phillip_white

On 5/2/2016 at 10:27 AM, cspwal said:

Looking at Google earth of Midtown, the two most obvious blocks are the two blocks bounded by Webster, Gray, Austin, and Crawford.  They have been green field for a while, and I'm not aware of any projects around there that have been announced.  There aren't many other dual vacant blocks; the ones next to Wheeler station had that announced project a while back.

This lot is along my commute.  Saw some progress this morning... but not sure for what?

6 hours ago, EllenOlenska said:

Fantastic @phillip_white. I don't mean to be greedy, but may I request one over where the Australian is building several blocks north-northeast? 

Funny you mention that.  I was actually thinking about looking for open windows on the upper floor so that I might be able to fly inside...

3 hours ago, brijonmang said:

@phillip_white you will become a HAIF legend if you can provide videos like this on a somewhat regular basis. Great stuff, thank you for doing this. 

I actually had someone approach me with a paid gig while I was setting up for this flight and another one at Hardy Yards this past weekend (see YouTube), so the pleasure is all mine! 

Here's a snippet of some footage I took with my drone while looking at the area around the KBR site.  The area looks more than ready for development.  I can't wait to see the transformation.  Also note the spectator that showed up.  He probably thought I was doing some illegal dumping.

I found this in the MMD Annual Report:

Quote

The Authority continues holds the property located at 3300 Main Street within the Zone to assist in mitigating blight and incentivizing redevelopment.    During fiscal year 2014 the Authority received a contract to purchase this property by a private developer. In Fiscal Year 2016, the Fifth Amendment to the contract extended the closing of 3300 Main Street to June 1, 2016, and then the Sixth Amendment extended the closing to December 30, 2016 and provides for the demolition of the improvements on the property to be completed by October 30, 2016.

source: http://houstonmidtown.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/FS-2016-Midtown-Redevelopment-Authority-final-report.pdf

14 minutes ago, corbs315 said:

More info/specs on the platting agenda from yestserday - pages 148-166.

 

ftp://edrc.houstontx.gov//2016/2016-22_FinalAgenda.pdf

 

This site is requesting username and password. Could you post the information you're referring to?

9 hours ago, nate4l1f3 said:

I give up posting pics on here smh

Here you go. Not sure what the issue was, but I usually like to right-click the image and select "copy image address." Then paste that directly in the post body. The embedding feature will then take over and display as below:

20 hours ago, cloud713 said:

 

What drone did you get?

DJI Phantom 3 Pro. I've been quite impressed.

The lot has been cleared.

17 hours ago, corbs315 said:

On Sunday after church it looked like the Wendy's was in the process of demolition. Has anything been said about that?

Hasn't it looked like that for a while now?

Don't forget that Greensheet will have 10k sqft of GFR when they finish renovations.

Up, you must look.

Anyone have info on the TABC application posted on a Gray facing window?  I drove by too quickly to take a picture or read the info, but was there a bar planned for the deck they're building on the Milam side?

This may explain the mysterious paint:

Perhaps this explains why Frenchy's bought the block up Scott near 45.

Updated renderings. See the Rev 5 variance request for details of the changes.  At least these guys are trying to compromise, unlike those monsters over at White Oak Music Hall.

160907 McGowen_Variance Request_REV 5.pdf

Here's the rendering if you don't want to waste your time watching the video like I did:

5 hours ago, Urbannizer said:

What's the verdict from today's meeting?

 

Edit: Deffered again for another two weeks

The city and Midtown Mgmt District stated their disapproval of the project lacking GFR and mentioned that a large number of stakeholders had contacted them addressing concerns.  One nearby resident spoke against approving the variances without requiring GFR and I believe three nearby residents chose to defer their comments until the actual presentation in two weeks.

I'm interested to see if the developer will fold to the pressure to add a street presence or just sell the property and move on.  You've gotta wonder how much they have tied up in taxes, interest payments, and architect fees at this point.

11 hours ago, cspwal said:

 

Were you thinking of the grass field vacant block in midtown? That one confuses me - every other vacant block has a parking lot but for those two. What makes them so special?

As I recall, those two blocks were slated to be identical midrise apartments built in two phases.  I don't remember if their variance requests were approved, but nothing has moved forward on that since.  Based on the size of the footprint, I was thinking it would be one of the full blocks near Root Square.  Merely hoping/speculating, of course.  And those parking lots cannot remain profitable forever.

3 hours ago, cspwal said:

I looked at all of Austin.  It goes from Buffalo Bayou to Herman Park, and there are 9 parking lots on it (11 if you count the Camden project that seems to be perpetually delayed), 2 blocks that only have a small building on it, 1 completely vacant block in midtown, and 1 mostly vacant block.

 

Interestingly, there's a parking lot at the end of Austin on the Bayou.  It's split by a really nice (but short) promenade to a few benches overlooking the bayou into a 1.65 acre lot and a 0.84 acre lot.  I could see that this could be a good place to put something except the joint processing center is right there next to it, so I don't know what would be a good use of this nice looking location.

I looked at Austin... except with much less detail. I scouted a couple locations in downtown and one in Midtown that might work for a structure of this size, but I might have to go back and look now that you pointed all of this out.

There are quite a few parking lots along Austin in downtown that would look nice with a building growing out of them.

19 hours ago, Luminare said:

The problem is still the city itself. Fine, I get it...we all get it that this city isn't going to dedicate time to manufacture proper zoning measures, but what it can do is set guidlines and restrictions, zones of influence, designate areas of focused development (designate streets that will be retail/res mix and others that are pure res), then find ways to create incentives for accomplishing those goals. You won't get developers on board until the city backs these streets or areas as retail corridors or zones. If not the city then Midtown TIRZ should create these themselves. McGowan would be an excellent retail corridor, but that have to designate that from the beginning as a requirement for developing there that any part of the property that faces that street will have "x" amount of dedicated retail space.

 

The TIRZ already function like this, but they should be given more power by the city to essentially become self run districts that make their own general laws if Houston doesn't want to grow a pair and issue requirements themselves.

Just FYI, the city and Midtown are actually standing their ground on this one.  I talked to someone in the planning department that said enough neighbors have contacted them opposing the project that they will not let them move forward without some sort of street presence.  I'm looking forward to seeing how the meeting goes tomorrow.

So far they have only painted the side facing toward Nouveau and half of the side facing Main.  Up close, the paint is not thoroughly applied and there are globs of dirt and other stuff that were just covered up.  This looks to me like they are just trying to polish it up in the short term... for what reason, I don't know.