dml423

Wow, pretty harsh Luminare. Yes it's only phase 1 so far, but this has helped bring a little bit of notoriety to the small and often overlooked city of Stafford. The restaurants are usually packed. They are currently doing some more work on some parts closer to the 59 feeder road for some new buildings. It's not the urban development we all on this site want, but a nice addition to the city of Stafford and the other phases were always the parts that were supposed to be more urban, not this phase.

I've also heard rumors that Torchy's is considering putting in a shop here in one of the other phases (yes in addition to the one already in Sugarland by the Whole Foods).

Buddy of mine is a landscape architect for this project and mentioned that they have not been able to garner the demand they were hoping for the office aspect of this project and that is why the building hasn't been worked on yet. They are trying to see if they need to change their plans on how to renovate the building.

Few more pictures from The Grid. Sorry they are not the best quality. I had to make them really small and reduce their quality to be able to post them here.

Few Pictures of the completed section of The Grid

6 hours ago, texas911 said:

Any updates on this project?

I actually live in Stafford so I'll try and give more updates on this development. (eye test, I don't have an inside source unfortunately). So far only Verizon and Chipotle have opened up on  airport/59 feeder. No signs for who might take up the available store fronts by Verizon and Chipotle. The streets for the development have been coming along and the very large oak trees have fences around them to preserve them for the development which I am very happy about. So most of the progress so far is roads, sewage etc,

I'll try and get some pics next time I am driving by.

I actually moved to Stafford earlier this year and drive by here on my way to/from work. Frames are going up on 2 separate structures close to airport. They have been up for a few weeks. If I am driving by there this weekend, I will try and grab a couple of pictures. 

I was wondering what eventually would go there. I used to live in Cottage grove and would always drive by it in the mornings when I would go to work. They used to have a small billboard that said some sandwich shop was coming soon. I guess they found a higher bidder.

7 hours ago, houstontexasjack said:

I recall reading that HEB's most profitable stores are those in the Inner Loop. Anecdotally, the Montrose Market is always packed to the gills, so I could see the desire for another store as a reliever.  One thing I'm curious about is the catchment areas for these stores. It seems that, were HEB to move forward on this site, Shepherd Plaza, and MacGregor at 288, the stores would start to cannibalize one another. 

The Bunker Hill HEB is by far the most profitable store HEB has in its' portfolio*. I went to the Montrose one regularly when I lived in Midtown and now live by the bunker hill one and Bunker Hill is far busier. They even have cops on Sundays directing traffic there. It probably helps the montrose store that it has the buffalo speedway location near by. 

*Source is my friend who works for HEB's Houston offices.

Am I the only one that gets disappointed in the suburban design of stuff around Houston? All these cool shopping areas that they build now, ROD, City Centre, this project, are all great but have literally no interaction with the city. It is a place people drive into and out of. it is literally the modern day mall, just that developers have figured out how to skimp on having to pay for A/C. It doesn't invite people to walk to from the outside, only encourages you to walk within the project after you have parked in a 4-6 story garage. I understand it for projects farther out like City centre, but this location? literally not even a mile out from the epicenter of the CBD?

I just came back from Portland and Seattle and was shocked by how the developments there actually encourage pedestrian activity and how much better designed those cities are. Portland which is around 1/3 of the size of Houston feels so much more urban and better developed. And seattle even more so. I am Houston born and bred and love the city, but you can see the difference that city planning and regulations make once you visit other cities.

I didn't mean to get off topic too much, so I digress. While the designs of the building look cool and I am a fan, the actual layout of these developments leave a lot to wish for. I just want developments to take a more urban approach.

I actually meant to put this here a while ago bc it was discussed at the church in January. They are currently at 1010 Lamar (just rent the space) on Sundays. I think this will be a great add for that area of downtown!

5 hours ago, Nate99 said:

What kinds of large square footage retail is looking for space these days?  Maybe they could give Dick's Sporting Goods a sweetheart deal for the BAM space, they just added a bunch of Houston area locations.  The BCBG had big bright harbinger-of-store-closure "EVERYTHING MARKED DOWN!" signs last time I walked by.

Say no to Dicks. Why would you give it to the competition when Academy's headquarters are located in the Houston metro (Katy)? Support local.

the building looks awesome.

Whats up with these little patches of grass on the corners? what's the point? Why not just pave over them?

14 minutes ago, Purdueenginerd said:

Cottage Grove is going to need to upgrade its streets at some point. Developments like this I welcome, but they serve to add more parking issues within the neighborhood. 

I used to live in Cottage Grove and parking was definitely an issue, especially since I lived in one of the town homes with a shared driveway. The other thing they need to work on, is to cover up the ditches on the side of the road (not just this neighborhood but others in houston as well). I have seen so many people fall into them while driving. 

45 minutes ago, Triton said:

 

Because most of these designs are coming from Gensler Ziegler Cooper.

This looks very similar to the catalyst.

And that price is probably before any concessions. I would imagine the price would be reduced by a couple hundred dollars.

6 hours ago, CrockpotandGravel said:

From Houston Chronicle:

Weitzman Group to lease retail space in East End's Ivy Lofts project

The Weitzman Group will handle leasing of 14,228 square feet of retail space on the street level of The Ivy Lofts, a 26-story condo building planned in the East End.

Novel Creative Development is developing the 448-unit project of micro condos at the southwest corner of Leeland Street and Live Oak Street.
Prices are expected to start below $160,000.
 

Randy Hopper and Edward Heap with The Weitzman Group are handling the assignment. The space is being marketed to unique, casual restaurants, small-shop retailers and services.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/bizfeed/article/Weitzman-Group-to-lease-retail-space-in-East-10808246.php?t=fc9853b27c438d9cbb&cmpid=twitter-premium

What I find crazy is projects like this go for street level retail yet many in downtown are not including any. Can someone explain how that makes any sense?

20 hours ago, tormina said:

It is nice but I didn't like the small strip of parking in front of the HEB. If you are trying to make this pedestrian friendly, make the sidewalks as wide as possible and let people enter the store directly from the sidewalk.

Exactly. I wish we could start building with a more urban setback to encourage more walking. 

Even if you wanted to do surface level parking lot, why don't developers put a lot in the back and still have the building up to the street (Like Catalina Coffee). Then you make both pedestrians and drivers happy. But a project like this would have a parking garage anyways so there wouldn't be much of a need for a surface level parking lot.

18 hours ago, tigereye said:

Anyone know what's up? Staging for something else I presume? 

 

 

 

 was it not the Houston versions of Dallas' Rustic? or was that going to be a different lot?

13 hours ago, HoustonIsHome said:

With the apartments to the northern end the park looks like it will have a more urban park feel, but both the park and the apartments would have benefited from the view if the apartments were on the southern end instead.

 

I hope someone comes in and builds a 40 story  tower right across the street and totally ruins Campos view.

I think the idea of placing the apartments on the northern end has to do with how they can promote the units. By placing them on the north end of the park, you can up-charge the rooms with a downtown view and the ones with a park view. If they would have been built on the southern end, only one side would of had the park and the downtown views and the other side would be HCC (much harder to rent for a premium). 

Caswell out as Chef:

Quote

Local celebrity chef and restaurateur Bryan Caswell has announced that he will no longer be associated with two forthcoming dining concepts that are being backed by Houston Astros owner Jim Crane.

http://www.chron.com/entertainment/restaurants-bars/article/Bryan-Caswell-no-longer-associated-with-Astros-10613193.php

wonder who will take his place.

The chronicle article I read stated that the trading group was staying downtown and they were moving the supporting groups.

http://www.chron.com/business/real-estate/article/Shell-to-leave-bulk-of-its-downtown-offices-9234185.php

Either way this is horrible news. I don't understand, urban revitalization is at one of the highest points ever yet, so many of these large corporations are moving to the suburbs. Is this due to the fact that the people high up in the companies grew up during the era of suburban sprawl and don't see the appeal of urban areas like the new young folks see?  

While it is rough to lose any building downtown, I think what makes this one hurt a bit more than others is that it was the last main news source that was located downtown. Just think of how neat it would be to have an area of downtown where all the newspapers, news channels, magazines, & root sports were located. They could film the local morning shows and you could actually see people walking the streets compared to the generic skyline picture they always have up. Ehh, one could dream...

That hole is for water detention and the reason this project has been delayed is because they switched general contractors at some point.

1 hour ago, Texasota said:

curvy streets, narrow sidewalks and grass strips.

 

I appreciate the bump-outs though, but ultimately the buildings will determine just how suburban this ends up seeming.

Yep, I am very bummed that they continue to build narrow sidewalks with the grass strips. Especially so close to downtown. 

Went by last week and took some pictures of Harry Winston and the new store Saint Bernard. Compared to the other stores, Saint Bernard had a lot more people in it.