cspwal Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 Goodyear seems unaware that they're going to become a park, or misheard - they just resealed the parking lot. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobruss Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Pave paradise, and put up a parking lot ! don't it always seem to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mollusk Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Once there were parking lots, now it's a peaceful oasis. I can't get used to this lifestyle. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkultra25 Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 15 hours ago, bobruss said: Pave paradise, and put up a parking lot ! don't it always seem to go. The Houston-specific version is "they unpaved paradise, and took away my parking lot". It's funny to see Joni's timeless "Big Yellow Taxi" lyric popping up here, as that song has been an earworm for me all week long. I thought I knew all of the best "mondegreens" (aka "misheard lyrics"), until a few days ago I ran across someone who swore they had always heard it as "a gay pair of guys put up a parking lot". I am now unable to get the butchered lyric out of my head, and many questions have arisen, such as "why a parking lot? Shouldn't they be restoring a neglected Craftsman bungalow or mid-century mod and canvassing estate sales to outfit each room with the perfect mix of vintage furniture instead?" 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobruss Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 We covered several Joni Mitchell songs including Paradise. One of my favorites was She Comes For Conversation, which we played on Austin City Limits the first year it was on in 1975. I purposefully put the lyrics backwards because your right it is backwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UtterlyUrban Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 3 hours ago, mkultra25 said: . I thought I knew all of the best "mondegreens" (aka "misheard lyrics"), until a few days ago I ran across someone who swore they had always heard it as "a gay pair of guys put up a parking lot". “A Gay Pair of guysput up a parking lotWith a pink hotel, a boutiqueAnd a swinging hot spot” I mean, who else, in the box of stereotypes that was 1970, would build this? 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samagon Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 On 3/21/2018 at 7:17 PM, bobruss said: We covered several Joni Mitchell songs including Paradise. One of my favorites was She Comes For Conversation, which we played on Austin City Limits the first year it was on in 1975. I purposefully put the lyrics backwards because your right it is backwards. I do the same thing to Guns and Roses, Paradise City. Take me down to the paradise city, where the girls are green and the grass is pretty. it works much better than the other way around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate99 Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 That Goodyear was a handy place to have downtown when you had a screw in your tire and you are down to 12 psi before the slog back home. With respect to Ms. Mitchell's lamentations, in a city where folks are putting up a swimming pool/night (day?) club next to a cement plant, I think we have proven that paradise and pavement can coexist. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cspwal Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 So they had the planning meetings this Thursday and Saturday, and I went to both. It is very much still in the planning stages; the Saturday session was a full on brainstorming session with the 21 people who showed up. A few details that I learned: They were only able to acquire a 30 year lease on the good year property and the parking lot at the corner of Leeland and San Jacinto. The land is owned by a trust that won't let them sell it but they can do a lease. The Southern Texas College of Law didn't want to give up their parking lot to let this be a full block park - the current plan is a fence between it and the park. The project is already fully funded by the Downtown Redevelopment Authority Goodyear's lease is up in March, and they expect construction on the park to start in April. They're targeting a Summer 2020 opening date. Here are the boards from the happy hour with the categories they're looking at. I couldn't figure out how this broken forum software could let me embed the photos. https://farm1.staticflickr.com/928/29833049758_609bf90afd_k.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/934/29833051638_dd53b58186_k.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/857/43656374522_78fddc6f41_k.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/859/29833051348_756790e647_k.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/862/43656371632_d549f53e73_k.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/860/29833050268_82c6d5236d_k.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avossos Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 Don’t bother putting a Park here when in 30 years it will be demolished.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 10 hours ago, cspwal said: So they had the planning meetings this Thursday and Saturday, and I went to both. It is very much still in the planning stages; the Saturday session was a full on brainstorming session with the 21 people who showed up. A few details that I learned: They were only able to acquire a 30 year lease on the good year property and the parking lot at the corner of Leeland and San Jacinto. The land is owned by a trust that won't let them sell it but they can do a lease. The Southern Texas College of Law didn't want to give up their parking lot to let this be a full block park - the current plan is a fence between it and the park. The project is already fully funded by the Downtown Redevelopment Authority Goodyear's lease is up in March, and they expect construction on the park to start in April. They're targeting a Summer 2020 opening date. Thanks for the report. When it was first announced, it was reported they had a ground lease with option(s) to renew. Do you know if the 30 years is just the initial term? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cspwal Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 They didn't get into the terms. I'm sure they'll have an option to extend the lease Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alec Posted October 11, 2018 Share Posted October 11, 2018 A new public space to replace the Goodyear Tire at Fannin and Leeland is in the design phase. The City will be renting this land for at least 30 years. http://swamplot.com/downtowns-upcoming-rental-park-should-be-around-as-long-as-the-tire-shop-building-its-replacing-but-no-guarantees/2018-10-10/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urbannizer Posted October 11, 2018 Author Share Posted October 11, 2018 Existing thread (I’m unable to merge at the moment): https://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/29469-new-park-for-the-southern-area-of-downtown/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twinsanity02 Posted October 11, 2018 Share Posted October 11, 2018 That comes out to a total of approximately 12,100,000 dollars in total payments. The year 30 rent is around 450,000. To my poor self sounds like a lot of dough. What would it cost if it were bought outright ( if he were willing to sell)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HNathoo Posted October 11, 2018 Share Posted October 11, 2018 I think the market is ~$100psf (~$4M) for a partial block in this part of downtown (full block gets higher premium), but there are plenty of owners who wouldn't sell no matter what price you offered them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cspwal Posted October 11, 2018 Share Posted October 11, 2018 21 minutes ago, Twinsanity02 said: That comes out to a total of approximately 12,100,000 dollars in total payments. The year 30 rent is around 450,000. To my poor self sounds like a lot of dough. What would it cost if it were bought outright ( if he were willing to sell)? At the meeting a few weeks ago, the downtown management people said that the land is owned by a trust that is forbidden from selling the land Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted October 11, 2018 Share Posted October 11, 2018 3 hours ago, cspwal said: At the meeting a few weeks ago, the downtown management people said that the land is owned by a trust that is forbidden from selling the land That seems like it might be an unenforceable restraint on alienation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_cuevas713 Posted October 11, 2018 Share Posted October 11, 2018 What in the world? So what does the city do with this lot then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 21 hours ago, Twinsanity02 said: That comes out to a total of approximately 12,100,000 dollars in total payments. The year 30 rent is around 450,000. To my poor self sounds like a lot of dough. What would it cost if it were bought outright ( if he were willing to sell)? Umm, don't forget the taxes. If this is privately owned, there will be taxes to pay, and usually on ground leases the taxes are passed through to the tenant. So the downtown management district is on the hook for quite a bit more than $12 million. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cspwal Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 The taxes could be part of those lease payment numbers quoted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 23 minutes ago, cspwal said: The taxes could be part of those lease payment numbers quoted The article quoted "$355,992 in annual rent," so it sounds like that's the base rent, not including taxes. Unless it is a gross rent, which would be unusual for a ground lease. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 (edited) 2 hours ago, H-Town Man said: The article quoted "$355,992 in annual rent," so it sounds like that's the base rent, not including taxes. Unless it is a gross rent, which would be unusual for a ground lease. Since this is being leased by an arm of the City to be made into a public park, it will surely be tax exempt. Edited October 12, 2018 by Houston19514 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 7 minutes ago, Houston19514 said: Since this is being leased by an arm of the City to be made into a public park, it will surely be tax exempt. I'm not familiar with how it works. So even though a private owner is making money off this land, they don't owe any real estate tax? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 10 minutes ago, H-Town Man said: I'm not familiar with how it works. So even though a private owner is making money off this land, they don't owe any real estate tax? I'm not sure. It just seems there must be a way for the city to not pay property taxes on public park land. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 48 minutes ago, Houston19514 said: I'm not sure. It just seems there must be a way for the city to not pay property taxes on public park land. It's kind of like, if the city leases space in a shopping center (as often happens in smaller cities), the landlord is paying normal taxes on the shopping center, and the city pays reimbursements if that is the lease structure. Same thing here but with land. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urbannizer Posted March 19, 2019 Author Share Posted March 19, 2019 Demo to begin soon - see "Other Business" http://www.downtowntirz.com/downtownhouston/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/190205-Zone-Minutes-SIGNED.pdf 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alec Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 Dumpsters on site. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cspwal Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 They've already closed and moved to Pearland (which seems a bit far to move from downtown - I guess they didn't want to stay in the city) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cspwal Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 There's a public meeting on 4/30 to present the park design. Starts at 5:30 pm on the 9th floor of Houston House; the renderings presented there will be up at http://www.downtowntirz.com/projects/ on May 1st Of course I misread it and tried to go both last Tuesday and yesterday. Yesterday made it to the 9th floor before realizing it was next week 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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