Thursday, October 11, 2018

The Hollywood

17050 Imperial Valley Drive

This apartment complex is typical of the Greenspoint area apartment complexes, one of the inexpensively built apartments built in the 1970s for the Greenspoint area and hit hard by the oil crash in the early 1980s never to really recover. It was built as the Woodvalley Apartments in 1977 (316 units), and by the mid-1980s considered to be "deteriorating". 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".

However, by the mid-1990s, it was known as Summerlin and was now a "Section 8" apartment (based on a government document detailing such apartments from 1994-1996, still found on the Internet). Ownership change history indicates that the namechange to Summerlin came in the early 1990s and to Biscayne at CityView in the mid-2000s. The apartment also absorbed 17030 Imperial Valley (214 units), built in 1978, and today known as Biscayne at CityView II, but marketed as part of Biscayne. This apartment complex was known as Sunlight by 1986 (it possibly had another name that predated that, but that is still unknown at this point) and seems to have kept that name before being absorbed into Biscayne at CityView.

Current Street View, notice the palm trees from the Hollywood days