In advance of closing, Lutsch says he s already begun taking over management of the 56-unit property

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Montrose-area real estate investor (and frequent Swamplot commenter) Cody Lutsch expects to close later this month on 3 apartment buildings on Holman just east of HCC between Crawford and 288 that he calls the worst of the worst in Midtown. A web listing for the properties cautions potential buyers: DO NOT WALK THE PROPERTY AND DISTURB THE TENANTS. (it s for you own good, i mean it). Lutsch calls the group of buildings, which date from 1938 and has seen half a dozen owners over the last 10 years, very very rough . . . Police are always going over there, there is drugs, prostitution . . .
Each is 2 stories, and sits on top of its own garage. They total 49,815 sq. ft., on a little more than half an acre. Lutsch tells Swamplot he wants to keep the buildings as original as I can, while still making it modern, safe, and attractive. quality inn suites at universal studios . . . The place needs a TON of work.
In advance of closing, Lutsch says he s already begun taking over management of the 56-unit property, as well as working on repairs quality inn suites at universal studios and upgrades. One model unit is already complete; Lutsch quality inn suites at universal studios says he s already ordered supplies to complete work on 8 more.
I live not far from there, thanks Cody. I ve often wondered about those places and why they haven t seemed to improve with everything else. I would guess it s probably the tenant situation. Good luck on your endeavor though, I am excited to see the result.
quality inn suites at universal studios Great news! Any more insight as to what the end result will be? I m just a few blocks away and love the bits of history that are spread throughout this part of midtown would love to see some tasteful preservation.
That is so cool. You go, Cody. Thanks for showing the world that all that is old is not necessarily junk, even if it s not currently shining brightly. I look at these buildings and see a ton of opportunity; I m glad that somebody quality inn suites at universal studios with the funds to realize that opportunity agrees.
Don t forget to research the City s Historic Site Tax Exemption program for landmark properties. It s not likely to be the driving quality inn suites at universal studios force of your project. But, it s great to get a little bit back, if you are planning on restoring the exterior and renovating the interior.
Cody, do you own the former Skyline, or whatever they were called, Apartments on W. Alabama and the spur? I think I ve heard that somewhere. I drive by those every day on my way to work and if those do belong to you and you do as good a job on your new purchase as you have done on those, it will be amazing! Thanks for having the courage and taking the time to rehab these properties into something great, instead of bulldozing and putting up cookie-cutter townhomes!
1) Due to some recent city red tags regaring safety issues, I got permission to begin work before closing. My fear was that I would close on the property only to have the city shut it down. So I m having some licensed contractors pull permits to get some urgent things taken care of. Nothing giant. Just lots of small deferred maintence issues.
2) I haven t taken over management quality inn suites at universal studios yet in terms of dealing with the existing tenants but I have begun cleaning out vacant units and doing some upgrades / fixes to them for our new tenants. Basically I wanted to get a head start.
3) I ve put a new property manger in place about a week ago, who will only be working with new tenants and managing the large project of getting the building fixed up (like replacing the 100s of small broken interior windows facing the hallways that were all previously boarded up). He won t really deal with the management quality inn suites at universal studios of existing tenants too much till close.
The building quality inn suites at universal studios is great. It has so much charm inside. It has its flaws but its just from neglect rather than being incurable. We have a ton of upgrades planned for the building as well as the units. All around the property you see a lot of new investment. This particular property has been the main source of blight. I m happy I m able to do a bit to help.
The property is exactly a mile away from another building quality inn suites at universal studios we have in Montrose which has smaller quality inn suites at universal studios units and stays jammed full for higher rent. So being in midtown, so close to downtown and Montrose, and having such a high walk ability and public transportation score, we are sure the demand is there.
Shameless plug: we are leasing these all bills paid units for $600/month. Or $550/month for swamplotters/friends :). They are studios, but a pretty good size. I ll get someone to put some updated pictures/info on our site.
If anyone wants to come down and say hi and check out what we are doing, feel free. I try to be there a few hours a day but I have a full time manager there who is doing showings and trying to manage about 12 workers.
If you want to make an absolute killing on this deal, you should convert it into student housing. Remove every single one of the current tenants, and only lease to new tenants who can prove enrollment in X+ of hours of classes at UH/Rice/TSU/St.Thomas/HCC/all the MedCenter schools, etc.
At this price point, students will be all over it. In fact, they will pay a premium for it. The problem with many other affordable apartments in Houston, is that you have to live around other people who can only afford affordable apartments. The student restriction gives you a legit reason to keep out less desirable tenants, even if they could otherwise afford the rent.
The location is certainly on the shady side of Midtown, but what better way to lure tenants to the neighborhood than by promising quality inn suites at universal studios them that every single one of their neighbors will also be a student?
The units may be really quality inn suites at universal studios small, but with some smart design, I m sure you can configure some of the common areas into awesome places for students to hang out and mingle quality inn suites at universal studios with other residents. You could turn this thing into a really cool place to live.
I also live in the area and have been part of the investment in the area. Those buildings are really dragging things down and I am really looking forward to any improvement of that property. Do you plan on keeping / using the underground parking or do you want people to keep parking on the street?
quality inn suites at universal studios Craig: They never had proper sump pumps installed. Luckily, the underground parking is graded correctly for it. Currently when it rains they have a single old pump they ll take from building to building.
Good job Cody. The project sounds insane from the description but it is great to see someone trying to hold on to the past while looking towards the future. quality inn suites at universal studios Much like many others on here I am happy to see that another set of cheaply made cookie cutter townhomes wont be going up. Cant wait to see the final product. What is your website to see the pics so far?
Awesome news! I live in the area and was wondering if you expect the tenant quality to improve as the building renovation progresses? There are definitely some nice families living there, but unfortunately there are also some drug dealers quality inn suites at universal studios as well as people who like to use prostitutes. Also do you have any plans on how to cut down on the amount of trash that stays on the ground and in the street around the building? This is probably a question for your building manager, but as the building is improved I would hope the trash and old furniture situation could be improved as well. Best of luck with your endeavor. The residents of mid town applaud you!
It s odd that they built interior windows running the length of the hall. That seems like it could interfere with tenants privacy. But I LOVE these old apartments. There are some near the museum district (not sure of the street) with glass block window accents and they look charming, even though they do have window units poking out. I d love to see more interior shots. Let us know when and where we might be able to see those, if available.
Just curious, from a marketing standpoint, are you planning on clearing out buildings or sections and basically starting over with a new tenant quality inn suites at universal studios mix, or are you going to try to put in place new, more qualified tenants right in with the current mix? If it is/was as bad as previously stated with the crime and drugs, won t it be difficult to get better quality inn suites at universal studios people to go in? If they do, and there is still too much hard-core riff-raff, it could scare off good new tenants who end up just breaking their lease and skipping out rather than deal with it. I applaud saving this cool building(s) quality inn suites at universal studios and I wish you all the success, but I am curious how you are going to address that component, because it will definitely be a challenge.
Attracting the first wave of good tenants when you have a newly acquired ugly building isn t easy. In this case, we started upgrading a few units prior to close so we would have something to show people. As for the building itself, we ve had to just explain our plans. With limited resources we can attact units for new tenants or the building exterior itself for the same goal. It s a balance.
No doubt a lot of people that would take a unit if the building were finished will pass on it how it is now (even knowing quality inn suites at universal studios our plans). However with enough people coming by, you can still get enough people in to make it work. It just may be 1:10 now vs 1:3 if it were already done.
To help attract the first wave you also can offer a $700+