Amlaham

36 minutes ago, trymahjong said:

Heard a bit of COH council meeting- very gratified the "parking" portion of livable places was removed from discussion by Mayor Turner

Could you please explain what this means in layman's terms :)

Pattern Energy relocated its Houston Hub from downtown (32nd floor at 1201 Louisiana) to this building. They're occupying 21,000 sqft at the 2nd and 3rd floor, and have 150 employees that will be based out of this building.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:t_jKFZdy0bkJ:https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/pattern-energy-office-move-montrose-collective-18152760.php&cd=11&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari

According to Radom, the Montrose Collective is officially FULLY LEASED! This is exciting because I feel like other developers will now look at this development and use it as a blueprint for their future project since this is clearly a success! 

Is it possible that this Public Storage and the Public Storage across the street to consolidate? They're way to close each other. 

First demo, looks like its only for the garage in the back. Is it possible the development changed? 

34 minutes ago, 004n063 said:

Gonna throw out a possibly unpopular opinion, but here goes:

Non-native palm trees are dumb, and going out of your way to plant more shadeless trees is a telltale sign of landscape architects who have zero intention of using the space they're window-dressing.

I get what you're saying, but there are some palm trees that are actually native to Texas. You can actually see them growing out of nowhere on its own in Houston. I've seen them growing out of asphalt ground right next to a utility pole. I always see them sprouting from the grown in random places, even breaking through concrete/ asphalt coming from nowhere. 

Now in terms of how they look, I'm sure we can all appreciate how tropical palm trees look and feel. Some of the most famous picturesque streets in California and Florida are palm tree lined, same goes with other areas around the world. We legit have sooooooo much Oak trees, so I actually appreciate the change of scenery. 

54 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

Or 4 lanes of traffic plus a turn lane, but who’s cutting?  All of Westheimer inside the loop is slowly becoming more and more pedestrian-friendly.

Westheimer from 610 to Highland Village, Wesleyan to Buffalo speedway, and Shepherd to Bagby  is whats left to reconstruct and make a continuous pedestrian friendly street. We're soo close, yet soo far 

14 hours ago, Big E said:

Might as well ask if we are moving the prisons and courthouses too.

I mean.... the metro building will be demolished, so all that will stay is the parking. Didn't think it would be weird for them to move since it will basically just be a parking lot at that point.

So according to the north canal forum, this building demo wasn't related to the north canal project as it is not in the way of the future canal. 

Could mean something else is going to get built here?

Does this mean the metro bus parking will move all together? That would be a good location for a mix-use. 

1 hour ago, kennyc05 said:

 

I hope the ones around NRG get upgraded one day.

I know I'm asking for too much, but I realllllly wish Westheimer between 610 and Beltway 8 would move in the same direction. Its legit shopping center after shopping center for miles. It's sad because this stretch is one of the densest areas in town. I still see tons of people walking along Westheimer in the tiniest sidewalks between the 8 lane Westheimer and the sea of parking in front of strip centers. I'll probably go as far as saying, I see more people walking on this stretch of Westheimer than I do in midtown/ museum district, etc. Just this morning a cyclist was hit and killed on this portion of Westheimer. There is a person hit/ killed every month on that stretch of Westheimer :/ 

I think I found old renderings, thought it was very interesting since this same project (same name and address) was also on the Houston Planning commission in 2007 here: 

https://www.houstontx.gov/planning/Commissions/minutes_plan07/20070802.pdf 

https://www.condo.com/building/Casa-Di-Modena-HOUSTON-TX-77019-1683852

It makes me soo happy that Houston is finally starting to steer away from the traditional shopping centers/ strip centers! This looks great!

This building is actually visible from 59 when driving northbound near shepherd :)

Also, the Uniti building on richmond is also visible from 59 driving southbound!

4 minutes ago, kennyc05 said:

I'm going to be honest for the most part it is but once you get closer to the 45 interchange it's terrible the main Lane bridges need to be rebuilt as well as the whole interchange besides the new ramps that were just built.

I get you, I just don't like the idea of another "highway widening." I wouldn't mind some portions getting rebuilt, but I'm tired of TXDOT's solution constantly being "build more lanes"

Hopefully this plan falls through :) The highway is legit in great condition; I often drive on here. 

TXDOT is legit going to choke the crap out of Houston with the construction thats legit planned at almost every highway within the loop.  

4 hours ago, kennyc05 said:

I still don't understand how they're gonna do the parking situation.

Something tells me this is going to be a very cheap conversion. Maybe a new paint job and landscape but thats it. Might even leave the parking lot as is. I pass by this place all the time and it looks like they're moving at a really slow pace, or just don't plan on doing much. 

Idk I don't see this as a big loss, maybeeee even a win. IMO, their food felt very mediocre. I feel like the cajun food scene is a bit oversaturated. Also, not a fan of a Mardi Gras theme for a restaurant, kinda tacky IMO. It's like having a Christmas themed restaurant. 

Side note, a healthy yet good restaurant is always welcome :)

Health is wealth :)

4 hours ago, editor said:

Is "urbanist shopping district" the new "lifestyle center" which was the new "strip mall?"

I don't think that the River Oaks District has any advantage in security over the Galleria.  It's open to the street, and anyone can walk in.  The Galleria literally has doors that people have to go through to get in.  The problem is that Simon is too cheap to staff the Security department properly.  There should be a security person at each door.

There was a note in the Chronicle a couple of months ago about the city sending more HPD officers to patrol the Galleria.  The Galleria is private property — it shouldn't have HPD on patrol.  It should hire enough of its own security to do a good job, so that taxpayers don't have to fund its security, and HPD officers can work where they're needed more.

As for the tug-of-war I mentioned, it's not speculation.  I know someone who was involved with the process of a high-end overseas brand trying to decide between Houston and Dallas. 

This is soooooo true, i've never thought about that. The Galleria should definitely hire more security.... and they should be bigger/ more active. The ones they have now look like they were hired off of Facebook marketplace. 

This already has a huge presence from McGovern Centennial Gardens/ Herman park! 

Wasn't the walkable places committee/ TOD ordinance supposed to stop developments from making an entire street driveways? I wouldn't call this development walkable if the only walkable portion is in between backyards. Thats like calling garden style apartments walkable because there's a courtyard in the middle. You can even see the foreshadowing of cars blocking the sidewalks as depicted in the renderings 😂 

Notice how the townhomes surrounding this property has their driveways hidden, much people from this property and other properties can utilize their sidewalks to get to where they need to without having to walk past an entire street of just driveways. Also, from a car driving perspective, if you have guests visiting you with their car, they cant park on the street because now every one of those lots on the streets have their own private driveways. Based on the plat, it looks like these "boulevards"/ backyard alleys were created so that more homes could be stuffed in to the lot while using the word "walkable boulevard" to attract tenants. My honest opinion 🤷‍♂️ 

On 9/13/2021 at 1:53 PM, wilcal said:

On the consent plat activity for this week. Lot between Lamar/Dallas and Ennis/Palmer:

 

I searched a ton to see if this was posted anywhere already and couldn't find it. Please merge if I missed it. 

Beautiful townhomes, however, Ennis and Palmer will be all driveways? 

12 hours ago, Aalqalam said:

Hey all 👋 I wanted to give y’all a quick update on our development. Here’s a sneak peak on the street view from Ennis St. I’ll follow up soon with some shots of the walkable boulevards we’ve implemented inside our development, Hence the name - Boulevard on Lamar. 
 

We added the red brick accents on the exterior to pay tribute to EaDo as an originally industrial area and created a modern industrial architectural feel to it. Hope you guys like it 

13 hours ago, ToolMan said:

I'm really trying hard to like the restaurants at this place, but I just can't.

Marmo:
Nice happy hour. Appetizers and drinks are good. It's going to cost you after 6pm. Drinks are ridiculously priced if you are drinking anything other than wine.

Graffiti Raw:
You are spend some $$$ here

The Chelsea:
Decent wine prices - not sure about liquor. $24 for a burger and appetizers aren't much cheaper. 

Picnik:
Haven't checked it out yet. Looked online and the menu doesn't draw me in.

I wouldn't call these places fines dining either. Much better restaurants you can go for the same price or cheaper. Traffic is going to be horrid on Grant St. with Uchi and these places. I feel bad for the neighbors. Just rip it all up and turn it into a upscale Rainey St.

That's my Montrose is dead rant for the week.

I can't speak about the price/quality of the food (everyone's going to have their own opinion), but I can confidently say that traffic here isn't bad at all. Its actually a nice traffic flow from day till night. It doesn't feel like traffic on Westheimer near 610 (nightmare). I was actually impressed that a project this scale didn't create a traffic nightmare but for some reason, traffic feels exactly the same as it did when there was a shopping center here. I will say, I did a good amount of people walk here which helps, they could have been from the area or just parked on the street somewhere. IMO, this has to be one of the nicest developments in all of Houston. 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I always assumed these type of developments would be more affordable to tenants since they are leasing a space vs an entire building on a lot? In other words, tenants would have more room to be more affordable? 

Side note, I will say dinning in general has gotten a lot more expensive than it used to :/ 

https://houston.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/azumi-japanese-restaurant-river-oaks-district-2023/

Renderings on Culturemap! 

I don't have a picture, but it's officially open. Its of course a very ugly building with drive-thru, however, they did plant a good amount of trees. Also, as much as I hate to admit it, their food was very good, very cheap, and very healthy. I would prefer these than any other fast food option.