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POST: Mixed-Use Development At 401 Franklin St.


sevfiv

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I am envisioning a home depot, a best buy, and at least two mattress stores.

 

hey, all those people that will be moving into downtown need a place to buy things to make their apartment feel more like home, a big screen tv and a mattress.

 

With the way the street grid is over there, it sucks.

 

all the streets over there connecting this to downtown are barren bridges over the bayou with minimal sidewalks (I guess they're 3' sidewalks, which is adequate, but they're also right on the street with no buffer between sidewalk and street which is inadequate for 3' sidewalks).

 

maybe they'll work with the city to put in some pedestrian bridges down on the bayou that will be more friendly for walking around, where it's not barren at all, then they just need to figure out how to get people down there and then convince them it's actually a good idea to go down, then come back up on the other side to get anywhere.

 

at the very least, they need to create more room for the sidewalks, with a buffer, and introduce some form of shade over those bridges.

 

otherwise, unique location or not, it is going to be difficult at best to get people to walk from this site to any other part of downtown, and visa versa.

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Any reason to make this a transit center? I guess not but why not?

 

1. Houston-Dallas Bullet train

2. Park and Ride Buses

3. Metro Rail hub

 

If one desired to make this a Mega Transit Center I would suppose it wouldn't be so far fetched. Run a light rail extension up Bagby for either/both the Green or Purple lines. Connect to the Red Line via a skywalk extension to the UH Downtown station. Amtrak could easily be integrated along with the high-speed rail to Dallas. Highway access is on the doorstep. Every downtown Park and Ride bus could stop here with only slight route modifications.

 

I just hope they go BIG on this one. Central transit hub. Residential condo. Office high-rise. Bayou promenade. Mall. Theatre. Washington Ave extension and Franklin closure. Light rail connection. Do it all. It's as someone else already said, you'd need to build something significant to recoup your investment.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The owner of Lovett that purchased that site is Frank Lu.  He has build tract mansions all over Houston.  He was the highest bidder.  Now this is big time for him.  I have no idea what he will build.  Maybe multiple highrises for sale, he never leases.  Every now and them he comes to the Houston Tomorrow meetings.  Very quiet but needs input from the Houston community. 

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The owner of Lovett that purchased that site is Frank Lu.  He has build tract mansions all over Houston.  He was the highest bidder.  Now this is big time for him.  I have no idea what he will build.  Maybe multiple highrises for sale, he never leases.  Every now and them he comes to the Houston Tomorrow meetings.  Very quiet but needs input from the Houston community. 

 

Do you know Frank or work for him?  If he needs input, how can we get it to him?

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I think his name is "Frank Liu".  I know of him mainly because he bought the house i grew up in, from my parents.  They thought he was very nice and charming.  Other than that, I have no other quasi-personal information about him.

 

However, I have observed many local projects his company has done since then.  Many of them town homes in potentially transitional areas.  Also, a fair number of McMansions in other areas.  He strikes me as a good businessman, but this project is different.  It will be interesting to see what he does with it.  

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  • 5 weeks later...

So much potential

Speaking of potential.. a magazine with the San Francisco Transbay Transit Center on the cover popped up on my social media feed today. Admittedly it was the first time I've seen renderings of the transit center, even though I've seen the tower many times.

How does Houston get a transit center/development like this? Yes, I realize we aren't "San Francisco".. but still. Im not talking about just the awe inspiring architecture, but the cohesiveness of all the local transit networks, the blending of such a large development into the fabric of a dense urban area, etc..

TTC-SECTION-1.jpg

Transbay-Transit-Center-9.jpg

Transbay-Transit-Center-by-Pelli-Clarke-

Bus-Plaza1.jpg

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Yea unfortunately since the HSR guys don't even wanna bring it to downtown there really isn't a chance for something like this.  Unless you wanna build all of this for a three times a week Amtrak train.  

 

But on the flip side that probably won't get built for like 20 years at least, too expensive. 

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True, a downtown(ish) intramodal transit center would lack the HSR connection the SF project has, but surely we would want to have some sort of hub in/near downtown for any future commuter rail system to tie into our LRT system? Although the density won't call for a Transbay Tower-esque skyscraper at the Northwest Mall site, we could potentially have all of the transit components that make up the Transbay transit center at that NW mall location.. A likely HSR line, light rail (whenever the BRT gets converted in the future), Busses/HOV, and a level for pedestrian ground floor activity and pick up/drop offs from personal vehicles.

What probably won't get built for like 20 years?

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What probably won't get built for like 20 years?

 

The California High Speed Rail.  And that's optimistic, there's a ton of NIMBY pushback and opposition as always unfortunately. 

 

And I agree with everything else you said, a downtown transit center combining Amtrak, Greyhound, light rail and a METRO bus center would be really cool and a great opportunity to create a signature structure identifiable to Houston. 

 

Unfortunately there's just no money for something like that with METRO having to make those damn mobility payments.  And if METRO can't fund it, then who would? 

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The California High Speed Rail. And that's optimistic, there's a ton of NIMBY pushback and opposition as always unfortunately.

And I agree with everything else you said, a downtown transit center combining Amtrak, Greyhound, light rail and a METRO bus center would be really cool and a great opportunity to create a signature structure identifiable to Houston.

Unfortunately there's just no money for something like that with METRO having to make those damn mobility payments. And if METRO can't fund it, then who would?

Coughing while reading on a phone leads to inadvertent replies. :-(

Edited by The Pragmatist
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Got a sneak peak of the base building design. I'll be interested to see how this forum reacts - the multi family is a high rise.

I don't think it will be particularly well received honestly... It's a good reuse of the existing structure and will include a market concept, grocer, lots of retail and even green roofs(!) but if I was a betting man I'd bet the design will leave most on here wanting more. They're working through some issues to really activate the bayou as well.

My understanding is that the high rise is not part of the first phase so I'm not sure we can count on it at this point.

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I don't think it will be particularly well received honestly... It's a good reuse of the existing structure and will include a market concept, grocer, lots of retail and even green roofs(!) but if I was a betting man I'd bet the design will leave most on here wanting more. They're working through some issues to really activate the bayou as well.

My understanding is that the high rise is not part of the first phase so I'm not sure we can count on it at this point.

My expectation is a lot of single story structures but ones that interact with each other well. I'd agree... I think most people on here want multiple highrises to wow people entering the city but I think Lovett will play well with the bayou and the future theatre district design but also bring life to an area that sorely needs it. I think if people want more City Centre type design, I think we may possibly see it at Hardy Yards or even the apartment complex that Midway bought down the road on Washington.

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Got a sneak peak of the base building design. I'll be interested to see how this forum reacts - the multi family is a high rise.

"Interesting" doesn't necessarily translate to unanimous decision to me. I'm thinking this design will be controversial here, or many folks may be let down. Then again I'm probably reading too much into it hahahahah

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Improving access to the bayou would be a big plus. I do not understand the phrase "market grocer." Does this refer to a mainline grocer such as HEB, Kroger, or Randall's? Or is there another type that Lovett is looking at?

He said market concept, as in like a farmers market. Followed by a grocer..

Everything sounds fantastic actually.. So long as you're not expecting a bunch of grand towers then you shouldn't be let down. Anything is better than what the post office site currently is doing to interact with downtown.

Edited by cloud713
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To say that this forum will be disappointed sounds scary, since typically even when someone says we'll like it, it's often a crapshoot!

I'm not expecting a world class, multi-tower, name architect development. It seems like Lovett's specialty from Sawyer Yards is creative repurposing, sort of a less-is-more approach that evokes memory and a sense of authenticity as opposed to the glitz of City Centre.

More than anything I hope it brings people, not just Audis.

Edited by H-Town Man
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