jgriff

1 hour ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

 

 

Obviously, I think, both of us know I couldn't afford this.  

 

 

 

Never underestimate yourself. There’s no telling what you will be able to afford someday.

You think this is slow? 1916 West Gray is 6 years into construction. Still not done!

On 12/14/2018 at 6:34 PM, ekdrm2d1 said:

Sweet Paris Crêperie & Café opened their store in Highland Village this week

 

Yuck. Sweet Paris is terrible.  I went to the one in City Centre once. It’s Jack in the box or Burger King level food. 

Now that I live in the core of Houston I’m all for light rail. I wish they’d put a rail line down West Dallas. I think it would enhance my property value. Since there’s usually some federal funding for these kinds of transit projects, the people who live in urban areas that receive these investments are essentially being subsidized by the people who live in rural areas. I’ll gladly let other people pay to enhance infrastructure of the area I live in. It’s the same situation as the downtown living initiative. The entire city pays for subsidized housing for the middle und upper middle class in downtown. As long as the corruption and pork belly spending are helping my property value and enhance my neighborhood I say keep it coming. Convince me that heavy rail to Katy would make my property more valuable and I’ll be for that too. That might be the case. Heavy rail to the suburbs could make it cheaper to do business in downtown which could keep companies from moving to the suburbs.

1 hour ago, por favor gracias said:

"Lyndon LaRouche people"....lol. They're what telemarketers look like in person. I know nothing about the guy, but his goons' antics have given me little reason to inquire.

Exactly... I wrote a long post about how much I agree but then realized this is going too far off topic. I’m out on the evils of tunnels and fringe politicians!

There is a seriously large amount of development going on right now. Multi family seems to be exploding. I’m almost worried that it’s a bubble. Oil hit $55 this week and people in the know seem to think it will keep rising for now. If we’re seeing this at $50-$55 Imagine if we get to $80 this year. 

There is a seriously large amount of development going on right now. Multi family seems to be exploding. I’m almost worried that it’s a bubble. Oil hit $55 this week and people in the know seem to think it will keep rising for now. If we’re seeing this at $50-$55 Imagine if we get to $80 this year. 

There’s a bit of security in the tunnels also. The homeless are generally kept out. I stood on corners waiting for buses downtown for many years and was accosted a few times, once seriously threatened. I didn’t feel in danger in the tunnels wearing an expensive Swiss watch, on the surface I slipped it into my pocket in some areas. The biggest annoyance in the tunnels were the Lyndon Larouche people. I’d go to the surface just to avoid them.

Bottome line though, I always preferred walking on the surface. Most days, even in Houston,  the weather is nice for walking as long as it’s not too far.

It was a 6-7 block walk for me from the bus stop to my office downtown. On rainy or extremely hot days it’s a life saver. If the tunnels weren’t there I would have driven to work everyday instead of using mass transit. I didn’t really have to use them that often but it kept me from having to carry a slicker suit and umbrella to work everyday. For me, without the tunnels, mass transit in downtown Houston would have been unusable.

3 minutes ago, jmitch94 said:

I wonder if they will try to acquire the empty plot directly to the east of the site or is that land apart of the failed Regent Square development?

Yes, that lot is part of what was to be Regent Square. There seems to be no public information on it's status at the moment. 

I talked to my neighbors about this and the Hanover site. Their biggest concern is that something like a Wal-Mart will happen if the Regent Square project is abandoned. I couldn't imagine that happening on a site this expensive. Am I right? Would Wal-Mart or another big box retailer build in Houston on land that's worth around $160 a square foot? 

I'm always surprised at how most people are so anti-development. It seems many people in the neighborhood are not even happy with Hanover replacing the abandoned detention center and the other buildings North of West Dallas. They also complained about the lack of parks! We are about 1300 feet from Buffalo Bayou Park! Apparently crossing Allen Parkway is not possible.

17 minutes ago, TOMIKA! said:

Met with a contractor today who is bidding on “major” infrastructure work on the site. 

Maybe they took the website down in anticipation of a new one going up.

16 minutes ago, TOMIKA! said:

Met with a contractor today who is bidding on “major” infrastructure work on the site. 

Maybe they took the website down in anticipation of a new one going up.

Real estate prices in this area don’t seem to support the economics of high rise construction. 

1 hour ago, H-Town Man said:

 

Interesting. St. Thomas paid about $5.5 million an acre for the High School for Law Enforcement, which was mostly land value, so that checks out. This is getting in the ballpark of downtown land at $160/SF.

 

I was surprised at the price paid for the Detention Center site. My lot is appraised at $85/SF. Of course it's not suitable for development due to the size. Is it normal for a commercial size lot like this to be worth double what a residential lot would be? I hope this doesn't push my taxes up. 

12 minutes ago, H-Town Man said:

 

Ah, so it looks like The Center is leaving. I hope they got a pretty penny, those people are the salt of the earth. And this project is now rather bigger than anticipated when it was 4.54 acres. Regents Square may have missed their window, they are going to have competitive supply issues if they go forward now.

 

They had serious issues during Harvey. I'm sure Hanover will take the flooding issues into account in the design of the new buildings. On the site plan I believe only Reserve "B" would have flooding issues. I walked the entire area many times during Harvey since I live just a few hundred feet away. 

Since Hanover paid about $7 million an acre for the Detention center portion I'm sure The Center got a big price for their site, it was almost 7 acres.  The property taxes on this development are going to be huge. 

Here's what The Center had to say about the sale on their blog.

Quote

Development by the new property owners on the current West Dallas campus—not including Cullen Residence Hall and the surrounding one acre of land—is slated to begin in 2019. In preparation, The Center will temporarily relocate a portion of our services to ensure uninterrupted client programming during this transitional time. The Center has signed the lease for a short-term location at 9310 Kirby Drive to house all of our day programs until the new permanent location is ready. This includes our Momentum Industries vocational training program, the Adult Activity Center, Young at Heart, Bloom Fitness exercise classes, Cullen Caners, and Gingersnaps Etc. These programs are scheduled to relocate in the first quarter of 2019.

https://thecenterhouston.org/with-plans-for-a-new-location-underway-the-center-finds-a-temporary-home-on-kirby-drive/

Here's the plot for those that don't want to look through the PDF. 

Lots of details in this document.  The entire site is about 13.5 acres. It looks like they've bought everything East of Martson street. They are adding several streets. Martson street and one of the new ones will connect to Allen Parkway. 

ftp://edrc.houstontx.gov//2019/2019-02_DraftAgenda.pdf

3 hours ago, Angostura said:

More detail in this weeks Planning Commission agenda. 6 buildings, including a hotel (23 stories), office (21 stories) and residential (7 stories w/ GFR). No details on the other 3.

 

Two N-S streets will run through the site, between Dallas and Allen Pkwy.

 

 

Sorry, delete this post...

10 hours ago, gmac said:

 

$1089 for 492 square feet.

 

Yowza, I'm glad you think that's affordable.

That IS pretty cheap actually. If this is what the incentives made possible then I would say they did subsidize “affordable” housing. A person living in an $1100 a month apartment is probably not rich, probably working class. My first apartment in Houston 23 years ago was $800. It was larger than this but the location was terrible.

2 hours ago, CREguy13 said:

I believe Hanover is also working to acquire the 3550 West Dallas site as well.

Wow, that's news to me! Maybe it should be combined. 

8 hours ago, Luminare said:

@Urbannizer Shouldn't this be combined with the other thread regarding this? The one with the new high-rise by Hanover? Plus this isn't exactly "Downtown".

The first post in this thread is about 3550 West Dallas. The other one is about 3540, that one has been purchase by Hanover. They are actually two different sites. One is 4.5 acres and the other is about 6.75 acres. I’m still not 100% certain which site the new variance signs are for. 

The big building with the orange tower was a juvenile detention facility. I’m not sure what the building in front was for. 

37 minutes ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

 

I’m confused. The same sign is down the street at W Dallas & Shepherd. Same application numbers.

 

What does Buffalo Bayou have to do with this Hanover? Maybe it’ll be callled Hanover Buffalo Bayou?

 

The site address for this is 3540 and The Center’s address is 3550. Guess they’re as one now. This project will be amazing!

Im confused too. The apartments on the corner of West Dallas and Shepherd are supposed to be called Alta West Dallas.  I’m just glad there’s finally some movement on this area.

14 minutes ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

Made a new friend today! 

 

They’re currently flushing out a hole, or something similar so they can start the soldier piles. They’re going 60 feet underground?  Dirt retention for the next few weeks. 

 

The rebar at the site is for the dirt rention.

Sounds like this one is going up right now. No delay.