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TheNiche

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Everything posted by TheNiche

  1. TheNiche
    Christopher J. Athans lives in an ugly beige townhome at 1415 Thompson Street (the southwest corner of Thompson & Kohler). It is part of a townhome complex that replaced lower-density development. Its development has created more traffic. Mr. Athans has acted irresponsibly and now attempts to create barriers to those who would do the same. He is a hypocrite. He should be made aware of that fact.
  2. TheNiche
    Yeah, but the engineering schematics have existed for some time. It's no secret how much of those properties will be taken and so there shouldn't be any built-in eminent domain risk in the purchaser's land pricing model.
  3. TheNiche
    Thanks for translating the rhetoric.
  4. TheNiche
    How's that?
  5. TheNiche
    Not to most consumers or self-important anti-McMansion commentators.
  6. TheNiche
    It is an office building. Three of them, actually.
  7. TheNiche
    It's a great site, but...for $139 PSF on the land, I forsee a decade or more before it becomes feasible to redevelop. A buyer will probably try to renovate and stabilize the office buildings, then wait it out.
  8. TheNiche
    Well yeah. And the current residents of One Park Place probably drive for the vast majority of their trips. And I just walked back to my single-family home from my watering-hole-of-choice, over a mile and a half distant in suburbia, without the availability of sidewalks. So...what's your point?
  9. TheNiche
    The Ashby site is within one mile of Rice University, St. Thomas University, the Menil Collection, the core of the Museum District, the Red Line, the (eventual Universities Line), Hermann Park, the Houston Zoo, the northern part of the Texas Medical Center, the greater part of Rice Village, and Shepherd Square. The neighborhood surrounding it is very pleasant to walk through, with most streets having sidewalks, and with the neighborhood not having a reputation for harboring any significant criminal element. The neighborhood is already walkable. A highrise simply enables more people to take enjoyment from that fact.
  10. TheNiche
    To relieve congestion and provide for improved regional mobility.
  11. TheNiche
    Umm... Yeah... I was speaking tounge-in-cheek.
  12. TheNiche
    If you were an investor at the outset and that plan had failed and required revision to lure additional investment, I'm sure that you would be upset. You'd have backed the wrong horse. But it's not the horse's fault that you backed it. And if the change of plans gets out of the ground, then you'll at least see something returned to you as opposed to a total loss.
  13. TheNiche
    Every neighborhood in Houston that I can think of started off as low-density at some point in time. You can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs. And besides, there are several highrises with car-dependent inhabitants in the vicinity of River Oaks, yet River Oaks does not appear to have been diminished in its desirability. The fearmongering is not supported empirically. If you believe otherwise, I beg you for data!
  14. TheNiche
    The project is located on Binz, which becomes Bissonnet. And if Bissonnet can't handle the traffic of a few hundred apartment units with user densities per square foot of less than half that of office space, then clearly it can't handle this. Obviously there was some bad press brewing over the matter, and obviously that prompted the developer to scrap his idea. The City would never have permitted such a structure there under such circumstances. No sir...
  15. TheNiche
    Show me how. Use math, not rhetoric.
  16. TheNiche
    The nature of real estate development is that the developer starts off with a grand vision of what they would like it to be, which is 'expensive' because they get a fee from the investors based on the cost of the development. Pressure from investors and lenders respective to the ever-changing marketplace whittles down the proposal to a level that is reasonable and achievable. Let me be clear about this: if a developer of one of these sorts of projects ever achieves their initial vision, then they did something wrong. They left money on the table. You as an individual would be best advised to feel no attachment to a drawing. Drawings are but a fiction until realized. Let me ask you, if some favorite science fiction film set in the future didn't actually come to pass in just the manner prescribed by its writer, would you hold it against the writer? I should hope not. But that is basically analogous to these initial sets of renderings that you feel disappointment over.
  17. TheNiche
    My understanding was that they had already upgraded the sewer/stormwater infrastructure in an amount of approximately $500k.
  18. TheNiche
    It's a very desireable location. Lots of people would like to live there. That is what makes it suitable for density. And besides, after a developer buys a site and installs infrastructure (with the knowledge that it is desirable and that there is no zoning or deed restriction prohibiting highrises) it is difficult if not impossible to just change it on a whim.
  19. TheNiche
    This site is not vacant. It has apartments on it. They were never demolished. As for the design, I don't see what everyone thinks is so awful. It's nicer than what's there. It's also nicer from the exterior than a lot of the stuff around it, including Highland Village, the Galleria, and much of the retail along Post Oak. Seriously, is it that bad if it isn't at least as nice as BLVD Place? Let's not lose perspective.
  20. TheNiche
    Richmond @ Graustark would be a likely site. If it were the Wheeler Transit Center site, I'd have expected an official announcement by now. The northwest corner of Richmond @ 527 is close to that size, but still a bit smaller. It might also be an assemblage of two full blocks east of Main or excess land held by a church along Main Street. There are only so many possibilities.
  21. TheNiche
    In order to achieve greater site efficiency, better-optimized NOI relative to debt service, and ultimately, a much lower cap rate when it sells.
  22. TheNiche
    The C-store around the corner from me that sells malt beverages isn't the least bit cozy. It's still quite walkable, both in the sense that it is accessible to adjoining neighborhoods and that its site can be traversed on foot. Nope, no Calatrava-designed people-movers there! No sir. And if you don't agree with me, then you are a vulva.
  23. TheNiche
    Speaking as someone who kayaks solo in east Texas and out on the Gulf... Yum.
  24. TheNiche
    I have no dog in the fight, but I hope that this is a go just so that House567 gets pissed off and rants. I find that his or her cathartic whining has amusement value.
  25. TheNiche
    Wait... Tanglewood has a Mediterranean heritage? Since when? I can't beleive that Zeigler Cooper actually allowed that on their website.
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