TheNiche

I can't believe you old ladies are talking about shoes, when we could be talking about Wal-Mart selling porn.

Can't you just imagine what their buying power could do? Oh my.

I tried to steer them in that direction...I really did. Can't comprehend why they went with hipster shoes.

Then again...it's the new-and-improved Heights, a target-rich environment.

CNN/Fortune has a good article on the subject. Their premise is United moving it's headquarters to Chicago is biting them in the butt b/c now they have lost their political clout.

I don't like this, could mean a farther drive to an airport for me:

Are GHP leaders' pockets getting any deeper in this?

It's a stretch to believe that the GHP is being bribed. Given how ridiculous United's study was, I'm inclined to doubt any threat that they may make.

I'd be interested to see a copy of the agreement between United and the Houston Airport System regarding the terminal expansion. There is hopefully a clause that would address the penalties for one party or the other abandoning the project mid-way through.

Thank you Niche for coming and shitting on this thread with your usual idiotic rants.

Wow, you're really passionate about these restaurant pad sites. Okay then, I'll just let it go.

I actually really like a lot of the neighborhoods over in that direction, especially for the price.

But...this is the kind of play that only makes sense if you're building a portfolio of rent houses that can be managed at economies of scale. For you, just say no!

I suspect that those being critical of West U's preference to keep its share of the transportation revenue are also people that wouldn't desire to live there if they could afford it....which is to say, pretty much under any circumstance.

In a comparison of cities, even if we used Houston's 1900 city limits, Houston would still be No. 2 among cities.

That's quite a claim. I'd bet that if we were hemmed in and had to compete on a level playing field with close-in suburban municipalities like Dallas does, we'd have witnessed inter-city rivalries with respect to economic development (among other things). The landscape would probably be very different.

That's another myth that needs to be put to rest. Even if we only counted the downtown headquarters in the Fortune 500 listing, Houston would still rank second for Fortune 500 companies. (There were 13 Fortune 500 HQs in downtown Houston, ahead of both Dallas and Atlanta, who tied for third place, each with 10 in their entire respective cities.) A reasonably restricted city of Houston (downtown and uptown) would give us 18 Fortune 500 HQs. There are 20 Fortune 500 HQs inside the Beltway. (Again, this is all based on the 2011 list.)

As a case in point, I count 20 such firms in the Dallas-Ft. Worth MSA and 23 in the Houston MSA. The list has evidently shifted toward energy companies in the five years since I last ran this, but the point is that there's still a strong correlation to population. If you'd like to challenge that, I welcome you to run the data. Things can change. (I'd do it myself, but I just don't have time right now.)

at least part of the fabric that makes the neighborhood unique (24 hour video and smoochies) won't be destroyed in this process.

But not for long. The Wal-Mart will put those neighborhood establishments out of business just as surely as it will condemn all those cute little boutiques on 19th Street.

Those numbers (if realistic) aren't very encouraging. I would cash out and make it somebody else's problem. Even if you leave a little money on the table -- you'll never go broke making a profit.

A partnership between family members is usually a bad idea. It can become an especially bad idea if something that should be a passive investment actually turns out to require active participation and an infusion of fresh capital. Either get it appraised and have one party buy the other one out, or put it on the market for sale. If you're going to stick with it, then put it into an LLC and get yourselves a good operating agreement drawn up to figure out all the angles. (Actually go and hire a real estate attorney; don't just modify a template you found on the internet.)

You're arguing over an infographic that is marketing material for an industry report. Clearly they just selected a handful of cities to show on the map.

We aren't arguing, we're agreeing that it was crap, and so we're correcting it. Ridiculous marketing material for industry reports is often highly effective. Take for instance that bit about Houston ranking second for Fortune 500 companies. It's only true if you rank municipalities instead of metropolitan areas because Houston annexed so much land area in the 20th century while other municipalities were hemmed in by other municipalities -- and that's just stupid, but so are lots and lots of people who you'd think would know better.

Looks to me more like it is going in across Cortlandt from Ace Mart. There are no 13,200 sf lots on the south side of the freeway. But, there is an empty 132 foot freeway frontage lot for sale on the north side. If the house next door also sold, you have a 13,200 foot lot.

But that will mean more traffic running through your neighborhood! Don't you fear for the safety of stroller-pushing housewives? You monster! This would never have happened if we had zoning.

WTF? Did they just forget about Houston?

Yep...I think so. Your number sounds about right.

According to 2010 Census estimates, there are only 38 employed persons living in West U that commute using public transportation.

Of the broad category that might be doctors (or petroleum engineers, or whatever), there are only 27 citizens. Is that "a lot"? And yeah, if lived in West U, I wouldn't care how my maid came to work; if one candidate can't drive (or walk into the city limits from Houston), then I'd hire the next candidate that can. What the hell would I care?

Public transportation (excluding taxicab): 38 +/-42 Management, business, science, and arts occupations 27 +/-39 Service occupations 0 +/-127 Sales and office occupations 0 +/-127 Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations 0 +/-127 Production, transportation, and material moving occupations 11 +/-18 Military specific occupations 0 +/-127

West U's population is approximately 15,000, so we're talking about $20 per capita. But considering how little of West U's population is likely to use transit, that seems like a raw deal. If I were a citizen of West U, I'd want out of METRO completely if that's possible. Make the buses go around.

What is really more telling is the percentage of that 114k count vs the 293k count that would be patrons to the local establishments. Plus, the 293k is a double dip in that a large portion of that 114k probably overlaps to the 293k based on commute. Regardless, I think it'll be good for the far Northwest. I moved back to that area until my house finishes building in the loop, so I'm non-biased either way.

I'm sure that this will be successful as proposed. It's a great retail site. The only thing that I'm disputing is that this should be in any way compared to CityCentre, which caters to a fundamentally different type of retailer.

Gotta disagree w/ you about the quantity aspect. The population is there, which is reflective by the traffic. It's a mess. Also, the people who will be visiting that Centre will not be people coming out from other areas, whereas City Centre Memorial will attract non-neighborhood locals. The Centre at Cypress will most likely be consistently packed due to the lack of choices out in that area and most the patrons will be neighborhood locals. In essence, the population is there, it'll just be a different mix. Look at Cheddar's. Not exactly the Tasting Room, but is consistently packed in Cypress. It's not because Cheddar's is great or anything, but it meets the needs of the local market. Put Cheddar's off Waugh, doubt it would last.

The traffic count on US 290 at Skinner road is at 114,000 vehicles per day according to TXDoT, and the periphery of urban growth is only another 5 miles out (and even then it's only Fairfield; there's still lots of developable land right near it).

In comparison, I-10 through Memorial City is at 293,000 vpd and Beltway 8 just south of I-10 is at 201,000 vpd. The urban periphery is about 17 miles out to the west...which is interesting, because CityCentre is only 15 miles from 290 and Skinner as the crow flies.

The quantity and quality of demographics near this site would support restaurants on pad sites that are similar to Cheddar's, but nothing at all like the tenants at CityCentre. That's what I've been saying all along and I think that we're in agreement.

Redscare there's also the hotels and residences in Uptown that are being merged together to form one unified area. I wasn't just talking about office space.

Oh, puh-lease. That's Dallas' solution to everything. If their MSA is too small for their Chamber of Commerce's liking; re-define its boundaries. If their CBD sucks; virtually abandon it, then re-define its boundaries.

What would I do to encourage Houston tourism? Nothing. I'll just let New York writers do it for me.

http://www.nypost.co...kPsOOLjGa8X0O8I

The best line of the article was the first one...

It might be a copy-cat article, but here's WSJ's contribution to our tequila street cred. They quote Bobby Huegel of Anvil, stating that "Margaritas are like burgers."

Maybe there's something to this. "Visit Houston, have a drink."

LOL, I remember that one. I like the version with subtitles.

The WSJ has an article on margaritas that's just out. They interviewed Bobby Heugel of Anvil fame. He reveals to us that, "Margaritas are like burgers."

You can trace courthouse records (try courthousedirect.com) pretty far back to figure out who owned the house, but it may be more difficult to determine who lived there if it might've been leased out.

This does not seem at all to indicate that a new tower will be built soon. Am I wrong?

The bigger problem is that building spec office space remains difficult to finance. It takes owner-occupancy, a lease commitment, or Skanska. The big blocks of vacancy are a problem that would likely be solved in the span of the three or four years that it takes to propose, design, build, and deliver a new skyscraper.

This would be far better off as a master-planned community. It's only 19 miles to downtown along a new, uncongested, and toll-free freeway. It's surrounded by big regional parks to the south, east, and west, and Fall Creek and Summerwood have already established and proven the market. And it's wholly within Sheldon ISD, which has neither a particularly good or bad reputation because its so sparsely populated. All it would take is this, which could be a project of similar scale with Shadow Creek Ranch, and the ISD's reputation would swing toward positive. (It certainly makes more sense to develop this as residential than for Lennar to bother developing the EarthQuest site as residential, 35 miles out in New Caney.)

It could have a small commercial component, but nothing so ambitious. Few employers have ever been especially interested in northeast Houston, just the same as how Pearland is not a big draw for employers. I don't envision that pattern changing too much.

Now we really need to recruit some more area retail. More bars, an off-campus bookstore with amenities (we lost the College Store, but I'm thinking more like a full-service Barnes and Noble with coffee and lounge area), and late night places to hang out.

In an age where students understand and can use the internet to source their books, how relevant is a B&N? Isn't that just for old people and dullards, like Blockbuster has become?