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X.R.

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Everything posted by X.R.

  1. X.R.
    The drawings look great, and it really shows just how much space is going to be available for lease for retail/food. Seems like a good amount of space. Its just funny how these developers are seemingly taking advantage of the clientele that frequent the arts district, when alot of HAIF'ers might have thought it was obvious. With the Jones plaza reno, you'll have two greener spaces where they used to be none back in the early 2000's, and an incredible amount of food options with the newly opened food halls. If you're someone moving to Houston with a good amount of disposable income and a preference for urban living, this development and some of the others around it would probably be near the top of the list. You have the Met nearby for exercise, the parks/green spaces, the food, and new HEB that opens tomorrow on Washington. You could...actually live in, and enjoy, that area without having to travel too far for day-to-day needs, which is something I don''t think I could have said in 2005.
  2. X.R.
    Hmm, they had previously stated Q1 2020, I wonder why they moved the opening date up. Pressure from the HEB opening on MacGregor, maybe? Regardless, this is great news, just in time for the holidays!
  3. X.R.
    https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Houston-philanthropist-to-fund-Jones-Plaza-remake-14498074.php "Lynn Wyatt, the famed Houston socialite and philanthropist, on Monday announced a donation of $10 million to the city to transform Jones Plaza, a long-empty space in the Theater District." Its going to be called the Lynn Wyatt Square for the Performing Arts. Seems like this project got the kick in the butt it needed to kinda get some movement on it. edit: I'm sitting here and comparing the old jones plaza to the new drawings, and it really shows how much Houston has changed in terms of the direction the city is going. The facelift in 2001 cost 6.5 million and added a little greenery while modernizing the space, but added more concrete. Now you have 10 million to do the opposite, which is get rid of quite a bit of the concrete and add much more green space. Funny how that happens.
  4. X.R.
    Yeah, I don't see them ever getting that full unless some major stuff moves in afterwards on westheimer. Maybe a good comparison is that Shake Shake. It has a large lot for its size (it seems) especially when compared to the lot shared by blacksmith and hay merchant. The Shack's lot is like half full at most on busy days. Went last night at 7 and it was a quarter full but a ton of people eating, so obviously they all did not get there by car. Its actually pretty forward thinking, because now they have all this parking just in case the area explodes in terms of development (it already is, but just more) instead of having a bunch of surface lots. Lol that is a ridiculous statement. "people care about the housing of the concrete they park on"
  5. X.R.
    This morning they came through and wrapped the fence in a green sheath, so you can't really see whats going anymore. And there is a huge pile of junk on the property now, in the corner. Seems like something is afoot.
  6. X.R.
    Would have to agree with this. An industry friend worked on/is working on a building that will/does contain a whole foods and he said including them in a build is a massive headache. They need all these advance metrics to judge whether the business will be successful. Just having a certain amount of people in the area is like the lowest hurdle. They look at traffic patterns, street traffic, rent growth, current rents, 5 year outs for a bunch of metrics on the type of resident currently in the area, debt in the area, etc. If they built there, it means they've vetted the area for a loooong time. I'm sure HEB does the same. If either builds, they will be successful, it just a question of how successful. His exact words about this project was that the WF is "transformative" for the area, because the clientele and inevitable foot traffic will attract other businesses. But also expressed surprise that Pearl convinced them of the build.
  7. X.R.
    The Macy's in the Galleria and the one in Baybrook, back when my sister worked there two years ago, were routinely in the top 10 for revenue in the Nation. So unless Macy's is super duper F'ed, then I'm assuming they'll be around for a while to come. Sucks about Forever 21, but their clothes really sucked in terms of quality. You guys gotta hope for a Target, that would solve all the problems (their clothes are better than Forevs 21, in my opinion). But I hear Target prefers to own the property of the building so theres that.
  8. X.R.
    Is this related to this building?
  9. X.R.
    Well, keeping it "mid-rise" is the desire of the Museum Park Neighborhood Association (do they even cover that part of the neighborhood?) and prolly got them out from under their whining. If its 8-9 story, with no retail/cafe I feel like thats going to be out-dated, just in terms of useage of the land, in like 10 years. They have access to so much traffic that anything they put in would at least get a good amount of eyeballs. Boone Manor, which is in the middle of townhomes, is gonna be 12-13 and have an on-site cafe. Shenanigans.
  10. X.R.
    If you've toured any medium/big startup HQ in Austin, Boston, SF, or Seattle this basically what you're greeted with upon entering the door. That is Square, btw. I think its actually a cool, ingenious use of the space.
  11. X.R.
    I think thats a valid point and question, and Hanover Montrose is tempting, but when comparing the two its the lack of needing a car to do shit that really pops out. I think Hanover montrose needs a Bcycle station, tbh, to get you to the bars down Westheimer. You can walk to Disco Krogers and back, which is great. But when that Whole Foods at Pearl opens, the Caydon peeps will be 7 blocks/streets away, and there's already that (crappy) Randalls. If you enjoy going to any sports games, Midtown on the rail is better than Montrose. The bars are an easy walk to in midtown, but more importantly, you have better day-to-day, cheap food in Midtown than you have closer to the Hanover. Cali sandwhiches, Les Girval, Luna y Sol, etc. Downtown is a distant third cause it has the food and bars, but no grocery store, and at night you don't see nearly as many people walking around as you do in Midtown. I dunno, I'd move somewhere on the rail line in Midtown. There are more homeless as you get towards the greyhound station on Main, but they're existence doesn't bother me, so 🤷‍♂️. If you're a luxury developer and anywhere near bikeable areas (I think Midtown is pretty bikeable) I would think its pretty poor form not to offer rentable bikes to your people. Easiest thing to do is put in a Bcycle station. The Boone Manor people in Museum District during their presentation said they already secured a rentable bike situation for their lessors because their development is on the eventual La Branch/Austin bike lanes.
  12. X.R.
    That area of Midtown is starting to get some sorely needed love. I love cycling in that area because of the general lack of fast cars and residentialness of it (makes for easy riding) but damn does it have a lot of empty building/lots. I think its a good sign for Midtown that small, seemingly forgotten buildings are getting in line for quick-ish refurbs, instead of getting torn down completely and thus taking a years to fill that space, to get the space back on the market.
  13. X.R.
    Uhhh, that looks really great. And its pretty cool that they are using that concrete area. And yes, I believe from the designs that its that lower area. That pic does draw a bit of attention to the place right in front of it though...😂.
  14. X.R.
    If you want to try it out, San Antonio (Primo) and Austin (Capital Metro line) have BRT. Austin's BRT sucks because its out of sync with other buses, because it is so "rapid" the timing is off with other buses. Also, it doesn't link up to other popular bus stations, so its almost like an isolated rail line. As a people mover, its great, but as a piece of their public transit, it kinda sucks. Once you take it in Austin (its true BRT, with ability to change lights) you understand why its likened to rail. The traffic it used to cause at like 2pm when the driver changed a light was greeeeat (not really). This coming from a person who used to take it cause I worked in the Austin downtown metro area. At least Houston is doing it right(?) because that BRT will take to you a bus station where you can easily catch other buses.
  15. X.R.
    Lanier's Wiki page had this as one of this core philosophies: "That his administration had to improve the city’s infrastructure, particularly the inner city, and bring it to the level of the more affluent suburbs." I was too young to remember him at all. But that is funny. Downtown musta been real rough in the early to mid 90s.
  16. X.R.
    If they install BRT, it has to be to the same level as Uptown's improvements. Its funny, because its the only one in town, but everyone will hold the BRT to that standard, not understanding that the Uptown organization poured mooooney into making that route look great (it's actually amazing, I walked to lunch for the first time yesterday with minor sweating because of the trees). So if you get Uptown-style street development along with BRT...gamechanger. Walkability increases and general aesthetics improve. Uptown spent money to basically convince well-to-do people that taking a bus isn't ghetto. No Uptown-style and its a fancy bus that one will use, and no walkability.
  17. X.R.
    "Whereas: METRO ridership peaked in 2001 and has stagnated since, despite double digit population increases in the METRO system area, AND, the green and purple RAIL lines, which opened in 2015, still carry fewer riders on an average day than nine of Metro’s main bus routes, and" lol. I don't doubt their research, but its like "lets point to these three rail lines that have been limited by political pressure as to where they could expand to" as proof that it doesn't work. Very snake eating its tail-ish. I am 1000% certain that if Houston had the DART as I said earlier, @102IAHexpress would be happy. Unfortunately, Houston never had that chance, whether its Metro's fault, the Mayors' faults, the rain's fault, my mom's fault, or anything/anyone else's fault. I just want a fast, 30 min ride to Hobby, and something like 45 mins to IAH, and something similar for the Woodlands, all from DT. However that is achieved, Rail/BRT/Flying Cars/A Single Lane on a Highway Dedicated to buses, doesn't matter. I just want it to be public transit. Then we can evaluate it and see what works for Houston. With those three routes, I think it would solve a lot of the Metro hand-ringing. Edit: And I feel like those three requests with their timelines aren't obnoxious when compared to other cities. At least based on the travels I could afford with my measly, millennial budget.
  18. X.R.
    Wow at Blodgett and Cleburne. I made the comment that they are using certain areas as test sites for this type of infrastructure, and I still think thats true to an extent. So much of it is coming out of third ward (and for good reason, alot of people use bikes in third ward). Both streets you mentioned are very wide, and actually pretty empty usually. Currently, they make for pretty pleasant street biking already, so protected lanes would be really over the top, in a good way. I'm assuming they want people to take Cleburne/Blodgett to the Columbia Tap, and then to the eventually completed Polk to get to East Downtown if they want to go enjoy themselves. At that point, yes you need something on the West side of Midtown to easily transport someone from East DT/Thirdwar to Downtown to Midtown by the bars. If thats the case, you basically have all areas covered except for Montrose, which is fairly, very glaring. I actually had some people give us shit for an early morning ride ( 4 of us staying on the bumpy, crappy portion of Westheimer closest to the curb) around 10 am in Montrose last weekend. A car with two couples honked at us, pulled into the side lane, all of which was fine with us until they then rolled down their window to yell at us at the light to stay on the sidewalk.
  19. X.R.
    Wait, so Grey could potentially take you from 3rd Ward/Eastern Downtown and drop you at Montrose's doorstep? I did not realize. That would be kind of a game changer, because as much as I love hanging in Montrose its kind of a pain in the ass to get there on bike from Midtown/Downtown. I would appreciate some protected lane somewhere in Montrose, and maybe across Allen Parkway, one can hope. Also, yeah, don't look at bikehouston, their website is pretty routinely behind, in terms of information, HoustonBikePlan.
  20. X.R.
    I know they told the museum district people 20 months or so, but still yeesh, thats a painfully long construction timeline. They had people out there this morning with yellow tripods and cameras doing work. Dunno what it was, but there were two crews out there. I guess this is beginning to move.
  21. X.R.
    October 2020 is pretty far out, and a little disappointing to be honest. Its been fairly dry the last couple of months, so I thought they would be flying through that building. I assume that they are doing all of the landscaping and gardens for the museum too because there's no way just that building alone needs 1 year and a month to be completed.
  22. X.R.
    "As of December, the submarket that encompasses Montrose, the Museum District and Midtown had seven apartment projects under construction, according to Houston-based ApartmentData.com. That area was second only to the Katy-Cinco Ranch-Waterside submarket, with 10 projects. As of May, there were 3,974 residential units proposed for the Montrose-Museum-Midtown submarket, the most of any submarket in the Houston area, per ApartmentData.com." Holy crap. That is craaazy amount of residential units for what seems like a small part of town. And Katy-Cinco Ranch-Waterside would make sense with all the development over there. And that comparison is nice, cause it really shows that this portion of town is competing, in part, with the growth seen in what I think is widely known to be one of the fastest growing parts of the H. I would cross post this to Downtown Apartment thread because while we're like "man, 400 units!" midtown/montrose/museum district is like "man, 4000 units!"
  23. X.R.
    The roof is now gone, baby gone. They really going after it. The endowment must have finally paid the subcontractors. 😂
  24. X.R.
    "Only going to be a bbq restaurant"?!?!?!?! Are you from Texas? BBQ is the most holy, this should be pinned to the top of the forum.
  25. X.R.
    Well, the are temporary. The armadillos are confirmed coming in, along with the green paint that they've already started. The green paint goes a long way. Plus, I think these type of markings, which are becoming more prevalent, is pretty clear: https://twitter.com/TyronMcDaniel/status/1171206705306226688?s=20
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