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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/space/article/Houston-Spaceport-announces-Collins-Aerospace-as-16188126.php This is huge! Collins Aerospace will be building a manufacturing and startup incubator facility at the Houston Spaceport. It looks like the city will be lending $25.6 million to build a 120,000 sf building on an 8 acre site? Construction starts in June. Collins does lots of life support equipment work, especially with space suits. They’ll be expanding their presence in Clear Lake as they have a campus at Saturn Lane and NASA Parkway currently. This is especially awesome as Collins is a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies (created from the merger of Rockwell-Collins, Raytheon, and United Technologies Corporation), a Fortune 100 company (I believe).

More details (compilation of Houston Chronicle and Houston Business Journal articles): Collins Aerospace: Collins (through their Hamilton Sundstrand subsidiary) will be building a $25.6 million 120,000 sf manufacturing and office building to be complete by the end of 2022 on 8.4 acres with a 10,000 sf spaceflight startup incubator. This will have capacity for 250 employees and will be used for manufacturing life support systems for civil spaceflight (I'm speculating that they have an agreement to provide ECLSS for Axiom's space station). The city will own this facility. Collins has a right of first refusal option to purchase an additional 8 acres within 3 years. Axiom Space: Axiom will be using $4 million of airport system money and a memorandum of agreement to begin design of their complex. This will be a $120 million, 430,000 sf facility that will include high bay, hangar, flight development and testing, office, and astronaut facility space on 22.5 acres with a right of first refusal on another 9.8 acres. The airport system/city are expected to provide financing later this year for the rest of Axiom's facilities which will begin construction in late 2021 or early 2022. The city will own this facility. Below are progress pictures of their space station. And their assembly plan: Next anchor tenant: A third major anchor tenant is expected to be announced soon. Great quote here from City Council Member Abbie Kamin: “The fact that we are revitalizing the space industry here in Houston is remarkable, that we’re bringing business, we’re bringing jobs and space exploration back to Space City.”

TMC3 during the storm this week.

Working on the last floor, the 12th floor.

It could be a new permanent venue for year round Shen Yun. 3 things are certain in life. Death, Taxes, and Shen Yun.

More work on the east side of the development

Those don't look very dead to me. Look closely -- there is lots of green hiding behind the dead branches. If they clear out the dead vines on top, they will grow back.

Apparently, by law, all TIRZ are required to allot a certain amount of their funds to developing "affordable housing" and they're free to spend that money and develop that housing anywhere within the county, even outside of their TIRZ. George Coleman has used this as a loop hole to buy up large amounts of land in the Third Ward, ostensibly to set it aside to develop affordable housing. However, truthfully, he's used it in his own personal crusade to fight gentrification by holding land in perpetuity, then deed restricting it when it does get redeveloped so that only low-income housing ever gets built there. If you wanna know why Third Ward isn't seeing large scale redevelopment, like Montrose, the Fourth Ward, and other such Inner Loop neighborhoods, that's why.

I may have messaged them and asked when and if they’ll build. 🥸

Phase 1 (preliminary design) Design was approved at the city council meeting this week. This should finish in 10 months. With Phase 2 (final design and real estate acquisition) Design finishing in 2 years. https://houston.novusagenda.com/agendapublic/CoverSheet.aspx?ItemID=22421&MeetingID=484 https://communityimpact.com/houston/heights-river-oaks-montrose/environment/2021/05/20/houston-oks-11-million-contract-for-north-canal-project-design/

A little less than a year later.

a topic for another thread, but allowing a TIRZ (and whatever associated redevelopment authority they set up) to buy land that is outside of its official boundary should be against the rules of the TIRZ system.

The Falun Gong are probably trying to figure out a way to move into the recently-vacated Chinese Consulate on Montrose and repurpose it for year-round Shen Yun.

Coleman was my State rep during the 5 years we lived in Midtown. He was worthless then too. I could never get a rational explanation for anything from his office. Banking 80 acres of land using tax dollars is reprehensible, especially when there is no plan on developing the land. None of that land is paying taxes, it's not serving a useful purpose, and it's annoying. At a minimum, the derelict buildings should be demolished, and the grass and weeds cut regularly.

This was purchased by one of the owners of 1886 Humble Backyard. Any development here would be in the "far future".

*Googles 1886 Humble Backyard* "Woo boy, we gonna have a honky tonk in the East End!"

After some digging, these addresses link back to Braun Enterprises. No note of the Commerce St work but they specialize in a lot of "revitalization" projects. I can see this either being a fugly office space or a mindfully designed mixed use building - they unfortunately have a lot of both. Permits indicate this may be a two story building which makes me think it could yield some first floor retail. Time will tell https://www.braunenterprises.com/

Not sure how I stumbled across this post, but wow yes brings back memories. I worked at Dream Merchant in the later 80's with Chris, Michael (tall), Flaca, forget the asian's name, but what a crew. Helped Dee open Rattleskate and Surf in one of the little houses in the back. Sound Exchange was Record Exchange when I shopped there and yes bought my first Culturecide Album. The first record I ever bought there was a Texas compilation Cottage Cheese from the Lips of Death had Butthole Surfers, Really Red, D.R.I. yep that's right they WERE from Houston not California. V/A - Cottage Cheese From The Lips Of Death [FULL COMPILATION ALBUM] - YouTube I lived on the streets around Montrose. Used to love to hang out on the side walk outside Numbers. Ended up moving to Houston Studies and became the maintenance man there for several years. Frequented the Axiom, AMC Apocalypse Monster Club, Cabaret Voltaire, Saw Black Flag, Dead Kenedys several times at various clubs around Numbers. I remember seeing the Sexacusioner from GWAR rollerskating around the Montrose Art Festival in 1987 or 88 passing out promo flyers and ended up seeing them play for the first time at one of those clubs near by. I could go on and on I was 18-20 years old then, 53 now. Whew... Michael McCutchan

Because different shows work better with different-sized venues. By your logic, presumably, they will be closing the House of Blues as well? I have seen nothing that indicates that the The Terminal is "clearly meant to be a replacement" for Bayou Music Center. To the contrary, Live Nation spokespeople have suggested the opposite: "The Terminal will be a great addition to the live music scene in Houston giving artists and fans more options to connect at concerts,said Sherri Sosa, President, Venue Nation" “It fits perfectly into the Houston market, where there isn’t a 5,000 capacity venue,” says Tim Jorgensen, vice president of operations for Live Nation. “The sweet spot for artists to engage with fans is often Terminal size. We’re filling a basic Houston need and indeed expect to thrive.”

It's a senior building...i am surprised there are even stairs!!! 🙃

This looks terrible to me. The staircases on the outside of the building! For prime property like this, I would have liked to see something nice.

Spoke to someone working on the Night Shift project who estimates they are "just weeks out" from a soft opening. Their insta shows they'll have a kitchen and the work done by rootlab looks amazing. I can't wait!

You can thank the combination of Garnet "Not in my Neighborhood" Coleman and the Midtown RDA for piling up lots of land East of 288. Coleman is vehemently against gentrification, and thinks that he is the only thing standing between the Third Ward and a bunch of new people buying townhouses there. Personally, I want Coleman to just go away. I am annoyed that tax dollars have been used to accumulate several million square feet of land that is sitting there doing nothing and not contributing to the tax base. A quick search on HCAD shows 474 properties owned by the Midtown RDA. That's ridiculous. Maybe Coleman will work with Rice to use some of that land. https://kinder.rice.edu/2016/05/25/third-ward-looks-to-shift-the-gentrification-conversation https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112888084

Actually, I think the replacement for Bayou Music Center is the The Terminal at Post HTX, which will also be a Live Nation venue. I think “new venue” might be intended for the symphony if they chose to leave Jones Hall for new digs. If they stay at Jones Hall (which I’m in favor of due to its history), the Bayou Place tract becomes all mixed use development. This is the only explanation I see for the different ZC renders. https://zieglercooper.com/projects/bayou-place/

I know this is a senior living facility, but to release the rendering in black and white only is a bit rude.

"New Venue" is definitely intriguing. I doubt the symphony will want to move even closer to the bayou and its flooding but perhaps engineering can make them feel safe. The problem from what I've heard is that they get a lot of money from Houston Endowment and if they leave Jones Hall, it will kind of hurt Houston Endowment's feelings and endanger the money flow. The symphony had something like $200 million raised for a renovation of Jones Hall a few years ago which never happened, I think due to Harvey. Wonder what they did with the money.

They don't take care of the lots they own at all and leave all the houses abandoned. I feel they are responsible for half the blight of the 3rd ward. Literally make the area look like crap and then say they are needed to "fix" it.

that's being a bit kind, my understanding is that the Midtown TIRZ has purchased a lot of land East of 288.

dang, that is old, I only remember the dead sea being sick.

Work was authorized by a House Public Works Committee resolution on Feb. 17, 1950

The walkability of a neighborhood is pretty tightly correlated with the average parcel size within it. Any parcel as large as a city block is as likely as not to be complete crap. Compare this streetscape: ...with this one: If this area was to have any hope of being an interesting, walkable, horizontal-mixed-use neighborhood, the plot of land that eventually became the Target would have had to be replatted, continuing the street grid from the other side of Sawyer, into parcels with, say 25 to 50 feet of frontage each, exempted from setbacks and parking minimums. 20 years later, you would have had a neighborhood within a 10-minute bike ride of downtown, filled with half-million-dollar townhouses, small mid-rise apartment buildings, and street-level retail, and you could grow it west and south as other warehouses came on the market. This is basically how the Heights came about (except greenfield instead of brownfield.) But in a world where it's pretty easy to finance a huge multi-acre development there's not much reason to develop in this way anymore.

That bend in Buffalo Bayou around the Police Officers' Memorial has been there since before the memorial was built. It's present in a 1915 topographic map. They recently did some channel work there, but the bayou wasn't redirected.

Yep. JSC has been an uncapitalized asset for decades. That is changing. It seems inevitable that Clear Lake will become the "space TMC" but engaged leaders can help it be more successful. Just at Houston Spaceport you already have a major astronaut training facility (jets and the Neutral Buoyancy Lab) so with Axiom I think this has the potential to launch (again, pun intended) the Houston Spaceport. I really hope the whole area reaps the benefits and I think it will. Clear Lake needs some work and redevelopment to support world class work like this. Just last week Nanoracks (headquartered here) installed the first commercial airlock on the ISS which will be used for research and business purposes. In addition, Collins Aerospace (business unit of Raytheon Technologies) is growing their workforce by a considerable amount at their offices in Houston. It's an exciting time for the area and I hope they seize on the opportunities to make it the best it can be. Houston has the ability to become the center of the space economy and I really hope it seizes on that opportunity.

Just want to make sure everyone understands the gravity (pun intended) of this. There are three space stations (realistically) under development in the world. China's space station, the lunar gateway, and Axiom's station. The lunar gateway is being led by NASA Johnson and Axiom's will be developed and built right here in Houston. Axiom's station is the first commercial space station that I believe will actually make it up, NASA has already given them money and access to a port on the ISS. There have been many proposals but this one is the most serious to date. They are building modules to attach to the ISS then eventually will break their station off which will be used for tourism and on-orbit manufacturing. In spaceflight, this is a huge deal and Houston could become the center of space manufacturing and space tourism because of it. I am extremely excited to see what this does for Houston.

I am a long-time resident of Third Ward and disagree with your characterization of Garnet Coleman who I know and who is my state Rep. Vacant lots aren’t unique to TIRZ zones and holding them for extended periods of time until suitable development is reached isn’t either. Your definition of suitable development (e.g. gentrification) doesn’t override the development wishes of current Third Ward residents who also have agency and some power in the area, which seems to vex some non/recent residents. Additionally, wanting Coleman to just “go” doesn’t rest with you, but with the majority of voters who overwhelmingly support him.

MRA is currently claiming they don't have the funds develop all the land they hold and aren't willing to work other affordable housing organizations. Maybe they would have the money if they hadn't spent several million dollars on an affordable housing think tank...

The Rice Endowment is considering funding for affordable housing in the vicinity of the Ion/Innovation Corridor, and elsewhere in Third Ward.

They're also at street level. The freeway is several feet below street level. It would have filled with and retained the coldest air, creating its own microclimate. Exposing the vines to temperatures a few degrees lower over a longer period of time could have made the difference between survival and death.

It seems like a lot of people on here are obsessed with cranes so here’s an interesting one for y’all. I assume this will be used to build the 500 foot launch integration tower. I think it has been nicknamed “Frankencrane” by some reporters.

Big wish, but the lights on the bridges need a lot of work again. I had some friends visiting from Dallas. They thought the bridges were cool, but the lights were half burnt out, strobing, and out of sync. They should probably just turn them off again.

are they going to plant new ones?

Apologies for the terrible picture, but isn’t the frame for the icehouse? This pic was taken on Hirsh Rd going over the bridge.

Siding and roofing panels are being installed.

If and when it gets built.

Do it right or don't do it all. After all, this is the first sign the aliens/martians will see upon entering not only Houston, but potentially Earth.