bookey23

The agents listing this property on LoopNet:

On 4/2/2023 at 11:46 AM, mattyt36 said:

I think we need a high-profile tourist attraction, and it needs to be downtown for convention goers to have easy access.  I think the Museum of Texas History would've been great, but that fell through.  So I think the best bets are some sort of "NASA Light" exhibit downtown with regular buses to JSC, or some sort of National Museum of Immigration that is affiliated with the Smithsonian to raise its profile.  An energy museum would also be appropriate--I'm just not sure how many people it would attract.

I think a world class museum near downtown would be really interesting and it doesn't even have to relate to the city of Houston. New Orleans has a world class WW2 museum and Seattle has a very cool Museum of Pop Culture, both of which have become big tourist spots but neither of which actually have to do with that city. A space museum would be an obvious choice, but regardless of the topic it would just have to be a very well-done museum to get people to see it as a tourist destination

I saw some city planner say that the first thing he would do if he was in charge of Houston is plant 1 million live oaks. We really do have some outdoor areas, but the city just doesn't focus on them enough. 

Does this mean that someone's actually trying to redevelop this building? I was under the impression that it was still standing because it's filled to the brim with asbestos. Is this not the case?

Thank you for posting this, because it made me find this old thread. I've been living in Houston for 7 years now and I've been trying to get more involved with Houston's entertainment industry as part of my job and I've come to find that it really just doesn't exist. There's a few media companies here and there and there are obviously film groups and theater societies, but I don't think I'm far off in saying that Houston does not have an entertainment industry.

I have no idea why Houston isn't doing the same thing as Atlanta and all of Georgia and giving huge tax breaks to come film in our city. I feel like having shows film in Houston would give it more national recognition and give people an idea of Houston besides urban sprawl, traffic, and space. It seems like the only filmmakers who were ever interested in Houston are Richard Linklater and Wes Anderson (and the latter only for Rushmore). It speaks volumes that I've heard multiple people talk about the fact that Robocop 2 was shot in Houston, despite the fact that the movie is supposed to be in Detroit. Houston needs to get out in the public eye more.

All of the sporting events are a good start, but they don't give viewers an actual flavor of the city outside of 5 second bumpers before and after commercial breaks. Our food scene has actually put us on the map more than anything else recently and got us an episode of Ugly Delicious and a season of Top Chef, but even that season spent the last 2 episodes in Tucson for no reason. Again, these are good starts, but we need to do more!

Fair enough! Fertitta has certainly done a lot to put UH sports on the map

Everything I've ever heard about Tilman says that he's a shady businessman and is constantly over-leveraged. He loves his vanity projects and seems to have a short attention span. Ideally, he'll sell the Rockets to someone who will actually invest the time, money, and energy that the team deserves, but I don't know why he'd sell at this point. If his empire survived the pandemic, I think he's pretty set for a long time

14 hours ago, houstontexasjack said:

If the Rockets win the draft lottery and get Wembanyama, maybe we’ll see progress. 

I never expected to see Wemby's name on this forum haha. It'd be great for the Rockets if they got Wemby, but honestly the Rockets organization seems like a bit of a mess right now. Might not be the best landing spot for Wemby long-term

Very interesting. When they mention the new areas around SoFi and Jerry World, it reminds you that there's no good reason for the area around NRG to be such a barren wasteland. Especially now that Helix Park is going to be a 5 minute drive away from the stadium, it's not like NRG is in the middle of nowhere.

Glad to hear the powers that be are thinking about this and want to put forth a plan to improve the area. I'm eager to see the plan once they put it together.

Those two Skansa towers likely won't be started until they complete the first tower, which won't happen before the fall. Notwithstanding Skansa really streamlining the next towers, it's a pretty safe bet that the Astros tower will be the next highrise in downtown Houston, unless there's another announced project that I'm forgetting.

I'm looking for more Houston-centric urbanism social media accounts to follow on twitter, instagram, etc. What are your favorites? My favorite as of now is probably Walking Houston on Instagram or A Tale of Two Bridges, but I'd love to find some others.

Also, what are your favorite local urbanist groups or groups that you are members of? I'm a member of BikeHouston and am looking to join Central Houston. Any others that I should be checking out?

19 minutes ago, Nate99 said:

Concur that it looks like it was taken from Texas Tower, but more importantly, who is falberding and why are you stalking them? 

haha I didn't want to respond to OP because I didn't want to be an accessory to whatever he's cooking up

Finally!

They should extend it the entire length of downtown. Main street is such a pain to drive on Downtown anyway, let's try to spur some development along Main closer to Toyota Center and into South Downtown

Has anyone heard any updates on this? Last time I drove by it seemed like they still hadn't demo'd the existing building, which is surprising 9 months after the TABS filing and all of these brochures. 

4 hours ago, hindesky said:

This is usually one of the first permits a developer gets. Storm water cleanup device.

This is huge news, right? That probably means they're about to start developing that next area of MKT?

Wow, big day for demos in Montrose, between this and Residences on Westheimer

Did this property get sold? I feel like I remember seeing a For Sale sign on the property earlier, but drove by yesterday and didn't see one. Maybe I'm misremembering though.

It also seemed like there were several pieces of heavy machinery, but they might always be there

TDLR TABS - Project Details (texas.gov)

I made a different post about something similar. I think that person on reddit is mistaken and they're just relocating people while updating and renovating apartments.

Construction & Relocation - Historic Oaks of Allen Parkway Village

I didn't see this info anywhere, but it looks like this will be a four story apartment building. 

TDLR TABS - Project Details (texas.gov)

I figured out the answers to all of my own questions. Looks like the construction is related to the renovations at Allen Parkway Village.

TDLR page: TDLR TABS - Project Details (texas.gov)

Houston Chronicle Article on it: Allen Parkway Village tenants express fear, hope about moving while the public housing gets facelift (houstonchronicle.com)

5 minutes ago, Triton said:

Work has pushed to 2027?!?! What the hell?

I'd set the over/under for when this project is finally completed at 2040. Houston might be at the bottom of the ocean by then

There's a ton to take in here. These are in no way the most important aspects of this VRA, but two things that jumped out at me 15 minutes into reading the Voluntary Resolution Agreement:

1. My bike commute along White Oak Bayou by UHD into downtown will go from a nice view of downtown into a hellscape of elevated freeway lanes (Page 26 of the VRA)
2. They've committed to the cap parks in writing, with the largest being in EaDo stretching from Lamar to Commerce. Relevant text:

"a) TxDOT will design and construct a structural cap along the following:

• i. IH 69 that is located to be centered on and carrying both the METRO light rail Red Line and Fannin Street over the interstate main lanes;
• ii. IH 69 that is located to be centered on and carrying both Caroline Street and Wheeler Avenue, including their intersection over the interstate main lanes;
• iii. The parallel alignments of IH 69 and IH 45 that is bounded by Lamar Street and Commerce Street and carrying Lamar Street, McKinney Street, Walker Street, Rusk Street, Capitol Street, METRO’s Purple and Green Lines, Texas Avenue, Preston Street, Congress Street, Franklin Street and Commerce Street over the main lanes of both interstates and, New Hamilton Street over the IH 69 southbound main lanes and IH 45 southbound main lanes; and
• iv. IH 45 that is located to be centered on and carrying North Main Street, the southbound frontage road and the northbound frontage road over the interstate main lanes and managed lanes."

There's a ton in here about Flooding and Displacement/Housing that I won't have time to properly read for a while.

12 hours ago, Fortune said:

No way that is accurate you can barely build a single-family home for $499,999.00 now a days. 

That's why I'm so confused!