UtterlyUrban

Oxbow7 is nice.  Good food, good service.  My brother and I enjoyed it and can recommend.  The rooftop bar is amazing.  I am thinking that it will make a great hangout for the afterwork crowd (or hotel guests).  Very cool. Highly recommend.

7 Days a week for 6 years?

Great news.

i guess that they only missed opening for the Super Bowl by a lil’ bit.

Refresh my memory.... this will be open  for the fall semester (2018), correct?  Gosh, I hope so.  Hundreds of art students downtown will be MASSIVE.  They will drive an energy that only young creatives can.

Soon, downtown will have young music buskers, mimes,  portrait painters, and dance troupes.  These young people will, unbeknownst to them, create the vibrancy in which they will thrive and, in doing so, will create a “place”.

I gotta say.......

i absolutely hated the look of this building.......until I didn’t........and then....... I liked it.......especially at night......then......i loved it.....it became beautiful......

It changed..... I didn’t......(when I doubt, blame the building)..........

7 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

Can you imagine if everyone in Manhattan tried to drive themselves to work, it would be utter chaos.   

Bingo.

10 hours ago, Ross said:

You've never ridden a commuter train, have you? Not comfy when someone's ass is stuck in your face for the hour, due to standing room only crowds.

I have. And  In a number  of cities worldwide.  And, despite being crowded at times, I prefer them over driving a car stuck in rush hour.  Standing is also healthier than sitting.  Generally, even when the train is empty, i will stand.  If I do sit, I will certainly give up my seat for an elderly person or a person with infants, etc.  

12 hours ago, Texasota said:

Complain, complain. Where exactly do you expect people to deal their drugs then? 

My personal vote would be the parking lot in front of 1400 Lubbock street.

Wow!  That’s great news.  A 16 month construction cycle seems a bit optimistic to me but, whatever.  

What I am really enjoying is seeing how the hotel chains are putting various “levels” of product  across downtown.  Some “luxury”, some “business”, some “budget” etc.  Kinda cool to watch.

is ther one category that we don’t have in DT yet?  “Extended stay”?  I don’t think that we have that, yet.

With this opening, do the 2 skyHouses still have retail available?  

5 hours ago, swtsig said:

sorry hit send to quickly. there are two components of any RE deal (or a lot of other investments really) - equity and debt. equity will come from you and/or your investors and the debt will be provided (typically) by a bank. in this case, caydon is providing all the equity needed to secure a construction loan from the bank (or other financing instrument) without having to seek outside investors. equity requirements vary from bank to bank but they usually require something like 25-35% down of the total project costs. what caydon didn't have to do was drum up investors (institutional groups like insurance companies, private equity, private investors, etc.) to help secure financing which can be a big hurdle in a market like Houston.

 

few would self-fund an entire project - it ties up too much of ones own capital when there's relatively cheap access to money readily available. of course he takes on a lot more risk but the reward is all his as well.

From the article:

“HFF helped secure debt and equity financing through Bank of the Ozarks and Invesco Real Estate. The HFF included senior managing director Matthew Kafka and analyst Dustin Selzer.”

equity and debt “financing”?

it sounds to me like the equity was syndicated?

8 hours ago, Mab said:

http://issuu.com/midway2/docs/170502_gs_leasing_package_as_pages_?e=28821381/49523664

 

new renderings on page 12-13 and 18-19

 

Isn’t that new beer hall rendering the F21 location?

Midway has owned this property for what?  3 years? 

I would love to ask them (and get an honest answer):  “if you knew 4 years ago that the present condition is what you would get 4 years after closing, would you have still purchased on the same terms?”

to me the property continues to disappoint.  It just doesn’t feel like a vision is being fulfilled.  But, i think property developers might see things very different than I do.  Midway might be very happy and think “right on track” or, they might be wishing that they had never purchased it (or somewhere in between).  I would love to really understand their thinking on this property (without any spin).

5 hours ago, swtsig said:

 

thats not what that means.

I have no experience here.  So, what does it mean?

Didn’t the developer originally say that we was going to use his own money?  I guess he decided to use OPM?

Wow!

2 hours ago, Twinsanity02 said:

My parents, uncles, aunts, several cousins, and my children are all immigrants and we are all documented hence legal, if we did not have the documents we would be illegal. In almost all countries in the world if you enter without going through an approved process you are in the country illegally. 

Correct.

hence, all “undocumented immigrants” are “illegal immigrants”.  The former is an obviscation of the latter.

unless someone can tell me otherwise, it is IMPOSSIBLE to be legally in the United States without “documentation”.   Can anyone show me that I am wrong?  

3 minutes ago, intencity77 said:

 

Please let’s refrain from using perjortives like “illegals” on this site and stick with undocumented immigrants. Regardless of how much of a “nightmare” they are to you, they are still human beings. Speaking of nostalgia, the act of empathy is another great thing we have lost. Thanks!

Is an “undocumented immigrant” in the United States legally?  

4 hours ago, samagon said:

I didn't see anything, but got to be in a group of a bunch of people yelling.

And HISD cancelled classes for this?

Ft. Bend ISD was open and teaching students

katy ISD was open and teaching students

humble ISD was open and teaching  students

spring Branch ISD was open and teaching students.

IMO, HISD should be ashamed that they failed their students again.

20 hours ago, samagon said:

I didn't take photos, but on Polk from ADLA to St Emanuel they have removed a westbound traffic lane, and are marking for a painted bike lane.

 

Now they need to provide a way to get from Lamar bike lane to this new bike lane.

This is great!  If they can now connect to the trails already in EaDo (yes, I typed it) then someone could ride from (for instance) Shepherd drive to Herman park all on bike trails, correct? Or, Herman to the heights?

The press has been saying “Atlanta” for a week or so.   I imagine that it would go along the belt-line some where..

The website does not say “restoration” and they just might be building new but in a certain style.

According to their website:

A beautiful, open Art Deco space

7 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

 

What I've never understood is why they can't just put that money in a foreign bank account, if their only concern is to get it out of the country. I guess it can more easily be seized or frozen that way? Or is it just that it's not appreciating as much?

Given that I have $12 to my name, international money transfers are not my forte.  That said, there are a host of international money laundering treaties/restrictions, reporting of foreign bank accounts, etc as well as “foreign currency” transaction restrictions (China) that likely play a role.  

That said, I read somewhere that countries — UK I think (US too?) are requiring a host of disclosures on foreign real estate buyers since governments see what is going on —- a significant amount of this is not “free flow of capital” but “laundering” and some are cracking down.

The global boom in real estate is also driven by folks who need to get their money out of its native currency.  Asset appreciation is not especially important.  Even losing some money isn’t important.  What is important is having a tangible asset that is priced in a few stable currencies.

if you are a Russian or Chinese billionaire  who has executed Balzac perfectly: 

“Behind every great fortune lies a great crime”, 

Then, getting your money out of Rubbles or RMB and into a tangible asset priced in dollars (or pounds) is very important.

I think that we should give Amazon, free, ALL of Herman Park and all of Memorial Park too.  They can have two campuses —north AND South!  We. An toss in lots and lots of free tax incentives and free development and infrastructure improvements to make sure that this private business can externalize all the costs of growth.  Heck, We certainly don’t need all the grass and maintenance cost that green plants bring.

7 hours ago, Triton said:

This parking garage looks dated already.

And that is likely the most generous thing that can be said about it.