Sawyer Heights Village Developments

[BrentO]

Clearly their idea of a pedestrian shopping center is one that allows people to walk from car to shop, then to car again, then move car, then go from car to another shop. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If I read this right, you're asking for an outdoors mall like Rice Village. I love Rice Village, and I go all the time - during the winter. But when the temperature breaks 85 and the humidity is giving the temp a run for its money, outdoors shopping and walking around is out of the question. Plus, the way The Village is organized, it's almost impossible to find a parking space on the weekends.

Target doesn't have an interest in building the kind of shopping area where other shops are in close proximity, close enough to walk to. They want you to go into the Target and get EVERYTHING you need - food, drugs, CDs, clothes, you name it. They even partner with Starbucks to put restaurants inside the stores. Why would they want to have other retail stores close enough to be an impulse purchase?

Going after Target is barking up the wrong tree. If you want to change this (not like you could), you would want to target the developer.

[arche_757]

Actually I dont like the "village" --- there are certain eateries, and a few decent bars....

The village would work on a smaller scale, its just gotten to large.

Answer this (anybody) is Target developing the site? Or is a private developer developing the site - and fished around for a "main" tenant and found Target.

They may not usually go into shopping centers like Market Street in the Woodlands or Sugar Land Towne Square but they go wherever there is enough parking and land to construct there store. The parking could be horizontal or vertical.

Which brings me to another point - you prefer not to walk from shop to shop - yet you dont mind walking from shop to car, car to shop? Can you explain????

[BrentO]

Which brings me to another point - you prefer not to walk from shop to shop - yet you dont mind walking from shop to car, car to shop?  Can you explain????

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sure. I drive to wherever I'm going (like the Target with food on San Felipe), park and go in. Once inside, I go to the Starbucks for coffee, then shop for everything I need, and then I go back out to the car. I'm only outside twice. Did it this weekend, in fact. Their grocery selection has gotten good enough to where I only need to shop at two places - Central Market and Target.

If you're talking about small boutique shopping for clothes or home accessories, it's usually much more convenient to do the car thing during summer because you can usually pull right up to the door, or within 30-40', of most small shops. However, if you want to walk from shop to shop, odds are you're not stopping in every single shop. I don't have much use for Cisco, Abercrombie & Fitch, half a dozen Chinese and Thai restaurants in a row, etc. It makes more sense to drive past those in AC and get to the stores you really want to get to.

Plus you don't have to carry bags around while you shop, which is a pain in the rear. When I go into a bookstore, I want to be able to browse around for an hour or more, and you don't want to be rustling a bunch of bags shifting from hand to hand in a place like that.

[arche_757]

Then Houston is the place for you BrentO since you can and more than likely will be able to do "drive-up" shopping for the rest of your life.

I prefer more pedestrian friendly areas - but dont consider West U. or Rice Village as one of those. The "Village" is to conjested with single use one story buildings - there really isnt enough parking. By that I mean - there are to many reserved for "store X" ect... and not enough general parking. Thats what is great about parking meters.

I still would prefer to have this development be more "Long-Term", as 10 years from now that property is going to be to expensive for surface parking.

[Trophy Property]

This new Target will really add  urban vibrancy to the neighborhood. They could do a mixed-use project- perhaps a loft above the "electronics department", a law office above the "planted pots", or a penthouse suite above the entry canopy. This would really encourage interaction and a livability quality not felt since the mid 1940's. 

A Kohls or a Mervyns would have definetly stopped all momentum.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

HAS THIS broken ground yet. I need to drive over there and check it out.

[kjb434]

The site is just being cleared an prepared. This facility doesn't take long to build. If they want it open for the summer of 2006, they'll probably start construction late this summer or in the fall sometime.

[texasboy]

that site plan is so confusing.

i see there is more than enough parking. probably more than needed. will some of the stores face some streets atleast? Maybe someone can tell me that understands the site plan better than I can.

[kjb434]

Something just hit me, the track running through this development is one of the proposed alignments of Metro's light rail from downtown to the Northwest Transit Center. This line open the doors for a line down Katy Freeway, a line to Uptown, and the proposed commuter rail to the northwest. I'm thinking this Shopping center will have a stop proposed right by it.

[texasboy]

Something just hit me, the track running through this development is one of the proposed alignments of Metro's light rail from downtown to the Northwest Transit Center.

[texasboy]

For comparisons sake, here is the new edgewood shopping center in atlanta that might be along the same concept, with some stores having pedestrian friendly designs, but the back is used for parking.

[MidtownCoog]

oy vey

[kjb434]

Yeah, that is more of the New Urbanist concept where parking is not elminated, just hidden to make thing look prettier and to provide more pedestrian access. I'm sure the Target set up will be full of trees too. If not, someone needs to adress the planning commision in regards to the platting to ensure reserves for greenspace and require trees. The city requires it to some point.

[Subdude]

That looks similar to a development near to where I am right now in the Midwest. There is a kind of main street lined with well-known name brand stores. There is some street parking on the main drive, but most of the large lots are behind the stores. Compared to the Atlanta plat though there are fewer big boxes and parking, and more of a small town feel.

The Houston plan looks more just like a collection of big boxes and Applebees etc without any real street orientation.

[flatline]

I believe the R.O.W. through the center is the abandoned rail track that TxDOT owns. It's been the subject of numerous rumors: (1) hike and bike trail, (2) that debacle of a Harris County Toll Road Plan for a toll road ripping through the Heights, and (3) Metro eyeing it for the western light rail line.

[kjb434]

A little bit about the abandoned railroads in Houston. TxDOT usually purchases them because they have the power to do so easily without needing much approval. Many of times a transfer is done to HCTRA. This doesn't mean a toll road will be built. This just pust the rail corridors in the County's hands. This rail corridor which eventually heads east under Shepherd, Durham, and TC Jester to head on to the Northwest Transit center is part of Metro's light rail expansion as shown by there recent study.

So right now TxDOT owns this portion. Some portions on the western end are being currently transfered to HCTRA. They have no plans for a tollroad in this area though. I-10 has plenty enough capacity. I-45 is under consideration as mentioned in another topic for widening and including a managed (tolled) lanes in the center. This would avoid toll roads through the Heights.

The corridor is likely to become part of the light rail corridor with a hike-n-bike trail along it.

The west park corridor was owned by TxDOT, then HCTRA. Its a manuevering process. TxDOT is buying some portions of the rail corridor from the Hardy Toll Road to Downtown. This will be transfered over to HCTRA to finish the Hardy Toll Road to downtown.

[HeightsGuy]

The rails-to-trails for that ROW is discussed here:

http://www.publicworks.cityofhouston.gov/b...ailtotrails.htm

The page says the design phase is scheduled for completion in June.

[HeightsGuy]

And, being a resident of Shady Acres, it excites me knowing that one day I could ride my bike down a dedicated trail from my house to the area and on to downtown for work.

[kjb434]

That's the concept. The city would like to have bike trails to link many areas of the city to offer other options for commuting. If I worked downtown and live by White Oak Bayou like i currently do, I would definitely use those trails.

[Guest danax]

You guys are lucky to have this trail going through over there. It's going to be great for the area and might give a mild development boost too, not that the area needs that. If this city can transform abandoned ROWs, of which there should be more and more over time, into bike trails and light rail, we will enter into the realm of first-class cities to live in. These ROWs are prime pieces of rare, contiguous, angular real estate that make "as the crow flies" trips on alternative transportation possible. With our bayous going from junk to jewels, Mayor White should do whatever he can to accelerate the plan to relocate inner city trains so that we can really speed up the city's renaissance.

As for the Target project, it's in such a desirable area, in terms of it's location and near perfect distance, view-wise, from the towering skyline, that this project will soon be surrounded by more and more dense residential so it should prove ultimately a great business move. As for those old houses around there, I see a few are being relocated but most are destined for the dozer. Mahatma Rice, Riviana and other old industry might eventually vacate too, I suppose, as their property values continue to jump.

The shopping center itself; I think we're just a little burned out on the same old thing everywhere we look. Nothing but chainstores in these projects, interspersed with generic smaller stores, so that it gets to the point where we think negatively about another blob of suburbanesque-sameness being added to the already drab American retail landscape.

The designers of these projects really need to put as a high priority the offsetting of the generic-chainstore syndrome by creating beautifully unique money-spending centers. Let's hope this one is at least somewhat unique.

[mistergreen]

Hi all. I've followed this thread with interest. I bought 2 lots directly across Sawyer from this development 3 months before it was announced. I'm currently building my photo studio/multimedia production facility on that property as we speak.

I have mixed emotions about this whole Target plan. Obviously, it's a boone to my property values, but also I'm really hoping for a decent development in terms of aesthetics. In any case, my original thoughts when I bought the land that this area "could be developed in 5-10 years" are proving to be wrong it appears..... more like now!

In case anyone was wondering what was going in across from the site, it's Mark Green Photography + Productions, and Natalye Appel + Associates is the architect.

MG Studio progress

[mistergreen]

More:

I was doing a search and came upon this from an April 19, 2005 City Council meeting:

Motion 2005-0350

RECOMMENDATION from Director Department of Public Works & Engineering, reviewed and

approved by the Joint Referral Committee, on request from Chris Patterson of Vernon G. Henry

and Associates, Inc., on behalf of Sawyer Heights Village Ltd. [sHV-GP, LLC, a Texas limited

liability company (S. Jay Williams, sole member), general partner], for abandonment and sale of

Ovid Street, from Taylor Street west to its terminus, and a carryover credit for Sawyer Heights

Village, Ltd. for the excess conveyance value to apply only toward the future abandonment and

sale of street rights of way and/or easements, in exchange for the conveyance to the City of a

35-foot-wide hike and bike easement,

[Guest danax]

I have mixed emotions about this whole Target plan. Obviously, it's a boone to my property values, but also I'm really hoping for a decent development in terms of aesthetics.

MG Studio progress

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Welcome to the group mistergreen. I think you'll be a good addition over there. It's obvious you'll do your part to help the area's ambiance, as opposed to say a Popeye's Chicken. Artistic/creative businesses are a good ingredient to add to the new neighborhood recipe and maybe yours will attract others.

As for your design, it looks like it's going the Galvalume route, which is certainly "modern". I like the combination of Galvalume and colored panels and generous windows as opposed to pure Galvalume. There's a lot of that style going up in the general Rice Military/Lower Heights area so it will blend in. That Sawyer sub-area is likely to be a combo of historic and current, which will be cool.

50 years from now, those Galvalume buildings will be classics from the turn of the century. Maybe they'll eventually turn it into a historic district circa 2005. Does anyone know if this style is also hot nationwide?

The Target center is supposed to have a "historic" look and the Taylor/Sawyer roadway is supposed to be heavily landscaped and done in brick so theoretically it will be pleasing to the eye. And once the connection to Studemont is finished in a few years, that area will really start transforming.

I think you scored and I wish you well in your business.

[BrentO]

Hi all. I've followed this thread with interest. I bought 2 lots directly across Sawyer from this development 3 months before it was announced. I'm currently building my photo studio/multimedia production facility on that property as we speak.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's funny! I drove past the Target site a while ago, saw your building going up, and thought, "Wow, whoever had the foresight to pick up this property was a genius." Now I know the genius! The property is looking great.

[mistergreen]

That's funny!  I drove past the Target site a while ago, saw your building going up, and thought, "Wow, whoever had the foresight to pick up this property was a genius."  Now I know the genius!  The property is looking great.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, just call me "Trump"! Actually, I just lucked out in this case, caught a break.

As for the building design, Natalye's group had a challenge as the lot is an odd shape, and restrictive in many repects. As for windows, the north side will be mostly glass, and should make for a great working space. My biggest problem is that every square foot of the place is going to have such a great feel and ambiance, that I don't want to sacrifice any to such mundane uses like "storage"!

FYI: Here's a link to the developer's page about Sawyer Heights Village (quaint, huh?)

Property Commerce

[mistergreen]

Sawyer has been staked out and according to the contractors on site, the road is due to be widened by ten feet to the west side, making room for an esplanade in the center of the road. Widening to begin by October-ish.

[kjb434]

cool, news.

Can't wait for the Target and the upgraded Sawyers "Boulevard".

[RedScare]

The sooner the better. I want to try out 'bicycle shopping'.

[The Great Hizzy!]

How many more of the existing warehouses in that section will be demolished? Several of them have sold out but I'm not sure if they've sold out to the same developer(s) and what the fate of the properties are.

[RedScare]

More:

I was doing a search and came upon this from an April 19, 2005 City Council meeting:

Motion 2005-0350

RECOMMENDATION from Director Department of Public Works & Engineering, reviewed and

approved by the Joint Referral Committee, on request from Chris Patterson of Vernon G. Henry

and Associates, Inc., on behalf of Sawyer Heights Village Ltd. [sHV-GP, LLC, a Texas limited

liability company (S. Jay Williams, sole member), general partner], for abandonment and sale of

Ovid Street, from Taylor Street west to its terminus, and a carryover credit for Sawyer Heights

Village, Ltd. for the excess conveyance value to apply only toward the future abandonment and

sale of street rights of way and/or easements, in exchange for the conveyance to the City of a

35-foot-wide hike and bike easement,

[kjb434]

These kinds of things happen all the time.