Somerset Lofts: Multifamily At 8506 Hempstead Rd.

[skooljunkie]

TDHCA recommended a 120-unit multi-family development for housing tax credits at 8506 Hempstead just south of 11th. It's the 2.6-ac. vacant lot at the curve.

 

Here's a link with site plans, and info: https://www.tdhca.state.tx.us/multifamily/docs/imaged/2018challenges/18254.pdf

 

Three levels of apartments on top of one level of parking.

 

[skooljunkie]

Crude car pic from Hempstead, which is also under construction!

[hindesky]

I saw that tower crane in the distance but was starting to feel the heat. Legs wouldn't cooperate to get me there.

[Luminare]

On 6/12/2019 at 8:10 PM, skooljunkie said:

Crude car pic from Hempstead, which is also under construction!

 

On 6/16/2019 at 7:39 PM, hindesky said:

I saw that tower crane in the distance but was starting to feel the heat. Legs wouldn't cooperate to get me there.

 

Good find guys. Looks like this one got lost in the shuffle. If its a midrise then this should be in "going up" @Urbannizer @Triton Would appreciate it fellas

[Triton]

1 hour ago, Luminare said:

 

 

Good find guys. Looks like this one got lost in the shuffle. If its a midrise then this should be in "going up" @Urbannizer @Triton Would appreciate it fellas

Looks like another mod moved it already.

 

Anyway, surprised we don't have a rendering of this yet. I actually drove by this the other day. Ton of new development in that area, especially on the townhome front.

[Luminare]

5 minutes ago, Triton said:

Looks like another mod moved it already.

 

Anyway, surprised we don't have a rendering of this yet. I actually drove by this the other day. Ton of new development in that area, especially on the townhome front.

 

Definitely. I'm hitting The Heights hard on the development map right now. So much going on. Its bananas.

[On to the Next One]

7 hours ago, Triton said:

Looks like another mod moved it already.

 

Anyway, surprised we don't have a rendering of this yet. I actually drove by this the other day. Ton of new development in that area, especially on the townhome front.

Tons of industrial property just waiting to be flipped in this area.  Lots of available space.

[Luminare]

45 minutes ago, On to the Next One said:

Tons of industrial property just waiting to be flipped in this area.  Lots of available space.

 

Agreed, and I'm sure things are already happening out there. The further out to 610 and then beyond the more reduced our spotlight here is. Right now I'm trying to eliminate that assumption that "nothing is happening out there" because we really don't know. Are they as marquee or as exciting as the inner city development right now...no, but these areas are changing just as drastically. Definitely an area to keep a look out.

[skooljunkie]

Took some pics around the NW Loop today---sorry the photos looks like hell in the post--when I click them, they look fine! I always have different outcomes with posting photos despite following the same steps each and every time: 

 

[H-Town Man]

On ‎7‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 8:29 AM, On to the Next One said:

Tons of industrial property just waiting to be flipped in this area.  Lots of available space.

 

This area is turning into a dystopia of gated, anti-urban developments. Wish some developer would assemble some land and show everybody how it's done. Houses facing streets with sidewalks and shade trees, alleys in the back for parking cars, a commercial street or two a short walk away.

 

 

[IronTiger]

13 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

 

This area is turning into a dystopia of gated, anti-urban developments. Wish some developer would assemble some land and show everybody how it's done. Houses facing streets with sidewalks and shade trees, alleys in the back for parking cars, a commercial street or two a short walk away.

 

 

You wouldn't be able to put enough commercial development in that could rely on foot traffic alone unless the area reached critical mass in terms of people (offices, universities, Manhattan, etc.), so it would have to have ample parking and good visibility (i.e. a strip center), which would have a hard time in the area as-is. Even in New York near Central Park, most blocks have residential entirely with only one café, drug store, or convenience store on the entire row.

[H-Town Man]

9 hours ago, IronTiger said:

You wouldn't be able to put enough commercial development in that could rely on foot traffic alone unless the area reached critical mass in terms of people (offices, universities, Manhattan, etc.), so it would have to have ample parking and good visibility (i.e. a strip center), which would have a hard time in the area as-is. Even in New York near Central Park, most blocks have residential entirely with only one café, drug store, or convenience store on the entire row.

 

So in a large residential development, you leave one street for commercial. That is probably the last street to be built out. This is essentially what Post did with Midtown Square along West Gray, only it was apartments with a strip of retail instead of rows of townhomes with a street of retail.

 

In New York near Central Park, as I recall, all the north/south streets are lined with retail and the east/west streets are residential.

[Angostura]

On 8/26/2019 at 11:29 AM, H-Town Man said:

 

This area is turning into a dystopia of gated, anti-urban developments. Wish some developer would assemble some land and show everybody how it's done. Houses facing streets with sidewalks and shade trees, alleys in the back for parking cars, a commercial street or two a short walk away.

 

 

 

 

This is a problem common to former industrial sites, since the parcels are very large. See also: I-10 from Heights to Taylor.

 

The quality of an urban environment is inversely proportional to the average size of each developed parcel.

 

You could solve this by having someone buy the land, run some streets and utilities through it, and sell off small plots to individual developers/builders. This happens a lot in exurbia, where a developer buys land for essentially nothing, sets up a MUD, plats out a subdivision and sells of individual plots. In areas where large plots of land are already expensive, it's hard to add enough value to make that approach economically attractive to the developer. 

 

It's not unheard of, but the place needs to be either already integrated into an existing urban context, or a destination on its own. Unfortunately, given the availability of financing to large developers, small plots rarely have more value per s.f. than large ones.

 

 

[Purdueenginerd]

See I think sometimes its done well. A, la the Cottage Grove intown development nearby utilized a similar grid system to the existing neighborhood. There are gates, but as far as I can tell... theyre always open. 

[Luminare]

On 8/26/2019 at 9:29 AM, H-Town Man said:

 

This area is turning into a dystopia of gated, anti-urban developments. Wish some developer would assemble some land and show everybody how it's done. Houses facing streets with sidewalks and shade trees, alleys in the back for parking cars, a commercial street or two a short walk away.

 

 

 

Its kinda like how I feel about the western part of The Heights, and when you walk around Rice Military I'm sure it was like that some point as well. But the more I walk around I see it changing slowly. Rice Military is getting that commercial and moving forward. For that western part of The Heights you are getting more development along Durham and Shepherd. They are both weird places. They are figuring it out though, but they are further down the line in development. This part of town is going to be very crazy and awkward for the next 5-10 years. I don't think anyone really knows what to do with it yet. This area just isn't ready yet. Not an excuse, of course, I agree 100% that more can be done, and that it should have at least some tiny amount of planning at least, but it will get there. For now I'm just going to appreciate the controled chaos and see what rises out of it. Hopefully it will be interesting.

[H-Town Man]

21 hours ago, Angostura said:

 

 

This is a problem common to former industrial sites, since the parcels are very large. See also: I-10 from Heights to Taylor.

 

The quality of an urban environment is inversely proportional to the average size of each developed parcel.

 

You could solve this by having someone buy the land, run some streets and utilities through it, and sell off small plots to individual developers/builders. This happens a lot in exurbia, where a developer buys land for essentially nothing, sets up a MUD, plats out a subdivision and sells of individual plots. In areas where large plots of land are already expensive, it's hard to add enough value to make that approach economically attractive to the developer. 

 

It's not unheard of, but the place needs to be either already integrated into an existing urban context, or a destination on its own. Unfortunately, given the availability of financing to large developers, small plots rarely have more value per s.f. than large ones.

 

 

 

I see what you're saying, but small plots usually still sell for higher per SF than large ones. It's just that below half an acre, the value per SF levels off or even drops because developers don't typically develop anything smaller than half an acre if they can help it. So the value per SF increases as you get smaller until you reach some point between half an acre and an acre, and then it levels off or drops. Whereas in the 19th century, most of our building sites were maybe 5,000 or 10,000 SF, since you didn't need to provide parking.

 

Midway's East River is I think our closest example of the right approach, where they purchased a large parcel and are attempting to develop it in a way that will be differentiated and interesting to the pedestrian. But there is still this temptation to make it a self-enclosed development like a suburban town center, instead of doing something like Back Bay where you create a street grid that is uniform and flows into the existing grid.

 

[H-Town Man]

16 hours ago, Luminare said:

 

Its kinda like how I feel about the western part of The Heights, and when you walk around Rice Military I'm sure it was like that some point as well. But the more I walk around I see it changing slowly. Rice Military is getting that commercial and moving forward. For that western part of The Heights you are getting more development along Durham and Shepherd. They are both weird places. They are figuring it out though, but they are further down the line in development. This part of town is going to be very crazy and awkward for the next 5-10 years. I don't think anyone really knows what to do with it yet. This area just isn't ready yet. Not an excuse, of course, I agree 100% that more can be done, and that it should have at least some tiny amount of planning at least, but it will get there. For now I'm just going to appreciate the controled chaos and see what rises out of it. Hopefully it will be interesting.

 

I hope it improves like you say. The gated developments that happened in 4th Ward west of Bagby twenty years ago are still gated. I think those houses will have to reach the end of their usable life and probably society will have to change before those developments change. It's a lost opportunity.

 

The neighborhood around State & Allen in Dallas is the one place I know of in Texas where it was really done right. A public environment was created amid the townhomes and multi-family complexes. Required strict land use controls.

 

 

[Luminare]

2 minutes ago, H-Town Man said:

 

I hope it improves like you say. The gated developments that happened in 4th Ward west of Bagby twenty years ago are still gated. I think those houses will have to reach the end of their usable life and probably society will have to change before those developments change. It's a lost opportunity.

 

The neighborhood around State & Allen in Dallas is the one place I know of in Texas where it was really done right. A public environment was created amid the townhomes and multi-family complexes.

 

 

 

You should walk around the area of West Webster Street Park between Midtown and Montrose. Nice little public park nestled in a sea of townhomes. Not a perfect area either, but it at least feels organized in some way. The townhomes, for the most part, front the park. If anything I would like to see more of things like that, but of course more planned out.

[Angostura]

3 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

 

I see what you're saying, but small plots usually still sell for higher per SF than large ones. It's just that below half an acre, the value per SF levels off or even drops because developers don't typically develop anything smaller than half an acre if they can help it. So the value per SF increases as you get smaller until you reach some point between half an acre and an acre, and then it levels off or drops. Whereas in the 19th century, most of our building sites were maybe 5,000 or 10,000 SF, since you didn't need to provide parking.

 

 

If you look at traditional, fine-grained neighborhoods, be they medieval towns in Europe or 19th century US cities, they were largely built before sufficient financing was available to build immediately to a finished state, let alone develop an entire block. You would buy a small plot, maybe build a small building (usually with a facade right on the street), and add incrementally over time. This is virtually unheard-of now.

 

 

[Highrise Tower]

Construction updates.

https://thebrownstonegroup.net/project/somerset-lofts/

 

 

[Kim Brown]

www.somersetloftsapts.com