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9 hours ago, bobruss said:

These are the kinds of projects that will really have an impact on our density and overall skyline. These smaller partial lot midrises that fill the perimeters of most other cities. For so long we have built primarily block size chunky tall buildings, but now maybe some of the quarter, half, and 3/4 size parcels of city blocks will get developed, which will give more diversity and density to the skyline. I think this is good.

I agree, but it's worth noting that this lot already had such a building until 2015.

Golly I love me some trail-oriented development.

Very last-minute notice, but there's a rally ride today at 10AM, starting at Regions bank. I think daily rallies might be needed. I'll head up there tomorrow as well, and every evening this coming week. Feel free to join.

On 2/27/2024 at 11:41 AM, j_cuevas713 said:

. dude you made my heart sink to my ass

He did go on a bit of a tirade about "anti-car activists" from the previous administration today.

If anybody from the ultra-pragmatist Turner administration is an "anti-car activist," I wonder what the guy would think of me.

Is this multifamily? Or just a bigass townhouse-style house?

2 hours ago, hindesky said:

They were jumping the tower crane today. They use that weight to balance the jib while they jack the crane up. When they find the sweet spot they un bolt it and then use hydraulics to raise the upper portion of the crane. They then slide the new section in, lower the upper portion and bolt it up, repeat this process until they add all the sections they need.

 

 

 

Traffic was jacked up trying to go south from Washington Ave. I too was in the on Shepherd heading southbound but I bailed out and found another route. Both Memorial Dr. and Allen Pkwy were shut down, one for the Rodeo Run and the other for the returning Trail riders back to Memorial Park after the Rodeo Parade. All the streets around lower Heights and north Montrose were a cluster f🤬kc.

 

 

It was a hell of a day to be on a bike, though!

2 hours ago, SpaceGhost said:

Chances are they got a good deal from CVS to fulfill the rest of their lease. This store closed with a handful of other Houston area locations in 2022, all part of a similar subletting deal. Drugstores have all overbuilt, trying to serve as mini-Walmarts of the suburbs, and now they're having to reverse course, largely because their bottom lines are being undercut by lawsuits and increased operating costs. Some of the other locations have become shoe stores, and there's one in Sugar Land, which will soon reopen as a Dollar General. These are locations that CVS was leasing; the ones that they own, they usually just shut down and let them sit vacant while they sell the property.

I think some of it is also the terrible default property setup with the store occupying the back corner of a parking crater. A pharmacy + convenience store model can certainly work fine in a city, but it shouldn't occupy a full city block.

4 hours ago, Ross said:

That building is a historic landmark

Ah, so that's what X Houston is doing. An homage to Heaven on Earth.

6 hours ago, Amlaham said:

...it compromises an entire city block in Midtown.

Freudian slip?

2 hours ago, JClark54 said:

Unless the operator builds its own lines 

I think that's the presupposition we are all fantasizing about.

5 hours ago, JLWM8609 said:

I went for that location for the first and last time today. Felt like the wild west. As I walked in, a guy was walking out nonchalantly with a garbage bag full of stuff he'd stolen. Considering it was Dollar Tree, he probably made off with $9 worth of stuff.

I've been in twice since it opened. CVS wasn't exactly a happy place but good lord does Dollar Tree just suck the life out of everyone inside. Azkaban vibes.

3 hours ago, clutchcity94 said:

If it becomes a residential tower, hopefully they put in a cross walk at the Yupon St / Richmond Ave intersection. Would be convenient to get to the post office.

I doubt it, given the proposed Mandell stop on the University BRT line.

That said, I could see and would support their doing something similar to the modal filters on Main at (e.g.) Anita.

15 hours ago, hindesky said:

The late to the game loud minority is protesting on Montrose Blvd. near W. Clay St. and using the trees that aren't coming down as their prop to get people to honk for their cause. Reminds me of Rudy Giuliani using what he thought was the Four Seasons as a prop but instead it was Four Seasons Landscaping.🤣

 

There are zero trees north of W. Dallas St. on the section that will be renovated but the project will add many.

The Chronicle's reporting on this and METRORapid have been particularly bad. They haven't been great on NHHIP either, but these two have really stood out as almost Click2Houston-level lazy.

They need an infrastructure-beat reporter who is actually interested in infrastructure enough to want to learn more about projects and their contexts than whatever it takes to fill 700 words.

18 hours ago, hindesky said:

Construction barrels are up and Whitmire is going to honor the unchristian like church's demand to continue killing pedestrians and cyclists.

I think you're misrepresenting things a bit here.

The new medians protected drivers, too.

14 minutes ago, MontroseFan said:

The Menil masterplan includes building a residential tower eventually on Richmond.

The idea is to add back the number of units demo'd from the old garden apartments that used to be at the park location, but in a smaller footprint. Hopefully that's the next project once the hotel is done.

That would be awesome.

11 hours ago, clutchcity94 said:

Looking forward to see what they do with that large patch of grass facing Richmond Ave!

You mean the park (which Google Maps calls "Park")?

I don't think that's part of this project. 

That said, it should be something more than it is now. Keep it a park by all means, but it shouldn't be just blank grass and a couple of trees. 

Great for dogs, though.

13 hours ago, Ross said:

The Red Line extension was built several years before WOMH came to be. It was more useful at the time to make the turn and then follow Fulton up to Northline.

Wow, I did not realize how new WOMH was. Makes sense. 

That said, I still think a North Main routing would have been smart. It would have given more of the Heights access to decent transit and would have catalyzed more TOD along the corridor than we've gotten with Fulton. 

Nothing terribly wrong with the Fulton routing - I just think that, like the Purple line, it suggests a very limited view of transit's role, which is something we continue to deal with at the upper "vision" levels.

6 hours ago, JLWM8609 said:

So between this, the elevated I-10, and the NHHIP, there will be continuous construction along I-10 from Voss Rd. to Waco St. over the next decade or longer. Yippee! /s

**smirks smugly in bicycle**

(Look, we don't get a lot of opportunities to gloat here. Just let me have this.)

4 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

What do you mean? 

I think it really should have gone up N. Main in the first place. It should have always been the main way to get to WOMH (and a connection to the eastern Heights) but the awkward turn at Boundary preserved it as a drive-to spot.

On 2/7/2024 at 9:13 PM, cspwal said:

Looking back, its unclear to me what curbs were added - and google maps hasn't been updated because its so recent.  The construction photos make it look like any of dozens of roads in houston with medians - lots of turning lanes and curb cuts, with minimal protection of the cross walk at the tips of the medians.  Does someone have a diagram of the project with the places people don't like marked?

There were medians on the north and south sides of the intersections, which created pedestrian refuge in the center. There were turning lane median cuts about 150 feet south of the intersection that enabled turns.

Some of the blame here goes to the red line routing.

On 2/7/2024 at 9:42 AM, steve1363 said:

According to HBJ developers have overbuilt and rents are coming down in Houston.  I personally am happy about this.  I feel like the new urbanism is mostly for those with means, and lower income people are really not considered - which is ironic because those are the people who would benefit the most from mass transit and walkable areas.

“Median rent in Houston has been on a downward trend since January 2022, when it peaked at $1,866, according to the online apartment marketplace. It is now at the lowest level since May 2021, when the median rent was $1,578.

The downward trend is happening despite continued challenges for first-time homebuyers as mortgage rates and prices remain high and single-family home inventory low.

The reason is that developers are building more new apartment complexes than there is demand for, said Patrick Jankowski, senior vice president of research at the Greater Houston Partnership.

Last year, developers added 22,250 new apartments to the Houston market, but only 15,039 were absorbed, according to MRI ApartmentData.

"We built over 7,000 (units) more than we absorbed," Jankowski said. "And that's going to continue to put pressure on rents because landlords need to get someone in these new units to start generating cash flow, so they'd be more willing to offer a little rent to get them in, and eventually that'll start to affect the existing Class A, not just the new Class A."

Are you suggesting that supply and demand affect housing prices? Blasphemy!

48 minutes ago, j_cuevas713 said:

Damn me either

He said pedestrian safety is the responsibility of law enforcement this morning.

In other words, **shrug emoji**.

On 2/6/2024 at 7:35 AM, Big E said:

An attempt to pass a federal law would probably be unconstitutional and be considered federal overreach. Eminent Domain would be expensive and counter productive for cities, and the courts take a dim view on eminent domain for the sole purpose of economic development. The fact is, if there was an economic drive to redevelop these lots, they'd already be redeveloped. The lack of demand for downtown development is why most of them still exist.

"Lack of demand" and "insufficient demand to offset the willingness of a real estate holdings arm of a giant institutional investment bank to wait out other property owners so as not to have to sell or rent at current market prices" are, to my mind, different things.

Fill the area with S/1BR/2BR/3BR apartments renting at $700/$1000/$1500/$2000 a pop and you'd see plenty of demand, not to mention a much more vibrant and fiscally healthy city center.

But of course, evil socialist agenda and whatnot.

21 hours ago, HoustonIsHome said:

Well for me names are easier to identify the project. I'm not too good at putting a face, or facade, to an address. Even common ones downtown. So names helps me out.

This particular name, thought I do not care for. Doesn't sound catchy.

I just meant the trend of "[abstract noun] at [made-up district/neighborhood name]." It's better than the trend of goofily audacious-sounding words from 10-15 years ago (Latitude, Ascend, Catalyst), but not by much.

Not sure I've ever seen anything worse than "Pointe," though.