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zaphod

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Everything posted by zaphod

  1. zaphod
    Isn't a few hours before a historic ice storm is forecasted to occur kind of a weird time to assemble a tower crane?
  2. zaphod
    I'm curious what the real reason for the sudden appearance of the multi-story, indoor self storage facility is? Are people storing more things that ever? Is something changing in that industry where these big bois are replacing smaller facilities? Are there new government regulations or insurance requirements that favor these over the rows of little metal barns with the rolling doors? You know that makes me think, maybe people who resell stuff online use these places? I can see in the near future, a gig economy delivery contractor would use a storage unit as a temporary warehouse if it didn't all fit on the truck. And I know that field service technicians who repair things like copy machines are sometimes partially independent and they don't have an office or work for a place with a local warehouse or shop, instead they get equipment dropped off at a UPS store or something like that and then go out to customers in a certain territory.
  3. zaphod
    To be fair, building the Big Tex storage in the heights is a more objectionable situation than this is. Firstly, it took out a contributing historic building, secondly it ruins a streetscape. This is a lot next to a freeway. It was always going to be limited. I'll just say that I hope the developer uses tasteful architectural details like making it brick or something so it's kind of invisible, instead putting up aqua stucco with a massive LED sign that says "MEGA STORAGE 713-TOO-MUCH CRAP" on the side.
  4. zaphod
    I noticed Veritex has their name on a small 70s/80s looking office building a couple addresses to the east of where they are moving. I wonder if an outcome of Covid and work from home might be that as companies sign leases in these new buildings, some of those really old small office buildings in areas like this could be torn down and redeveloped as multifamily. Like, I could see that clump of old low-rise commercial between Bingle and Home Depot in this same general area being a perfect spot for some kind of low profile mixed use development.
  5. zaphod
    This is kind of random of and off topic, but how did Houston end up with a really obscure 2nd Main Street (W. Main). It's obviously in the footprint of the original city so it must be substantially old and the name must have a purpose.
  6. zaphod
    I like it, it looks very clean.
  7. zaphod
    Anything is better than greige Worst design fad since putting carpet in the bathroom
  8. zaphod
    You'd think instead of being salty, people in Bellaire would welcome any development that would raise tax revenue. It can't be cheap for them to maintain stuff they got being relatively small and almost entirely residential.
  9. zaphod
    I like the architecture of the hotel. It's a very clean look compared to a lot of other new hotels in the city.
  10. zaphod
    I've been watching oil prices creep up too. Does that reflect an improvement in the industry that would yield job recovery here, or does it mean that some producers have given up or the Saudi's are taking a chill pill? How high would it need to get to make things normal again? This city has absolutely got to get away from relying on oil industry. Everyone says its already more diversified but its obvious every time that oil drops bad stuff happens here so there is still a long way to go...
  11. zaphod
    Would it still be a bank branch? Not saying they aren't useful but how many people still go to in-person bank branches?
  12. zaphod
    Being near the highway might mean its noisy there, but the view would kick butt even from lower floors because you have that road trench and then the open space to see above the tree line. Even on the second floor you'd be able to see the Med Center skyline.
  13. zaphod
    Dutch Bros. Coffee(wikipedia article, official website) is a chain of coffee shops that started in Oregon and has a large number of locations mostly on the West Coast and in parts of Mountain West. Basically it's a drive-thru only establishment similar to Sonic but without the awnings, though I'm pretty sure I've seen them with indoor dining areas. Who knows. image from wikipedia https://www.kxxv.com/brazos/dutch-bros-opens-its-very-first-texas-location-in-college-station Story about them coming to Houston: https://houston.eater.com/2021/1/7/22218696/dutch-bros-houston-opening-five-locations-2021-2022-texas-expansion College Station has 1 + 2 more in the area, Houston is getting about 5, Dallas-Fort Worth will have 10 locations, and one just opened in Killeen. The opened their first location in Texas, actually the first east of the Rockies, in College Station a few weeks ago. I knew about the chain but had never actually been to one to get a drink before until deciding to give it a try while visiting my family who lives up there in CS. My rating for it would 5/5 stars, it was great. Their menu is superficially similar to Starbucks in prices and in that they have hot, iced, and blended coffee drinks plus a few non-coffee iced fruit beverages and some small basic food items like muffins. However unlike Starbucks they have vastly more selection of different flavors (like Banana Bread, Almond, etc) and combos and you get stronger drinks for less I think. They also have nitro coffee. The drink I got was an iced coffee drink, the espresso was better in my opinion(less burnt tasting). Also if you go there on the first of the month you can ask them to give you a collectable sticker/decal thing that's usually some kind of pop culture reference. I think these will do well here, I now consider them to be much superior to Starbucks and Dunkin, honestly. Who knows. In our area it seems like outside chains will come in and its random luck how they'll do(Krispy Kreme). Like In and Out Burger, being a west coast thing I have a suspicion that whenever they open the drive thru line will be a mile like as people go nuts for it. That happened in College Station, the cars were backed up out onto Wellborn Road and it was just insane how busy it was. It will be interesting to see what parts of town they pick for locations. My bet would be anywhere new and suburban, like Katy maybe? We'll see I guess.
  14. zaphod
    Yeah this is weird. Is it possible the $350 million actually reflects the total cost of a much larger project or silo of funding this comes out of and is on the permit due to some arcane bureaucratic procedure? It's still a ton of dough though, even if they were proposing to extend the mainlanes of the Fort Bend Tollway below grade underpass beneath the feeders and train tracks with the South Main overpass and existing flyovers above(looking at the location in google maps it almost seems like this was planned because there's a pavement stub where the tollway ends and the ramps split off from the outside to go up and over.), would it cost that much? I don't know if that intersection even really needs that much improvement since it just dumps into West Airport anyways with another light. What might be more interesting is if they finally had West Airport and regular Airport connect, with a bridge over the tracks/freeway then curve around and buy out/eminent domain a couple small properties to join up. They already shamelessly carved up that subdivision east of Buffalo Speedway to create a seemingly redundant east-west linkage to Hiram Clarke. Maybe it could go all the way? Or maybe the paperwork clerk down at TDLR needs to call the help desk for a new keyboard, the zero key is stuck.
  15. zaphod
    Makes sense, the existing store has an interior decor reminiscent to the one College Station(hometown) had going back to the early 2000's. The new look is consistent with what most of the Targets in the Houston area look like now. Given how high profile a location the Memorial City location is I'm surprised they hadn't freshened it up earlier.
  16. zaphod
    Ugh I feel like I'm going to stumble over that edge just looking at that picture. But that is a beautiful view. I wish Google would do some night-time aerial imagery over big cities someday, that would be useless but really cool. I guess aside from being expensive and not commercially useful, there must be some technical issue with exposure times making such a thing hard to do?
  17. zaphod
    Sounds like a good fit for new Rockets players going forward 😝
  18. zaphod
    As a lower middle class slob I wish I had more opportunities to wear a suit sometimes. I happen to think I look good in one. But yeah, going to work everyday like that would be awkward. It's nice to look good in the office though, I have co-workers who come in with t-shirts with holes in them and I'm like, really?
  19. zaphod
    I was thinking more in terms of feet. Maybe 350' ?
  20. zaphod
    So this is happening? Was it revealed how tall this is?
  21. zaphod
    I'm glad they kept the bowling alley. It makes this a much more interesting strip.
  22. zaphod
    Interesting color. Reminds me of the color of the historic CTA 'El' structures in the Chicago Loop. Hopefully they'll stay like that and not rust too quickly.
  23. zaphod
    That's wild. Never thought this would have a snowballs chance in hell but it looks more serious now. Is the new tenant relocating from somewhere else in town?
  24. zaphod
    I don't care that much if this project cannibalizes nameless suburban office buildings but it would be a shame if we had more vacancy in downtown and other major locales.
  25. zaphod
    I don't agree, I don't think the web delivery app types are what this intends to attract. Everything I've read suggests this is more about cloud and data science type stuff as applied in health care, industry, etc.
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