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River Oaks District: Mixed-Use Development At 4444 Westheimer Rd.


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I also believe that Westheimer is aesthetically pleasing. All up and down. The thing is, aside from a tiny little pock mark (and even then, within it), my Westheimer is the Westheimer that you profess to know and love. Were it to become lined with lick-and-stick inauthentic urbanity, the kind that is as overprescribed by architects to cities as Ritalin is by psychiatrists to young boys, you'd tire of it quickly. I'm sure of it. We'd need a new drug, a new paradigm. And then what? Life would seem a little emptier, I think.

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Well, I'm not sure what your last post had to do with anything. Yes, a big part of lower Westheimer's appeal is its (somewhat diminished) authenticity, but authenticity is something that comes with time. Pretty much by definition, new construction is "inauthentic" because it has no history.

How is a mixed-use apartment building with retail on the first floor less "authentic" than a strip mall? How is a 0' setback less authentic than a 25' setback? Westheimer has a long history of both strip malls and more traditionally "urban" construction; why would one be any less true to the street than the other? I ask this as someone who has a soft spot for certain strip malls in this city. I *like* the strip mall at Westheimer and Montrose. I like River Oaks Shopping Center. I like the little strip that houses Poscol. Hell, part of me even likes the faux-deco strip mall on Studemont just south of Washington. I don't think strip malls are the worst thing in the world, but I do think they're, at best, an awkward compromise. I happen to like an occasional awkward compromise, but in a city full of them, I'd like to see something more pure in new construction.

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What is interesting to me is that while this project is being scaled down drastically, BLVD place on the other hand had been scaled down, but then somewhat revived (Partially to portions of the plot being sold to other developers correct?). Granted they are not from the same company, but being so close you figured that they would try to compete with each other in some sense.

While this project is nowhere near as exciting as it could have been, it is still a nice addition. The setback from Westheimer doesn't bother me, look how "vibrant" and exciting Highland village is. The fact that this seemingly does nothing to interact with High Street is far more disappointing than a couple of parking spaces in front of a building(s).

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I am all for mixed use, but this project needs to ditch the retail, at least on this scale.

There is NO WAY this current project will be able to entice national or local retailers to leave the Galleria, Highland Village, West Avenue, BLVD Place, Rice Village, etc... to sign on at this place.

Seriously, what will open here?

West Avenue has a BETTER location, a better product, and more apartment units on site, and they've had to go heavier on restaurants + bars than they originally wanted. At least they landed Tootsies as an "anchor."

I worry about this project having tons of vacancy and scaring off mixed use in the future. There's no way that this amount of retail space will work without the marquee components (W Hotel, Le Meridien Hotel, Condo Tower, Office Tower) especially considering how close it is to the Galleria, Highland Village, BLVD Place, West Ave, River Oaks Shopping Center, and even the Rice Village Arcade.

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Yeah, I had been looking at how many restaurant pre-leases there are in the project. It seems like a red flag. I've heard retail brokers talk about how stunning it was when they realized that a restaurant can serve as an anchor store...but I think that they're full o' crap, personally. Brokers can be like that. It's in their job description.

On the one hand, West Ave is the superior development. On the other hand, OliverMcMillan probably doesn't need West Ave exit caps to make this project worthwhile in the first place. I just hope that they don't sell themselves short on apartments and office space...but especially apartments.

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Quite frankly, if this is the route they are taking, hopefully they have someone local in their ear telling them to ditch 70% of the retail and just use that space for more apartments.

And Niche, do you have any idea of the restaurants that have signed on? This place is right smack dab in the middle of the heavy restaurant scene stretching from downtown to the Galleria between I-10 and US 59. They've got major competition already with West Ave. up and running (Pondecheri, Alto Pizza, the other RDG place, the Austin seafood place) and lower Westheimer taking hold (Underbelly, Hugos, Feast, Indika, Uchi, Nidda Thai, Haymerchant, Anvil, Melange Creperie, Roost, El Real, etc...)

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I don't have the slightest clue what specific restaurants or stores are planned. However, I am forever amazed at the resilience of Houston's restaurant scene. I don't buy anchor-worthy status, but they're doing well. (Was at Hay Merchant, then Underbelly on Monday; both were doing exceptionally well. And on a Monday.) I'm sure that there's an upward limit on what can be supported, but it may take a commodities price bust to discover it.

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I feel like this place is in a no-mans land. You won't have apartment density to drive interest in anything more than a coffee shop or maybe a bookstore within walking distance of the neighborhoods across the street. People aren't going to drive by here and stop because the traffic down Westheimer is awful, and if they want to drive through it they could just as easily go to Highland Village, the Galleria, Uptown, or even West Ave. I'd say this could be another development like what there is at Wesleyan / Richmond, but there isn't 4.2M sq feet of office space next door... I support Kinkaid, drop the retail... or at least call a spade a spade, cut it back to two smaller spaces, and drop a Starbucks logo on one of them.

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I was driving around today, and found myself thinking about the shopping center at Dunlavy / W. Gray. It's a *huge* site and filled with crappy, out of place stores. The parking lot is never full. The site is nearly as large as the entire River Oaks shopping center a block away, and similar to the entire West Ave development. Anyway, /end offtopic.

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I see all the points about the competition nearby, but i'm not sure about the reasoning for wanting to drop the retail?

I mean, isn't that what we want? Multi-use/Mixed use developments with retail? If there's no retail, then its bland.

Well there is already a development next door called High Street that is under construction and will have retail and apartments as well. I don't think the retail needs to be nixed completely, but at least cut by half and replaced with apartments.

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I see all the points about the competition nearby, but i'm not sure about the reasoning for wanting to drop the retail?

I mean, isn't that what we want? Multi-use/Mixed use developments with retail? If there's no retail, then its bland.

Dallas' Victory teaches us that it is possible for a development to have retail, a stadium, high-end hotels, expensive architectural finishes, high operating costs, and still be bland.

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I hope this is one project that doesnt jump ship, this would tie in so much of the developments together. Blvd Place would flow into both River Oaks District and Highland Village, and Reagent Square into Post Midtown, not to mention Rice Village on the south end. It would create some major density within the loop.

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I agree, I hope they go back to the original proposal or closer to it with some towers. It went from havin 4 towers to none. Houston's economy is doing very well if these large mixed used projects can't get off the ground right now I don't see when they would ever be able to get off the ground.

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