hindesky

Racing to Save the Astrodome HOUSTON – (By Cynthia Lescalleet for Realty News Report) – Beloved and sometimes bemoaned, Houston’s Astrodome is a landmark in search of a viable legacy – for all to share. Astrodome Conservancy is spearheading efforts to raise awareness of its dual mission: stewardship and partnerships in both preserving and redeveloping the aging iconinto something sustainable and truly accessible. Toward that — and as part of a fresh public engagement campaign by the organization, an inaugural virtual Race for the Dome invites participants to get active (literally) in supporting efforts to create a vibrant future for the long-languishing property.The shuttered asset is owned by Harris County and looms silently in tandem with NRG Stadium. Held April 2-11 Astrodome Conservancy’s upcoming event offers a spot on format for these socially distanced times in that registrants can independently run, walk, bike, hike, hop, scoot, skate and so forth a 5K race. That’s a distance equal to about eight laps around the 8thWonder of the World, organizers say. As presented in registration materials: “Your race. Your route. Your schedule. Your Pace.” Meanwhile, the first 200 registrants get special access to onsite laps on April 10 and the first 500 receive some snazzy dome sunglasses. A stewardship and advocacy organization founded in 2016, Astrodome Conservancy is aware of the landmark’s history but is focused on securing its future, said Beth Wiedower Jackson, executive director. As such, the conservancy raises private funds and seeks partnerships to support efforts to move the county closer toward “a viable, sustainable and more accessible” use for the Dome. The property was designated a Texas State Antiquities Landmark by the Texas Historical Commission in 2017 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Structurally sound, it’s not going anywhere, Jackson said. Its next generation, however, remains a progression of ideas, due diligence — and funding. The conservancy has raised $1.5 million to date to support its mission of awareness and economic redevelopment via innovative partnerships. Creative programming – such as a virtual race — is part of that package. Thinking Outside the Dome While a partnership between public and private sectors has netted successful development and redevelopment of civic and cultural assets for the City of Houston, such as Discovery Green, the approach is new idea for county entities to navigate, Jackson said. Another hybrid example — on a grander scale — is a network of underutilized infrastructure transformed into new urban spaces, such as the Hemisfair’s redeveloped 40-acre campus in San Antonio and Park Avenue Armory’s repurposing as a cultural hub in New York City. Times Changed and Still Changing Architects Hermon Lloyd & W.B. Morgan and Wilson plus local firm Morris, Crain & Anderson designed the concrete and columned Astrodome during Houston’s Space Age civic mojo. It was go-go years brash. It was a mid-century bunker. It was often copied. When it opened with a Houston Astros game on April 9, 1965, Houston’s domed stadium ranked as the first enclosed, air-conditioned sports arena, with nine acres under its roof. While the ceiling rises 18 stories inside, three levels sit below grade for a tidy scale above the sea of parking lot. During its glory days, the Astrodome was a home for Houston sports teams, championships and exhibition games; a venue for the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and equipment-laden Offshore Technology Conference; and echoing hall for the 1992 Republican National Convention. By 2002, when Reliant Stadium opened, Dome use had dwindled, though it did yeoman’s duty housing Hurricane Katrina evacuees. By 2009, it was shuttered. Now is an ideal time for working behind the scenes and taking a private funding approach to support possible project development, Jackson said. And, like the 5K race, to get things moving. https://realtynewsreport.com/racing-to-save-astrodome-a-run-at-redevelopment/

Howdy Hot Chicken is bringing its fiery fried chicken sandwiches, wraps, loaded fries and more to a new location at 3520 S. Shepherd Drive. The restaurant, whose ingredients are 100% Halal, opened a Sugar Land location in July. An opening date for the Montrose-area location has not been announced. www.howdyhotchicken.com

The North Houston area brewery Southern Yankee Beer Co. is developing a new concept called Southern Yankee Crafthouse at 1312 W. Alabama St., Houston. The restaurant will serve Southern Yankee brews and other drink options along with wood-fired dishes. According to social media posts, the former Good Dog location is being renovated to add more outdoor seating, including a covered patio. An opening date has not been announced. www.facebook.com/soyankcrafthouse

Homes Slice is back on for their Houston expansion after the Covid set back plans. Austin-based Home Slice Pizza confirmed plans in March that it will open its first Houston location at 3701 Travis St., in Midtown sometime this fall. The location will primarily serve to-go and delivery orders, including its signature walk-up window that stays open late, but it will also have a large patio space and a handful of indoor dine-in booths. www.homeslicepizza.com

Shoulder is getting better so I tried a short ride. First thing up is chasing a Bike Tag, I've been letting some very easy ones slip out of my hands cause the shoulder has been hurting. Bike Tag was near the Orange Show and knew where it was so I had to get it before someone else did.

Work continues.

Work has started, looks like sewer catch basins and concrete precast walls being unloaded.

Found some construction fencing around the Hilton School of Restaurant Management. DPR Construction won the contract. Medical School and the Law School.

Crane is hoisting up I-beams.

I put the article in the Midtown section.

Seems like all progress has stopped.

Montrose’s Development Activity Is Off The Charts, Attracting National And International Interest March 25, 2021 Christie Moffat, Bisnow Houston Montrose has a long-standing reputation for being a beacon for art, counterculture and the LGBTQ community in Houston. But like other Inner Loop neighborhoods, the area has begun to gentrify — and with that has come almost universal popularity. A central location, quirky retail offerings, vibrant nightlife and high-quality restaurants helmed by top chefs have all fueled that popularity, prompting a wide cast of developers to zero in on Montrose over the past five years. The subsequent development boom has turned the combined Neartown/River Oaks submarket into one of the busiest in the city, with 5M SF under construction as of March, according to CoStar data. Most of the mixed-use projects underway in Montrose have been in the works for years. Some are now reaching completion or will open later in 2021, while others were announced in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, a sure sign that interest in the neighborhood hasn’t waned. Developments underway in the area include DC Partners’ The Allen, a $500M project overlooking Buffalo Bayou Park that will include a 34-story tower with 99 luxury condominiums and a 170-room hotel, along with a lifestyle pavilion for retail and restaurants. There’s also Hanover Co. and Lionstone Investments’ Autry Park, a 14-acre mixed-use development at the corner of Allen Parkway and Shepherd Drive that is slated to be constructed in three phases. When built out, that project will include five towers, 1,450 residential units, 350K SF of Class-A office space and 100K SF of retail. Rounding out new development along Allen Parkway is GID’s Regent Square, a 24-acre project that consists of four construction phases. The first phase, the 290-unit multifamily complex The Sovereign, was completed in 2014. The second phase is under construction and includes another 590 apartments, as well as 50K SF of retail. Details on the third and fourth phases have not yet been released. Deeper in the neighborhood is Radom Capital’s aptly named Montrose Collective, situated at the busy corner of Westheimer Road and Montrose Boulevard. The first phase is a six-story, 197K SF building that contains both office and retail, while the second phase is the construction of an adjacent building for the Freed-Montrose Neighborhood Library. The party doesn’t end there. Skanska announced in August that it had purchased a 2.86-acre site at Westheimer Road and Montrose Boulevard, diagonal from Montrose Collective, for $27M. The details of that development are still in the process of being finalized, but Skanska Executive Vice President Matt Damborsky told Bisnow the property will definitely feature multifamily and retail. Other possibilities, such as a boutique hotel component, are also being considered. It’s a big list for roughly a square mile of the city, and it doesn’t even account for Weingarten’s The Driscoll at River Oaks, a 30-story multifamily complex with ground-floor retail that has only just reached completion, or the renovation of the boutique La Colombe d’Or Hotel and Hines’ additional 34-story residential tower at the site, which have also just finished. Even though multiple projects have now been completed, the flurry of ongoing development is so significant that the Neartown/River Oaks submarket still accounts for 10% of all construction activity in Houston, according to CoStar. The deluge of mixed-use projects in Montrose is producing a wealth of fresh Class-A retail space. That’s attracting major interest from chefs and restaurateurs from all around the U.S., and even abroad. “That area has been evolving for some time now. And it has really become kind of our food and culture capital of the city, I would say,” Transwestern Managing Director Crystal Allen said. Allen oversees Transwestern’s retail team in Houston, and she noted that in the past, choosing Montrose for a restaurant location was pioneering. Now, brokers are inclined to show the neighborhood as a prime spot for a flagship location. “When a tenant comes in to tour, if they're looking for a flagship, I think you can definitely consider [Montrose] a flagship market, where that would not have been the case probably even five years ago,” Allen said. “Now it's considered one of the hottest trade areas in the loop.” JLL Senior Associate Chris Burns, who handles retail leasing for Regent Square, said that strong interest in the development has translated into doing more tours for out-of-state retailers. He noted that in the last 30 days, he had done at least six site tours for interested parties from outside Texas, including overseas. “The fact that we've got three free-standing buildings with rooftop patios and massive expansive patios that overlook a green space — there's not really anything else of that caliber currently within the loop and within the Montrose area,” Burns said. Famed Houston chef Chris Shepherd announced earlier this week that his company, Underbelly Hospitality, will open a 5K SF restaurant in one of the three stand-alone restaurant buildings overlooking green space within Regent Square. Burns noted that the stand-alone restaurants will have both ground-floor and rooftop patios to allow patrons to also enjoy the proximity to the Buffalo Bayou. “I definitely feel like those are two of our strongest differentiators: the location, being where we are, so central again, along the Allen Parkway and the Buffalo Bayou. I definitely feel that the location of the project is a huge differentiating point,” Burns said. Allen said she has also noticed a major increase in out-of-state and international interest in Montrose, and she estimated that her team has done 25% more tours of retail spaces in the last few months than what they were doing prior to the pandemic. The section of Allen Parkway that runs from Shepherd Drive to Downtown Houston, one of the most picturesque stretches in Houston, falls within the Neartown/River Oaks submarket. Many millions of dollars have transformed the area into a lush bayou-side park with walking and bike trails, a large dog park, fountains and sculpture art. Projects on Allen Parkway have views of both the bayou and Downtown Houston. DC Partners Chief Operating Officer Acho Azuike said investment in Buffalo Bayou and the park system will help drive the success of all the mixed-use developments underway in the area, including his own project, The Allen. “The money that the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, the city and all the stakeholders involved spent on that is coming to fruition,” Azuike said. So much new development will contribute to the growing density of Montrose, which is generally considered a win for walkability and public transportation. But like other popular areas of Houston, the neighborhood has been struggling with vehicle traffic and adequate parking for residents and visitors. Burns and Azuike noted that Regent Square and The Allen will have structured parking elements to cater to residents as well as visitors. Other developments, like Montrose Collective, have also taken pains to create parking solutions after consulting the local community. Azuike said he believes demand for parking in Montrose could fall over time, as more people opt to walk to The Allen and other developments in the area or choose to use a ride-sharing service like Uber. Ideally, densification will result in fewer drivers in the area, leading to fewer parking allocation requirements for developers, he said. That line of thinking is what led Houston City Council in July 2019 to vote to expand the boundaries of the city’s market-based parking area, which previously only covered Downtown Houston. Now, new developments in Midtown, East Downtown and parts of Near Northside and Montrose will no longer be required to provide a set number of parking spaces. Though Montrose has always been more walkable than other neighborhoods within Houston’s urban sprawl, Damborsky said that when consulting with local stakeholders about Skanska’s still-unnamed Montrose development, improving walkability has continued to be one of the biggest requests. “We have heard from multiple stakeholders [about] the ability to make it more walkable and more pedestrian-friendly. And we agree, we think that's an important part of the project as well. So that will be an element that we certainly hope to achieve,” Damborsky said. There is little doubt among Houston’s CRE professionals that the momentum created by so many high-quality developments in the space of roughly a square mile is going to have a powerful effect on Montrose. Thousands of Class-A multifamily apartments and an influx of world-class restaurants, boutique hotels and other retail is expected to drive even more people — and profit — to the neighborhood. Gentrification typically follows such development, but Allen said that developers in the area are keenly aware of how crucial it is to maintain Montrose’s distinctive and slightly gritty personality. After all, it’s what has attracted people to the area for decades. “I think the developers that are going into this whole area, for the most part, understand that that's what gives it its charm,” Allen said. Azuike said that developers looking at Montrose, including his own firm, are aiming to bring projects that add value to the area and make people happy, but without the intention of gentrifying the area. “There's always a danger of it, but I think all the developers that are working on projects are considering that,” Azuike said. Contact Christie Moffat at christie.moffat@bisnow.com https://www.bisnow.com/houston/news/construction-development/montroses-development-activity-is-off-the-charts-attracting-national-and-international-interest-108262?utm_source=outbound_pub_4&utm_campaign=outbound_issue_47013&utm_content=outbound_link_2&utm_medium=email

From the tower crane operator across the street.

From the tower crane operator.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/LULAC-kicks-off-fundraising-to-restore-16056142.php#photo-20792148 While the Astrodome sits empty, help is coming to Houston's other 'National Treasure' Olivia P. Tallet, Staff writer March 26, 2021Updated: March 26, 2021 1:47 p.m. There are only two places in Houston declared “National Treasures” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. One is the Astrodome, regarded as “The Eighth Wonder of the World” when it opened in 1965. The other is a small, unpretentious stucco house near downtown that passersby hardly notice. The curious, however, would spot a plaque in front of the white, two-story building where the Texas Historical Commission marked its prominence. It is the home of the historic League of United Latin American Citizens’ Council 60 Clubhouse, the epicenter of many significant achievements of the Latino civil rights movement of the last century. Some historians have noted the clubhouse was where the actual Latino political power began to show. Unlike any other Hispanic organizations in contemporary history, the LULAC clubhouse attracted national leaders, including President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. Almost a decade since Council 60 stopped using the clubhouse due to unsafe conditions of the building structure, a renewed LULAC leadership is kicking off a $500,000 fundraising campaign to renovate the historic site and reactivate the clubhouse with a wider community and exhibition value. “We want people to know this LULAC Clubhouse that serves as an icon of the Mexican American civil rights movement,” said Ray Valdez, chair of C 60 Inc., a nonprofit established to restore the building. “We want to preserve it and renew its use so that people can come by and be proud of all that Latinos have accomplished.” The fundraising campaign includes the creation of a GoFundMe.com account called “LULAC Clubhouse.” But they plan to escalate it after finishing a significant phase of the construction project at the end of this month. Construction work — part of an emergency stabilization plan needed after the house was severely damaged during Hurricane Harvey — is being finished, Valdez said. This phase included structural, foundational and roof repairs, as well as the restoration of exterior walls. Some areas required special treatment to meet Department of the Interior guidelines for historic rehabilitation. One of them was the chimney, which was taken down brick by brick, cataloged and reassembled to the original specifications of the house as it was built in 1942. Now, the goal is to raise $500,000 for the next construction phase to finish the project. The campaign is a “tiered crowdfunding initiative to thoughtfully engage individuals across the city, state and country to contribute to the restoration of the historic” place, said Jesús Dávila, project director for the online capital campaign and member of the organization. The fundraising campaign will include online engagement initiatives and opportunities for people to donate by shopping through corporate charity programs such as Amazon Smile. Organizers said they hope to attract some large financial contributions. But the goal is to also gather thousands of smaller donations to reflect the spirit of community and advocacy that has marked the clubhouse since its inception, said Dávila, who is the founder of Landing Advisors, a management consulting firm. The building’s importance is associated with the relevance of Council 60 as one of the most consequential chapters of LULAC in Texas during the civil rights movement. But it also has its own merits from an historic point of view, said Gene Preuss, an associate professor of history at the University of Houston-Downtown and member of the C 60 Inc Board. LULAC is the oldest and, for periods, the largest active national Hispanic organization. It was founded on Feb. 17, 1929, in Corpus Christi, largely by World War I veterans disenfranchised by segregation and racial discrimination against Mexican Americans, said Cynthia Orozco, a historian at Eastern New Mexico University and author of several books on Mexican American history. The organization solidified by creating councils in neighborhoods across Texas and other states. Council 60, active since the mid-1930s, initiated numerous court cases against discrimination, said Preuss. One of the most notorious was Delgado v. Bastrop in 1948, “the first Texas case since the 1930s to rule against public school segregation of Mexican American students,” Preuss said. Other landmark litigation was Hernandez v. the State of Texas in 1954, the first case won by a Mexican American legal team in the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling said people of Mexican descent couldn’t be discriminated against in jury selections and created a precedent in striking down overall discrimination based on ethnicity and class. A year later, Council 60 board members bought the stucco house on Bagby Street, becoming the first time a LULAC council in the United States was able to own a building for its operations, Preuss said. It continues to be the only clubhouse owned by a chapter of the organization in the country, said Valdez. Besides working on the LULAC national platform on voters’ participation, justice equality, education and healthcare access for veterans, the clubhouse was the hub for the creation of significant programs. It was there where members organized the Little Schools of the 400, the first bilingual education program adopted by the state of Texas to prepare Spanish-speaking kids with language abilities before entering the school, Preuss said. It later became the basis for a larger state-sponsored program in Texas and for President Johnson’s Head Start project for disadvantaged children, according to Oxford Academic’s Journal of American History. The council also created the SER Jobs program, still active with a large platform in the Gulf Coast that trains and places around 4,000 job seekers per year from low-income backgrounds, according to its website. LULAC members said restoring the clubhouse is part of a wider effort to promote the barely known history of the Latino civil rights movement arising from Texas. Most of what is known or taught in schools nationwide is related to farm workers’ struggles in California. During the last decade, people like David Contreras, the LULAC Texas State Historian, have researched and found numerous valuable documents about the organization scattered in several archives. He put together a website with many previously unpublished documents and videos related to the JFK visit to the annual LULAC gala hosted by Council 60 at the Rice Hotel in Houston the night before he was assassinated in Dallas. He visited with his wife, Jackie Kennedy, who spoke to the party in fluent Spanish, as well as then Vice President Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson. The first floor of the clubhouse will have the renovated bar where LULAC members used to strategize political moves and meet with influential visitors over a drink. “We will not sell alcohol these days, of course,” said Valdez. But they plan to offer beverages and sandwiches to keep the community spirit flowing. Rooms on the second floor will be open for use by other organizations that share similar community interests in the city. Dávila thinks that now with the COVID pandemic beginning to recede, it’s a good time to launch an effort to collect small donations with a common purpose. “It’s been a full year where we have been separated and broken apart,” said Dávila. “In contrast and maybe in defiance of this reality, it’s a powerful metaphor to rebuild a historic place of community through collective generosity.” olivia.tallet@chron.com

Looks like this is going to be Arch•Con's HeadQuarters in Houston.

I got my first shot of Moderna at Delmar Stadium on Mar. 18th, Have to wait till April 15th for the second.