TheNiche

Part of the reason why the Houston Pavilions underperformed is because the developers decided to pull the residential component from the project, at the last minute. They also pulled the hotel component. The city was NOT pleased with this at all. The residential component would have included a customer base and possibly would have changed the type of tenant in the complex.

This Finger's project, is in response to an initiative created by the city. They are focusing on increasing the residential presence in the city, which will lead to more residential supporting needs:

http://www.chron.com...mes-3791742.php

In fact, in the last 10-15 years the city has been the major figure in charge of downtown development. They have built 3 stadiums/arenas, convention center expansions, 2 hotels (one in the works), 2 parks for its residents (DG and Market Sq.), 2 rail lines branching out, and have worked with a number other entities to improve the downtown district from a n attraction/ quality of life standpoint.

No one is expecting this thing to turn around overnight but it reassuring to see that the city has identified what ingredient is missing from downtown and are focused on how to fix it. They are focused...

So far One developer has taken the bait......let's see if other developers follow and build more residential structures in the sea of empty lots downtown.

If you know a multi-family housing developer, please make them aware of this credit. According to my calculations, Fingers could receive $5.7 if they build this project.

AS far as spending city money. the city has to make intelligent decisions on what investment would lead to further returns. Building Discovery Green created development opportunities (residential, hotel, office) bordering the park which the city can now recoup additional tax revenue form those property. they probably have already calculated how long it will take for that decision, Discovery Green, the pay for itself, while benefiting the city in return.

The incentive seems to have followed Finger rather than the other way around, so has Finger taken the bait or has the City? Who's the cat and who's the mouse in this game?

Whatever the case, I see the most powerful application of this incentive as being the creation of more residential in that area. Only with more residents (many complexes, thousands of units) will retail ever become viable. Do not fool yourself that a stadium and one apartment project can support any significant quantity of retail. The demand is insufficient to support it. Upper Kirby, yes. Northeast downtown, absolutely not!

I am thinking that something similar to the scale and density of West Avenue would work great in this site. That would look great downtown, especially next to the ballpark and all that is going around it.

Did the abysmal failure of Houston Pavilions teach us nothing!? No, absolutely not. HP had a far superior location to this one, too.

Wish I had some news but walked past last night and noticed a rendering of a future cafe/retail on the Grey St. Side of the building. Is that new or has it been there?

That's a separate building and a separate parcel. The sign has been there for many years.

I don't really think that is a very good retail spot at all. The Waterwall doesn't get terribly too many visitors and besides that, the place is kind of cut off from everything else despite being next door to the galleria. That corner really doesn't have much visibility.

That shouldn't matter to post-modernist aesthetes.

Yes that location it's on a major thoroughfare and the light rail. Seems like a good location for a high rise. At one point in time a high rise was planned for the site.

I don't believe you. That is a crappy highrise site. Details, please.

I also doubt they care for any of the things I listed though I think they should. Non-paid internships, residencies, and pro-bono experienced staff can offer significant cost savings and potentially increase the ability of an institution to receive grants and additional funding.

It's impossible to speculate what the true cost of operating in the TMC would be (even though I tossed a listing out for grins) as there are so many ways an institution could exist there. Purchasing property as mentioned earlier is not the only option, though I agree with what others have said; The Men's Center is not interested in having someone else partner with or oversee their treatment approach. But now that I've had a bit more time to think about it the Upper Kirby area near the future Richmond light rail would make even more sense. There is a shocking lack of diversity there.

Those people can drive or be picked up at their doorstep on-call by the free shuttle service. Hell, they could even buy a limo and stock it with good booze with Third Ward savings over the TMC. And yes, I can speculate to the true cost of operating in the TMC. I just did, and that was a conservative estimate.

You're clearly not stupid, so I don't think that you're being intellectually honest with yourself or others. Away with you, troll.

So this is out to date to this extent at least. I wonder what else has changed. I hope they still build the condo tower on the SW side, that one is pretty sweet

How is it that trees cast shadows in one direction and the buildings cast shadows in the opposite direction, as if the sun were in the northwest sky? Does this image foreshadow the initial full-spectrum flash of a nuclear apocolypse?

Several reasons. There are research, treatment, funding, and academic benefits for a location based in the medical center. For starters you have a "captive" workforce actively seeking internship and volunteer opportunities in such an institution. You have a continual need for participants in substance abuse treatment research medical center institutions (Baylor University comes to mind first) You also have a level of expertise in the various communities of practice that is in close proximity which would benefit the Men's Center greatly in their relationships with treatment professionals. Right now their immediate neighbors are convienence stores, bars, high-end apartment complexes, and assorted characters that hang out nearby. Not much synergy there.

Let's say that the Men's Center can accomplish their mission on 1.5 acres. The difference between $150 per square foot in the TMC and $6 per square foot in Third Ward is $144 per square foot. That's a $9.4 million difference...up-front.

That they could hire a driver to run a 24-hour on-call shuttle service to the TMC in perpetuity...forever...for that amount of money (and its time value) and still have a whole bunch left over with which to pile on the client services. Of course, that assumes that they regularly give a crap about any of the things you mention...which I'll bet they don't particularly in the first place.

So out of curiosity, why do you think I would dismiss you as a conservative? That's rather odd.

Yes, it certainly is.

I personally feel that it is a better choice to locate such a facility within the Medical Center area for a variety of reasons.

For what reasons would that be in the public interest or in the interests of The Men's Center organization?

You'll note that I'm specifically excluding your personal interests from the above question. Please do not take offense, this is because they are irrelevant to our discussion; this is in accordance with the notion of Pareto efficiency in a cost-benefit analysis; and Pareto was an ardent socialist, so you can't just label me a conservative and dismiss me. Just answer the question.

There is land in the Medical Center area (yes, area, as it continues to expand) under $150sf.

http://www.commgate....ailFS&ln=173233

5445 Almeda is a four-story office building with a Chase Bank branch and drive-through in an area where triple-digit land sales are totally, completely unprecedented. No matter what the broker says it is, that is not land. Moreover, that property is not and has never been part of the Texas Medical Center; the TMC is expanding southward, not to the north.

You probably are unaware that in 1995, when The Men's Center purchased that lot in Midtown, land was selling for $2 per square foot. I would say that is a fairly wise use of contributor's money, compared to what land cost in TMC. As for selling out and moving somewhere completely different, sure, Niche's cynical view may be true in part or in full. However, a charity that constantly sells and moves just to make a buck does no favors for its clientele, who must constantly figure out where they moved. Most of these guys don't have an app on their iphone for that.

Even if their basis is $2 PSF, they're still carrying an asset worth at least $40 PSF. If they relocated to the Third Ward or Near Northside, they could probably find land for between $4 PSF and $8 PSF and still be accessible enough to their clientele that they wouldn't be doing them any disservice. And with the gains from selling their facilities in Midtown, they could either have better facilities in the Third Ward or provide a greater scope of services.

OTOH, if they tried to move into the Texas Medical Center, then they'd probably have a difficult time finding any land priced below $150 PSF. And I doubt that any office buildings would be thrilled with the idea of leasing space to them. So indeed, TGM's idea is totally insane. The cost of such a move would certainly diminish the quality of services that could be provided.

I believe it they should consider selling the valuable land they own and use they money to purchase land where their dollar will stretch further.

That's some interesting logic. Perhaps Memorial Hermann should consider moving its Medical Center facilities to a less expensive site. The KBR site on Clinton Drive is up for sale; maybe they could move there.

Do you know why they won't? Lots of reasons. 1) Executives and staff don't want to work in a post-industrial ghetto. 2) There isn't an agglomeration of similar organizations at that location that they can rely on to consistently draw in new clients. 3) Donors prefer giving to non-profits that operate within neighborhoods that they are highly-visible; it aids in the development of the donors' vanity.

These are also the reasons that Midtown is still a preferred location for homeless services. And that's not going to change until bleedingheart do-gooders do what makes sense for their clients as opposed to what makes sense for them...which is never, because they're selfish like everyone else.

Then we'll get you liquor and gift cards... should fix both problems.

Yes, absolutely.

LOL!

Studying Rush? I think even Rush would laugh over that one.

Neil Peart doesn't laugh.

Damn, now I have to go listen to 'Fountain of Lamenth' as penance for speaking His name.

Looks like a bore. An expensive bore.

Aside: Does anyone know what is to become of the vacant land at the southwest corner of Richmond and Dunlavy (right across Richmond from the fire station)?

Yes, that's the site for an eventual second phase of Fairmont Museum District Apartments.

Full of algae and other microbes to enhance your immune system.

Were you referring to the pond or mass transit?

The rails look nice. About 80 percent installed along UofH

Indeed, and the pond appears pure and refreshing.

Further proof that people need to arm themselves against this urban street trash...

Agreed. And we need more affordable options for shotgun pistols.

It was one robbery, not one per day. I was robbed in the middle of Rice Village, and it survived. Of course, that was back before the internet existed to blow things out of proportion. A quick glance at HPD's crime stats shows that this appears to be the 5th robbery in that area this year. For comparison, the White Oak/Studewood restaurant row has had 6. Montrose Blvd. has about twice as many robberies as both of these areas.

It is not the end of the world.

Actually, it is the end of the world for white people and attractive Asian women under the age of 35. And that's the only thing that actually matters in life. Or weren't you aware of that?

Seriously though, I think that the rate at which crime is reported has a lot to do with ethnicity (a given), that people don't think of Montrose or the Heights as being as shady as they are and therefore are less cautious or outright avoidant of the area, and that when a crime does occur in a 'safe' area, there is a sense of indignant outrage...whereas if someone gets mugged in 4th Ward, that's expected to be pretty much par for the course. So yeah, I don't trust the crime stats as a predictive indicator of whether any given pedestrian walking 500 feet through a neighborhood is likely to be a victim of violent crime.

Anybody can be sued for anything, but someone with a large non-homesteaded asset is especially likely to be a target. And who wants to be the unfortunate defendant to set a precedent by losing their case? Nobody, that's who. Settlements are expensive, too, and so if marginally effective means of deterring crime might be more effective at deterring legal frivolity, then that's what's going to happen.

Having a real HPD officer would be more reassuring

If you want to be more assured of your safety then move out of the 'hood, Slick. No matter their badge looks like, a guard can only be in one place at any given time.

It appears the complex has hired security now. That's more a deterrent than anything; what is one lanky security guard going to do against six thugs?

The guard is for the apartment owner's safety, not the tenants'.

It's just the management company making a show of things. If this sort of thing were to happen again (which it will by virtue of its location) and management had not provided notice to you and upgraded their security presence in some form or fashion, then the victim may have a good case against the apartment operator for negligence. When a suit of this nature is victorious, damages can come in at utterly ridiculous amounts--tens of millions of dollars. And yes, even if the tenants should've known that their neighborhood was unsafe, the landlord is still exposed to this risk. There's no accounting for incompetence on either side, only for the landlord's 'reasonable' efforts to stem a known problem.

Looks like punctuation is also a problem for Walmart shoppers.

It would appear that pronouns are a problem for Wal-Mart haters.

I don't really understand that. I work in oil and gas, and although I'm not an engineer, I'm surrounded by them and they tell me oil is not going anywhere. The architecture firm we deal with solely works with our company and they are busy out the wazoo. I don't understand what all the fear is about.

What if China turned out to be a Ponzi scheme?

Engineers and architects make poor economists. Your company's corporate finance professionals are also poor economists. Even the outside economic consultants that they are hiring aren't especially good economists. Kool-Aide comes in many flavors and readily masks the steamy aroma of BS.