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X.R.

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  1. X.R.
    sorry @Triton, I didn't realize. The biggest entity that I knew of, that could afford some kind of lobying/media ,was Saint Arnolds. Once Mac starts sending out text messages about preventing this from happening to everyone who has ever bought furniture from him...its gonna be fun to watch. And @Nate99 any amount is too much. He's like the billionaire wives they were talking about, but instead of a lawn he has a massive parking lot.
  2. X.R.
    Saw this and thought of the thread, not completely downtown related, but does overlap:
  3. X.R.
    Those mock ups look boring and bland...which may help the residents feel safer about the development. Great job developer!
  4. X.R.
    A great laugh out loud moment. When read their first email, I did wonder why X Houston chose hotel ZaZa. I was like "damn, they are going all out, hope theres a free drink or something." But now we know why.😅 People probably had canceled their mid-afternoon tennis match to make this. 😂
  5. X.R.
    The Chronicle is reporting that it opens on the 28th of July. When this opens and the bar is well lit and available, it would be kind of a game-changer that area. At this point a person could stay there, go to finn hall for food, walk to the bars further down on main, take the train to the museums and park, and call it a weekend and be like "Houston's pretty cool." All without a car.
  6. X.R.
    Saw this on the twitter the other day and forgot to post it. Seems like the work will start soon (probably?). If a bike can get some protection at least from some part of Midtown into downtown, directly to the protected lane on Lamar, that would be earthshatteringly cool. From HHC to the park, the traffic is not bad, and you can definitely manage with a sharrow. But HCC to downtown, especially once you cross into downtown, is a bit more risky and a protected lane would make it easier for: HCC/Rice students, all the new residents moving into midtown, people in Museum district, people wanting to go from Hermann Park to downtown, etc. Minimal effort for maximum effectiveness.
  7. X.R.
    The Property Market Group, developer behind X Houston, will be holding a meeting at Hotel ZaZa, Imaginiation Board Room on July 23rd, from 6 to 7pm. I wonder if they got wind of all the whining and decided to have this townhall meeting. I'll probably go just to ask if we can get some retail, or something like a yoga studio, or anything really, on the first floor. If they say no, I'm gonna tell them that I hate the development and that I might protest outside the development 😁. In the words of my friend in commercial real estate "Its time to find out how many cat ladies live in the neighborhood and how many people will be watching your day to day construction just to complain."
  8. X.R.
    From Saturday. I like the lights, it’s eye catching in a classy, old school way. Its crazy how much this development and Camden has made walking around that part of midtown waaaay better/feel safer. Also, it seemed like they already had stuff in the lot in front of the building, where it’s fenced off. Tools and stuff from the current building or are they starting right away after everything is online with the apartments? Either way, very cool
  9. X.R.
    wow...that looks great. I guess they are opening for the new school year!
  10. X.R.
    An unsuspected challenger has appeared. Mac is definitely an opportunist, and he’s got the political/money muscle. It’s about to get interesting!
  11. X.R.
    Having spent a ton of time in montrose, it almost seems like they already don't have the same parking minimums as the rest of the city. Many nights, every parking spot is full for that expanse of montrose-westheimer down at least 5-6 streets to the west (except for that shake shake, thank god). I guess they do having minimums cause that HEB got a pretty decent parking lot, but generally it doesn't feel like any other part of the inner city (with its mix of people walking, biking, and limited parking spots). Is it already different or am I crazy.
  12. X.R.
    Its that development? Those look great. I ride my bike by there and always wondered how much it would take to live there. Old school Scott street near York to this...gawddamn. I used to do deliveries there as a teen in the 00's and even then, you could never imagine this going there.
  13. X.R.
    Sounds almost like the type of developments you see in New England. The old school three story, stores on the first floor, housing on the second and third floor. That would take a lot of "new psychology" for many a Houston resident. Although if you've ever lived in Midtown, some of those apartments share walls with bars and that is an interesting experience in itself. I'm sure they wouldn't let that happen here.
  14. X.R.
    Shhhh, its like the best kept secret of that area. I go up there 8pm-ish and theres barely that many people, while theres still a bunch of people milling around and looking at the statutes below. But that will be a fantastic place to see it. It looked like they had a decent part of the portion facing montrose up already, might try to snap a pic today or tomorrow.
  15. X.R.
    Didn't see this posted, it has a bit more information that the HChron article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/cynthialescalleet/2019/06/27/from-mail-to-mixed-use-in-downtown-houston/#7f92b5605da7 I didn't realize that because they utilized the tax credits or what not, they can't do the residential stuff: A residential component is not part of the mix, he said, because it is a landmark historic building and the project incorporates state and federal tax credits: “We were restricted from making large façade modifications which would have made it impossible to place residential units in the existing building.” At Preservation Houston, an advocacy organization, Executive Director David Bush said this property and project have been on the organization’s radar. “It would have been very easy to lose the post office," he said in an email. "These buildings are an age when they’re typically threatened. There are a lot of them, they don’t look modern anymore and they aren’t what most people think of as historic. “So we’ve got two challenges: Helping people understand that buildings from this era are architecturally and historically significant. And getting owners and investors to look at historic preservation as a viable alternative to Houston’s typical scrape and rebuild history of development.”
  16. X.R.
    The last three complaints don't seem like real issues, I'm glad its not earth shattering stuff that could really derail the project. But what does "not in the transit corridor" mean? Meaning, not near the rail? Its actually less than a 5 min walk from the museum district station going northbound so... My only thing is that the energy and internet infrastructure are both weirdly shitty for such a nice area (going toward the "gaining more info from CenterPoint" item). If the weather is pretty bad, you have a decent chance that you'll lose electricity for a while. And internet speeds in the area from all providers are fairly atrocious. I've had both centerpoint and at&t people remark about it. Maybe all this increased density means improved infrastructure, that would be nice.
  17. X.R.
    Uhhh thats alot of parking garages. Or am I reading that wrong? If they want to curry favor with the neighborhood they should make those green spaces into parks/play places for the neighborhood, knowing the types of people who live in that area.
  18. X.R.
    Oh hell yes, a juice place. Those kind of places are underrated, you always get a combo coffee shop, or some kind of lower effort food place (sandwiches) when transitioning to healthy stuff but juice places are kinda hard to come by. Its becoming a neighborhood! Also, you never realize how green Houston actually is until you fly in.
  19. X.R.
    I just sent a "hey I support the development, haven't been to the last few meetings, whats up" email and got a come to the next one because concerns have been raised type response. Nothing terrible, but not the arms wide open that I thought it would be. I don't understand what the concerns could be other than maybe traffic? But its basically right off of Binz soooo... Maybe noise from the building? Granted, I wasn't there for the bigger builds in the neighborhood, but the museums (the Holocaust one) with their constructions haven't disturbed me. I dunno.
  20. X.R.
    " to commit $100 million to the central 3-mile portion of the freeway rebuild, from Interstate 10 to Loop 610. " I don't think so? I think its just putting the downpayment on the total package. I don't think we'll get a feel for what the average Houstonian wants until the TV ads and stuff starts to make appearances en-masse. Most of my friends are like "what are you talking about" when I asked them about this, and some of those guys are cops (for the city). So theres that.
  21. X.R.
    I spoke too soon. I emailed the homies from the neighborhood association and...maybe they aren't as supportive as I assumed they would be. I don't really understand why, because the Southmore is pretty massive and I don't see anything bad stemming from it. In fact, they might be the only reason Java Lava Brew has such consistent business since people just stumble out of their place and fall into that coffee shop/bar/food place. Weird. But @thatguysly called it.
  22. X.R.
    @ekdrm2d1 I don’t think that will all be concrete, I think they are planting the same kind of brush down that way that they already have in the bayou if you go back towards TMC. At least that was my understanding based on the project plans. Yes, there will be a concrete path but the rest should be new green. and yes that area sucks when on your bike.
  23. X.R.
    Went by on the train last night. I think it looks...like they need something to kind of POP out at you. It kind of looks like they dusted off an old building, which in itself should have some charm to it (like some buildings in San Antonio), but when you're trying to revitalize attract people to an area that was used to be a bit slow, maybe thats not the best route to take. I dunno, it might look better once they take off all the protective stuff and reveal all of the outer space. If your're on or near the train lines, I would think you would want your place to stand out. Access to the rail is key for guests, so I understand why you would make it a hotel, but maybe theres value in making it...inviting/interesting to non-hotel guests. Hopefully this does that when the lights turn on.
  24. X.R.
    You bring up great points. The rent/land value will probably go up, given a few years of the rail being established. I think that the ability for the businesses in that area, most of which are mom and pop and non-franchise stuff, to reap the benefits of potential clients is at least something to consider as a potential positive in comparison to the higher rents. And you are right, there are bus stops there now, but, imagine not having to sit under a bad bus stop's awning but instead being able to walk to a train station with the kids to take them to downtown to a park, or further down towards hobby to see the grandparents. I admit its a selfish desire, and maybe others don't share that opinion. To me, it's a balancing act, the business increase/potential QOL increase vs potential land/rent increase, and one that hopefully comes out in the neighborhood's favor. If we go bus route, which is absolutely a possibility, it has to be well lit, clean, and not run-down. Make people feel safe at 8pm on a Saturday to use it. So give them Uptown BRT type spots, with maybe BRT running the same route, and I think you're on to something. That consistent connection, that same route, is key I would think. Actually, a great idea. Taxis work great, and they take cash; you're right too, you see a ton of them in that area. Ubers/Lyfts are kind of expensive, plus they come with requirements: a phone that can run the app, credit cards for payment, and easy access to email accounts to run your account. I dunno so much about that. Given that other suburbs get so much more attention, how crazy is it that potentially the first suburb to get rail is this one (assuming its voted on, and built). It'll be interesting for sure. And hey, if my millennial brethren can't find houses in "urban" areas, we got some 80k+ houses out here for sale. Theres a giant HEB, and they have market pop-up stuff on Saturdays, a home depot, best buy, whataburger, chinese buffet. Everything everyone wants when they live in other areas.
  25. X.R.
    I was just thinking what does jack think of this. I can't think of why there would be much in terms of pushback other than...is there no ground floor retail? That would help the neighborhood welcome them with arms wide open. It is a jaw droppingly beautiful rendering though. I wish the announcements would talk about style or say what was the inspiration for the design. That would be cool.
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