rechlin
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Posts posted by rechlin
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Already a thread for it here:
And now, if nothing is being done with this lot (not even parking), it's even more of a pity that this historic tree was torn down just 3 years ago:
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On 5/21/2019 at 10:37 AM, Urbannizer said:Quote
Boutique-style apartments to go up near Heights Waterworks
A three-block stretch in the Heights will soon see another apartment project line its sidewalks.
Houston-based Urban Genesis plans to close next month on less than an acre near the corner of West 20th Street and Lawrence, a few blocks from Braun Enterprises’ Heights Waterworks redevelopment project.
The project, tentatively named Waterworks Highline, would be close to Phoenix-based Alliance Residential's Broadstone Waterworks apartments. About a block away, a new Greystar project could go up on a tract of land at 512 W. 20th St.
“This has been a target market for us,” said Matt Shafiezadeh, who oversees strategy and investments for the group. Urban Genesis selects small tracts of land for more boutique-style apartment buildings with fewer units in popular locations. The retail scene along West 19th Street in the Heights led Urban Genesis to factor in about 5,000 to 7,000 square feet of retail space within the project, something like a smaller-scale Heights Mercantile, he said.
As more high-end apartment projects go up in the Heights, Shafiezadeh sees a growing need for apartments that rent about $200 to $400 below the rents in competing apartment buildings. He estimates an average $1,300 monthly rent for an apartment about 650 to 700 square feet in size.
Shafiezadeh expects to close in June and break ground by the end of 2019, if all goes according to plan. The four-story building with about 80 to 100 units would be where four homes currently stand. The homes belong to the same owner, Shafiezadeh said.
Tommy Leblanc with Avison Young represented both the buyer and seller in the deal, he said. Dallas-based UD Architects will design the project and Cardinal Construction will be the contractor. A construction loan provider hasn’t been chosen.
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2 minutes ago, Urbannizer said:Quote
Renovations at high-profile Energy Corridor site move ahead. But additional development might be on the way
Developer Dart Interests is moving forward with plans to reimagine a 35-acre Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) campus in west Houston, which was once to be the site of a $1 billion mixed-use development that promised to bring drastic changes to the city’s Energy Corridor.
The renovations underway at the Republic Square property’s existing 324,000-square-foot building are far smaller in scale than what its former owner announced four years ago. But Dart says it is already looking ahead to other mixed-use development opportunities for the property, which is located at 13501 Katy Freeway.
“We decided to focus on upgrading the existing building at this stage. But we’re already speaking with our design team about what else we could bring to the property to appeal to tenants in in-demand sectors and those that are going to be in-demand in the future,” said Randall Tuller, senior vice president at Dart (formerly Third Palm Capital).
Plans for Republic Square have gone through several iterations since it was purchased from Exxon Mobil in 2013 by Houston-based PM Realty Group and Greenwich, Connecticut-based Atlas USA Holdings for an undisclosed sum. Since then, ownership has transferred to Dart.
In 2015, PM Realty Group rolled out a plan for Republic Square that called for the construction of up to five office buildings with 2.6 million square feet of space, two full-service hotels and 800 apartment units. The plan also included 100,000 square feet of retail space, including a 35,000-square-foot high-end gym, a beer garden and restaurants. An existing conference center was to be revamped. That $1 billion project was scheduled to break ground in 2016.
But because energy prices took a hit around the same time, the project was scaled back significantly. PMRG and Atlas ended up selling the property to what was then Third Palm Capital, which initially planned to turn the existing building into a coworking space.
Tuller declined to disclose how much Third Palm, now Dart, paid for the property. But the adjoining parcels have been appraised at $84.2 million, according to Harris County Appraisal District records.
Tuller said plans for Republic Square evolved over time to be more multiuse in nature. It was decided that only the first floor would offer smaller coworking spaces, while the second and third floors would be reserved for larger tenants. The top floor of the building contains parking facilities.
The first phase of renovations on the existing building’s first floor is already underway, Tuller said, and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2019. The project’s first phase is focusing on the first floor’s lobby, conference rooms, fitness center and restrooms, as well as the landscaping around the building and the nearby lake, Tuller said. Upgrades to the building’s air-conditioning system, as well as its mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems have already been completed by Gilbane Construction, Tuller said.
Dart hopes to soon begin work on the second and third floors, Tuller said. Plans for those floors are still in the design phase.
Dart announced May 20 that it had tapped NAI Partners to provide property and construction management services at Republic Square. NAI Partners was hired to handle leasing at Republic Square in February.
Since then, nearly 35,000 square feet at Republic Square has been leased, and Tuller said there are potential deals for another 100,000 square feet in the pipeline.
“We’re presenting the property to tenants of all sizes, and we’re getting a lot of positive responses to the amenities it will soon offer,” Tuller said.
But Dart has not ruled out further development at Republic Square. Tuller said the company is working with Dallas-based architecture and engineering firm Huitt-Zollars to draft a new master plan for the property.
“We see a lot of opportunities for retail and multifamily development,” Tuller said. “Additional office space will also likely happen down the road.”
In fact, Tuller said that is part of the reason Dart hired NAI Partners to oversee the property. In June, NAI Partners hired office brokerage veteran Randy Nerren away from MetroNational, where he helped to provide landlord services for Houston’s Memorial City.
“We would like Republic Square to see some of the same kind of development as Memorial City on a smaller scale,” Tuller said.
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5 minutes ago, iah77 said:
Why should the government be able to force you to develop something?
That's like taxing people who don't study for not "developing" the full potential of their mind lmao.
It doesn't seem like anyone is suggesting the government should force anyone to develop something.
The idea of property taxes being shifted to more land-based and less improvement-based is not a new concept, or an illiberal concept. Land is scarce and finite; improvement is not. Because taxes can be seen as a discouragement to do certain things, it makes sense that it's in the public interest to focus more on taxing the land than the improvement. The Economist newspaper has advocated for this, too, as I recall. To avoid vacant properties from increasing sprawl, which makes costs go up for everyone, some jurisdictions charge higher taxes for some vacant properties, too. This is all a system of encouragement; nobody is forcing anything.
The Regent Square property has been a blight on central Houston for a long time now -- a giant fenced off field that is serving no use to anybody, aside from a small amount of vacant-land property taxes being paid. Perhaps it would make sense for Texas to charge higher property tax rates on vacant or unused urban properties (like Regent Square and the old Holiday Inn downtown) to minimize blight and encourage investment.
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1 hour ago, Triton said:
Original story which avoids paywall here:
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2 minutes ago, Triton said:
I still think that's the old rendering. If you do the 3D interactive view, you get this view instead (Sorry, I can't remove the overlays).
The blank walls on the parking garage podiums look like Randall Davis's contributions to the project.
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2 hours ago, Triton said:
That being said, I highly doubt we'll see a pedestrian bridge here seeing how we already have the former train track crossing for the Heights Bike Trail.
And there will be almost no need for a pedestrian bridge here if they ever finish building the White Oak Bayou trail from the east to connect with the M-K-T/Heights trail. That one little gap in the trail for so many years has perplexed me.
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Dirt work is finally almost done. Over the last month, they excavated under where the foundation will be, filled in with new dirt, and hauled away the old dirt. I'm guessing foundation work will start soon. Photos taken this morning and Tuesday evening from bus 65:
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No, that's Block 95. Block 97 is between the Hess Garage and the Fulbright Garage.
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I have a white TPO roof on my house, and all it really takes to keep clean is about once a year during a heavy rainstorm, go up there and sponge the dirt loose and let the rain wash it away. Or haul a hose up there and wash it off. You could pressure wash it, but you'd want the pressure set low so you don't damage the membrane.
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From this afternoon:
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From this afternoon:
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After slowly laying bricks for what seems like a year, it looks like they've finally pretty much finished the brickwork around the fountains. Not pictured -- the concrete for the sidewalk along Main has finally mostly been poured:
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Escalator wing now totally gone:
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Windows have now been removed from the south side:
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2 hours ago, CrockpotandGravel said:
Hotlinking is considered theft too. I remember this being a big deal years back. Posting the link without the image, maybe not. So it's web etiquette to not hotlink.
15-25 years ago it was considered bad form, yes, but not illegal. Bandwidth was expensive back then so that made sense. But now bandwidth is dirt cheap. Back in the early 2000s I used to spend $1000/month, just in bandwidth costs alone, hosting my web site. Now I get more bandwidth than I could ever need (plus hosting!) for $10/month. Web etiquette has changed, and avoiding infringing on copyrights is now more important than the obsolete 1990s ideas of netiquette.
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If you "hotlink" images (a direct link to the original source that is serving the images with the copyright holder's permission, without rehosting the images) in your post, to continue the earlier analogy, it's like leaving a copy of Houstonia magazine out in public, open to a particular page, and telling people to look at that page.
If you rehost images (copying them to another site for serving the image, like imgur.com) and link those instead in your post, it's like photocopying the copy of Houstonia magazine and telling people to look at that.
I believe the former case is not in any way a copyright violation, since you've copied nothing. The only exception would be if the original source is hosting them illegally, in which case there might be a problem with linking to illegal content, but then the copyright holder should be shutting it down at the source instead.
The latter case could possibly be considered fair use, but it's a gray area and may indeed be a copyright violation.That's why, if you want to avoid copyright concerns, you should hotlink. But because sites frequently go down, causing the images to no longer be made available even though the copyright holder is fine with them being shared, rehosting can be a better option if it can be considered fair use.
In the Drewery Place example, some images were hotlinked, which should be legal since they were pointing to the original source published by the copyright holder, and some images were rehosted, which the copyright holder said was illegal (though might have actually been fair use -- but that's up for debate and would need a court to decide). But all images were removed, probably in the interest in avoiding any conflict rather than just trying to satisfy any legal requirements.
I am not a lawyer, though, so take this with a grain of salt.
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From 4/20:
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From 4/20:
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58 minutes ago, samagon said:
you believe a bus is as good as light rail. if we can't agree on that, then we aren't ever going to be able to have a meaningful discussion on this topic.
To be fair, a BRT bus is indeed almost as good as light rail. In fact, a lot of subway systems (I've seen it in Mexico City and I think Paris, too) use rubber-tired vehicles for their subways. The main advantage of rail is bigger vehicles than BRT allows, but we are limited by block lengths here so even our double-car rail isn't a whole lot bigger than BRT buses. The other main advantages of rail are theoretically lower maintenance costs and usually a smoother ride.
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Houston developer to buy land near Washington Ave. for apartments, townhome rentals
Houston-based Urban Genesis, the developer that selects small tracts of land for more boutique-style apartment buildings with fewer units in popular locations, is buying land for another project near the Washington Corridor.
The company plans to close this week on 2.3 acres near Summer Street and Studemont for a new 200-unit project called Co-op at Summer Street, expected to break ground this summer.
Co-op at Summer Street will have about 150 apartment units and 50 townhomes, said Matt Shafiezadeh, who oversees strategy and investments for the group. Urban Genesis apartment projects have been “designed to take out dead weight in a complex,” he previously told the Houston Business Journal, meaning there likely won’t be a parking garage or business center as ways to help keep costs in check.
Townhomes for rent will be a new lane for Urban Genesis in Houston, Shafiezadeh said. The mostly three-story units will rent for around $2,400 a month. These options are intended to meet the needs of those who want to move out of apartments but may not have the cash on hand for a downpayment, he said. In essence, the rental equivalent of a starter home.
Houston-based Dosch Marshall Real Estate represented both the buyer and seller, Shafiezadeh said. He said the seller is a mix of local real estate investors.
The tract sits near Alliance Residential’s Broadstone Studemont project at 3030 Summer St. This land was originally proposed for the mixed-use development known as Studemont Junction, which was initially slated to be completed by 2017.
Plans for the mixed-use project included upscale apartments as well as retail including grocers, restaurants and health care.
In January, permits filed with the city of Houston signaled another mixed-use project in the area was moving forward.
An entity named Maple Multi-Family Lower Heights filed $45.76 million in permits with the city for both commercial and residential construction at 2770 Summer St. for a retail shell, open-air parking garage and apartments labeled Alexan Lower Heights, HBJ previously reported. Requests for comment from Trammell Crow Residential, the developer behind the Alexan brand, weren’t returned at the time.
Shafiezadeh said developers in the area, including Alliance Residential and Trammell Crow Residential, were working with the city to extend the White Oak hike and bike trail there.
Meanwhile, Urban Genesis could modify its Heights-area White Oak Highline design if it’s not granted an off-street parking variance.
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Hopefully this means they'll finally replace the two broken windows on one of the upper floors that have been broken for 1.5 years (since October 2017).
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On 4/14/2019 at 6:37 PM, ekdrm2d1 said:
2715 Bissonnet St.
Wrong forum. This is near the Rice Village, not the West Loop. I already made a thread for this development here:
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Bank Of America Tower At 800 Capitol St.
in Downtown
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I'm pretty sure they did it that way on the Travis side right by the garage to slow pedestrians as they approach the garage exit/entrance, to minimize the chance of a pedestrian getting run over by a car. You don't want joggers going full speed by a blind exit (yes, motorists should drive slowly and pay attention to where they are going, but who are we kidding? This is Houston, where even the Chief of Police runs over a pedestrian in a crosswalk downtown...).