I’ve never seen so much green marble in my life.
I recently took a private tour of the 71,000-square-foot former Stanford Financial Building at 5050 Westheimer, and green is obviously one of Robert Allen Stanford’s favorite colors. It’s probably not a hue he sees much anymore, however, since he’s in jail awaiting trial in connection to an alleged $8 billion Ponzi scheme.
The visit was a business reporter’s version of touring the house of a famous celebrity. I snapped pictures like I was a member of the paparazzi. Some of the photos accompanying this blog are mine. Others were taken by my tour guide, Haydar Kustu, who handles marketing and public relations for new building owner Black Forest Ventures LLC.
The Woodlands company bought the property this year for $12.2 million.
First off, the building lives up to the hype. It is fancy with a capital “F.”
A lot of the floors are paved in green marble. But the pricey green stone doesn’t stop there. Stanford also added it as window ledges and accent pieces on some walls when he renovated the building in 2000. Some conference rooms even have green marble coasters for beverages.
Some parts of the building have carpet on the floor. Even that is the color of money. A large decorative skylight that Stanford added floods the space with natural light.
Everywhere I looked I saw expensive dark wood furniture, paintings, tapestries, Persian rugs, sculptures and sophisticated decorative items.
On my tour I met Elmer Gutierrez — now an employee of property manager PM Realty Group — who has worked at the building for the last 18 years. Gutierrez said he transported paintings that were priced up to $5,000 and bronzes priced up to $2,000 to decorate the building when Stanford owned it.
Gutierrez told me Stanford decorated his offices in Colorado, Los Angeles, New York and Miami the same way as the Houston headquarters, using the same furniture, marble and paneling.
Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver who has overseen the dispersal of Stanford assets, took possession of valuable items from the building before it was sold to Black Forest. But the furniture, wall coverings and decorative items were left behind.
The receiver also left several AmVault high-security safes that Kustu said were deemed too heavy and too expensive to move.
“I don’t know if we know the combinations,” he added.
Moving on
Nearly half of the 9,000-square-foot first floor was dedicated to Stanford’s stylish private work space, conference room and private assistant’s area.
He had a large office with beautiful coffered ceilings and a large fish tank built into the wall.
Gutierrez said Stanford’s personal desk was worth in the neighborhood of $35,000. It took six people to bring in the large antique, he said. The receiver used 10 people to move it out, Gutierrez said, because it was so fragile — and expensive.
Stanford’s media set-up would make most green with envy, though the expensive electronics have been stripped away, sold to raise money to cover investor losses.
The main lobby is impressive, with a large sculpture of a flying eagle behind the receptionist’s desk. The eagle is part of Stanford’s company logo.
The first floor features an elegant dining room connected to a 900-square-foot kitchen. Stanford apparently schmoozed clients in the detailed dining area, where wooden table legs have feet resembling brass eagle’s claws.
A 64-seat theater with back projection screen was probably the setting for presentations on investing with the company.
Kustu said that, before the building acquisition was final, he saw multiple cases of Opus One wine stacked in a reception room next to the theater. He said the receiver did not leave any of the wine behind.
Black Forest is eager to secure a new tenant — it costs $46,000 a month to maintain the building, Kustu said. It has fielded calls from parties interested in leasing 15,000 square feet or 40,000 square feet, but the company is holding out for a tenant that will take the entire building.
“We don’t want to tear any of this down,” Kustu said. “We hope we can find one tenant who would not ruin the building.”
The building features 60,000 square feet of usable office space and a six-level parking garage, with 226 parking spaces.
The real estate brokerage community will get to see all of this first-hand in January when Black Forest hosts an open house in the infamous building. Something tells me there will be quite a turn-out.
12/29/10, Jennifer Dawson, Houston Business Journal