wilcal

14 minutes ago, phillip_white said:

This works great for Megabus. They rent a lot across from the Metro downtown bus terminal.

And FlixBus, who know owns Greyhound, does the same. 

Although I thought I read Megabus was moving?

That would make sense because I doubt that they are planning on allowing too many streets to cross over the BRT line. With no rail set in the ground, easy/safe for peds and cyclists to cross.

2 hours ago, hindesky said:

Buildings like this usually get torn down.

It is in the Houston Heights South Historic District. Probably makes the difference!

2 hours ago, samagon said:

great idea on the sidewalk part, although the fee needs to be set to an average price for pouring a sidewalk. right now $12psf is the high end of a sidewalk install psf, (at least according to top results from Google), but at some point the cost is going to go up, and it'll be cheaper to pay than to put in a sidewalk, which may counter the intended purpose.

as for the other mention in that article, looks like Ashby highrise haters have made density more difficult city wide. good job for them. I hope the developer builds as large as he possibly can and makes it 100% low income housing.

From what I've heard, third party contractors in Houston are a bit above the $12/price, but it is somewhat in line with what developers pay before concrete prices spiked before COVID. 

They do still have to get approval and meet criteria to pay the $12/sf fee, so it isn't completely discretionary on their part. Currently the city is approving a few hundred sidewalk modifications per year that haven't been paying anything more than the $1000ish application fee.

1 hour ago, Houston19514 said:

The $12 psf fee is the current fee.  The amount of the Fee in Lieu of Sidewalk Construction will be established based on the estimated material and labor cost of the sidewalk projects constructed by the City on an annual basis.

Exactly, they can modify it. Time will tell home much they'll be able to do, though.

https://7371071c.flowpaper.com/FW230102DIGITAL/#page=12

Nosh Gosh B'Gosh!

I think I realized why I'm extra excited about this project. Some food delivery options that can be delivered in 20 minutes or less. 

I'm not normally bullish on food halls, but existing unused warehouse space in a gentrifying area is good.

7 hours ago, IntheKnowHouston said:

 

Was trying to wrap my head around where that largest structure is going to be, and it is on the site of this property: 

Just an incredibly exciting project :)

Yep, really disappointed that there is no real update.

I'm considering trying to message the franchise owner on LinkedIn. He's local and like 30 years old (father owns/has owned several franchises in town).

32 minutes ago, CREguy13 said:

Your second point is the right take imo.  There's a really strong push on the elevated park, which would make everything within a few blocks of Pierce much more valuable immediately if plans become public.  I'm certainly in the camp of retaining the structure. The opportunities to integrate buildings at the park level whether it be office, MF, Condo, or hotel would be a game changer - in addition to activating the ground level below.

Central Houston badly wants this to happen.  Given the tremendous amount of wealth being made in this city right now (and no other big projects on the docket) they should be able to get private individual/corporate dollars secured for both this and the Eado Capped park... or at least that's the hope. Fingers crossed!

Of course, the city doesn't have anywhere near enough money to develop the cap parks or the elevated park.

You have to wonder where the city's priorities lay if there is only $XX millions.

My gut absolutely no inside info says that the elevated park would be last on the list. 

This is years-old memory, but it was my remembrance that the city would be swapping some of the land that they own in the East End for land under the Pierce Elevated, so there is an opportunity for the city to lease/sell some of that land to fund an elevated park. Of course, the Highline is the parallel, which has direct connections to the trail from adjacent buildings. 

36 minutes ago, IntheKnowHouston said:

I'm wondering why Houston Chronicle has yet to report on the property changings hands last month and the recent sales listing? 

I was tweeting about the Greyhound/McDonald's closings the other day and one of the HBJ writers liked my tweet, so I'm hoping for some proper reporting! Still have a gut feeling that the McD property is getting rebuilt. 

Was reading a twitter discussion and evidently when Greyhound was sold to Flixbus, the sale did not include the terminals.

FirstGroup PLC have sold off all but two of the stations in the US and is using the cash for stock buybacks.

https://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/news/AN_1671206718863524900/firstgroup-to-launch-share-buyback-amid-greyhound-us-property-sale.aspx

At least now the food truck that always blocks the sidewalk won't be there anymore.

53 minutes ago, IntheKnowHouston said:

Do you think something will happen here? Because of the location and the adjoining lot belonging to Metro, I was kind of leaning towards this being an investment property. It's possible some kind of industrial business could lease the space. 

The new owner is also a co-owner of Alice Blue, a restaurant in the Heights. However, I don't see this being an eatery or a bar.

This is the benefit of market-based parking area, it could literally be anything. 

I do think some type of commercial space makes sense. Too small for a nightclub .

6 minutes ago, DotCom said:

Teal, which provides a cloud-based system for delivering hot water to buildings without water heaters.

I wonder how they get it to rain hot water 🤔

I always like it when InTheKnowHouston posts in my local forum section. It means things are happening!

23 hours ago, dart330 said:

Was really surprised to hear there is enough ROW to fix & straighten the Dumble intersection so it doesn't require separate traffic light cycles.

Looks like a big chunk of the pawn shop's parking lot is actually ROW:

Using the painted line for westbound Telephone traffic at the light, it is about this much: 

Definitely looks like enough for a realignment!

Either the city or county got a big federal grant to work on Telephone heading south, so I guess this will be an extension of this. 

That proposed cross-section looks amazing. I've been skipping Telephone unless traffic is completely dead when I'm on my bike and coming from the protected lane on Lawndale.

Very exciting about the restaurant project!

Street to Kitchen Thai has the best thai food I've ever had in Houston, but not set up as a "casual" restaurant like many others. I was actually thinking that it would have been nice for them to move to a bigger space like this.

23 hours ago, Ross said:

I wonder when the North/South streets on either side of this block changed names from St. Bernard and St Stephen to Cullen and Oakhurst

 

They could have never really been called them in the first place. As in, they could have changed before anything was built. 

It is pretty common for street names to have changed from their original platted name in Houston. 

On 12/19/2022 at 2:21 PM, Andrew Ewert said:

Hahaha the caboose is so random

The original subdivision name for this parcel is actually Houston City Street Railway Sec 1.

Obligatory FU to Union Pacific. 

23 hours ago, Texasota said:

why exactly bother passing something like the walkable places ordinance and then just let it sit on a shelf for two years? 

Navigation (along with Westheimer and Washington) should have been the center of a "walkable place" within a year.

I asked this question directly about Lower Westheimer, and the answer received was basically that there is a very large amount of man hours required to implement WP per corridor. Like 3-5,000, and the staff just isn't available. The community (well, adjoining property owners) can "force" the issue, but no one has yet. 

Navigation corridor is supposedly getting a health redesign, though. Lots of ROW for better pedestrian options. 

On 12/24/2022 at 10:49 AM, iah77 said:

I don't think it's that simple, I bet since the street is rather wide there is a good amount of "minimum setback" and the fact that is is next to an intersection and the metro rail made the city probably not want 5 separate driveways so close to the corner but I'm not totally sure. I would have put the driveway in the back of the homes but anyways. 

Yeah, I agree, but it may have been annoying for homeowners to only be able to enter the property from one-way side of Harrisburg and it is particularly awkward right here.

On 12/24/2022 at 11:07 AM, Ross said:

The City probably wouldn't allow a shared driveway entrance on Harrisburg, so the entrance is on Sampson. From the drawing, the curb cut for the entrance appears to be in the middle of the driveway, but I could be wrong.

The city does mandate shared driveways (or a private 28'+ drive) on major thoroughfares and along Transit Oriented Development corridors. Both of these blockfaces fall under the TOD ordinance . The shared driveway is likely along Sampson so that they can do 5 lots wide instead of 4 and because the entrance to the shared driveway needs to be 60' (I think that's the number) away from the intersection of Harrisburg and Sampson. 

1 hour ago, IntheKnowHouston said:

The parcels at 302 Tuam and 310 Tuam changed hands earlier this month. 

An entity tied to Harry's restaurant (318 Tuam St) purchased both properties.
 

I swear if this ends up being surface parking. Seems like Harry's has massive waits right now at brunch without it. 

I feel like the word "Little" is giving me a stroke at this point. Maybe I just haven't had coffee yet.

Why would they make it 'Little's'?

I mean, do whatever you want.. but I don't get it.

Either way, looking forward to going there.