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Request for variance signs are down. Soil samples are being taken today:

Got this shot from a block away:

It surprises me that what a private company does is now called a boondoggle. When the federal government gives oil companies over $19 billion in subsidies PER YEAR and their multi-million dollar projects fail... as in, don't present the amount of oil they expected to find or none at all, I don't see anyone calling their endeavors boondoggles. These rural people think it's a waste because they would never use this bullet train, not realizing that this project is quite honestly not for them, it's for the business class and regular folk travelling between Dallas and Houston. When I worked for CBRE, we had dozens of employees that frequently had to travel between our Dallas and Houston offices. We discussed this project and we agreed that CBRE would 100% use this bullet train over having to send our employees to waste time at an airport.

Long time lurker of the forum...first time poster. The main office tenant is Live Nation, they will be taking ~75K SF on floors 4,5 & 6.

Do you have a Microwave? Thats like 60-70 year old tech right? Thats not forward thinking. Do you drive a car? Thats like tech from the 1920's right? Thats not forward thinking. Do you have an Oven? Thats like several thousand year old tech right? Thats not forward thinking. Do you live in a House? We've been living in houses since we've lived in caves right? Thats definitely not forward thinking. You know what? Maybe others will shy away from pointing this out, but not me. You know what, this is a vanity a project....and who cares. Who gives a f. Let me tell you something, who are the ones that come up with the greatest ideas ever, the insecure guy or the confident guy. Who usually is the one that normally has financing for such projects, the poor guy or the rich guy? So it stands to believe that its normally really super confident, and rich dudes who will take on these endeavors. Are you saying that we don't want super confident rich motherfs to blow their money going to space or building their own trains both of which we will eventually ride? No we just want them to blow it on parties, and yachts right? So yeah it takes an ego to do these things. It takes an ego to say, you know what I don't like how things are now and instead of waiting for some schmuck to do it I'm going to do it myself. They don't waiting for anyone, they just do it. Great for them. Again I'll bring up SpaceX. Elon has stated very clearly that his main goal of SpaceX is that he wants to die on Mars. He literally started a space organization simply for that self-interest of wanting to die on another planet. Yeah thats a vanity project, but you know what we get out of that? Spacecraft that can go to Mars! You know what happens if TCR succeeds? We get High Speed rail from Houston to Dallas in 90mins. Even if it takes 100mins or 91min...who cares we didn't have it before, and now we will. We only call them vanity projects because on the outside it just looks like rich people throwing their money away, but that just isn't the case. Its normally these "vanity projects" that push civilization just a little bit here and there, and moves us forward. That is forward thinking. Its one step at a time. Whatever that is is something we should be supporting.

I'm beginning to think landowners against TCR are in the minority. Probably a few landowners that would never sell and people that aren't affected but hate eminent domain are the ones making the biggest fuss.

It's definitely a much better fit than where they're currently at in 2000 W Loop S! And thank you for the welcoming. This forum has helped me in the past, I figured it was time to start participating and contributing.

Skybridge to 1HC is open.

That offset angle is going to look so good as it gets tall.

The Instagram account makes this look like it's a place for "influencers" to smell each other's farts. I'm glad the building is occupied, but I doubt I will be a customer.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Frank-Liu-s-big-bets-on-urban-living-pay-off-15053303.php?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HC_AfternoonReport&utm_term=news&utm_content=headlines#photo-19026905 Frank Liu had an opportunity in 2001 to buy 109 acres in a working class section of Spring Branch for an enviable price: just over $1 per square foot. Yet he wasn’t immediately convinced the then-rough-and-tumble neighborhood — far off the radar of most Houston builders — would be the right spot for an upscale residential development. So he got in his car, day after day, and drove the area, passing overgrown lots and rusty warehouses. “At first I just didn’t quite fully get it,” Liu said on a recent tour of the property. “But then all of a sudden I realized when you have 109 acres it helps create that sense of community — even in a transitional area.” He bought the land, waited several years, and started developing it slowly and in phases. He hired a prominent architect to design a plan for the property and a “modern farmhouse” aesthetic for the homes, which have porches in the front and garages in the back, accessible by alleys. The first homes there sold for around $200,000 less than a decade ago. On HoustonChronicle.com: Former Barbara Jordan Post Office to be reborn as mixed-use project There are about 190 homes on the site today, selling for as much as $600,000 in the newest phase of the project. Liu, 63, has repeated this formula in other parts of town. He’s focused on neighborhoods in and around the 610 Loop where he could buy large enough parcels, by urban standards at least, to fashion miniature master-planned communities complete with dog parks, jogging trails and swimming pools. Over the past two decades, his company, InTown Homes, has built thousands of three- and four-story homes and townhomes in EaDo, South Main, Cottage Grove, Spring Branch and other close-in neighborhoods. Liu was often the first to go into these areas with new housing that pushed the limits on prices Houstonians had historically been willing to pay. “Really it’s Frank more than anybody else that convinced people we could have the kind of urban real estate environment we have today,” real estate analyst Scott Davis said. “He was the one who convinced people it could work at scale.” College ties Born in Taiwan, Liu, who owns a trio of real estate companies — InTown Homes, Lovett Commercial and Lovett Homes — moved to Vietnam a few years later when his father took a job as a textile engineer. He came to the United States in 1971 and to Houston two years later. Liu attended Rice University, graduating in 1978 with a civil engineering degree. In 1980, Liu and his college roommate started Lovett Homes, named after their dormitory at Rice. Lovett Commercial was founded in 1995 followed by InTown Homes in 2003 to focus on high-density housing in emerging neighborhoods. The companies have developed upwards of $3 billion in projects, including housing, shopping centers, offices and industrial buildings, throughout Texas. Chris Weekley, executive vice president at David Weekley Homes, which builds in many of the same markets as InTown Homes, began working in Houston’s urban real estate market about a decade ago. At that time, he recalls, the big names were Perry Homes and Frank Liu. “I would say there’s no doubt Frank and his team opened up various parts of the city and proved up areas,” Weekley said. He also noted Liu’s vast amount of real estate holdings and his ability to hold property for future development. “Through whatever means, he’s been able to hold land over the long term,” Weekley said. “We are buying something in today’s prices hopefully to sell homes in a year.” Top hits: Get Houston Chronicle stories sent directly to your inbox In an industry known for promoters and big personalities, Liu’s style is comparatively modest. He often speaks to student groups but rarely gives interviews, preferring to stay out of the public spotlight. “The young people talked me into doing this,” he said of a recent interview during the tour of his Spring Branch project, called Kolbe Farms. It’s gotten harder in recent years to keep such a low profile. In 2016 his family’s philanthropic foundation donated $16.5 million to Rice, launching the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The lab is an on-campus collaborative workspace space for students, faculty and staff that hosts lectures, competitions and workshops. Expanded ambitions In 2015, he was the winning bidder on the downtown post office property, a 16-acre complex on the north edge of downtown that’s being transformed into an array of mixed uses: culinary market, shops, coworking space, concert venue, hotel and rooftop farm. By repurposing the 57-year-old building, a state historical landmark, Lovett was able to earn federal and state historic tax credits. It’s likely Liu’s most ambitious project yet. He tapped OMA, an international architecture partnership founded by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas, and Hoerr Schaudt, the Chicago-based landscape architects behind Houston’s McGovern Centennial Park, to design it. Liu’s son, Kirby Liu, is leading the project, called POST Houston. The developer’s more recent investments have made headlines too. Listen on HoustonChronicle.com: The Loopie Awards reveal the best and worst of Houston real estate He spent $10 million late last year to buy the Farmer Brothers coffee plant in the East End, just south of Navigation where Turkey Bend curves off Buffalo Bayou. Liu hasn’t revealed what his plans are for the six-acre site, but it’s likely a ways off. The coffee maker stuck a deal to lease back the property for three years. The timing could align with the planned revitalization of Buffalo Bayou east of downtown. The Buffalo Bayou Partnership last fall announced a master plan for the eastern section of the waterway. Turkey Bend, near the coffee plant, is one of several sites the Partnership plans to repurpose into an arts and events facility, a boating center and gathering spaces. Spring Branch boom Back in Spring Branch, InTown Homes has broken ground on another large project called Avondale. The development has been designed to include 165 homes, each with a contemporary architectural style. The homes, which start in the low $300,000s, have flat or metal roofs with large overhangs, oversize picture windows and brick, stucco, cinder block and corrugated metal siding. Liu is hoping the modern designs will be attractive to Houstonians. A similar project in Austin, he said, was one of his most successful. Spring Branch has boomed over the last five to 10 years and competition has picked up among builders adding new homes catering to families and millennials who can’t afford inner-loop real estate. Prime Property: Get Houston real estate news sent directly to your inbox Liu said he emphasizes design as a way to set him apart. “Warren Buffet always says you don’t want to be in the commodity business. The commodity business is basically dog eat dog. You just compete on price,” he said. “You want to have something a little bit different. If someone really likes this feel, guess what, there’s not too many choices for them out there.” Competitive advantage Liu’s flexibility has offered other advantages. In 2010, he negotiated a deal with the city of Houston to be reimbursed $20 million in public infrastructure improvements to three future residential sites, including Kolbe Farms. The agreement was part of a statewide economic development program in which reimbursement dollars come from the the incremental property taxes the projects create. So if the homes are never built or enough taxes aren't generated, the developer is not reimbursed. Those kinds of deals take time and patience most builders don’t have, Weekley said. On HoustonChronicle.com: Architect Jon Pickard on how Houston could be better Davis, president of Houston-based Location Strategy, has followed local builders for much of his career. He compares Liu’s vision to that of Houston real estate legends whose careers were defined by their some of their biggest professional risks: George Mitchell, founder of The Woodlands; Frank Sharp, developer of Sharpstown; and Ed Wulfe, who transformed Meyerland Plaza. “There’s the kind of developer we refer to as a promoter; someone who has crazy ideas no one think will work but by their sheer will they can get it done. And Frank is not that kind of guy,” Davis said. “Frank’s projects are organized and planned and reasonable. There are no smoke and mirrors.” ‘Uniquely Houston’ Angela Blanchard, president emerita of BakerRipley, a community development organization, got to know Liu when he developed the group’s new home in the East End. She said his story is uniquely Houston. “He didn’t arrive with a trust fund or somebody that was going to bankroll anything he came up with,” she said. Blanchard, a senior fellow in International and Public Affairs at Brown University’s Watson Institute, invited Liu to speak at Brown last fall. The presentation was called Urban Social Policy Meets Real-World Capitalism. In an environment where society’s capitalistic ills are heavily scrutinized, she said, Liu’s talk was well received. “I’m sure he has his critics, every developer does,” Blanchard said. “But his is a true Houston entrepreneurial story — capitalist at its core. A man and a company evolving in response to a fast growing, dynamic region.” nancy.sarnoff@chron.com twitter.com/nsarnoff Nancy Sarnoff Follow Nancy on: http://www.facebook.com/nsarnoffnsarnoff Nancy Sarnoff covers commercial and residential real estate for the Houston Chronicle and the paper’s two websites: Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com. She also hosts Looped In, a weekly real estate podcast about the city’s most compelling people and places. Nancy is a native of Chicago but has spent most of her life in Texas.

I'll go ahead and be proactive... see below from Costar: Entertainment company Live Nation has signed an office lease for creative space under construction in Houston in one of the city's biggest office deals so far this year. Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter, is planning to take about 75,000 square feet on floors 4, 5 and 6 in one of the buildings at the 800 block of Westheimer in the Montrose Collective mixed-use project, according to sources familiar with the company's search for space. A representative for Los Angeles-based Live Nation declined to comment "at this time." Montrose Collective is being developed by Radom Capital, which just broke ground on the project Westheimer by the Uchi restaurant at 904 Westheimer. The area was recently named as one of the nation’s top 20 coolest streets in a report by Cushman & Wakefield because of its walkability, diversity, nightlife, food scene and vintage stores. Plans include a 150,000-square-foot project, with about 40,000 square feet of high-end shops and restaurants, plus about 110,000 square feet of office space. The project team behind Montrose Collective previously said a technology tenant leased 75,000 square feet of office space, but declined to identify the tenant. Live Nation describes itself as an entertainment company, but it owns Ticketmaster, a massive online ticketing platform. Live Nation's current Houston office is located about 4 1/2 miles west of Montrose Collective at 2000 West Loop South in the Uptown-Galleria area, according to Moody Rabin, which leases the building for the owner. Live Nation leases about 48,000 square feet at 2000 West Loop South in a lease that expires in December 2021, according to Moody Rambin. It is not clear if Live Nation plans to vacate the space or use the Montrose area space as an expansion of its Houston operations. Live Nation, which posted $8.7 billion in revenue for the first nine months of last year, has been expanding its footprint elsewhere around the country. The company recently signed a 40,000-square-foot lease in a two-level space in a proposed high-rise in Seattle at 1200 Stewart, according to media reports. In December, Live Nation was also in talks to lease 40,000 square feet in a new Nashville project proposed at Fourth Avenue South and Chestnut Street. Live Nation declined to comment on any of its recent real estate leases. The entertainment company made almost $254.6 million in profit for the first nine months of last year, up about 13% from the same time the previous year, according to its most recent earnings results. Last fall, the company announced it had booked more than 1,500 stadium concerts and festivals in 2020, posting double-digit growth from the same time in 2018. Its full year 2019 earnings have not yet been released. Live Nation is under fire from anti-trust enforcers at the Justice Department for allegedly violating an agreement that allowed its merger with Ticketmaster in 2009. The agreement, which was recently extended into 2025, prohibits Live Nation from forcing venues to use Ticketmater instead of its competitors. The Justice Department has accused Live Nation of strong-arming six venues into using Tickemaster, which the concert giant has denied, according to media reports. Meanwhile, other large office deals signed in Houston so far this include a renewal and expansion by Enterprise Products Partners in downtown Houston at 1100 Louisiana for 512,845 square feet; about 92,500-square-foot sublease for EDP Renewables North America at 1501 McKinney St., also in downtown; and a 69,000-square-foot sublease in Houston's Uptown-Galleria area at 1500 Post Oak Blvd. for Sempra Energy, according to CoStar data.

This is contemporary high-speed rail. Brand new, newly designed trains running over 200mph. This is forward-thinking today.

I don't understand the idea that this is a "vanity project." It's high-speed transit that cuts travel time between Houston and Dallas to an hour and a half. And it has real potential to function as a proof of concept that makes additional routes less of a nightmare to get built. I get that plenty of people will still drive, but this would completely eliminate any reason to ever fly between Houston and Dallas as far as I'm concerned. A flight is only about 15 minutes quicker, and that's not counting getting through security, so time-wise it's a wash at worst. The difference in comfort between a train seat and a plane seat is so far beyond night and day.

That's kind of the one thing that Emmett did that I didn't like; whether you agree with the decision or not, the Harris County voters spoke in 2013 when they voted against the bond proposal, but Emmett pretty much said "forget them, we're going to spend a lot of money on the Astrodome anyway." So I'm glad to see Hidalgo shelve that idea, but she needs to do something and not just let it continue to molder for several more years, the right thing to do is rip the bandaid off and tear the thing down. It's time to just say goodbye. The original Yankee Stadium was even more storied than the Astrodome, but NYC didn't keep it around when the built the new one. We've now built two new venues to replace the Astrodome's purpose, and it hasn't been used in at least a dozen years, and it's been sitting there disintegrating all this time. Several proposed plans to put the building to a reuse have failed to come to fruition. The site could be put to so many better uses, and in the meantime the county is paying all sorts of costs to keep it around, not to mention the lost opportunity cost of selling off the land or putting it to a revenue generating use. There's preservation, and then there's just foolish sentimentality.

Solar Energy: Wind Energy: Heavy lift Rocket for manned space flight Rural Broadband Internet

i am so darn happy they are keeping that existing beautiful building! cannot wait to check it out when they are open!

Ohh I really hope so.. this and the other one off main...it no offense against them just feel the area has evolved past these places and could be put to better use...like restate

Well the art deco movement began right about 100 years ago so in true Houston tradition these must to torn down lest we have designs that are near or over 100 years old. All to be replaced by a pine framed, hardie plank clad beige block of units that will look dated before the first tenant even moves in.

https://www.ricethresher.org/article/2020/01/owl-house-properties-draws-controversy-over-new-building

Japan is doling out huge amounts of money in Asia and India to spread Shinkansen train technology to compete with Chinese train tech. Honestly I think they're waiting on the sidelines until TCR has FRA approval then they will make substantial financial contribution. There is a significant amount of Japanese pride tied into the Shinkansen and TCR abandoning it probably wouldn't go over well. Friend's parents are hoping to cash out as they're getting too old to maintain the land. Their kids aren't too happy but when they asked who was going to move out there and take care of farm...crickets.

^^^ there seems to be so many renderings/concepts/depictions... currently, for the MONTROSE COLLECTIVE... that i am not all that certain, as to what is actually being constructed...?

Subdivision Plat filed for multifamily at 1933 Dryden SubdivisionPlatPDF_19-0072-PLAT.pdf Rather unfortunate as these two homes currently sit on the site.

But this is what's going to happen with those local stops... they'll be underutilized and it will reduce the profitability of this project because those times of slowing down, stopping, waiting for passengers, and then starting back up again, could have been spent on keeping the train at a sustained high speed, getting more passengers from one city to the other. Thus, eliminating the competitiveness with the airlines. Perhaps they could offer an express and local route. But look, it's these long distant small town stops that are decimating Amtrak. I highly encourage people to watch the video on Youtube about Amtrak profitability. The Amtrak routes that actually make Amtrak profitable are the lessened stops from one major destination to the next. Amtrak is trying to cut off the long distant small town stops but there's political backlash across the nation for them doing it, even though small towns rarely even use them.

@Luminare big HAIFer coming in to censor your post.

To be fair to the rurals, I think many of them fully realize that it won't be for them, and that's why they don't like it. Of course, the weird compromise "university" station that isn't actually in College Station or Huntsville is kinda effectively also a "rural" station.

Drove past this place Saturday night and it looked REALLY nice on the inside. (You can see the inside clearly from the street). Lots of cars and valet. Great to see something happening on that corner. Normally full of male prostitutes.

Major lease transactions 2019-early 2020. http://www.downtowndistrict.org/static/media/uploads/attachments/major_lease_transactions_in_downtown_houston_january_and_ye_2019.pdf

that is a great analogy. working downtown is great.

I would too. I miss the charm of downtown. The plethora of dining options. The ease of transit. The parks. The souless suburban blandness is really depressing. It's like a daily dose of plain oatmeal- wholesome but so unexciting.

The Chartres ramp to I-10 west is open again...

Wait, you guys know people specifically bought land to sit on it and wait for these people to buy it from them, right? Vanity project or not, parts of that land was land people held in the hopes of selling it for this train.

Hope landowners are fairly compensated and let it happen. Or, eminent domain takes over.

Exactly! And, having been back and forth to the little village up north so many times not just in my younger days, but in the past few years, I've noticed a lot more soul sucking sameness (to quote Don Henley) has taken root there rather than here. It's as if they've somehow got into their heads that because Houston got away with the ugliness and strip malls for decades while still growing phenomenally, that now they too, will try this approach? I mean that place is so incredibly boring anyway (my apologies to my dear friends who live there), but now the "architecture" (and I use that term loosely) is taking a nose dive. Way to go up there ! I'm so damned proud of Houston's ability to reinvent and change with the times and progress towards the future now, rather than later. It is why we remain the largest city in Texas and 4th largest (almost 3rd largest) in the country. Yes, there are many many other factors that have gotten us so far up in status over our 184 year history, but never underestimate the prestige of big bucks combined with aesthetics and forward thinking, and the willingness to take some real risks, when other places remain so stuck and frightened of the future. As far as this project, I tend to like it from a distance as well. But, when you get close, there is a sort of throwback to the not so distant past that seems a big over value-engineered. Still, I'd rather have this project at this location rather than another ugly concrete lifeless parking lot. Our potential for downtown skyscraper growth is through the roof now. Problem mostly being with this question - Will those with the capitol to make it happen and the will to go big and tall, start to really take the next big leap in true Texas style and stay bully on Houston ? Time will tell. My bet is on an answer of yes, and not too far in the future. Our financial and population diversity can only help as we go forward into this unsettled future in America. Can't help still chuckling about the former name for the project "Milhaus" Midtown. I still see the Simpson's character in my mind somehow as a huge moniker on the side of the building welcoming renters LOL !

So it goes...

The glass on the garage is starting to be installed.

The end product should work out much better for the area, I think HC was supposed to be some massive mall complex that was cut way short. I'm not sure if the original designs would have held up better had that vision come to pass, but this has some real potential. Add some more residential and whatever else they're doing with the Skanska stuff, and you have the DG walking area radius looking like a really great neighborhood.

Update as of last night. I had said I was going to get some aerials of uptown a while back and finally made the trip.

Heard this will be first floor retail, second floor office space and maybe a rooftop lounge? http://powersbrown.com/commercial-3/adaptive-reuse/908-live-oak/ Sign will stay so you can live, @j_cuevas713.

Found this old aerial of Grand Central. I can't make out that old post office building in this photo. If it was built back in the 30s, it should be visible in this picture, slightly to the east and right behind that other building.

Better lighting for pics with the cloud cover. Guys were here working today.

I mentioned the issues with Esperson's floor plates a day or two ago. However, a lot of the lease space in Pennzoil is cleared out glass to glass, so one can build out however one wishes. The elevator cabs are recently redone, and there is a gym in the building - about all that's really lacking is some sort of bicycle facility (if there isn't one already - I don't spend much time lurking in parking garages).

If they remove the WALD sign I will literally die