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https://lmgtfy.com/?q=texas+road+construction

It's all utility work on San Felipe.  I think it's being done in advance of moving the Post Oak work further south toward San Felipe (at which point everything ties together).

Am I reading all of this correctly?  It looks like there was a filing for the SE corner of Westheimer & Sage, and a separate render the NE corner of W. Alabama & Sage?  These are two separate lots around the new Saks (directly north and south respectively)?

The fenced off site is a staging / storage yard for the Post Oak redo.  Just FYI.

Hilariously, and randomly, I came across the exact same thing two weeks ago.

GTFO is an interesting ap for last minute deals.  I'm not sure how many people can decide (on a Thursday) to do 8 days in Mexico City starting on Friday, but it's a cool idea.

I can't imagine it's anything... but there was a drilling rig / water truck on site earlier this week.

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I don't trust them. All the financial info is coming from within their organization and no third party is involved. 

Friend, way false.  They are audited by the Harris County Auditor and by Deloitte  (LINK).  Their bonds are ranked by (among others) Fitch (LINK) and Moody's (LINK).  This is 'real-money' project financing, not like building a McDonalds.  These guys have no incentive to falsify their ratings or projections on this stuff and everybody at the table (their customers and stakeholders) are sophisticated enough to do their own review of the package.  

You can choose not to trust HCTRA, but they are part of Harris County, so it's your government and your assets (though they have liens to the underlying debt).  You can choose not to trust Deloitte (I mean, sigh... auditors... am I right?), and/or Fitch & Moodys but you have to draw the line somewhere.  I'll take my elected officials, a world-renowned big-four firm, and two of the top three ratings agencies over a random guy on the internet.  

Sorry bro.

I'd rather let the county build toll roads (out north, out west, here in town, wherever) and let the users pay for them.  Harris county has done pretty well at building facilities that people are willing to pay for and willing to use.  As long as that's the case, and the debt burden doesn't get shifted back to the taxpayers (State Highway 130... LOL), why should I pay for those roads?  

In fact, if you pushed that idea to the extreme... if I tossed away my car, could I get a tax discount?  What if I got a credit for not driving.  What if I only paid what I drove?

Now I'm sorry I thought about this at all... And I've opened the box on 'pay to play' with roads??  Sorry in advance. (LINK)

This is good news.  Inbound (and I'm speaking about main-lanes only, not the HOT/HOV) the road goes from 5 wide to 4 at HW6 (which is why it's always a cluster around Eldridge and Dairy Ashford) before going back to 5 wide east of 8.  [my own aside, there should really be a braided onramp going east of Kirkwood, people are full on lunatics there trying to either dive into or out of the Belt onramp].

SImilarly outbound, it's 4 as you hit the belt, steps up and down between 4/5 until you reach near six where it goes to a solid and slow 4.   

I feel like the more buildings that buy into the Memorial City style with the blue lights, the better it looks.  Driving through there at night is awesome.  Very Houston.  I'm supportive.

$162M technical operations center coming to IAH for United. 

Quoting directly from their press release (link below):

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The project, which is the next phase of United's ongoing expansion of facilities at its Houston hub, will add approximately 200,000 square feet of additional hangar capacity for maintaining widebody aircraft, in addition to a new warehouse distribution center, technical services building and administrative offices.

Once completed, the $162 million facility will accommodate widebody aircraft, including Boeing 767s, 777s, 787s and Airbus A350s, and provide an improved work environment with better ergonomics, safety and efficiency for United's maintenance technicians and support personnel

http://newsroom.united.com/2016-10-25-United-Airlines-and-Houston-Airport-System-Break-Ground-on-New-Technical-Operations-Center-at-Bush-Intercontinental-Airport

Does anyone know where (on the property) this is going?  Great to see the airport continue to attract operations & expansion.

What's going up in the background of the 2nd photo by Hindesky (the red crane)?  It's north of washington, just west of Durham.  Do we have a 'going-up' for it?

Only link I could find:  http://swamplot.com/before-fore-washington-apartments-theres-this-variance-request/2014-12-10/

Regarding 288, I can't wait for this thing to be up and running, though the tie-in with 59/45 frightens me greatly.

My opinion on Briargrove:  

1. It's not exactly on the River Oaks promenade... it's on Fountain View... and would replace a so-so office building... and is next to an [entirely] abandoned supermarket... and is about 800 feet from Smoke Alley (had to link this b/c it's so awesome).

2.  The real issue of this project was NOT community vitriol (though the community wishes they had that kind of pull), it was that the average unit cost was going to be $240,000 (link).  Stating it a different way... it wasn't cancelled b/c the city bowed to the community (though I think I read HUD is looking into that), it died because it was too expensive on a per-unit basis.  The guy in charge of the Houston Housing Authority resigned over the whole thing (link), and was shown to be ineffective at moving projects forward.

HCTRA financed $237.5M of the I-10 lanes. They were going to finance $400M of the 290 managed lanes, but when the project was rescaled, they dropped the number to $200, and agreed to throw the I-10 lanes back to TXDot to make up the shortfall (LINK).  

They have no part in the 288 project (construction or operation).

I remember a quote (but cannot find the reference) to the effect that HCTRA wanted to focus on on expanding / operating toll (only) roads and focus less on managing / optimizing managed lanes running in the middle of untolled highways.

This is not a[n] HCTRA project.  It's TXDOT.  For reference....

• TXDOT (with project):  LINK
• HCTRA (without project): LINK

DB650, where do you see that?  Looking on HAR, the leases are $3800 - $10k while the buy options are $750-$2.2M.

When I looked at them (in their office 2 years ago) they weren't appreciably different.   The cheapest unit listed is ~$500/sqft.

http://www.har.com/search/dosearch?for_sale=1&streetaddress=1409 post Oak blvd

The one going up is immediately west of Beltway 8 south of I-10.

I wasn't trying to twist a knife, but was just interested how, specifically, this issue has not already been resolved (up or down).

The site access issue is one I had not considered.  I'm assuming there's also something about nuisance (since the trains make noise).  BNSF is for-profit though... I assume they've had to build green-field rail in the last 50 years.

Something is happening on the site.  I can't tell if it's what is shown in the previously posted plat above, or just a re-facing of the existing structure.  It doesn't really look like a full demo.  Anyone have any additional info?  I'm petrified that something could happen to Luling, which would crush me to the core of my soul.  

Must.  Have.  Jalapeno.  Sausage.

Does anyone understand how this issue has not already been resolved by (what I assume to be) the VAST body of legal work and precedent around oil and gas pipelines?  Pipelines are owned by public and private companies [or more broadly, "non-government profit-minded entities"] , delivering product inside and outside the state of Texas.  While they are generally below grade, some cross state and federal highways (and rivers) above grade, and you generally can't build anything on the property above them.  

I assume there is some text somewhere that has classified that moving oil and gas is acceptable for reason of eminent domain, but moving people is not?  Is this the issue?

Is the other Chick-Fil-A at Richmond / Westpark offramp going to close?