KinkaidAlum

Hildebrand owns it under an umbrella holding company llc. 

It's not going to be a super tall.

Just ate dinner with a principal at the firm and asked him about this block. He said there are no plans and when I told him of this thread and a wish for a super tall, he said, point blank, "Hines won't build a super tall in Houston anymore because the economics do not work in the market." He then went on to gush about 609 Main and all of the praise and accolades that are flowing in as well as how tenants are liking it.

So, look for another 609 Main/BG Group tower. 

I'm fine with that. 

You're working on the private dorm/apartments? Any word on phase two?

Totes agree on the parking lot compromise thing.

At the very least, we should mandate that all new parking structures in downtown have green roofs. Imagine little elevated parkings every few blocks offering cool views and helping erase the heat island effect and storm runoff. 

A cheaper solution is to put up barricades on those lanes where the double white lines currently exist. I wish they'd also do it on the West Loop North exit off of 59/69. I've seen asshats literally use the break down lane and force their way through. I constantly pray that someone will play chicken with one of those morons and force them to go head-on into the concrete. Sadly, the timing has never been right for me to do it.

Were people really leaving for Montrose and the Heights or was  the city just growing like wildfire? I don't think you realize just how small Houston was in the early 20th century. It basically DOUBLED in population between 1900 and 1910. It did so again between 1910 and 1920. It more than doubled between 1920 and 1930.

There was no space to put people downtown in those years unless you built UP but high rise residential living wasn't really even a thing. 

There's a lot of congestion but it is MADE MUCH WORSE there because people BREAK THE LAW every damn second by crossing over double white lines and switching between 1-3 lanes in 20 feet because they wanted to speed on the outer Spur lanes rather than merging properly. You also have a ton of people venturing onto the onramp from Shepherd that they KNOW ends in a few hundred feet. Thus, law-abiding drivers have to slam on their breaks to avoid cars coming at them from either side.

The only way it is taller than an office tower would be if there's a crown/spire. Office buildings are universally taller with higher floor-to-ceiling heights than residential/hotels with the same floor count. However, it should break 500 feet. 

Just drove by on my way to check on my Mom. The lot is being cleared. Looks like they're moving those bungalows somewhere.

I never had doubts on this one. This guy (developer) knows what he's doing and this location is top notch (basically the end of River Oaks Blvd).

That image is great until I try and visualize the new 288/59/69 cluster. That scar is going to be terrible. 

The internet exists. The mayor was NOT lying. Macy's did NOT own the land/building when they announced the store closing. 1110 Main Partners bought that land as well as the Americana Building lot in 2009. 1110 Main Partners is an off-shoot of Hillcorp which now has their corporate tower on that site. 

1 minute ago, j_cuevas713 said:

Me? lol

No. IAHexpress. 

God, for your sake, I hope you're trolling.

My evidence that they were lucky is that they WERE PAID for a public transportation project (rail transit) and I was NOT PAID for a public transportation project (road transit). 

My business I was speaking of was hurt due to ROAD construction.

That's my point. Owning a business is risky. All sorts of things can hurt you. Light rail construction? Sure. Road Construction? I know first hand. Infrastructure upgrades? Yep. Flooding? Of course. Fire? Uh-huh. A bad product? Most certainly. 

There are zero guarantees. Businesses on the light rail line were LUCKY to get paid for their inconvenience. We weren't paid for ours but then again, we didn't have a political movement turning "road construction" into public enemy #1.

I'm a business owner. One of our locations saw sales drop 43% year-over-year when one of the streets we are located on went under construction. Nobody paid us for that inconvenience.  Luckily, we were big enough to handle the hit. Some smaller places around us weren't so lucky. 

As for businesses that benefitted from the light rail; Brookfield Property, Hines, Urban Living, Perry Homes, Camden, Post, Farb, Womack, Mirador, Caydon, Morgan Group, Surge Homes, Ziegler Cooper, Hermes Architects, Parsons, Granite Construction, etc...

I loved the idea of townhomes there. You see townhomes in Manhattan, downtown Boston, central city Philly, so why not Houston? 

Gives life to the street scape and adds some quirkiness. 

This is turning out better than I expected. Nothing great but far less cheesy than feared. 

Yes. The only thing different between the Katy market and the downtown market is the light rail. Rents are the same. Parking is the same. Demographics are the same. Physical locations are the same. It's just the light rail that's different...

Georgia's Market failed because it was a horrible concept for that location. The space was way too small (and HORRIBLY underutilized for the price for square foot you'd need to make it in that location) to call itself a market and I am willing to guess they bit off more than they could chew because it was often understocked, understaffed, and almost always underwhelming. 

Quite a few well known inner loop brands have moved downtown and done well despite the killer train. Maybe, just maybe, Georgia was at fault and not the Midnight train!

LOL. Light rail opened in 2004. The Byrds Loft Building wasn't converted until 2005 so those businesses didn't exist before the rail. Those businesses failed because they were awful. Bad food. Little inventory. High prices. Good riddance. Local is going to kill it in that same spot. 

Big Dig was a hot mess in terms of budget and time delays but the Big Dig was great. It added a new tunnel under the harbor connecting the Mass Pike with Boston Logan Airport. It completely buried I-93 through downtown by removing a horrible elevated freeway that separated the North End/Harbor from the Financial District. It was replaced with a parkway and new development. It added a beautiful new signature bridge and really changed the entire dynamic of that small city.

This is just a massive freeway/spaghetti expansion with "maybe" some buried sections that'll one day be covered with parks if we locals can raised a couple hundred millions of dollars. 

Fake news. The light rail killed downtown. Everyone knows that downtown was better in 2001.

Correction, adding lanes to freeways temporarily reduces congestion. However, it encourages sprawl. More sprawl will eventually bring more traffic. More traffic will bring more congestion. Period. 

Lame. More inner city scars so developers can make money in far flung places.

I want to NIMBY it since this is my exit but it'll be better than that "lumber" yard. That place has become a dump and vagrant hangout.