Houston Retail

Its Doc's motorworks (I think thats who you meant). Their facebook page confirms:

This property is under contract by a residential developer who is not adverse to retail on the ground floor, so keep your fingers crossed. 

I rode by it tonight on the way home from dinner at GrumBar. The liquor license notice said it was for "Byrd Market/Grape Wine Bar".

The license is actually for two concepts. The wine bar will be next to Byrd's. Byrd's should be open in a few weeks. Everyone should check it out and help make it a permanent institution.

Heres a pic I took of it.

Cool, how did you guys know to go to the top of the parking garage?

From this thread of course! Thats how I heard about it also.

You should put the building demo video to Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack! (great movie if you haven't seen it)

Yep, Im in those pics.

My girlfriend and I showed up late to the party. We had gotten in from the bars/Tacos a gogo around 4am, so waking her up at 6:30 was not fun! I don't think she actually woke up until the explosions went off.

Thanks for the viewing tip! There was only 10 people on top of the garage and it looked like a few hundred at the "official" viewing area. My camera buffer filled up on all of the "pre-blasts" before it fell down, but I got a few good shots.

You can see all of them here

I called the owner/developer

Its going to be 30 townhomes by Waterhill priced in the low to mid 300's.

(im speaking to the shoe warehouse).

We are losing the war on sleeping in, I can assure you of that! I just moved into the Bel-Air and my unit faces the demolition. Metal sure makes a screeching sound as its folded for hauling off. On the bright side, the call to worship might be able to replace my alarm clock...

I bet it will be a well designed building. With the price that they paid (north of $80 psf), it surely wont be tiltwall construction.

In short, Landco did buy it with seller financing and did recently give it back to the Marharishis. The building does have its problems with structural integrity, but perhaps the prior owners did as well.

I've heard that the store is planned to not only be suburban style, but to face Fannin and Elgin, with its back towards Main Street. I don

the land for this project is actually on a 75 year ground lease. probaly valued around $65-$70 a foot. The costs are prohibitive, but the players in this arena do know how to do a project right. Its exciting to see how many quality developments are in the works for houston.

Im just glad to see something happen to the 800 block. This block is key in connecting Main St Square to the entertainment district as it now exists. There have been alot of false starts on the 800 block. A bar was attempting to build out the ground floor of Battlestiens and ran out of money (they actually tried to build a dance floor that would raise on hydrolics!), the west building with it proposed plans, stowers with its potential and the mafridge building in the middle of the block... hopefully something will happen with one of those as well.

And yes, these things all take time. The wheel is in motion. Just be a bit more patient. Or go do it yourself

the walgreens is actually mor urban thatn it would have been. it was going to be put smack in the middle of the block, like CVS, but a few key people got involved, including the developer, and saw that it was brought to the street, leaving room for more development on the block when density will allow for it, and creating a nice blockface for the project pictured to go up next to.

ok that was a runon...

i think its more the fact that these projects just dont exist yet. Houston developers and lenders are accustomed to one type of development. Once a few of these are off the ground, (and the one posted should break ground soon), people will see that it can work.

This one is going to have two floors of retail, totaling 150,000 sf of retail. It will be a district in itself. There will also be a level of parking below.

its actually one block south of the block that walgreens is going in on. thats the walgreens in the corner of the image.

and yeah, large texas is scooping me!

Heres a rendering of it and a link for more information.

Not sure exactly whats going in. It wont be a club because i dont think you can get a license so close to a church.

http://www.greenbergcompany.com/retail.asp?id=89

great site but i believe (jmo) that the units are too small. also, will all of the units come with w/d hook-ups? and if so, are they represented on the floorplans with a circle? and, would they be stackable or side-by-side?

best of luck! location needs something like this!

I agree that the units are small, but I think that is the perfect size for a niche in the market. The true amenities will be in the lifstyle of the project, from the workout facility to the pool to the hand picked retail. You wont want to spend all day sitting in your apartment, you will want to be a part of what is going on, not just in the project, but in the park, museums and surrounding neighborhood.

One thing we know for sure, the current market is not accepting larger, high end units for the 40 plus market, lets see what this one does with affordable units aimed at the younger audience. I think it will be a home run.

Check now. The full site went live today. floorplans and all

http://www.mosaichouston.com/

Starbucks did try to go into the heights, but the heights association kept them out. I dont know the whole story, but I know that much to be true.

The starbucks in Randalls is a license deal. Its not owned by Starbucks corporate and wont close. I dont think that Starbucks corporate really even considers it a location as far as their site selection goes. Thats why this one is so close to it.

I'll try to find out the hours, but this is a big deal for the neighborhood. Just guessing, Id say this store will be open well beyond the evening rush hour. The building is not one of the suburban strips, it is a rehab of an existing building and will look great. There will be a patio created for Sbucks and all of the retail will face Smith. The Starbucks space will be around 2,000 sf.

Personally, I would rather see a mom and pop coffee shop, but Starbucks does represent a tipping point for an emerging market like midtown.

Did you know that there is no competition in Houston for Starbucks? They have over 150 stores here and their next largest competitor is Deitrichs with 2 stores. TWO STORES!!! and just to one-up them, Starbucks has two stores across the street from each other!

There are way too many plans to post. The website should be live tommorow, so you wont have to wait too long. You can always go to the sales center and pick up even more info.

The avg price per foot will be around $300.

They also hired a designer who worked on the W's design to do the interiors. The sales office is worth seeing. The model makes a very efficient use of space. Groundbreaking has been pushed back a month to November, but this is going to happen, and it will prove that there is a untapped market for small, affordable units located in great neighborhoods neat transit.

it is true, will someone please spread the word to them???

yeah, the mural is gone, they are going to have some high tech light boxes back there or something...