TxDOT Chooses Highways Over Housing

TxDOT purchased the property in 2021 in order to make room for the highway expansion, vacating it entirely by May 2022. By filing a open records request, Moritz was able to confirm that TxDOT purchased all three buildings in the complex from their interim owner, Banyan Residential. However, he noted a few things seemed suspicious. He pointed out that Banyan Residential bought and sold the entirety of The Lofts at Ballpark complex in a matter of weeks, selling them for over $100,000, while the assessed value, according to Harris County Appraisal Records at the time of purchase, was less than $70,000. Additionally, Banyan Residential never held property in Houston prior to purchasing The Lofts. Moritz determined that TxDOT paid more than the tax-assessed value by a significant margin, leading him and other activists to suspect Banyan Residential profited at taxpayer expense, undoubtedly knowing the property was condemned for the expansion.

Furthermore, the purchase of all three of the buildings alerted Moritz that TxDOT might have plans beyond what it had publicized. In its Environmental Impact Statement, TxDOT only accounted for 165 units to be torn down but the purchase and subsequent eviction of all three buildings — amounting to 375 units — incensed Moritz to contact the demolition company contracted at the site. Through that phone call, he learned that the company was slated to tear down all three buildings.

This news catalyzed activists to place hundreds of calls to municipal agencies, including city council, the mayor’s office, and public works, to revoke the demolition permits. Houston listened and its permitting office put an administrative hold on the project. This hold joined a federal pause, issued in March 2021, pending the expansion’s civil rights violations. However, in proving it purchased The Lofts prior to the federal pause — a process known as early acquisition — TxDOT asserted the city has no jurisdiction to stop the demolition and indicated it will not be seeking further permits.

In a statement posted on Twitter, TxDOT actually urged against delaying demolition, citing public safety concerns associated with vacant properties. “Vacant buildings such as these have attracted illicit and illegal activity, which would be burdensome to the city, local communities, businesses in the vicinity and potentially expose TxDOT to an array of liabilities,” the agency wrote.

Opponents of I-45 immediately pointed out the hypocrisy of TxDOT cautioning against prolonged vacancy when it is itself responsible for emptying The Lofts.

While there isn’t evidence suggesting crime has posed a problem since vacating the buildings, Moritz notes the imminent risk of mold and other deterioration from within. According to former residents, at the time of their acquisition, The Lofts were structurally sound, quality housing. “However, Houston’s humidity coupled with a prolonged utility shut-off, lack of ventilation, and filtration might make them totally unusable,” Moritz says.

Even as the demolition team has appeared to demobilize in recent months, suggesting to activists that one battle has been won, concerns over the state of the buildings are mounting. While TxDOT engineer Eliza Paul claims that TxDOT “doesn’t have the capability or ability to secure the building and try to do something else with the building,” other than demolish it for the highway expansion, activists lament that TxDOT is responsible for the worsening state of The Lofts.

In the battle over The Lofts, two conflicting visions of Houston’s future are apparent. “Perhaps nowhere in America is the attachment to cars as strong, and the change in recent habits as noteworthy, as here,” the LA Times reported in 2001. That same article charted the revitalization of Houston’s downtown, focusing on Ballpark, the neighborhood and namesake of The Lofts.

“In Houston, it’s particularly striking because this city was the epitome of the empty downtown at night. There was nothing to do. You would come to the theater, get back in your car and go home,” said Stephen Klineberg, a Houston-based sociologist and demographics expert, in that same piece.

Moritz agrees: “The Lofts represented a fairly significant shift in Houston’s housing development. What’s happening is wasteful.”