TheNiche

The Shops at Houston Center has always been akwardly-positioned in the market...but there are two really dense clusters of office buildings downtown, and the Shops are smack dab in the middle of one of them. Very convenient if you happen to be one of the tens of thousands of people that work right around there. The Pavillions are not nearly as convenient to Houston Center as are the Shops...the Shops aren't going anywhere. The Park Tower, hopefully, will only help to build the critical mass of retailers necessary for destination retailers to set up shop. That is the key to transforming the retail environment of Downtown Houston. Sometimes supply/demand kills off properties, but sometimes it only transforms them into a higher and better use.

You're correct about it being UHD. Hardy Yards is not yet under way.

Rather than creating new old buildings, I wish they'd come up with something modern...even if nothing but a cinder-block box. I just can't stand willful unoriginality.

I tried to go to the Dharma Cafe earlier today, but to no avail. The place was dark even though their hours posted on the door stated that they should have been open. It was only 1:00 PM, after all. Does anybody know whether it'll still be around?

I was referring to the many nice cars (BMW, Mercedes, etc.) parked in the same lot as our comparatively-crappy ones.

Oh, yes. You are right...but the thing about them not counting suburban locations as being part of the central city is still accurate.

If you click on Texas, it'll show you every single Fortune 500 company in the state. There's 102 of them, over a fifth of all 500. Compare that to 110 in California, 92 in New York (although the NYC area bleeds into NJ and CT), and 62 in Illinois. I think that we're probably right about in-line with our population when you add it all up. I see why Houston appears to have so many. They counted by the political boundaries of each city, not by region or MSA. And Houston is geographically huge, encompassing many of its suburban employment centers, unlike most central cities.

The problem is that somebody already bought it...that and the broker jacked around another fella who had planned on converting it to seniors housing and building a retail center on the adjacent parking lot. But then, I can't talk too much about that...

Seems like you know quite a bit about the project. Got any links to websites with more information or any renderings that you could post? You wouldn't happen to be affiliated with the TIRZ, Management District, or the North Houston Assn., would you?

Which is more expensive? Constructing the 4.3-mile line along a corridor that is physically-inadequate to handle it or rebuilding a transit center or two? What is a transit center, anyway, but a big canopy, some concrete lanes, and a public restroom? EDIT: What about the linear park along the old railroad tracks between E. and W. Hendrick Streets? We could run it up Navigation to that point, then use the linear park as a right-of-way to bring the line straight in to Harrisburg at 75th.

I agree completely. In fact, the engineering requirements may make Harrisburg and Canal inadequate options to begin with, whereas Navigation is the path of least resistance. Additionally, there is an industrial district just east of Lockwood that would be ripe for redevelopment. A lot of the buildings would make good residential conversions, but a fair amount would be acres and acres of new residential construction. And that's the kind of development that a neighborhood needs to build demand for things like high-end grocery stores. Ultimately (way way out in the long term), I'd like to see a light rail line running down both Navigation and Clinton. I think that the Buffalo Bayou plans would absolutely take off with such an arrangement...minus the green space, but that would never have happened anyway. Then you could extend the Navigation line down Broadway through old Harrisburg and to Hobby Airport. Lots of apartments in that corridor = lots of riders.

In a perfectly market-based model, I would agree with your conclusion. If they sink a lot of money into it without the profit motive (i.e. rental rates don't go up), and they design the project very well, they can induce new shops to open and create a thriving public space. But it would be a financial failure. If they boost rental rates according to financial necessity, they'll probably experience a fair amount of tenant turnover and may have a few more tenants move in, but the financial success will be negligible at its very best and vacancy rates will likely hold steady or even increase so as to defeat the goals of creating a healthy public space. One thing that I should've addressed is that the Greenspoint TIRZ is in play here, and a TIRZ can spend money just about any damned way it pleases (as evidenced by Garnet Coleman's expenditures of Midtown TIRZ dollars in 3rd Ward land or by the East Downtown TIRZ's financial backing of Lofts at the Ballpark, which leased up very very slowly and would otherwise have been a financial disaster). I don't doubt that the owners of Greenspoint are shrewd businesspeople; but TIRZs always raise an eyebrow. It could very well be that so much of this is being financed by the Greenspoint TIRZ that the profit-motive has been curtailed or even completely eliminated through negotiation.

I don't see growth in the 90k to 150k span (an accurate description of the perponderance of the new housing being constructed) or for that matter the renovation of the Cityview set of apartment complexes a few years ago as much of a reason to think that Greenspoint is experiencing a rennaisance of any sort. There shouldn't be much hope of future price appreciation within these new subdivisions; I see them as the Sunnysides of tomorrow. Moreover, office construction in the immediate vicinity is stagnant. Pasadena Town Center is a good example of what investors in retail properties should avoid. They have a heck of a lot of vacancies, are about to lose Dillards as one of their anchor tenants, and lost the Mervyn's across the street as a shadow anchor. Its population and household base grew substantially from the 1990 to the 2000 censuses and is among the Houston area's densest areas, but still failed to generate the kind of sales volume necessary to sustain a mall. Meanwhile, several new strip centers have been built along Southmore and a few others have undergone significant renovations; most of them have done very well. When it comes down to it, adding lower-middle-class and lower-class households to an area causes a boom in strip center construction but does nothing for the regional malls. The reason is that strip centers have lower operating costs per square foot and don't need the kind of sales volume per square foot to sustain them--they're cheaper and do a better job at matching the needs of their customer base. All that said, if Greenspoint can leverage its convenience to the large population of office employees by, for instance, building in better pedestrian connectivity between it and the office buildings lining Greenspoint and Northchase Drives along its eastern periphery (and they'd have to be very creative, doing a very good job), then they might be able to induce more customer traffic. But I'm talking about things like shaded, possibly enclosed and air-conditioned pedestrian walkways with bidirectional mechanical conveyor belts, like in many large airports. That'd be a huge boost to their lunchtime traffic...but you all know...the benefits have to outweigh the costs, and the costs would be pretty substantial.

...and we all know how well Marq-E leases out. You are very correct to question the demographics. Good accessibility (I-45 @ Beltway 8) means something, but demographics mean everything.

I've seen it many times from the West Loop. It just isn't my style. Neither is Citykid's Italian alternative, however. I live in Houston. I could care less about attempting to imitate architectural styles. All I want to see is some originality.

No, I agree with Citykid...its really uninspiring.

I wholeheartedly agree with Timmy. Any more than a few years ago and Washington Avenue would have looked like Almeda's blue-collar cousin. Development was pretty fierce in that area because land values were lower, not being near big parks, museums, or much else of cultural or aesthetic value. Almeda, in contrast, has everything going for it, including the existing raw demographics. If you don't believe me, have dinner at Spanish Village; one look at the parking lot will prove my point.

Main Street is technically divided into three sections: North Main, Main, and South Main. North Main begins north of the Buffalo Bayou bridge. Main Street proper runs from the south side of the bridge through the Texas Medical Center, and ambiguously becomes South Main Street south of Holcombe Blvd. I use the word 'ambiguous' because I've seen different street addresses from various sources applied to some of the same buildings along the stretch of Main between Holcombe and OST. I'm sorry that your appreciation is not somewhat more broad. Houston has a lot of excellent modern highrise architecture. If you compare Houston's buildings of the same era to those same era of other cities' buildings, our modern architecture is what REALLY sets us apart.

There are several bands that come to mind, as I've developed a taste for psychedelia. I feel somewhat connected to this era vicariously through my dad, who personally knew and hung out with at least one member from each band listed. Thirteenth Floor Elevators - Austin, TX If it weren't for International Artists, a recording company that was in Houston's warehouse district, they'd have been BIG. They were already HUGE in Europe, but IA mismanaged them, so they stayed pretty regional. My dad took me to meet Rocky Erickson, the lead singer and front man, when I was a kid. The fellow wasn't in very good shape, at least during the 1980's. He was mostly incoherent, but my dad and he, neither of which had seen eachother in years, hit it off. I've now got all their CDs and they're one of my favorite bands. The electric jug is genius, albeit overplayed. Rocky wasn't on most of the Elevators' last album, 'Bull of the Woods', although I consider it my personal favorite...very shroomy...good album for rolling down the windows on Houston's summer afternoons and driving around without A/C, letting the humidity soak in. In the late 70's and early 80's, Rocky was with the Aliens; his thing was making horror music to match the horror movies of his own childhood...and probably the horrific experiences from his stay at State hospitals for the mentally ill. Electroshock treatment does weird stuff to people. Janis Joplin and the Holding Company - Port Arthur, TX & Austin, TX My dad hung out with Janis a lot. I'm unclear about whether they dated at one time, but I understand that she got around. Still, she came from Port Arthur and only spent relatively brief stints in Austin. California killed her. Doug Sahm - San Antonio, TX This band was primarily out of San Antonio. I've only heard a couple songs, but I recall thinking that SRV sounded somewhat similar...probably influenced by them. On a side note, my dad also knew SRV. We ended up buying a house from a mentally-ill keyboardist that SRV had wanted to have on his band at one point, but who had a compulsive urge to destroy stage equipment and was ultimately not kept on. We lived there for many years, and for about the next five to six years out, the fellow kept on hanging out in our front yard from time to time. My dad used to work with the mentally ill and knew how to chase the guy off, since the cops would never arrest this guy...but my dad's method of choice resulted in my dad's arrest. The guy never came back and no charges were filed...either way. The guy's family understood our plight. Willie Nelson - Austin, TX It seems like every native Texan just has to know Willie. He got his start in the 50's, and has been going ever since. My dad knew him and took me to see him several times during the mid-to-late 80's. I wish there was something I could say that's worth saying, but he's generally just a nice guy. Incidentally, my best friend in High School's father (living in McAllen) also knew Willie and would go up there to jam out on occaision. He has a funny story about getting stopped by State Troopers his way out there...they didn't ticket him, and ended up giving directions because they were also friends of Willie and had been up there a few weeks earlier. There are lots more, but these are the ones that I've been able to gain access most readily to.

Well that explains that.

Woah, slow down a little there... We're not talking about connecting downtown to anything at this point. from the East Loop to downtown is about 8.5 miles by water. To Galveston/Bolivar, it's about 50 miles. That's just not gonna happen. Now, Kemah is potentially a different story. When I'm talking about a water taxi, I'm not talking about The Woodlands' version. It needs to be adequately-fast.

I'm all for optimism, but you do realize that the dirt surrounding roots is opaque, right?

Allow me to introduce you to my brilliant (albeit hopeless) scheme...it'd be very very easy to see how gambling could fit in. LINK TO THREAD

I'm afraid that you caught me on one of my rare elitist moments. You are correct in that the Kemah Boardwalk (and most every other of Tilman's amusements) stays packed and does good business...people vote with their feet, afterall. I personally don't care for it, but...you are correct. That doesn't mean I have to like it. That said, I'd be curious to see if and how the Galveston and Kemah amusements cannibalized one another. There's only so much demand for waterfront amusement parks, and having two of them may seriously dilute the Kemah market share. As for gambling, I'm not familiar with the history of proposals, but I'd think that Tilman is just pushing for Galveston being permitted it, all by itself. That's a more reasonable goal, I'd think, than getting the whole state to have legalized gambling.

That's interesting. I had someone tell me exactly that same thing the other day, comparing the Pasadena building to the S&R building.