MikeRichardson

Candid photo of some OMB executives and (maybe) one of the construction workers.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0f0lfcm4vvifzli/2014-12-05%2016.47.10.jpg?dl=0

Picture would be better, but my car is covered in dust because of all the construction, and I had 0.2 seconds to turn onto Westheimer before the black Mercedes moved up,

The image is cut off. The 90's era apartments (Park at Westcreek, they are next to the last old Westcreek building) are highlighted in green and there is a speech bubble thing pointing to it, but the content of the speech bubble is cut off. Are there plans for the 90's apartments?

There is going to be some kind of road between the loop feeder and Westcreek Lane. I think they are prepping for that.

There does not appear to be any kind of entrance on Westpark at all. Just the single driveway on S. Rice.

Sam's Club also has this problem, although they have two driveways at least.

drove through there today at around 4. It was crazy, but they had a traffic cop near the entrance.

That's a new development. Should help relieve some of the more egregious problems.

I wonder if they will (be able to) open up another entrance on Westpark. 

Longer than that ...the developers have owned the Allen House since the 1980's. They definitely know how to play the waiting game.

I was curious about this so I checked it out... They (General Investment & Development Co.) bought the property in 1988.

I would guess that they did not acquire the property with imminent redevelopment in mind back in 1988. The buildings were only 14 years old then.

Interestingly, Allen House came to the same fate as Westcreek - just one building left at the end.

I reported last week that they are only giving six month leases and plan to tear the middle and front down fairly soon.

The back section is coming down in December with the crew coming in to start drawing center in January.

I didn't see that post until later.

Also, when I was there, I didn't ask the Richmont office staff specifically if they were offering a 12 month lease or not.

If they really are only offering 6 month leases though, I would like to give them some credit, for at least trying to only offer leases that they may actually be able to fulfill on their end.

It pisses me off a lot more when landlords willingly sign 12 month leases for apartments knowing full well that a sale and demolition is imminent (some of my former neighbors at 2021 Westcreek got this type of shitty deal). Might be legal but it's still a raw deal.

At least when I moved to the other side of the street they dropped the crap and I got a pretty good run, 15 months of month to month leases at long term rates.

Richmont Square was pretty much my Hail Mary pass at staying in the loop, so it looks like i'll be heading out west, beltway bound.

Micro Center has its new location off Westpark. No need for tears.

Have you actually tried going to said location? First I cried, then I wanted to kill myself.

They have one combined entrance/exit to the parking lot, on South Rice. There is no turn lane, and at 4 PM the traffic stacks up.

"easy to get to, less congestion" - LOL.

I was at Richmont Square today amongst several other apartments, looking for a new place now that the last Westcreek building is being demolished next year.

The price is certainly right - $1095 for a 1064 sq ft. 2 bed/2 bath. Had no idea about the ownership until I got home today and started Googling stuff.

I noticed the two buildings (and the office/clubhouse) in the back were fenced off. Asbestos abatement is going on in the old apartments and the former leasing office is now a field office for the asbestos contractor. I tried to sneak back to the shady pool area just to take a peek but some dude stopped me.

If I knew for a fact that I could get at least 2 years out of Richmont then I might move there. My first apartment ripped me off on the security deposit but it's been nice at both of the Westcreek units not having to worry about that after I move out. Not that I am leaving them in terrible condition but it seems like they always try to do anything to abscond with your deposit.

They seem to be grading (leveling) right now.

Yes, that is my philosophy with everything. Same can be applied: build 1 nice building than 2 cheap ones

(philosophy being defined as quality over quantity)

I agree in regards to quality over quantity. For example, I usually buy top of the line Mac computers that last 2x or 3x longer than cheap PCs. I only recently retired the Power Mac G5 computer that I bought in August 2004 - but I plan to drive it up to my mom's house this weekend, and upgrade her from an even older Power Mac G4. Hopefully she can get another year of use out of the G5.

What is the definition of quality for clothes, however? Is the fabric on a more expensive garment actually of better quality? Is it more durable than a cheaper garment? Surely a large amount of the cash put towards the purchase of name-brand "fashionable" type garments, goes towards costs such as marketing, which have no bearing on the build quality of the actual product, and in fact marketing serves to influence customers to potentially disregard practical benchmarks such as quality and durability in favor of more superficial benchmarks such as brand and fashion.

 

etro is expanding to houston...

oh god yes!

i love the boutique in the mall of the emirates, dubai.  great place!

 

http://www.etro.com/en_us/man/autumn-winter-14-15/jackets.html

BLAZER

USD 1,970

God yes? More like god damn.

Commence hate posts/flaming now, I don't really care.

Got my eviction notice today. I thought this building had been sold to Pelican, not Gables.

 

this road!  RICHARDSON FM (farm to market) waaaaaaayyyy off in alaska!

oh, and trust me.. it was one bumpy ride, indeed.

 

Sounds like you wasted a lot of gas for nothing. We've got both a Richardson Street and Road in Houston.

We enjoy Monarch around here.

Tread lightly.

Really? No. I was a bit tired when I wrote the original post, but the basic premise still stands. ROD just isn't that damned fantastic.

... do you get off the road at, calling people "retarded"?

... I don't really care - mostly, I just wanted to also post a massively oversized and unnecessary GIF, stolen borrowed from a graphic design firm that last updated their website in 1998.

 

dude, i beg your pardon!  who on earth or you to be dictating to me about "heaping unsubstantiated praise upon a project"?  are you hereby retarded?  please allow me to welcome you to the land of the free... as well as the official home of the HAIF.  ROD, has been one of my most favorite projects upon this forum.  my response to this current update as per this project, "was that it is going to be spectacular."  is it me... for i simply do not see anything wrong as per my statement, that hereby solicited such a profound response from you.  therefore, or you hereby trying in earnest to compare this most spectacular development to the astrodome?  if you are, then that is certainly your prerogative.  however, what on earth does that have to do with me?    

 

 

wow!  river oaks district is going to be spectacular. 

Please heed your own advice. ROD will certainly be different from what existed there previously. To a surplus of people, it will likely be considered an improvement - but only to a dearth of people will it be considered some magnificent spectacle, worth of comparison to the Astrodome. By general consensus, ROD is considered a general improvement. Either reveal your true intentions, or cease heaping unsubstantiated praise upon a project of which the typical praise might, on a good day, conjure a lukewarm compliment at best.

It is my understanding, that a new road will connect the West Loop Feeder, Northbound to Westcreek Ln, and the new Peloton office tower will be built in consideration of said new road.

It looks like there is a net gain in residential units (when you consider the new Davis Proj. + SkyHouse River Oaks) when compared to the old apartments on that same land. This is a net improvement for the area. Westcreek Ln is really a residential street, it has been for over 35 years now. 

River Oaks District was a net reduction in residential units. It looks like these other developments should make up for that loss, with a fair margin. Hopefully, maybe, one of the TBA projects will consider some upper-middle income units instead of going all out total luxury.  So many middle of the road units are going/will be going away without replacement - eventually, the market will bear the consequences.

It probably renders screwed up so here's the link. https://www.dropbox.com/s/0h7zvm0ao39xuac/2014-09-04%2014.12.22.jpg

An excavator was on this site today. I saw it on the drive into Uptown. I will try to get pictures of the site soon.

Yeah, the buildings are totally gone.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xbokm6ztbblle2k/AAAVq3DNrqHTZRtQMRrHmwzAa?dl=0

Bunch of pics I took over several days, and a few videos that I have not had the time to go through. Was able to get so close since I actually live in the remaining building.

They all seem like pretty random fake shapes to me.

They are now doing asbestos abatement in the building located at 2221 Westcreek Lane. This is the building that sits between the ROD and the now-cleared land where B & D buildings once stood.

On the other side of the street, there's been some utility disconnections at A & C buildings (where the office tower is going), and some utility reconnections at the lone occupied E building. A new electric meter is being installed for the common area lighting. According to the property manager, this is "good news" and means Highland Terrace (2220 Westcreek Lane) will stick around until "January".

Pelican probably needs to build and sell their townhomes first before they have enough capital to build their new mid-rise apartment building.

already?  wow..  this company, just does not play games!

It's been pretty damn swift since the actual demolition. Took them months to sit around/waste time/prep the demo, and the actual demo was done in like a week.

You are correct. Parcel E and E were in fact cleared at the same time. 

 

All kidding aside, you actually are right. Both D and E are cleared so that's what was throwing me off.

The new "parcels" do not correspond to the old apartment buildings, except for parcel "C" being the same as building "E". Skyhouse is being built on land where two buildings once stood, so they both had to come down.