of 3-5 story buildings like those on Sunset Boulevard a few blocks away. Those sell for well over $1.3m and they could pack two dozen or more on the lot. 

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1 hour ago, clutchcity94 said:

Can there be a McDonalds next door too?

I know you are trolling, but these jokes were tired 10 years ago.....

As Kinkaid said above, a more practical developer could of found countless profitable uses for this property.  It was essentially affordable grad apartments before for 30+ years........my bet is that Rice buys it up eventually and develops another 5 or 6 story complex for grad students, with a small market or retail along Bissonnet.  

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On 1/21/2021 at 8:27 PM, talltexan83 said:

I know you are trolling, but these jokes were tired 10 years ago.....

As Kinkaid said above, a more practical developer could of found countless profitable uses for this property.  It was essentially affordable grad apartments before for 30+ years........my bet is that Rice buys it up eventually and develops another 5 or 6 story complex for grad students, with a small market or retail along Bissonnet.  

Another strip center. Yay....🤕

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  • 1 month later...
  • The title was changed to The Langley: Residential High-Rise At 1717 Bissonnet St.

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