Lawrence Building At 511 Main St.

[adr]

The diamond cut stainless steel cladding on the portico has been removed and is being replaced.  This building, which is the undisputed heavyweight champion of ugly exteriors facades in the entire Main Street Market Square entertainment district, was previously Club Heat and Club Spade's. This is the final remaining retail space on the east side of the 500 block, and if it is indeed being worked on would leave only three spaces left on Main without a known active project.

 

[rechlin]

There's still a vacant space almost next door, just between S&T and Lone Star Taco in the Binz Building, which is partially visible in your photo. It's not a big space but it's also on the east side of the 500 block.

[kylejack]

That must be the former cigar shop that moved to Capitol. Yeah, small space.

[adr]

Man that space is so small I thought it was an entrance to the Binz building

[jermh]

I've been watching 511 Main get some serious roof repairs on a giant hole the past week or so. If this is too small of scale, for Going up! please move it.

 

I'll continue to taking snapshots of the progress. 

 

 

 

This is from today 

Edited July 20, 2020 by jermh
Fixed Formatting

[jermh]

They're booking it. Rain or shine.

[nate4l1f3]

Me and my friend hate the office building next to it. One of the ugliest towers on Prime real estate   

[HouTXRanger]

Thanks for keeping us updated with the pics OP.

What business is at that address? Are they closed while the roof is getting fixed?

When was the roof damaged, and how? I'm assuming rain.

[Avossos]

24 minutes ago, nate4l1f3 said:

Me and my friend hate the office building next to it. One of the ugliest towers on Prime real estate   

 

The Binz building needs some sort of complete renovation. I imagine a hotel will grab it. There was a beautiful building there but I think that is long gone and this is what they built in its place... Agreed.. this building and that block need a ton of help.

[kbates2]

1 hour ago, HouTXRanger said:

Thanks for keeping us updated with the pics OP.

What business is at that address? Are they closed while the roof is getting fixed?

When was the roof damaged, and how? I'm assuming rain.

I think that it’s been abandoned for many years.  Used to be a club.

[Avossos]

Will someone give the facade some love please? It is awful....

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

my buddy is a bartender at Molly's next door. I'll admit I never gave this plain white building a second look... lol

[jermh]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2020 by jermh

[jermh]

I'm guessing that pulley I photographed ( now removed ) was remanence of an old elevator? I knew that Dean's has one of the oldest electric elevator in Texas (3rd oldest in the country), but I didn't realize any of these other small buildings on Main St. had them. 

 

Edited July 23, 2020 by jermh

[jermh]

It looks like they are getting close to having the roof done. I walked by the building and the roll-up door on the front was open over the weekend, and the inside is about as far as you can be from being done. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by jermh

[dbigtex56]

Several years ago someone on this forum said that this building was once a theater. (I tried to use the 'Search' function to locate the post,  but came up with 500+ hits; not today, thank you.)
Does that sound familiar to anyone?

 

[rechlin]

This building is completely gutted inside, wall to wall, front to back, and floor to ceiling, so it's now one big two-story room.  Looks like they might be getting ready to put something in here:

[adr]

I was told that it is to be a Las Vegas style club, with full LCD walls and ceiling.  

[Texasota]

ugh. better than vacant I guess.

[Amlaham]

This building needed some serious TLC, so this is good news.

[rechlin]

Already have a thread here; moderators please merge:

 

[j_cuevas713]

I'm glad this is getting renovated but I'm not crazy about the proposed tenant

[Nate99]

I missed the earlier time series of the roof replacement, but had walked by a couple of times when the front door was opened revealing the whole thing being completely gutted. I'm unlikely to find myself in a night club, but given the condition of the roof and interior, seems like any future use would have been a long shot. 

[editor]

I'm not a fan of nightclubs, either.  But I think this is probably a good idea.  I can't count the hundreds of tourists I see in town on weekends wandering Main Street looking for nightlife with very disappointed faces.

[LBC2HTX]

If Houston ever wants to be a tourist destination it needs to have a vibrant downtown party scene like gaslamp in San Diego. It’s getting there and the city should really embrace it. 

[editor]

19 hours ago, LBC2HTX said:

If Houston ever wants to be a tourist destination it needs to have a vibrant downtown party scene like gaslamp in San Diego. It’s getting there and the city should really embrace it. 

There are plenty of tourist cities that don't have a "party scene." 

However, Main Street does seem primed for a good bar and club scene.  The problem is that the bars and clubs are scattered all over the city, instead of being concentrated in one location. 

Can someone explain why it is that bars and clubs congregate in the Washington corridor, instead of on Main Street?  There's plenty of available locations, and parking on Main Street.  Is it that the available spaces are too small?

[Texasota]

Eh, there have been plenty of bars on Main Street. COVID caused a bit of a lull, but I think the difference between Main and Washington has more been about the types of bars/clubs rather than the quantity.

Washington has *never* had much in the way of what I personally would find interesting other than the Julep - Liberty Station - Darkhorse trio. 

Main St has/had Deans, Notsuoh, Bad News Bar, Pastry War (RIP), Little Dipper, Secret Garden, and a few more places scattered on Congress, Franklin, and Travis. 

Definitely a noticeable loss since before COVID, but still much better than the early 2000's club scene on Main. Though again, I've never personally been a "club" person.

And that's within like a 300' radius of the 300 block of Main as opposed to like 2 miles of Washington.

Edited June 13, 2022 by Texasota

[rechlin]

The "hot" area for bars and clubs in Houston seems to move periodically, I guess as people get bored with an area and want to move to the new "trendy" area.  Over the decades it has been Main Street, Midtown, Richmond Ave, and Washington Ave, some multiple times.  I've never been a club person so I don't know which of those is hot at present; maybe nothing is hot right now with so much lost to COVID.  I agree that this area of Main would perhaps be the best place for an evening entertainment district to just remain indefinitely, but some patrons can be finicky and don't want to go to a place that isn't up-and-coming anymore.

[LBC2HTX]

13 hours ago, editor said:

There are plenty of tourist cities that don't have a "party scene." 

Right, and those cities have things that Houston will never have (natural beauty/weather or historical significance). 

[editor]

19 hours ago, rechlin said:

The "hot" area for bars and clubs in Houston seems to move periodically, I guess as people get bored with an area and want to move to the new "trendy" area.  Over the decades it has been Main Street, Midtown, Richmond Ave, and Washington Ave, some multiple times.  I've never been a club person so I don't know which of those is hot at present; maybe nothing is hot right now with so much lost to COVID.  I agree that this area of Main would perhaps be the best place for an evening entertainment district to just remain indefinitely, but some patrons can be finicky and don't want to go to a place that isn't up-and-coming anymore.

With all of the events happening downtown all the time, I'm surprised that the Main Street bar scene isn't more robust.

Every time there's an Astros game — especially on the weekends — I see tourists after the game wandering back to their hotels and searching for something else to do.  There are a few bars that fill up because of this, but there's a lot of people who keep going, looking for a different scene, or a less crowded place, or maybe someplace more family-friendly, because they often bring children with them.

And after going to the Alley or something at Jones Hall, the after-show options are very limited. 

People who run bars and restaurants always complain that there aren't enough people.  They're only half-right. The people are there, but they're sporadic.  Which is why the Downtown district people have to do more to bring more events to the area — to fill in the gaps and make full-time restaurants and bars viable.

When HAIF started, people used to say, "Tourists don't come to Houston."  That's no longer the case  I think it's closer to the truth to say, "Tourists don't come back to Houston."

10 hours ago, LBC2HTX said:

Right, and those cities have things that Houston will never have (natural beauty/weather or historical significance). 

There's that Houston "Can't Do" attitude!