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Updated renderings.

It's amazing how much this part of Downtown has changed / continues to change with the help of Discovery Green. When I moved here in 2002 I wouldn't even consider walking by this area... now it's my neighborhood.

http://texasinnovates.org/texas-innovates-campus/

From the article, “The Laura will reference the industrial feel of a steamboat, according to its interior designers, and will feature a dog park, pool, outdoor yoga space and lawn games. Midway projects Phase One will be completed late next year or in early 2023.” First time I’ve seen a completion date for Phase 1 be publicly announced.

"How many fluff pieces are we going to get on this project?!? Just break ground already, for god's sake!" -Every single HAIFer

Is that a city vehicle doing ground contaminant testing? The vision.... The reality...

Hopefully this does get built and the city builds a bridge on Velasco St. over to the East River project. It would be in the wooded area.

They don't know yet so everyone needs to have a little patience on this one. They're very actively engaging various stakeholders in the community, meaning they're taking a very long-term approach to the site.

This is clearly a rare example of a large early 20th century commercial structure with a perfectly intact façade. Comparing it to cardboard structure like Camden owned by a soulless REIT clearly shows everything that is wrong with this town. This area had dozens of acres of empty lots that could have houses this ugly apartment complex.

Here is the rendering. Looks great! An actual timeline of the Inner Katy BRT, too.

I find it interesting that whenever this project is mentioned on Nextdoor, it seems people are SO against it, so then I retreat back to HAIF to be among my excited people.

If this building was not historic, then no warehouse building in Houston is historic. There are probably a dozen warehouse buildings left that are brick with wooden timber beams. Then you have some with brick and concrete beams, then you have metal warehouses, which are probably 80% of Houston's warehouse stock, and concrete block or tilt wall warehouses making up another 15%. No one thinks anything is historic until someone sees its potential and cleans it up and renovates it. Then everyone says "Wow, yeah, that is historic!", not remembering that they would have condemned it a year before. But any non-renovated buildings standing nearby, they still say, "Yeah, those aren't really historic though. Looks like they're about to fall down." The only thing that makes this teardown palatable is the thought that this whole area is destined to be mid-rises or high-rises, so this was destined to go anyway. Or if there were like an actual engineering report showing that it was indeed about to fall down (unlikely), then it would be palatable.

That's where the treasure is buried. Obviously.

I am in Second Ward as well, and see those posts pop up sometimes too. I think it's mostly the long term residents who view it as another catalyst for gentrification and further displacement. While this project obviously will not displace anyone directly, it will undoubtedly contribute to further development that might and will put upwards pressure on property taxes for any homes in the general vicinity, which are already a burden on long term residents and their families. I'm not exactly gung-ho about gentrification in a general sense, but when the alternative is empty overgrown lots, dilapidated houses, abandoned cars, and dumping grounds full of appliances, tires, building supplies, etc. in the shadows of downtown (as is the case in the East River area of Fifth Ward and Second Ward across the Bayou), it is easy to be a cheerleader for Team Gentrification.

Someone in the zoom meeting with Rep. Garcia joked that the quickest way to get UP to fix the issue would be to allow those blocked by the train the right to start unloading its cargo after 30 mins of waiting.

Berkadia finally came out with 1Q 21 Houston Construction Pipeline Report PDF. Seems to me some they have as proposed have already started. These screen grabs are from the Central Houston Proposed list. https://www.berkadia.com/research-and-resources/search-reports/?report_query=houston&state_code=TX&report-category[]=construction-pipeline-report

Samagon, I say this in all seriousness (not for the sake of argument), if you know where in Houston there is a large number of warehouses with large timber beams, please let me know. I would like to discover where such buildings are. From what I can tell, the only part of town where such buildings were built is within about a 1.5 mile radius of the center of downtown, Texas @ Main. Any further out and things were built later. Even within this area, many of the warehouses are later construction with concrete beams. As for parts being remade and added to, you can tell by the demolition photos that pretty much the whole building was large wooden beams. And note that I am not talking about a style, I am talking about a whole type of construction. Try to think about what I'm saying instead of just inserting your standard comments about how saving old styles doesn't matter, there's always going to be new styles, etc.

Joey's Uptown LOOKS incredible and looks ready to open soon... currently they are hiring all positions but looks like training may have begun from the looks of walking by: https://joeyrestaurants.com/uptown

https://ridemetro.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=5&clip_id=2141&meta_id=53819 Also a rendering of a potential Memorial Park station on the Inner Katy BRT!

New Chronicle article: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Massive-Fifth-Ward-project-takes-shape-and-may-16200105.php Not sure there's anything new here, but some more press.

Dug published an update to the University Line BRT. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/Hoping-for-federal-funds-Metro-trying-to-move-16200166.php TLDR: Going to be "fast-tracking" the segments between Westpark/Lower Uptown TC to Wheeler and from Wheeler to Eastwood TC. Aiming for federal approval in Sept 23 and hoping for federal funds then and construction afterwards. This may not be true. Sounds like all 5 segments will be green-lit at once.

Grand projects are always much easier in countries with concentration camps and slave labor.

Oh boy. Right next door to a small lead fabricating company and a large mound of earth encircled by security fencing.

wondering if anyone has an update on plans for a roundabout at this intersection? Those stoplights are horribly long and unnecessary for portions of the day.

Yes because old structures in this city are at a premium. If we hadn't torn down all the beautiful architecture around the old courthouse downtown or the area across from Moonshiners, which is now a parking lot, there wouldn't be as much disappointment. So saving any amount of beauty in old architecture, big or small, is important for this city. Also the charm of the era from over 100 years ago is simply worth saving.

Especially driving by at night!

That is interesting and not at all what I've observed on my local neighborhood groups on Nextdoor, which is based all around the East River site. The entire local neighborhood is very eager for this to get started, in fact it is a primary reason so many people have moved to the area and why so many homes are being built. Where is the opposition coming from, that you have observed?

WTF is this? hahaha

Is that a helipad in the park? Wonderful to see this area get built out, gives me hope for the other oceans of asphalt in downtown.

It's amazing how a nice park can turn a frog into a prince.

Lord it was hideous. We’ve come a long way.

I appreciate the mention from Zieglercooper for my pic.

I received an email with a .pdf today from when I requested leasing information a while back. Look like units start to be available in August.

That looks amazing. Houston could never get anything this cool. It would get value-engineered into a box covered in fake stucco. I could see something like this being built in a more innovative place like China, though.

Looks amazing! ....but it appears they have no money. Not sure tax credits or TIRZ money is going to get this done. Well, they are interested in micro housing... http://texasinnovates.org/micro-housing/

Sounds like they are trying to get federal funding under Biden's Infrastructure Plan... let's hope this thing passes.

This thing is wild on a couple of different levels, but I love the vision!

I'm over in the Second Ward and a lot of it seems to be "why build here when it'll flood/ it's a toxic waste site" or "should use the money on other development/ other parts of town" or "it's going to fail like such-and-such other development" It's really disheartening. But I'm not sure whether it's the new transplants or old time residents that oppose it.

amen to that!!!!!!!!!!!!! it definitely makes that "jewel box" standout now! love the huge sign on the side and them using all the windows to full advantage! guess i will be seeing you there @kennyc05 !

It's usually the "you don't like trains, you shouldn't have moved here" type.

I spoke to one of the members from Urban Genesis and they stated that this project is expected to be 700+ units, with a portion being income restricted.

I completely agree, and it is actually one of the reasons why I recently bought a place in Eastwood near where this line would have a mini transit center to connect the Green Line and the University BRT. It is going to be 15-30 minutes away from the 3 largest job centers (downtown, med center, and uptown), 3 major universities, and Hobby all via mass transit. Would be really nice to be able to not have to worry about what traffic is like on 59 to go Uptown or wherever else.

No offense to SA or the great Riverwalk of Texas we all love and enjoy BUT I really think this has the ability to be much greater than that in terms of overall scope.

I think every project ever done on the bayou has had at least one local media source saying "Houston's Riverwalk?" And any park larger than a city block ever built or contemplated in or near downtown has been reported as "Houston's own Central Park?" This is not so much how bad our media is as our media's awareness that our population is so simple, the majority wouldn't recognize anything but those two examples. Or actually it's both, the ignorant media and the philistine population existing in kind of a symbiotic, mutually-reinforcing relationship.

It seems like there is a full-on meltdown here any time something old is torn down. For some reason people seem to think "old" automatically equals "historic". I can't speak on this specific building since I'm not too familiar with the area, but it certainly didn't look worth saving from an architectural standpoint based on the photos. Glad to see some reason from someone who actually knows the area and the building in particular.

Once they submerge the freeway it will feel like more of an extension of museum area than 3rd ward. Caroline St. is full of very historic mansions and the freeway sliced it in half. Third ward really stops at Almeda for most people living in the area. This is clearly just a shake down bc this group didn't seem to care at all about what happened there when it was a Sears and open air homeless center. This area clearly needs mental health assistance and not affordable housing as no one has been priced out of parking lots.

Exactly my point! The Heights have been successfully fighting affordable housing. Karla Cisneros sure loves putting these type of projects in the East End, but fight them off in her neighborhood in the Heights.

Adding a streetcar and using the outside lanes to widen sidewalks is my dream.