mattyt36

I'm interested--do CRE professionals really believe this? I mean the whole idea of (and entirely unironically, mind you) using Exxon's announcement as potential fodder for the Chevron skyscraper when Exxon just returned half a million square feet in The Woodlands in October? I mean, c'mon. It's not like they woke up last week and were all, "Hey, now that I think about it, let's move the HQ to Houston." Needless to say, I don't see the logic. Sure it'll help the market, but there's plenty of supply, and I don't see any sort of consensus view that this price increase is sustainable and has led to any increase (yet) in E&P spending. Of course I'm not in either industry so what do I know?

The logic here . . . No one is saying TxDOT is financing a park or even "cares about it" to begin with. I think you're giving them too much credit if you even think they are presenting it as a way to "sell the highway project." They're doing exactly what they are chartered and legally allowed to do with the funding sources they have. More than likely they included those alternatives for the benefit of the local governmental agencies who are working towards funding them. Again, I'm not sure why this is any sort of "surprise" or any indication of ill intent or "shady dealings" on behalf of TxDOT. TxDOT has absolutely nothing to do with the cap park other than building the structure. Even if they wanted to fund it, I'm not sure they legally could. End of story. There's no there there. There's no grand conspiracy. It is what it is, people. What I am interested in is why on earth so many people think that and where it originated from. That story had to come from somewhere, however nonsensical that it is.

Well that's certainly material and changes everything. Thanks. (Incidentally, though, it's not a paywall, at least not for me . . . it's a free registration.) It's labeled here as a pending "Intersection Campus." https://investor.are.com/files/doc_presentation/2022/01/4Q21-Release-only.pdf

Well that second quote is much more promising than the first (which I guess came from Alexandria Chairman Joel Marcus On Emerging Cities, Megacampuses And 'Hucksters' (bisnow.com)). If their market outlook did change between summer 2021 and now, well the TMC must be doing something right.

Misunderstandings certainly do suck. Thanks for setting the record straight. From my point of view, I guess I just saw "hilarious," which then wasn't "hilarious," but rather "interesting" (but I guess it's "hilarious" again? you know, a "gag no less") and was confused. Adding to my confusion, I guess, was the additional language about "both sides" and "pearl clutching" and "buying votes" and "people not caring about the guy until now," but maybe the humor was over my head. I guess I also found it confusing that there was plenty of opportunity to say, "WHOA man, boy did that come out wrong . . . my bad," and it didn't come out until . . . now, I guess? (Or maybe some would note, as a matter of fact, that that still hasn't been explicitly said, but I dunno . . . maybe I lost it in the whole "I didn't do anything wrong"/"none of this is controversial"/"I come from family tragedy"/not sure how to describe (maybe victim complex?)-type thing. I mean, not the type of thing I say when joking, but, again, maybe it was over my head. Needless to say, it was all a bit distracting . . . but I shall emulate your good example and try harder next time.) Family tragedy is also always bad. I've been pretty lucky in that department but I still hope that if, say, a family member died from alcoholism my first instinct wouldn't be to erect a statue of Adolphus Busch to commemorate the contributions of the brewing industry across from their tombstone. Even as a "gag" or "gallows humor" (no less). Because I think that'd be kind of weird. But maybe it's a Salt Lake City kind of thing? I always heard it was a "hilarious" place.

Erm, thanks for the permission, boss, much appreciated!

Well somewhat germane to this sidetrack, the Kinder Institute announced yesterday a $20 million grant to fund a nonprofit news organization in Houston. Houston deserves a news ecosystem as big and bold as it is | The Kinder Institute for Urban Research (rice.edu)

Hey, a lesser man would've just said, "Whoa, sorry there, maybe that was a poor choice of words for an obviously sensitive issue" and "I can see how entirely reasonable people might find my "hilarious" idea to memorialize someone while presenting "both sides" to be entirely offensive. In fact, maybe members of the HPD and their families maybe wouldn't find it "hilarious" to build a monument to police violence adjacent to the HPD Memorial for the sake of "presenting both sides." In fact, maybe some of those families would say, "Wow, this is supposed to memorialize those police officers who were killed in duty and has nothing to do with police violence . . . in fact, by connecting the two, wouldn't you risk denigrating their memory, which is what memorials are all about?" But you, hey, you man--you take a step back, reflect, dig in your heels, say "what I said isn't even controversial" (when it has already clearly proven itself to be in this thread) and prove yourself to be even more cynical than even I by saying, at the end of the day it all about "buy[ing] votes" cuz voters who are concerned about police brutality obviously constitute some big block of swing voters. Well, I see you, buddy! You do you while we "clutch our pearls." Maybe you have a future in rewriting textbooks . . .we obviously have a lot to learn.

Nope, you said it would be “kind of hilarious” and that “both sides should be presented.” Cuz that’s the point of memorials, of course.

I guess Harris Health should just let the bodies pile up on the grass outside the ER instead of being “corrupt” and treating them as required by law. Even Ed Emmett frequently decried the Perry and Abbott administrations as outright fools for not accepting the additional federal funding under the ACA all in support of the noble goal of “sticking it to the libs.”

The Chicago MSA has over 30. I think back in the day people touted Houston as number 2 behind NYC due to HQs within city limits but obviously that doesn’t make much sense (and HPE and Exxon wouldn’t count).

Yeah, "kind of hilarious" is exactly how I would describe that. What a fine memorial, well done!

I wasn't paying too much attention to this race, but, after seeing this today, it's clear how far the Harris County GOP has fallen with this total nutter (opinion!) being endorsed by Mattress Mack. (There are other primary opponents to both this woman on the GOP side and Hidalgo on the Democratic side, but I must assume this is the "establishment" choice considering Mack is fully behind.) 'Mattress Mack' endorses Lina Hidalgo's GOP opponent for Harris County judge (houstonchronicle.com) Needless to say, she's full of positivity and exudes rationality, even-temperedness, and the most genuine of good intentions. It definitely sounds as if she has a good handle on reality. From her website, this totally "with it" Heights resident/energy finance executive/criminal justice expert (cuz . . . of course those go together) states: One of the primary motivations behind my decision to run for Harris County Judge was the state of utter lawlessness that continues to grip our entire county. Whether strolling along the bayou, picking up groceries or even attending an Astros game, residents are now rolling the dice on whether they will encounter a violent, repeat offender. While it is clear that our residents are not safe, we have now reached such a state of crisis that our law enforcement are being routinely murdered by violent, repeat offenders. (I must say when I first saw her photo, I was reminded of Clarence Thomas's wife Ginni, as they give off an equally, er, mannish vibe. Maybe someone can introduce the two so they can have a productive outlet for all this anger. I guess that's better than Mattress Mack looking like a 90-year-old Casper the Ghost.) Ed Emmett is one of two Republicans I have voted for in my life as he was a sensible and non-ideological administrator. (His "sour grapes" comments since then have changed my opinion.) However, I have been mostly pleasantly surprised by Lina Hidalgo. Recently though, she has "lost the plot" politically, thereby giving the GOP has a real chance to recapture the seat due to the idiotic, "lose-lose" political posturing around the NHHIP and, as of last week, even giving lip service to canceling the Rodeo if COVID cases don't fall. The GOP and local business community could focus its efforts on getting someone like Ed to run, but I guess that ship has sailed. OH WELL . . .

No, when newspapers with lower circulation 250 miles up the road are producing quality journalism today, it's like comparing HEB with a U-TOTEM. And here is where I completely embarrass myself by saying I had no idea there were 2 sites and I'm a paying subscriber. Why when I'm logged in do I not get redirected there? It's not like there's a dallasnews.com and a dallasmorningnews.com (DaMN.com?) site, or a nytimes.com and a newyorktimes.com. I use chron.com for vacation hold, etc. Another fine Hearst innovation, I see.

Yeah, well, if an announcement like that is made, one would expect the local newspaper of record to at least put a blurb out there saying "Exxon announced HQ move, more to come" (HBJ had absolutely no problem in this regard) but they can't even seem to do that. Took at least an hour just to put a banner up linking to someone else's story. But their homepage has plenty of links from months ago, so color me not surprised. Compare with the Dallas Morning News or any other major city newspaper not owned by Hearst (hell, the Star-Telegram is light years ahead). So, I respectfully disagree. I think it says they are a second-rate news organization.

Wow, what does it say when the Chronicle doesn’t even write an article on this and instead outsources to Bloomberg? https://www.chron.com/business/article/Exxon-Houston-headquarter-merger-oil-industry-16819683.php

I unearthed it Dated June 1990 "This confidential memorandum is being furnished in connection with the proposed formation of a partnership between The Woodlands Corporation and a potential investor that will acquire the Block 142 site in Houston, Texas." Called "Houston Tower" and renderings are of the Jahn design.

One can only hope . . .

FINALLY HAPPENING Long time coming. Exxon will move its headquarters to the Houston area by 2023 – Houston Public Media

For those having issues with the above link, you can try this Cite 6 | Rice Design Alliance (Note blurb about "Texpresso" high speed rail from Houston to Dallas.) I have a prospectus on the Bank of the Southwest Tower with the Jahn Design from The Woodlands Corp (I guess they were a potential developer . . . a Google search says they bid $24 million for the lot in the early 1980s) . . . I'm happy to scan it but have no idea how to post it on here.

It's my understanding that the development axis used to be more eastward (and south), with Buffalo Bayou, for example, having regular excursion cruises from downtown back in the day. So maybe the real question is what caused that to change . . . I don't know if it is more related to the new developments to the west or all the Ship Channel/petrochemical development to the east. @samagon thank you for the (indirect) acknowledgment of the critical importance of housing and land prices in location decisions

Reminds me of The Hamilton. (Isn’t it essentially the same idea?)

No, it's the definition of low land prices and very few geographical limitations. The Houston MSA has added essentially 100K+ new residents NET every year since 2000. I don't have a number for how this translates into households (and a large portion are children), but where, exactly, do you expect these people would have gone if the Katy Freeway weren't expanded? If you're a middle-class family with everyday budget constraints and a strong preference to locate near good schools, you have to understand that forcing them to live in a house with, say, a $200K budget between the Loop and the Beltway, where the housing stock is generally nothing to write home about because most of it was built during the last great population boom, is an absolute nonstarter--it's simply not going to happen. You are talking about options that are fantasies. And if the Katy Freeway weren't expanded it's not going to stop residential development. What it would do is to make the existing peripheral satellites (The Woodlands, Sugar Land, etc) larger and create new ones altogether and decrease the attractiveness of the Inner Loop commercial market. In other words, MORE SPRAWL. Or maybe you just want the region to get smaller. Perfectly valid, but I don't know of many people who would opt to live in a metro area with declining economic activity. There are plenty of Rust Belt examples out there.

And, for the record, I hate the Katy Freeway but that’s more about exiting the parking lots of the many retail centers around Mem City on to the feeder, a true death-defying experience. Almost as bad as the insult to us Inner Loopers on merging what seems 5 lanes to get to Ikea as a punishment for exiting the Loop.

What’s the prescription, doc?