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Aris At Market Square: 32-Story High-Rise At 409 Travis St.


Mab

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This is great to see. I'm equally excited about the Alliance Residential building in the photo on Main/Leeland. Even though it's not a high-rise and not terribly exciting architecture, it's displacing a surface lot and should be a great location adjacent to a light rail stop. Hopefully it'll encourage more residential buildings in SE downtown. 

Edited by barracuda
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I know "walking distance" is a loosely defined term in Houston......but let's call it 1/2 a mile for the sake of argument......then the new or proposed residential/hotel projects within walking distance of the light rail is remarkable right now. 1000's of new units.

 

I know there are many other contributing factors to this building boom, but this is certainly a welcome validation for the light rail and its long term benefit to the city. 

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I know "walking distance" is a loosely defined term in Houston......but let's call it 1/2 a mile for the sake of argument......then the new or proposed residential/hotel projects within walking distance of the light rail is remarkable right now. 1000's of new units.

 

I know there are many other contributing factors to this building boom, but this is certainly a welcome validation for the light rail and its long term benefit to the city. 

 

I'm not trying to be antagonistic, but I have difficulty attributing the growth that's occurring around Market Square Park to light rail.  Look at the timeline. 

 

Light rail opened in 2004. 

Market Square Park was renovated in 2010. 

The vast majority of the development in the area has occurred since 2010.

 

Isn't it reasonable to attribute a large part of the development that has occurred in that area to the renovation of the park?  After all, both Discovery Green and Market Square Park experienced major growth in the surrounding areas after renovation and development along the light rail line has been spotty.

 

I think that a more accurate assessment would be that proximity to light rail is one of several contributing factors.

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I'm not trying to be antagonistic, but I have difficulty attributing the growth that's occurring around Market Square Park to light rail.  Look at the timeline. 

 

Light rail opened in 2004. 

Market Square Park was renovated in 2010. 

The vast majority of the development in the area has occurred since 2010.

 

Isn't it reasonable to attribute a large part of the development that has occurred in that area to the renovation of the park?  After all, both Discovery Green and Market Square Park experienced major growth in the surrounding areas after renovation and development along the light rail line has been spotty.

 

I think that a more accurate assessment would be that proximity to light rail is one of several contributing factors.

 

The Hines spokeperson said:

 

We love sites with access to public transportation, especially rail

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If parks spur cool towers (which they sure seem to be doing lately) the city of Houston should buy up key blocks in areas of downtown that have excessive surface parking lots (such as the southeast corner of downtown) and build a park on it. Then just sit back and watch the building cranes rise around it. Sounds like a productive use of tax dollars to me.

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The Hines spokeperson said:

 

I agree that light rail is a contributing factor.  I also know that there is a lot of development happening around the parks in Houston.  I further know to never take what a spokesperson says at face value.

 

BTW, the idea that parks contribute to economic development isn't exactly a radical idea people.

 

http://www.planning.org/cityparks/briefingpapers/economicdevelopment.htm

Edited by livincinco
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Here's a Culturemap article about it. It does a good job of summing up the impact this could really have on downtown's building residential momentum. I also like how the Hines spokesperson described the possible Museum District tower as "terrific".

http://houston.culturemap.com/news/realestate/06-26-13-let-the-high-end-market-square-park-apartment-frenzy-begin-hines-could-trigger-a-trend/

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Why is Hines initiating contact with the Chronicle to announce something that they're still doing a study on? I could be wrong, Maybe the Chron picked up on it when they became aware of the impending transaction, but it doesn't seem that way. Strange

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If parks spur cool towers (which they sure seem to be doing lately) the city of Houston should buy up key blocks in areas of downtown that have excessive surface parking lots (such as the southeast corner of downtown) and build a park on it. Then just sit back and watch the building cranes rise around it. Sounds like a productive use of tax dollars to me.

 

ive always wondered why more surface lots werent converted to park space. ive had a cool idea for a while of a submerged park thats still open to the elements, but dropped down to tunnel level, with access on each side opening up into the tunnel system and shops/cafes lining the 4 sides below the street level (downtown could sure the additional amenities for all these new residents).. it seems to me like not that many people outside of those who work downtown even know the tunnel system exists, so imo it would help improve the existing system by having more street access from the tunnels and possibly bring new people into the tunnels that ordinarily wouldnt of stumbled into them unless they were in an office building.

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ive always wondered why more surface lots werent converted to park space. ive had a cool idea for a while of a submerged park thats still open to the elements, but dropped down to tunnel level, with access on each side opening up into the tunnel system and shops/cafes lining the 4 sides below the street level (downtown could sure the additional amenities for all these new residents).. it seems to me like not that many people outside of those who work downtown even know the tunnel system exists, so imo it would help improve the existing system by having more street access from the tunnels and possibly bring new people into the tunnels that ordinarily wouldnt of stumbled into them unless they were in an office building.

Not sure why but in my mind I see the WTC memorial design but with a tunnel connected food court. Edited by infinite_jim
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  • 1 month later...

It looks like El Big Bad is going in on the site Hines was said to develop this residential Market Square tower on. anyone have any idea what this means for the Hines development?

i agree, a thread title change might be good since we already have a dedicated Hines museum tower thread but no dedicated thread for the Hines downtown residential tower.


http://swamplot.com/el-gran-malo-to-open-english-language-version-downtown/2013-08-02/

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It looks like El Big Bad is going in on the site Hines was said to develop this residential Market Square tower on. anyone have any idea what this means for the Hines development?

i agree, a thread title change might be good since we already have a dedicated Hines museum tower thread but no dedicated thread for the Hines downtown residential tower.

http://swamplot.com/el-gran-malo-to-open-english-language-version-downtown/2013-08-02/

If Hines builds there it will probably just be on the Norhtern section of the lot that is currently parking. If hines tore down Franks I would chain myself to the bulding.

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haha, i dont think Hines were planning on tearing down Franks, but i assumed from the article that this El Big Bad would go on the corner nearest Market Square, thats currently a parking lot. i just looked at Google Earth street view though and apparently am mistaken. i didnt realize Cabo was on the southwestern corner of the block. now that i see where Cabo was, and El Big Bad is going, next to Franks Pizza, it looks like the parking lot will still be vacant/available for Hines to develop. i was worried for a minute that a restaurant was going to be built on the property Hines wanted to build this residential tower on. does anyone know when we should hear more on this property/what exactly Hines being "under contract to buy up a downtown block" means? obviously they are interested in the land but what does the whole "under contract to buy" part mean?

Edited by cloud713
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