Big E

One Market Square is still, technically, proposed, just looking for a major tenant. I think Hines is handling that one, so with Texas Tower done, that's probably their next major project. 6 Houston Center is still proposed, as of now. That 50 story Chevron Tower is still technically proposed, but its been on the backburner for years. If Chevron ever finally moves out of California, maybe it will happen. And finally there's the W Hotel proposed to be built above the Partnership Tower. I also think there may be a proposal to redevelop the Bayou Music Center, including multiple towers, but don't know how far along that actually is.

Yeah, this picture surprises me. I thought they had failed to acquire that little piece of parking lot, and had acquired the lot to the west of that one, next to that residential building whose name escapes me at the moment. Looks to me like they are just repaving it and expanding the sidewalk, like the Houston Center did. In fact, if you look at the pick, you can see little cars still using the road. Its just that the sidewalk has been expanded and a lane has been lost.

I apologize to anyone here who may have voted for this schmuck, but Ken Paxton is an idiot. My only question is who's paying him off to get involved at this point? Or who benefits from his involvement? Because the only reason I can see him getting involved here is because it benefits somebody he's attached to (or in the pocket of) to stop this railroad. Its the age old question of politics: who benefits? Not him. Not the state. Not Dallas or Houston. So who benefits? His legal argument would, taken at a face value, make it impossible for any brand new railroad to be built in Texas, which was almost certainly not the actual point of the law. And even more distressingly, why the hell did the Texas Supreme Court even bother reopening this open and shut case? Edit: Oh, and check this out, in case you needed any more proof this guy is a slimeball. https://www.gadsdentimes.com/story/news/politics/2020/11/13/ken-paxton-texas-attorney-general-sued-allegedly-abusing-office/6278836002/

That gap is probably right where the Bank of Southwest Tower would have been.

Because most people in Houston don't give one whit about the Astrodome. It was Emmett's pet project, but nobody else cared and just want it torn down because it serves no purpose, which is why every attempt at a referendum to spend money on the thing failed. Texas Stadium and the Georgia Dome were torn down with no fanfare at all and nobody misses them. Hidalgo just had the issue thrown in her lap because Emmett went to the level of getting the thing declared historic on his way out the door.

Just to clarify, is that the PNC Plaza site where the high rise is supposedly planned, or the shopping center?

Oh joy. Can't wait.

Is this project still going and they are doing designs for it? I'd imagine they wouldn't just post these pictures up years after the fact. Their last pictures, posted some years ago, stated that the deal for the Loews Hotel fell through. Is it back on?

Its being built in...like 3 phases if I'm not mistaken. However, all of Phase 1 hasn't started yet. The hotel and convention center is supposed to be Phase 1.

Oh trust me, it was just as bad before said construction and will be just as bad afterward (also, pretty sure most of the construction is done at this point, at least as far as lane closures and such are concerned; the South Loop-288 interchange has multiple exits that they were working on and several are outright closed now, and neither road was ever that bad)

The Katy Freeway is nothing like it used to be. The old freeway was a mess damn near 24 hours a day. One can actually drive on Katy Freeway and get somewhere now, including the off hours and weekends, and its only full of traffic during rush hour. West 610 damn near unusable most of the day and to be avoided at all costs, whether its Rush Hour or not. Even as I type, right now, its 11:09 on a Friday night, and 610 south bound is backed up to full stoppage. Its literally the only freeway that's backed up.

I already told you why. Its because they ran into massive opposition from urban interests, as well as pro-park interests who opposed even taking a small sliver of land from Memorial Park, even though the land lost would have been negligible compared to the total size of the park. Yeah. Land acquisition is currently frozen, and I doubt those apartments were bought by the state prior to the freeze. Its weird that they would be asked to move at all, let alone get any assistance. Aside from the fact that this is one woman's testimony, thus can must be met with some skepticism without additional proof this happened, the fact is "Go 1-45" is a private group, and has no bearing on the project itself. So trying to lump this all in with the project as if the it was TxDOT itself that paid this woman to lie, is asinine at best, and targeted character assassination at worst. Even better, this seems to be coming from an anti-NHHIP group, who would be just as suspect as "Go I-45". In other words, take this with a grain of salt unless some official investigation finds anything. They probably won't because there is probably no proof of this accusation. Also, I'd like to know if she did take the money and give fake support. I'm willing to bet she did, which would tell me that her voice is "for sale" to whoever is willing to pay her. Neither am I.

Because they can rent somewhere else? There are plenty of places to rent in the city. This isn't San Francisco where there is a lack of places to go. And being renters, they won't experience the same level of loss as landowners and homeowners. Thus I have much more sympathy for the homeowners (taking into account that they will actually get compensation), than renters. The increase in rents in Houston is nothing compared to the insanity that is other coastal cities, and rental prices are still low because of the rising housing supply. These renters may not find a place in their preferred area, but they will find a place. The cost is not something I've overlooked, but the actual losses are minimal. And moving, while difficult and expensive, is not prohibitively so. In any case, this is something that's been in the works for years; the onus is on the renters to prepare ahead of time for this situation. Most of these businesses are not your classic small businesses, but major chains. They are franchised, and their owners probably have numerous other locations that they franchise and are millionaires. And I guarantee you, that when the freeway is rebuilt, newer, probably better businesses will come to replace them, because freeway frontage is prime real-estate. While you may feel for the owner of the Chevron station, fact is its one of a million, and easily replaceable. And one more thing; I guarantee you that all of these business owners are well aware of the plans for this freeway. In fact, most of them are probably counting on it, so they can sell the land then move in to the newly cleared areas that become the freeway's new frontage and make a killing. I agree, but we also have to be objective and logical here. Fact is, these businesses are nothing special and will be replaced before the project is even done. And, if they were being destroyed for, say, a new office building or apartment building, nobody on HAIF would shed a tear for them. In fact we'd be cheering, because nobody here really cares for this kind of car based development. Most probably want to see it gone. They just don't want to see gone for a freeway. Anything but that! Have you been along I-45 lately? I was just going down that freeway last week. It looks awful, and this is one of the main entrances into the city. Low rent business, old stores, strip malls, loan shops, car lots, etc. When people say Houston is ugly, I have a feeling its this stretch of I-45 that everyone is talking about, because it looks terrible. And the sign blight is something to behold. No other freeway looks this bad. The Katy may have looked this bad in the past, but its expansion has taken car of that. The owners of these businesses will not be set back on iota; they'll rebuild like nothing ever happened. The people who work in these places will find new jobs since there are plenty of openings (or not; a lot of people are leaving the workforce these days), and we'll look back and say, "Man, why did anyone even oppose this?"

It wasn't just rich people though. Many of the exact same urban interests, including the infamous Sheila Jackson-Lee, opposed 610's expansion and killed that project. Saying it was just "rich white people" who opposed it is simply not true. And 610 has suffered for it ever since. You seem to ignore that the viable alternatives can include building an alternate freeway to carry that traffic and splitting the capacity. In any case, the NHHIP isn't entirely, or even mostly about improving actual capacity. The mainline freeway lanes are not going to see new lanes added though like 90% of the project. For Segment 1, the most controversial segment, there will be no mainline freeway lanes added at all. They will add a lane to each frontage road, and they will add three managed/express/tolled lanes in the middle of the freeway, to have two express lanes going in each direction, like with the Katy freeway. The main lanes will be mainly reconstructed because of their age. For Segment 2, they will mainly be rebuilding this portion because of how old it is, and fixing some of its design flaws, like low bridges. They will also add a lane to segments of the frontage road that aren't three lanes already, and I think add maybe one lane. they will also extend the four managed lanes to this segment. For Segment 3, most of this segment adds no lanes at all, but constructs all new freeways to replace older ones that will be demolished. Only the part of Segment 3 that includes the interchange of 288 and I-69 will see any lanes added (it will be expanded from eight to twelve. What if what they are trying to correct can't be corrected within the ROW they have? I wouldn't have been old enough to care at that time, but had I been? Yeah, because its stupid that one neighborhood can stop a major regional project. Except you really haven't explained how they are trying to do that. And yet there are still people who opposed even that freeway expansion, because the issue wasn't (just) the ROW acquisition; they just didn't want to expand the freeway because they opposed freeways in general. And, as has been elucidated, there was indeed ROW acquisition that effected residential homes. This project does not at all affect Houston's transit situation. That is handed by Metro, not TxDOT. In fact, this rebuilding of I-45 is supposed to make room for new transit infrastructure in the future, so this project actually helps Houston's transit situation. Transit and freeways can and should coexist. Not everyone in Houston will use transit (in fact most won't) and this freeway doesn't just serve Houston traffic, but regional, state, national, and international traffic. How are they being entitled and spoiled? And? That's basically how the government works. You don't think Metro or the City of Houston itself doesn't do the same thing when a major project happens? I'm more surprised you think this is some major revelation. I think their motives are pretty transparent. This road is a mess, preventative maintenance to keep it running is becoming prohibitive, so they want to fix the issue. They figured adding managed lanes, burying freeways, and removing the Pierce Elevated would get them in people's good graces. Boy were they wrong. That's a perfectly reasonable position to have. I'd say the cost is low for what they are actually doing with this project. While I feel for the people losing their homes, I in no way believe that that's enough to stop or delay this project further. Most of the losses are rental apartments (where the renters can just rent somewhere else), housing projects that will be torn down anyway, and the types of freeway focused business nobody will miss (your gas stations, car lots, lower end hotels and motels, restaurants, big box stores, etc.).

They aren't trying to do anything of the sort. This project has been in the works for the better part of a decade now, and has probably been in planning and back room discussions for longer. Nobody is getting blindsided by this. There have been multiple meetings and comment periods. This will ultimately benefit the city, and either replace or retrofit crumbling infrastructure that is decades old and well past its functional use limit. This small group of "protestors" isn't doing anything particularly laudable in and of itself.

A double post technically, but since its been like a month since my previous post, I believe its okay; CityNerd just did a video comparing differences of a trip between Dallas and Houston, in terms of time and cost, if one went either via, car, airplane, or the proposed high speed rail: Besides being a good video that really elucidates the actual benefits of high speed rail vis-à-vis air travel and auto travel, it also further shows how good the station placement is for the train stations. High speed rail's main competitor, outside of the car, which it would beat handily, even with the station placement, is the airplane. All of Houston's (and Dallas's) airports are even more remotely located than the rail stations, making the stations more convenient than air travel. Also, the station is actually closer to the true geographical center of the metro area, considering that Houston is sprawling northward and westward.

New office buildings will also have to be built like Texas Tower, or that building that they are building between the park and the Embassy Suites. They will need a large marquee tenant to sign on who offers to lease most of the building immediately and is constructing the building to their specifications. That's what One Market Square is waiting on. Any future office buildings won't be speculative, at least not for the time being.

Yeah, that's what I pointed out. The webpage for the garage is gone, so its probably been cancelled. In any case, the pandemic and subsequent economic fallout have probably dampened the need for anymore parking garages when the ones that are already there are going underutilized.

First of all, does downtown really need another parking garage, even if it only takes up half the block? There are literally two more parking garages in the blocks adjacent to this one, one of which takes up its entire block. Second of all, the Mathis Group page that this post points to, which I assume is for the garage, no longer points to anything, so maybe the garage has been cancelled? In the wake of the pandemic, and the large number of people who no longer drive to work, building yet another garage probably made no economic sense.

Now if someone could only buy and develop that huge parking lot behind this building, and Six Houston Center can get off the ground, this would be an amazing series of blocks. That parking lot is big enough for a massive 50+ story tower.

Are you serious? That's literally the only segment almost everybody WANTS to happen and agrees would actually be GOOD for downtown!

Do they have represent the area to criticize the hold up? The interstate is a major project that effects the region and state. Everyone who uses that freeway or has constituents that uses it will be effected. Also, not sure what his district's appearance has to do with anything.

I hope not. The last thing we need is a mostly empty skyscraper just sitting downtown. In this, we should not try to copy Dallas.

That is the truth. And we've just seen that truth put into action. At least this won't stop Ion from going forward.

Well the good thing about this project is that its an entirely privately funded affair. Texas Central will own the railroad, the land its built on, stations and the land they're built on. This means that Texas Central actually has a vested interest in investing in that land and building massive mixed use complexes rather than just stations, and encouraging Metro to directly link the station to existing and future transit network, from the current bus system, to the future BRT and light rail, to any future heavy rail connections. Basically, this high speed train is being built according to the Asian model, not according to the flawed American model, like the boondoggle we see in California and the great mistake that is Amtrak. Texas Central's greatest selling point and greatest asset is that it isn't a government project at all, so isn't tied up in the government's red tape and excess waste.