[The Great Hizzy!]

I'm thinking public plaza of some sort but a hotel would work as well, given the location and the activity, especially on nights and weekends.

[WestGrayGuy]

I would like to see some mixed use development fill up this whole block. Clubs facing Main and Prarie with some sort of parking above. Perhaps residential above that.

[Montrose1100]

Can one repost there infared pictures again, the blocks are mixed up in my head.

[The Great Hizzy!]

I can't post the infrareds, Monty, but it's the empty block east of the southbound platform of the Red Line @ Preston Station. To the south is Suedea, Boaka Bar and th Mercury Room. Across Main Street are Opus, M Bar and Saba. Above it is Live! and Subway.

Hope that helps.

How about a fountain with fancy lighting? I realize Market Square is nearby but a city can never have too many public spaces, IMO.

[jt16]

I like the idea of public space here. It's central to the downtown area, and surrounded by clubs and bars. It seems like a natural gathering spot. I don't think you can compare this spot to other "failed" public spaces...like Market Square, which are poorly designed and in bad locations. I think you would need a lot of private money to make it happen though. Take a stroll through NYC's Central Park. Just about every major attraction has been "generously underwritten with funds from so-and-so". I would like to see more of that in Houston.

[Montrose1100]

The Great Hizzy!, on Wednesday, September 1st, 2004 @ 3:13pm, said:

I can't post the infrareds, Monty, but it's the empty block east of the southbound platform of the Red Line @ Preston Station. To the south is Suedea, Boaka Bar and th Mercury Room. Across Main Street are Opus, M Bar and Saba. Above it is Live! and Subway.

Hope that helps.

How about a fountain with fancy lighting? I realize Market Square is nearby but a city can never have too many public spaces, IMO.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think I remember which one, It just would help with the map, as it did before...

Have a good day!

[Houston Retail]

ill try to get a map up tommorow.

[houstonsemipro]

Is main event is still going on weekends? Just wanted to know more about main event. If it is, it is crowed?

[SpaceCity]

The more residential, the better. How about a mixed use hotel/condo tower?

[Subdude]

I'm always the nay-sayer. But I just don't think "mixed-use residential" is the highest and best use for every single property. This block is surrounded by bars. Sorry, but not all that many people want to spend their money to listen to drunks hollering at 2 AM and smell stale beer and sick on the sidewalks when they get up in the morning. A hotel might make sense if not for the glut of hotel rooms downtown and the proximity of the Magnolia and Icon hotels. It is those ugly real-life facts that make blocks like this a challenge to develop.

I thought the idea in the old forum of a Deco Diner or Dennys was a good one, although they obviously wouldn't fill the whole block. Maybe a fire station on the Fannin side?

[houstonsemipro]

[Subdude]

List is a duplicate post. See Downtown topic area.

[UrbaNerd]

Wow, the tunnel list is quite large....

[largeTEXAS]

I'd like to see a smaller scale hotel development with retail on the first and second floors. Maybe 5-8 floors. Eventually, the bars will fade from this part of Main. It wil be prime for soft good retailers and tourists. Main should eventually be a good mix of retail and restaurants - It's our best hope for a real strip like 5th Avenue or Michigan Ave.

[dbigtex56]

This looks like a short-term solution block. Let's take the Houston approach and put a couple of fast-food restaurants on this block, or cheap entertainment. I hope the owners would accept a five year lease. It will be properly developed in the future. Let's put anything there in the meantime.

[Subdude]

I wonder if blocks like this ever will be developed. Is it really inevitable? A lot of these blocks, and several large buildings downtown, have been vacant for decades. It is a great thing to see the redevelopment that has occurred, but in many areas there are still 40 years of neglect to overcome. The biggest example is the vacant blocks in the southern part of downtown. I wouldn't be shocked if they remain vacant another 30 years. Of course I hope I'm wrong.

LargeTexas I agree the bars will eventually fade. Nightclub strips generally don't stay fashionable for long. I wonder if there's any way to speed the process up so more balanced development can occur.

[Sunstar]

Does anyone still have a copy of those overheads that they can post?

[pwright1]

UrbaNerd, on Tuesday, September 7th, 2004 @ 7:34pm, said:

Wow, the tunnel list is quite large....
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What a shame. It makes no sense.

[UrbaNerd]

pwright1, on Saturday, December 25th, 2004 @ 12:47pm, said:

What a shame.  It makes no sense.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OOps, I though that list was for the tunnel,a nd not Main st!

[Sooner&RiceGrad]

Gee... how much life would we be seeing downtown?