Chinatown still appeals to Houston home builders

[kpk]

Chinatown still appeals to Houston home builders
Houston Business Journal - August 11, 2006
by K Pica Kahn
Special to Houston Business Journal

An international city with a mélange of cultures, Houston has become known as a metropolis of diverse ethnic groups.

None is more prevalent than the Asian community, which continues to influence not only residential and commercial real estate but business corridors as well.


QUOTE

Kenneth Li, owner of Century 21 Southwest, is trying his hand at townhomes which are a new addition to the traditionally single-family Chinatown area in Southwest Houston.


Chinese laborers first came to Houston in the late 1800s while working on the railroads. However, it is was not until the mid-1950s that a sizable community was established on the east side of downtown.

In the 1980s, a large number of Asian residents moved to the southwest side of town and set up housing and retail. The area is now a thriving part of Houston.

"We are trying to promote the area to the Houston community and to Los Angeles and New York," says Kenneth Li, owner of Century 21 Southwest and founding president of the Asian American Real Estate Association of Houston. "It is a most dynamic Chinatown. Houston's mayor even went to China to promote this Chinatown. It will attract more people to the area including other big companies coming here to invest."

Houston is a big metropolitan area and very attractive to China, he adds, saying that more than 90 percent of the investment is from locals with growing out-of-state investments coming mainly from the East and West Coasts.

"Investors who want to spend their money on Asian investments believe the demographics prove the investments to be sound," he adds.

The market is so prevalent in the city that some Realtors are concentrating on the Asian community. Li operates a full-service real estate firm with most of his agents speaking English, Spanish, Chinese, Indonesian, Hindu and Vietnamese.

More than most, the Asian community tends to live in areas of town with Asian retail outlets, restaurants, banks and other necessities, in a sense creating communities in the areas in which they live.

In other words, living in the Asian community, is more than just a matter of real estate.
Major players

Although the downtown area was Houston's first Chinatown, the high price of land caused other areas to take its place.

Even now, the area is expanding in many areas of the city including the corridor of State Highway 6 and along Beltway 8 because of the shortage of land in the Bellaire corridor. There is much Asian development and construction going on in the Bayou City with capital coming in from around the country and abroad.

"I see a lot of people in the Asian community wanting homes in the $180,000 to $200,000 range," says Kevin Nguyen of Alpha Realtors. "There is a lot of growth in Sugar Land and northeast of 249. I see a lot of investors coming from Arizona, California, Virginia and (Washington) D.C. And the reason is because it is much less expensive to build here than in other parts of the country."

There are several small Asian builders responsible for a couple of houses here and there while larger builders such as William Lin and Rosemead Homes produce a larger number of homes including custom designs.

The newest finished real estate project in New Chinatown, which is bound from Ranchester to Beltway 8 on Bellaire Boulevard, is Li's Lee Ho Village townhomes. The price points are very affordable from $147,000 to $155,000.

Normally people in the Asian community prefer freestanding homes, but due to a shortage of homes and land in the area, condominiums have become one answer.

One of the newest projects in town is Park 8 which has just broken ground. The $100 million high-rise condo project which will be completed over the next 2 to 4 years, is a combination of retail and condos by local developers and partners David Wu from Taiwan and Kenny Kan from China.

Located on the Frontage Road of Beltway 8 close to Beechnut, it will be a combination of retail shops and condominiums.
Sense of community

Chinatown is getting very popular, especially for empty nesters and those who want to be close to shopping and cultural events. This area is filled with that. There are nine major banks within one block of the Bellaire and Corporate corner. There are also hundreds of Asian restaurants and businesses, churches and temples, and even four community centers, creating a little downtown, to service the area.

The area between Harwin Drive and Beechnut Street is a discount area great for shopping. The Vietnamese community is growing on the west side of Bellaire. Hong Kong Mall on Bellaire and Boone Street is a major draw for the Asian community, adding to the desire for residential property in the area.

Known as Little Saigon, it has already proven to be a draw for residential growth. The mall, finished in 2002, offers restaurants, cafes and retail shops where families can do their grocery shopping while window shopping. Over a dozen restaurants grace the area which is also an aesthetically pleasing place to sit and enjoy outdoor water treatments. Asian architecture surrounded by gardens and fountains completes the Asian feel.

The fastest-growing Asian areas are those surrounded by other Asian amenities with shopping and entertainment close at hand creating complete Asian communities.

Viet Hoa International Market is now beginning Phase II following the opening of Phase I last year. Serving the Asian community, it offers food, retail and wholesale goods, as well as a supermarket.

Diho Asian Market on Bellaire and Ranchester, completed in 1983, was one of the first retail areas open when Chinese-Americans migrated to the southwest side from downtown.
Broader appeal

The area continues to be both a hotbed for new construction and an influencer in home decor.

The Asian influence has moved beyond the Asian community with Westerners and Easterners alike concentrating on Feng Shui in their homes today. A science of balance within the home, Feng Shui, meaning wind and water is a way of creating balance and harmony in the home based on the elements of nature.

Many new builders are designing with Feng Shui in mind. Local builders such as David Weekley Homes, Newmark Homes, Village Builders and Perry Homes are proving that the Asian trend has moved into the Western conscientiousness.

Realtors are also dealing with a larger Asian clientele or those who want the Feng Shui design.

"I see people interested in Feng Shui -- some Asians and some Caucasians," says David Flory, a Realtor with RE/MAX Professional Group. "It is more like a fad, although some people take it very seriously, especially first-generation Asians. I also see a lot of Asians who were born here who don't want to live in Asian communities, but feel very American and want to integrate. Those who are just here from Asia or who don't speak English very well generally do want to live near other Asians where they can shop, eat and socialize together."

The fact that the Asian community is very multigenerational with a great respect for their elderly, is one reason many live with children and grandchildren. In addition, they often work in these areas and want to live close by, making transportation and commute time a determining factor in where they live.

"As a human resources recruiter, I see that location in reference to work is very important," says Michael Kahn, senior recruiting manager for Hunter + Sage, a recruiting firm for human resources and accounting professionals. "People don't want that long commute time. Life balance has been creeping up into work decisions more and more.

"In Houston, the commute time is paramount. And also with the price of gas, commuting is one of the top parameters of where people go to work," he adds. "I will have people who live in Spring who will work downtown because they can take the Park & Ride but won't even consider working in Southwest Houston. And there is no cost relief in sight. It is becoming much more of a factor than ever."

And, of all the cultural groups calling Houston their home, the Asian community seems to be the most self-sustaining. After Hurricane Katrina evacuees sought refuge in Houston, there were virtually no Asians who needed help from the city because they were immediately welcomed into the Asian community. It is that spirit that continues to make the Asian community tight-knit and viable in both the real estate and retail markets.

It is more than a matter of real estate. It is a matter of culture, of concern and of caring.

[Sakarumoto]

Alert for all travellers to North America: Abuse of Human Rights and Privacy Violations:

Racially intolerant white canadian cops and security and their henchmen claim to be despots; following parasitically in the footsteps of their american counterparts, and wilfully engage in their racial profiling of non-whites, in racial harassment of non-whites, and in racially dehumanizing attempts to racially harass non-whites through intimidating physically, mentally, and spiritually; portraying their racial hatred of non-whites through causing wilfull and dehumanizing disturbance to non-whites through using illegal wall-see-through technologies and audio-bugs on non-whites' homes; through listening and watching through the walls of non-whites' rented and owned homes, and through their internet and private telephones. The perpetuators of these evil deeds do this from their cars using illegal equipment slyly given to them by the unworthy cops, and then
accelerating their cars loudly and intimidatingly near non-whites' homes and driving intimidatingly in presence of non-whites on streets, making threatening u-turns, driving intimidatingly right up and over sidewalks when a non-white is on the sidewalk, and throwing their ugly bullying weight around, in their shameless acts of cowardice. It is all done slyly, supposedly smartly, however, they cannot fool all the people all the time. The cops also participate themselves to wail their sirens abusively everytime non-whites move and talk inside their rented and owned homes in daily routine living, in addition to having their henchmen, and often, using their non-white gutless henchmen in cars, transport, shopping centers, neighborhoods, etc, to commit these ugly harassing racially profiling
deeds at all times day and night. Using non-whites to engage in racial harassment of other non-whites is an obnoxiously evil sinister humanely disgraceful intelligent move of the whites well-known for their ugly divide and rule tactics through their non-white henchmen.

It's a shameful disgrace when the so called protectors of law turn into abusers of law themselves and throw the weight of their uniforms and law around as cowards. So, they and their henchmen, appear to be very law respecting on the outside; however, they network cowardly to commit sly acts of provocation to non-whites all the time, which is supposed to
be legally acceptable. Is watching through walls of non-whites homes, bugging their homes, working in networking syndicates against them, committing human rights and privacy violations against them, supposedly lawful for the whites? Who makes those laws that favor
only the whites? The law itself has racism in its clauses. The ugly inner dirt of the perpetuators of these evil deeds of racism do not deserve to step into religious institutions for their ugly deeds - such as, if you ain't white, you ain't right? Oh! Really? Nicely dressed, beautiful people, magnificient concrete jungles, clean roads and lawns, sweet polite talkers on the outside, full of ugly stench in their souls, that is the
cause of these racist policies that are outrightly biased against non-whites. What a shame!

Most of these ugly acts of dehumanizing racial profiling depict the cowardice of the doers of these deeds in the real sense, and are done at the behind the scenes insistence of the racially intolerant white cops through their frontline stooges. However, without physical evidence, the white cops, security, societies, and their henchmen are laughing sinisterly
at their heinous deeds and the legal system seems to support this evil through its inability to take action without physical evidence. Their racial profiling penetrates public transport systems, shops and stores to do all they can to make the non-whites feel unwelcome in their dehumanizing acts of racial profiling against non-whites and those who don't conform to their nonsense. The white cops, security, and white communities use their
henchmen who do just as they are told and from behind the safety cushion of their oil-guzzling, pollution creating, often dark-glassed vehicles to intimidate and harass non-whites in obnoxious racial profiling that reflects the immoral, despotic, and cowardly behaviour of racially intolerant white cops, security, communities and their dumb henchmen
who do just as they are told, fuelled as they are in their racial frenzy, thanks to the racially manipulative corporate controlled media.

For more information, visit:

www.yourluckytoday.blogspot.com

Volunteers are welcome to circulate this information to all they know to put an end to this abuse and violations of human rights committed by immorally misbehaved white cops, security, white communities, public transports, shops, stores, etc, and their dumb henchmen who do just as they are told in their racial frenzy.

Save this information on your computers before any cowards remove it from the websites.

Racism is immoral and dehumanizing behaviour that reflects the "incapable to perform humanely" quality of those who are racist and are being watched from God's court above in ways they cannot be expected to be capable to perceive yet.

It's a shame when obnoxious stench of racism comes from people in so called rich countries. It's even more of a shame when words are twisted by media to influence young minds with lies. It's even more of a shame when so called authorities perpetuate racism and behave racistly and enforce racist policies and behaviour through intimidating means amidst outer sweet and polite talks. Racism seems to be prominent among so called white people in rich countries who cannot bear non-whites from other countries of origin. Planet Earth belongs to people of Earth. Highly educated people of high intellectual calibres, rich bosses and CEOs, etc, of rich countries are a blotch on humanity and their material levels when they
haven't yet evolved to basic human concepts of all humans have red blood irrespective of race.

Racism stems from social attitudes that are perpetuated by racist societies, the media, the authoritarians, and the peers. It's time to say, shame on all those who perpetuate racism and racist attitudes.

Thank you.