mikehouston

This Target in Washington's Mosaic District would be more appropriate here now - not sure if it is a city target seems like a full-blown Target to me - but it is inside a parking garage on the 3rd or 4th floor with special escalators for the shopping carts. http://mosaicdistrict.com/shop/target/

Isn't this where the AD Players new theater is supposed to go? No idea what is going on with that (guessing they don't have enough donations to go forward yet), but here is the link: http://adplayers.org/capitalcampaign.html

Downtown Houston now has Discovery Green and Market Square Park, and soon will have a re-developed Buffalo Bayou. Not to mention 3 light rail lines while Austin has some sort of commuter rail that doesn't seem like it would serve any purpose if you were living downtown other than to reverse commute. Or all the pro sports and world class cultural things Houston has to offer downtown. I think what has held downtown Houston back has been the lack of grocery stores and green space, and now that is changing... lack of good public schools is still going to be a drawback for any families looking to move downtown. I don't think downtown Houston is "surrounded" by freeways any more than Austin is surrounded by I-35, MoPac, etc... certainly not something that is preventing people from living downtown. Although I suppose I could understand your perspective if you rode the ferris wheel at the Aquarium, which provides a lovely view of... I-45.

According to Wikipedia: A relatively small building may be considered a skyscraper if it protrudes well above its built environment and changes the overall skyline. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyscraper But perhaps high-rise is more appropriate in this case. In any case, if this POS was being built next to my house I'd probably refer to it as a skyscraper too. Or maybe even a supertall.

1) Fine. Let's look at the present. 40% of the Houston population lives within Beltway 8 according to my source. And 50% of the jobs are within the Beltway. 2) I said from the start that I consider the Beltway to be a better metric for Houston's core than the loop. The loop is just a random area - and then it ignores a good chunk of the core that is growing that is west of the city center. 3) Fine. Niche was correct that only ~5% of new population growth is expected to occur within Loop 610 - as of the latest projections the HGAC has made available. I still think this is mostly meaningless as far as where it makes sense to locate huge corporations, as the larger talent pool will always be more accessible closer to the center of the geographic area - at least in Houston where we have few natural limits to our growth. And I think the Beltway is a better measure of our urban growth, as I've stated again... I still think if you build an office campus in one of our exurbs you are basically hoping to get people to move to that exurb, or you already have a large talent pool out there, and then you hope to get some reverse commuters. Overall it does not make as much sense to me as locating near the center of the population / jobs, but perhaps in certain cases it makes sense. Exxon is also moving a large number of people in from out of town right (?), so they should be able to influence where those people choose to live through their site selection. But I think in the long run, it is probably not the best strategy for them.

See page 11: http://www.h-gac.com/community/socioeconomic/forecasts/archive/documents/2035_regional_growth_forecast.pdf The areas inside Beltway 8 account for 16% of our expected population growth and 44% of our expected employment growth. Yes, if you look at just the loop, it accounts for 5% of our expected population growth, but areas like the Galleria, CityCentre, Chinatown, and even Gulfton which are urban but are not inside the loop should be included if we want a better picture of the growth of the urban parts of Houston. Even Beltway 8 does not encompass all of Chinatown. The point being - building something 45 miles out from the city center is still not necessarily the best strategy if you want to appeal to the largest labor pool. I'm sure Exxon has done their homework, and I'm sure they understand they are going to lose some folks during their move - and they are OK with that.

OK - thanks. Is there something online? I still think that this 4% figure may have been accurate in the past as Houston built outward, but since the recession and going forward it just does not appear to be the case. There is plenty of infill development and densification going on all around town. And anecdotally I have heard that certain exurban neighborhoods in the Sugar Land area are not doing so hot these days. Of course Exxon will create a healthy demand for housing in Spring or wherever they are locating, and reverse-commuting is way better than commuting - at least if you are driving solo - so maybe corporations moving out to Energy Corridor and such is not a big deal. I do think this also reflects a failure of mass transit successfully getting people downtown, because otherwise downtown makes more sense for corporate locations in terms of being able to draw talent from all parts of the metro area.

Stat / link for the 22 built elsewhere? There are a whole bunch of huge multi-family projects being built either inside the loop or in the Galleria areas - so I'd be surprised if only 4% of new residents are expected to be within the loop or near it. Personally I consider the entire West side from downtown to Beltway 8 to be "urban" versus the exurban communities that you are discussing. I'd be curious what the residential / business center of the city is - but I would think that both are somewhat west of downtown - maybe near the Galleria area. Personally, I would not work for Exxon without moving to the Woodlands as well, and I know others who do work for Exxon who are contemplating just such a move. And if given a choice, I would prefer to work for someone else that is located closer to the city. Most of those people that I have talked to hate their commute still - and do things like go to work at 5 in the morning to avoid rush hour.