Could TMC Development Ever Spill Into Hermann Park?

[Howard Huge]

Or is there some kind of legality preventing that from ever happening?

TMC's expanding at a break neck pace and running out of room. Peering into the future, if it continues to expand as such, I wonder what the landscape will look like in another 20 years.

[Fringe]

Would you want lions and tigers roaming through your hospital? 

[Howard Huge]

Would you want lions and tigers roaming through your hospital? 

Because they would build on top of the zoo and somehow the lions would be released into the hospitals instead of transferred to another zoo or sanctuary?

[TheNiche]

Or is there some kind of legality preventing that from ever happening?

TMC's expanding at a break neck pace and running out of room. Peering into the future, if it continues to expand as such, I wonder what the landscape will look like in another 20 years.

Whether such a thing would be legal or not, it's not politically feasible. First of all, the Texas Medical Center, Inc. likes having the park there. Secondly, the TMC is expanding southward, beyond its traditional boundaries, and has another couple thousand of acres that it can develop/redevelop.

[AtticaFlinch]

It won't spill into the park. That area won't ever be anything but a park. If anything, it will expand, and already is expanding, south, east and west, and you may see even more development run-off trickle north of the park into the neighborhood Google Maps calls Binz.

[Jeebus]

Whether such a thing would be legal or not, it's not politically feasible. First of all, the Texas Medical Center, Inc. likes having the park there. Secondly, the TMC is expanding southward, beyond its traditional boundaries, and has another couple thousand of acres that it can develop/redevelop.

Occam's razor.

[Highway6]

Occam's razor.

This term sure is popular lately. I've heard it more in the past 6 months than ever before.

Several times on the Chron Lost blog....I think I heard it on House... plus today I saw someone use "Occam's Norelco" on a sports blog talking about the Big X expansion.

[AtticaFlinch]

This term sure is popular lately. I've heard it more in the past 6 months than ever before.

Several times on the Chron Lost blog....I think I heard it on House... plus today I saw someone use "Occam's Norelco" on a sports blog talking about the Big X expansion.

I had a professor in grad school who used it at least once a week during lectures. He was in love with the concept. Had he not already been married, I don't think it would have been too far-fetched to have expected him to take the concept on a nice romantic dinner and gotten down on one knee.

I, on the other hand, used to sit back in class and wonder, "Who is this Occam, and how does his shaving implement prove anything?"

[KinkaidAlum]

I am living in a high rise on Holcombe right now with a Southern view. There's plenty of room for TMC expansion without infringing upon Hermann Park. That would be a pr nightmare.

I noticed about two weeks ago that it looks like another research bldg is starting to rise on the South Campus (the series of midrises that have gone up just South of OST. Does anyone know what that might be?

[Jeebus]

This term sure is popular lately. I've heard it more in the past 6 months than ever before.

Several times on the Chron Lost blog....I think I heard it on House... plus today I saw someone use "Occam's Norelco" on a sports blog talking about the Big X expansion.

That's crazy. I actually wrote out the accepted definition of the term before realizing what I had done. It was then I decided to drop the definition and instead just go with the term.

Whooda thunk it.

[barracuda]

Seems about as logical as Manhattan spilling into Central Park.

[Highway6]

Seems about as logical as Manhattan spilling into Central Park.

Actually, central park had been around about 15 years when the Met was built within the park, but yeah, that probably wouldn't be allowed today

[LTAWACS]

Because they would build on top of the zoo and somehow the lions would be released into the hospitals instead of transferred to another zoo or sanctuary?

Yes. You have to be careful in which direction you set animalz of that nature free.

[ktel60]

The original deed of gift states that it is to be used exclusively as a public park. Of course, the same applied to Memorial Park. When the property which was developed into Uptown Park (part of the original gift) was sold for development, a pet judge was found, who declared that "replacing" the sold acreage would suffice.

[LTAWACS]

I wonder what they will build...

[Subdude]

The original deed of gift states that it is to be used exclusively as a public park. Of course, the same applied to Memorial Park. When the property which was developed into Uptown Park (part of the original gift) was sold for development, a pet judge was found, who declared that "replacing" the sold acreage would suffice.

Wasn't Hermann Park already considerably reduced in size once, when Fannin was extended south to Holcombe back in the 1960s? And the West Loop was built through Memorial Park.

[LTAWACS]

Wasn't Hermann Park already considerably reduced in size once, when Fannin was extended south to Holcombe back in the 1960s? And the West Loop was built through Memorial Park.

Memorial park? Where they once part of the same park? What would have been huge... Is this correct?

[TheNiche]

Memorial park? Where they once part of the same park? What would have been huge... Is this correct?

No.

[Original Timmy Chan's]

How about a more realistic question (or is it more far-fetched?)...

Will TMC development ever spill eastward across 288? The only corridors I can see it happening are along OST and Yellowstone, with everything else being residential. Question is, would it ever happen? Or is there too much of a psychological barrier there?

[Houston19514]

The original deed of gift states that it is to be used exclusively as a public park. Of course, the same applied to Memorial Park. When the property which was developed into Uptown Park (part of the original gift) was sold for development, a pet judge was found, who declared that "replacing" the sold acreage would suffice.

Any chance you can share your source for that tale?

I believe the truth is that Uptown Park was developed on land on a 34-acre tract Interfin assembled in the early 1990s by purchasing two adjoining tracts: 28 acres that used to be part of the West Oaks subdivision and the 5.8-acre site of the former Highams Cadillac dealership on Post Oak.

[TheNiche]

How about a more realistic question (or is it more far-fetched?)...

Will TMC development ever spill eastward across 288? The only corridors I can see it happening are along OST and Yellowstone, with everything else being residential. Question is, would it ever happen? Or is there too much of a psychological barrier there?

Yes. It already has, actually, with the Leland Anderson Campus (see map), developed in the 1980's.

There are no psych barriers for psych wards.

[Houston19514]

The original deed of gift states that it is to be used exclusively as a public park. Of course, the same applied to Memorial Park. When the property which was developed into Uptown Park (part of the original gift) was sold for development, a pet judge was found, who declared that "replacing" the sold acreage would suffice.

Any chance you can share your source for that tale?

I believe the truth is that Uptown Park was developed on a 34-acre tract Interfin assembled in the early 1990s by purchasing two adjoining tracts: 28 acres that used to be part of the West Oaks subdivision and the 5.8-acre site of the former Highams Cadillac dealership on Post Oak.

[Original Timmy Chan's]

Yes. It already has, actually, with the Leland Anderson Campus (see map), developed in the 1980's.

There are no psych barriers for psych wards.

True about the Leland Anderson Campus. In addition to the pyschiatric hospital, isn't that site also home to both the DeBakey HS and a YMCA?

After looking at your TMC map and considering it a little more, it makes more sense that the TMC's next frontier would be the area between Almeda and 288, south of OST and north of Holly Hall. That area appears to have the only large vacant tracts in the area...in addition to a hodge-podge of small warehouse-type development.

Any chance Uncle Drayton will ever allow the railroad parallel to Almeda to be shut down? I don't know if trains ever cross OST anymore. Every once in a while I'll see two or three railcars being moved north of Holly Hall.

[TheNiche]

True about the Leland Anderson Campus. In addition to the pyschiatric hospital, isn't that site also home to both the DeBakey HS and a YMCA?

After looking at your TMC map and considering it a little more, it makes more sense that the TMC's next frontier would be the area between Almeda and 288, south of OST and north of Holly Hall. That area appears to have the only large vacant tracts in the area...in addition to a hodge-podge of small warehouse-type development.

Any chance Uncle Drayton will ever allow the railroad parallel to Almeda to be shut down? I don't know if trains ever cross OST anymore. Every once in a while I'll see two or three railcars being moved north of Holly Hall.

I don't know about the DeBakey HS or the YMCA. I suspect that they're not officially member institutions of the TMC...at least not yet.

I think that most TMC member institutions have sufficient capital available to them that they can acquire and knock down very nearly anything that they please. There's still plenty of developable land left in the Mid- and South Campus areas, so that's where most development will likely occur. However, there are also small medical firms that have offices in light industrial and office buildings that extend south of the 610 Loop, so the economic impact of the TMC tends to extend south rather than east or west.

To give some perspective on the matter, land at the corner of Fannin and Braeswood might transact for $120 per square foot; land south of OST, east of Almeda, and north of Holly Hall might transact for $35 per square foot, if that. (Disclaimer: My figures are from 2008-2009, FWIW, before I got laid off from a firm that was looking at acquisitions in that submarket.)

[Original Timmy Chan's]

To give some perspective on the matter, land at the corner of Fannin and Braeswood might transact for $120 per square foot; land south of OST, east of Almeda, and north of Holly Hall might transact for $35 per square foot, if that. (Disclaimer: My figures are from 2008-2009, FWIW, before I got laid off from a firm that was looking at acquisitions in that submarket.)

Wouldn't those prices make it more likely for development to expand east of Almeda? Just taking the case of a 3-ac tract the difference in land price is about $11 million...or enough to pay for at least two machines that go "BING!" Or is that side of Almeda just not hip enough for hospitals to go there?

Actually, I know there are at least a few medical-related offices right on Holly Hall east of Almeda.

[TheNiche]

Wouldn't those prices make it more likely for development to expand east of Almeda? Just taking the case of a 3-ac tract the difference in land price is about $11 million...or enough to pay for at least two machines that go "BING!" Or is that side of Almeda just not hip enough for hospitals to go there?

Actually, I know there are at least a few medical-related offices right on Holly Hall east of Almeda.

TMC land prices are/were only so high because TMC institutions are/were willing to pay them. The price pressures created by non-profits effectively crowded out all us for-profit developers, and yeah...what was left east of Almeda and south of OST just wasn't very attractive.

[plumber2]

Here is a big jump for TMC. Wolf and TMC have agreed to name the parcel on Park Row, were Methodist and Texas Children's are openning hospitals, "Texas Medical Center West". TMC will get to apply it's logo to street signage and entrance marquees off of I-10, Barker Cypress and Park Row.

[house567]

Here is a big jump for TMC. Wolf and TMC have agreed to name the parcel on Park Row, were Methodist and Texas Children's are openning hospitals, "Texas Medical Center West". TMC will get to apply it's logo to street signage and entrance marquees off of I-10, Barker Cypress and Park Row.

I'll bet the TMC officials have had "mouth watering" climaxes to get their hands on the new parking garage revenues.

Could they be the most lucrative and successful parking garage operators in the WEST? At least they don't discriminate. They charge hospital employees and visitors alike.

[TheNiche]

Here is a big jump for TMC. Wolf and TMC have agreed to name the parcel on Park Row, were Methodist and Texas Children's are openning hospitals, "Texas Medical Center West". TMC will get to apply it's logo to street signage and entrance marquees off of I-10, Barker Cypress and Park Row.

I sincerely hope that the TMC is being compensated for brand dilution. Otherwise, this is just...dumb.

[ricco67]

I sincerely hope that the TMC is being compensated for brand dilution. Otherwise, this is just...dumb.

Kinda' makes me wonder what they are thinking. Are they going to try to make the opportunity to get fresh land and make a BIGGER TMC?? The infrastructure in the area just won't be able to handle it if they even go 1/8th of the size.