thedistrict84

Hopefully none. We have more than enough affordable housing developments between this portion of the East End and neighboring Fifth Ward relative to market-rate apartment stock, especially after HHA acquired The Circuit complex near BBVA Stadium with the intention of converting approximately half the units into affordable units. We need more market-rate stock like the Marquette property on Navigation and (hopefully) this development to even things out.

From what I recall, Lovett seems to just randomly list retailers as tenants on site plans to generate interest without any sort of agreement in place. They did the same thing when they used Sprouts on the site plan and renderings for the old Houston Post building on Polk. Maybe someone involved in commercial real estate could further elaborate?

This whole plan is kind of half baked. They’ve literally just put up construction barricades restricting thru traffic. What they need to do instead is redo the sidewalks in the area and ramp up parking enforcement on the dedicated bike lanes on Polk a couple of blocks away (along with re-striping the lanes).

Honestly it’s not a big loss. I always found it to be dingy, dark, and kind of gross, and the food wasn’t great. Pitch 25 opening was the beginning of the end for Lucky’s. Plus, my credit card got compromised there several years ago. Manager didn’t seem too interested in investigating. So maybe I’m a bit biased against it. Oh well.

There is a mistake in their listing. It refers to the Kroger as the “east end Kroger” instead of “Kombat Kroger.”

They are some of the best margs in the city. Luckily I only live a few blocks away so I have the option to walk there and back.

All of those options you mentioned are generally similar to Tex-Mex and it’s derivatives. We need more diverse food options in this area beyond any of those.

Hopefully that gas station is next on the list.

I think the NRP development will have one major effect for people on the north side of the Bayou—a significant increase in vehicle traffic. With the way the streets are laid out in that area, the most likely access to and from the NRP property will be Kennedy St. to Jensen. From there, I think you will see a significant amount of traffic head up and down Jensen, which provides direct access to I-10, I-45, and 59 with less hassle then other alternatives. Does anyone have more details about the unit mix at NRP? I’ve seen varying details from different sources but nothing consistent.

They are moving fast on build-out of the restaurant portion. Maybe a half-dozen workers were present. No sign is up, so I’m not sure if this is still going to be a Corky’s or some other restaurant. https://imgur.com/gallery/vOISdHl (Sorry for the link, it’s inverting the orientation of photos when I try to upload directly, and Imgur imbed feature isn’t working on mobile)

I feel like that 1100 number is the unit count between both developments. I don’t see how the Ojala development alone could have that many units. Unfortunately HHA hasn’t been very forthcoming with details and the manner in which they approved the project was a bit shady. I wouldn’t expect much from them.

I don’t believe that’s accurate. The majority of units for each of these will be at 60% AMI or below—400 units at the NRP development and 304 units at the Ojala development.

Good news for me though. I’m just a few blocks away but couldn’t see myself going to Corky’s and wasn’t super excited about it. Hopefully something with a more diverse menu goes in here. But knowing my luck, it will probably be a Chipotle.

Anybody else find it beyond annoying that the website refers to this as being “East Downtown/EaDo’s newest community”? The name creep continues.

I understand your position @chrispy, but I think you generalize a bit too much. I’m one of those East End townhome-dwelling yuppies you don’t seem to like, but it was my only practical choice within my budget. I love the area and would love to have bought an old bungalow, but I needed a garage for my project car, tools, bikes, etc. and—as someone else mentioned—most of the old bungalows never had garages and if they did, they were converted to apartments long ago. I routinely frequent the older businesses such as Villa Arcos, Champ Burger, Harrisburg Country Club, D&W, etc. because I prefer those types of establishments to anything pretentious and inauthentic. At the same time, I appreciate the new(ish) businesses that pop up in the area and seem to respect the history, like Sigma. Being a native Houstonian and having family here since before my grandfather grew up in The Heights in the 1920s, I have tremendous respect for the history of the city and the East End in particular. Just because I bought and live in a townhome (which was built on a former commercial site) for the sake of a garage and so I had something turnkey that didn’t need a bunch of repairs—that I did not have the time to do myself and didn’t want to pay anyone to do—doesn’t mean I cannot appreciate the history of the area. I would also disagree regarding the new construction townhomes being built in the area. Like is the case with my townhome, most of the new construction is limited to former commercial sites, and I think even you would agree that there is an over abundance of empty lots and abandoned warehouses in the area to where this kind of development can only be appreciated. We don’t have the same “tear down a bungalow, shoehorn three town homes onto a 5,000 square foot lot” issue they have in Montrose and even parts of The Heights. Most of Eastwood has recently become protected by Minimum Lot Size restrictions by proactive residents, so you will not see that type of development there anytime soon, if ever.

Yes. We need more quality developments like this in the immediate area to help counteract the proposed affordable housing developments (one of which will be right to the east of this, if I’m not mistaken). Speaking of which, whatever happened with that proposal for the multi-family building on Fox and N. Nagle? The renderings for it looked very similar to this.

Wow I didn’t even realize that it had opened. I guess that might have been part of the problem?

The Corky’s in Katy closed in December. Has anyone heard recently whether the location slated for this development is still going forward? I know there is still one other location in Cypress that is still open. https://communityimpact.com/houston/katy/impacts/2019/12/16/corky039s-ribs-bbq-in-katy-area-closes/

I know. And again, I’m glad that they are renovating the building instead of tearing it down and putting up new construction. But these types of old commercial buildings work well as restaurants and bars. Just look down the street at Tout Suite (which will unfortunately be a casualty of the freeway reroute project). As it stands, I now need to (1) have a kid; and (2) hope that he/she really enjoys soccer to be able to enjoy the space in any capacity. It’s a bit disappointing, that’s all.

It would have been awesome-r if it was a bar or restaurant (or really anything open to the public). The layout of the building with the upper patio area would have been an interesting setup, and there aren’t too many options in that immediate area on that side of BBVA Stadium/MMP. Regardless, it is nice that this is being re-developed. It’s a beautiful building.

That building and the smaller warehouse at the southwest corner of McKinney and Emancipation would both be good candidates to be renovated into either a bar or restaurant.

Yep, saw that coming. Suburban-style strip center leads to suburban tenants. Ugh.

I believe there was an old TABC notice in the window of that building (before the renovations started) from maybe 2017 that alluded to White Rhino. Whatever that was intended to be, I imagine it was canceled and this construction is for something different.

Thanks, I searched in the East End neighborhood sub forum for the post on East Village prior to my post, as I didn’t realize the East Village thread was still in “Going Up.”

Just came across this article regarding Conservatory and Prohibition moving to the former Chapman and Kirby spot as part of the East Village development in EaDo, on St. Emanuel. More good news for EaDo! https://m.chron.com/entertainment/restaurants-bars/article/Ambitious-new-food-hall-projects-slated-for-EaDo-14937598.php