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TheNiche

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  1. TheNiche
    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.
  2. TheNiche
    How can the Ashby site be 'in the middle of two neighborhoods' at the same time? I don't think geometry works that way. Nope. It's on a boundary between multiple neighborhoods, on unrestricted land with a non-conforming use along a major thoroughfare that has numerous other parcels with non-conforming uses.
  3. TheNiche
    Red made a conditional statement, which is preceded by the word if. If your fight is crying about tree size, then he's probably right but that statement may not apply to you. If you plan to make the Wal-Mart explode (a la King of the Hill, Season 2, Episode 23), then perhaps the fight is not over -- but all bets regarding tree size would be off, that's for sure. Of course, we don't know what your fight is. You have made no credible or recent statements regarding your fight or an intent to fight. It's entirely possible that Red made a statement that wasn't directed at you.
  4. TheNiche
    What do you suppose their holding costs would've been for enduring each additional month of litigation? Sounds to me like they just needed to remove this additional barrier to the project getting financed and moving forward. And besides, how many of these kinds of lawsuits actually go to trial? I'm betting, not many. Trials are extraordinarily expensive and the outcomes can be risky and unpredictable for both parties, with the outcomes subject to appeal by either party and creating situations wherein there exist contingent liabilities for many many years. Coming to a negotiated settlement is usually preferable to that, whether guilt is an issue or not. (If that offends your sense of justice, BTW, then you're certainly not alone. But the alternatives suck, too.)
  5. TheNiche
    Dallas' Victory teaches us that it is possible for a development to have retail, a stadium, high-end hotels, expensive architectural finishes, high operating costs, and still be bland.
  6. TheNiche
    I don't have the slightest clue what specific restaurants or stores are planned. However, I am forever amazed at the resilience of Houston's restaurant scene. I don't buy anchor-worthy status, but they're doing well. (Was at Hay Merchant, then Underbelly on Monday; both were doing exceptionally well. And on a Monday.) I'm sure that there's an upward limit on what can be supported, but it may take a commodities price bust to discover it.
  7. TheNiche
    I've encountered some recent speculation that due to a shortage of land in the northwest submarket (the largest industrial submarket in town), opportunities for the development of bulk warehouse space have become exceedingly limited. The few parcels that are left just aren't large enough or aren't priced right, putting them in more of a situation where service centers and even low-rise office buildings are better suited. And as you go out along US 290, most of the large tracts are either spoken for and slated for residential and shopping centers. And besides, US 290 is so congested that it is no longer that desirable of an amenity. Hines seems to have bet on the north Beltway 8 area. McCord has put their money on the northeast Beltway 8 area. And then there's Cedar Crossing Industrial Park in western Chambers County, which petered out a number of years back. I suspect that the southern sector of Tomball ISD and the northern sector of Katy ISD may capture some of these facilities once the Grand Parkway is completed, however probably not many because those areas have no rail service and so they are less likely to develop industrial agglomerations. The area of south Waller County that's right along I-10 might also be a contender. It has rail service and some developmental momentum in the vicinity of Igloo Road. But...it's really far out there. For my money...I'd think that Hines and McCord made a solid bet with Beltway 8. Anybody else have thoughts? Are there realistic opportunities in the southern sector to create an industrial agglomeration? Are east and northeast submarkets really so undesirable and far-removed that employers would pass them over? (I ask because the other side of the coin is that these facilities will influence where people live. Office buildings in the urban core are not our only venue for employment.)
  8. TheNiche
    Yeah, I had been looking at how many restaurant pre-leases there are in the project. It seems like a red flag. I've heard retail brokers talk about how stunning it was when they realized that a restaurant can serve as an anchor store...but I think that they're full o' crap, personally. Brokers can be like that. It's in their job description. On the one hand, West Ave is the superior development. On the other hand, OliverMcMillan probably doesn't need West Ave exit caps to make this project worthwhile in the first place. I just hope that they don't sell themselves short on apartments and office space...but especially apartments.
  9. TheNiche
    If it's the older portion that is spalling, then it's pretty much par for the course. It's just what reinforced concrete does, eventually. If it's the newer stuff, then there's no excuse for that.
  10. TheNiche
    I also believe that Westheimer is aesthetically pleasing. All up and down. The thing is, aside from a tiny little pock mark (and even then, within it), my Westheimer is the Westheimer that you profess to know and love. Were it to become lined with lick-and-stick inauthentic urbanity, the kind that is as overprescribed by architects to cities as Ritalin is by psychiatrists to young boys, you'd tire of it quickly. I'm sure of it. We'd need a new drug, a new paradigm. And then what? Life would seem a little emptier, I think.
  11. TheNiche
    The land was purchased from Coventry Development Corporation, which offices out of New York City. I know that Exxon certainly has had previous dealings with that company, but was under the impression that this was an arm's length sale.
  12. TheNiche
    Those people are doing it wrong. Setting retail along Westheimer back from the street even just a little makes it safer and more accessible to people using the back roads to access it. So, the fact that some pedestrians act so dangerously that traffic has to slow down is supposed to make it okay because other pedestrians stand to benefit? No. That's utterly insane and unacceptable. This is not Calcutta.
  13. TheNiche
    FWIW, when I walk around in the vicinity of the Westheimer curve, I avoid walking along Westheimer. It's too ugly and loud. I'll walk along Lovett or California, or a different parallel. Same goes for Montrose, which isn't as ugly but is still loud; typically, I'll walk along Yupon or Mt. Vernon instead. If walkability is adversely affected by the volume, speed of traffic, and narrowness of sidewalks relative to already-narrow lanes, then Westheimer is doomed. (Westheimer is doomed!) Traffic calming could be an option, but I think that it's easier from a planning perspective to just let traffic be traffic and to let pedestrians and bicyclists take the next street over.
  14. TheNiche
    TheNiche's Westheimer Theory of Relativity states that all multi-tenant retail relates to Westheimer as a strip mall. A limited number of isolated exceptions exist under direct scientific observation, then revert to a strip mall when not so observed. Therefore, even if this project had zero setback from Westheimer, it would still be set back by at least 25 feet. Think about it.
  15. TheNiche
    What is the problem with the development's relationship with the street? It is scaled up enough vertically relative to the distance that its still imposing, yet isn't so far from the street that it should be off-putting to any but the most lazy and slothful of pedestrians. It's not the Target that faces San Felipe or even a CVS Pharmacy in Midtown.
  16. TheNiche
    At only 278 apartment units and 99,000 square feet of office space, they're being way too conservative. The market will easily absorb it. They need to push this entire site plan upward by an additional story and not leave money on the table.
  17. TheNiche
    Until the Wal-Mart had come along, townhome construction had fizzled out in the West End. The new Ainbinder development was obviously just the shot in the arm that this area needed to kick-start new residential development again. Also, you're probably referring to Post Midtown, not "Midtown Post Oak," which does not exist. (This indicates to me that you probably have no idea what you're talking about and are just parroting third-hand propaganda.) It is called Post Midtown because Post Properties is the owner/developer. Post had the opportunity to acquire the Wal-Mart site. They did not. The reason that they did not was that developing something of that nature, scaled up, in that location would've been thousand dollarsing stupid. The land is still there, it is not a quarry that can be depleted. When pigs learn to fly, maybe it'll get built up with something like the Burj Dubai.
  18. TheNiche
    Go figure. That's what they get for keeping such an auspiciously ironic name, is disunity.
  19. TheNiche
    I couldn't help that you weren't noticing the loss of Niko Niko's, Georgia's Market, or Phoenicia Deli...because those things weren't lost, they were gained. OTOH, Scott Gertner moved in, but then Scott Gertner sucks. White people (i.e. the establishment) caught up with y'all...and it was pretty obvious what your perspective is. I only asked to be absolutely sure. Here you go, for your enjoyment: http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/154102/flippity-floppity-floop
  20. TheNiche
    Lets be realistic. Developers can't do very much at all with less than an acre or two. There aren't many such parcels in Rice Village. It's be great if there were some sort of algorithm to assemble parcels based upon common ownership or high-turnover parcels or parcels owned by elderly people or entities controlled by elderly people (hint, hint, to any aspiring real estate consultants with a software engineering background), but from the looks of it, the circumstances are bleak.
  21. TheNiche
    Forgive me for asking, but...are you black?
  22. TheNiche
    In fairness, I'd wholly expect that a new Wal-Mart would be an invaluable amenity in a part of the city that is poorly-served by other grocers or discounters due to low household incomes. For instance, I'm positive that the Northline Wal-Mart had a positive impact on that area. Since that's their sweet spot, it just sort of makes sense that home prices should rise. I don't think that that would necessarily be true of the Heights, although...it's WAAAAAAY better than what was there before it. Nobody could argue against that with a straight face.
  23. TheNiche
    Welcome to hell, Pleak. Arguing with mfastx is a time suck. If you bother to try, you should fully expect that he'll coax hours of original research from you, will apply every conceivable logical fallacy to advance an apologistic stance on light rail, and will be intellectually disingenuous in general. It's like arguing with a politician's hired lobbyist. (Yes, he's really that good at wasting your time.) Just say no and walk away.
  24. TheNiche
    At great peril to myself, I drove across the Yale bridge and past this development yesterday. It's a vast improvement to the area. I sincerely look forward to saving money and living better. And I especially like that there is a liquor store going in right across the street. It'll make my grocery and household shopping trips far more efficient.
  25. TheNiche
    You can walk through the golf course on the improved paths that they've cut through it. I do so often. Also, the jogging paths along the perimeter of the golf course are very pleasant, as is the aesthetic. If I could play frisbee golf on the golf course, I'm not sure that I'd want to. It's quite isolated. You'd find me somewhere closer to where the people are in the first place. And that's my concern with intensively programming the entire golf course. It'd spread out the people and reduce its aesthetic of urban vibrancy in the core part of the park, but it would also eliminate the sense of lush serenity on its eastern periphery. It'd reduce contrasts to a middling something. Does that make sense? I can't speak to the trend, but I'll say this much. If I go to a zoo and the lions are sleeping in a little nook or cranny that isn't visible to me, that's not entertaining. If the giraffes are so distant that I need binoculars, that is not entertaining. Zoos exist for the sake of my entertainment, not so that animals can be stress-free or so that I can make-believe that they exist in a natural environment and that I'm on a research safari. If that's cruel, then it is what it is. And you know something, maybe there is something to be said for a larger enclosure. But if we're going to do this, let's do it right. Take several plots of several thousand acres each from the Barker or Addickes reservoirs and convert them to African savannah. Install large herd animals. Make it an adjunct to the zoo. When it floods, herd them into an enclosure on high ground. I'm perfectly serious about this, btw. It'd take the Houston Zoo to a completely different level. Simply taking over the golf course couldn't have the same effect (and would come at a higher opportunity cost, IMO).
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