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Another interesting concept is that people can park on the residential street a block away and walk to the restaurant.

Not sure what is new here. Property has been for lease since 2018 with Heins as the offering broker.

So, then Andy's is obviously grandfathered on parking minimums, which is a huge benefit and advantage in a neighborhood with very high property values and very little room for off street parking. To then expect other property owners to allow your customers to park on their property is just wrong, even if the space is empty. Andy's has been freeloading off their neighbors and has no right to complain when they got cut off.

It is a bit of a dick move by the developer. But it is probably coming more from a place of trying to make sure that potential tenants do not drive by the property and think that there will be a problem with parking due to overflow from Andy's than trying to put Andy's out of business. If the landlord wants Andy's out, they will jack the rent just like they have been doing all over the Heights.

Strange race shaping up with the two frontrunners basically using the job as a retirement plan. Whitmire and Jackson Lee are both 73. They would be 80 by the end of a second term. Whitmire is clearly the establishment/centrist candidate and will get piles of cash from the developers and energy execs. SJL has a very dedicated constituency but is hugely polarizing outside of her district. I guess she would position herself as the more progressive candidate that stands with the parts of town that don't see all the development. I would not count out Amanda Edwards. She could be the more progressive candidate and get the Lina Hidalgo voters.

I will be the first one to throw stones at real estate developers, but anyone running a restaurant knows that parking spaces are always going to be part of your lease. If your customers are using spaces that are not on your lease, you really can't make a stink when your luck runs out.

I thought that due to rising interest rates, this year would see appraisals take a breather. Ha!!! My 6,600 sq ft lot value went from 495k to 594k. This is the biggest increase I can remember since I bought in 2000. Looks like improvement values went up about 12%. The land value is now higher than my 2022 appraised value meaning that the best I will be able to do at a protest is get about $20k net off the appraised value after taking into account the cap. Of course this is probably HCAD just throwing everything they've got at appraisals in anticipation of some legislation from Austin this year. But man. This was a huge increase.

For fans of the late Throughgood Coffee, the Soul Taco food truck that used to be at Throughgood is the same Soul Taco that is opening a brick and mortar location in this development. It will be nice to have them back when they finish building out.

I was at the park once and a pretty bad dog fight broke out between a leashed dog and a dog roaming free. Same problem with unleashed dogs at Lawrence park (which should also be on the list for improvements).

Landlords are killing the Heights. Tea Sip on 19th is closing because of rent increases. Same for Hugs and Donuts. Unless an independent business is backed by some big bucks and is going to do massive business like Squable, etc., it is pretty much a given than only chains will be able to afford commercial restaurant/retail space in the Heights. Best evidence of that is the renovated shops on the south side of 19th next to Boomtown and the cigar store. Their big tenant is HR Block.

That lot is over a half mile from the bayou and is about as far west as you can go and still be in Timbergrove. And if you look on google earth, This lot is right about where cleared land transitions to wooded undeveloped land. So, this cemetery shows that people about a century ago knew quite well how close they could get to the bayou without risking flooding.

So, within about a mile of each other, there will be Ride Indoor Cycling and Ryde Indoor Cycling. I am not an expert on trademark law and do not know anything about whether these businesses have taken steps to assert their intellectual property rights to their business names, but it would be pretty crazy if both businesses just decided to just go with the flow and not bother with it. Hypothetically, if this trend continued, you could have someone open up another indoor cycling studio called Rīd Indoor Cycling and then Ryed Indoor Cycling (which could also sell rye bread) and Righed Indoor Cycling.

You would never be able to get a project like that through city council. There are too many councilmembers who have a long list of basic needs for their districts to get them to vote to buy expensive real estate in the Heights to build a parking garage for rich people to go to a boutique hotel. It would be DOA. The only alternative would be a management district. There are several management districts in Houston. They can build parking facilities among a bunch of other things. I really doubt anyone would be willing to take on a management district in the Heights after the Montrose management district went down in flames. They seem to only work well when there are a bunch of big developments involved, like Memorial City, Energy Corridor, Westchase, etc. Heights is probably too dispersed commercially to make a management district work. I joked in a post above about someone building an automated parking garage like the one proposed for White Oak and Studewood. But it would actually be a good business move for the landlord who own the real estate along 19th to do a deal with one of those vendors to expand parking so there can be more restaurants and bars in 19th. Tea Sip is closing because the rent is too high. If there were additional parking, you could fill that space with a big restaurant. You could also build out the blank spot where the junk dealer used to be with restaurant space. And within a few years, 19th street would totally suck, but people would make lots of money. So, in my opinion, anyone who is moving around tens of millions to build a boutique hotel in a major city is a big boy and needs to be responsible for sufficient parking.

What about the Heights lead these folks to believe that this is what was needed for this space? Do they know that as soon as they crank up any live music or DJ they are going to get multiple nightly noise complaints and eventually get sued by neighbors for nuisance? Do they know that as hard as they are going to try to make this the premiere night spot for all the pretty people in Houston, locating it in the Heights means they will get everyone from boomers to people with little kids in tow? And even if they succeed in keeping the boomers and babies at bay, they will just end up with the same post-college crowd like in Shady Acres who just get cheap drinks and hang out for hours and hours.

Soul Taco may not be joining them. Soul Taco is opening a brick and mortar location at 1102 Pinemont. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn0Z_UOA9LQ/?hl=en

Looks like it sold recently. A crew was doing a pretty thorough interior demo this morning. No idea what is going in, but would assume they are keeping the structure in place to take advantage of the setbacks (or lack thereof). https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/3400-White-Oak-Dr-Houston-TX/26494761/

Funny thing is that Dish Society is pretty empty for dinner compared to when it first opened. Food is good and it is counter service with really good mixed drinks and wine. Not cheap, but relatively affordable for an easy weeknight meal.

I would guess that there is a stipulation in the will that requires the family to keep the house and has some penalty for selling (money gets donated to local animal shelter).

Calle Onze was really good in its first year. I brought big time out of town foodie guest who had traveled extensively in Mexico to Calle Onze and they would not shut up about how good it was. But then the restaurant seemed to change direction and started chasing the Midtown club/instagram influencer crowd. Chivas was really expensive. It followed a similar trajectory and was pretty good when it debuted, but quality did not hold up and the focus seemed to instead be on having more of a midtown atmosphere with pretty people. I think it is pretty tough to maintain a really good restaurant in a market like the Heights now. Rents are out of control. It is really hard to staff up. You have to compete with places like Squable, Trattoria Sofia, Coltivare and new comers like Dinnette and Da Gama. If you are not able to pack it in Thursday through Sunday and get pretty close to full midweek, you are not going to last long in the Heights.

Probably need to ask a real estate attorney about the rule against perpetuities. Looking at old maps and google earth, it looks like much of Timbergrove was just undeveloped flood plain up until it was cleared to build homes. The neighborhood was developed in conjunction with the White Oak Bayou channelization projection. So, pre-channelization of the bayou, the land was probably too prone to flooding to farm.

Is this the building with the mod-ish diamond trim around the top of the building or another spot? Seems a bit odd to rip out Michael Hsu's design instead of working with it.

I thought 11th and Heights would be a problem especially when the lanes were first changed and the signage was a bit improvised. But now it actually flows better because right turn traffic on Heights NB and SB does not hold up traffic going straight when waiting for a pedestrian to cross. And you can cross Heights on the trail on foot without having to worry about traffic on Heights turning left. Most everyone is respecting the left turn restrictions. Crossing 11th street is so much easier that it is not hyperbole to say that the changes will save lives. My kids used to be afraid of crossing 11th street on bikes. Now, I would not have any problem letting them cross on their own. The only traffic snarl I have encountered is at 11th and Shep. I had to wait out two cycles on the light at 11th WB to get through at around 6pm. But a couple of days later, I went through at about the same time and there was no traffic.

Or the garage at the medical building on 20th, which is never more than half full. And they could make it valet parking. I think this is actually an elaborate setup. They are going to get their variance denied and then announce that they are partnering with Unitronics to build a 9 story automated parking garage (and whatever happened to the one that was supposed to be built on White Oak?). Also, the redesign of the hotel is lame. It is now 5 stories instead of 4 and is more boxy. I actually kind of liked how the original design had a big patio fronting 20th st. with the hotel rooms set back a bit. While I can see this hotel getting bookings as being an alternative to downtown or galleria hotels with the benefit of a walkable area with restaurants and shops, I thought that they would make bank by being a wedding and event venue. But the blown up version looks like it minimizes some of the event space in favor of more rooms and retail space.

Smart move switching from Maison Robert to Hotel Daphne. The odds of people using the French pronunciation of Robert (Roe Bare, but with French Rs which are different at the beginning of a word and in the middle) successfully are pretty slim and using the English pronunciation of Robert makes it sound silly such that it may as well be Maison Kevin.

Yeah, right. The Texans who regularly play bumper cars all across DFW, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, etc. suddenly are on their best behavior when in the mountains even though most Houstonians can barely get through the Washington Ave roundabout without scraping metal. This may be the only thread on the internet where Texans are accused of being good drivers.