Leaderboard

Although Houston is known for oil, and healthcare, its taken longer for all of the pieces to come together to finally have a more well rounded economic base. With the aerospace and medical technology starting to make noise and the upswing in the oil patch, the word is finally getting out that Houston is a world class city. The cultural inventory of Houston is 1st class, with a collection of museums that rival any, and a performing arts ensemble of Symphony, Ballet, Opera, and Theater. We've totally revamped our parks and recreation program adding hundreds of improved acres to our parks and hike and bike trails, making Houston a much more livable city. With the international population and diversity we are seeing more international travelers who come to see where their friends and family have chosen to settle. The word is out. Our airports may not be up to Asian standards of quality, but both airports have been upgraded and our port leads the nation annually in exports. Our tourism numbers are up and the residential growth in downtown all add up to a positive outlook for Houston. Heck, we just went through a recession and downturn in the oil market yet we continue to add new office towers, residential towers and industrial manufacturing facilities and capabilities. All this will slowly trickle down to the money and investors who are probably just beginning to take Houston more seriously. We will never rival New York and L. A. for the big bucks, but we will definitely reap our share. We'll be just fine. Look what we've done without much outside support.

Houston's not a coastal city? What's that thing down the Gulf Freeway - an overly ambitious puddle?

I think the idea being 200 acres on a natural(ish) waterway. It would be interesting to hear more of the sales pitch, presuming that no one would go through the trouble that these folks have already gone through just to make some fancy renderings. My guess is that it goes something like this: Waterfront development is cool Houston is expected to continue to grow 59N isn't that bad, and its close to the airport. The Woodlands is full, and this would cost 60% of what it would up there if it had the room. My equally bonkers counterproposal would be to create a massive flood control reservoir in the San Jacinto West Fork/Spring Creek/Cypress Creek basin and sell the surrounding waterfront property to people that build stuff like this. Call it Lake Harvey.

http://houston.culturemap.com/news/real-estate/05-09-18-bustling-downtown-houston-street-to-be-transformed-into-a-walkable-bike-friendly-corridor/?utm_source=sf_twitter This is great! This may hurt traffic a bit after theater shows, but they can deal with it imho. Edit: Asked one of the planners on Twitter for a timeline, and he said 1 year for design and 2 years for construction.

-

This really will be a special project and a ground floor unlike anything existing in Houston currently. Hines is also renovating the ground floor of 717 Texas and their plan is to make it a seamless transition between 717 Texas, Block 58, and Block 42 so they all will complement one another's ground floor experience.

Cloud Column is now accessible to the public:

I went to the Amtrak station in Houston when there was some special steam locomotive traveling through town. To call that place grim is a kindness. that locomotive was awesome though, the smell of grease and steam and oil almost overpowered the smell of urine.

Comparing the two Amtrak stations and their connectivity is comparing apples to rutabagas. Dallas Union Station is less than a mile from the TCR site, is on the edge of downtown (right across the tracks from Reunion), and also serves DART and the Trinity River Express. Houston's Amtrak station is about seven miles from the Northwest Mall site and is just grim. On the other hand, there's no reason why Amtrak couldn't relocate to the Northwest Mall site, or near it.

I have to stop coming to HAIF so much. Complaining about 2 high rises being too close together and implying that zoning would fix this “problem”? That post made the world a dumber place. Sorry to be rude but sometimes you just have to call stupid out.

My understanding is that the main building will stay for now. A new Chase building will be built on the SE corner of the block, at the corner of 19th and Nicholson, and the other 3/4 of the block, including the current bank building, will eventually be sold for development. I haven't seen plans for the new bank building.

Yes please! As it is, it's down to only 2 effective lanes because at rush hour, when the lanes are needed the most, there's always a cop or 2 parked in front of city hall. The traffic still flows, so if it was actually designed for 2 lanes it would definitely work.

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2018/05/08/houston-s-downtown-redevelopment-authority-picks.html

The Lubbock Architecture forum is around the corner sir.

Will these be designed to cater to more than the standard weekday/office crowd? With the redesign of Jones Plaza and longterm theater district plan, I’m curious as to whether Hines might be looking at this area for weekend festival/theater-going traffic.

Could that ramp look more tired? Geez. Get some paint or powerwash it. It's not Sharpstown!

I recently was in downtown LA and it reminded me a lot of Houston. While their resident population is significantly higher (27K i googled) than Houston's (I googled a little over 10K according to Wikipedia), they have a downtown population of 4,770/sq. mile vs. downtown Houston which has a population of 5,500/sq. mile (all on Wikipedia). Granted their downtown area is about 5 sq. miles and our is 2 sq. miles, and if we really wanted to compare apples to apples we'd have to include Midtown (but that doesn't fit my argument ha). However, i digress and will stick to actual conceptions of "downtown". I stayed at LA Live and they had a Whole Foods and a Ralph's to serve their downtown population within a very short walking distance. Their Whole Foods was pretty standard (what I'd expect the new Midtown one to be like... similar in size to the Montrose WF). But the Ralphs was very focused on hot bars, prepared meals, and such... most likely for the 9-5 downtown workers. However it was a great resource to shop of normal groceries (bread, eggs, pasta, butter, produce...etc) for the downtown dweller... limited but still had plenty. As a downtown dweller, nobody is asking for a suburban style HEB or Kroger with a massive space catering to every need. I tried shopping at Phoenicia but it was too speciality and the prices for everyday items were outrageous. We can surely have the next apartment developer pull a deal with a major grocer to build something on their main floor (potentially with space for additional retail). Outside of that, we desperately need a CityTarget. The Target at Sawyer Heights is just too busy and runs out of everything fast. Target would be smart to build a CityTarget downtown so us residents can buy what we need. If not, I guess Amazon Prime Now will continue to get my money for everyday items.

We need a magician to pull some renderings out of the hat. I'm sure someone here has seen the proposed building with a crown. We're all anxiously waiting to see them! We promise not to tell.

I love the W/washer dryer headliner!

https://www.chron.com/business/real-estate/article/Generation-Park-adds-Courtyard-by-Marriott-as-1st-12896900.php

Don't put this in Kingwood--build it at the KBR site.

cool! This part of Midtown needs a shot in the arm. Not one you can get near the greyhound station. I AM HILARIOUS!

Looks like Ethiopian secures 5th freedoms to operate IAH-Accra-Addis Ababa. No start date announced yet: https://www.google.com/amp/s/newsroom.aviator.aero/ethiopian-airlines-secures-rights-for-direct-flights-between-accra-and-texas/amp/

Yeah, so my understanding was Angostura's understanding: that the SE corner (the one fence off) will be the site of the new Chase building, and the big brown brick building will be sold off. There's a pavilion on the north side of that east block (I think of them as two blocks) that might have an ATM, I've never checked. That Chase building and corresponding parking lot is huge.

Oooh renderings More info in the theater district master plan thread I don't know which forum is more appropriate for this

Because we can't have nice things, they are replacing the bridge over San Jacinto, so there's new traffic for those continuing past Humble

I reverse commute to Humble and I can assure you it's the best highway in Houston

You mean LAF?

How do they put the siding on in between those?

And is a mezzanine market in the picture?

OK, you obviously win. Such development is entirely desirable, certainly common the country over, and Houston can now consider itself a "real city" like Milwaukee.

I mean, they could be closer together...

Demolishing the Pierce Elevated is not a foregone conclusion at this point, and shouldn't be as there are alternative opportunities worth discussing. It is certainly being decommissioned, and the latest economic study on the issue indicates an increase in investment in the area of the Pierce that would be 4 times greater if the Pierce were left in place as a linear space programmed (both below and on the elevated) for different activities and developments.

Indeed.

With the Pierce elevated getting demolished, I could see the McDonald's block getting redeveloped pretty quickly. Months of demolition and then no more cover would remove the streets under the Pierce elevated as a gathering place. The Chevron is one of the few gas stations in midtown, so I doubt it's going anywhere, but if more development comes in from the NE, it would likely have less people gathering there. That Texaco station is huge, and might be profitable enough nothing will happen with it until the land is worth enough for a highrise

So, as I mentioned in the Midrise/waterworks building thread, Chase Bank took out the ATMs at the drive through ATM spot on the eastern block last week. Today I drove by and saw that the southern two-thirds of the east block where the ATMs sit are fenced off and they are currently demolishing things.

Bisnow article link https://www.bisnow.com/houston/news/multifamily/downtown-crossed-8000-residents-in-april-88131 According to Bisnow, the overall residential occupancy is up to 71.6% at the end of Q1. Also Stating that downtown has the hottest rental submarket in February. Growing by 12.3% from November to January. The immediate downtown area now has over 8000 residents.

I live in Kingwood...there's no way this is happening. I hope I'm wrong but Kingwood and the people that live there are boring and would never support this.

YAAAAAASSSSS!!!!

I don't think it's been said enough. There have been some incredibly civic minded Houston, philanthropists over the decades. Really too many to name all. However in my mind the two most positive forces in Houston over the last decade has to be the Kinders. She was instrumental in raising the money for Discovery Green. They donated millions for the ongoing bayou beautification project. They have a new wing of the museum named in their honor, and 70 million, this week to the Memorial Park conservancy, to put a little git in their gitty up. Hats off to two outstanding transplants, who are doing the heavy lifting of Houston, into the 21st century!