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X.R.

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Everything posted by X.R.

  1. X.R.
    Yeah, there is another map that showed that the burger joint and its loveable-but-janky parking lot will be staying where it is. Learned this the other day, if you go there on a bike, you get 10% off. One can hope maybe the collective retail/cafe people see that and decide to also do that...you know...to encourage walkability and stuff. Impressive, and maybe shows a bit of what the developers are about, that they are preserving the trees. They know how to get to a montrose resident's heart. Edit: this was what I was referring to, which I think shows BJ is being left alone but maybe not the parking lot.
  2. X.R.
    Wait, you guys know people specifically bought land to sit on it and wait for these people to buy it from them, right? Vanity project or not, parts of that land was land people held in the hopes of selling it for this train.
  3. X.R.
    Every time I ride that connector I think about how they could have been making money on that portion of 288 for the past year, since that technically is the toll portion. But they are so seemingly unorganized I'm sure they haven't met some percentage-of-roadwork-finished criteria to trigger their ability to turn on the EZ tag scanners that have already been partially installed (according to a friend on the construction crews). My favorite thing is that its clear they are also simultaneously supposed to be landscaping those green spaces since you can see they have started to break up some concrete and in some areas plant some plants but even that is done in splotches and not in sync the road construction. What a weird mess.
  4. X.R.
    Downtown slowly getting all of the amenities people have been clamoring for. So now you'll have Lifetime, the Met, and YMCA all in downtown, and if LifeTime Fitness has those lounge areas and fast-healthy food like the other locations then the downtown businesses and offices without a gym/lounge area of their own can now provide that service to their employees as a benefit of being at the DT location. And DT residents can go there too, I guess 😆 Thanks @wilcal!
  5. X.R.
    I like it, looks nice from the freeway and on the street the arches are kinda nice to look up at. I know some argued about its architecture, but this kind of reminds me of the Georgian-type stuff you'd see in College. Put another one of these just North on the same street and you could really be starting something in a part of midtown that is a little under-utilized for the average pedestrian.
  6. X.R.
    Holy crap, its actually happening. I drive by that area every few days, and just getting rid of that old building and putting anything on it (including a mattress firm) would be a huge improvement and make that area seem a little less...cold and deserted. Putting a 10 story medical building with constant traffic will 100% spur development in a tiny pocket of land that is strangely devoid of it and maybe rehabilitate some of those older buildings (some are actually quite nice).
  7. X.R.
    A bar area? I can get my drink on at the park without my typical brown paper bag? Sign me up!
  8. X.R.
    So that whole video that was posted in the thread is opening this year? Thats pretty impressive if so. Was there any reason why it took so long for stuff to grow? I guess if memory served me right, the ground there was kinda hard.
  9. X.R.
    Three stories worth, supposedly. As a thought experiment, with this where it is a short train ride and a short walk from Randalls, got Yoga nearby in midtown, YMCA, the bars, and the foodhalls this is a place where maybe in another city the parking would be outsourced or the actual provided parking would be minimal. Its a nice spot. I do own a car though, so if I lived there I would definitely park it somewhere, so I'm not trying to be hypocritical, but eventually I think I'd be like "hmmmmm, do I really need this now?" (especially if the loss of the car payment helps alot, which it would).
  10. X.R.
    Thought this was going to be CVS or something when walking by it until I checked this thread. 😅 This is one of the few developments where I kinda question the amount of parking spots. Its right on the light rail, and the people who live here probably will work either in DT or Med Center. You can take Lamar on a bike to the bayou and then to the Heights or the Park or to school at UHD. Still, exchanging a parking lot for 200+ units that aren't SUPER LUXURY like some of the other spots in DT/Midtown is a win. Need more stuff like this. I don't think you really get the kind of development, the cafe's and what not, that people clamor for until you have people at multiple price points in a market, but I may be wrong.
  11. X.R.
    I'm at the point where I'm wondering if they checks just haven't cleared the GC's because they have the hallmarks of the type of projects I've been around where funding comes in spurts. Then when funding does come, they throw everyone at it as fast as they can generating unneeded overtime bills. You'll see people working late night/overtime and then nothing for a month in good weather. Lol, and people think i-45 is going to be done in 5 years or whatever. The crazy part is that decent portions of 288 has been done for a while, they just can't tie everything together.
  12. X.R.
    Yeah it is going over OST because there is going to be that bridge that they showed in the video, the one with the bikes and people and autonomous cars. What kind of underrated is that they are building a pedestrian friendly way of getting from the bayou/TMC North/Hermann Park to OST without, you know, dying.
  13. X.R.
    They just need to toss a pilates/crossfit/barre place in there and I think developers could kinda just dust their hands off, in addition to the Montrose collective, and know that most residents would never leave the area ever again (people would just request to work from home).
  14. X.R.
    I just said "oh my good god" out loud to that. This plus the Montrose Collective is too much for my brain to process. This could be real right? Like, maybe real? Is there a gofundme to help them out?
  15. X.R.
    They had 4 of those rotating concrete trucks parked there early this morning. It seems like they were sending concrete up onto the top of the building since they had one of those daddy long legs-concrete mover that I've seen in pics of other construction sites. They've been moving super quick, rain or shine. They really want to meet that deadline.
  16. X.R.
    La branch is getting worked on as we speak. I'm not sure if they are done paving or putting in new crosswalks, but they have been hard at it.
  17. X.R.
    Those look kind of like the David Weekly townhomes you see in Midtown and the Heights. I ....like it? Alot of people focus on apartments and condos coming in the loop, but seeing such tight townhome in-fill is just as good if not better because it shows that Houston residents can embrace a house that isn't a 2500 sq foot house on a fifth of an acre. And it shows full families moving into these areas. Exciting!
  18. X.R.
    Thats how you know they are going to be serving the best food and potentially have some late night snacks.
  19. X.R.
    First, the city made Main and its surrounding areas nicer so attorneys could enjoy their brand new civil and criminal courthouse and tap into some great drinks and food pre, during, and post trial. Now they are putting in this park so going to the federal courthouse will be a relaxing experience and help attorneys get their mind right before going to court. I dunno which law firms and attorneys have been donating to make this possible, but god bless them!
  20. X.R.
    My god, I haven't thought about Bayou Center in years. Remember when they would run all those lame clubs out of there? I agree, an Alamo Drafthouse downtown within a 10-15 min walk from the light-rail would destroy worlds. The market would be downtown/midtown/third ward/second ward/east downtown residents, your 100k downtown workers some of whom may want to catch a date/movie at Alamo before going home, and the constant influx of people at those hotels. The potential reminds me of the sawyer heights Target, where you go there on a Wednesday night at 8pm and you're like how are they out of dove soap (actually happened to me before). Just mind-boggingly busy.
  21. X.R.
    Yeah I went to the November meeting and do live and own a place in the neighborhood and it is a bit of a mischaracterization . MPNA really, really wants to execute this Caroline Pedestrian-friendly Promenade vision of theirs (basically making Caroline this pedestrian-biking-running friendly street from the park to 59), which I think is a good thing but they are a bit narrow-viewed when it comes to that since I think in their mind this should solve the needs for bike lanes and other things the city wants to do in the area. I do understand why the Museums feel that way about the parking situation, the wait and see, but to be honest, its not like the areas around the train are being utilized now anyway. Everyday I go home and I'm like, can we get rid of the empty parking lots and build a multi-story garage with GFR plsssssss. I don't really understand the residential buffering thing, but I am a lot younger than my neighbors. Its almost like they're scared of something, when they should in fact embrace that this pocket of residential area could become some of the densest in the city if they just let it (its well on its way now with the apartments by the park, Southmore, boone manor, the new condos, and potentially the X if it gets built). And they just got their parking ordinance passed (got the letter in the mail) so I thought that has been solved? I always thought they wanted to be like old heights, but its more and more like they want to be west U.
  22. X.R.
    By November? What in the what? That is fast. Also, Gensler and Harvey just lining up job after job and grinding these ambitious timeframes to try and get this work done. Its great that such a worthy cause and organization is getting the space it deserves.
  23. X.R.
    Mann owns all that space? However long he's had it, he's going to get a heck of a pay-day. New, state of the art medical space close to the the med center but not directly in it so their patients can find parking a bit easier and it has #views? He's going to to be fighting off tenants who have been rotting away on south Fanin and other "close but not quite in the med center" office buildings with a stick. The asset and land only goes up as the Ion development matures. And incredibly he actually cares about what he's building and what it looks like. Like @Luminare said, having one consistent, maybe a little vain, vision that actually cares is exciting. The one thing is that the museum district, outside of Zaza and that motel/hotel across 288 on binz, doesn't really have a hotel space. Which is an intriguing part the proposed tower. I always wondered why the MD didn't have more hotel/motels. When I have friends visit and they stay in that area or in Midtown, its usually through Air BnB at the Southmore or townhouse in Midtown.
  24. X.R.
    The long wait is over: https://abc13.com/traffic/bagby-street-remodeling-construction-set-to-last-until-2021/5829293/ Construction on Bagby is supposed to start this Saturday, January 11. I don't know how Nature feels about that, since Houston is supposed to have severe, crazy Houston weather on Saturday, but at least its starting now! I did not know it includes an upgrade to the drainage system and such in that area. We're going to have all these separate bike/pedestrian lanes and pocket parks across the city after this, Houston just needs a way to link East Downtown/Midtown to the Lamar/Bagby Spine.
  25. X.R.
    Had a client in real estate the other day mention that he can't remember the last time there were so many cranes within the 610 loop. He said mayyyyybe 06-07. Then we joked that its still 5 cranes less than Austin at any given time. As a younger person who remembers old DT and old 3rd ward, these pictures are nuts. Thank y'all for them.
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