OkieEric

Crane was going up yesterday:

This property was bought by A&M last year to house their EnMed program https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/A-M-focusing-on-Houston-with-purchase-of-land-12271197.php https://tees.tamu.edu/news/2018/04/06/enmed-program-obtains-lcme-approval-to-move-forward/ So no fancy mixed-use development, but will at least be renovated. Still holding out hope for 7200 Main just down the street....someday

Methodist has built a child care center on the western extent of this plot in the last couple of years. Not sure it's legit enough for a "going up!" post just yet but there have also been some recent permits for Methodist that appear to be related to an office building + garage. Currently most of the land is occupied by Hunt construction and temporary buildings (presumably related to other construction in the area) PROJECT_NO PERMIT_DESC OWNER_OCCUPANT Address PROJECT_DESC CURRENT_VALUATION PERMIT_TYPE 18049409 Expedited Com *HOUSTON METHODIST HOSPITAL 7550 GREENBRIAR DR 77030 (EPR) SITEWORK & FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE OFFICE BUILDING '12 IBC 0 EC 18049409 Plan Review Fee *HOUSTON METHODIST HOSPITAL 7550 GREENBRIAR DR 77030 (EPR) SITEWORK & FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE OFFICE BUILDING '12 IBC 0 PX 18049409 Express Review *HOUSTON METHODIST HOSPITAL 7550 GREENBRIAR DR 77030 (EPR) SITEWORK & FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE OFFICE BUILDING '12 IBC 0 SX 18049483 Plan Review Fee *HOUSTON METHODIST HOSPITAL 7550 GREENBRIAR DR GARAG 77030 (EPR) FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE GARAGE '12 IBC 0 PX

There's a banner for WGW Architects - their website now directs you to "W Partnership" http://www.wpartnership.com/ Given the angles and brick I'm wondering if it will wind up similar to Hanover Rice Village, also from WGW. I did notice there was some drywall work on first and second floor near the corner so hopefully the garage is somewhat hidden

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/See-what-the-Astroworld-site-looks-like-50-years-12954611.php?ipid=hpctp Per the article the HSLR now owns all of the former Astroworld land. As someone who frequents that stretch of 610, it's truly uninspiring that such a large, relatively prime (and should be more so with TMC3 and other TMC developments) piece of land is now essentially used as parking for a few weeks a year. The rest of the year an extremely small fraction houses sheds, parking shuttles, and various other pieces of equipment. It's amazing the HSLR has so much cash they can just essentially sit on a huge tract of land that "could" have buildings someday. I can't fault them for doing so, but sheesh that tract is ugly in its current form

A "Notice of Termination of Protective Covenants" was recorded by Shell on this property with Harris County Clerk yesterday and signed by a Shell manager of deals & projects. Not sure what this means but hopefully something is imminent

Governor, Turner, TMC officials to announce new project https://www.chron.com/business/real-estate/article/Texas-governor-Greg-Abbot-Houston-Mayor-and-med-12857083.php

Various permits (including building) issued last Friday

Exactly how I heard it as well... I even heard $ mentioned. I’m a bit surprised not a single news article yet as this was really (as I understand it) the final hurdle for this to move forward

UT Regents set to discuss (and potentially vote) on TMC3 again on Monday, March 19. Not much info in Agenda

Not much of an update, but apparently the school has delayed it's move due to construction delays on their new campus - planned move is May 2019 There are a handful of new survey markers that cut across the property at the end of Glen Haven but who knows what that could mean. I was hoping we'd get a glimpse of something with the N. Braeswood abandonment process but can't find anything on that, either New nearby developments include new HCC building, Latitude & Intercontinental, new Allen Harrison South Main building (just to the south), and A&M buying 1020 Holcombe for it's EnMed program. Plenty of activity nearby, so hopefully something eventually happens here

I don't know if they post minutes of the meetings, but here is a paraphrased version of the motion: "I move that the UT System Board of Regents authorize the Chancellor to work actively to assure UT system participation.....upon satisfaction of the following actions: a.) Philanthropy is achievable b.) In recognition of current financial challenges, condition participation on some "other entity" covering the cost of the helix, actively seek financial support from city of Houston and state of Texas c.) Assure UT institutions are protected from potential situation of paying for non-usable space d.) Seek legal opinion from AG if any questions remain...blah blah e.) Secure commitment with selection of an experienced 3rd party for managing real estate development f.) Document additional reviews and approvals as required for the planned construction of the new individual research buildings. Board approval to be required to include costs in capital improvement plan...." In particular, b.) doesn't sound like much of a commitment. After listening yet again I'm not quite sure what to make of it...

I guess I wasn't the only one listening (or trying to) listen in. I had to listen to the motion a second time to ensure I understood it, with so many caveats listed. Pretty exciting news, regardless

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/3566986 I don't completely understand the height of this thing - one of the renderings in the article above make this appear taller than the Latitude

Wow, that was great and very informative. By far the most information that's been made public. Pretty cool that apparently even Apple has some level of interest... The big take away for me is that this all (obviously) hinges on UT's approval, which could hopefully come as early as November 27th I'm not sure how you watch that video and not approve TMC3, but the regents had some good, legitimate questions

Quite the hotel boom for TMC...there are these 2, the Blossom hotel, the Intercontinental, the Embassy suites (which has had some permitting activity lately), the new Residence Inn (appears to finally be happening), and various other smaller, new hotels that have popped up along South main. There's also the supposed TMC3 hotel as well, but who knows if/when that one will ever come together

Lots of permits (including building permit) issued today, so hopefully get some news (and rendering) soon. The groundbreaking ceremony was a couple of weeks back as that tent has been gone for a while. There are also a few more brick combinations out there LOL In somewhat-related news, I'm really impressed with the Project Brays construction going on - I thought I'd hate more concrete but the walls upstream of this spot give it more of a canal-type feel. I had thought they were going to replace the lower trails to place in the middle of the lower shelf but so far they are still right on the edge of the liner. The upper trails are definitely being replaced

One thing that strikes me about this is the large blank wall along the northern face of the hotel, visible in Hindesky's photo above. It sure seems to lend some credence to a future project on the BW hotel site (well, former BW). I can't find any renderings from the north side to figure out what this side will look like upon completion

Website will be SouthMainBuilding.com (currently forwards to Allen Harrison main site) I saw the sign and was hoping for a rendering - surely we'll get something when they break ground, which will apparently be soon

Another small step - an Arch-Con Construction sign is on the fence now stating it's a construction site. There appears to be some dirt work but it's hard to differentiate it from the Project Brays work, at least from Main St. This seems imminent but no building permits that I can find. I can't find any renderings, either

The lot is now fenced off

I know there has been a lot of vacant land in this area up until recently, but the neighboring single story storage facilities seem like such a massive waste of real estate. Discount mini storage (9419 Buffalo Speedway) alone has about 5 acres of land. Unfortunately, this stretch of South Main is littered with them

Turner, Fertitta now back "collaborative" approach with UT, UH, Rice, TSU, and A&M http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Turner-Build-the-data-institute-on-UT-s-land-11121076.php http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/houston/article/Turner-Fertitta-endorse-data-center-plan-call-11122792.php

I don't see any official news on this one yet, but another plan review permit was issued in late March and today they had some sample brick facades sitting out there. Kind of hard to differentiate what might be happening here from all of the Project Brays work around this site, but I take this as a positive sign

Walked by the site today and noticed the neighboring Best Western signage has been removed / covered up. Still saw some cars parked in the below ground garage but noticeably fewer cars on surface lot