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Pleak

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Everything posted by Pleak

  1. Pleak
    Activity at this site this morning. Looks like something is finally moving on this. Fence is going up around the site. The old asphalt sidewalk/path is torn out. And the oak trees along the street nearest the Williams Tower garage are being cut down. Don't have a good estimate on the caliper inches being lost though...
  2. Pleak
    Houston Airports System has started including a monthly update on construction projects at the airports. http://www.fly2houston.com/0/3919863/0/83280D83283/ There is a link to a .pdf at the bottom. It's has some pretty nice pics and timelines and some cool embedded videos of the IAH Terminal B construction.
  3. Pleak

    Spirit Airlines

    Pleak replied to Mr. Mojito's topic in Planes

    Yeah cause that HSR is doing so well between LA and San Fran.
  4. Pleak
  5. Pleak
    Is the building really in that bad of shape? Or is it just an excuse?
  6. Pleak

    Spirit Airlines

    Pleak replied to Mr. Mojito's topic in Planes

    So we are losing a couple of United puddle-jumpers to College Station and gaining a new competitor on the route to DFW. Still waiting for the big bad punishment to drop. (And no - United ending the round to CDG doesn't count either - that route has been losing money since Continental quit Skyteam for Star)
  7. Pleak
    Hey - I prefer to think of it as historic. That brings up an interesting question. If I lived in the Heights - would I be allowed to replace either one if they were that old?
  8. Pleak
    OK. Thanks I think. But more generally. Is it a 4-star, 5-star? What does the term actually mean in this context?
  9. Pleak
    By the way, apparently Conn's closed their location here about 3-4 weeks ago. Completely missed it. They had a closing out sale and everything was apparently really cheap. Dagnabbit! Wish I had know about that - our 37-year old oven croaked and we had to buy a new one two weeks ago. Would have been really nice to get it at a closing out sale.
  10. Pleak
    By the way, apparently Conn's closed their location here about 3-4 weeks ago. Completely missed it. They had a closing out sale and everything was apparently really cheap. Dagnabbit! Wish I had know about that - our 37-year old oven croaked and we had to buy a new one two weeks ago. Would have been really nice to get it at a closing out sale.
  11. Pleak
    Gotta get your priorities in order, now don't we?
  12. Pleak
    So what is a Tier I hotel?
  13. Pleak
    Have no idea what is going in there - but for some reason it looks like a child/daycare to me with the playground next door. At one time I heard Petsmart was coming - but haven't seen anything to that effect in quite a while. The Carl's Jr. (beside Sonic) is up. They are building out on the side of Academy also. I think it's going to be a Michael's and and Ulta. Nothing terribly exciting there. Not a bad place for the clinics. When you have kids, it's always nice to shave a few miles off the weekend runs to the minor emergency clinics. And they always seem to happen on weekends or after 5 pm. The 59 Diner replacing Arby's is interesting. That Arby's has had a sign up ever since it opened - "NOW OPEN" Apparently they don't get much traffic where they are. I figured it was because it was Arby's. Haven't eaten there in years. Only thing good there is their Horsey Sauce. But last three or four times we ate at 59 Diner - it was a big let down also - there quality has gone down from what I remember 10-15 years ago. So doesn't sound like I'll be in that building one way or the other anyway. One other interesting note. On the brochure http://www.newquest....zos-Town-Center It shows a Peter Piper Pizza tentatively coming in next to Olive Garden.
  14. Pleak
    And as far as you poll. I think they are in that awkward stage. Past the looking new and fresh stage. So they are starting to look a bit tired and "yesterday" They are still way too young to be classic. Give them a couple of more decades before and then they might be appreciated again.
  15. Pleak
    The fear is a LOT of money was lost. The Gulfton Ghetto was full of young swinging professionals at one time. It was a happening place to live for all the young single geologists, engineers, etc. that flocked to Houston to make the big bucks. Then the party ended. And all those miles of apartments became deserted overnight as everybody left. You couldn't get a U-haul to move your stuff from Houston. My wife had a friend from middle school whose dad was a geologist. After the crash he ended up driving a school bus. Did that till he retired - never went back to the energy industry. Things started getting better in the 90's. Then the Thailand economy crashed and set off a chain reaction. The booming Asian econmies which were driving oil growth just cratered. Oil dropped again to something like $12 a barrel around 1997. I went to work for big oil service firm in 2000. They had just come through laying off about 10,000 employees about 2 years before. And merging. And to top it all off - I read somewhere recently that the average price for to get a barrel of oil out of the ground now is either $38 or $48 - I can't remember. And it is projected to go up by about $20 in the next 20 years or so. The cheap oil is gone - no more J.D. Clampett methods of drilling. I think all of this has also scared off lenders from Houston - they don't want to put big $ into massive projects unless they are sure of something. So we get smaller projects with better odds of success. How many S&L's did the RTC have to take over in the area back in the 80's and 90's? Banks don't want to be wiped out due to overexposure to the global oil market.
  16. Pleak
    30 years ago, Houston was a lot more of a "damn the torpedos" kind of town. Anything was possible - shoot for the moon. And my project is going to top your project. Then $8 oil happened. And life sucked hard for about 15 years. I remember a client that was in real estate in the inner loop area about 1994-95. I read his annual year-end letter that he sent out and he was talking about the "great sucking sound" that was coming from the Houston real estate market even then. Those were his words. There was still nothing happening of any consequence. A lot of people got burned big in Houston. They have long memories. Now a project has to almost be a slam dunk to get off the ground.
  17. Pleak
    Thanks Simbha. When I drive by it I always wonder if its even open. I can't tell as I'm usually on the southbound feeder so I can't see if anyone is in the parking lot. It looks abandoned - but not the same as the old Days Inn downtown.
  18. Pleak
    Double post..........
  19. Pleak
    It almost sounds like that analysis was written by United's P.R. department. In addition to what 19514 said, the article's whole basic premise is wrong. If this is true: "United's Houston hub is also the third most profitable major airline operation in the country in terms of profit margin, according to Scott Kirby, president of US Airways (LCC_). The golden egg is the vast benefit it brings to Houston's economy." Then United's shareholders should be suing United for gross mismanagement for pulling down operations at IAH when they have such a stranglehold over the hub. In reality, these cuts are nothing but the trimming and re-arranging of routes as the merger progresses. They are moving planes all over the system now that they have a much bigger variety in their fleet in order to maximize usage. Nothing wrong with that. But this was planned anyway. And what non-stop international flights are we losing? One to Auckland which dubiously made sense when Continental launched it as they had no western hub, but now that United has hubs on the west coast - makes no sense and a flight to Morelia, Mexico. And we are gaining non-stop internationals (or competition) to Cancun and a couple of other cities in Mexico and the Caribbean. Doesn't sound like a net loss there.
  20. Pleak
    Are the apartments empty? Or do they have to wait for leases to expire?
  21. Pleak
    But really - would that be a bad thing? I mean if nobody saw it.
  22. Pleak
    What do you think drove the decision? Cost? Privacy of a closed campus? The current wave of corporate thinking?
  23. Pleak
    It wasn't completely rebuilt. The connectors were partially rebuilt/added on to. And they added the flyover lanes on the from the southbound West Loop frontage road to the southbound West Loop. And tunnelled the West Loop frontage roads under 59. But - before and after results was like night and day. That's why I am so surprised that they are revisiting it so soon. It is nowhere near the problem it used to be. Not that I am complaining - if they can improve flow, I'm all for it. Is it a cascade effect from running the Uptown line off Westpark under 59 to Post Oak? Or maybe the sections they did not replace last time are obsolete/unsafe and since they have to rebuild - they might as well make improvements?
  24. Pleak
    What is interesting, is that they are considering this so soon after the last rebuild. I wonder if it is being driven by congestion on the West Loop vs. 59. Because coming in 59 is SO much better than it used to be. Yes it backs up in the morning, but it really is not bad till the Hillcroft curve which is not a great distance. (unless there is a wreck - then all bets are off). Now outbound in the evening is far worse. And the interchange that actually needs work is the Beltway 8 - 59S interchange. It backs all the way up to the Hillcroft curve the other way outbound. As soon as you pass Beltway 8 - the freeway opens up. Hopefully with them adding a lane on the Southbound Tollway - that will decrease the backup on the connectors to 59.
  25. Pleak
    And hopefully they will be completely ignored. Or better yet, a cloverleaf put through Afton Oaks.
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