X.R.

@Paco JonesIt gained a floor since your March post!

For this part of Richmond, can we call this development baby steps toward what Tirz1 wants?

6 hours ago, wilcal said:

The answer evidently is yes, but the issue is that the distance between floors is pretty tight so it would make for some low ceilings. Clearly it is just valuable enough to not tear down.

I've actually heard multiple developers say its just cheaper to build new in comparison to what that building needs. But like you say, its not so f*ed that the tear down has happened yet.

For possible suitors of this program, I would look at office spaces that haven't been updated in the last 5+ years. Just keep going back until you hit some poor sap building with a subpar lease rate. The gap between A and B/C in terms of design and amenities just seems to be widening. 

1 hour ago, Andrew Ewert said:

There already is one shortly before Wheeler. It's what I currently have to use. As a pedestrian I can tell you it does very little to inspire confidence. HAWK signals are pretty horrible from an information design perspective. Most drivers are only sort of tangentially aware of what they're really supposed to do with them and I've watched people speed through them countless times.

The placement of that HAWK also causes a bunch of problems as it often conflicts with traffic backed up at the Wheeler light, and together with the fact that parking is allowed on Fannin, turns that whole area into a visibility nightmare.

I knew something was there, didn't know that was a hawk signal. I don't think its ever been activated while I've taken Fanin (usually late, late afternoons or weekends). Probably should be a light if I'm being honest, given the speed people pick up on Fanin. The HAWK by the museums have people complaining on reddit/twitter all the time about people not stopping and that's in an area where people do actually walk so cars at least know there are pedestrians in the area. Can't imagine a HAWK on Fanin would actually work.

The museums have a tunnel, thats a cool idea @Sanjorade. Or the street could lose a lane, which, given how much money the Ion is spending and the business it'll generate for the city I'm sure if suggested would happen. 

5 hours ago, Andrew Ewert said:

As someone who works at Ion, the only part about this sucks and appears to have no planned solution - walking from the parking garage to Ion in the rain. It's a problem with the current temp lot, and the garage will be even a block farther away. It also sucks having to cross a busy Fannin twice a day at rush hour. I get there will be a whole campus this garage is servicing, but having it so inconveniently located to your flagship building is kind of a bummer.

Ah well, at least now that things are starting to cool down a bit I can go back to biking.

At some point I wouldn't be surprised to see them put in a HAWK pedestrian crossing somewhere. Or add a light for the street between the apartment and the garage. The light is a little problematic because its so close to the light by Wheeler. Fanin, as much as I love it for letting me gun it down the street (its my street of choice for leaving Midtown/DT), has a speed problem that I'm sure the Ion group will eventually look to fixing, which should help you when you leave the garage and walk. Can't have high end cars leaving that garage during a special event just to get smashed by an Altima going 55.

The Post is a lesson in what having a good marketing and networking team can do you for your business. You can tell they hustle and grind to add incrementally (the drone show is a good example) to a foundation they are continuing to build on. From a business standpoint there are a lot of ways this could have went sideways, and it still can, but so far they have really put together an attractive package. And more than half of building is still empty!

Having just got back from the west coast, this is the type of development you'd see in a city with a strong tech scene (or is it just that all of the west coast cities have strong tech scenes). The longevity for those developments comes from people going there for the vibes, opening the laptop, doing some work, maybe eating, definitely drinking, and checking out whatever is going on for the day. 

We've had a number of buildings go up, particularly around the Galleria (and I guess Allen Parkway too?), that incorporate in some way those...fins? Naked-looking balconies? Is that what's all the rage? They make the building look like what we thought, in films, was futuristic back in the 1960s. I don't dislike it, I'm just trying to figure it out.

Can we all pour one out for that medical building before we move on to the towers? Everyone and their mother in the healthcare community kicked the tires on that one. In the end the building was just a tad bit too old, and the price of land was just a tad bit too high. And a lot of people tried to make it work. It was kind of in the in-between: too big to be an ASC/specialty hospital and too small/weirdly put together to fit the ambitions of the mid-major healthcare people looking for a signature hospital without a good amount of reno. So when we're wondering about what it will be, it will most certainly be something big and tall otherwise private equity-type pockets would have gutted it and it would be some type of medical space by now. 

On 8/17/2022 at 11:51 AM, EllenOlenska said:

So I think the building is great. I'm very high on it. One thing that I keep thinking of is that even for Houston, even for that area it seems a little private, a little pulled back from the street. I'm not going to pretend to know or presume on the foundation's public or privateness but even then, I'm afraid the building will be lovely and (despite some of its renderings) from many spots difficult to see. 

If I was them, I'd be balancing my need for privacy of the faithful vs inviting the public. Its a fine line but I think they are balancing it well. Whether the sightlines make for easy viewing, I'm unsure, but I know it will be very, very busy. They will have a good presence in the area. Their population here is comparatively large, and other Muslims will 100% utilize this space as well.

This has fortress-elements, but I don't think in their case its a Houston-specific issue. If you check their Canada-based centers they have similar, more recessed layouts for what I can tell from google maps and the images. And if they do have a sizeable pedestrian presence, as I alluded to above, it further detracts from the fortress element. The layout makes sense, its a bit of a campus, and if I was going there for programming that spoke to my faith or heritage I don't want cars zooming down Allen pkwy to be in the background. Enough land was there to both add to the city at large and to Ismaili community, which is what I think they are trying to do. 

Big trash. I'm not usually part of conservation HAIF, but those houses have personality. This has absolutely none. You can put retail here that doesn't just suck. I'm sure they are going with overkill for the parking given how little parking there is for the other businesses on Shepard. Increases the value of the retail piece, in my mind.

17 minutes ago, Amlaham said:

Isn't there going to be a live wall on the garage? (garden on the sides of the garage)

Its on all sides, I thought, based on the renderings. That's what I assumed the small holes were for.

Re: Methodist joining the Ion, two things. First, I think its what we'll see from the giants around town. Pick up a small footprint there so you can tap in when you want to and its a selling point for attracting fellows, new employees, and such. Second, to me its noteworthy in the fact that it shows there will be some synergy between what TMC is trying to build and the Ion. TMC has been so closed off to the commercial, entrepreneurial side of things for so long that its kind of big that Methodist is beginning to engage this way.

On 8/6/2022 at 12:24 PM, JBTX said:

Y'all, STCL is never going to get rid of their parking, sorry. The students have nowhere to park. The two tiny lots aren't enough for even a third of the school's students. Attempts have been made to get the board to approve the construction of a garage on the faculty lot, which is much bigger, but it routinely gets dismissed.

We'll all be deep in the cold, cold, ground before STCL gives up those lots.

STCL is so weird. They are a private lawschool charging big boy bucks and they can't build a parking garage. Their regents/board must still not believe in downtown, and that this development is cyclical, thus the street parking and the random, non-STCL lots they force the students into will never go away. Nice library though, I really enjoy doing work there from time to time. 

Have been flying out of Hobby lately and its honestly much better than it was even 5 years ago. Good amount of store fronts, decent food options, and my god is their Clear/TSA Pre lines efficient. From parking to gate, it was 16 mins. I'm sort of proud of where Hobby is right now, its a fine airport that can really get people in and out. Only complaint is the baggage area that is from 1950, and the lack of efficiency there [its a bit slow] stands out when compared to the rest of the airport. 

We did IAH early this year, and it was miserable. Construction pains is an issue, and understandable, but getting through their security line seemed like much more of a hassle. Plus, it just feels...sterile. 

3 hours ago, Urbannizer said:

They are trying to sell the building 😭

https://images1.loopnet.com/d2/pPhuvPt2USxRfT5bKtWQnmpnopY1XTNXCowLES2UVW4/TheMatrix.pdf

The real building looks nothing like the illustration looooooooool. 

However, if those rent rates are for real...I would live there. And if the insides look like the illustrations I would honestly really think about it. Its a value-play, people. 

5 hours ago, Tim F said:

You clearly don't live in the neighborhood.  The Boone Manor development was a nightmare, damaging houses, creating truck traffic at 5am on weekend mornings, and filling yards with trash for two years.  This project is going to destroy Lucille's, add 1,000+ daily car trips on roads that simply aren't designed to handle it, and finish off this part of the museum district as a nice place to live.  Yes, it looks damn cool, but it has no business being in this part of town.  

The above responses aside, I live in neighborhood, and yeah the noise sucked, the dust from the construction sucked, the damage to our grass sucked, centerpoint messing up our power sucked, etc. But now, I haven't noticed an increase in cars, noise, or really anything that I was told comes with a development like this. To the point that I'm somewhat worried about Boone Manor's lease rate. I have noticed, when its not hotter than hell outside, are more neighborhood walkers in the area, more people with small dogs holding full stem wine glasses (I know that typically means gentrification but what do you call it for an area like Museum District?), large sidewalks, light at night when I'm walking my dog, etc. It's gonna suck for Lucile's but they'll be fine. They made it through Covid. And with a bunch more people across the street, they may be busier than ever.

I loved old lady Boone but cmon, at the hostel on that property they had like two rando fires in the middle of the night within 6 months, it was very dark, and people were coming and going all times of night. 

I laughed looking at those pics because of how different this is to what was there before, and how reflective it is of a different mindset by COH regarding develop priorities. 

I wish it was a bit more green, but that looks like a heck of a lot of tree coverage for a new park so people can mosey up to chill from the outset without being cooked alive because of the concrete [unlike a certain midtown park]. The design choices kind of elevate the space, the yellow bricks look great, and COH deserves some recognition for using the same pattern they used at Bagby Street. Seems like a big win.

On 5/9/2022 at 1:00 PM, bobruss said:

Maybe thats why Wonton is leaving. They probably sold the property to a developer who will build a new mid rise there. Just speculating. You've got HCC on the south end and a straight shot from downtown for lunch business. I guess you could look to the west side of Midtown on Bagby since they did this same thing over there.

In Caroline street's and Midtown's current iteration, a facility like this makes sense in Stafford, but does not make sense where it currently is. I'm assuming bob's comment is what happened. The plan was probably for Wonton to be on the land only as long as it takes to get a great deal. Now they probably got a great deal. I'm going to guess this will eventually get developed into multifamily. 

On 7/15/2022 at 10:43 PM, bobruss said:

So it looks like they intend to take out the two houses west of the Rothko for the meditation garden and moving their offices and archives to Sul Ross,

That makes a lot of sense. So essentially it's one long park with the Menil at one end and the Rothko at the other. Perhaps they would consider taking Mulberry out from Sul Ross to Branard eliminating the street between the two buildings, and create a continuous open space. Besides less traffic would be a good thing in that neighborhood.

That short strip of street between the two doesn't serve to do anything other than allowing cars to not to have drive around the site to get to the other streets. I bike around it often, and I rarely see cars utilize it, and when I do, its always awkward because of pedestrians walking, biking, roller blading and then the car has to dodge other cars pulling out of their parking spot on the main street, etc. So you are right, that would make a lot of sense. But can they just demolish a street? 

@hindeskyPower line coming down and getting buried, or its just going to get re-routed? I know centerpoint told Boone Manor a crazy number to bury the power lines.

I have two commercial/residential real estate buddies who are still...skeptical that this is happening. Its very weird. I'm like, yo its gonna be 40-something floors high and both go on rants about the Caydon project and the Travis' profitability. 

2 hours ago, tangledwoods said:

I was not expecting Skanska to bring out curtain wall with that much detail, depth and down right beauty!!!  Their past projects have all been a fairly conservative and simple facade designs but this is amazing.  It looks like they finally decided to build themselves a trophy tower.

Tangled, I think I've seen you reply to construction questions in the past:

Don't they typically test the glass before putting it on the building? It seems like they are moving fast, doesn't it?

3 hours ago, cspwal said:

The original midtown to galleria route down Richmond through montrose would probably have rivaled the redline in ridership. 

Isn't the only difference that it goes down to Westchase at greenway? That isn't terrible. 

If I can get to the Galleria on this thing in 25-30 mins from the Wheeler Transit Center, I feel like thats a big win. 

On 7/5/2022 at 3:59 PM, Ross said:

Jordan's court hears Class A and B misdemeanors. He can hardly be responsible for the public safety crisis. That might, possibly, fall on the District Court judges that hear felony cases. Misdemeanor bail was completely messed up, with many defendants  who couldn't make bail spending more time in jail than if they had pleaded guilty on day 1.

This. Misdemeanor courts are not the part of the bail system that people publicly lament. Even if a felony gets plead to a misdemeanor, thats still in a court that has original jurisdiction over felony cases. As @Rosssays, many misdemeanor courts actually hold people longer than their eventual jail sentence may require. Its weird to talk about bail and not also talk about Ogg, since her office is the one that is presenting the court with what they think is reasonable bail for these individuals. Yeah, judges make the final decision, but its her office that dictates the guidelines her ADAs follow. So if they are always going for the max or above what they know the judge likes to give [and they know these judges since they operate in their court every day], and the judge basically utilizes a baseball arbitration type mindset where they go along with the closest suggestion to what they believe is fair which will be defense counsel's suggestion since the ADA comes in so high, then its partially on Ogg too. Bail is a complicated subject with many factors. I do hate how its often reduced to four word sentences stating "it is X's fault."

It feels like TxDOT is just begging to spend money at this point. 

Glad the jury building and the square are getting love. Buuuuut, the Crim building looks like a cyborg from a movie where someone is killed and they wake up and suddenly they have a digital left eye and a robotic arm. 

28 minutes ago, Texasota said:

I... what? What exactly is this? 

Your questions are my directives: 

2 hours ago, dbigtex56 said:

I suspect that security guards for the apartments use "selective enforcement" standards when it comes to who's allowed to use the park.
It's a difficult situation. On one hand if it's a public park, the public should be allowed to enjoy it. On the other, the street people who bathe in fountains, openly smoke reefer, and harass passersby for cigarettes and money don't create a welcoming atmosphere, either. 

They really need to just start over with that space. The ping pong tables make no sense as mentioned before, the benches are terrible and incredibly hot, and that parklet as @editor mentioned just radiates heat. The fountain is dumb. Make it a small dog park with some area for people to picnic under some shade if they choose to and call it a day.