westhouston11

a terrible loss.....this church was a gem, too bad the Osteen mega Jesus bucks couldn't settle for a beautiful church already in the area instead of moving in to the Summit which is way too big for a community church.......how does one ever get to know those in your charge if they are just one of the thousand you preach to that day? The Summit was a great concert hall since it was big enough to attract major tours and the tours right under those......majors would play two nights and the lesser tours could still sell out The Summit but skip us now since they can't fill venues as large as Toyota Center, hell our basketball team can't even fill it....... also that venue was public property and had strict instructions connected to the deed if ever it did come on the market for sale which limited it's use to just about anything but a church....... Now Greenway is a cluster of mis-matched horrible buildings that do not relate to each other or allow for people to flow easily through the site........FYI to commercial property owners....it is OK to lease the first few floors to retail street facing stores instead of having vacant lobbies with grand open dead space.........also the strip centers around Houston are way past their due date to be torn down, most I would bet violate many fire codes since they must be brought up to code as each store turns over.......that also goes for apartments as they are sold from owner to owner or are showing clear signs of repairs not being made, like all of Greystar's old portfolio they use to run in west Houston near Stratford High School......

Enron, what a black eye the Lay's and their band of merry money makers were on our city.......... I still can't believe they were allowed to post what they forecasted their profits would be on all of their big "energy deals and cutting edge ideas" Is it just me or did the SEC and all the banks involved seem to have been in on the real truth which was drive the worthless stock up and sell off the paper you had on the company before the truth hit the fan? They call it day trading, I call it a simple ponzi, junk stock pyramid scheme where the people on top got away with simple fraud......people that included the Weingarten married to Fastow, the Martin lady who is an attorney and had the nerve to praise Ken as a CEO who she painted as smart and innovative.......question, for all who were interviewed for their documentary, are all of you who cashed out that stupid to think any of what Enron did was ethical, innovative or even providing a service that was needed in the market, since the pipelines and electric companies went on without any help from their former parent company Enron...........buying companies and adding on your companies "mother may I costs" well in East Texas we call that fraud, not helping the market adjust by selling energy futures and over estimated hopeful profits........... Enron taught us we all need to ask more questions of our government and also we need more people in government desk jobs keeping eyes on these and all public interest industry to assure the public's best interests are number one, especially since energy is being taken from public owned assets like hydro-electric dams, oil from under our public lands and also many other assets we own as citizens........so there is no reason gas should be 3 dollars or electric running short anywhere............you paid for the majority of the structures and technology with your tax dollars, so it is time to stand up and ask What The heck?

Kroger Signature, Neiman Marcus Flagship in old Sakowits building....facade is striking still and interior could be all Neiman's fantasy....., 3rd would be more huge Flagship or concept store outlets of all the major retailers, but leave the "outlet" out of the stores, tired of seeing clothing made for outlets and the same brand marking up what is considered "core" to their line......WTF ever is what I say to that mind set of retail genius who drove us down this outlet mall dead end road......Flagship and test stores are great ways to lure us and visitors downtown, fantasy regional headquarters with your brand on the first few floors is also better than Macy's running all the cities from New York......their "celeb" star bullflurf lines were and are a bomb, maybe a regional office and Flagship location here in Houston is what they need to actually get the market feedback needed to run their locations here in the hot southwest states.......clue bomb number two for all of them should be swimwear is something they could carry year round almost, but coats, heavy suits and sweaters are well something we buy once and rarely use

Greystar doesn't know much about multi-family construction.......yes they put up a great resume, but just look at The Calais and their work speaks for itself.......they need to rethink many of their sites they bought during the credit crunch......these projects were slated to be built by companies that spent the money to build it correctly, like not chopping off the retail floors of buildings like so many vulture builders do to plans that already had a life before the current fly by night builder stepped in.......

love this building.....happy it is getting a new lease on life instead of being torn down.......honestly the historic buildings are big money makers once declared national historic worthy........owners pay little property tax once listed as a historic property, plus there are grants available to help with renovations if the site is in an urban downtown area.......

the park needed a renovation of the botanical gardens, happy to see it finally being done........wish it were more aggressive in it's design and wish the golf course was taken out......honestly so many other uses could be built in it's place, softball, soccer or add more land to the zoo and garden spaces.......also underground parking would be great.......