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Pleak

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Everything posted by Pleak

  1. Pleak
    Might be a few years late replying to this one, but since things are waking back up from the dead - maybe not. Guy I used to work for about 15-20 years ago was a Sugar Land council member. Back then the projection was that Sugar Land was going to top out around 200-250,000. It was already hemmed in by Richmond, Rosenberg, Houston and Missouri City. And since it's a low-density city - they had a pretty good estimate even back then how many people they could squeeze in and what land they could use (i.e. - prison lands being sold off, etc). He always said the big one was going to be Rosenberg. It went ape$4!t with it's ETJ annexation. It's annexed completely around Beasely down 59 and Pleak down 36. It will reach to Needville and Kendleton eventually. Down Highway 90 - there is nothing till you hit East Bernard. I think Richmond will run into Katy on the north end - and Fulshear out west - so it won't get as big. Pleak will be just a pimple on Rosenberg's butt - like a Southside Place or West U to Houston. And pretty much it's all developable land - just a bunch of cotton/corn fields - no wetlands, etc. Nothing to stop it.
  2. Pleak
    Now that the minor-league stadium is up and running - things seem to finally be moving again on this project. All the ancillary buildings are gone - but they did leave quite a few of the older sugar factory buildings and cleaned them up. Which is really nice to see. The developer is talking of a boutique hotel, brew pub, trying to get a branch of the Children's Museum. We'll see what actually happens. Couple of cool pics here at CultureMap: http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/06-09-12-sugar-land-big-transformation-is-only-beginning-imperial-sugar-land-developers-reveal-more/ Right now the biggest news is still the hissy fit being thrown about the apartments that have been approved. Which is pretty freakin' hilarious considering that this is all right next to the Quarters. Which is where my wife's parents would drive her through back in the 70's when she was complaining about not getting something that all the other kids had. You know the drive to see how good you really have it. And these goobers that bought new houses around there are complaining about how a few apartments will ruin their property values.
  3. Pleak
    In the rebuild from a few years ago - they redid some of the connectors but not all of them, and on others only redid a part of them or expanded them. Maybe it's a full-blown rework of the connectors. What they did a few years back, was a 100% improvement over what was previously there.
  4. Pleak
    Meanwhile back to the construction..... Nancy Sarnoff posted some interesting numbers over the weekend from an "unnamed source". Still makes for interesting speculation. http://www.chron.com/business/sarnoff/article/Sarnoff-Exxon-Mobil-project-s-value-could-3621219.php $1.2 billion in costs broken down by: "1 $700 million for 3.5 million square feet worth of buildings, including their interior finishes. 1 $150 million for parking garages. 1 $100 million for site development. 1 $200 million for furniture, fixtures and equipment. 1 $75 million for architecture, engineering and related fees."
  5. Pleak
    Agreed. I know Houston is transitioning from 2-3 story apartments upwards. But i wish they would skip the 3-5 story phase on these large projects and go straight to 6-8 stories. This is a location that should have the increased density - just like West Avenue. A spine of these type of developments along Westheimer and Kirby would be a nice addition.
  6. Pleak
    They pumped all the water out first - took a few days. Wasn't around when they got it drained low to see if they caught the fish and put them in the other ponds. Or took them home and ate them.
  7. Pleak
    Have no idea - but the other retaining ponds on the site by back by the Bechtel and other office buildings are still there and full of water. (and I believe they are actuall all interconnected under the roads) So maybe the critters relocated themselves.
  8. Pleak
    Went by today on the way to work. The drained main pond structure has almost been rebuilt - albeit about a 50% smaller footprint. At least they left some of it and some of the nice cypress trees. The rest of the old pond footprint has been back-filled. Looks like they are beginning to start on foundation work now.
  9. Pleak
    I didn't see this posted anywhere else. Will house the collection of modern and contemporary drawings. Should be finished in about 3-5 years and be about 18,000 square feet. Another addition to museums/galleries definately most welcome. http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/06-07-12-15-56-menil-announces-architecture-firm-set-to-lead-the-design-of-the-museums-innovative-new-drawing-institute/ http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2012/06/menil-selects-los-angeles-firm.html
  10. Pleak
    Ehh - he planted the million trees twelve years ago. It's not exactly old growth forest he's clear-cutting.
  11. Pleak
    Do you have a camera hidden in the hedge across the street? I'll go down and adjust the angle in you need.
  12. Pleak
    Not bad looking at all. I like it a lot better than Melcher Hall.
  13. Pleak
    Ok, thanks for the info.
  14. Pleak
    I noticed in the Houston Business Journal that the Intercontinental Hotel on the West Loop near Westheimer was going to change to a Royal Sonesta. I am not familiar with this brand. Is this an upgrade or a downgrade from the Intercontintal? http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2012/05/intercontinental-hotel-changes-brand.html Another hotel I have been meaning to ask about for a long time is the old Holiday Inn that was on the northbound West Loop between Richmond and Westheimer. It closed a while back and the branding went away to be replaced by small vinyl sign above the door reading Hotel 31. Is this hotel even open? And it seems like it's in a fairly decent location - literally minutes to the Galleria - why hasn't something better happened to this building considering all the other Galleria-area activity?
  15. Pleak
    Actually the more I think about Southwest getting to offer international from Hobby and then Smisek throwing a temper tantrum and taking his toy planes (that's all that will be cut anyway - the Saab jump jets etc to places that arguably shouldn't even have air service) and going home, the more I like it. If United truly cuts routes that are needed and make sense financially (See Auckland route for the antithesis of this.) another carrier will come in and sieze the opportunity. Continental for years neglected IAH to build up their Newark hub - not saying this is a bad thing from the company's perspective - build up to become the largest carrier in the nation's biggest market vs. building up your existing fortress hub. Other carriers noticed that there was unserved demand and we ended up getting Qatar, Emirates, Singapore flights in the last few years. Continental could have stopped this and further cemented their dominance - but they were busy with Newark. So if United really wants to ignore the lucrative business travel that is present and growing in Houston because Southwest is allowed to compete for bargain-hunting beach vacationers, then I think that we might see more flights from better international carriers who are interested. I think Houston flyers win - more competition for international flights on carriers with better services (especially now that we are at United service levels).
  16. Pleak
    About 10 years ago, I lived closer in and one of my good friend neighbors was a self-employed roofing contractor. He had stopped doing run-of-the-mill tear-offs and had started doing custom metal roofing with copper etc. He was an excellant craftsman, but his real bread and butter came from repairing all the new townhomes that had begun sprouting up in the late 90's - early 00's. He said that some of them leaked as soon as they were finished. And a lot of it was due to bad design - where the roofs would drain to the middle of the building instead of the edges or to dead-end valleys with too small drains and then in a heavy rain, people would basically have several hundred gallons backed up on their roof. The roofs were designed soley for aestetics and not for practical purposes. By the time he was called it - the builder was long gone and people were having ruined intereriors etc. I remember he would come home well after dark 6-7 days a week. He had more work than he could do. Doesn't sound like a lot has changed in the townhome construction area since then.
  17. Pleak
    Nice infill.
  18. Pleak
    Exactly. If they do follow through with this announcement, all it means is they were to make these cuts anyway for other reasons. The vote to allow HOU international flights just gives them a convenient excuse instead of having to come out with the real reasons for the changes. I.e, - the Auckland flight had no demand, or we've lost so many customers/accounts due to our lousy job with merger integration. If those flights from IAH are making money - they will stay. If not, the 10% reduction was coming anyway which is not a surprise. Most airline mergers reduce capacity despite all the promises made to get approval.
  19. Pleak
    I never said it was not more attractive. What I am arguing is there is no need to replace the P&R system with commuter rail. It would be a massive expense and have only a marginal increase in ridership if any. I am saying why replace a extremely well-run system for something just because it is "cooler"? The people that are pre-disposed to mass transit already use the P&R - it's convenient and easy. There are thousands of people that will not use mass transit for any reason - and a shiny new train would not sway them. I think they need to expand the P&R system if anything. The lots at West Belfort need garages as there isn't any more room to expand surface parking. Also expand the hours. If you have ever been at the P&R lot in the morning after the last bus leaves - there are probably 30 more people that come up and then drive away when the realize they missed the bus.
  20. Pleak
  21. Pleak
    Is that the parcel that there was some sort of scandal about the city using eminent domain? I remember a big ruckus a couple of years ago and wasn't the end result that most of the parcel was going to be left as a city park? Or am I thinking of the wrong development totally?
  22. Pleak
    Why on earth would the demand be higher by switching to a train? Is there that many rail-fetishists lurking in the suburbs who are presently driving in that would be swayed by a different form of mass transit that what exists already? As I have already stated - you cannot get any more convenient that what exists at the existing Park-n -Ride. There is no waiting during peak hours - you park your car, stand in line, file on the bus, it fills and goes. To get any more convenient - they would have to offer personal service to the home. The Park n Ride system works well in Houston for all the reasons that rail wouldn't. It's flexible and you don't have a massive capital outlay of empty tracks sitting idle on weekends and off-peaks hours. What would help garner more riders for the Park-n-Ride locations (at least the 265) is more parking. The lot is packed every day - there is no room for ridership growth.
  23. Pleak
    I doubt Copa - they used to be owned or partially owned by Continental and are still pretty chummy with United. Aren't they in Star Alliance now too? I think if anything they would come to IAH and cooperate with United.
  24. Pleak
    The difference is cost. And no, the park and ride lots are closed on weekends and off peak is slow. But that purely a function of scheduling. Since the demand is not there now for buses - why would they be running empty trains? The park and ride lots are a very good example. Peak demand that falls off a cliff. The people in Sugar Land don't come into Houston except for work. Running an empty train into downtown on Saturday won't bring them rushing in either. They have their lives out in the burbs. A train would be a very expensive capital outlay with a lot of downtime. Funny thing is - I love trains - just see them as massively expensive in most situations in Houston when something cheaper would work just as well.
  25. Pleak
    Yes, I believe Terminal B was to include a FIS facility. It's also United's regional jet facility. If they delay that part of the expansion - what has been hurt - you don't get to ride a regional jet to Mexico? Instead you have to ride a larger jet (737 - all Southwest flies once they ditch the 717) - doesn't sound like too bad of a trade-off to me. And if we lost the Houston-Auckland route - it wasn't because of this - that would be United using that as a cheap excuse. It's because the route would not make money. It's always been thought to be a marginal route - that's why it had to wait for the 787 to arrive - any other airplane that had the legs to fly the route would be too large - and empty seats flying to the other side of the world = money losing route. If the Auckland route does not appear - it's definately not due to Southwest - I don't think they would be flying a 737 there with 4 or 5 stops anytime soon. And if it is such a critical route that people are clamouring for - Air New Zealand has the planes to fly it and there service would be a lot better than United.
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