The Revere at River Oaks Newsletter April 2021

River Oaks

ME E T S PARK A VENUE

IMMEDIATE OCCUPANCY

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C O N D O L I V I N G AT T H E R E V E R E IN THE POST PANDEMIC WORLD H E AT H E R W I L L I A M S MANAGEMENT PROFILE

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BUYER TESTIMONIAL THE WEAVERS

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M A R K E T A N A LYS I S

BY KYLE MIKULENKA

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CONDO LIVING AT THE REVERE IN THE POST PANDEMIC WORLD

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC has surely changed our lives forever.

Fortunately, with efforts from research and professionals from all over the world, we now have several vaccine products that have reached our population. Even with the arrival of the COVID vaccine, the pandemic has heightened our awareness of how we live and interact, having a lasting impact on all of us for many years. People now ask How does one live in a multi-unit building given the new world in which we live? The Revere is a luxury boutique condominium that is comprised of only

thirty residences. Fortunately for this property, the limited number of residences helps this cause compared to many condo buildings with total residences closer to 100 and higher. The boutique scale offered at The Revere has proven to be very manageable during the pandemic. The lobbies, entry doors, elevator portals, common areas, and hallways are wiped down and sanitized daily by onsite staff. In addition, many of our residents only spend part of the year living at The Revere, so our daily traffic and usage are surprisingly minimal.

TAKING PRIDE IN THE EVERYDAY THE OSCAR-WORTHY ENSEMBLE AT THE REVERE SHINES BRIGHTLY

Another issue arising from COVID is shared air systems as most high-rise condominium buildings have central HVAC systems. Given The Revere is only nine levels in height, it enables each residence to have a residential HVAC split system. In other words, each condominium and the air system supporting it is individualized and not a shared or common system. Each resident has the comfort of knowing the circulating air is dedicated to his or her unit only.

As you can see, the boutique scale coupled with daily onsite staff to prioritize sanitation makes The Revere, in many ways, just as clean and safe as any single-family residence! The Revere has proven to be a welcoming

building with safe and happy owners, and staff we might add. Moving forward in the years to come we hope that The Revere will continue to be a model of clean and healthy living!

THE REVERE PROPERTY MANAGER Heather Williams knows a thing or two about direction. An actress with a host of credits under her belt in a variety of TV and film productions, Williams prides herself upon taking direction as part of a cast and delivering her lines to the best of her ability. Now, at The Revere, she is the one providing direction on a daily basis to her dedicated staff – a staff that Williams could not speak more highly of when given the chance.

“I am very proud of the MMS [Group] staff that we have here.

I get comments from residents every single day regarding how happy they are with the staff here and how each staff member goes above and beyond the call of duty. Whether it is the valet, concierge, housekeeping, or maintenance staff, each team member is ready and willing to do whatever it takes for a resident at a moment’s notice,” Williams emphasized.

Speaking on her valet team specifically, Williams credits their always smiling faces, eagerness to assist a resident all the way through the unloading process from arrival to ensure that they are properly settled back into their residence. “The valet team is the first collection of faces that residents see; they provide a warm and welcoming place for the residents and put them at ease from the moment they reach the property.”

Now, Heather, an Australian native, is entrenched in the community, managing six different properties across Houston through MMS Group Property Management. The Revere, though, holds a special distinction for Williams among the group for its quality in all facets.

“Pelican Builders is absolutely fantastic. Robert Bland lives at one of the properties I manage; his team is exemplary. Everything is finished very well and put together fantastically. We rarely have issues that we might have at other buildings. With The Revere being a Pelican property, the quality is second-to-none. The vendors that they use are some of the best in Houston, which helps to make The Revere a solid, well-constructed, and beautifully put together property. This place is built to last and will be effortlessly beautiful for years to come. It’s so timeless.”

In conclusion, Williams maintains her commitment to working with the residents at The Revere and takes the utmost pleasure in every single resident interaction.

“The people here are absolutely fantastic. The residents are all kind and warm. They want to make this community better, so they are very engaged with their neighbors in order to ensure that the building runs well at all times.”

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Same Neighborhood, Better Living

AT THE REVERE, DOWNSIZING TRANSLATES TO AN UPGRADE GROWING UP ON A RANCH IN SOUTH TEXAS, Leslye Weaver became accustomed to wide open spaces and unfettered landscape as far as the eye can see. Thus, one can understand why such an individual might initially be wary of trading an abundance of personal space in the form of a vast single-family home to adopt vertical condominium living. For Leslye and her husband, David, however, the concerns about downsizing were quickly assuaged once Pelican Builders’ 30-residence boutique luxury condominium, The Revere, came squarely into focus.

David and Leslye both attended the University of Texas but did not meet and begin dating until they graduated. David – then working for Gulf Oil – received a promotion and was transferred to London – where the two spent their early years of married life. After returning to Houston, the pair lived in several different neighborhoods, including Memorial, Oak Estates, and most recently River Oaks.

“We had this gorgeous house, but it was 6,000 square feet,” Leslye ruminates. Once their two children, a boy and a girl – between them five grandchildren – moved into the next chapters in their respective lives, the sizable home that the Weavers owned suddenly did not seem nearly as practical. “We started looking about a year ago to downsize, but we wanted to be in the same area where our church, our club, and our family all reside,” she additionally reflected.

When the process of looking to downsize began, the notion of moving was not a particularly common one for the Weavers. “We don’t have a history of moving around a lot. We’ve lived in two houses for 34 years. We thought we would be in our most recent home for the rest of our lives,” David states. As the saying goes, however, sometimes the best-laid plans go awry.

Avid walkers, the Weavers enjoyed exploring their neighborhood on long sojourns with their beloved family dog. David, in particular, enjoyed charting the progress of the development of the area while out and about. With a first-hand view of The Revere’s construction from multiple vantage points (David also swims just down the road at John West Physical Therapy), the Weavers became increasingly intrigued. As The Revere continued to rise, its upward trajectory coincided perfectly with changes in the Weavers’ lives. “I had become more and more retired, and there were a number of things that started to factor into us asking ourselves, ‘maybe we should look at something different as opposed to spending the rest of our lives in this three-story, 6,000-square-foot house’.” As a

result, the Weavers made the decision to put their home on the market last July. After selling their River Oaks home and looking at a few single-family homes that left little to be desired, Leslye began to get fully on-board with a vertical venture.

Transitioning out of a single-family home and into a new condo is a significant undertaking even under normal broader societal circumstances. Still, with the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic casting a pall over essentially all facets of daily life, the Weavers had to factor changing societal norms into their decision-making process.

“The thought of living in a high rise or a tall building and getting packed onto an elevator with a bunch of people is certainly not anything we wanted to do,” David notes. Leslye adds, “Also, the air coming into your unit only was a very good thought.”

At only nine levels tall, The Revere is able to employ a residential HVAC split system, which means that each condominium and the air system supporting it is individualized and not shared as part of a traditional common system – which is the type of air system that most high rises possess. Closing on this point, David mentions that [at The Revere] “you get a sense of privacy and certainly of security from a health standpoint.”

In making such an important life choice, the Weavers wanted their next living destination to check a number of essential boxes, in various areas.

“I said: something new and pretty, same neighborhood, lock-and-go, security, the ability to finish out the unit, one story, porter and concierge, no yard maintenance, the ability to have a balcony for the first time, camaraderie with like-aged people, easy in-and-out parking, short hallways, a gorgeous view, pet friendly, very accommodating staff and management, and top-of-the-line appliances,” Leslye observes.

An elegant entry and welcoming valet, residents get a “Park Avenue” feel each day.

While that checklist may seem daunting, The Revere passed with flying colors and has proven itself to be a laudable new chapter for the Weavers, who decided to make it their next place of residence and recently moved into their new home.

Now, as COVID-19 vaccination deployment continues to expand, the Weavers are ecstatic about joining The Revere community and are already embracing their new lock-and-leave lifestyle. “We’ve already, in the garage, met some friends that we did not realize lived here. We are expecting that it will be a lot of fun and are looking forward to getting together with neighbors. We certainly are going to be well-suited for cocktail parties here.”

The Weavers now have their new home at The Revere and are looking forward to life continuing to get back to normal; the couple brims with joy at the thought of being able to reunite with friends over a shared meal in a restaurant setting. “I don’t think we’ve gone out to restaurants more than a handful of times in the last year. We enjoy doing that sort of thing. Leslye’s a very social person… not so much me,” David muses.

She quickly chimes in, “Oh, don’t let him fool you!” The Weavers also love to travel and cannot wait for their next adventure.

The Revere firmly cemented itself as a contender for their move once David met Douglas Elliman Sales Manager Kyle Mikulenka nearly three years ago. In conjunction with fruitful conversations about the property between David and Kyle, the Weavers had grown weary with the tedium of home upkeep and maintenance.

“Even though our house was only 14 years old, it seems like we were always having to “We are so happy,” Leslye concludes. From her origins on a sprawling ranch in replace something. It was just a lot of trouble, particularly given the fact that we like sparsely populated south Texas to living in a beautiful new residence at The Revere in to travel and are gone quite a bit. “The convenience of not worrying so much the center of a massive metro area, Leslye has come full circle and now steadfastly about what all was going on outside of just where we live— in other embraces the many virtues that vertical living has to offer. words, the rest of the building – appealed to us,” David emphasized.

MARKET ANALYSIS

BY KYLE MIKULE NKA

THE WEALTH IN HOUSTON CONTINUES to trade their inner loop estates and the attached maintenance and unused footage for luxury condos that offer more freedom. The exodus of wealth from highly taxed coastal markets has made it easier and more financially advantageous to do so now.

Our data, derived from luxury single-family home sales priced above $1.5 Million in the most desired locations of inner loop Houston, show average monthly sales had increased in each of the last four years from yearly averages of four per month in 2017 to nine per month in 2020. Today, selling $3 million homes in River Oaks is expedited by the consumers who have never lived in a market where an estate on some land within minutes to the office exists.

New Construction condos were selling very well and at record prices in 2017 and into 2019. At that time, the current inventory was reaching delivery with new inventory several years away. The Coronavirus pandemic slowed the sales and extended the wait time for new inventory by an additional year and counting. As sales return to normal as they currently are, we expect to run out of inventory in 2021 and new inventory is likely delayed until at least 2024.

The consensus is that the advantages of selling current estate inventory and buying current condo inventory are measurably higher than in years past.

IF YOU HAVE BEEN CONSIDERING DOWNSIZING INTO LOCK AND LEAVE, THERE HAS NOT BEEN A BETTER TIME IN THE PAST DECADE TO DO SO.

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