astrohip

7 hours ago, mgmort said:

Houston Sash and Door was my mom's family business. I have a photo of this warehouse hanging on my wall.

This picture was taken around 1918 or so, from the corner of Sterrett and McKee. The man standing in the doorway is my great-grandfather Moses Davidson, who owned the company, and the boy holding the horse over on the side is my grandfather, 10 years old. My grandfather worked for Houston Sash and Door (later Davidson Texas, Inc.) from when he was 8 until he passed at the age of 83.

It saddens me that at the very least the facade wasn't preserved, after all i've been staring at a picture of it my whole life.

 

What a great photo! Many years ago, I was friends (both personal & business) with Ralph Davidson. How are you related?

1 hour ago, shasta said:

Serious question...why did the Karens scream over this project? There are many examples of mid rises in the Rice University area, and surrounding area. Many over looking residential. This is not out of character for this district.

This is a high-rise, not a mid-rise. Twenty plus floors. And there is not anything like this in the area. That's what they were complaining about. Plus the added traffic.

16 hours ago, SMU1213 said:

Dallas' Federal Reserve is built at Pearl and Woodall Rogers, catty corner from Klyde Warren Park (so in the best real estate in the city). It takes up much more space than ours, although they do have a tower element and a more modern design. 

The Dallas Fed is one of the Federal Reserve BANKS. Ours is a branch, and technically a part of the Dallas Fed.

I remember the brouhaha when our branch initially had wording on it stating it was a part of the Dallas Region. With Houstonians love for Dallas, it was non-stop complaining until it was removed.

1 hour ago, iah77 said:

Are you saying this whole project is affordable housing? Plot twist*

All this time, and it's affordable housing? Plot twist indeed. If most of what Urban Genesis does is this, I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned before now.

Thanks for the updates. Is this the first time we've seen it referred to as "student housing"? The conjecture was it would be some kind of high-end townhouse/apt building. That's a really pricey area for student housing.

Is that address literally right next door to the Revere? Maybe my Map-Fu is screwed up.

Interesting looking building, in a prime spot (besides the fact traffic sucks right there). It's funny, just last week my wife & I were driving to a Seder just down the street, and commenting on how the area could use more medical buildings (really!). Dense part of town, large mature population, and it's a PITA to have to drive into the TMC. 

We're just waiting for the one on Westheimer (near Wesleyan) to open, just to see who's in it. Yes, I know, I'm old. 🤒

On 12/25/2020 at 8:42 PM, Ross said:

It's owned by an entity named Achatus LP, whose franchise tax status is suspended. Before that, it was owned by the Houston Association of Credit Management, who bought it from Bank of the Southwest in 1977. No clue who owned it before then, the County Clerk's search feature isn't that great. Hmmm, I wonder if I can get the digitized records in a database format so I can do my own searches. I've done that with HCAD data, converting it to SQL Server in the past.

My former company was very active in HACM, now known as NACM Southwest. It's a trade association of credit managers, we were part of the Building Materials group (my CM was the head of it for several years). They owned that bldg free & clear, but several events converged. One, the building needed an enormous amount of work, it was really old. ADA rehab, code updates, etc. Second, the land was worth far more than the bldg. Lastly, the membership was moving farther from the city core, like much of Houston, and more members were outside the Loop, and even the Tollway, than inside. The location, once a huge plus, was now a drag. They made a boatload of money when they sold it, which can be a real problem for a 501(c)6. They moved to the west side of Houston.

I've reached out to the former Exec Director of HACM to see what she knows.

8 hours ago, Avossos said:

I bet this is between Shepard and greenbrier  

That makes more sense. Then they could look down on the Audi buyers.

8 hours ago, KinkaidAlum said:

There's a Lexington Street in Upper Kirby/Montrose that runs from Chew Park/Dunlavy to Greenbrier. But it's adjacent to the feeder but I guess that's similar to their projects in "Westcreek" (Galleria east of the Loop).

We lived (rented) on Lexington for a couple years, back in the late 1980s. Between Hazard & Woodhead. Backed up to the freeway. Our kids were little, and they loved to sit on the concrete ledges and wave at the people driving by. Highlight was getting a truck to pull its horn.

That area seems far too under-infrastructured to support a high rise. I guess it would depend on which part of Lexington it was built on.

Good guess if you hit it! 

Hmm, no location given. Any ideas?

"Call or email us to learn more about our next phase of boutique luxury living in River Oaks! Introducing The Lexington."

I *think* they were using it for the construction workers. Lunch area, tool storage, meetings, etc. Now that the primary const phase is complete... *poof*.

Is this listing different than this thread? I'm confused, they have the same address.

I'm not feeling any schadenfreude. They're just cars, some of which the buyers have been waiting for months. And a significant number of them were VWs. You know, the "People's Wagon".

17 hours ago, hindesky said:

Encountered a woman driving in the southbound lanes going northbound, people were flashing their lights and honking but she seemed oblivious to anything. Hope someone didn't wreck in to her.

Some things never change...

When we worked there, people would often try to go the wrong way on that little stub of McKee, to get to the freeway ramps. Otherwise, you had to drive a couple hundred feet and do a U-turn. The problem was cars coming off that ramp are going... fast!

We had one employee who got hit twice (yes, twice!) doing the U-turn. He was an effing idiot. He was smart enough not to drive the wrong way on McKee, but that's all he was smart enough for.

Thanks for posting these pictures. I don't get by as often as I would like.

16 hours ago, hindesky said:

Do all the dealers not keep stock on hand for immediate sales or are they all ordered then you wait for it to be shipped?

The premium German auto manuf do both. They have a good inventory of stock vehicles for people that want a car. Now. And they have well-established build-to-order programs for that type buyer. My X3 was custom ordered. My wife's Cayenne was right off the lot.

And thanks to the pandemic, everything I just typed gets thrown out the window.

When we were looking at condos in 2018, we looked at 2727 Kirby. We weren't fans of the building, so it didn't matter, but one of the things our realtor warned us about was this little square of land. He said something will be built one day, and you may not like it next door to your condo.

Five stories isn't bad, I think the units start above that.

Now open, per an email I rec'd from them...

https://www.momentumporsche.com/

https://sonicmomentumporsche.cms.dealer.com/dealership/new-location.htm

Says it's opening next month.

14 hours ago, Urbannizer said:

Any pics?

Funny you ask... I was driving by it again this week (I live practically next door) and noticed nothing going on. The flags are still there, but no trucks, no people, no nothing. 

I'll try to get some pics in a few days. I'm always driving when I go by, and try to focus on driving and not other distractions. But I should be able to pull over and get some.

As far as what it's part of, since everything (according to Marketing) that's inside the Loop is "River Oaks", I'm sure that's the main focus. It is (IMHO) closer to Greenway Plaza than RO.

There was a news story earlier this week about a shooting at a "River Oaks apartment complex". But in digging down, it was located at San Felipe & 610. But hey... that's River Oaks! 🙄

On 1/7/2022 at 10:30 AM, gene said:

https://kwhi.com/2022/01/03/one-killed-in-early-morning-crash-on-new-years-day-in-la-grange/

Sad news. Thanks for sharing that. It said he was ejected, which almost always means no seatbelt. ☹️

What's odd is I read the KWHI newsfeed daily, as I spend most of my time in Brenham, and it's a great source of local news. I remember seeing that headline, but didn't click thru as a crash in La Grange didn't seem of much interest.

Oh no, I'm so sad to hear this. I hadn't seen Frank in about ten years, but he was a great kid. My son played basketball with him in HS. I remember taking a road trip with Frank Sr back in the late 90s to Dallas, to watch our kids play in a BB tourney.

He'll be missed. ☹️