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At sunset .

Catching up to the Calpine Center now

They have permission from the FAA for the Tower Crane (530' tall). Work Schedule: 07/10/2020 to 12/30/2021 https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external/searchAction.jsp?action=displayOECase&oeCaseID=430913867&row=2 They also received their determination from the FAA back in February for a 468' tall building. Work Schedule: 04/20/2020 to 10/21/2022. Oops. I see now this was already posted in February. Oh well. Here's a reminder. https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external/searchAction.jsp?action=displayOECase&oeCaseID=430526526&row=4

https://www.instagram.com/stonelakecapital/

Updated construction shot from saturday.

Tried to snap this while driving. The uncovered garage is looking awesome now. Glad they went this route.

Saw the tree removal permit on a walk today.

Untitled by Houston Midtown, on Flickr Untitled by Houston Midtown, on Flickr

New Orleans developer buys downtown Opportunity Zone property for mixed-use remodel New Orleans-based NORF Cos. paid an undisclosed amount to acquire a three-story building located at 1014 Prairie St. from Houston-based Friedman Prairie Associates. COURTESY OF NORF COS. By Jeff Jeffrey – Reporter, Houston Business Journal 3 hours ago One of downtown Houston’s oldest buildings has been sold to a New Orleans-based company that plans to convert it into a mixed-use multifamily property. NORF Cos. — which stands for New Orleans Redevelopment Fund — paid an undisclosed amount to acquire the building located at 1014 Prairie St. from Houston-based Friedman Prairie Associates, according to a news release. The three-story structure was built around 1895 and features a Romanesque Revival building facade. The building is located near the intersection of Prairie Street and Main Street in the city's central business district. NORF paid for the property out of an Opportunity Zone fund, which makes the makes the property eligible for tax breaks if it is held for a certain period of time and significant improvements are made to the building. NORF plans to restore the building, turning the interior space into roughly 20 residential units. The ground floor will be available for retail leasing. NORF expects to break ground on the renovation project in early 2021. The 13,500-square-foot property was valued at $856,207 as of Jan. 1, according to Harris County Appraisal District records. “We had a strong investor fundraise in the low eight figures that will enable NORF to continue its strategy of impactful investments in blighted properties that are transformative to neighborhoods,” said Cullan Maumus, development director of NORF. “In partnering with our investors, we are fulfilling our vision in providing positive returns for our partners and our community. We were very impressed with the considerable interest we had from potential OZ investors that we are already in the works for a new NORF 4 Opportunity Zone Fund.” Click here to read a Houston Business Journal cover story on the federal Opportunity Zone program. The acquisition of 1014 Prairie St. marks NORF’s latest purchase of a property located in an Opportunity Zone. The company said it plans to target Opportunity Zone properties across the southeast United States, with a particular focus on Houston and San Antonio. The company’s Opportunity Zone funds already own several properties in New Orleans.

I need to clean my windshield...

The final EIS was released Friday, and I compared the draft EIS schematic to the final EIS schematic. https://railroads.dot.gov/environmental-reviews/dallas-houston-high-speed-rail/dallas-houston-high-speed-rail-final Generally, changes are minimal. The document (ES 6.2.1 and ES 6.2.2) specifically mentions these changes in the Houston area See document F1 pages 303-304 for the proposed station plan. The plan shows West 18th turning toward the southwest just west of the US 290/IH 610 and connecting to Post Oak road. The existing West 18th appears to be abandoned, although no future use of the land is shown. Mangum Road is also realigned. As mentioned in the quote, the station is now more to the west, entirely west of the new West 18th alignment. Most of the Northwest mall site is listed as "potential parking zone" or no use is indicated. However, most of the non-designated property is on a clear corridor which could extend the rail line eastward toward downtown. The station orientation was altered for this alignment, reason cited to accommodate the Hempstead Road managed/toll lanes, but this also has the side-benefit of being an alignment which more readily preserves the option of extension to downtown. Presumably the large parking zones would be available for future development. The long-term buildout shown below includes Metro BRT connection and the corridor for the proposed Hempstead managed lanes/tollway. I like this plan. It provides good access from most directions, and has a long drop-off zone at ground level along the new street in front of the station. Going west to Fry Road, the final EIS plan is generally unchanged from the draft EIS plan. The HSR is on elevated viaduct on the south side of Hempstead Road to Gessner. See document G1 page 21 for the cross section (copied below) The HSR moves to the south side of the Union Pacific railroad at Gessner and drops to ground level to go under BW8. Immediately west of BW8 it goes back on the viaduct, which has a high crossing over SH 6. West of Fry Road there is a significant change compared to the DEIS. There's no change in alignment, but in the DEIS the track is mostly at ground level or on embankment west of Fry. Now there is a continuous elevated viaduct all the way to just north of FM 2920. This will surely add to the cost. The change at Castle Road north of Waller shifts the alignment slightly to the east to avoid some property.

To add, There are economic benefits to mass transit systems as well. Given the opportunity high rise developments can reduce the costs of construction for onsite parking. Parking garages and structures are low profitability land that right now current infrastructure requires. If you give people more options on how to get to work, you give developers the opportunity to use land for more profitable uses. More shops, more offices, more residential in the same square footage that would have been occupied by parking before. Right now, for large swaths of Houston, the automobile is the only means of accessing our city.

Sawyer Yards Drive In by reddit u/_jviews

According to this article they have secured a anchor tenant. https://www.bisnow.com/houston/news/commercial-real-estate/6-houston-projects-to-watch-in-2020-104550

Sounds like she took the Ion to where it needed to be, set up the connections and all that jazz, saw a need in the market that wasn't being met, and jumped to work in that space. Pretty understandable, and doing work in making the tech industry more equitable and easier to access is a monumental job that even SF companies haven't figured out yet. So shoutout to her for taking on that task. It makes sense for Houston, tbh, to want to take a bit of a more homegrown angle towards building a tech sector. You have all these immigrants and their kids from countries where US companies are hiring from to bring their engineers here, why not target those kids who are already here and other kids stuck in schools that don't offer this kind of training to help them code at a much earlier age. Set up programs to promote women in tech. Provide grants to those looking to switch careers at 25-40. Etc. If done well, and in conjunction with the Ion, they could have the types of programs that everyone would want to get into. Although, when she says she may work with the Ion in the future, I feel like most tech in Houston will, given the size and footprint of the programs and development.

The problem is you don’t understand public transit. And your idea of transit is a train. In Chicago, a few of my friends take the bus like it’s second nature because they don’t look at transit the way you look at it. They take the train when necessary, but most travel is by foot or bus. If you actually used the system and understood it’s purpose and why you are using it then this idea that it has to be some shiny new train will begin to sound ridiculous. Inner city Houston is doing a great job creating a network that city buses feed off of with the Red Line as the spine of the network. And then connecting those lines with other modes of travel such as biking and walking. The 3 foot minimum for sidewalks is old infrastructure. So if you’re seeing that, it’s before the 5’ minimum for today’s development. Once the BRT line from Uptown to Downtown is built you’ll see ridership grow quickly. As for the argument about commuter rail. Commuter rail is just that, for commuters. The burbs are starting to realize they need and want that infrastructure. And politics aside, the bluer those areas become, the greater the topic becomes.

Count me as one for team glass. That said, this tower has the potential to easily be the best residential tower in town in terms of architecture in my mind. The bar is low.

Shots from memorial day weekend.

New road system is navigable and connected: Lower Heights District area by Marc longoria, on Flickr (Sorry for the blurriness) Lower Heights District area by Marc longoria, on Flickr Lower Heights District area by Marc longoria, on Flickr

This passed planning commission. The next stop will be city Council. Some council members joined the call - they’ve been barraged by their constituents (mainly museum park) to try to delay this. I expect a lot more push back at the next round, but I believe the mayor fully supports this.

For those that are interested, the remaining tower crane will be coming down this weekend. If you’ve never seen it before, it’s a pretty cool process.

reddit u/fronzsolid posted this cool pic of Main St.

I am sure Hines will make this look good. The stone will look nice, but Glass is would have been cool too. Hines is a pro. I like stone. I appreciate diversity of materials.

@Houston19514 they probably started at 0630 this morning. Should take most of the day.

Love the density happening downtown.

I'm just crossing my fingers for a killer techno/house music club.

Would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during the actual proceedings. The original argument against TCR was that under the current statutes it couldn't be classified as a railroad because it wasn't a “interurban electric railway”. Imagine trying to explain that to a judge. I would imagine it went like this. Plaintiff: We are in opposition because we do not believe TCR qualifies as an "interurban electric railway". Judge: Is it the case that the Shinkansen is a type of train that is powered by electricity? Plaintiff: Yes your honor the Shinkansen is a type of train that is powered by electricity. Judge: This train is planned to go from Houston to Dallas, correct? It would stand to reason to say this is interurban by definition right? Plaintiff: Yes the train is planned to go from Houston to Dallas. Yes by definition that would be interurban your honor. Judge: Does the Shinkansen sit on rails and use those rails to travel to and from its destination? Plaintiff: Yes your honor the Shinkansen does indeed sit on rails and use those rails to travel to and from its destination. Judge: Let me get this straight then. It uses electricity. It sits on rails, and travels on them. It also travels between urban destinations which means its interurban by definition. This stands to reason that TCR would qualify under the current statutes as an "interurban electric railway" correct? Plaintiff: Yes your honor. Judge: Then why are you claiming that this isn't an "interurban electric railway"? Plaintiff: Reasons... Judge: Why are you claiming that this isn't an "interurban electric railway"? Plaintiff: Feelings... Judge: Case dismissed.

I think it will look fantastic from street level. We will find out soon enough.

A little crane jumping this morning

Friday afternoon. A little hard to see because I had to snap this picture while I was working, but the crane tear down crew is up there above the cab prepping for tomorrow’s task.

Apparently the greater downtown Chicago area had 18,000 residents in 1982 and about 110,000 today. The dimensions of the area they're using for downtown Chicago are roughly equivalent to downtown Houston plus Midtown and Eado. We are probably somewhere around 18,000 in those 3 areas combined. https://www.brookings.edu/research/big-city-downtowns-are-booming-but-can-their-momentum-outlast-the-coronavirus/

Ngl the stone fits better from a pedestrian and curvature standpoint, looks way more inviting than the glass bottom version. There's nothing valued engineered about this project, just different design choices. The difference in between the glass and stone is how well it transitions from the high rise to the base, which the stone does a million times better. Honestly the stone is going to having a more lasting effect than the glass. In about 20 years the glass base will look dated but the stone will be timeless.

Oh my that reflection is something great in the making. It's almost like they did it on purpose.