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wilcal

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Everything posted by wilcal

  1. wilcal
    Almost all of the plan is contingent upon matching federal funds. If those don't materialize they'll have to change it on that basis alone. See: the last referendum and the university line.
  2. wilcal
    I asked a Metro PR person about how much latitude they have in deciding what to do with the bond authority... and it sounded like a lot. If they wanted to change the plan to include university line as light rail then I'm pretty sure they still can.
  3. wilcal
    I signed up for a free Crowdstreet account and there is lots more info. Looks like the site is actually the current site of City Cathedral Church. A 166 unit, 651 bed Class A luxury student housing 16-story, high-rise development project in Houston, Texas adjacent to the University of Houston. The Property is a series of tracts totaling approximately 1.31 acres located at 3701 Elgin in Houston, TX, approximately 100 feet from the UH. The subject Property Site is located approximately 100 feet North of the UH Campus across Elgin St. from campus. The Property is located in a traditional student housing area, which benefits from significant student traffic due to its premium location. The Site is a block away from the city lightrail and a block away from the campus shuttle, offering students multiple convenient transportation options. The University is landlocked on the east and the school has agreed with Texas Southern University not to extend west past Scott St, which currently borders the University on the west, leaving the north and the south end of campus as the only possible areas of expansion. With the south end of the campus slated for a medical school development site, the north end of campus is where future university development will occur. Current developments on the north end of campus include a new Arts District development, Law Center and Hofheinz Center renovation. University development activity on the north end of campus will further drive student housing demand in the immediate area. Total expected price is $79.4 million and they want to sell it for 107.5 million in year 4 with 95% occupancy. Closing on the Land: Guefen Development has the necessary equity to close on the land. They plan to do so on Dec. 2, 2019. They are giving CrowdStreet investors the opportunity to backfill additional equity up to $15,002,386. Please note, this will not change the Sponsor co-investment. The new offers due date is Dec. 16, 2019.
  4. wilcal
    I'll bet the lines in the grass are for the layout of the site. Anyone got a drone that they want to send up? Looking at a zoomed in version of them holding the model, it looks like a BUNCH of trees. Like 50-70? And 2 or 3 structures. Largest one along the western edge and two smaller ones along the eastern edge.
  5. wilcal
    I was specifically using the areas that Texasota said that I quoted them on in my post.
  6. wilcal
    Sorry, I really wasn't trying to be an angry internet guy or anything. I like fleshing out ideas like this. It really does make logical sense to increase car throughput, but not in a community-sense to me.
  7. wilcal
    For fun, I drew an area with about the same area as Philly for comparison. These are some of the densest areas and Houston and there's probably what, maybe 80k people that live in that box? As low as 50k?
  8. wilcal
    The book is really quite good! I also highly recommend it. He has a fairly active Twitter account, so if you ever have any questions there's a decent shot that he'll answer. Just looked up Manhattan. 3.1 mil workers:1.6 mil residents. And of course they have significant issues with transit with 1.5 million people commuting into Manhattan every day. I also found this list, which takes some liberties, but finds how many people live in downtowns versus the city and metro populations. No surprise, Houston is one of the lowest in the country of cities with a metro population > 1 million https://iamemenhiser.com/2017/01/08/downtown-residential-population-by-city/ If we were to by like: Chicago 5% - Houston needs 115,000 Seattle 10% - 230,000 Philly 11% - 253,000 Miami 18% - 414,000 Manhattan 50% - 1.15 million This somewhat presents a problem with downtown Houston only having just over 100,000 jobs. Manhattan is 22.82 mi^2, so to match number of residents/jobs per area you would need 121k population and 231k jobs. Twice as many jobs is reasonable. 10X as many population would be rough. SkyHouse has 336 units. The Marlowe only has 100. Aris Market Square has 274. The Rice 312. You would need a LOT of buildings. Like 10 times as many for each existing and planned high rise. Not sure that will be feasible in our lifetimes.
  9. wilcal
    I can't imagine HCC being on board with this, and certainly not the townhome owners in that area, which have been easily able to flex their muscles having themselves excised from market based parking and at least temporarily preventing the Austin St bikeway from being put in. I also don't think that Almeda needs slightly faster connectivity to downtown to continue to grow. Not all roads need to lead to downtown.
  10. wilcal
    'Van Life' + automated parking garage + AirBNB = .....??
  11. wilcal
    Yeah, got bad news on that front. H-GAC basically laughed in their face. They applied last year and the project got ranked 91st http://www.h-gac.com/2018-call-for-projects/documents/2018-call-for-project-tpc-rankings.pdf Only the top 34 were funded, and it would only have been the top 15ish but TxDOT pulled their $175 million hempstead highway project on CoH request because it looks like HSR station is going to actually happen. They could apply again the next time H-GAC has an open call for projects, so that could be awhile.
  12. wilcal
    HOUStreets is run by my btw Thanks for the follow. I would have posted the update here, but couldn't find the thread. A few interesting additional notes: Design work planned through 1q22, so 3ish years of construction for phase 1. That's pretty rough. So annoying to think that we won't see a completed phase I until 2025. Also, they specifically mention integration with the planned BRT. Metronext mentioned a BRT stop at Shepherd @ I-10, so will be interesting to see what they come up with. I still have no idea how they're gonna fund phase II of the plan I wish they had started with Phase II to be honest because that would have connected the White Oak Trail to the shopping center.
  13. wilcal
    Daaaaaaamn. Alright, I guess this is happening again. Excited to see this one go up. Kind of wish there was some a ground floor coffee shop or tiny takeaway restaurant planned.
  14. wilcal
    Only partially funded. Grant was for $25 million and construction costs are estimated at $65-$70 😕
  15. wilcal
    That is less clear since it is funded separately from Metro Next. If I had to guess, I'm going to say not separated. I've been beating this drum pretty hard. Nobody likes transfers and nobody would be backtracking, so why the hell not? It would provide a one transfer solution from IAH as well. Someone (on here?) was saying that the existing light rail stations in downtown could actually be integrated as BRT stops. It would be great if the Uptown BRT routing was Westpark -> Gallera -> NWTC -> the semi-random planned stop at Shepherd @ I-10 -> Preston LRT station -> Convention District LRT station and return. Do a similar thing with the IAH BRT line and have it stop at Preson/Convention as well. Edit: not sure what to do when high-speed rail launches, but it's pretty close to NWTC
  16. wilcal
    I was at a public meeting with a senior Metro comms person last Wed and they said that they hadn't actually decided yet and that was the next step. Community involvement would help with priority. I asked same rep about electric buses. They said that the tech wasn't there for the distances they cover while also providing the level of A/C that they would need. They are becoming a little more prevalent outside of China though. Santiago just took a bunch of them. I was told by Metro that BRT would utilize same lanes as two-way HOV, at least on 45 to get to IAH. 1000% They made it sound like plans are very very very flexible going forward.
  17. wilcal
    For sure, but they won't even tell me that, you know? Not to mention, I'm interested in the development timeline as a whole and what changes may be in store and that's rather opaque as well.
  18. wilcal
    It's very difficult to get spots in one of the CoH softball leagues, and I would like a heads up if they are just going to spring it on us if softball at Memorial will be cancelled for however long so I can have alternatives either within the CoH leagues or one of the third party leagues. There are going to be dozens of teams looking for a new home even if only 2 fields are closed temporarily.
  19. wilcal
    The TLDR is that there are four larger softball/kickball fields: 2-5 4/5 are going away. They were going to combine 2-5 together into circular complex. Existing: Master plan: You can see how the entry road was going to completely change. Basically, I was asking if we were going to be completely field-less at some point while construction took place, but then they told me that 2 and 3 wouldn't be moving at all anymore. So who knows.
  20. wilcal
    Would definitely be slower as BRT on I-10 is planned to run on elevated two-way HOV, with one stop at Shepherd. Also, I've definitely been a little frustrated with the Memorial Park people. They've changed the plans to replace all of the softball fields and will be keeping 2/3 in place now. Minor to the plan as a whole, but still, frustrating!
  21. wilcal
    If anyone wanted to go for the opening, you can get some swag. Kind of interested, so might walk over.
  22. wilcal
    Just noticed that they were originally planning to extend the cycle track onto Franklin and then wrap around to Congress, but that's been dropped. I emailed the Downtown District planner to see what happened. Edit: heard back already! TLDR: Franklin bridge was hard to retrofit and they had to cut back due to budgetary reasons. There's still relatively decent access to Buffalo Bayou, so that's not a huge deal.
  23. wilcal
    September board meeting packet was put up. Only real new information is timeline and Phase breakdown of Bagby street construction: http://www.downtowntirz.com/downtownhouston/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/190919_Bagby-Street_Stakeholder-Advisory-Committee_Presentation.pdf Text is kind of small. Blue is 1Q20-2Q20. Green is 3Q20-4Q20. Purple is 1Q21-2Q21. Orange is 3Q21-4Q21. There is some utility work in the southern half (left side of this pic) Bagby that will be completed in 2020.
  24. wilcal
    It talks about how the TIRZ may fund part of the garage to have 100 spaces open to the public. I honestly wish that they would just charge for parking for all of it. Maybe exempt the 25 library parking spots.
  25. wilcal
    Wait, 600 parking spaces?!?!? That seems crazy excessive. Evidently 2 floors underground and 5 floors above.
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