A colossal mansion in Manvel, Texas that sat vacant for more than 20 years is now thriving as a commercial building, including being part of a college campus.
The “Manvel Mansion,” about 23 miles south of Houston, was built in 2001 by physician Ulysses Watkins. He and his wife started building a 63,000-square-foot residence, but construction stopped about 80% when the couple decided the house was too big, according to the current owner of the property, Jim Youngblood.
It sat empty for years until Youngblood, a partner at Renters Warehouse, a local leasing and property management company, bought it for $525,000. At first, he tried to get rid of it repeatedly, for prices as high as $3.6 million.
In 2019, he decided to change his approach. If no one wanted to live there, maybe a small business or an organization would want to rent an affordable office.
He was right.
According to Rich Drake, CEO and partner of Renters Warehouse, all …