St. Jude Assisted Living Center At 205 Bayland St.

[Subdude]

Heights care home may be bought, fixed

Local builder places an offer on main building

By TOM MANNING

Chronicle Correspondent

An historic Heights building that for more than 25 years was home to an assisted-living facility will be bought as early as this week by a developer who wants to restore and sell it.

The building at 205 Bayland was once the home of renowned Heights developer William A. Wilson. In 1978, the building became home to St. Jude Assisted Living Center, a facility for the mentally handicapped.

In October, the state department of human services raided St. Jude and removed 10 residents from the facility in an effort to shut down the center, which had received numerous violations from the health department in recent years and had been cited for violating Federal Housing Authority standards.

The proprietor of the property, according to Harris County Appraisal District records, is Flybaby Inc., a corporation that was set up on behalf of St. Jude owner Margaret Gonzalez.

Last week, Flybaby Inc. sold two back lots on the St. Jude property to Allegro Builders, which will build two single-family homes on the property and sell them.

A deal is also in place between Flybaby and another developer, Pyramid Builders, to purchase the main building on the property.

"We acquired the back portion of the tract," said Karen Travelstead, general manager for Allegro.

Travelstead said the home on the back portion of the property, known as the J.J. Bruce house, will be torn down to make way for the new construction.

"Part of what we bought was beyond repair," she said.

News that portions of the property would have to be torn down led some residents in the neighborhood to draw conclusions the Wilson home would be torn down as well, said Heights resident Jim Weston.

"I think a lot of people heard that there was a deal with a neighborhood family to buy it that fell through, and they assumed that if a developer bought it they were going to tear it down" Weston added. "But that doesn't appear to be the case."

Said Jared Wheat of Pyramid Builders, "We've put an offer on it. We want to renovate it. It's one of the bigger and more historically significant houses in the Heights, and it's in surprisingly good shape."

Wheat said that Pyramid has no plans to tear down the building.

Weston said he was told that plans were being developed to build a three-car garage on the side of the lot bordering Morrison Street, but that in order to do so Pyramid would have to get the approval of neighbors.

Last September, Tom Bousquet, attorney for St. Jude, said his client had an agreement in place to sell the property for $775,000 to a developer that wanted to tear the current structures down and build four condominium units.

But St. Jude's legal woes and complaints from neighborhood residents about the facility caused that deal to fall through.

Heights resident Jim Sharp said he would like to have seen a partnership developed that would have allowed the Wilson home to continue to serve the public in another capacity.

"What I'd like to see is a private/public partnership with groups like the Woodland Heights Civic Association, the Historic Houston Preservation Society and the city of Houston to sponsor senior programs and other things there," Sharp said.

"Three or four groups should have been working together on this."

Link to story.

Illustration in print edition.

[usonia]

Does anyone know about the renovation at 205 Bayland in Woodland Heights? This is the former halfway house which was the subject of at least a couple of Channel 2 investigations. It appears they're making it into a single family residence. Now that they've taken down the fire escape and ripped off the old siding, you can see it's a beautiful building. It will definitely be an asset to the neighborhood.

[gnu]

Does anyone know about the renovation at 205 Bayland in Woodland Heights? This is the former halfway house which was the subject of at least a couple of Channel 2 investigations. It appears they're making it into a single family residence. Now that they've taken down the fire escape and ripped off the old siding, you can see it's a beautiful building. It will definitely be an asset to the neighborhood.

from the chron:

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive....id=2005_4028880

The house at 205 Bayland Ave., once the home of Heights developer William H. Wilson, was purchased in November by Bill Baldwin, a Realtor and Heights resident.

Baldwin is restoring the 6,600-square-foot home and plans to use it as his residence, ending more than a year of speculation among Woodland Heights residents about whether one of the most historically significant pieces of property in the area would be torn down to make way for new construction

[heights_yankee]

I think the story is amazing. Hopefully, it will inspire others in the real estate and development business. Not only will the owner have a beautiful home and Allegro have a heightened reputation, but they will also have a whole community thanking them!

[dbigtex56]

What a refreshing contrast to the way the Ashland's in the Heights fiasco was handled.

From the Chron article:

"At least one developer backed out of a deal out of fear over neighborhood outrage at tearing the house down. "

"The home's original windows were donated to Historic Houston, Baldwin said. "

I hope others learn from Mr. Baldwin's example.

[serious]

Does anyone know about the renovation at 205 Bayland in Woodland Heights? This is the former halfway house which was the subject of at least a couple of Channel 2 investigations. It appears they're making it into a single family residence. Now that they've taken down the fire escape and ripped off the old siding, you can see it's a beautiful building. It will definitely be an asset to the neighborhood.

It is a prominent realtor in the Heights who is restoring this structure. He also tearing down homes with Allegro to build new in the Houston Heights.

[bachanon]

welcome to the forum, serious.

[johnfinley]

That house turned out GREAT!!! I have a pdf article on the house, and it's huge, even in it's original floor plan! Kudos to the guys that bought it and restored it.