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Nate99

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Everything posted by Nate99

  1. Nate99
    A coouple of shots from today. Looks like they have a scaffold/elevator setup on the Rusk side, perhaps to start stripping off the facade.
  2. Nate99
    Construction elevator has arrived. I walk by the place all the time, so I'll do what I can to chronicle the refurb.
  3. Nate99
    Agreed. That looks pretty sharp. To go from what is there now to that would completely transform that block.
  4. Nate99
    Anyone know anything about Wexlers? A guy who saw me take this pic said that it was a clothing store.
  5. Nate99
    I wish The Men's Center all the luck in their mission, but if you think putting a rehab facility for homeless drunks improves any neighborhood in any way, shape or form, much less one with a lot going for it for people with cash to spend, I think we're done here.
  6. Nate99
    I'll pile on to what Niche said. They're treating alcoholics, not curing cancer by splitting the atom in geosynchonous orbit. Maybe I'm missing the "captivity" of medical center employees, but I wouldn't figure that volunteers for such outfits would be drawn from people put out by the inconvenience of going a few miles from their work in the TMC to Midtown. Getting drunks with no resources of their own to turn their lives around isn't a job for the highest rent "treatment professionals" in Houston. Could they do a marginally better job of it in the TMC? Possibly. Could they do an even better job of it without paying thousands extra in rent every year? Without question. The lack of ability to understand costs and benefits even by people with fairly strong communication skills frightens me to no end in an election year. And how can one not see a synergy between alcoholics and bars/vagrants?
  7. Nate99
    Looks like they are prepping the Main Street side facade for the installation of a construction elevator. A bunch of windows are knocked out and a non-cotinuous vertical strip of facade has been stripped off.
  8. Nate99
    The other day I could see a bundle of large pressurized gas cylinders hoding what I preumed to be some kind of welding/cutting torch gas. Possible it could have been some kind of construction phase fire protection/extinguisher system. They're definitely busy, but I can't imagine how long a full refurb on an old building like this would take. How long did the Inn at The Ballpark take?
  9. Nate99
    They've got a big hole at the corner of Rusk and Main now.
  10. Nate99
    They should do a 100 story ultra-huge that looks just like the old Oilers logo, but twisted in to kind of a helix. No I don't want to pay for it. I'm guessing 25-ish story modern-ish brown-ish box.
  11. Nate99
    Never mind. The plaques were back up this morning. For a minute there I thought this was the fastest track to demolition ever envisioned. It will be interesting to see if they do anything to accomodate the tunnels.
  12. Nate99
    Walked through the building in the tunnels today. They already took down the descriptive plaques for the pictures of the various Skanska projects that are on the wallpaper in the tunnel. They were only up for maybe a month.
  13. Nate99
    Rich NIMBY busybodies make for some of the least sympathetic people as it turns out. I don't think anyone cares for their overblown cause that doesn't already own a half million plus house. Seems they made a fair run at all legal avenues to stop it, and they failed. Seems sour grapes are leading them to petty harassment after the fact. If they think a high-rise apartment hurts their property value, I wonder why they think making it an unattractive place to live once it is already constructed is a step in the right direction.
  14. Nate99
    Interesting idea. Seems that many bars downtown can't manage enough proceeds to keep the doors open, hope they beat the odds.
  15. Nate99
    There is a very narrow vacant ~10 story office building that is immediately south of 806 Main. The main entrance to it was open one day a few months back when I walked by, couldn't make out what was going on inside apart from the ground floor being a fairly open floor plan. I have heard exactly nothing about it, and it has been empty as long as I've been walking past it. With the refurb of 806, it makes you wonder if a structure like this is a more attractive option to renovate or if it is basically doomed to sit empty since you can't tear it down. Maybe if the hotel does well enough, they could take it too and add rooms or meeting space. EDIT - it was the Battlestein's department store building.
  16. Nate99
    Wasn't there an El Tiempo at Main @ Prairie back 2000-ish?
  17. Nate99

    Spirit Airlines

    Nate99 replied to Mr. Mojito's topic in Planes

    If someone comes forward with a credible plan that doesn't involve massive subsidies (i.e. the state buying the right of way), I'm all for it. Passenger rail loses money nearly everywhere it operates and airlines pay for themselves occasionally. You can not build infrastructure in this country without political support and you'll have organized and well funded NGO opposition fighting you no matter what it is you want.
  18. Nate99
    Agreed. They should do well.
  19. Nate99
    There was a low rent gym on like the seventh or ninth floor of the building that I actually wanted to join, but the owner told me about the building's pending bankruptcy and how they were going to have to shut down. That was the only time I ever went in there. From the neglected tenant directory in the lobby, it looked like a pretty rag-tag list of folks in there.
  20. Nate99
    There was nothing at all wrong with it, that I could see. I'm just trying to guess Skanska's motives. An interesting thing to me is how it occupies virtually the entire block with its footprint. That's actually pretty rare downtown. How are the Gulf and Esperson buildings doing for tenants? I agree that that block of Travis looks very clean and classic.
  21. Nate99
    It would be a shame if a parking lot was more commercially viable than a building that seemed to be perfectly serviceable, but I can't say I heard of any tenants, other than the club themselves and the few retail shops. Seems not worth the bother and possibly unlikely given that they have disclosed that they already hired Gensler. Hoping for the best, but it's not my money.
  22. Nate99
    What do you see that is historic about it? It may be perfectly usable/salvageable, but from the outside it is a plain brown box. I'm guessing Skanska thinks that they can get more money out of something new and shiny and/or a teardown/rebuild is cheaper than a meaningful refurb. With the Esperson buildings and others in the immediate vicinity not hurting for available space to sell, but new stuff filling quickly, their move makes sense.
  23. Nate99
    They had the doors open on Rusk when I walked by today. I grabbed a quick shot. It looks like the whole street level is gutted with lots of activity going on.
  24. Nate99
    Interesting. I'm curious if they are going to ruffle any feathers by what I would presume would be a mandatory closure of the tunnels during demolition and reconstruction. Chase Tower and others will be severed from the tunnel system.
  25. Nate99
    Interesting. In the tunnels, there was once a staircase that went in to this building, I'm guessing that once they closed it up, they must have walled over the stairwell/elevator area down there, because I can't even tell where it used to be at this point, but a hotel could certainly make good use of the connection. Hope it works out.
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