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Nate99

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Everything posted by Nate99

  1. Nate99
    Either way, the folks in the Hogg lofts are going to have a bad time.
  2. Nate99
    Seems an easy and obvious enough problem to solve if anyone actually cares about how the building looks. It's like running a Cadillac around on a set of cheap steel wheels off of a Chevy at this point; at least its back on the road, and they can fix that problem once they get everything critical to its renewed practical use ironed out. Not sure how many people were lining up to have a go at this building apart from the people that couldn't/wouldn't pay to restore the cornice, but the bigger issue was having an abandoned building with a cornice that was about to fall on a pedestrian, now we have a redeveloped old building that looks weirder than it optimally could.You win some, you lose some.
  3. Nate99
    800 Bell is so huge, getting it redeployed in any manner is going to cost large dollars, which I guess is why the Shorenstein (sp?) proposal looked like one you would see in new construction. If it sits neglected long enough for the shades to start deteriorating, it's going to look like absolute hell.
  4. Nate99
    The "first phases of development" sounds very euphemistic, as in, somewhere between "the last tenant is packing to move out" and "we're working on the final draft to pitch to investors".
  5. Nate99
    Cool. The vacancies/underused buildings are dropping like flies. Given everything else that has grown up and changed around them, I'm excited for what the lot across Main from this one and the big super lot between the Marriott Marquis and IWA could be. In another 20 years, we'll be freaking old, but imagining how DT could plausibly turn out is pretty exciting, especially if you saw it during the 80's/90's.
  6. Nate99
    Adding to MM's documentation, but it looks like the song of the jackhammers will re-commence soon. I wonder if they'll just drive Bobcats up the ramps and chip their way down.
  7. Nate99
    I never tried that place, seems like they weren't ready at the opening with their oven out of commission. I imagine the vendors are paying premium rent, they better have a premium product that they can charge a lot for to make it up and stay in business. Decent pizza is pretty cheap to make, and you could already find that in three places within a three block walk of Finn Hall.
  8. Nate99
    The EFD-IAH route went on for a while, can't imagine the how the business case for that was justified the first time around. Something out of the west side of town makes the same (or more) sense, but that would require United buying into the idea.
  9. Nate99
    The retaining wall/forms are 8-10 feet tall, and the hole is really deep, probably 30-40 feet. I'm wondering how they are going to get the crane out of the hole. I'm guessing they will build another dirt ramp after the mat pour.
  10. Nate99
    I like HTown's 50K idea, maybe inclusive of Midtown that would effectively merge at that point. Houston's sprawl is at a tipping point. It's not going to stop, but the tradeoffs of living in a denser area are meeting up with the tradeoffs of an ever lengthening commute.
  11. Nate99
    If you look at the picture that Luminaire posted, the actual boat dock area will be, to a large extent a brand new section of the lake/river that would have to be dug out. It would actually help drainage in the immediate area, unless they were just really stupid about it, in which case they won't have much of a development for very long. Disinformation around flooding in Kingwood has its own Facebook page, and I'm not even joking. Public comment on this is going to be ridiculous.
  12. Nate99
  13. Nate99
    So this is that empty patch on Allen Parkway at Montrose, correct? If so, that's a great spot for something impressive looking. Hope they build it way up above Harvey depth. People will clutch pearls over anything and broadcast their anxieties for the Kabuki Theater of outrage and counter outrage for everyone to feel good about themselves. I doubt this particular act lasts more than one cycle should the project progress.
  14. Nate99
    I would presume so. It looks very similar to the type of structure that was placed in the base/mat section under the Hillcorp tower.
  15. Nate99
    I like it. They would need a restroom bouncer unless they wanted it to become a homeless shelter though.
  16. Nate99
    Seattle too at some point, right?
  17. Nate99
    Bald eagles? New one for me. The flooding post Harvey is alarming, but the knee jerk assumption that further development can only exacerbate the issue is precisely what informs my impression. If in fact it does, then yeah, there are a few more things to sort out, but in an emotional debate, I don't trust facts to carry the day. There are more than a few in Kingwood that will go to their graves insisting that the release from Lake Conroe caused the flooding in 1994 and during Harvey, and all the pure mathematics in the world won't convince them otherwise.
  18. Nate99
    The Kings Creek idea wasn't in Kingwood proper, nor was it on the lake, though very close to the West Fork of the SJR. That would make it less attractive in that it couldn't have the "marina" component, but it would also take far less to make it accessible and have fewer pearl clutchers trying to shoot it down. King's Creek and Kingwood Parc never progressed beyond renderings. The much less grandiose Valley Ranch is inching along up in Porter, albeit with tenants (Sam's) already bailing out.
  19. Nate99
    Definitely agree, not sure there are enough collective brain cells engaged to get this right, but a well engineered large scale development like this could actually help Kingwood's neglected storm water runoff system, if you can call it that, with the portion of the work needed in the immediate area done on the developer's dime. Constructing something there doesn't automatically make things worse, but I get the impression that narrative that is forming (hope I'm wrong). What little local chatter I am exposed to seems to be focused scary soundbite level thinking. The effort to address the flooding problem to date seems to have been spent on passing a bond deal, announcing a wish list of proposed projects and spending federally appropriated emergency funds ASAP purportedly to attempt to restore the Lake Houston area to the condition that immediately preceded the worst disaster the region has seen in a century. Doing nothing is always an option with the lack of local political consequences. You have interlocking jurisdictions here that can just point at each other when the money disappears if they bother to address it at all since neither they nor their similarly connected successors ever intend to squeeze one vote out of Kingwood. Plus, with vocal local support against development you have all the more incentive to do nothing as memories fade. The NIMBY's will try to scare each other on the internet with ever more dire warnings of calamity should things progress. The rest of Houston can contend with the very real problems of growth while Kingwood deals with the likewise very real problem of stagnation in the middle of an otherwise growing region. Best case for the NIMBY's is that Kingwood becomes a Champions Forest with better highway access.
  20. Nate99
    Some of the building on the floodplain looks to be offset by digging out detention/waterway where none exists currently. I don't pretend to know what is displaced or would be necessary/legal, but clearly everything of value here would need to be built way up from current grade. I guess it's floodplain either way, but what is/was wetland probably changed in the area with the Lake Houston dam's construction in the 50's. Interestingly, there is a massive sandbar that built up through Harvey that inhibits drainage severely. One read of this implies that they would have to re-engineer the whole waterway around here, which could sound really good to the CoE. Still very skeptical, but it's an interesting idea to kick around.
  21. Nate99
    I think that is in the renderings, but they are not yet working on it.
  22. Nate99
    It's tough to see, but there is a steel structure sticking out along the Louisiana side where the new entrance is being constructed, it must be some kind of awning. If it integrates at all with the building, it should be fairly understated.
  23. Nate99
    It's currently something of a dead end (literal, as-in no through traffic) area, not surprised at all about the knee jerk reaction against it for those nearby, but this thing would change so much in the area, it's not going to end up like anything anyone can predict if it got built. Kingwood is built out under its original theme, this would be a big step-out that I think would be worth it.
  24. Nate99
    Saltgrass isn't the best, but when you're boss is looking at your expense report he'll probably let that slide where Pappas Bros would get you sent to Alaska next February. This strikes me as a more mild example of the "Olive Garden in Times Square" phenomenon.
  25. Nate99
    I can't find the link any more, so maybe it's just smoke, but there seems to be persistent interest in this idea. I remembered seeing something recently about a public comment period/conference, but can't find anything online. A recent bump of the posts on kingwood.com and a random comment on the old Swamplot post corroborate that other people are hearing about it again as well. Still astonished it's not completely dead, but would love to see it.
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