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Gateway Station: 3-Hotels, Retail Above METRO Transit Center For The TMC


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culturemap confirms that at one point it was planned to happen:

A deal has been struck between Transwestern and METRO to develop the space over the bus bays with a hotel and office space. This will require extensive rebuilding of the facilities, but when it happens, the station will be quite the statement.

http://culturemap.com/mapdetail/metrorail-tmc-transit-center/

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Mixed use complex

To be constructed over light rail facility

Located in the Texas Medical Center

Construction cost of $105 million

In a joint development with Transwestern Development Company and The Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro), Kirksey is designing the new mixed-use complex that will be constructed over an existing light rail transit facility on Fannin in the Texas Medical Center. Under the agreement, Transwestern will lease air space from Metro above the transit center for 99 years. Estimated at $105 million, the development will house hotel, residential, retail and medical office components and will connect by a skybridge to the surrounding Medical Center.

http://www.kirksey.c..._transit_center

Yes, the Transwestern/Kirksey team was one of the final four selected by METRO from dozens of applicants to present competing plans. In 2006, I think it was. After each of these firms had spent gobs of money to plan a development that only might have been selected (which is your cue that METRO was fully planning on selling the land below market value), an engineering report came out that determined that METRO's seven-figure expenditure to over-engineer the transit center so that a highrise could be built directly on top of it without interrupting service was wholly inadequate to that purpose. All of the proposed projects were too tall and too heavy to be feasible on the site. By that time, however, the point was moot. METRO had not communicated their intent to build an under-parked highrise with the Texas Medical Center, Inc. (per a written agreement) and so the TMC exercised their right to veto the project.

Edited by TheNiche
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Yes, the Transwestern/Kirksey team was one of the final four selected by METRO from dozens of applicants to present competing plans. In 2006, I think it was. After each of these firms had spent gobs of money to plan a development that only might have been selected (which is your cue that METRO was fully planning on selling the land below market value), an engineering report came out that determined that METRO's seven-figure expenditure to over-engineer the transit center so that a highrise could be built directly on top of it without interrupting service was wholly inadequate to that purpose. All of the proposed projects were too tall and too heavy to be feasible on the site. By that time, however, the point was moot. METRO had not communicated their intent to build an under-parked highrise with the Texas Medical Center, Inc. (per a written agreement) and so the TMC exercised their right to veto the project.

Is there anything - ANYTHING - the Metro cannot bungle?

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It could happen. If the funding is provided, I see this place being leased and used quickly. The TMC is much more in demand than some CBD areas. And a somewhat of an Intermodal (not really) station here would look nice. More like exactly what its called, a transit center.

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Hopefully this happens.

The transit companies in a lot of big cities use their transit property to build real estate, and then use the real estate money to run the transit operations.

Think about the World Trade Center in New York -- owned by the NY/NJ Port Authority.

MTR in Hong Kong has a bunch of developments with thousands of apartments and offices. One of the more recent ones includes a 120-story building.

If it keeps Metro from having to beg the voters/taxpayers for more money, then I'm all in favor of it getting into the real estate business.

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  • 3 years later...
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

Forgive me if there is a topic for this already, but does anybody know what this is?

project-image-1292881815.1358486790.jpg

From Kirksey's website:
 

 

Houston, Texas

65,000 sf

Mixed use complex
To be constructed over light rail facility
Located in the Texas Medical Center
Construction cost of $105 million

 

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Yea super old and gone. Kirksey seems to be the company that keeps ancient dead projects on their website and elsewhere.

 

All firms keep dead projects on their portfolios. They should be kept in the "On Boards" sections. Even failed projects should still be shown. It displays what work firms have pursued.

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All firms keep dead projects on their portfolios. They should be kept in the "On Boards" sections. Even failed projects should still be shown. It displays what work firms have pursued.

 

Yea... at least shouldn't be mixed in with active projects.

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  • 4 years later...

Hopefully this is real and not old and expired.  I can't imagine the transformation of the Texas Medical Center if this project, TMC3 and just one of mixed use projects were all U/C at the same time.  The TMC is truly becoming more of an international marvel, what an exciting time to be in Houston.

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2 hours ago, gclass said:

upload-up-arrow-increase-orange-rise-asc

^^^ if allowed to proceed forward, this prospective GATEWAY STATION at the TMC development would/should become an instant tourist destination in itself.  just think about it for a second... incorporating the right mix of hospitality/transit/retail... who wouldn't want to be here?

(squints eyes): Monarch...is that you?

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