No photos of it, but there is this sketch from 1898, showing a 24-ft.-by-24 ft. pier-and-beam structure intended to house the fledgling Rice Institute vocational school. Rice University historian Melissa Kean says it was on 6 1/2 acres of property on Louisiana St. downtown — apparently somewhere near the YMCA building torn down last year. (A construction invoice, detailing the completed price of $498.71, references a fence facing a now-vanished Frederick St.) 14 years later, the Institute got a restart on a swampy 295-acre campus southwest of town.

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Drawing and video: Rice University

According to an attorney for a woman who was raped and sodomized for more than 12 hours in her second-floor apartment in the Promenade Cullen Park 3 years ago, managers of the apartment complex just west of the Addicks Reservoir had in fact sent out a notice to residents after a through-the-balcony break-in of the unit next door to her 2 weeks earlier. However, it was “the same warning that they would send out if a bicycle was stolen off a balcony or a TV was stolen out of an apartment,” attorney Troy Chandler tells the Houston Chronicle. “The notice failed to mention that a burglary occurred, that the assailant waited inside, that a tenant was attacked and that there had been an attempted rape.” After that incident but before she was raped, the woman renewed her lease on the apartment — without being informed about the nature of the attack, according to her attorneys.

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This week a Harris County jury awarded the rape victim a $20 million judgment, after she claimed in her lawsuit that managers at the complex had failed to notify residents about previous sexual attacks on the property. Of the total amount, $7 million was awarded for physical pain and mental anguish, $5 million for future mental anguish, and $8 million for violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The apartment complex at 1800 Barker Cypress Rd. — formerly known as the Trails at Barker Cypress — is managed by the Arcadian Real Estate Group, according to a Channel 2 news report. Apartment resident Darryl Anthony Martin pled guilty to the rape charge in 2010 and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

• Jury awards $20 million to rape victim who sued apartments [Houston Chronicle]
• Rape victim sues apartment complex, awarded $20 million [Click2Houston]
• Cullen, Brown families lend financial muscle to commercial venture [Houston Business Journal]

Photo: Apartment Home Living

Row-house special: Taking the edge off of the Fourth Ward.

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Commercial Structures

• Hemphill Dental Center, 4208 Richmond Ave. 77027 (A.C. Reynolds)

Residences

• 1008 Gillette St. 77019 (Freedman’s Town Historical District)
• 1010 Gillette St. 77019 (Freedman’s Town Historical District)
• 1012 Gillette St. 77019 (Freedman’s Town Historical District)
• 1016 Gillette St. 77019 (Freedman’s Town Historical District)
• 1018 Gillette St. 77019 (Castanie)
• 1608 Saulnier St. 77019 (Freedman’s Town Historical District)

Photo of Gillette St. row houses: Cherry House Moving Company

• On Getting Towed in Montrose and the Houston Parking ‘Crisis’ [Eating Our Words]
• Heights Kids Group Petitions Mayor for Traffic-Calming Measures for Safer Walking, Biking [Home in the Heights]
• Downtown Katy Freeway-I-45 Ramp Reopens Ahead of Schedule [abc13]
• Bats Found Near Fort Bend County Elementary School [abc13]
• Noodle House Award-Winning Instagram Photos of Houston [Culturemap]
• Mitchell Historic Properties To Buy and Renovate Produce Wholesaler Building on Galveston’s Strand [Galveston County Daily News]
• City of Seabrook Slowly Phases In New Sailboat Logo [Bay Area Citizen]
• Can a Font Help a City Make a Comeback? [Good]
• Building Taller in Austin [Atlantic Cities]

Photo of the Houston Ship Channel: Louis Vest [license]

1. lenders don’t like it; 2. buyers don’t like it; 3. adding retail reduces my return on cost somewhat; AND 4. mostly because of #1 and #2, it kills my numbers.

If you look at the overall return on cost (NOI/cost) you get 7.7% return on cost with retail vs 8.7% return on cost without retail. That’s a substantial difference, but not eye popping. If the Midtown TIRZ really wanted some retail in the deal, they could easily toss Millhaus a bone and bridge this 100 basis point gap with ease.

The real problem, at least according to Millhaus (not that I disagree), is that the lenders and buyers treat mixed use differently.

In the example comparison, Millhaus assumes the non-retail deal gets a permanent loan underwrittien to 1.25 DSC [debt service coverage] vs 1.30 DSC for the with-retail deal. This means a larger permanent loan upon completion for the no-retail deal (more cash in Millhaus pocket). He’s assuming lenders will get more aggressive on a apartments-only deal.

He also thinks his eventual buyer will prefer a non-retail deal. He calculates the as-completed value using a 7.00% cap rate for the non-retail project, but uses a 7.25% cap rate for apartments+retail project.

What he’s really saying is, ‘Don’t blame me for not including retail in my development. Blame the lenders and buyers.’” [Bernard, commenting on Nixing Milhaus Retail: Why These New Midtown Apartments Won’t Have Shops on the Ground Floor]

• 1121 E. 26th St. [HAR]

Is all that living space on the second floor of this metal warehouse building right off the Tomball Pkwy. frontage road near the end of Jones Rd.  really window-free? Built a decade ago, the 5,062-sq.ft. structure is an unrestricted property suitable for mixed use — and that includes homesteading.

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Downstairs, a storefront window dominates the 45×75-ft.-building’s interior, which also has a high ceiling in front. One of the two half-baths downstairs is handicapped accessible.

The upstairs has living and dining areas, a kitchen, 2 bedrooms, full bath, and utility room. All second-floor rooms open into the open-floor-plan main living space, which measures 18 ft. x 17 ft.:

It’s electric.

The bedrooms measure 13 ft. x 13 ft.

Listed at $660,000 since October, the warehouse home sits on a fenced 1/3-acre lot near other commercial properties and a utility tower north of Louetta Rd. Plenty of parking out front for visitors of the social or spending kind.

• 2810 SH 249 [HAR]

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Residences

• 1426 Chantilly Ln. 77018 (Oak Forest)

• Developer of Disney-Like EarthQuest Theme Park in New Caney Files for Chapter 11; County Improvement District Buys Plans for $7.5M [Houston Chronicle]
• State Farm Drops 11,000 Homeowners in 5 Coastal East Texas Counties [Houston Chronicle]
• Price Too High, League City Council Votes To Use Eminent Domain To Acquire Century-Old Compton Oak [Galveston County Daily News]
• Lawsuit by Former Owners of Memorial Dr. Otto’s Bar B Que Now Names Finger, 9 Withheld Offers [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
• CenterPoint Energy Breaks Ground on New East End Facility [Houston Business Journal]
• Third Houston-Area Main Event Complex Opening Near Katy Mills Mall [Houston Business Journal]
• Park Board Renews Interest in RV Park on Pelican Island [Galveston County Daily News]
• FEMA Awards Nearly $1M to Repair Galveston Library Damaged in Ike [Houston Business Journal]
• Study Finds Texas Drought Likely Killed More Than 5.6 Million Urban Trees [State Impact]
• 1.35 Mile Loop Connecting Buffalo, Brays Trail Systems Breaks Ground [Memorial Examiner]
• Houston Modern Market Founder Designs Weaponry Gear, Clothing, Teaches Self Defense [Culturemap]
• Rec Rooms, Fewer Cubicles in New Houston Workspaces [Houston Chronicle]
• Atlanta Huts-for-the-Homeless Program Promoted by Houston Councilmember Eschews Permitting, Building Codes [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]

Baybrook Mall water tower: Mike Fisher [license]