17030-17050 Imperial Valley Drive

Woodvalley Apartments in its original form. (Houston Post, 6/1979) Our story starts in the present day, at least, present day as of this writing, when Biscayne at CityView (17050 Imperial Valley Drive), an apartment complex, was demolished in late 2025 and concluded in early 2026, with the former apartments to become greenspace. They had been flooded out in the 2016 Tax Day Floods and in Hurricane Harvey over a year later, and was bought by the Harris County Flood Control District, which condemned the property, with the last residents moving out in 2022. They were long seen as blight and slums representative of post-1980s Greenspoint.

But it wasn't always like this.

Woodvalley Apartments first opened in 1977 with 316 units and located at 17050 Imperial Valley Drive (the north side of the current property). It was typical of suburban apartments at the time, with this one in particular offering the perk of Channel Z. This wasn't a misspelling of Los Angeles-based Z Channel but rather a Houston-based channel for movies and only available at apartment complexes.

The apartment glut in Houston wreaked havoc on Greenspoint in particular (and Gulfton), and to help combat this, Woodvalley, which was considered to be "deteriorating" by this time, fought back. In 1985, it received a significant upgrade where it became "The Hollywood" and even in 1989 (according to the Houston Post article "Latest marketing ploy? A poolside beach") had 90% occupancy. This was more than a name change and a repaint, the new name came with "lush California landscaping", with other amenities including "fountains, reflecting pools, an outdoor poolside amphitheater, waterfalls, sand volleyball, lighted tennis courts and even an imposing entry gate". Even after hard freezes and the demolition of the apartment complex, those palm trees are still there.

The Hollywood ad, c. 1985 (Houston Post)
When I first wrote this post, there was a government document still online that had Section 8 apartments circa 1994-1996, and this was one of them under the name of Summerlin, which it adopted shortly after it changed hands in 1993.

By 2007 it adopted the Biscayne at CityView name, though I can't figure out when that happened.

Early Sunlight Apartments advertisement
The second apartment complex that was incorporated into Biscayne at CityView was Sunlight Apartments, opened in 1978, located at 17030 Imperial Valley Drive, and featuring 214 units (though one article mentions it having 244 units, still not sure about that). Sunlight Apartments had its first murder while the apartments were still under construction. Other than that, they had similar issues to Woodvalley (by 1982 it was already advertising remodeled units) and still had the Sunlight name until at least 1995. At some point it was incorporated into Biscayne at CityView, informally "Biscayne at CityView II".

Of course, there are still some gaps...when did the apartments really take a turn for the worse? When did Sunlight change names? But...at least we know some of the history.

UPDATE 06-30-2026: Overhauled article with new name (from "The Hollywood"). This had previously not seen updates since 2018.