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aachor

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Everything posted by aachor

  1. I wouldn't be surprised if it fills up with contract parking. It's priced competitively with TMC parking garages, but their garages don't have availability during the day. And it's only a short walk from Texas Children's and MD Anderson (via the Duncan Building and skybridge). Edit: It seems the garage has 2,800 parking spaces. At around $200 per month for a parking space, it could potentially bring in around $6.7M in annual revenue.
  2. I didn't know that site existed. Thanks! Looking at it, it seems that they're aiming for 2/10/2025 for the project to be ready to bid. So maybe sometime in 2026 for the resurface? It's going to be in real rough shape by then, and I would guess that they're going to have to replace and rebase sections.
  3. It's wild to think about what this whole area is going to be like in a few years. When I first moved to Houston in 2016, OST west of Almeda was mostly just parking lots. In a few years, this stretch between Cambridge and Greenbriar will have been completely transformed. Hopefully at some point the city can get it's act together and re-pave OST. It was rough in 2016 and since then it's only gotten worse.
  4. I think @houstontexasjack is correct. I was curious and did some reading and it seems that It's not too uncommon to see high-rise and skyscraper projects that have run into this kind of trouble before. Especially condominium developments. Sometimes they end up as an eyesore while stuff gets sorted out. And then, often, the original developer secures some new funding or some other developer ends up taking over the project and completing it. Unless the building is found to have construction defects (e.g. Ocean Tower on South Padre Island), acquiring a half-finished building for pennies on the dollar seems to be usually too good to pass up. I know it isn't the best comparison, but there are multiple very large projects on the Vegas strip, for example, that stalled out due to the original developer running out of funds or some other issues, and then later resumed. Apparently, Miami also had a number of projects that were stalled by the 2008 financial crisis, but ended up resuming within a year or two. Some other examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brickell_World_Plaza What I can't find is any building in the United States achieving anything close to this height and then being demolished because of funding issues. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_voluntarily_demolished_buildings
  5. Two years ago my sister was visiting from out of town with her family and opted to stay here. She said that the hotel was reasonably clean, but poorly maintained. And, that the rooms were somewhat damp and musty and needing a remodel.
  6. The website is short on information, but it says "mixed use." And from the render, everything above the podium looks residential to me. If they're going mostly residential with a lesser amount of boutique office space and streel-level retail, or residential/hotel/retail, that would make a lot more sense to me than a massive mostly-office building in the next couple of years. Especially with all of the other construction in the Med Center. My wife works in the Med Center and we rented just outside the Med Center for several years. There is a serious lack of decent housing in the area. Something within walking distance of the major hospitals should do really well, especially if they can keep the rent within reach of hospital employees. Looking at availability on the website for The Latitude Med Center seems to confirm that there is a market here.
  7. My wife and I lived in a high-rise for a few years which had a clear view of the refineries. They actually looked kind of pretty with their flares sparkling clear across the horizon at night. But also, whenever I saw them, this is what went through my mind:
  8. 100%. I, for one, am especially happy to see something other than another glass box. I think this latest render looks great. I love the glass band in the middle. And the top-heavy juxtaposition of the white tower at the top and naked garage at the bottom makes it look a little punk modern. I really hope they don't skimp on the lighting. The early renders had some colored LED bands delineating the different sections, and it looked really sharp in my opinion. I really think this adds a lot to the Museum District "skyline." It absolutely dominates your view driving along Binz. I like it.
  9. I was curious too. It looks like it's a project of the Midtown Management District. Most of their minutes are scanned documents and are not easy to search. https://midtownhouston.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/MMD-Minutes-5-5-2021-Final-Signed.pdf
  10. I really wish that the city would properly stripe the roads and fix the potholes before imposing this kind of ...art... on us. EDIT: I am all for public art, I would just like it to be beautiful.
  11. I'm really hoping the final lighting will look like the render with the multiple horizontal bands. At the moment, it's just a black hole in the night sky.
  12. I don't know why you all aren't excited over any high-rise development that doesn't completely look like ass (e.g., Mercer Condominiums). It's an increase in density without being another doughnut. And, to be fair, even a mid-rise doughnut or a good looking podium construction are a huge improvements over the low-rise apartments with surface parking that were a construction staple in this city in previous decades. I think any increase in density which diminishes the plague of surface parking is a step in the right direction. Regardless of whether it's 30 or 40 floors, this and the development at 2311 Westheimer are both excellent developments for this neighborhood.
  13. I like the term "Rodeo District." Maybe the city should label the whole area as "The Rodeo District." It's so much better than calling it "The Astrodome Area" or as Google Maps labels it, "Gridiron."
  14. Agreed. The stop on the red line makes the parking experience so much better than it really is in my opinion. My wife and I hate the rodeo parking situation so we typically end up parking in the Med Center or Downtown where things are less congested and where we don't have to deal with parking lots the size of Kansas. We then just ride the rail in. I think NRG Stadium could really be helped with a few large parking garages with skybridges directly connecting to the upper concourses. We recently attended a concert in the Toyota Center, and the connection between the arena and the Toyota Center garage make getting in an out so easy in comparison. Obviously, NRG is considerably larger, but I don't see why the same experience couldn't be replicated with multiple garages. The NRG parking lots would seem to be an ideal hotel location. Especially if the hotel could be connected via skybridges to garages and to the stadium. The Windham is packed during the rodeo. Last I saw it still looked fairly dated. And it requires visitors to make the trek across eight lanes of impatient and semi-intoxicated traffic. If the walk between the hotel and the rail was easy and well-lit, the hotel could also serve out of town visitors to downtown events, as well as out of town Med Center patients.
  15. Zoning almost always constricts supply and drives up demand because it does not allow development to occur organically- where it's most needed. And in my opinion, it primarily exists so that the politically well-connected and the special interests in a city can exercise control and exclusion authority over property they don't own. Usually, the lower and middle classes are most adversely affected by zoning. They are restricted to particular corners of the city, their commutes are lengthened, they are separated from their businesses and services, and the well-connected get to dictate who breathes their rarified air. With conventional zoning, my wife and I could not afford to live in the neighborhood we live in. We wanted to live where we live because it is well located and shortens our daily commutes. And thankfully, because of the lack of zoning, some developer plopped a midrise condo in the middle of a neighborhood of single-family detached homes a couple of decades ago. We can't afford the detached homes in this neighborhood, but a decent condo sells for half. This is why there has been a big push by affordable housing advocacy groups in recent years to end single-family zoning. My only disagreement with them is, "Why stop there?" We can clearly see the benefits of mixed-use development. And if a duplex or a four-plex is better than a single-family home, why not a larger condominium on the same lot? https://www.npr.org/2023/02/11/1155094278/states-cities-end-single-family-zoning-housing-affordable
  16. It seems to me that even if they can't develop more biomedical space, this location would also be ideal for mixed-use development. It sits right off the freeway, between 288 and TMC3. Surely, something will come of it sooner rather than later.
  17. I wouldn't wish a Greyhound station on anyone. But given all of these stupid lawsuits, I think it's time for Midtown to get a reprieve. The owners of 2016 Main have suffered under stupidly low property values long enough. I'm sure the new neighbors of the Langley can carry the burden for a while.
  18. Yeah, that's escaping the worst of it. From what I can tell, demand dropped enormously, but prices only fell a little. Certainly less than most other parts of the country. I grew up in Michigan and in 2009, the market value on my parent's home had dropped to 65% of what they paid for at purchase. Many, many people ended up owing the banks double what their homes would fetch on the market. It took a decade to recover. New construction wasn't down by 85%. It went to zero. Projects that were underway were halted. Half-built homes sitting abandoned were a regular sight.
  19. If the data is to be believed, I think we're in for a 2008-style housing bust. However, in 2008, Houston escaped the worst of it, and I think that will be true for this bust too. My wife and I bought last year, so I am familier with Houston pricing. In comparison, in other major cities (including DFW) the prices are crazily inflated. They're eye watering in comparison to Houston's affordability. Those inflated prices won't be sustainable with 30yr mortgages at 7%. A lot of people in those other major cities will be feeling a lot of hurt as they end up in serious negative equity when the bubble does burst. In contrast, Houston's housing prices seem to me to have only just kept pace with inflation. That means we didn't boom as hard as Dallas or Austin in the last 5 years. But we won't bust like them either.
  20. Zoning and regulation won't give you good architecture. D.C. has strict zoning regulations and the Federal Government has more money than God, and yet they managed to poop this out. I don't know what's worse, the FBI's HQ, or a 10-story storage building in Houston. And I don't even hate brutalism.
  21. There are a number of storage facilities in this city that are less of an eyesore than this.
  22. Same. Then I describe what it's going to be, and she asks "how do you know all this stuff?!" 😏
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