JJxvi

This is a laughable claim. Have you ever been to, say, Rice Village?

Except that 19th St is a much more commercialized area than White Oak. White Oak is one narrow strip in a neighborhood. The area around 19th street is about 6 or 7 eighth mile by eighth mile squares (14 or more entire blocks) where there are very few residences and instead there are hospitals, banks, churches, schools, businesses, stores, utility areas, and major streets with street front parking including the Blvd ie tons and tons and tons of places to park without doing so in front of somebody's house unlike White Oak. It would be better for the neighborhood if White Oak was more like 19th and vice versa, IMO. (Not that I would be enthused about White Oak being a bunch of old boring shops that serve more as a "look how things were in the old timey days main streets!" novelty spot) Just pull up Google maps and compare the overhead satellite imagery of the 19th and Rutland and the surrounding blocks and then compare to White Oak and Studewood.

I actually take it back, I do go to 19th on occasion but not where we are talking about. I go up Nicholson to Penzey's occasionally, and I eat at Collina's and Thai Spice...basically the places in the suburban style strip malls. I'm never going to run into a Mom and Pop like a middle aged woman looking for crafts, I'm only going somewhere that has something I need, or food, or drink.

I basically never go to 19th street. The only hope for changing that right now is Torchy's. The closest I get is typically McDonald's or CVS on Yale.

It's also connected to the Church some portion will need to be demoed on both sides regardless.

Old glass is wavy and not uniform in thickness due to older imprecise manufacturing methods, whereas modern techniques produce glass that has perfectly smooth surfaces and uniform thicknesses. Once the glass is made, it doesn't really change. The glass in your old windows has probably always looked like that.

The church is also called Baptist Temple, since some haven't seemed to pick up on that yet.

I think its probably more like 25,000 SF. Also the article linked says that the church considered selling their lot as well, but that the price received for what they did sell was good enough that they didn't have to.

If you think your post was an accurate reflection, and mine was childish lies, then whatever. Lets get back on topic then and discuss the following events. Real shame that Heights Baptist was sold. I can't believe no part of Heights Baptist is going to be saved. Hopefully the new development is strip center retail, because I like it.

Glass is not a liquid and it generally does not flow.

The implications of your post is clearly that Braun bought a church (Heights Baptist), is going to demolish it for retail, and that no part of the church will be saved. Then you go on to give your opinion about it. Do you claim that this is not what your original post says?

I clicked it because I wondered if you meant Baptist Temple, then I read it and its almost like you didn't even read it to come up with that post. They aren't selling the entire church and it sounds like they are incorporating elements from the buildings they are selling into the new development.

As for the rest of the "it would have been built anyway" I pretty much agree. But unfortunately there was a very vocal minority of folks in the area that thought it would be a good idea to frame their anti-WalMart message into an argument over aesthetics, infrastructure inadequacies, traffic pattern problems, that made getting this money from the city the politically expedient way to get a high dollar development the city wanted built to get done.

There is no "taking $6 mil" They did not get $6 mil and then pocket it by not spending it. Ainbinder must spend its own money on the front end on things the city agrees to pay for to get reimbursed. This is also a $40 million development, the city is going to be getting roughly $250k-$300k per year in property taxes alone, and probably something like $2 million or more per year in city sales taxes from all businesses in the center (vast majority coming from WalMart sales. Then you have all the anciliary benefits of job creation, etc. The city will make its money back easily very quickly, having spent $6 million on things that needed to be done.

Wonder how they'll handle beer sales?

You shut your trap!

The west side of Yale between Koehler and the bayou is frontage in front of San Jacinto Stone, so I fail to see what it has to with Wal*Mart or how it relates to this property trying to meet its parking requirements.

Also, what do you suppose land values are on Washington and White Oak?

Why do you suppose the land is cheaper in shady acres than along Shepherd?

I'm not sure that I was in an argument with you in this thread, but here we go. I'll let you read the following three excerpts out loud to yourself. "My point about traffic was that the restaurants and bars that have redeveloped Washington Ave would not want to open along N. Shep because of the one way traffic that patrons would have to deal with." "Its in the building I said would be great for a bar or pub if it wasn't dry. I was then informed by somebody that there is simply too much traffic on Shepherd and thats why nobody would put something in a space like that." "The kind of development on Washington and White Oak is not going to come to Shep/Durham because no one wants to go to a bar that is surrounded by eight lanes of traffic." As you are no doubt aware the 1st and 3rd are your own words, and the 2nd is my comment in this thread. I have done my best (Ctrl+C) to copy them as close to word for word as possible. I am sure others will agree that my comments are clearly not a twist of your words. It is almost exactly what you really said. My argument in that thread seen here was that development that occured in Shady Acres, likely would have occured along Shepherd and Durham if the area were not dry. I still believe that, but feel free to continue to educate me on explanations about why you had to go north of 26th to find a liquor store and ice house on Shepherd, why all the restaurants on Durham and Shepherd are south of I-10, why there are liqour stores and icehouses in Shady Acres instead of along the busiest 2 streets in the area. Most of which I developed my own theories about by going to these places beginning about 20 years ago. I look forward to heading to this ice cream parlour. Its a good start and a good fit for this area, considering the limitations on the use of the building. If they are successful, look for the lot immediately to the north to get redeveloped as well. It is a nice size too.

Thanks for the comedy value I got from reading those comments.

This is not in the retail center. Its in the building I said would be great for a bar or pub if it wasn't dry. I was then informed by somebody that there is simply too much traffic on Shepherd and thats why nobody would put something in a space like that.

Would be nice to get a gas station that is on my route to work.

I don't think it was ever intended to have continuity as a uniform mega development. Even the early renderings had mixed styles and heights. It looked more like an urban environment that had grown organically rather than a master planned development.

I get what you're saying and that might be true, but these two locations are probably a further apart than Alamo's two central (Ritz downtown and on South Lamar) locations in Austin.