St. George Place

St. George Place is a neighborhood in Houston, Texas.

St. George Place is located outside of the 610 Loop and inside Beltway 8 in the Uptown Houston area. St. George Place was formed out of portions of an older subdivision, Lamar Terrace, in the early 1990s.

Lamar Terrace was established in the post-World War II era. The subdivision opened in 1949.

In 1982 the front companies of the Saudi citizen Adnan Khashoggi began buying houses in Lamar Terrace. From 1982 to 1985 Khashoggi-controlled companies purchased 75 houses. Mainland Savings Association and Summit Savings Association of Dallas had provided the financing. Triad America, a Utah-based company owned by the Khashoggi family, had plans to build a complex including a skyscraper and a 1,000 room hotel on a 21-acre (8.5 ha) strip of land east of Lamar Terrace. Triad had acquired the site in the mid-1970s. In 1983 the company said that it had suspended the project. In 1985 Triad sold the hotel site to Mainland and gained a line of credit. In 1986 Summit, which had loaned $5 million ($10924408.01 in current money) to Triad Properties Corp., a subsidiary of Triad America, filed loan foreclosure proceedings in order to repossess 47 of the houses. In 1986 Summit declined to foreclose on the houses. Later in 1986, the houses were foreclosed upon.

By the late 1980s urban blight had been affecting Lamar Terrace. In 1989 Ralph Bivins of the Houston Chronicle said that some houses of the Lamar Terrace area "are dilapidated rental properties with trash, tires and old cars littering the lawns." In the early 1990s Lamar Terrace had been named the "Galleria Ghetto". Cindy Gabriel of the Houston Chronicle said that Lamar Terrace "stood in sharp contrast to its Galleria neighbor with dilapidated post World War II-era homes, abandoned cars, stray animals and high crime." In 1987 Robert L. Silvers, an investor, visited the Lamar Terrace area after having been away from Houston for a long period of time; he expressed shock upon seeing the state of Lamar Terrace. Silvers said that the community was a "disaster." In 1989 Silvers said "You're between Tanglewood and the Galleria and you're sitting in a slum." In 1987, Chris Chandler, a political candidate for Houston City Council District G, said, as paraphrased by Kim Cobb of the Houston Chronicle, that Lamar Terrace was the "most troubled sector" of District G "and could stand a thorough cleanup by the Solid Waste Management Department."

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