editor

On 2/21/2024 at 7:55 AM, ChannelTwoNews said:

Why more Houston offices aren't being converted to housing (houstonchronicle.com)

"Quinlan, in partnership with DeBartolo, has begun work on Three Westlake, a 311-unit apartment conversion of the 19-story former BP tower in the Energy Corridor. Quinlan bought the property for $21 million, after the lender took a a $67.4 million loss on the loan, he said. 

There weren’t a lot of lenders active in the market, said Ed Kobel, president of DeBartolo, but the firm found a bank willing to provide a construction loan.

“It was super hard, but the project is so compelling, we got it done,” Kobel said. "

I thought this was a really weird article when I read it.  It basically parrots the greenfield real estate development lobby's assertion that it costs too much to convert office buildings to residences.  I think blanket statements like that are silly because each building is different.

Quote

with the revenue they could expect from rents, said Brooks Howell, principal at global architecture firm Gensler’s Houston office, who has worked on several conversion project proposals around the country. And in almost every project, Howell says, the expected income won’t cover the initial costs. 

I really respect Gensler, but this doesn't line up with reality.  There's a successful office → residential conversion literally two blocks away from Howell's office.   

An uncharitable interpretation of the quotation is that perhaps Gensler's Houston office is simply not up to the challenge, since so many other firms around the world are doing this very successfully.

Across America, there are already many hundreds, if not thousands of office buildings that have been converted into residences.  It's not a new trend.  In 2003 I lived in a 25-story 1925 skyscraper that was converted to residences in the 1980's.  And there were a dozen others in the neighborhood.

Even in Houston, this isn't something new or exotic.  There's at least half-a-dozen of them downtown, both new and old conversions.

Yes, it can be hard.  But it's not universally hard, as professed by people who make money from plowing under the prairie to build bland beige bungalows out to the horizon.  

5 hours ago, ChannelTwoNews said:

I really like the idea of this space. 

I also feel like I'm about the only person around that likes the design of the Family Law Center.

Wouldn't hate it if it could be repurposed into a learning space or museum/archive that could serve the purpose and mission of the surrounding park area. I won't be too terribly heartbroken if it comes down however.

I kinda like the design, too.  It would be nice if it could be made into a centerpiece of the park, like as a community center + Museum of Houston + tourist information center + gift shop.  

12 hours ago, xbryanisbeastx said:

This might be controversial, but do we need more parks downtown? I personally would rather more buildings/density.

Yes, downtown needs more parks.  It also needs more buildings to replace the surface parking lots.  But there's plenty of under-utilized space for both.

Parks are a magnet for residential and other development. So much so that big real estate development companies will actually build their own parks adjacent to their skyscrapers (both office and residential), and then give the land to the city in order to increase the value of their commercial properties.

5 hours ago, Highrise Tower said:

Why doesn't Houston's biotech/life science sector take off? It's a perfect idea considering the Texas Medical Center is right next door.  I've heard people talk about politics. Most of the life science hubs are located in Democrat-ran states. I've also heard people say Houston's big medical center is non-profit, where biotech is venture capital and for-profit. It's a different type of business, where Houston is lacking.

Pretty much every city I've lived in has had a mayor who pledged to make it a "bio-tech hub."  I don't follow this space, so which ones have actually succeeded so far?  

As for profit-driven vs non-profit, I don't think that's much of a factor anymore.  The non-profits have learned how to monetize their inventions and discoveries.  A lot of universities make millions from licensing and other deals.

Heck, Google started out as a Stanford University research project.

3 hours ago, hindesky said:

https://www.businessinsider.com/bike-lanes-good-for-business-studies-better-streets-2024-3

Anecdotally, I have switched from shopping at the hardware store on Westheimer to the hardware store on 11th Street ever since the bike lanes went in.  

I prefer the calmer, safer 11th Street to the chaos of Westheimer.  As a bonus, it's nice to not have to worry about making a left turn out of the parking lot onto a four-lane speedway anymore.

On 3/1/2024 at 10:36 AM, j_cuevas713 said:

I'd call at that point

I took the democratic way out, and voted for someone else.

4 hours ago, MrFubbles said:

A pool that will never see the sun

The Star has a pool like that — down a deep concrete well.  It's not appealing to me.  

Some people must not mind it because it gets a lot of use.  But the noise echos up and reverberates off the concrete and glass amplifying even normal use into an awful racket.

Then again, I once lived in an apartment building that had a pool in a dark basement, and it only had a six-foot ceiling so unless you were in the water, you had to stoop.  Thinking about it now, it was creepy as hell.  But I didn't seem to care at the time.

15 hours ago, steve1363 said:

He’s a swamp creature and is used to dirty politics fighting.  A lot of emotions flying around…

I noticed that Dignity Church had its electronic marquee all lit up with "Thank you Mayor Whitmire!" for a while.

I e-mailed the former District I councilman four times, and received precisely zero responses.

Hopefully the new one is more responsive.

More changes:

• The new system has a better spam detection, so new users no longer have to be manually approved.  If you've signed up, but never been approved, sign up again, and it should be an automatic process now.
• I added a block to the posts pages showing Similar Content.  It's based on tags, so if a post has no tags, it won't show up.  Not shown if you're on a phone.
• I added a block to the posts pages showing Trending Content.   Not shown if you're on a phone.
• If you're not signed in, there's a sidebar block for logging in or registering.
• I updated the Location profile box to read “Location/ZIP Code” so that people understand they don't have to give their exact location.  And if you don't want people to know where you are, you can still leave this blank or just lie about it.
• For those of you who use Apple devices, I can set up HAIF to allow you to log in with your face or fingerprint.  It takes a bit of work to do, but I'm considering it because it allows someone to register with Apple's Private Relay service that keeps their e-mail address private.
• Change is coming to the user ranks.  Instead of only getting points for posting, people will be rewarded for posting quality content.  More information to come.

For posterity, here is the metal plate between the two buildings:

Beneath those buildings is something of a maze, so I'm not always sure which one I'm looking up at.  I'm sure some person smarter than me and tell which photos are the belly of the new building and which one is the old building:

10 hours ago, hindesky said:

It shows why the ratings have gone down for the over the air stations, most people listen using apps. I prefer not hearing non stop commercials so I've switched.

Actually, I just came here to apologize for my reply. It was unnecessarily bitchy.

Addressing your reply to my reply, the streaming apps are included in the ratings.  There's a popular notion that if you're listening to something on a phone or a computer that it doesn't count, but listening that way you're actually more actively, precisely, and thoroughly tracked for ratings and other purposes.

From the ratings link above, you can see the most popular streams in Houston are:

25. KHCB-FM/Houston
28. KHCB/League City
29. KILT/Houston
30. KKHH/Houston
35. KHMX/Houston

I was also surprised to see an HD subchannel on the list: KLOL-FM-HD2 is tied for 35.

What is it about KTRU-LP that you like?  Is there a particular show, or do you just like turning it on for a bit of random variety?  I do that with KPFT.  I don't always like what I hear, but I almost always hear something that is new to me.

Most of my radio listening is out-of-market these days.  

When I do listen to Houston stations, it's most often KUHF-HD2 (a rebroadcast of classical KSJN-HD2/Minneapolis), or KUHF-HD3 (a rebroadcast of alternative WXPN-HD2/Philadelphia).  

If I'm in the car, it's either KKHH (AC The Spot), or KEYH.  KEYH is a weird thing.  It plays 70's and 80's hits, but because it lost the land under its transmitter, it's only running 100 watts — down from 10,000.  So, hard to hear in most of Houston.

On 2/27/2024 at 11:39 AM, hindesky said:

I mostly use "I Heart Radio" for most of my music listening in the car. I listen to Rice Radio KTRU the most but also 790 KBME Sports. Rice Radio can only be picked up in a very small part of Houston close to Rice on over the air radio. I also listen to KPFT 90.1 and KHUF 88.7 for their news programs over the air.

Ossim. What does that have to do with this topic?

On 2/27/2024 at 11:05 AM, steve1363 said:

Why would the church do that?   Jackson Square was not property of the church. 

I'm withholding judgment until the area is completed but I wholeheartedly agree the church needed this parking solution in front of the building. 

Why wouldn't it?  Churches are pretty well known for doing things for the public good. 
 

And I disagree that it needs a parking lot. There's a perfectly serviceable mostly vacant parking garage across the street.  Leasing parking spaces during off hours and weekends is incredibly cheap. Especially in Houston, as evidenced by the surface lots nearby charging $2 to park. 

Nice to see billionaires doing good things with their money.

So many modern billionaires talk about how they're going to give it all away before they die, and then all they do is set up giant charities emblazoned with their names and let the funds trickle out a bit at a time. (*cough*Bill Gates*cough*)

The world already has plenty of charities.  If you're going to give your money away, just do it.  Give it to one of the established charities that has the experience and infrastructure and scale to make use of it.  Don't make it a big PR dog and pony show.  That's not charity.  That's vanity.

1 hour ago, texan said:

I'm so disappointed the Archdiocese gave up its opportunity to create Houston's own Main Plaza, Jackson Square, or Sister Cities Park.

The only thing I can hope for is that when the Pierce Elevated comes down, the parking lot can be converted to a park, as well.

You're absolutely right about the comparison with Jackson Square.  That would be great.

https://radioinsight.com/ratings/houston-galveston/

For those of you who don't follow radio, Houston is market #6.

KODA/Houston (Sunny 99.1) is #1, which is not unusual.

KSBJ/Humble is #2, which doesn't surprise me too much since it puts so much into traditional advertising.    McDonald's and Coke didn't become huge by not advertising.

I haven't followed Houston radio in 20 years, so KRBE/Houston being 15th was a big surprise to me.  It used to be the dominant station in town.  I wonder what caused the wheels to come off.

Wow.  That's a lot more parking lot and a lot less "public gathering and tribute space" than I expected.  I've seen convenience stores bigger than that.  Though I guess a surface parking lot is an appropriate "tribute" to Houston.

Looking back at the PDF, I guess I should have noticed that it's just a patch of grass with some pavers and a ramada in the middle next to a cinder block wall.  

On 1/13/2024 at 3:58 PM, Skyscraper832 said:

Does anybody have comments re: living in this building downtown or downtown in general?

Safe to assume noise from house of blues or general street noise could be bothersome? 

There are severe noise issues with apt units with Brava / Aris Market Square / Market Square Tower / Parkside Residences at Discovery Green

Understand the above are different sections of downtown, but guessing the ambient noise at night is difficult or very expensive to combat? 
 

additionally, it appears most of the recent houston condo towers (sub $1mm) are selling below initial transaction to first buyers:

Astoria

Arabella

Marlowe

thank you

The noise depends a lot on what kind of windows and insulation your building has.  

I know people who live downtown who are tremendously bothered by the noise.  Others in other buildings not far away say they don't notice it that much.

Most of the noise is on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights when the various caravans of noisy people roll through downtown.  It runs from about 7pm to 3am.  

There seem to be several types of caravans:

1. Middle-aged people on motorcycles.

2. Younger and older people on pimped out bicycles.

3. People driving souped-up cars from the 1970's, and pick-up trucks from the 1990's.

4. Urban hillbillies on motorbikes and quads.

5. Douchebags with those new muscle cars that sound like an explosion when they're started at 6am.  

To me, all of them are just small people shaking their tiny fists in the air desperate to let the world know they exist.  Especially the muscle car group who don't realize that's not the engine making all that noise — It's a speaker.

It's quietest downtown during major sporting and other events because of the stepped-up police presence.  

1 hour ago, hindesky said:

https://hoar.com/project/residences-on-westheimer/

Thanks!

22 minutes ago, hindesky said:

Source?

The sign for the Federal American Grill arrived yesterday.

As a point of interest, while The Star (1111 Rusk) and The Star Parking Garage (703 Fannin) are marketed as being one building, they are actually physically two buildings that are adjacent.  You even have to walk over a metal plate when passing between the two structures' basements.

Each building is also managed by different companies.

4 minutes ago, astrohip said:

Welcome back! 

New features?!? Inquiring minds and all...?

Some.  I have to go through them all and want to make sure they work before I announce anything.  A lot of it is on the back end, like more reliable delivery of e-mail notifications.

One is the ability to let people register with Microsoft e-mail addresses like outlook.com, hotmail.com, and a few others.  Microsoft was blocking all e-mail from HAIF.  There were also occasionally problems with Google's GMail service.