Daniepwils

Oh? 'splain.

I can't or I will be in serious trouble.

There are preleases on this property as well as active permits.

That guy is weird looking. But one of the best RE Brokers in town.

By "best" you mean sells the most? -- I will never touch a property that has his name on it -- All I am saying.

By the looks of how small that lot is it can't be more than 3-5 stories. Why would someone build a condo building right there? Your views from your window would be a parking garage, a building, a street and a dealership parking lot.

I jogged by it the other morning and noticed someones name (Terry Stainfield or Stanfield, I think) as the owner/builder. Maybe it is TERRY STANFIELD http://www.har.com/AWS/AWS.CFM?AGENT_NUMBER=485856

But I can't remember for sure.

Don't be daunted!! Stop it! The line moves fast because it's "soup-nazi" style: have your money ready, speak your order clearly, move to the right, and nobody gets hurt. Get the spicy pork.

LOL that is so true. I will say she is only like that during lunch rush hour. I have talked to her on occasion when she isn't busy and she is extremely nice.

What about "The Shops"?

It seems everyone has acknowledged it as a nice foodcourt.

Because that is basically the only thing there. And to be honest it isn't all that great of a food court. -- The only reason I go there is because my building is connected to it via skywalks.

Homeless or vagrants usually are in downtown during the day. For one, that is when the population of downtown is at its height and two they are not allowed to sleep or sit anywhere due to a city ordinance in the evening. I live and work downtown and am rather fed up with the lot of them. It is always the same ones as well. One time I almost had my orange taken out of my hand at 8AM at Main and McKinney, I had to kick him in the leg to get him away from me. Kind of ballsy to try to attack a 6'3, 200 pound man.

I have never given any money on the street, I have on occasion bought food for someone asking when I was going in the same restaurant (Subway on Dallas). I choose to give to United Way as my charity, giving money to these people is not helping them as the majority of them are using it for things other than food.

Just closed on my place on Monday!!! I'm excited about living downtown and experiencing city life. I've been in Sugar Land all my life so looking foward to a big change. Everything's fine so far, the units are really nice, all it took was one swipe with a towel and the place was spotless, will be painting and replacing carpet, and a few minor details here there, lights, outlets, etc. cable worked right away and ran the water all day long to get the sulfur out, the water stayed hot from about 2pm to 11pm. The air conditioner blows freezing cold! good for Houston Heat. Used the workout room, its nice, kept clean and notice a few people throughout the day. Overall, I'd say it's a great buy, nice location Pavillions about 2-3 blocks to the south, Shops at HC 2 blocks to the East, Main Place 1 block north, Hines North 3 blocks north, theaters 6 blocks nW, Stadiums, convention center and hotels, OPP, DT, and Disc Green all are blocks east and there's a rail stop right outside the door. There's quite a bit of what I call bum activity right outside the door especiall a few weeks ago when we were looking at the place, not as much now, I've noticed a cop car parked on Walker right outside the Dollar Store. My guess is, once the Dollar Store goes, so will the bums and I'm sure the Dollar Store will get pushed out as retail goes in at the new Main & Walker Garage and hopefully in Main Place and once Pavillions open and hopefully someone will see the idea of retail on the first floor of the old Sakowitz Building to fruition. Downtown is looking up! Of course, the only downfall is parking. It might be able to catch a spot in front of the building, but there's only three. Hopefully the HOA can foreclose on some of these empty units and sale them to buy some spots. Give me a few months to work my muscle and we'll see what we can do

Something about this post just doesn't sit well with me. Did you really buy a place here? or are you working for the realtor?

So did the people in charge of this project not put in a parking lot?

This park stays pretty quiet. I jog by it almost every morning and not a soul in sight. I can see it from my office and usually in the afternoons there are some young guys playing basketball on the court on a daily basis. There is also a police officer stationed here in a little office everyday, 7 days a week I think.

Yes they should fix the one broken backboard, and also the area near the stairs that tends to flood.

I went to see these condos and they look good from my perspective. Only real drawback I saw was the parking. But no big deal for me. Another thing...I was told that another lender will charge more interest to finance a purchase here. Why is that? I was "recomended" to use the current bank which owns this property. Oh, why was almost every single property forclosed on? There are currently around 8 sold and another 8 or so under contract...total units are 44. So it's a very lonely building right now. Can someone post a little more history on this property?

It was a rental property for some time and tenants were forced to use the valet parking since there wasn't a garage. It hasn't really changed much since then, other than being basically empty. A year a go I went and looked at these when they were for sale and they only had 4 tenants (those 4 people had rented and opted to buy the apartment they were in). -- The reason they are all in foreclosure is because one bank owns most of them other than the penthouses I think and those are owned by another bank.

Real estate agents and banks always "recommend" that you use their mortgage companies, don't buy into that. ALWAYS SHOP AROUND for the best rate! If you get their quoted rate, go to your bank and see if they can't beat the other rate..

Do you plan on selling this property in the future? If you plan to live here the rest of your life then go ahead and buy it. But if you are ever going to resell it, you will have a very hard time in doing so. Everyone in Houston has a car (well everyone that can really afford to buy and maintain a house, this is even more so now due to gas prices rising along with everthing else) and one thing you will almost need is a garage.

I like the fact that is won't destroy my view of the park from 5 Houston!

All this week they seem to be spreading sand out everywhere over the grass. Someone told me that bermuda grass does better in sand than in clay. I am not sure why they didn't just lay sand down before they laid the grass. Does anyone know if spreading sand around on grass that has already been laid will help the grass?

(The grass was kinda weird looking, it would have brown circles around a really green spot. You can't really notice it unless you are looking at it from far above)

This was a rental property at one time. Very nice for a rental property, however people were forced to use the valet service. So if you wanted your car you had to wait at least 15 minutes just to get it. (I had a friend live there and I have looked at apartment ratings sights, and they all say the same thing). The biggest problem I think was the lack of management when it was a rental property.

TheNiche, what do you know about Tracy? I have delt with him and don't care for some of his tactic's, although he does have a hot assistant.

UhLaw do you plan on living there for 5+ years? You will have a hard time reselling any of these as they offer very little compared to other places in downtown. And as long as you don't care about riff-raff living in the same building as you. At these prices I assure you that will happen, especially with light rail right outside, it is only a matter of time if nothing is done that this place will become a mini-projects building, thus devaluing the property even more.

Most parking garages in the area don't allow you to access the garage after a certain time (you can get out after a certain time, but can't get back in until 5 or 6 the next morning). I am sure this can be arranged to accommodate those people though.

To me this isn't about religion or politics, it is about accountability and taking responsibility, people need to grow up!

With exception to rape/forced sex/or endangering the mother/child, abortion should be illegal. You CHOSE to have sex and with that choice comes a risk...now live with your choice.

If you are married and no longer want children then have a vasectomy or hysterectomy (it is usually easier for the man to have it done).

The star of the menu is a 48-ounce porterhouse for $84. So far, Shula has sold 44,000 of them.

I know when we looked into these there were about 4 people who rented (before it was a rental building) who opted to buy their condo/loft. This was more than 9 months ago. I still check HAR from time to time and see almost all the same units for sell.

I wasn't impressed (no parking, no pool and the entrance area was surrounded by beggars waiting for people to walk out of CVS). I could see if this building was in Manhattan or San Fran, but this isn't something that is going to sell in Houston. You can get something much better across the street at Commerce Tower or even the new Park Place building going up near the new park.

Does anyone know if you are suppose to be swimming in the "lake"? Today I saw a rather large man and woman try to swim across the "lake" and did not make it halfway before turning back (sad). Needless to say they left their "imprint" on the sand near the shore.

Common sense tells me "no"! But was just curious.

You are right, half of it is concrete, but I do see people running it everyday, they also run the perimeter of the park.

what construction? they aren't doing any construction on the "lake". It is the same color it has been (minus the first day of water which was clear, but after they put in the plants and dirt around the lake it became the color that it is now).

It is going up...(all I can say)

I bet more and more people might start to move closer in (downtown even) if gas gets to be 4.00 a gallon (in Houston) by the end of the year, which is what they are forecasting.

That said, adding video billboards to Main Street downtown really doesn't do anything for our image or for making downtown a place people will want to live. Would you really want to buy a unit that has light pollution every night until midnight? I wouldn't. Noise and light pollution are major inhibitors to downtown's residential growth which is why I am happy to see the nightclubs failing.

People will want to live downtown IF there are quality restaurants around, access to grocery stores, pocket parks, public places to walk dogs, coffee shops that are open past business hours, etc... These are the things downtown needs more of; not tv screens.

Couldn't agree more!

So having a "wanna-be Times Square" will energize downtown? Sorry but glitz and glamour will last as about as long as most of the "clubs" did in downtown. You need something more than flashy TV screens.

I think the Pavilions is a start in the right direction if they keep it up. The Park shops failed (still funny that Crescent keeps raising the rent). It went from stores like The Gap and Oshmans to insurance companies and The Dress Barn. If it weren't for the performing art centers in downtown, Bayou Place would have failed. HP has a good start, but in my opinion they need more "popular" retail.

Why is everyone so "gung ho" for Houston to be a tourist destination city? We are fine the way we are (other than lack of zoning).