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TheNiche

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Everything posted by TheNiche

  1. I don't see growth in the 90k to 150k span (an accurate description of the perponderance of the new housing being constructed) or for that matter the renovation of the Cityview set of apartment complexes a few years ago as much of a reason to think that Greenspoint is experiencing a rennaisance of any sort. There shouldn't be much hope of future price appreciation within these new subdivisions; I see them as the Sunnysides of tomorrow. Moreover, office construction in the immediate vicinity is stagnant. Pasadena Town Center is a good example of what investors in retail properties should avoid. They have a heck of a lot of vacancies, are about to lose Dillards as one of their anchor tenants, and lost the Mervyn's across the street as a shadow anchor. Its population and household base grew substantially from the 1990 to the 2000 censuses and is among the Houston area's densest areas, but still failed to generate the kind of sales volume necessary to sustain a mall. Meanwhile, several new strip centers have been built along Southmore and a few others have undergone significant renovations; most of them have done very well. When it comes down to it, adding lower-middle-class and lower-class households to an area causes a boom in strip center construction but does nothing for the regional malls. The reason is that strip centers have lower operating costs per square foot and don't need the kind of sales volume per square foot to sustain them--they're cheaper and do a better job at matching the needs of their customer base. All that said, if Greenspoint can leverage its convenience to the large population of office employees by, for instance, building in better pedestrian connectivity between it and the office buildings lining Greenspoint and Northchase Drives along its eastern periphery (and they'd have to be very creative, doing a very good job), then they might be able to induce more customer traffic. But I'm talking about things like shaded, possibly enclosed and air-conditioned pedestrian walkways with bidirectional mechanical conveyor belts, like in many large airports. That'd be a huge boost to their lunchtime traffic...but you all know...the benefits have to outweigh the costs, and the costs would be pretty substantial.
  2. ...and we all know how well Marq-E leases out. You are very correct to question the demographics. Good accessibility (I-45 @ Beltway 8) means something, but demographics mean everything.
  3. I've seen it many times from the West Loop. It just isn't my style. Neither is Citykid's Italian alternative, however. I live in Houston. I could care less about attempting to imitate architectural styles. All I want to see is some originality.
  4. No, I agree with Citykid...its really uninspiring.
  5. I wholeheartedly agree with Timmy. Any more than a few years ago and Washington Avenue would have looked like Almeda's blue-collar cousin. Development was pretty fierce in that area because land values were lower, not being near big parks, museums, or much else of cultural or aesthetic value. Almeda, in contrast, has everything going for it, including the existing raw demographics. If you don't believe me, have dinner at Spanish Village; one look at the parking lot will prove my point.
  6. Main Street is technically divided into three sections: North Main, Main, and South Main. North Main begins north of the Buffalo Bayou bridge. Main Street proper runs from the south side of the bridge through the Texas Medical Center, and ambiguously becomes South Main Street south of Holcombe Blvd. I use the word 'ambiguous' because I've seen different street addresses from various sources applied to some of the same buildings along the stretch of Main between Holcombe and OST. I'm sorry that your appreciation is not somewhat more broad. Houston has a lot of excellent modern highrise architecture. If you compare Houston's buildings of the same era to those same era of other cities' buildings, our modern architecture is what REALLY sets us apart.
  7. There are several bands that come to mind, as I've developed a taste for psychedelia. I feel somewhat connected to this era vicariously through my dad, who personally knew and hung out with at least one member from each band listed. Thirteenth Floor Elevators - Austin, TX If it weren't for International Artists, a recording company that was in Houston's warehouse district, they'd have been BIG. They were already HUGE in Europe, but IA mismanaged them, so they stayed pretty regional. My dad took me to meet Rocky Erickson, the lead singer and front man, when I was a kid. The fellow wasn't in very good shape, at least during the 1980's. He was mostly incoherent, but my dad and he, neither of which had seen eachother in years, hit it off. I've now got all their CDs and they're one of my favorite bands. The electric jug is genius, albeit overplayed. Rocky wasn't on most of the Elevators' last album, 'Bull of the Woods', although I consider it my personal favorite...very shroomy...good album for rolling down the windows on Houston's summer afternoons and driving around without A/C, letting the humidity soak in. In the late 70's and early 80's, Rocky was with the Aliens; his thing was making horror music to match the horror movies of his own childhood...and probably the horrific experiences from his stay at State hospitals for the mentally ill. Electroshock treatment does weird stuff to people. Janis Joplin and the Holding Company - Port Arthur, TX & Austin, TX My dad hung out with Janis a lot. I'm unclear about whether they dated at one time, but I understand that she got around. Still, she came from Port Arthur and only spent relatively brief stints in Austin. California killed her. Doug Sahm - San Antonio, TX This band was primarily out of San Antonio. I've only heard a couple songs, but I recall thinking that SRV sounded somewhat similar...probably influenced by them. On a side note, my dad also knew SRV. We ended up buying a house from a mentally-ill keyboardist that SRV had wanted to have on his band at one point, but who had a compulsive urge to destroy stage equipment and was ultimately not kept on. We lived there for many years, and for about the next five to six years out, the fellow kept on hanging out in our front yard from time to time. My dad used to work with the mentally ill and knew how to chase the guy off, since the cops would never arrest this guy...but my dad's method of choice resulted in my dad's arrest. The guy never came back and no charges were filed...either way. The guy's family understood our plight. Willie Nelson - Austin, TX It seems like every native Texan just has to know Willie. He got his start in the 50's, and has been going ever since. My dad knew him and took me to see him several times during the mid-to-late 80's. I wish there was something I could say that's worth saying, but he's generally just a nice guy. Incidentally, my best friend in High School's father (living in McAllen) also knew Willie and would go up there to jam out on occaision. He has a funny story about getting stopped by State Troopers his way out there...they didn't ticket him, and ended up giving directions because they were also friends of Willie and had been up there a few weeks earlier. There are lots more, but these are the ones that I've been able to gain access most readily to.
  8. Woah, slow down a little there... We're not talking about connecting downtown to anything at this point. from the East Loop to downtown is about 8.5 miles by water. To Galveston/Bolivar, it's about 50 miles. That's just not gonna happen. Now, Kemah is potentially a different story. When I'm talking about a water taxi, I'm not talking about The Woodlands' version. It needs to be adequately-fast.
  9. I'm all for optimism, but you do realize that the dirt surrounding roots is opaque, right?
  10. Allow me to introduce you to my brilliant (albeit hopeless) scheme...it'd be very very easy to see how gambling could fit in. LINK TO THREAD
  11. I'm afraid that you caught me on one of my rare elitist moments. You are correct in that the Kemah Boardwalk (and most every other of Tilman's amusements) stays packed and does good business...people vote with their feet, afterall. I personally don't care for it, but...you are correct. That doesn't mean I have to like it. That said, I'd be curious to see if and how the Galveston and Kemah amusements cannibalized one another. There's only so much demand for waterfront amusement parks, and having two of them may seriously dilute the Kemah market share. As for gambling, I'm not familiar with the history of proposals, but I'd think that Tilman is just pushing for Galveston being permitted it, all by itself. That's a more reasonable goal, I'd think, than getting the whole state to have legalized gambling.
  12. That's interesting. I had someone tell me exactly that same thing the other day, comparing the Pasadena building to the S&R building.
  13. I think you just nailed it. I wouldn't want this site to be a park, though. It is too well-located and too unique. Doesn't having a whole bunch of vacant land right there go kind of counter to the whole reasoning of spending gobs of cash on light rail? What would have been the point?
  14. Crescent Real Estate Equities Trust, which owns shares of most of the Houston Center buildings and much of the surrounding land. My understanding is that Hakeem, who owns the ground on which the Finger project is to be built, purchased it from Crescent as well...but that was a while back and I could be mistaken. Check the tax rolls if you're really interested.
  15. Houston19514 speaks the truth. I wish I could go into more detail on this, but all I can do is provide abstract theories right now: The city is attempting to stimulate very rapid and very dense growth (especially of a residential nature) in the eastern portion of downtown; that has been a goal for a very long time and has prompted hundreds of millions of dollars of public investment. This is most likely why a very 'busy' park has been designed as opposed to a more empty one that is more appropriate for employees of office buildings. You don't put in places for people to bring their dogs without people living near by...unless you want people to live nearby. In regard to parks and other public/quasipublic amenities, demand creates supply in the short run, but supply creates demand in the long run. In this case, the long run trend was immediately manifested in the Finger project...but it certainly wouldn't be the last. For this reason, I would support the 'busy' park. So if we come up short at present to pay for an underground parking garage, what then? If we know that there will be a need for the parking in the future (and I think that the need could be justified 20 years out) then are we willing to accept that either 1) we can tear up the park with all its amenities and mature trees in order to build the parking garage in 20 years, once there gets to be enough demand, or 2) we can build the garage right now and postpone the park a few years until adequate funding can be lined up...and then do it right, have a functioning garage, and a park built for generations that those of us alive today will never have the pleasure of knowing? Of course, the third option is to build the park well and never to have a parking garage, but that foregoes a major opportunity. See, by building lots of new public parking spaces, the city would force operators of parking lots to price spaces more competitively in order to attract customers, forcing their revenues down. By diminishing the revenue that can be had by operating surface parking lots, land prices can be lowered to the point that (at least on the margin) surface parking lots are no longer the highest and best uses of land. Land prices are the big obsticale to fostering residential development in the CBD...if that problem can be solved, then the eastern district within downtown may very well evolve to the point at which the investment in an underground parking garage not only justifies itelf through the promotion of new developments or by creating more taxable and valuable real estate, but through revenues from providing public parking spaces by itself.
  16. I won't/can't name sources, but I'm hearing bad things about the park development plans...has to do with money. Anyone able to expand on this?
  17. This is another case where you've got to put yourself in the position of the developers of the 50's through 80's to understand why many of those malls exist. They were built in various places at the time that lots of money was found in close proximity to those places. Sharpstown Mall was built in Sharpstown's heyday, not with the expectation that it'd one day be perceived as a crime-ridden slum. The same was true of the original Gulfgate, Northwest, Meyerland, and others. Meanwhile, many malls that have retained a good position relative to Houston's elite (Galleria, Memorial City, Woodlands, Willowbrook, Katy Mills, and Baybrook) have not only done exceptionally well, but have been renovated and expanded. The business environment of the period in question also provided for many generalized department stores with space-intensive layouts and large customer bases. Since then, those anchors have lost much of their draw and the customer bases have shifted to relatively poorer households rather than solid middle-class households. This is partly a legacy issue, but is also one relating to poor management/marketing. My theory on this is that indoor malls fell out of style not so much because of new urbanism, but because people with money started associating them and their traditional anchor stores with the lower/middle class. New urbanism just happened to be there at the moment that the 'falling out' occurred, so it was adopted. My point is that Houston was not over-malled insofar as you bear in mind the market conditions at the time of construction. The problem now is that demographics have shifted against them, the traditional tenant base is struggling/failing, and the initial improvements to the property have greatly depreciated. Btw, zaphod, Gulfgate may be "boring" to you, but it has done exceptionally well and is not likely to be "going out of business" anytime soon, as you suggest. Wulfe knew what he was doing--the Hispanic market may be relatively poor right now (although studies show that there is a lot of hidden wealth even at present), but it represents a growing base of wealth and will integrate into the White/Asian income distribution within the coming couple of generations. Many of them will then move to the suburbs, but many will also stay in place, reinvesting in new homes in the same community at about the same moment that new urbanists discover the development opportunities in the east and southeast parts of the Inner Loop.
  18. I drove through this part of Pasadena today and circled this building. It looked like there were another couple of large parking lots up for sale adjacent to the building, and considering the high costs of demolition and what has to be relatively low costs of land, it would surprise me if it made sense to tear the thing down. It's one thing to see high-rise teardowns in the CBD, where land can often go for $60 to $100+ per square foot, but for five acres in Pasadena without an immediately-accessible freeway? Something is very odd about this. Anybody know what the asking price is?
  19. I understand that starting out near the Beltway and wrapping up in the East End makes for a good (albeit long) trip. I've also seen that a new concrete landing with stairs has been built along the south bank of the bayou and on the west side of the York/Sampson bridge. Alternatively, the Lockwood bridge is also a good take-out and also provides for shaded parking. I've never done this either, although I've been meaning to for some time.
  20. It is in fact a single market, albeit a monopolistically competitive one. The goods in question, in this case parking at varying distances from destination clusters, are imperfect substitutes for one another. If there is a glut of parking spaces at any distance, say two blocks from a key destination cluster, then the owner of the affected parking spaces will lower their prices to lure in customers from more convenient but more expensive space and from less convenient and equally-expensive spaces, as well as from equally-convenient and now-higher-priced spaces. At that point, in order to compete for customers, the entire market, imperfectly competitive that it may be, will shift its pricing to adapt to the glut. In the end, the relationship between closer-in spaces being more expensive and further-out spaces being less expensive will hold, but the whole market will be less expensive than at the outset. Development in any given year in an urban environment is more likely to occur on land that is lower in value...at least that seems to be the pattern in Houston. In that way, land is effectively rationed and economically-zoned. By lowering the value of the land for its highest-and-best-use, which may currently be a surface parking lot, the profit margins start looking better for development of all categories of occupiable structure. There is no cost to having "downtown flooded with parking". In fact, as I thought that I had made clear in my initial explanation, there are benefits to inexpensive and readily-available parking.
  21. First, I only wrote in such a technical way because Hizzy and others who fail to understand supply and demand are the types that complain about everything from this to gas prices to insurance rates, and every time I hear their ridicuous arguments, it raises my blood pressure that our education system is so mediocre. I would have PMed him, but figured that someone else might actually agree with him, so I made it public. As far as riders of mass transit are concerned, perhaps you would not decide to park for $1 less, but some marginal number of people will. Its called a demand schedule, and YES, you are counted.
  22. If this is what Coog was referencing, then he needs to remember that an office project with significant competitive advantage over another competitive groups of buildings can either charge higher rents or expect to lease up quickly and stabilize at an occupancy that is higher than the other competitive buildings. They have the locational advantage and would make for a good investment. If Coog's objective is to further development in a particular place, like the CBD, then this is bad. If you get sexually aroused, as I do , at the idea of a successful business venture (regardless of location or characteristics), then this is good.
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