UtterlyUrban

1 hour ago, KinkaidAlum said:

Good news... Motive gets naming rights to One Allen Center by expanding their lease to over 204,000 square feet including a new roof deck.

Good!

"Motive Center?"

and, out of curiousity, what the heck is "Motive"?  (Scurries off to google)......

It's good to see this space filling up with a coffee shop or otherwise.  But I disagree that coffee shops are desperately needed downtown.

Downtown is packed with food eateries that are open 7 days a week.  Anyone who suggests otherwise likely has not been in downtown in years.

1 hour ago, MarathonMan said:

But OPP's four parking levels include resident and Phoenicia parking, too.

I don't live there but I am told that OPP has two levels of parking for Phoenicia and guests and then 4 levels on top of that for residents.  And the parking garage is a full block wide.

13 minutes ago, MarathonMan said:

The footprint of the building is roughly a block and a half.  That's huge.  You can fit a lot of cars per level with that kind of base square footage.  The buildings you reference as comparisons have many floors and a smaller footprint, which would require more levels of parking to accommodate the same number of cars.

OPP is a block.

i didn't realize that this apartment building was a block and a half.  Thank you.

7 hours ago, gene said:

 

this was from the original post:

The building will be 8 stories tall consisting of two levels forWholeFoods, 260 apartments, 2 levels for residentparking, and two levels ofundergroundparking forWholeFoods customers. 

 

So i am not sure that has changed... 

Two levels of resident parking for 260 apartments?  Man, that doesn't seem like enough?  That new market square tower has what?  350 units and has, what? 8 levels of parking?  OPP has 325 units or so and has 4 levels of residential parking?

On 6/19/2017 at 10:27 AM, thatguysly said:

Whole Foods is a smart purchase for Amazon. It gives them instant access to upper income areas for quicker distribution. This demographic is the most likely target for grocery delivery.

This confuses me a bit.  Are you saying that you think that Amazon will be using their WF retail stores as food delivery distribution locations?  Or, said another way, you envision that there will be "pickers" roaming the isles picking orders for home delivery?

How does one paint tile and expect it to stick in an exterior application?

I need to go to the midtown Sears.  It must have some kind of magical essence to have survived this long.  They should package its mojo as a cure for cancer.

8 hours ago, ADCS said:

Amazon just snapped up Whole Foods. Wonder if that changes anything about this project?

Well, assuming that the deal closes.  Keep in mind that It might not.......

amazon and WF have signed a merger agreement.  The joint company announcement is silent as to "detailed terms" of that agreement so I don't know what it says.  But a few things to consider:  First, This deal will need anti-trust approval.  I believe that this deal will not be challenged by the government.  Next, since WF is public, there may be a way for a competing bidder to enter the ring.  There is likely a punative breakup fee that would make anyone think twice before diving in but, they might still.  Finally, it could also be (unlikely) that the shareholders don't like the price and don't approve the sale when it comes to a vote.  So, while I agree that this deal is likely going to happen, it's technically not a "done deal" yet.

all that said, I do think that later this year (likely this fall), that Amazon will own Whole Foods but I don't think that fact will alter this store.  

17 hours ago, HoustonMidtown said:

So this area will be called EaRi ??  (sorry)

No.

it will be NoEaDo

Perhaps this hotel will look lovely in person. However, the published images either leave me flat or make me wince. 

Cspwal:

its interesting that you sense a difference in downtown pre and post Super Bowl.  Personally, I don't.  I do sense a difference around the GRB but that vision wasn't fulfilled because of the Super Bowl.  Otherwise, in the rest of downtown, I just see a steady march of new residential coming online and some new entertainment venues.  Again, nothing to do with the Super Bowl IMO.

that said, in light of your thoughts,  I am going to reassess my thinking.  You may well be correct and I just don't see it.

4 hours ago, cspwal said:

Maybe they should just paint a giant mural on each side

What?  And cover up all that glorious "brickwork?"  Shame on you.

every member of the planning commission and every elected politician in the city should feel a huge sense of shame.

In will be great when this complex fills up!

56 minutes ago, BeerNut said:

Walking around downtown during the day there are "Houston Ambassadors" promoting the tunnels.  I met this woman in Atlanta that mentioned the tunnels like it was cool thing to check out.  For me personally when meeting friends for lunch I try to find the closest tunnel entrance to the meeting place.   

Yep.  Those "Ambassadors" are terrific men and women.  Friendly and always smiling.  Always saying hello. Proactive.  Well trained and a credit to themselves and the city they represent.  I find them fantastic and a great resource. If we had a few more of them, tourists might actually remember them more than the bums and the crazies that they have to dodge.

At lunch time M-F and even during the day, I am personally always surprised how many "tourists" are in the tunnels.  How do I know that they are "tourists"?  Well, I don't know for sure but when one sees momma bear wearing shorts a tee and sandals,  daddy bear wearing cargo shorts and a tee and kiddie bears of all ages, And the whole family "wandering for food, hair salons, or jewelry repair", i can make a bet that they aren't going to work in an office.  

Lots of folks --- including lots of "tourists", kids on "group dates" (during the summer) -- use the tunnels other than local worker bees.

I seem to recall that using explosives to blast away stumps from a new field or get rid of large boulders was a "common" (and I use that word loosely) practice as new lands were being settled and farmed.

^^^^ this will look great, I believe.

Looking at the May 17th posts here and the PDF contained  in them, is it fair to assume that greenstreet is essentially now being marketed as an office concept that contains restaraunts and a hotel?  There seems to be no effort to attract non-food/entertainment retail in that brochure?

wasnt the entire point of selecting Dallas as the new "retail corridor" (and spending millions of tax dollars) to leverage Greenstreet (among others) as a retail location?

Has midway now formally moved in a different direction?

6 hours ago, Sunstar said:

I personally think the retail will come downtown, but like the residential boom it's going to take incentives to retailers to make it economically feasible.

Downtown is too under served in this regard for there not to be an uptick at some point, especially as new residential units come online.

I do hope that you are correct.

however, in 1 square mile in downtown, we already have 100,000 "high wage office workers" who commute in daily.  We also have, what?,  20,000-50,00 "affluent" consumers within a few mile radius.  But, nothing except retail crickets...........

While I hope that you are correct -- i REALLY hope you are  -- personally I now believe that downtown will be an "entertainment" destination, not supported by dry goods retail for many, many more years.  Gosh, I hope that i am wrong but I just don't see that it is going to happen.

3 hours ago, Ross said:

Although, probably not the same size space. The old building had a bunch of space for administrative personnel. But, given the current state of retail in this country, I doubt there will be much investment in Downtown Houston locations for traditional retailers.

Mighty glad the city spent millions of tax dollars to upgrade the street for exactly this purpose!

2 hours ago, Twitter1 said:

Saw $500 wine out in the open today. A lot of retailers put expensive alcohol behind a locked door. I know the Kroger on Buffalo Speedway locked up a $10 beer..A Prairie Artisan Ales barrel aged imperial stout. $10/12 oz.

 

 

It's over priced.

http://www.wine.com/v6/Eisele-Vineyard-Cabernet-Sauvignon-2013/wine/165361/Detail.aspx

And so is the Dalla Valle next to it.

1 hour ago, Moore713 said:

I am interested in seeing what effects the hotel will have on greenstreet vacancies. 

Me too.

my current belief is the following:

1) the hotel will drive demand for things like restaurants and pubs (which downtown already has a plethora of) and

2) do nothing to help downtown attract the viable dry goods/garment merchants that were envisioned when the decision was taken to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on Dallas street improvements.

33 minutes ago, bobruss said:

A lot of this is the same argument that wAs used all by the time by the Afton Oaks NIMBYS.

It did hurt businesses, and any time you create a new system you will displace or disrupt businesses. In a case like this where a new mass transit system is being installed the long term benefits will far outweigh the small number of businesses that are affected.

Unfortunately sometimes people get hurt for change, and this would be a good change.

Many of the businesses that were there during the construction are still there now.

It's usually businesses that are weak to begin with or just barely hanging on. Its mom and pops that have not kept up and weren't doing much the last ten years. The neighborhood had changed over the years. It became a ghost town along main way before the rail came along.

Perfect example all the squabbling about the University line by the businesses who said they would lose their business.

Well half of those businesses are now gone because they weren't successful anymore or they sold their property to apartment or storage building developers, and new strip centers.  

I wish to understand.  Your point is that as a result of rail construction, small businesses will fail and huge businesses will win?