X.R.

From that angle, that isn't the prettiest collection of lots in Houston 😝

My goodness, Forney's portfolio is so varied and extensive. They're everywhere, lol https://forneyconstruction.com/forney-portfolio/

Seems like they've done things for different parks before and the Zoo, so that has to bode well for execution of the vision and timeline?

This looks like if Pitch 25 went full bottle service club.

Very DFW.

Unsure if thats the vibe in that part of the Heights.

Piggybacking off of @editor they have a blueprint in town: go through bray bayou just past UH and mimic what it looks like before the city trims the sunflowers/folliage. Its managed chaos, its beautiful, and peaceful. Its immediate mental relaxation. I kind of agree with editor, put in some of the natural bayou/gulf coast prairie-type greenery in first, and build around that like in that last Seoul picture. We don't need the social stairs yet, just a great path and organic places to chill, some great natural plants, and then add to it as it gets busy. 

Grateful for the vision, and that this may happen, but there are potentially better ways to do this.

Wow, completion within a year? That feels like they are definitely going 0-60 in no time flat. 

As ambitious as the timeline is, I'm hoping they can really stick to that.

Went for yoga one day and then their flea market on another with the kid and family over the last three weeks and I don't think there should be any handwringing about their ability to succeed. You had people looking at the art exhibit, the food hall was nutty, they were just absolutely packed by 11:45am, and yoga was ridiculously packed.

They clearly have a long way to go to fill in the empty storefronts with things like maybe grocers and butchers or some indoor axe throwing thing or some indoor kids play business, but they are attracting a ton of people on the weekends. I say they need to add that because I think there needs to be some complimentary "things to do" once you eat and hang out for a while on the roof. An adult attraction and a kids attraction would serve well, there were clearly parents who wanted to stay but the kids were antsy and there were adults without kids who wanted to continue the vibe and were kinda done with the roof but there wasn't an activity based business to keep them there. I can see why certain food stores might not work, but even Golfstromen (which was great, but its much more expensive than some of the other restaurants) was busy on both weekends. Stunning, tbh, and a lot of fun.

On 3/29/2022 at 11:03 PM, Houston19514 said:

From the article:  "Groundbreaking is April 2 and the project is expected to be completed in 24 months, weather cooperating."

So I'm assuming the park's improvements have been mostly funded if they had an event to celebrate it and its being reported by local media? I know their website had something to the effect of "join the donation efforts today" or something like that.

Their non-splashpad kids equipment in that space is old, but even so, one the weekends its packed to the brim with kids. But you don't see as many bday parties like you do at Levy, so I think that speaks to maybe the parent's feeling that the eating space isn't up to snuff in that regard. This improvement would make it the best kids park area in the loop, probably. Hermann is still my favorite park in the city since theres a bit of everything for everyone: good playground, ducks/geese, the train, Japanese garden, the rose garden, paddle boats, ginger Kale for food, the hill that everyone exercises on, jog track, link to the bayou for cyclists, etc. All that will get supercharged with this addition, and Hermann can't let Memorial get that land tunnel and do nothing 😅

21 minutes ago, august948 said:

You might be, but many, many will not be when election time comes.  As you missed above, energy independence was one of Trump's policies. For us and for Europe (see Nord Stream 2).  Biden has very publicly turned his back on that.  Now we're paying for his ineptitude and pandering to the left.  He's having to go hat in hand to Venezuela and to the Saudi's (who aren't taking his phone calls) to beg for more oil.  What an idiot.  Trump also highlighted that our nato allies weren't putting up the amounts they were obligated to towards their own defense.  Surprise, surprise, now they've suddenly seen the light.  And we need not mention that just having him in office lowered illegal crossings at the border and thus, not surprisingly, raised wages and employment for unskilled, mostly minority, labor in this country.

Not gonna get into the politics, but this did not happen in Houston. A lot of those people work in the oil industry by the port here in Houston as welders or tool makers or movers or general support at the port and for barges. When oil went down it cost people their jobs, and early to mid 2019 a lot of those people were let go, including some family members. Finding a job that paid what they made when doing their old job was mostly impossible. I'm talking like 18-21 dollars an hour. Then everyone wanted my fam, and their friends, to be handymen for apartments or office buildings but the pay was much lower, 12-14 dollars an hour, and most were part-time, so like 25-30 hours, but wanted them on-call like they were working 50-60 . Their old port jobs just fully came back like 7-8 months ago. 

Some people want to blame unemployment being robust for people staying at home, and quitting during the pandemic. But alot of the people you talked about lost their job here in Houston as late as August/September 2019 and those jobs just did not come back til oil rebounded. Its not in my wheelhouse, but I did help a lot of people appeal TWC decisions during the pandemic and was genuinely surprised by the amount of people who lost their jobs in mid 2019 and they never recovered. 

Those are sick. Only big, actual cities have those!!

The Galleria is slowly picking up an impressive resume of good food spots. It was not like that before, at least to my taste buds. Musaafer, fig and olive, Nobu (can be hit or miss), and Peli Peli/Mozambique are places I enjoy quite a bit (love the bar space in Peli/Mozam) and I think Del Friscos makes a very consistently good steak. I have not been to Joey but I hear its real good, especially for lunch. "The Galleria as a potential food destination for hometown Houstonians" was not on my bingo card.

The ol' galleria has come a long way from reverse happy hours at Kona Grill causing people to pick up domestic violence and assault charges. I was there for one or two of those rando fights, and I'll never forget the waitress telling us the reason their drink menu changed compared to the other locations (all they had towards the end of their run was beer and wine) was that people got too drunk 😂

Man, excited for this. Baldwin is cool, we used to bring our kid here but she kinda would finish playing quickly cuz the lack of varied playground equipment. Hopefully people will like this update.

Someone said this in another thread, but this is the type of stuff that creates neighborhoods. The kind of layering/improvements of formerly larger empty spaces.

On 1/24/2022 at 9:23 PM, ZRFkris said:

58 story tower still planned? 

Probably, but the ownership group got a lot of shit from the MPNA for shutting the surrounding streets down and for light pollution and noise from the construction. Dunno how they felt about that.

Gotta say, this thing looks cool from the street level.

18 hours ago, clutchcity94 said:

Should we place bets on when Hanover at the Ion will break ground? 2025? 😆

Maybe the surest lock of a bet on all of HAIF right now, lol. Its so Houston to discard the Midtown name for "Ion District" for the apartments/condos that will surely follow. And Houston reddit is going to get a whole bunch of posts with people acting like they just discovered Midtown 

Their security company was on site last night setting up what looked like cameras or something.

Multiple caterpillar-type small machinery was being parked as I went by, and they were fiddling with the tarp surrounding the hole in the ground. I'm assuming this means work has started. Which is nice since I think the garage will help tie Greentown and the Ion together, and alleviate any potential parking issues.

Speaking of parking, it seems like the Ion is getting busier, maybe someone who is a tenant can confirm. Driving by at 8:30 am just two months ago had the surface lot maybe a quarter full, but now its like 1/2-3/4 full with non-homeless people crossing the street at Wheeler and Fanin! What a difference 2 years has made for those few blocks.

@hindeskyfor that drainage, are they trying to get water to flow into the system faster?

I ask because as an additional reason for this taking so long, on top of the reasons listed in this thread, is potentially that they wanted to make as direct a connection to the large underground drainage pipes in the area. Did this area flood? The reason I bring it up is that when they corrected the big street dip on la branch in the museum area I was talking to the city contractors, and they said part of the reason some of the recent projects take a bit longer is because midway through the approval process for the la branch upgrade/fix, so about a year ago, the city looked at where water was flowing in each area around DT and decided to make as direct a connection as possible to the larger underground pipes. Thats why for the three recently redone corners in the museum district have grates/drains that look like the picture above. 

Just food for thought. I rode my bike through the area on Sunday, and man Midtown is going to have some significantly verdant areas after this is done.

I know there has been some hand ringing about gentrification in this area, and I have done quite a bit myself, but its projects like this that make me feel like the right spaces are being cultivated in Third Ward. 

Love that this is being restored, thank you all for this update. 

Have had clients kick the tire on the building. It has OR rooms and a sophisticated vent system. Functional medical property in Houston is at a premium, especially that close to the med center. If this gets torn down, the only thing that makes sense is a big vertical. Whoever buys it should just operate a COVID testing site out of it until its groundbreaking day if they tear it down, its basically turnkey for that purpose right now. @houstontexasjack any thoughts on potential development?

And yeah, the district real estate is hot right now, lol.

5 hours ago, phillip_white said:

Walked by yesterday and there was a parking attendant there who made several statements while referencing "my boss" and "the investors" so his information sounds reliable considering the movement we've seen on the lot.

The development in progress is for a food truck park that will include a bar, which should be open in the next 2-3 months. There are several quirky ideas they have that will be used to attract customers.

The multi-story building on San Jacinto is also being targeted for activation, but he didn't have any details on prospective uses or a timeline.

This is the type of organic, smaller business enabling growth you'd want to see. If this does happen, would be very cool and it helps add another node of development on that strip of Fanin, so instead of zoom-zooming people might slow down and smell the roses a bit and catch a bite to eat. 

You got a handful of medical offices opening or opened up near there, and this. I like where this is going, nice variety.

It was an incredibly idiotic statement, especially given his district which contains a) higher density than a lot of Houston and b) quite a few people who actually use bikes to get to work which anyone can see on the sidewalk when one drives around his district.

I do love what the city has done for all the neighborhoods that have bike lanes running through them, but District J needs them just as badly, if not moreso, than many of the neighborhoods that have them. Would love to know the number of people who don't use cars in his district to get to places. I would imagine it is higher than the Houston average, which would make his comments out of touch with his constituents. They deserve better. 

Yeah, I agree with @bobruss. It weird that people focus in on the effects of the ION, but don't realize that whats happening at TMC3 and here will extend the influx of newer-built homes you see on Holcombe/Braeswood up and outwards toward 3rd ward. They juuuust finished the beautification and street repairs around TSU and the bayou bridges have been or are being refreshed with pedestrian bridges, and you know those add to marketable "walkability" for those homes. Got the newest HEB around just down the block. Getting rid of a fenced off warehouse and replacing it with a new development with a big pond and all sorts of food and drink is going to do alot more for that area than some people think. You have some of the best bike riding/jogging amenities in the city. Alot of things are clicking into place. 

Anecdotally, the child care options in museum district and TMC are pretty full. Full enough that two of the existing institutions each opened a new location within the rice/museum/tmc area during the pandemic...and those are full now too. Its really only a matter of time.

That thing is a beauty, especially when considering the oaks. I'm not the biggest preservationist, but someone gotta figure out how to use this space without taking it all out 😬. Maybe a restaurant with a five year lease that alternates its theme every year? I'm just spitballing 😝

I'm sure the ownership group is mulling their options. I know finding and keeping tenants in the retail space just across the highway has been an up and down experience, based on what I've heard from clients (also, COVID's effects can't be downplayed on the foot traffic in the area) but with Chelsea having come online, Boone Manor coming online soon (.3/.4 mile walk), and the museums finally starting to get back to true pre-COVID types of foot traffic and programming, we probably will hear something soon. Its just too good a spot, with easy access to a busy road and so many pedestrians, to just let it sit and count on the land value increases to justify the investment.

Do we have any idea about the timeframe for any of the improvements? Do they have funding? I'm assuming not because I can't find any announcements.

I've kinda eagerly been awaiting this, and the only thing I've seen are little signs saying keep off the grass cuz new stuff is being grown there, and this new stuff is part of the future they are building. Or something like that. Either way, doesn't seem like much is going on. 

1 hour ago, samagon said:

that's a huge leap of faith considering how they've acted on this project so far.

well, despite some doubting the power of the lawsuits and the fed gov't, TxDot's hand's were tied and now are untied. The lawsuit hasn't been dismissed, just a stay while the parties work towards a resolution, and the fed eased up. Not sure how much of a leap it is when they both can re-tie TxDot's hands for certain portions of the project if they don't like what's happening. Which really should tell us that our elected powers that be are comfortable with mostly everything but the Eado part.

Now that the infrastructure bill has passed, can't they tap into some of that money for the cap parks? If they could, I think at least some of the angst would go away.