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  • 4 weeks later...
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I'm so excited about this store... and construction is moving slowly but surely...

but I wonder how the store will be positioned on that lot? Will it be facing Waugh? because it seems like the lot where they are working is so narrow. Is the parking going to be underground?

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West of downtown is blowin' up with grocery stores etc, but especially grocery stores. Will they all be able to survive? I think the walmart near I-10 will service a much bigger area than the HEB and Whole Foods, but I guess they're all sort of different so maybe they can all coexist. I hope they all help other projects like Regent Square going faster.

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  • 2 months later...

ya this is excellent, we need grocery stores in the area to make living inside the loop even more enticing... i think the randall's in midtown really helped spur other developments in the area for example...

West of downtown is blowin' up with grocery stores etc, but especially grocery stores. Will they all be able to survive? I think the walmart near I-10 will service a much bigger area than the HEB and Whole Foods, but I guess they're all sort of different so maybe they can all coexist. I hope they all help other projects like Regent Square going faster.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Good news!

http://www.bisnow.com/houston_commercial_real_estate_news_story.php?p=10181

fingercompanieswholefoods.jpg

Multifamily deliveries are at the lowest since ’06, with 7.6k unitscoming online this year, but the pipeline may increase next year. Finger Cos. prez Marvy Finger tells us he’s looking at a 2011multifamily groundbreaking on the site of the Whole Foods he’s developing at Waugh and W. Dallas. He bought the land from AIGthree years ago and is vacillating on the design. He originally planned a traditional six-story, 420-unit project with courtyards. Now he’s doing preliminary drawings on a 28-story tower with the same finishes as his Museum Tower and One Park Place, butsmaller units (1.1k SF compared to 1.6k and 1.4k, respectively). And, yes, if you have an alliterative name like Office Oscar orIndustrial Imogene, we will probably write about you too.

In the image above, the multifamily project would sit on the green space along W. Dallas. The perks of a taller building: It’d be more attractive to young professionals, and Marvy says he’s found people feel safer in taller buildings. The high-rise, which would have 300 units, would also leave room to develop a sister tower on the site later. And an update: Marvy tells us his One Park Place is 86% occupied, three months ahead of projections. Across his 16k-unit portfolio, he has 90% occupancy, although he admits gross income paints a dimmer picture.

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Could it be both?

Maybe, if there was a parking garage, or if parking was placed behind the building so that the building could be placed right up to the sidewalk where walkers could walk right in instead of walking through a parking lot.

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Maybe, if there was a parking garage, or if parking was placed behind the building so that the building could be placed right up to the sidewalk where walkers could walk right in instead of walking through a parking lot.

My wife went to the Neartown Super neighborhood Association meeting last night, and Whole Foods presented their plans. Apparently, similar to the HEB on W Alabama, the store will back up to West Dallas, with the parking lot and entrance facing the AIG building on Allen Parkway. Seems like a wasted opportunity to me to integrate with the neighborhood, but I'm not sure they consulted any of the community stakeholders (like HEB has done).

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My wife went to the Neartown Super neighborhood Association meeting last night, and Whole Foods presented their plans. Apparently, similar to the HEB on W Alabama, the store will back up to West Dallas, with the parking lot and entrance facing the AIG building on Allen Parkway. Seems like a wasted opportunity to me to integrate with the neighborhood, but I'm not sure they consulted any of the community stakeholders (like HEB has done).

Well what do you expect? It's Whole Foods, after all. Gee, can you imagine the uproar that would've occurred if they'd tried to build at Yale & I-10? All those Heights yuppies would surely be aghast. :rolleyes:

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I did see a rendering before where it was not obvious how the Whole Foods was going to be placed on the lot, but having personally walked the lot about a month ago, it appears that the building itself will be placed directly on the corner of Waugh & West Dallas (facing Waugh) & set back only about a 20 ft from the curb. The parking lot will be to the left of the building on Waugh (between the WF store & the 40 story AIG Tower). So I think they have indeed tried to make the project both pedestrian & auto friendly.

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CLARIFICATION: It does appear that the main entrance or "front" of the store will face the parking lot that is between the store and the AIG Tower, however there does also appear to be an entrance from the side facing Waugh as well (similar to the Sugarland store). I can't determine from the rendering if there will also be some sort of entrance on the West Dallas side. It's hard to imagine them totally turning their back to West Dallas, who knows, they may at least have windows on that side.

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Maybe, if there was a parking garage, or if parking was placed behind the building so that the building could be placed right up to the sidewalk where walkers could walk right in instead of walking through a parking lot.

Unless they install a moat, pedestrian-friendly is kind of pointless to talk about. If someone wants to walk there, they can do so whether there is a parking lot or not. Your urban illusion does not exist here.

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Unless they install a moat, pedestrian-friendly is kind of pointless to talk about. If someone wants to walk there, they can do so whether there is a parking lot or not. Your urban illusion does not exist here.

There are more pedestrian-friendly designs than dodging cars in acres of blacktop. Maybe if more people talked about it, we'd see more of them here.

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There are more pedestrian-friendly designs than dodging cars in acres of blacktop. Maybe if more people talked about it, we'd see more of them here.

Looking at an aerial view of the site, I am having a hard time imagining just who might have to dodge cars in acres of blacktop. There are no residences north of this lot. Those who have successfully dodged 7 lanes of traffic crossing pedestrian friendly Waugh Drive will enter the store through the Waugh entrance. Those coming from the south will cross Dallas at the Waugh intersection and likewise enter on Waugh. Those coming from the east will walk up beside the store and down the front.,,no parking lot dodging involved. I suppose crunchtastic and a few of her AIG friends might choose to traverse the parking lot, though they could just as easily walk down the sidewalk.

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Does anyone have a rendering of the Whole Foods? Will it be built pedestrian friendly or car friendly?

Maybe, if there was a parking garage, or if parking was placed behind the building so that the building could be placed right up to the sidewalk where walkers could walk right in instead of walking through a parking lot.

Unless they install a moat, pedestrian-friendly is kind of pointless to talk about. If someone wants to walk there, they can do so whether there is a parking lot or not. Your urban illusion does not exist here.

There are more pedestrian-friendly designs than dodging cars in acres of blacktop. Maybe if more people talked about it, we'd see more of them here.

Looking at an aerial view of the site, I am having a hard time imagining just who might have to dodge cars in acres of blacktop. There are no residences north of this lot. Those who have successfully dodged 7 lanes of traffic crossing pedestrian friendly Waugh Drive will enter the store through the Waugh entrance. Those coming from the south will cross Dallas at the Waugh intersection and likewise enter on Waugh. Those coming from the east will walk up beside the store and down the front.,,no parking lot dodging involved. I suppose crunchtastic and a few of her AIG friends might choose to traverse the parking lot, though they could just as easily walk down the sidewalk.

That's the point: the design HAS been made to be more pedestrian friendly rather than sticking the store in the middle of acres of blacktop; perhaps because people talk about it.

Edit: I've requested that moderators move the last several posts to the Whole Foods thread.

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Someone who lives near by and has a camera ought to drive by there. All this talk made me think nothing had started but I drove by last night all the walls are up and everything. Looks like they've been doing construction for at least a month.

From what I remember, it was pretty close to Waugh, and a little bit further from the street on Dallas.

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Someone who lives near by and has a camera ought to drive by there. All this talk made me think nothing had started but I drove by last night all the walls are up and everything. Looks like they've been doing construction for at least a month.

From what I remember, it was pretty close to Waugh, and a little bit further from the street on Dallas.

This probably doesn't help a whole lot, but the side is fairly close to Waugh and the front will face north (and presumably a large surface lot).

IMG_1352.jpg

IMG_1351.jpg

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I had a chance to walk by the Whole Foods project this morning and it appears the loading dock will placed on the corner of Waugh and W. Dallas. The bays will be facing Waugh. I am sure they will find a way to pretty it up a bit, but I find this to be a real missed opportunity to interact with the existing street grid. Between the Walgreens, a Jack in the Box and a loading dock, this corner is showing real potential.

But I will try to remain optimistic, because frankly, a new Whole Foods on that corner is a real upgrade from an empty lot.

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  • 1 month later...

So the Whole Foods people were at the North Montrose civic association meeting last night and I got some details. The following is what I learned:

1) The reason the back-end of the store is facing Dallas and the side is facing Waugh is because of the AIG building. They (AIG building owner) required that the store be placed as far away from the building as possible. This meant that the parking lot had to sit between the AIG building and the store pushing the back to Dallas (unfortunately).

2) The loading entrance will be on Dallas and will exit onto Waugh. This means the trucks will not have to cross any traffic to get to the loading docks.

3) The trucks will be loading sometime in the early morning and should be finished by 8:00 AM. There will be nice large wooden doors to conceal the entrance and exit to the loading dock during the day when there is no loading.

4) The corner of the store on Waugh closest to D'amico will contain an outdoor/indoor style cafe with garage-type doors that open in good weather. The renderings of the store show a patio with umbrellas. They expect to have bands, etc playing there.

5) The store will be very pedestrian friendly with all traffic entering from the BACK of the parking lot (close to D'amico). They say they learned from the Kirby store that allowing cars to enter by the store entrance is a nightmare for traffic.

6) There will be bike racks with some 50 or available slots. There will be a free tire filling station. The focus here is to really drive bike traffic (and pedestrians as noted in #5).

7) There will be many skylights on the roof allowing a bunch of natural lighting.

8) There will be many large trees that should grow to provide good shade in time (not just those short trees).

9) No comment on an apartment building going up next to it BUT.. look at the roundabout driveway. Obviously not built just for a grocery store.

10) They will recycle their own rainwater and use it in sprinkler system.

11) I think 250 parking spots. Kirby store has 150. Kirby store is 35,000 sq ft and this one slightly larger at 40,000.

12) No real details on the inside of the store. They expect it to fit in very well with the diversity of Montrose. They are reaching out to local artists to put local art in the store (and around it). I can't remember exactly the email to submit. Maybe montrose.artist@wholefoods.com?? If you are and artist and want to submit your stuff give it a whirl.

13) They expect to open in the spring. Shooting for March if no big weather delays.

14) Store hours aren't set. Expected to be 7:00AM to 10? (if i remember correctly).

15) They are very excited as were the people in the meeting. They say Houston is the #2 market for them (they have 300 stores i think). Every store is built for the specific location (sugarland way different of course than Montrose).

16) They think there will be a bank at the corner of D'amico and Waugh in that section of the parking lot (which is what we really need right????)

17) They are hoping to relieve some of the high traffic they get at kirby store as it is a nightmare.

18) That's all i can think of right now. I'll post more if i remember.

-Shannosa-

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So the Whole Foods people were at the North Montrose civic association meeting last night and I got some details. The following is what I learned:

1) The reason the back-end of the store is facing Dallas and the side is facing Waugh is because of the AIG building. They (AIG building owner) required that the store be placed as far away from the building as possible. This meant that the parking lot had to sit between the AIG building and the store pushing the back to Dallas (unfortunately).

2) The loading entrance will be on Dallas and will exit onto Waugh. This means the trucks will not have to cross any traffic to get to the loading docks.

3) The trucks will be loading sometime in the early morning and should be finished by 8:00 AM. There will be nice large wooden doors to conceal the entrance and exit to the loading dock during the day when there is no loading.

4) The corner of the store on Waugh closest to D'amico will contain an outdoor/indoor style cafe with garage-type doors that open in good weather. The renderings of the store show a patio with umbrellas. They expect to have bands, etc playing there.

5) The store will be very pedestrian friendly with all traffic entering from the BACK of the parking lot (close to D'amico). They say they learned from the Kirby store that allowing cars to enter by the store entrance is a nightmare for traffic.

6) There will be bike racks with some 50 or available slots. There will be a free tire filling station. The focus here is to really drive bike traffic (and pedestrians as noted in #5).

7) There will be many skylights on the roof allowing a bunch of natural lighting.

8) There will be many large trees that should grow to provide good shade in time (not just those short trees).

9) No comment on an apartment building going up next to it BUT.. look at the roundabout driveway. Obviously not built just for a grocery store.

10) They will recycle their own rainwater and use it in sprinkler system.

11) I think 250 parking spots. Kirby store has 150. Kirby store is 35,000 sq ft and this one slightly larger at 40,000.

12) No real details on the inside of the store. They expect it to fit in very well with the diversity of Montrose. They are reaching out to local artists to put local art in the store (and around it). I can't remember exactly the email to submit. Maybe montrose.artist@wholefoods.com?? If you are and artist and want to submit your stuff give it a whirl.

13) They expect to open in the spring. Shooting for March if no big weather delays.

14) Store hours aren't set. Expected to be 7:00AM to 10? (if i remember correctly).

15) They are very excited as were the people in the meeting. They say Houston is the #2 market for them (they have 300 stores i think). Every store is built for the specific location (sugarland way different of course than Montrose).

16) They think there will be a bank at the corner of D'amico and Waugh in that section of the parking lot (which is what we really need right????)

17) They are hoping to relieve some of the high traffic they get at kirby store as it is a nightmare.

18) That's all i can think of right now. I'll post more if i remember.

-Shannosa-

Welcome to HAIF, Shannosa, and thank you for a very detailed and informative post. You've answered a lot of peoples' questions.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

Some more development in the area - new club called Vue

"Construction is underway for Vue, a new high-end night club in the former home of Laff Stop on Waugh at Allen Pkwy. It’s in the same building as Guava Lamp video lounge, and its Woody Gould joined forces with Crew Staffing and Chelsea Grill owner Tony Gutierrez for the project. The facility will be also be available for private events. Michael Stribling (you might know him from HGTV’s Design Star) is overseeing interior design."

http://www.bisnow.com/washington_dc_commercial_real_estate_news_story.php?p=13357

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