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jgriff

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Everything posted by jgriff

  1. jgriff
    Never underestimate yourself. There’s no telling what you will be able to afford someday.
  2. jgriff
    You think this is slow? 1916 West Gray is 6 years into construction. Still not done!
  3. jgriff
    Yuck. Sweet Paris is terrible. I went to the one in City Centre once. It’s Jack in the box or Burger King level food.
  4. jgriff
    Now that I live in the core of Houston I’m all for light rail. I wish they’d put a rail line down West Dallas. I think it would enhance my property value. Since there’s usually some federal funding for these kinds of transit projects, the people who live in urban areas that receive these investments are essentially being subsidized by the people who live in rural areas. I’ll gladly let other people pay to enhance infrastructure of the area I live in. It’s the same situation as the downtown living initiative. The entire city pays for subsidized housing for the middle und upper middle class in downtown. As long as the corruption and pork belly spending are helping my property value and enhance my neighborhood I say keep it coming. Convince me that heavy rail to Katy would make my property more valuable and I’ll be for that too. That might be the case. Heavy rail to the suburbs could make it cheaper to do business in downtown which could keep companies from moving to the suburbs.
  5. jgriff
    Exactly... I wrote a long post about how much I agree but then realized this is going too far off topic. I’m out on the evils of tunnels and fringe politicians!
  6. jgriff
    There is a seriously large amount of development going on right now. Multi family seems to be exploding. I’m almost worried that it’s a bubble. Oil hit $55 this week and people in the know seem to think it will keep rising for now. If we’re seeing this at $50-$55 Imagine if we get to $80 this year.
  7. jgriff
    There is a seriously large amount of development going on right now. Multi family seems to be exploding. I’m almost worried that it’s a bubble. Oil hit $55 this week and people in the know seem to think it will keep rising for now. If we’re seeing this at $50-$55 Imagine if we get to $80 this year.
  8. jgriff
    There’s a bit of security in the tunnels also. The homeless are generally kept out. I stood on corners waiting for buses downtown for many years and was accosted a few times, once seriously threatened. I didn’t feel in danger in the tunnels wearing an expensive Swiss watch, on the surface I slipped it into my pocket in some areas. The biggest annoyance in the tunnels were the Lyndon Larouche people. I’d go to the surface just to avoid them. Bottome line though, I always preferred walking on the surface. Most days, even in Houston, the weather is nice for walking as long as it’s not too far.
  9. jgriff
    It was a 6-7 block walk for me from the bus stop to my office downtown. On rainy or extremely hot days it’s a life saver. If the tunnels weren’t there I would have driven to work everyday instead of using mass transit. I didn’t really have to use them that often but it kept me from having to carry a slicker suit and umbrella to work everyday. For me, without the tunnels, mass transit in downtown Houston would have been unusable.
  10. jgriff
    Yes, that lot is part of what was to be Regent Square. There seems to be no public information on it's status at the moment.
  11. jgriff
    I talked to my neighbors about this and the Hanover site. Their biggest concern is that something like a Wal-Mart will happen if the Regent Square project is abandoned. I couldn't imagine that happening on a site this expensive. Am I right? Would Wal-Mart or another big box retailer build in Houston on land that's worth around $160 a square foot? I'm always surprised at how most people are so anti-development. It seems many people in the neighborhood are not even happy with Hanover replacing the abandoned detention center and the other buildings North of West Dallas. They also complained about the lack of parks! We are about 1300 feet from Buffalo Bayou Park! Apparently crossing Allen Parkway is not possible.
  12. jgriff
    Maybe they took the website down in anticipation of a new one going up.
  13. jgriff
    Maybe they took the website down in anticipation of a new one going up.
  14. jgriff
    Real estate prices in this area don’t seem to support the economics of high rise construction.
  15. jgriff
    I was surprised at the price paid for the Detention Center site. My lot is appraised at $85/SF. Of course it's not suitable for development due to the size. Is it normal for a commercial size lot like this to be worth double what a residential lot would be? I hope this doesn't push my taxes up.
  16. jgriff
    They had serious issues during Harvey. I'm sure Hanover will take the flooding issues into account in the design of the new buildings. On the site plan I believe only Reserve "B" would have flooding issues. I walked the entire area many times during Harvey since I live just a few hundred feet away. Since Hanover paid about $7 million an acre for the Detention center portion I'm sure The Center got a big price for their site, it was almost 7 acres. The property taxes on this development are going to be huge. Here's what The Center had to say about the sale on their blog. https://thecenterhouston.org/with-plans-for-a-new-location-underway-the-center-finds-a-temporary-home-on-kirby-drive/
  17. jgriff
    Here's the plot for those that don't want to look through the PDF.
  18. jgriff
    Lots of details in this document. The entire site is about 13.5 acres. It looks like they've bought everything East of Martson street. They are adding several streets. Martson street and one of the new ones will connect to Allen Parkway. ftp://edrc.houstontx.gov//2019/2019-02_DraftAgenda.pdf
  19. jgriff
    Sorry, delete this post...
  20. jgriff
    That IS pretty cheap actually. If this is what the incentives made possible then I would say they did subsidize “affordable” housing. A person living in an $1100 a month apartment is probably not rich, probably working class. My first apartment in Houston 23 years ago was $800. It was larger than this but the location was terrible.
  21. jgriff
    Wow, that's news to me! Maybe it should be combined.
  22. jgriff
    The first post in this thread is about 3550 West Dallas. The other one is about 3540, that one has been purchase by Hanover. They are actually two different sites. One is 4.5 acres and the other is about 6.75 acres. I’m still not 100% certain which site the new variance signs are for.
  23. jgriff
    The big building with the orange tower was a juvenile detention facility. I’m not sure what the building in front was for.
  24. jgriff
    Im confused too. The apartments on the corner of West Dallas and Shepherd are supposed to be called Alta West Dallas. I’m just glad there’s finally some movement on this area.
  25. jgriff
    Sounds like this one is going up right now. No delay.
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