OkieEric

Top photo is Al Muntaha at Burj Al Arab, right?  I've been to Dubai many times, but it's been nearly 2 years...  They were still working on that tram through the Dubai Marina and traffic was a total cluster - I'm sure it still is through that part of town.  We were working in Abu Dhabi and tried to spend whatever weekends we could in Dubai given the nightlife was so much better.  Abu Dhabi is (or at last was) really booming as well, though

I know the weather at this time of year is nice, but you are right in that the summers are brutal.  And it's not always a "dry heat" as it can get somewhat humid in both cities

My wife was actually open to the idea of moving there, but she went in February (never experienced the heat) and it's just too far from our families here in the U.S.  Definitely one of my favorite places to visit, though

The one thing that gets me, though, is that once you get away from the flashy stuff in both cities there are definitely some poorer areas.  I always wondered how much the workers in the hotels, the cab drivers, etc., get paid - in any case, it must be much better than where they came from.  The construction workers on all of the big buildings get bused in every day and live on these out of sight compounds

So...just kind of curious, but is there a certain level of credibility required before having something like this published in HBJ?  It just seems like a really weird location to me.  Unnamed investors, helicopter pads, "hopes" to have a sales office open in a year...

Attached is a similar letter from Rep. James White opposing the expansion. Rep. White represents the Tyler area. No connection to UH. 

This expansion eats away funds that other UT component universities could use to acheive Tier One status.

 

Perhaps the UT expansion could benefit some underserved area of the state (unlike Houston)?  

The Houston metro area is nearly 1/4 of the state's population.  Just thought i would throw that out there as to me it's difficult to really illustrate which areas of the state are "underserved".  If UT wants to create a research campus somewhere in the state to support all of its campuses, why not Houston? (I admit that it's not exactly clear to me how this hub will "support" the other schools in the system)

Also, James White is from Houston and has graduate degrees from UH:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_White_(Texas_politician)

Hmm...  I'm starting to see a common theme here:

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2015/12/lawmaker-asks-coordinating-board-to-stop-uts-expansion-into-houston.html/

 

Rep. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, said in a letter to Paredes on Wednesday that the board should stop the UT System from moving forward with its plans. She wrote that UT System’s decision to purchase the land without receiving the commissioner’s or the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s approval “undermines and weakens” the commissioner’s authority on higher education in the state.

Carol Alvarado:  UH graduate

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2015/12/texas-senator-objects-to-ut-systems-houston-expansion.html/

 

“In all candor, in my 42 years of service in the Texas Legislature, I have not seen such an affront to the legislative process and the conservative deliberations of the higher education community,” Whitmire wrote in his strongly worded letter.

John Whitmire:  UH graduate

The article posted earlier today had 19 signatures including Sylvester Turner (UH grad) and Alvarado.  Granted, a lot of the others are not from UH, but the grumblings from some of these folks makes me wonder whether they are more interested in what's best for the city of Houston or their alma mater.  From what I've read it doesn't seem that the purchase can actually be blocked, but I don't like the fact that Turner signed

More whining...  Are any Rice or other non-UH graduates against UT's plans?  Just curious

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/education/campus-chronicles/article/State-reps-ask-UT-to-step-back-from-Houston-6692292.php

So is there any way (through public records or other) to verify when/if UT closes on the land?  I've tried some online searching on the County Clerk's office but no luck

Well, it's not the most beautiful development but I've seen uglier storage facilities (basically every Proguard one out there).  Actually ran across a rendering at the site below-

https://www.sparefoot.com/self-storage/news/3329-the-roll-up-weekly-self-storage-development-round-up-12-9-15/

 

 

Big Tex Self Storage broke ground on a new 100,000 square-foot facility in Houston, TX. Located at 1810 Richmond Avenue on a site formerly occupied by a vacant service station, the facility is scheduled to open in August of 2016. As part of the development, Big Tex will develop pedestrian sidewalks and landscaping along Richmond Avenue which will be “given back as right of way to the City of Houston and its residents.” Big Tex currently operates two other facilities in the Houston area.

Some more activity today

Well, I looked some but didn't find much.  Demo permit is as follows:

(713) 465-7231

Searched for Ashwin Patel and per Linkedin it looks like he works for Staybridge Suites.  Never heard of it but apparently it's an IHG brand.  Here's an article about one they opened off 249 last year in which he is quoted:

http://www.ihgplc.com/index.asp?PageID=116&NewsID=3291

So yeah...unfortunately not all that exciting, but sure beats what's there now.  I thought I noticed they had done some improvements at the Medical Inn and Suites so I'm wondering if they are going to somehow rehab the existing property or really demo the whole thing.  It's a pretty outdated design, though

Drum roll........

They're digging a hole in the street at the corner of Travis and Old Main under the existing power lines, so I assume this is utilities-related.  That said, Medistar, TRC Capital Partners, and Greystar are all apparently involved in this development and none of them list this as an active project on their website at present.  I would like to think that they wouldn't bother with this step unless it was moving forward but who knows

Nothing for a couple of days, but the road is closed off now (though somehow there were still cars parked on it).  I saw a dump truck and a backhoe out there this morning on the street but there wasn't any activity yet

I will try to get a better look later today to try to figure out what is going on.  No permitting activity, so while it sure seems this has to be related to the hotel/apartments I'm not 100% sure.  I just recall during the discussion with the planning commission there was a mention of working with CenterPoint to bury utilities

It's been quiet, but ran by today and noticed there was a new sign on the lot saying that Old Main would be closed 11/16 - 12/2.  I'll take that as a positive sign, hopefully they are starting on the utilities?

I'm hoping this encourages redevelopment along S. Main and Buffalo Speedway. For example, places like The Broadmead and Mainstream Apartments seem like they'd be ripe for redevelopment after this. I mean, look at all this potential student housing: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/29.6714916,-95.4247134/29.6721696,-95.4252312/@29.6836149,-95.425058,1523m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!4m1!3e0

I sure hope so, but I'm guessing this would be on a reasonably long timeframe.  I don't know much about those apartments along Westridge, but man there are a lot of them

Just imagine with this, a potentially re-purposed astrodome (?), the new TMC3 campus, the various other expansions ongoing in the med center, and things are really looking up for this part of town

Self-storage?  How disappointing...  I lived off Branard in that area until late 2012 or so, when we sold our townhouse.  Even in that short time there has been a massive change - new sidewalks, repaved streets, high dollar townhomes everywhere.  But hey, even people in $800K townhomes might need some storage.  Or maybe it's the folks in all of the new apartments nearby

Richmond is terrible, no doubt.  I've always been under the impression that it's sort of in a "wait and see" pattern on the light rail line, since it doesn't make sense to do any significant improvements that might get torn out "eventually" when the rail goes through

All's not lost, though.  Just a few blocks from there you've got all of the activity at the Menil, the new improvements for Mandell Park (which previously was basically a patch of grass), the awesome HEB, etc.  Shepherd Plaza's days are numbered, and no doubt something interesting will fill its place (of course I thought that 10 years ago and it's still hanging on).  The infrastructure will be improved one day (rail or not) and with the increasing density from new apartments and townhomes it will become more pedestrian oriented

We've been gone a few years and only live a couple of miles away, but to me you just can't beat that location

This has been fenced off for a week or so, building permit just issued

Project No: 15083796 Date : 2015/11/04 00:00:00 USE : (EPR)HI-RISE HOSPITAL REMODEL/CORE ADDIT Owner/Occupant : *TEXAS CHILDRENS HOSPITAL Job Address : 6651 MAIN ST 77030 Valuation : $ 158,517,000 Permit Type : 13 FCC Group : Non-Residential Alteration Buyer : KUBIN DAVID Address : 1906 AFTON ST 77055 Phone : (713) 680-2132

What a joke.  Those fear-mongering commercials were insulting and infuriating, but apparently highly effective on the masses

Thank God something like this can never happen again:

http://www.khou.com/story/news/local/2015/11/03/police-man-coaxed-girl-into-having-sex-in-cvs-restroom/75119790/

The first thing that came to mind for me was the cramped midrises you find in the Bronx and Queens. Will they really sell here?

Maybe things are changing, but when I graduated and came to Houston most of the apartment dwellers in midtown were in their young 20's, non-committal, and paying back loans. When they did have some money saved up or were ready to settle down, they moved on to bigger places either in the neighborhood or close by. As of late unfortunately many of my friends have been fleeing to the suburbs (30's now with kids thinking about schools). I guess we'll have to see what the price point is, but when you can get townhomes in the 300's close by, wouldn't the majority rent an apartment or just go for the space and better resale ops with a townhome?

Agreed.  To be honest, the more I look at it the more this seems like kind of an odd, isolated spot for something like this - yes, I realize this will change in the coming years but there are other denser, more walkable areas that already exist.  If you work downtown it's not impossible to walk, but it's not particularly convenient or safe.  It's also not near the rail line.  This is just an assumption on my part but I would think people willing to live in smaller units would do so in order to be right in the middle of the action (downtown or maybe midtown).  Or maybe there is just a segment of the population out there that really want to live in a condo for some reason but that can't afford the new ones going up in downtown and uptown

That said, I did see that they are sponsoring Houston Whatever Fest:

http://houstonwhateverfest.com/sponsorship

and given the Facebook, Instagram, and website are now all up and running hopefully we will find out some more soon

This seems even less likely than the Ivy Lofts, but I hope this is built - it just defies logic

But seriously, I feel like there is some sort of optical illusion with that pool.  Is that supposed to be for the entire complex?

I'm a bit skeptical of this one, so I've tried doing some research without much success

The owner per the plat and HCAD is Novel Creative Development LLC

The given address per HCAD is

Well, some panic was to be expected after Katrina and Rita was the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the GOM (per Wikipedia).  So yeah, it's easy to look back after the "miss" and say we were all dumb but at the time it was scary stuff.  There were certainly people well inland that had no business evacuating, though - myself included

As for me, I was living @ Camden midtown and was debating leaving.  My roommate was headed north on 59 and called me to tell me there wasn't any traffic, so I went ahead and left (with my then-girlfriend, now wife).  Of course once we were on the road he called back to say he hit a wall of cars at the beltway but by then we were committed.  This was before widespread smartphone/Google maps days of course...  We were lucky in that my wife had a detailed Texas Atlas and Gazetteer that showed all of the back roads, so we got off 59 somewhere near Cleveland and wound up making it to Tulsa in 10 hrs or so - this was during the peak of the evacuation, too.  Once we figured out which exit to take off 59 it took us about an hour or so to go that last mile, which was more than enough support for us to decide to get off the main road

Another permit for "plan review fee", but this time it lists the buyer as Greystar along with a Greystar-associated address.  Hopefully getting closer to making this one official

I saw this thread title earlier and, without reading, this is exactly what popped in my head

I'm still trying to see how this would be practical.  Based on the video it doesn't appear that you would be able to move between upper and lower cars...

So let's say a train is going from point A (somewhere far out) to Z (Central area).  Those traveling from A to Z would obviously benefit from no stops - but what about those in between?  I guess if everyone (stops B, C, etc.) is headed to Z then maybe the train could just accumulate the cars above.  So people at B would save time, C slightly less, etc., due to fewer stops.  But then other options (going from B to C, for example) are completely lost

If people can somehow transfer between upper and lower cars (without chaos) there would certainly be benefits for anyone going beyond a single stop.  If they can't transfer then the video really doesn't make any sense as anyone between A and Z would only be able to go a single stop.  It seems like it would be better (but perhaps equally deadly) to attach/detach a car on the end somehow

That's really going to stand out there.  Hopefully we don't get a beige box

I drove by yesterday and this particular corner is already fenced off