On 4/3/2023 at 11:55 AM, Houston19514 said:

As you know, the portions of your post that I fixed for you were:  

"Nobody in the county wants to spend money on an aging dome."   and "NOBODY cares that much."

Those were objectively false statements.  (For example, I live in the county and want to spend money on the Dome, as did nearly half of the people who voted on the 2013 proposal, as did the former county commissioners.) And I and many other people indeed care that much.

If the people of Harris County, as A WHOLE, wanted to spend money on the dome, they would have passed one of the numerous initiatives to do so. If people in the county, once again, AS A WHOLE, cared that much about the dome, it wouldn't still be abandoned. While a few individuals may care, as a general statement, the people of Harris County just don't seem to have any strong feelings in making use of the Astrodome.

13 minutes ago, steve1363 said:

That was an April Fools joke...sheesh!

The thing is, I'm sure weirder stuff has happened in Houston. Hell, its probably no more out there than some of the other proposals.

12 hours ago, 004n063 said:

I like how an overly drawn-out discussion about a separate topic has turned into an overly drawn-out discussion about that overly drawn out discussion.

Such is life on an internet forum. 

Just what Houston needs: the political opportunist known for being a complete a-hole to her staff. 

On 3/30/2023 at 9:52 AM, CREguy13 said:

I know this is off topic from MMP, but to expand on my above comment: imagine if there were some movement behind the scenes to build a brand new state-of-the-art downtown arena to officially lure away the NHL Coyotes to Houston? 

Phoenix is trying to block Tempe's plans for a new stadium, as the Coyotes are currently playing in ASU's arena that seats 4600 people... A brand new stadium could close the deal, if things have been quietly progressing.

NHL, NBA, MLB, MLS all downtown? One can dream!

Article from yesterday:

https://frontofficesports.com/phoenix-looks-to-block-tempes-2-1b-deal-with-coyotes/

Do the Coyotes want to move? It seems more likely that Houston get an expansion team than another team move here.

On 3/30/2023 at 9:34 AM, Houston19514 said:

But what you said is objectively false.

I don't see how it can be objectively false when the thing is still sitting there...abandoned. Reality shows me to be objectively right.

On 3/30/2023 at 12:11 PM, j_cuevas713 said:

I'm sure any historic status can be removed but it's highly unlikely

Unlikely is not impossible. And I don't think the state government will split hairs over it if the county and city actually just pushed for it.

On 4/1/2023 at 11:44 AM, hindesky said:

This came from the Babylon Bee?

9 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

It can't be demolished, it's a State Antiquities Landmark.

I'm sure that status can be removed just as easily as it can be given.

11 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

FIFY

I said what I meant.

On 3/23/2023 at 12:08 PM, Houston19514 said:

The thing is... the DOME CAN be used.

Whether it can be used isn't really the issue. The issue is one of practicality and hard, cold reality. The current tenants of the other venues don't want anything there that will disrupt their current operation, precluding anything like year round businesses from opening. Nobody in the county wants to spend money on an aging dome. There's no sport that needs or wants the dome for any kind of usage. NOBODY cares that much. Better it be torn down than continue to be an eyesore. At least, then the land can be put to some use.

On 3/20/2023 at 3:17 PM, Caribomoa said:

We honestly don’t have that large of a Japanese population. Although to be fair, no city outside of California and NYC has that large of a Japanese population. They tend to stick to those two locations.

NYC's population is 0.3% Japanese. Los Angeles population is 0.9% Japanese. Houston's pop. is 0.1% Japanese. We are literally talking about a difference of a few tenths of percent, two-tenths in the case of comparing Houston to NYC.

On 3/20/2023 at 8:30 AM, samagon said:

because you saw the field day that the stopi45 people had with the lofts by the light rail that were torn down for the i45 project. if TXDoT doesn't want the negative press associated (and it appears they've learned), they keep these things standing until the very last minute.

These are literally mold infested derelicts. Nobody wants to live in them. Nobody should live in them. Nobody would even be allowed to live in them, even if they wanted to. There is literally no reason not to tear them down. The Lofts were relatively new apartments and completely livable, though even those protests were stupid. This has no real justification.

I really don't know why they haven't just torn them down yet. They should go on and get it over with.

On 3/15/2023 at 1:52 PM, Caribomoa said:

Recent article stated that Uniqlo intends to expand in Texas. They were set to open in the Galleria until Covid paused those plans. Would be great to see it return. Would be a great non luxury addition to the Galleria.

Now that would be something. A marquee store out of Japan, great for a city with a large Japanese population. I was actually wondering why Uniqlo hadn't opened a store in the Galleria already, but Covid makes sense.

On 3/7/2023 at 9:17 AM, HoustonMidtown said:

FHWA and TxDOT sign agreement to allow I-45 North Houston Highway Improvement Project to move forward

 

https://www.txdot.gov/about/newsroom/local/houston/fhwa-txdot-sign-agreement-i45-nhhip.html

WELL ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME!!!!!

16 hours ago, samagon said:

ok, if you've made it through that silliness, the serious answer is that the stadium doesn't need to move, the dome doesn't need to go, but thanks to the impossibilities pointed out, the use is limited.

If the dome can't be used, then it does need to go. Its just a drain on resources continuing to maintain it just so that it doesn't fall in on itself. As of now, there is nothing that can practically be put there as a result of the tenants using the other existing structures. Ergo, get rid of it, save the money on maintenance, pave it over as a parking lot, and, if you want, maybe redevelop some of the parking on the edge of the sports district to compensate. Anything that could be built in that stadium could just as easily be built somewhere else.

On 3/3/2023 at 9:18 PM, Highrise Tower said:

Has anyone, in 17 years, suggested we should turn this into a Life Science campus?

Build another large-scale Bio Technology campus so we would have more square footage than Boston/Cambridge

All the same problems with this running into issues with the existing tenants of the other buildings (The Houston Rodeo, the Texans, etc.) still apply, unfortunately. I think we just need to face that there is nothing else that can be done with this space, and its destiny is to become another parking lot.

10 hours ago, Amlaham said:

Once this is finished, we wont have any skyscrapers under construction in downtown 🥲

....for now at least 

I'm hoping that one of the other towers in the development gets started relatively quickly.

On 2/27/2023 at 10:00 AM, Highrise Tower said:

There's a new TMC Helix Park Retail Book Brochure.

https://www.tmc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/TMC-HelixPark-Retail-Deck_Online_022023.pdf

This is no longer considered phase one.  Phase two includes the hotel, conference center, and multifamily tower. Phase 2 is due to come online in 2025/2026.  This means construction should start later this year? Or at the latest early next year. 

The campus activities and amenities list grew! This place seems like a dream!! 

37 acres mixed-use at full build-out including:

5.4M developed SF
275K SF of programmed park
123K SF retail
150 seat beer garden (!!)
20K SF food hall (!!)
1K seat amphitheater (!!)
300K SF parking

The Mixed-Use Garage looks better than I thought. wow!!  The fitness club that they are calling "Burn Fitness" includes a roof top pool! Look at that unique golden mesh wrap and the curvy ground floor glass facade!!

Even the parking garage is a master piece!

Well this is somewhat disappointing (the construction timeline, not the design itself). This means phase one is...two and a half buildings? As is Phase 2, if we count the hotel, conference center and residential tower as one building. At least I like the garage's design now that I've seen the finished product. And what's with Parcel A? Does this mean they don't even have plan on when they will start building that? Also, they show the UTHealth and MD Anderson buildings in the picture, but give no timeline on their completion.

11 hours ago, MidCenturyMoldy said:

Did I miss something? I thought this was just the first phase and the other towers would follow at some point. 
I also think the tower, as seen in cityliving’s photo below, is a lot nicer than I expected when the revised version was first announced. Except for that asymmetric balcony thing.
 

 

The other towers were cancelled. And there's no telling when the second phase will start at this rate.

22 hours ago, nate4l1f3 said:

Any idea why there’s been no news on Crane’s project?

At this point? Who knows. You think winning the World Series would have been the perfect setup for an announcement, but at this point, your guess is as good as anyone elses.

18 hours ago, 004n063 said:

I think he's talking about the segments west and south of Downtown, which will be discontinued as a part of the NHHIP.

I'd rather say "replacement" than destruction, since that's really what's going on. If you want to, you can say they are "moving 45", but destruction implies they are taking 45 down and won't replace it with anything. No part of 45/345 in Texas will be removed because of its importance to cross-state and interstate traffic.

22 hours ago, KirbyDriveKid said:

(and with the destruction of the I-45 ring),

That's not going to happen. The most they will do is bury 345. That interstate is too important for North-South travel across the city, and the other freeways can barely handle the cars they handle now.

21 minutes ago, htownbro said:

is this project dead?  

Not officially. But there's been no movement on it yet after they released the pictures and did some preliminary work. Which is more than I can say for the owner of the Astros is doing with his supposed redevelopment.

4 hours ago, hindesky said:

"The 38-story tower, which opened on the West Loop in 2018, earned the Forbes Travel Guide 2023 Five-Star rating for both the hotel and spa for the third-straight year. The hotel is next to Fertitta's headquarters for his Landry's Inc. restaurant, entertainment and hospitality empire.

It was the only hotel in Texas and one of just 30 in the nation to earn the Double Five-Star Hotels & Spas award. The Forbes guide, published Wednesday, is based on anonymous visits by inspectors who evaluate hotels, spas, restaurants and cruises, based on up to 900 criteria. Service is paramount, with Five-Star properties indicating "virtually flawless service and amazing facilities," among the nearly 2,000 global winners."

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/tilman-fertitta-post-oak-hotel-five-star-forbes-17788591.php

According to this, the Four Seasons Hotel Houston; Hotel Granduca Houston; The Houstonian Hotel, Club and Spa; and The St. Regis Houston were rated as Four-star Hotels.

11 hours ago, LosFeliz said:

I've found that most people that have traveled to Houston to visit friends or for a long weekend are actually impressed by Houston. They love the friendly people and diversity of food and drinks and I've heard several comment that the museum district and Hermann Park are quite lovely. 

The ones that think Houston is just one ugly eyesore tend to be people who came for work and say things like "I was in our downtown office" but when I pressed I found out they were in Westchase or Energy Corridor staying in a mid-level chain and eating at places you could find in any city. Or, even worse, the people who say "I've driven through on my way from Florida to California and saw enough."

Our freeways are huge and ugly and we are one of the only cities with feeder roads. They are ugly. Not much we can do about it since Texas loves concrete and the corrupt folks who run our state love to spend to pave over everything. 

I don't think Houston's freeways are particularly egregious. And the feeder roads help with traffic immensely (just ask Los Angeles, which lacks them, to its detriment). Your not going to get the full measure of any city's beauty if you just stick to the highways.

11 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

Then what is the source of the star ratings posted on Google?

10 hours ago, samagon said:

this is a good question. there is the crowd sourced rating, which is basically, if I just don't like the idea of Conrad Hilton, I can go ping every Hilton with a 1 star review that I have time to hit. then there's a thing right next to that which states whatever the 'official' rating is.

 

the best I can find on that is this:

https://support.google.com/hotelprices/answer/7219055?hl=en#:~:text=Google gathers data for these,%2C room size%2C and amenities.

so they don't really give any specifics, but it's not a direct from Michelin, or AAA, or whatever other travel company someone might prefer as their hotel ratings provider.

Sounds like its a correlation of a variety of sources. Though I'm sure the exact way they calculate it is a "trade secret". My guess, they look at multiple places, including Forbes, AAA, and others and average it out to some kind of mean, using an algorithm to do the work. It sounds like something Google will do, though the star ratings do reflect the prices generally.