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https://verosade.com/builders/

397’, up 27’ from 370’ https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external/searchAction.jsp?action=displayOECase&oeCaseID=529903634&row=12

Axiom broke ground on their spaceport headquarters today! https://www.axiomspace.com/news/axiom-hq-spaceport

Photo from TMC's Facebook page. Can't wait to see some of these first phase buildings start to complete!

**Edit** You know I just realized that yesterday will make 8 years on this message board. Kinda crazy how time flies.

Oh man, imagine Skanska's block at Westheimer, then Hanover/LColombe D'or, this, and St Thomas' new building all spaced out by 2 blocks. Montrose will all of a sudden have a skyline!

It has to be said. GID royally messed up this project...here is how: 1) Good: They design an excellent ambitious project (probably one of the best inner loop infill projects from a quality standpoint and attention to detail standpoint) 2) Good: Demolish Block 1 & 2 of Allen House Apartments for upcoming Groundbreaking of the project above! 3) Bad: Great Recession of 2009-2010 puts project on hold indefinitely. Revenue is lost from the now demolished Allen House Apartments on Block 1 & 2. 4) Bad to Neutral: GID responds to the boom times immediately after the Great Recession by scraping their initial urban village style master plan and building a stand lone Residential tower on the FAR edge of the future Regent Square Site 5) Bad: There are rumors that the Regent Square Project has gone through multiple value engineering changes that could transform it from one of the most ambitious projects in Inner Loop Houston to one that has been VE'd to a point it is no longer recognizable (i.e. Embassy Suites ) 6) Bad & Good: Rumors above are confirmed and a generic looking project breaks ground. 7) WTF: The project FINALLY opens in early 2022 (15 years after the project started) with ONE open tenant (The Flight Club). As of mid May 2022, The other restaurants have yet to start construction and ALL of the retail spaces are still boarded up?!?!? Summary: they only had 15 years to get this right and they almost have a random approach to this project. On the lack of retail- THEY ARE LOCATED IN ONE OF THE BEST CATCHMENT AREAS IN THE STATE OF TEXAS (RIVER OAKS) and still could not get the retail component finished. I've walked to the project many times...The "park" area is always empty and this is in large part due to ONE retail/restaurant space. Meanwhile, Hanover, In probably 4 years of time have designed, constructed, and secured their retail/restaurant tenants. WTF is GID doing!?!?!?

Awesome news! Maybe we can get Space X to move its head quarters here.

I got a photo. It seems they are just using it for parking at the moment:

To give them credit, they are really good at building giant scaled models of "their development"

I think it's just that elevated parks are trendy to do so now. I don't know where it started, but New York was the big start of it in the U.S. with the High Line. Chicago did The 606, and is doing two more. I'm not against elevated parks, but the elevated nature of the Pierce Elevated is what made it a neighborhood-killer. Why keep its worst attribute? Make it a ground-level park. Much easier to access and maintain.

This is what the tower crane is building.

Oh HELL yeah! That looks great. Montrose Blvd is going crazy. Honestly I'm kind of glad that lot is still empty at Fairview. Who knows what we might get there now.

The height mystery seems solved. This looks like 26 residential floors over at least 10 floors of garage space. This is much closer to a 40 story tower than a 30.

He'd be insane to not build residential immediately. That gives me pause. The last thing we need is another Green Street. I cannot believe those morons nixed the residential component and went with an boutique office building instead.

Bobby Heugel is opening another concept in the former Penny Quarter space (previously home to Etro), 1424 Westheimer Rd, Suite A. It's next door to Anvil located at 1424 Westheimer, Suite B. It will be a cocktail bar named Refuge. More information and opening timeline on CultureMap. https://houston.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/05-09-22-refuge-new-bar-montrose-cocktails-anvil-bobby-heugel Refuge on Instagram: refugecocktails Website: https://refugehouston.com

That would be an even bigger coup than Austin getting the Tesla factory. Important to note that Axiom and SpaceX have deep ties that are only getting deeper. SpaceX is currently Axiom's transportation partner and likely will continue to be once the Axiom becomes independent of the ISS. SpaceX has also stated they have little interest in developing habitats for the Martian surface which I think perfectly tees Axiom up to step in and be their habitat partner. Maybe Axiom also jumps in to develop the Artemis Base Camp on the lunar surface for NASA?

Here's to celebrating 10 years of the most underwhelming development in Downtown Houston. Hip hip hooray.

Interior fit out permit. Architect - https://www.hksinc.com

We don't know what the Skanska development or the Kroger replacement are really going to look like (though no driveway from Montrose at the Kroger development is a good start.) Even with this thing - what does the ground floor actually look like? WHat is in the space facing Montrose? Could go either way.

I don't think this comparison is really fair to either street. But theres way more pedestrian activity on cross streets currently than on Montrose Blvd, just because Montrose is less comfortable and theres less facing the boulevard itself. Both of those issues have to be addressed, but if these new developments result in wider sidewalks and retail/other destinations worth walking to, then definitely.

Heard through the longest grapevine that Bobby Heugel (anvil, squable, blt, tongue cut sparrow) may be eyeing the former Night Shift location to try for a similar concept.

A coffee shop is taking over the 1609 Westheimer unit that was last occupied by UB Preserv (and Poscol before that). Wild is leasing the corner unit. It's the sister concept to Grinder's near Rice Village. According to What Now Houston (a digital publication that's similar to Vox Media's Curbed and Eater, though focuses more on new dining concepts than anything), Wild is anticipating a late summer arrival. Wild opened its first location in the Heights earlier this year. In addition to coffee, it also doubles as a cocktail bar with CBD cocktails and a marijuana dispensary. https://whatnowhou.com/wild-coffee-bar-and-dispensary-to-open-third-location-in-houston

My guess is it's just similar fencing they've placed on their other owned lots for branding the district. This site is slated for a much later phase with other blocks planned to be developed much sooner ie the lot across the outdoor plaza and the existing tenant parking lot.

I don't think I've heard anyone other than the potheads in my high school say that pot smoke is good for your lungs. I'm not sure there is much of a body of serious research around it. Without that, I feel pretty confident in saying that no smoke in your lungs is better any smoke in your lungs.

I was at a breakfast last week where Crane was the keynote. He briefly mentioned their plans and stated a hotel, a lot of entertainment/retail, and possibly high-rise apartments were a part of the plan. I'm excited about the fact he owns several other lots all around the ball park for future phases. This will be a very active part of downtown in the next couple years. Hopefully they release the official plans soon.

@Urbannizer is correct. Not sure if you saw the variance request or not. Anyway, this is the proposal with N Main being on the top end of this schematic (attached). White Oak Music Hall cancelled their variance request and will work with the city to widen E Woodland St nearby.

LOL Gee, I wonder where the Chron found out about this . . . ;-)

I’m totally for this. I’ve also never had an issue with toll roads/toll lanes, either (provided there were alternatives for people that prefer not to pay, like feeders or non-tolled lanes). I think it’s a great use of surplus money and will really help in building out the trail network around town.

Per the Dallas Morning News (yes, the Dallas Morning News, not our pathetic local paper), Meow Wolf will open in Houston in 2024. Also planning to open one in Grapevine, Texas (Grapevine Mills shopping mall to be exact) in 2023. https://www.dallasnews.com/business/retail/2022/05/11/meow-wolf-a-santa-fe-immersive-art-experience-is-coming-to-texas/ Love the fact that Houston's will be in the Fifth Ward, while "Dallas's" will be in suburban Grapevine, in a shopping mall . . .

While reading an article in the Miami Standard News with an interview with Jim Crane, this little tidbit caught my eye. "Crane talks about the change in downtown, with condos and apartments replacing vacant buildings and homes. They plan to build a hotel and have their own entertainment village “becoming more Chicago-esque than it ever has been in the past." https://miamistandard.news/2022/05/10/as-astros-continue-to-thrive-owner-jim-crane-has-advice-for-other-cheaters-id-keep-my-mouth-shut/?amp=1

Westbound Tunnel lane of Memorial Drive is now open.

Completely demolished today 😑

I'm seeing more than a few zombie projects come back to life in the last few months. If 1717 Bissonnet can be revived as the Langley, there's no reason someone won't attempt to put the shock paddles to this one...

Some interior courtyard pics

I mean, let's also not forget the power of the marketing engine. everyone needs a car, even before they needed a car, they were convinced by marketing departments that they needed a car. at this point, on average, it costs just under $10,000 to own and operate a car in a year. https://www.aaa.com/autorepair/articles/average-annual-cost-of-new-vehicle-ownership it's not like that number goes down, ever. it just keeps inching higher and higher.

Not creative at all. It was all completely documented in the media at the time, and in books since then. The railroads explicitly stated the reason. It's not like people had to piece things together to come to a conclusion, they were honest about it. Looking into history, mail contracts are also helped make long-distance stage coaches possible, and the settling of the American west before the railroads. We allow politicians to funnel our tax money into freeways in the name of commerce, but expect railroads to pay for their own tracks and land. Then we wonder why railroads struggle. There's a cognitive disconnect there.

On the advice of Jack Easterby, McNair Interests has traded the Rosewood Hotel anchored tower for 12-story stucco Hampton Inn.

Went here last night. Cool space, and it’s pretty neat how it backs up to the woods by the bike path and Bayou. It’s a fairly unique atmosphere in Houston in that sense, the only thing similar I can think of offhand is The Dunlavy. Predictably, the parking situation is awful. There are people parking anywhere they can fit, the streets were almost impassable, and some driveways of the homes in the immediate vicinity were partially blocked. I’d hate to be a homeowner in that area: it used to be something of an enclave, but now it’s chaotic and claustrophobic (at least on the weekends).

I believe it's temp space just because they're growing insanely fast and haven't started construction on their campus at the spaceport yet EDIT: I wonder if they'll make use of the ISS model inside 🤔

Axiom Space. https://www.axiomspace.com Interior architects - https://www.cdi-douglass-pye.com

609 was always going to be hard to spot, given its location within a cluster of highrises. Pennzoil is even harder to spot now, and it used to be the most distinctive building downtown.

Does any one know/remember the name of the private club that used to be on Buffalo Speedway north of S.Main on the east side on the street between Durhill St. and Elmridge St.? It's building were there from the early 50s to sometime around 1976. I think at one point it became someones private property. It had either a large swimming pool or a huge pond on the property. Here's a pic of the location off Google Earth 1953. http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg60/dlfswi/Picture12.png In fact if you go to Google Earth you can still see where the property was. Edit: The present-day 2023 address would be 3511 Linkwood Drive where the Bethany United Methodist Church is located. When viewing the historical images on Google Earth or Historic Aerials, 69 years ago, the address could have been different. Can confirm there is a swimming pool, pond, or a body of water next to the house.