Nate99
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Everything posted by Nate99
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Down to a floor and a half above the concrete part.
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By my count, that's 7 floors gone in less than a month.
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I'm guessing that the entire league probably had an exclusive deal with some beverage company.
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From earlier today - April 26th.
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I didn't see anyone working on the exterior, but I didn't look to closely for signs of anyone coming in/out of the lobby. I was across the street when I walked by. -
Here's a shot of the cladding removed from a strip of the facade. It looked to me like it must have been held on by a thick black adhesive (tar, maybe) that pretty well entirely covered the brick underneath.
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Apologies for the size, here are a couple of shots from an hour or so ago. Looks like all of the glass is out.
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They have a crane up now and most all of the windows are out. The lower concrete floors are exposed through the hole they punched in it to install the tower crane. It will be interesting to see how fast it comes down.
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This "catwalk" (for lack of a better descriptor) seems like an awful lot of work for an empty property. It's hard to imagine a circumstance where an owner would be able to put that kind of money in to something that has no indication of an ability to generate revenue for them at the moment, so that was why I suspected that, perhaps, something might be in the works for the whole site. Maybe the code violation penalties were severe enough that condemnation and seizure of the property was threatened, form my non-real estate background, that would seem to be the only reason an owner would be motivated to do this. There is an old RV trailer there to the left of the hole in my picture that I think someone lives in to serve as a security guard for the building, but that has been there for a long time. The hole in the street might have something to do with the new light rail lines, one of the workers was wearing a hard hat with the HRT logo on it.
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Took this pic today. Doesn't look like anyone is working on anything else at the site. I guess they were just building a workable sidewalk.
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Chronicle Blog article A few pics, more in link.
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I went back and looked again, and if I had to guess, I would say it looked like they were putting in a permanent walkway where the hole in the ground encroached on whatever right of way is required for the sidewalks downtown. I know that there had previously been a wooden structure there that is now gone, replaced by the steel structure that is now being built. The construction company is GT Leach. Based on their website, it doesn't look like they would just be doing remediation of an abandoned site to keep it from being a code violation, but who knows. The structure looks like it would be permanent, something along the lines of what you would see supporting a steel stadium bleacher.
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I'm trying to imagine the underground parking being retained without the structure on top of it. Seems a bit odd, but what do I know. If I had to guess, I would think that building a new attached parking structure to Total Plaza might bring them higher rents.
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Posted in Downtown forum also, but thought I'd put it here as well... I walked by there yesterday and noticed that there were some welders constructing what looked to be steel catwalks (not sure what you would call them) along one side of the big hole in the ground next to the old abandoned Texaco building at Fannin/Capitol. Anyone know what is going on there? It is the first activity that I have seen there in years. A construction company had its banner sign on one of the chain link fences, but I don't remember the name.
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I walked by there yesterday and noticed that there were some welders constructing what looked to be steel catwalks (not sure what you would call them) along one side of the big hole in the ground next to the old abandoned Texaco building at Fannin/Capitol. Anyone know what is going on there? It is the first activity that I have seen there in years. A construction company had its banner sign on one of the chain link fences, but I don't remember the name.
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Did they dig tunnel access from the garage under Bagby to the Heritage Plaza building? There have been metal plates on Bagby for a while now running from one to the other, I presumed that was what they were up to, unless it was just the utility connections.
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GreenStreet: Mixed-Use Development At 1201 Fannin St.
Nate99 replied to MontroseNeighborhoodCafe's topic in Downtown
I walked around HP during lunchtime today. It looks fairly impressive, and has more retail space than I guess I was expecting, although I would have known as much if I followed the development more closely. The few tenants seem to be rather spread out. Hopefully it will not follow the same path as the Park Shops, I liked the development and could see it as a great place to drive some nightlife. HoB looked busy with a lunch crowd and Willie is playing two nights next weekend which should get a good crowd in to the area. The proximity to Toyota Center should be good for Rocket game nights too. Here's hoping for the best for them. -
GreenStreet: Mixed-Use Development At 1201 Fannin St.
Nate99 replied to MontroseNeighborhoodCafe's topic in Downtown
I was surprised yesterday looking down San Jacinto from McKinney to see the structure already over the roadway. Looks to have had much more attention paid than with Houston Center and The Park Shops. -
I'm sure that you are right, it did look recessed, although from above, my depth perception wasn't the best, and I'm not entirely familiar with the layout. It's good to see it come together though, since they started, it has just been a giant mud pit bordered by skanky parking lots. Now we'll have a nice park bordered by skanky parking lots. Oh well, one block at a time, I suppose....
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I looked out a window from my office at 5 Houston Center today, and it looked like they planted several acres of sod over the main greenspace recently, although the part of the park closest to the ballpark (north?) is still very torn up.
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I always figured those buildings were some kind giant switching station. There is another one on Weslayan between Richmond and Alabama IIRC. There is no parking structures to support the kind of office space that something of that size could hold, and without windows, I assumed them to be, as some one pointed out, just full of wires. Seems to me that these might be obsolete in a few years with IP telephony and mobile not needing such massive dedicated infrastructure. That can't be cheap to maintain...
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It would have to go in to 5 Houston Center, which has no underground tunnel access (only skywalks). They would either have to go directly under McKinney street, or cut under the lot where Discovery Tower is to be built and/or the One Park Place construction. Unless those buildings are going to have tunnel provisions, I'd guess that it would not extend that far.
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In searching around, it sounded like there was no news after the Ritz-Carlton plan fell through (correct me if I am wrong). There was a link that had photos by a guy that broke in to the building, and the inside looked to be in rough shape. Add that to the surrounding area that has the ambiance of Fallujah after dark, and I'd be surprised if anyone is chomping at the bit to refurbish, especially for a luxury hotel property. Who knows, maybe the junk that is around there now might start coming around once MainPlace gets up and running and it could be a viable property again.
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That would have to be it, the block with the hole borders San Jacinto as well (street sign in the foreground).
