The Langley: Residential High-Rise At 1717 Bissonnet St.

[names]

In weird sort of way I want WAZ to get what he thinks is right i.e. public hearings, so that I can create an architectural PR firm to game public sentiment like FOX news. I'll be a millionaire!

Edit: Ultimately it doesn't matter if you consider it a "smart" or "dumb" development. It's their property and WHO ARE YOU TO TELL THEM WHAT TO DO WITH IT?

Edited October 21, 2009 by names

[sevfiv]

Anyone know how many units Maryland Manor has and what the rent range is like?

[KinkaidAlum]

They aren't going to build this thing. Nobody will lend to them in this market.

But, they are setting themselves up VERY nicely for a primo lawsuit against the City. In the end, they will make a lot more profit off of the city not playing by the rules than they would have trying to make yet another upscale inner loop rental profitable.

[samagon]

They aren't going to build this thing. Nobody will lend to them in this market.

But, they are setting themselves up VERY nicely for a primo lawsuit against the City. In the end, they will make a lot more profit off of the city not playing by the rules than they would have trying to make yet another upscale inner loop rental profitable.

One can only hope that the money the city has to pay comes directly from the taxes of the homeowners who complained enough to get this shelved, and that only their property taxes go up as a result.

Reality is, we're all going to have to pay for the selfishness of a few residents.

[LTAWACS]

One can only hope that the money the city has to pay comes directly from the taxes of the homeowners who complained enough to get this shelved, and that only their property taxes go up as a result.

Reality is, we're all going to have to pay for the selfishness of a few residents.

Then those residents should pay for their sins.

[samagon]

Then those residents should pay for their sins.

One can only hope that Karma comes back around for them!

[Subdude]

Then those residents should pay for their sins.

I really don't think opposing a high-rise in the neighborhood ranks high on the list of grave sins. If it did a lot of people in my own neighborhood would be going straight to hell.

I have a hard time understanding the animosity directed against these people for daring to challenge developers. There's no law that says residents are supposed to shut up and remain silent when they feel their neighborhood is threatened.

[barracuda]

One can only hope that the money the city has to pay comes directly from the taxes of the homeowners who complained enough to get this shelved, and that only their property taxes go up as a result.

Reality is, we're all going to have to pay for the selfishness of a few residents.

So the homeowners are selfish but the developers are not?

[musicman]

Ashby developers lost appeal today.

Next step would be to go before Council.

[LTAWACS]

Ashby developers lost appeal today.

Next step would be to go before Council.

I wish them luck. They have my full support.

[wernicke]

I know... it IS Houston. Let them build their tower wherever they want. The denials are all political. We should be hoping something like this gets built in the current climate. Its just a few blocks from the Museum Tower.

[Subdude]

I know... it IS Houston.

Meaning what?

[LTAWACS]

Meaning what?

Prolly that there is no zoning.

[sevfiv]

It means people build things willy-nilly without respect to the surrounding environment - no dialogue between materials and space (and definitely none between developer and residents).

[sevfiv]

Saw this today - pro Ashby bumper sticker:

[LTAWACS]

Saw this today - pro Ashby bumper sticker:

AWESOME! Where can I get one? Or better yet... where can I get a stack of them so I can hand them out?!

[musicman]

13's supposed to have an update on today's city council comments.

edit: city council denied the original permit but did approve a permit for a smaller builing. developer said it would be harder to develop.

Edited December 10, 2009 by musicman

[mfastx]

The developer gets to anything he wants with this propert, as long as its approved. Since the original plans were denied again today, I would imagine a lawsuit is coming.

I live in the neighborhood, and whenever I go to the meetings at Poe Elementary, its so funny to see everyone get all riled up. Everyone wants to keep this inner-city neighborhood a suburb, that is not good for city infustructure. That means all other people that live furthur out have to travel THROUGH Bissonnet to get to the inner-city. They should build it, maybe it will start a trend of more dense development, where you dont have to rely on cars to get around. Oh well, probably going to bet flamed by anti-ashby people.

BTW, this is my first post, so make me feel welcome lol.

[musicman]

I live in the neighborhood, and whenever I go to the meetings at Poe Elementary, its so funny to see everyone get all riled up. Everyone wants to keep this inner-city neighborhood a suburb, that is not good for city infustructure. That means all other people that live furthur out have to travel THROUGH Bissonnet to get to the inner-city.

?? are they shutting down all roads on the sw side except for bissonnet?

[RocketSci]

The developer gets to anything he wants with this propert, as long as its approved. Since the original plans were denied again today, I would imagine a lawsuit is coming.

I live in the neighborhood, and whenever I go to the meetings at Poe Elementary, its so funny to see everyone get all riled up. Everyone wants to keep this inner-city neighborhood a suburb, that is not good for city infustructure. That means all other people that live furthur out have to travel THROUGH Bissonnet to get to the inner-city. They should build it, maybe it will start a trend of more dense development, where you dont have to rely on cars to get around. Oh well, probably going to bet flamed by anti-ashby people.

BTW, this is my first post, so make me feel welcome lol.

Welcome.

I live near the area, but I have been ambivalent about the development. My only personal concern is how 2+ years of demolition and construction affect my commute and local traffic patterns.

In driving down Bissonnet the other day I noticed about a dozen For Sale signs, For Lease, or recent teardowns. What I am afraid might happen is not densification of the neighborhoods, but the more typical of Houston buy/trash/hold speculative real estate action, where the existing density will be replaced with more rentals and empty lots which will sit vacant for years. There have already been several nearby teardowns of livable homes with no replacement with new ones, and many of the spec homes built in the last 2 years have never been sold.

I would much rather see infill than teardown of existing structures. The trend in the loop had been predominately teardown and replace, but after watching the number of vacant lots grow in the Museum District and adjacent Montrose these last 2 years I could easily see Bissonnet from Mandell to Shepherd turning into weed filled lots during construction of Ashby, or storage areas for construction vehicles. The narrowness of the street does not lend itself well for anything but very small businesses to survive due to lack of easy parking, and the construction traffic will be a great discouragement to existing businesses and homeowners on the street for quite some time.

The more I drive and walk by the location of the highrise, the more I doubt whether its location can really be successful in drawing buyers of the condos, mainly because it will bring down Bissonnet at the least. I would really love to see this built in the empty lot at Hermann Drive and Jackson Street, or the empty blocks along Binz, about a half mile to the east. That would put them right at the park, right by the museums, and right near the Metro. Maybe the owners of Maryland Manor can trade properties with the owners of these lots?

Like I said, I can't get myself riled up but I also have doubts about the success of the development as proposed.

[sevfiv]

^Thank you! Someone else that remembers that there are existing structures..

[bachanon]

The developer gets to anything he wants with this propert, as long as its approved. Since the original plans were denied again today, I would imagine a lawsuit is coming.

I live in the neighborhood, and whenever I go to the meetings at Poe Elementary, its so funny to see everyone get all riled up. Everyone wants to keep this inner-city neighborhood a suburb, that is not good for city infustructure. That means all other people that live furthur out have to travel THROUGH Bissonnet to get to the inner-city. They should build it, maybe it will start a trend of more dense development, where you dont have to rely on cars to get around. Oh well, probably going to bet flamed by anti-ashby people.

BTW, this is my first post, so make me feel welcome lol.

welcome to the party. ....and you haven't truly arrived until you get dogpiled.

[barracuda]

13's supposed to have an update on today's city council comments.

edit: city council denied the original permit but did approve a permit for a smaller builing. developer said it would be harder to develop.

The smaller building was approved in August, but the developers are still fighting for their original plans.

The developers, Matthew Morgan and Kevin Kirton of Buckhead Investment Partners, said they would pursue all available options, including a lawsuit, to build the project as originally conceived.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6762243.html

[shasta]

The developer gets to anything he wants with this propert, as long as its approved. Since the original plans were denied again today, I would imagine a lawsuit is coming.

I live in the neighborhood, and whenever I go to the meetings at Poe Elementary, its so funny to see everyone get all riled up. Everyone wants to keep this inner-city neighborhood a suburb, that is not good for city infustructure. That means all other people that live furthur out have to travel THROUGH Bissonnet to get to the inner-city. They should build it, maybe it will start a trend of more dense development, where you dont have to rely on cars to get around. Oh well, probably going to bet flamed by anti-ashby people.

BTW, this is my first post, so make me feel welcome lol.

Thanks for the post and welcome. Maybe you can clear up some questions I have regarding this particular development. I understand the NIMBYism side of the argument but are these residents oblivious to the fact that the city has a century long system of not interfering with development and essentially letting the city develop in a way that the market seems fit? Right or wrong this is Houston. Instead of fighting this particular project with the rules set up for them to fail shouldn't they take that energy and petition city hall to come up with a city plan or dare I say some form of zoning. if thats their aim it seems like they are barking up the wrong tree.

None of those two items currently exist and the mayoral candidate that was heavily touting a city plan didn't even make it to the runoff. I see the bumper stickers around the city and honestly wonder how ignorant these people are to how this city has handled things for ever. It's not just attitudes as I understand their sentiment but they are fighting legally binding growth initiative machine that the city set up because they desired it that way.

[LTAWACS]

What is the name of that site someone pointed out that supports the ashby highrise? SupportAshbyHighRise.org? Can I get some bumper stickers?

[KinkaidAlum]

I laugh everytime I see someone make the argument that this is some sort of smart growth development or that increased density in random residential hoods is the key to all of our city's ills.

How is plopping down a 23 story tower with 200+ units in the middle of a neighborhood full of single family homes smart? It's not like this is going up in an area that has the infrastructure to handle it! The light rail isn't too close by. There's sporadic bus service. 99% of the streets in the near vicinity are residential in nature and the one commercial street (Bissonnet) has just two lanes. Additionally, if you head to the Southampton area today, you'll see that the city has just now begun spending millions to upgrade the sewer/water pipes that serve the area. Additionally, flooding in back alleys is quite common with heavy rains.

I don't get how destroying a historic neighborhood (well, by Houston standards) is smart growth. This type of development (highrise residential with ground floor retail) is something I would love to see more of, but in downtown or midtown or uptown or Upper Kirby or the Med Center but not in Southampton or the Heights or Timbergrove Manor or Briargrove or Riverside Terrace...

Edited December 10, 2009 by KinkaidAlum

[jgriff]

I laugh everytime I see someone make the argument that this is some sort of smart growth development or that increased density in random residential hoods is the key to all of our city's ills.

How is plopping down a 23 story tower with 200+ units in the middle of a neighborhood full of single family homes smart? It's not like this is going up in an area that has the infrastructure to handle it! The light rail isn't too close by. There's sporadic bus service. 99% of the streets in the near vicinity are residential in nature and the one commercial street (Bissonnet) has just two lanes. Additionally, if you head to the Southampton area today, you'll see that the city has just now begun spending millions to upgrade the sewer/water pipes that serve the area. Additionally, flooding in back alleys is quite common with heavy rains.

I don't get how destroying a historic neighborhood (well, by Houston standards) is smart growth. This type of development (highrise residential with ground floor retail) is something I would love to see more of, but in downtown or midtown or uptown or Upper Kirby or the Med Center but not in Southampton or the Heights or Timbergrove Manor or Briargrove or Riverside Terrace...

I don't know or even care to know what people define as "smart growth". This project is smart for these reasons.

1. It could make the investors a lot of money.

2. It's going to give a lot of people a good place to live.

[KinkaidAlum]

1) Ha. These guys are LUCKY that they have the lawsuit to fall back on. They would have lost their lunch if their building was due to arrive to market anytime soon. Have you looked around town lately? High end rental apartments inside the loop have sprung up like mushrooms. Competition to land tenants is fierce.

2) Plenty of people already live on sight. Maryland Manor provides a decent place to live and is much more affordable than what these places would cost.

[sevfiv]

2) Plenty of people already live on sight. Maryland Manor provides a decent place to live and is much more affordable than what these places would cost.

You took the words right from my fingertips..

[sevfiv]

A quote from Morgan and Kirton from the above Chronicle article via Swamplot:

The developers said Wednesday that they changed their plans to test whether the city would approve their project under any circumstances, but never intended to build anything other than the project they designed in 2007.

Good one, guys!

http://swamplot.com/ashby-highrise-developers-we-were-only-kidding

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6762243.html