Leaderboard

Some photos from the opening celebration...

from blakeanater on Reddit

UH new Fertitta center

Houston by Raul Cano

fullsizeoutput_1064 by George Zimzores, on Flickr

I believe this cycle will go down as one of the strongest for the number of empty lots developed. I think it was 17 blocks this cycle.

Levy Park Grand Opening by Arie, on Flickr Levy Park Grand Opening by Arie, on Flickr Levy Park Grand Opening by Arie, on Flickr Levy Park Grand Opening by Arie, on Flickr Levy Park Grand Opening by Arie, on Flickr Levy Park Grand Opening by Arie, on Flickr

https://houston-texas-us.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-not-so-fair-view-on-fairview.html

The downtown lot I'm dying to see developed is the parking lot on Main St between Moonshiners and Live Sports Bar. It's not a full empty block but there's only a matter of time. A mixed use apartment tower or hotel with retail would do wonders there.

-

Every time I see a rendering like this for an area like that I think "I'll take the office building and the residential building for midtown please."

360 VR of Phase 1: http://www.generationpark.com/rs360/

Why does the downtown connector still have to go over the bayou? Why can't they just stop it at Memorial Drive, and not conitnue to Allen pkwy? It would make the west side look better. The over view shot at the I45/I10 interchange west of downtown is so much freeway - cutting off 4th ward from White Oak bayou

The Catalyst advertises that there will be a viewing room exclusive to the Penthouse residents for watching baseball games; 500 Crawford also has a place where you can watch. The big window along Crawford in Minute maid is actually surprisingly low once you get elevated some. I don't think there's any public places nearby to watch the games from

Can we stick this discussion to the Transpo thread guys?

http://swamplot.com/new-owner-of-exxons-buffalo-spdwy-research-campus-knocking-out-exterior-defenses-this-week/2017-02-28/ New Owner of Exxon’s Buffalo Spdwy. Research Campus Knocking Out Exterior Defenses This Week

That would be my best guess since it's the only available lot in what may be the most desirable area of downtown for office space. However, our next supertall I think will most likely be mixed use. For this site what's best imo is office #1, hotel #2, but I don't see it as a desirable place to live. Although a very clean and good-looking area, I don't think residential gets put here, which may lower the chance of a supertall, if it's going to be mixed-use. Maybe what tells us our next supertalls location is the highest price lot according to HCAD?

Would love to see something like One Vanderbilt built here. NYC is getting approximately 10 new supertalls in their building cycle.

Supertall is generally defined as over 300 meters. Both Chase and Wells Fargo qualify.

45 will be elevated the entire length of its alignment with i10. It still has to fly over the elysian viaduct, and a railroad track. So basically, the areas of i10 that are currently below grade will have a freeway that is elevated right next to it. and areas of i10 that are currently elevated will have that same new freeway even more elevated right next to it. but hey, they're all poor people and minorities that live north of there, and there's trains and bayous anyway, so no worries, right, at least we're removing the elevated freeway from the affluent predominantly white area so they will feel safer walking around.

Because a lot of traffic flows from Allen Parkway to the freeway and vice versa. (In fact, the initial plan did not have this connection. Comments received at the early public meetings made it clear this was a necessary connection.

wow great photos!!! thanks for posting those!

The extension of Fulton to San Jacinto is still in the City's plans. And the I-45 plans show the extension of San Jacinto north to the new location of the freeway, so it looks like they are accommodating those plans.

Still hearing that Sam's is locked in here, would definitely prefer Costco though.

I have looked around and can't find any updates on the construction that's currently happening to extend Mathewson Ln. I wonder what the timeline is for the new park over Conrad sauer and the project on Gessner Rd from I-10 to Westview also. Anyone have any start dates for those 2 projects?

I'm just questioning how much benefit we're getting from demolishing the pierce elevated if we still need to serve traffic on the west side of downtown. On a side note, why does 45 go under Dallas street?

The extension doesn't just serve Allen Parkway. It also picks up traffic coming from the southern end of downtown and midtown. Go hang out in that area today at 5:00. A LOT of northbound traffic flows through there (St. Joseph Parkway at I-45).

Which direction is more common? If it's I45 south, than this connector will not help that much - you'd be better off going through downtown. If there's that much traffic flow on that side of the city, than maybe they shouldn't do this relocation in the first place

My top choices for surface parking lot demise are : 1) Between the Marriott Marquis and Minute Maid Park, 2 and 3) the lots near the old Exxon Mobile tower, 4) the half lot on Main near the bars and 5) the one near what I believe is the Law College.

Or, better yet, you could check out the most-recent documents on their website.

It just makes me wonder about the road connections when we get the next update from TXDOT this year. The new highway will be south of the rail so Hardy Yards won't be impacted but I truly do wonder if they'll ever try to connect Fulton to San Jacinto. That would be a nice connection. Northside Village seems so hard to get in and out of. So little connections to highways and honestly the rail does increase travel times in the area.

Or, you could check out their website. If you look at the 4th public meeting documents, in Appendix G, page 22 has a section showing the 405-foot wide I-10. It's all raised, but with no vertical scale shown. I tried making a jpg of it, but the file didn't work, and the PDF is too big to attach.

moo.

that photo!!!

I can see it in my mind Timoric, a less than 1 mile stretch of land with freeway removed, and purchased by developers so they can make tons of money, meanwhile, the bus terminals, and homeless outreach centers aren't going to move, so it'll be just as unfriendly as current. Yet on the east side the freeway is going to go from spanning 220 feet wide to spanning 550 feet wide for ~1.5 miles, and local level access to downtown is going to be reduced by about 25%, 19 city blocks with existing businesses are going to be taken, and an entire community will be wiped out. Then on the north side the freeway, rather than being sunken into the ground as current, it will be flying through the sky at over 60 feet high right by Hardy Yards. And if you look at how things are currently on the west side of downtown at buffalo bayou, it's pretty much unchanged. hope that helps.

-

-

Wow, that is a surprise.

Well, this is a surprise (to me). TxDOT is planning to get the downtown I-45 cluster**** started by 2020/21, which will run the freeway right between UHD and Hardy Yards. I never expected that to happen at all, tbh. That's going to bite for the value of any skyline-view residential units that will now have a massive freeway right outside their windows. Do you think this will force a change in the layout we've seen?

haha...yeah sort of!...every week Tillman takes a look at 2 small businesses who offer some kind of service/product he may use within any or all of his businesses...at the end of each episode he flies the company to his Houston office and they throw the final pitch and he decides if he will use their product or not. Throughout the episode/process he helps them along the way with advice/ideas/opinions etc...many times you will see that those he does decide to work with have their life changed by having the business double, triple and more all because of Tillman buying/using their product/service. Its pretty educational and entertaining to watch in my opinion... My friends of the houston based company Bravado Spice were on the first episode ever and he decided to use their product in his restaurants and it definitely helped their business...and their company grow! More info here: http://www.papercitymag.com/culture/billionaire-tilman-fertitta-new-reality-show-billion-dollar-buyer-houston-love/

I work near this site and am hoping for some nice restaurants to open in the CEMEX building. Also looking for updated plans on the lengthening of Mathewson Ln from Conrad Sauer to Gessner Road which seams to be under construction now.

As someone looking to buy and move to Houston, I wonder why quality places like this are only residential. I think this would make a great condo for those with longer housing horizons.

I'll cut to the chase; no, these projects will not stunt the growth of Midtown. Why? Because LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION. Guess what, Midtown in the 1970s and 1980s was a cesspool. Even into the 1990s the place was better known for the bus station, drug dealers, male hustlers, a few industrial sized night clubs, and multiple gay sex clubs/bath houses but that didn't stop the first pioneers from building there and the second wave that followed when it felt a bit safer and the next batch of institutional investors (like Post) that put the place on the map to people who would have otherwise never have known about it. Today we're seeing parks, town houses, huge midrise apartment complexes and even plans for 3 major apartment towers. This, despite a health clinic for the poor. HACS has multiple locations. Do you know where they are? One is on Frostwood next to Centre City (Memorial). One is in the general Heights area on 18th. The third is in Spring-Cypress. Bering Omega is on Hawthorne Street in the heart of the Montrose. These are legitimate service providers. They've been a part of the community for a long time and have a great record.

HACS doesn't just serve "the homeless." It serves all types of people regardless of income levels. They provide a great service. Also, HACS and Bering Omega are combining forces and merging into one organization. Lots of gays live in and around Midtown. Lots of working class people work in downtown/midtown and live East of Main in the Third Ward. Plus, this will be on the light rail meaning it will service many other communities. So many people whine about our lack of urbanity and then a project like this pops up and everyone freaks out. Please, these types of places are a dime a dozen in New York, Chicago, Boston, San Fran, etc... Hell, my super expensive bowfront in Boston was ONE block from a massive housing complex (Villa Victoria). True mixed use is what a city center SHOULD be about. If you want a candy land UTOPIA you probably shouldn't have moved to Midtown. I hear Bridgelands is nice.

^^^ looks like joseph stalin.....

Is that Jeff Hildebrand standing on top of Hilcorp in the distance?

The Marlow being 70% sold is truly fantastic news for downtown.

Photos: First look at Cemex's new U.S. HQ in Memorial City

rooftop lighting was on tonight, an orange color, to match the development around the mall sorry, no pic.