SpringShadows

nor did they ever move anyone out of their Galleria office into downtown

Wrong. They did move people downtown, my colleague's wife was moved downtown temporarily with many of her co-workers.

DO you even know anyone at BHP? Because I do.

Hate to say I told you so bitches!

... still waaaaay too many run down apartment complexes.

I agree. The good news is that they are getting demoed. Not as fast as I would like, but it's happening. Also, MetroNational owns several, so it's only a matter of time before those get removed or upgraded. I remeber the heights looked simililar in areas about 10 years ago.

But I agree. The apartments are the problem, really the only problem at this point for me.

I had a guys night out Friday night at City Center. On the way a freind of a friend needed to be picked up. The just moved off Gessner, first street north of I-10 (behind Whataburger and Mr. Carwarsh). They rented a house there having just moved from the Heights. When I asked why they moved, they said "The Heights was overpriced, they got twice the house, twice the room, they are close to everything and the school district doesn't suck."

Of course I live just north of them in Spring Shadows, so I was happy to hear that. My cul-de-sac is now filled with young professionals with small children (like myself). However, I thought we were ahead of the game and that Spring Brach was still fairly low key. When I told them that, they told me that the first place they tried to rent they lost, the second had the tennant offer 3 years rent up front (paid for by some medical employer). He said the whole area is being bought-up or rented by all the new medical staff coming into the area. Not to mention the expansion of City Center and the Energy Corridoor nearby.

Then he forwarded this:

http://sbmd.org/images/stories/downloads/newsletters/sbdm2012q1-web2.pdf

The new flag poles apparently will line Gessner when it is re-done in the very near future. Very exciting news for Spring Branchers.

This neighberhood feeds into Memorial High School, it's arguably the best public school in the city. Spring Branch is the best school district in Houston.

Houston

Most Searched-for Neighborhood: Great Uptown

Secret Neighborhood: Spring Branch East

Secret Neighborhood’s Median Sales Price: $ N/A (A recent Average Listing Price was $424,149)

Spring Branch East is a wedge-shaped

http://www.cnbc.com/id/46644707/?slide=9

^That sounds pretty reasonable.

...just to clarify, I didn't mean that they were abandoning the current towers, they are expanding. Thus, some departments are moving in preperation for the new building. The current BHP buildings are going to stay BHP.

I spoke to my friend about this again at lunch today. They said:

"It's still not been announced yet."

Which to me sounds alot like "It's a rumor." Maybe you guys are right. We'll see. She said they were going to move everyone downtown, demo the 24 hour fitness building and build a new tower in int's place. Then move everyone back. My question, which I didn't ask at the time, was why move people that aren't in the 24 hours fitness building anyway. I'll see if I can clarify that later.

I didn't just make it up. I was told by a good friend that works for BHP, she told me about a week before I found this post.

BHP bought thier building. It wasn't by choice.

Spec's was standing this morning, but is now a pile of rubble this evening! I believe this will be the new driveway for the building.

Cool thanks for the updates. The new "Think outside the loop" billboard is pretty badass that they just put up.

I was not describing you. However if you so wish I do have some choice terms I can use. I'd rather not use them here though. I wonder as to the source of this "demographic center of the Houston area"?

My bad, I thought you were flaming me, sorry if I was a dick about it. No need for choice words.

As to where the numbers came from, ultimately I do not know but I got them from a promotional pdf issued by CityCenter on their website very early on. It isn't up anymore and can't remember if the sourced thier data.

Ah. Therein lies my initial confusion. Demographic center is very different than the median/max/average income of a particular zip code. This guy seems to not know the difference.

Am I supposed to be "this guy"?

I wonder why they call it City Centre. It's not very near the geo center of the city. Perhaps closer to the pop center. Still... come on...

You calling me confused LOL?!

And my response to you two bloody years ago on this very same matter...

This is the answer:

Two million people can access the site within 20 minutes

280,000 cars per day travel on Interstate 10 and 175,000 cars per day on Beltway 8

77024 is the wealthiest zip code in Texas and fourth in the nation

Memorial has the highest per capita and household income in Houston

Located at the intersection of Interstate 10 and Beltway 8, the demographic center of the Houston area

So... when you say "This Guy' doesn't know the difference, you'd better be describing yourself.

Interesting. Too far out for me to drive to just to look around... Looks nice though. Is this area the demographic center of Houston or the Houston Metro area? I find this difficult to believe. This certainly does not appear to be from looking at some maps. Perhaps this was inferred from the 2000 Census. I'd be interested to know what the latest Census reveals.

By Demographic Center they mean, the richest Zip Code in Texas, the statistics are posted earlier in this very thread.No small part due to Memorial, I was surprised too, I would have guessed somewhere in Dallas or even River Oaks, but they weren't even close. It's the old money of Memorial.

I love that you wrote this, mostly because it echoes my own feelings about the area.

I've been living within walking distance to CityCentre for the last 5 years and have been watching the area develop and grow.

We recently outgrew our 5 year old, 2 bedroom condo and sold it for a very significant profit. We love this area, the schools and the opportunity that it offers, but just couldn't justify the expense of a house in "Memorial."

There is so much new construction just north of I-10, that we are now under contract with a home builder and are having a 4 bedroom home built just 2 miles from CityCentre.

We looked at moving to the suburbs and other areas inside of Houston, but it's so hard to beat the amenities, schools, price and opportunity of the BW8/I10 quadrant. I have a feeling my family will be in this area for quite some time.

Thanks. I think this community's reputation is really spreading. The closeness of all the neighbors in Spring Shadows reminds me of Heights BLVD when I lived there. Just last night my wife and I took our little girl for a walk and we were stopped twice in 15 minutes by frinedly neighbors introducing themselves, and the streets are always busy with family traffic and casual pedestrians. We feel very safe here.

It is now! Gotta find time to go. Anyone else try it yet?

Yep, and it's very good. We tried "The Big 8" with a salad. Also they serve alcohol. Definitely worth trying. Now all this location needs is a decent bar. We have tons of awesome drunk food between El Ray, Freebirds, Sushi Pop.

Sushi-pop is not open yet.

I can't believe no one has picked up on the fact that a Cheesecake Factory is going up in place of the old department store on the west side. That's where the skywalk from the hospital/hotel will connect.

So there's your Memorial City Mall construction news for the month.....

LOL. Thanks.

I've been told that it will be dubbed Medical Center II

More medical buildings for Memorial Herman.

What I heard was that eventually it would find it's way to nearly Memorial City mall and spread north of I-10. The whole area would hope to provide pedestrian friendly modes of access so that cars would not be needed beyond arrival.

I also wonder how soon (10-15 years?) they'll tear down the strip centers to the south and expand city centre?

I heard they would most likely expand north of I-10 near the college first and simply update Town & Country to the south.

Yeah, drove by yesterday. Sadly I was wrong, it is indeed a bank.

I'm not trying to be difficult, but I don't think it's a bank. I'll eat my words if I'm wrong but there was no Safe that I ever saw. When the MetroNational bank went up the safe was visible for weeks. Also, the "drive thru lanes" look more like a very nice overhang to me. Almost like a classy restaurant.

My gut tells me this isn't a bank. Again, I could be wrong but I don't think so.