Brooklyn173

I walk by almost every day and on most days there are contractors. But nothing ever gets finished. It reminds me of the lousy painters I had a while back. The worst part is that the sidewalks are out of service forcing people to walk in the street. Also, the new tenants have taken to slipping under the light rail divider as they rush out of the building to catch a train. An accident waiting to happen.

+1

I was in the art store next door yesterday and they said that they had to be out by the 31st. So, when do you think demolition and the new foundation will start for tower 2? My guess is that they'll want to do it as quickly as possible to maintain the construction economies of being established next door. No idle time could mean serious cost savings.

I passed the site today on the light rail and it looks as if the northeast corner of the building is already being torn down. There were lots of bricks flying as some equipment was tearing down the wall.

Any idea at what point Cayden starts on the second tower?

Page 19 has some details http://ridemetro.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=5&clip_id=1651&meta_id=37658

I'd like to see what the other blocks are going to be filled with. While the renderings are encouraging, it will take the whole development to 'make the neighborhood'. But, like those on this board, I am very optimistic.

I wonder how long Randalls will last here. With Whole Foods coming and the very limited size of the grocery and their larger corporate issues, I don't think this Randalls is long for the world. I read a while back about Golds Gym (and the other gyms part of that company) looking to expand into vacant retail spaces. I think that would be a nice addition to the community.

On a Sunday stroll, I noticed a drilling rig doing what looked to me like soil samples in the Central Bank parking lot between Milam and Travis (2217 Milam but the drilling was closer to Travis) in Midtown. The bank occupies the entire block. Pix attached. This is across the street from the new bar, Pour Behavior, that is supposed to open this winter at 2211 Travis St. I’m not sure what is going on there. Does anyone have any insights/baseless rumors?

Nicely done.

I too would love for this building to be saved and possibly even used as a focal point for whatever replaces the Pierce Elevated. As for Gracie Mansion, I'm not sure what you mean "in modern times", but it has only been the mayoral official residence since the 1940s. though George Washington did have a command headquarters there for a while in another building near the site. And, as far as my memory goes, all mayors (including DeBlasio now) have lived there - except for Bloomberg. The City took advantage of that opportunity by doing extensive renovation and modernization during that relative downtime. The building was still used for official functions during the 12 years of Mayor Mike. And, while a car dealer owner has apparently bought the site, and owns lots of other property around the area, why is everyone just assuming it'll be a car dealership? He (they?) are business people and may be positioning themselves to take advantage of the increasing interest in Midtown. As an aside, much of the high rise development on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River is owned and operated by a trucking magnate who just happened to own a lot of waterfront property when the waterfront was 'rediscovered'. Suddenly he realized that he was also now in the real estate development business. Now it is all highrises and new parks and homes. And Ed "How am I doing" Koch, was never married.

3300 Main

I'm still pretty new to Houston, so this is an honest question. The two Skyhouse apartments near the Bell Street light rail station seem to be to be roughly the same height and bulk and density to the ongoing Caydon project. However, the Skyhouse buildings do not seem to have had a dramatic effect on the surrounding neighborhood. The ground floor retail for the two buildings is still underdeveloped. Across the street is still vacant with no (?) rumors of development. Understanding that, while the two sites are probably just a mile or so apart and there is certainly a difference in the surrounding existing residential and entertainment development (i.e., bars), why is there such a consensus that Caydon will so dramatically change the Midtown area while Skyhouse hasn't had much impact on its neighborhood? And yes, I understand that a long-planned residential tower on Main Street is also now under construction just a few blocks away. To me, the Bell Street Station site seems more similar to the McGowen Street Station site than not. Bell is closer to the Downtown attractions while Caydon is closer to the more developed Midtown residential area. But beyond that, how different are they? I'm asking to be educated.

Multifamily Occupancy Up Sharply in Downtown Houston HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Downtown Houston has more than 8,000 residents, up from 3,800 in 2012 when the city began its Downtown Living Initiative, according to a new report by the Central Houston organization. The multifamily market in Downtown Houston registered an 11 percent gain in occupancy over the last year, hitting 70 percent occupancy, said Central Houston. Some 600 units are under construction, including the 271-unit $132 million high-rise project by Camden and the $54 million 229-unit Regalia at the Park by DLC Residential at 100 Crawford. Another 1,179 units are proposed in downtown. Multifamily construction is picking up again across Houston. Thirty-eight apartment communities, with a total of 10,207 units are under construction currently. Another 65 multifamily projects, with 18,238 units are proposed, according to Transwestern’s second quarter report. The citywide occupancy rate is 89,9 percent, Transwestern reported. Aug. 6, 2018 Realty News Report Copyright 2018 http://realtynewsreport.com/2018/08/06/multifamily-occupancy-up-sharply-in-downtown-houston/

In NYC (which here is all Manhattan, but as a Brooklyn boy I must add that the other boroughs are also going through significant development changes), it is a mixed bag. Older buildings with small floor footprints in areas like downtown are often repurposed to residential. FiDi (Financial District) is now a real neighborhood where 20 years ago it was an area where no one lived. New and bigger developments are going ahead in older rail and industrial areas. The Westside Yards, over an active rail yard, is probably the biggest, but there are others. The city just re-zoned East Midtown (roughly north and east of Grand Central Terminal) to allow bigger as-of-right buildings. Many of the older office buildings predate the 1959 zoning resolution and are larger than what would be allowed by zoning. The recent change in zoning to a greater FAR will likely spur the complete knockdown and reconstruction for newer, more modern (hi-tech) buildings. (Btw, these new building will be required to pay into a transit fund to increase/improve pedestrian and public transit in the area). This was a major focus for the Bloomberg Administration before they left office. The EIS and approvals were finalized about a year ago. The zoning changes are now in place. There is a large building (1,400 ft tall) going up close to GCT (started before the zoning changes but requiring variances now codified in the new zoning regs, and has been required to fund $200+ Million to pedestrian and public transit improvements at GCT and the surrounding area) and I think that will be finished in a couple of years (https://www.onevanderbilt.com/). Expect similar smarter, newer and shinier buildings in that mode for Midtown. I don't think Houston has a neighborhood that is a Midtown or even Downtown Manhattan counterpart. Maybe older automobile-oriented cities like LA and similar would be a better comparison. I know almost nothing about LA. I know almost nothing about a lot of things.