LEADER LISTING The Leader • Saturday, Dec. 26, 2020 • Page 1B
11th Street church demolished for storage By Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com
Last week, the longtime home of Resurrection Life Fellowship, a church at 730 E. 11th St., was demolished. The website for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation’s Architectural Barriers Projects listed a forthcoming seven-story, self-storage facility project from Big Tex Storage to start construction in March and finish in January 2022. While the news may have been a surprise to many – including followers of the neighborhood Facebook page The Heights Life, which first reported it – Big Tex Storage’s Bobby Grover said the property was purchased months ago. “We worked closely with Traci Rhynes and the Stude Revival board on the purchase of the property, which we closed earlier this summer,” Grover said. “Furthermore, I understand from the brokers, the building was in such physical disrepair the church actually met across the street for the past several years due to safety and membership dropped to five parishioners over the past few years. Timing worked out, and the sellers were looking for a local developer with a successful track record for quality developments.” Many online commenters were disappointed that the Heights had lost a little
Photo by Betsy Denson Resurrection Life Fellowship, a church at 730 E. 11th St., was recently demolished to make room for a seven-story storage facility.
more of its history. Before the demolished building was a church, it was a theatre. The website Cinema Treasures said the Stude Theatre opened at the location on Nov. 16, 1939, with the feature “East Side of Heaven,” starring Bing Crosby and Joan Blondell. “The Stude Theatre was billed as ‘Houston’s New Theatre of Tomorrow,’ with RCA high-fidelity sound, large comfortable seats and air-conditioning,” according to the site. “Like many neighbors, I am sad to see this happen,”
Houston City Council member Abbie Kamin said, noting that her office was not notified about the demolition or the plans for the location. “Historic buildings are part of what makes the Heights so unique. While some areas have protections through historic districts, historic landmarks or lot and setback restrictions, Houston does not have zoning.” Kamin said the City’s Planning & Development Department is leading a Livable Places initiative that is looking at ways to deal with neighborhood protections,
Contributed photo Resurrection Life Fellowship was first built in 1939 as the Stude Theatre. It had become deteriorated and was recently torn down.
among other issues. “I hope community members will get involved and provide their input through this initiative,” she said. Grover said structural analysis showed significant physical concerns with the
now-demolished building. “Further, (it) was found to have asbestos, which prior to demolition we remediated properly with oversight from the appropriate authorities,” he said. “The building had to be torn down.”
Prior to demolition, Grover said he worked with a church leader to donate the useable pews, A/V equipment and fixtures, and salvaged the original church signage. There were a few Facebook commenters who expressed relief that the new build was not a business that would require parking, adding more car traffic to an already-busy area. Grover said his developments have a light traffic footprint, with seven cars per day on average. He said the plan is to develop a pedestrian-friendly plaza with 6-foot-wide sidewalks and a well-landscaped street façade. “Our facility will close at 10 p.m. every night, making it quite possibly the quietest, safest neighbor,” he said. “And as for development concerns related to flooding, we design our storm systems to exceed the city’s storm water detention requirements, utilizing an oversized underground storm water detention system to meet code.” Grover also has Big Tex facilities at 3480 Ella Blvd. and 1810 Richmond Ave. He is the 2020-21 treasurer of the Texas Self Storage Association. For more information on the Livable Places initiative, visit https://houstontx.gov/ planning/livableplaces.html.
Heights bungalows added to national historic registry By Adam Zuvanich azuvanich@theleadernews.com
If you took a drive down Tulane Street in the Heights, you might not be able to tell which two houses were added to the National Register of Historic Places earlier this month. The neighboring homes are not at all big, measuring only 1,317 square feet between them, and there are few signs they are historically significant. The 98-yearold bungalows Dikeman have vintage front porches and features but also fresh coats of paint and a paved driveway between them. According to property owner Neal Dikeman, though, the homes at 1217 and 1219 Tulane St. became the first Heights houses added to the national register in 15 years. “They may not be grand in scale, but they’re grand in terms of history and the makeup of the neighborhood,” said Minnette Boesel, chair of the Houston Archeological and Historical Commission. Indeed, Dikeman’s pair of rental properties already were part of a his-
Photo by Adam Zuvanich The neighboring bungalows at 1217 and 1219 Tulane St. in the Heights were recently added to the National Register of Historic Places.
toric district designated by the City of Houston. The local real estate investor and his wife, Karen, who own Old Growth Ventures, applied to the Texas Historical Commission and National Park Service to have the
homes added to the National Register of Historic Places. Neal Dikeman said they are among the smallest homes on the register, and they are among a group of less than 30 structures across Texas that
have been added to the register this year. Dikeman has described the process as tedious, but there is payoff. Having the rental homes designated as historic allows him to capitalize on
tax incentives at the municipal, state and federal levels that ultimately could help him recover half of what he spent to renovate the property since purchasing it in 2017. He said there generally isn’t much incentive for resident homeowners to have their houses added to the national register, so going through the process with larger, commercial buildings is more common. David Bush, the executive director of Preservation Houston, said most of the Heights homes on the national register were added in the mid-1980s. “The Heights is our best historic area and has the most historical character, but for (multiple) reasons, these are the first added in a while,” Dikeman said. According to the application form submitted to the National Park Service, the homes on Tulane were built by Cora Canfield in 1922. She had purchased the property from Heights founder O.M. Carter for a total of $750 and had the adjacent Craftsman bungalow homes constructed for a total of $3,750, initially leasing out the four-room home at 1217 Tulane. The two-house property now is valued at $616,535, according to the Harris County Appraisal District. “I do like for folks to understand,” Dikeman said, “if these houses are worthy of marking (historic), the one you’re living in might be as well.”
Real Estate Roundup
HAA names Morgan as first female CEO By Betsy Denson
buyer will be redeveloping the site.
betsy@theleadernews.com
Casey Watts Morgan has joined the Houston Apartment Association (HAA) as CEO, replacing the recently retired Jeff Hall, who led HAA for 17 years. She will be the first female to lead the association, which observes its 60th anniversary this year. Prior to joining HAA, Morgan served as EVP and CEO of the Greater Houston Builders Association, the fourth-largest home builders’ organization in the country. Village Medical to open on 43rd When the former Chase drive-through on the corner of Oak Forest Drive and West 43rd Street vacated the space, it sat empty for months. Now, after Weingarten Realty rehabbed the space and took out the drive-through lanes, there is a new tenant - Village Medical Primary Care. The primary care provider has 30 locations in the Hous-
Since 1928
Space available in Oak Forest Weingarten Realty has tenant availability in the Oak Forest Shopping center across West 43rd Street from the Oak Forest Kroger. A 1,590 square foot space, a 2,600 square foot space and a 1,550 square foot space between the PostNet and Today’s Vision are available to lease, according to Weingarten’s website. Visit
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See Roundup P. 2B Casey Watts Morgan
ton area, including some at Walgreens pharmacies. The standalone location at 1351 W. 43rd St., which will open soon according to the office’s website, is 3,756 square feet and located across the street from Oak Forest Elementary. Undisclosed buyer acquires 1200 Durham
BizNow reports that the 19,200 square foot parcel of land at 1200 Durham Dr. was purchased by an undisclosed buyer. It had been owned by a Houston-based investor. Marcus & Millichap’s Justin Miller, Cary Latham and Adam Abushagur had the exclusive listing to market the property on behalf of the seller. The undisclosed
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