IronTiger

"Two separate full-line Macy's" obviously dates the writing of that, considering Macy's at Sage closed in 2014. As for location, it's a 1.79 acre parcel, but the "legal description" dates it back to 2002. We know it's "north of Westheimer"...the plot where Joe's Golf House was is too small (besides, it was still occupied in 2002), another plot a bit south of it is possible but also on the small side (1.57 acres).

My guess is a plot just southwest of Post Oak Blvd. and 610, as it has a proper calculated acreage (~1.8 as per Google Earth), north of Westheimer, is wider in the front than back, and never previously occupied (open space in 2002).

3 minutes ago, Luminare said:

All good points. Just seems like the money that is being taken in by the gas tax just gets smaller as cars get more efficient, yet the amount we drive is still around the same. Of course the other component to making this switch is that you would hope that it motivates other kind of infrastructure. Particularly non-highway variants. Not just talking about rail or buses, but there is a serious lack of cross blvds, and other cut-through road infrastructure that connects different districts that make using highways more of necessity. At the end of the day to many people are dependent on the highway for any kind of travel and at any distance. I-45 and I-10 are some of the most busy highways around with lots of cars traveling through the city. That is a lot of people who aren't paying a dime for continued maintenance while if you were to use other modes of transit you always pay for a ticket that at the end of the day will go back into the existing or to plan for better infrastructure. 

The only real missing connection that sticks out immediately is around Uptown, where a true replacement to Post Oak Road is a detriment to the traffic in and around the Galleria area, and even Post Oak Road terminates at Hempstead Road, not 290. Some of the other roads have a problem in that they also function as collector roads (that's a lot of how Wilcrest stacks up on lights) beyond being major thoroughfares. The suburbs are missing key connections, and even urban Houston has problems. There is no Inner Loop road (but one) that has access points to the Loop on both ends. Main did, but a few blocks have been converted into pedestrian malls, besides, driving in downtown with its stoplights and the people around it who throw themselves right into traffic (figuratively, of course...most of the time). 18th/20th/Cavalcade almost does but it's a narrow road for most of the way that doesn't lend well to long commuting. Yale and T.C. Jester don't crack the "Buffalo Bayou gap" (River Oaks/golf course/Memorial Park/etc.), but Shepherd/Greenbriar/Durham does, if there wasn't that two-block gap around Rice...and even then it just merges into Fannin, forced down to one lane for another railroad crossing and the subsequent parallel rail line. Stella Link/Weslayan and Buffalo Speedway don't cross the gap (or Kirby). Only Bellaire/Holcombe/OST even clears downtown, but OST turns north at 45, so by the time it hits 610 as Wayside, it's ineffective at east/west travel. Even the great Westheimer (Elgin) doesn't make it, turning north by 45 as Lockwood. Memorial/Harrisburg/Broadway works, technically, but only eastbound and it still has the direction change problem. Only Scott Street/Hirsch makes it through the Loop unscathed, and just three miles short of making it to the North Belt (but it goes through some of the roughest neighborhoods in Harris County).

15 minutes ago, MikeRichardson said:

I live off Westheimer and the Beltway.

 

Actually before I go into that, let me clarify real quick the names and ownership of the roads, for people that don't know.

 

The actual toll lanes, are called Sam Houston Tollway. "HCTRA" owns these roads, except HCTRA is not an actual separate entity, it is really just a brand name and an "enterprise fund". So, Harris County owns these roads. It is important to note that these toll lanes are NOT one continuous road! Immediately before I-45 heading East, until somewhere after the airport, is a free road owned by the state. Also, several of the stacks are actually owned by the state, which is why where is a free entrance right before the ramps.

 

The free lanes (the feeders), are called Sam Houston Parkway. They are owned by the State of Texas, and because of this, they have a numeric designation from the state: Beltway 8.

If you look at the address for any business on the Beltway - let's look at the West Road Kroger, that address is 9125 W Sam Houston Pkwy N. You will never see an address for a business on the Tollway directly.

 

I will also clarify here that no private entity has any ownership interest in any HCTRA toll road. This is one of the few "right/correct/good" things about the HCTRA system. If you want to see an example of what happens when a private entity is involved look at the Chicago Skyway. Their tolls are atrocious, some of the highest in the country.

 

Now, like I said I live off Westheimer and the Beltway. About every weekend I drive up to see my mom, she lives off 249 and Grant Road.

 

I used to take the tollway, and now I don't. On the weekend, the parkway/Beltway 8 is not that much slower. It costs $4.50 in tolls one way. Compared to the free lanes, and the way I drive, I would be surprised if the toll lanes save 9 minutes. One way to look at that is  that I'd need to earn at least $30 an hour just to break even.

 

Also, after I-10 was rebuilt, they very thoughtfully installed an overpass for Beltway 8, saving at least 5 minutes. Sadly, they did not do this at 290.

 

My experience says nothing of a Monday-Friday commuter though, unfortunately that is the type of person who is proably getting soaked in monthly tolls.

I'd like to open this post with a quick chart I made of stoplights comparing Sam Houston Parkway with its parallel roads (from I-69 to I-10), and how even by taking the frontage roads, you save yourself half a dozen stoplights.

As for your other comments, the Sam Houston Parkway addresses are correct, as technically the Tollway (just like the Katy Tollway) have no building access at all. Interestingly, the Sam Houston Parkway has developed differently than the other highways because of its toll nature, whereas the other freeways are littered with retail and places to eat, Sam Houston predominantly has commercial and light industrial buildings.

The "overpass over 10" isn't really comparable to 290. HCTRA was heavily involved in the Katy Freeway rebuild, and the new overpass roads were made possible only because the railroad that paralleled 10 no longer existed. Over at 290, the frontage roads weren't even continuous until about three years ago! The frontage roads split off, became Senate, turn right at the yield lane, and then three stoplights more until you're on Beltway 8 northbound again. The other factors to keep in mind is that the five-stack isn't being completely rebuilt, the railroad stays put, and they already installed the frontage "bypass lanes" for 290 and things like the Gessner exit. That's the primary reason why the fast food restaurants near Senate and 290 met their demise about five years ago, and you can see how somewhat awkwardly built the bridges are--they're not in a straight lane as they curve around support columns and have a fairly steep grade just to clear Hempstead Road's clearance.

3 hours ago, MaxConcrete said:

Actually, the 2017 HCTRA financial statement says $134 million in toll revenue was skimmed off for "funding a county thoroughfare program to increase general mobility."

 

Each of the three original sections of the Sam Houston Tollway generate around $100 million year (actually $105, $89 and $103 million going clockwise from IH 69 Southwest Freeway). Toll payers on these 3 segments are basically bankrolling HCTRA's surplus and slush fund.

 

I can assure you that there really is no realistic alternative to the Sam Houston Tollway from IH 69 to IH 10. Try taking Gessner or Willcrest. It takes a *long* time even in light traffic conditions. So when someone says "Don't use them", that person is disconnected from reality.

 

I think it is good to ask questions about

1) If the tollpayers on the Sam Houston Tollway original 3 segments should be bankrolling these surpluses into perpetuity

2) If tolls should be removed from any or all of those sections at some point in time

Quick research shows this interesting little snippet:

Tolls are set by a 2007 policy that increases rates annually by 2 percent or inflation, whichever is greater. The increases occur in increments of 5 cents for EZ Tag users and 25 cents for cash-payers. While the rate

increase is calculated every year, the increase is not passed on to drivers until it surpasses the minimum increments.

The last increase was in 2012 to 1.75 for the cash cost (from 1.50) with the previous price jump in 2007, therefore it stands to reason that the tolls are to increase again in the near future.

How are Gessner and Wilcrest compared to taking the Beltway 8 frontage roads? Unlike the southbound way, you can take the frontage roads northbound for free without having to jump over to the other side.

9 hours ago, MikeRichardson said:

HCTRA OPERATES AT A HUGE YEARLY PROFIT. OVER $120,000,000 PER YEAR IS REMOVED FROM HCTRA ANNUALLY TO PAY FOR UNRELATED COUNTY ROADS.

That sounds actually pretty good if true. It's better than rail, which even the most successful of which only make maybe 50% back, and if HCTRA runs without major tax subsidies, well, that sounds pretty grand for the rest of us that don't use toll roads, no?

Wew, I remember this thread. While unfortunately it was torn down before Street View was making its rounds, 2121 West Loop South appears to have been the Electric Living Center originally, but we don't know if facade changes were made later (probably not, note that in 1/06 Google Earth you can still the inverted L-shaped structures jutting out from the side).

It doesn't look like residential (and Gables was supposed to go at the Westcreek Apartments site, the last undeveloped portion, about southeast of here). Trying to guess the square footage based on landmarks says about 13,000 square feet, and based on where the lines are drawn from the Robbin Bros. building, a long and skinny building with no parking access (interestingly, the original building seems to have been connected with the nearby parking garage, the connection having been torn out in 2007).

P.S.: There seems to have been another Joe's Golf House near Tidwell/Hollister/290 area in the early 2000s, according to directories).

For what it's worth, according to West Houston Archives' John Williams, a hybrid Church's Chicken/Wienerschnitzel operated on Highway 6 North for a few years, with the Wienerschnitzel menu being removed around 2005.

Supposedly, Spaghetti Warehouse will reopen elsewhere in Houston but I haven't heard anything since fall of last year.

On 4/4/2011 at 10:13 PM, hydeaway said:

When I was in high school in 1981-1985, our drafting class was shown blueprints for an upscale mall that was to be built in the Greens Crossing portion of Greenspoint just across the freeway. It was to include a Bloomingdales and an ice skating rink. The Paragon building(s) -- one of three that was actually built -- was supposed to be connected via a skywalk. When the energy bust came, the plans were scrapped and they build the now defunct "power center" that had included Phar Mor, Children's Palace Toys, Circuit City, etc on the site. Did anyone else see those blueprints or know about this? What was the name of the planned mall? Any other prospective tenants you were aware of? It shows how upscale Greenspoint was at its zenith. Remember Lord & Taylor, Walter Pyes, Benetton, Jarrod's Polo Shop, Isabell Gerhart and other high end stores Greenspoint Mall had in its quiver?

A bit late on the draw for this one, but @SpaceGhost and I did find mention of it in the Houston Post in 1981, but we didn't find any more information on it other than it really was planned at one time, and that it would be co-developed with the developer of NorthPark Center in Dallas and designed by the same people.

1 hour ago, j_cuevas713 said:

Once Westheimer is finished, the ability to walk from one end of the city to the other will be awesome!

Gosh, I could've sworn there was this entire city east of downtown (beyond where Westheimer ends), a bit worse for the wear looking, but it seemed to stretch almost the way out to Baytown. I guess it must have been my imagination.

4 hours ago, HardcoreHoustonian said:

  old_Sharpstown: thanks for the reminder. I remember Globe and Sage but couldn't remember which was at which location. The FedMart at Bellaire and Weslayan moved to Bellaire and Hillcroft when Globe went out of business. Anyone remember which one had the big, red, upside down cowboy hat?

  Native Montrosian; Woolco… Weslayan and Bissonnet… that was my first job for two years while I was in high school. Were you the one who kept messing up the shoes in the shoe dept after I had just straightened them up???

Oh, so FedMart was at Bellaire and Hillcroft? Makes sense...it looks like Fiesta has been there since 1984, which would put it after Globe for years but still leaves room for FedMart.

5 hours ago, dbigtex56 said:

 

According to HCAD records, WILLIAM MARSH RICE UNIVERSITY bought 4200 San Jacinto St. from Sears on 10/4/2017.
Just speculating, but they may be concentrating their efforts on renovating and filling the Sears building while collecting rent from Fiesta. If and when they need to expand, they'll have the space to do so.
edit: And Sears is no longer operating because...it's Sears.  "[T]he struggling retailer said it told associates at 64 Kmart and 39 Sears stores that the locations will be shut down between early March and early April 2018."

So Sears really DID own the Fiesta. I don't believe the Sears was part of the shut down, it shut down early and wasn't on closing lists. They are selling off what locations they can if the price is reasonable, for all I know, the Midtown Sears was actually profitable (just not as profitable as selling back the lease). So I'm guessing Sears sold back their 99-year lease AND the Fiesta in one fell swoop, which is probably why Fiesta is still operational and Sears isn't. The Sears building is of course the more interesting but less profitable building.

I don't see why it NEEDS to be a train station or anything like that. It has parking and a tower component, maybe a supermarket that the residential component could access without even the need to go outside, and/or a bunch of similar tenants, like trying to build a more-city center version of what MARQ*E was supposed to be, or a top-notch indoor farmer's market, with eclectic places to eat inside and handmade goods.

17 hours ago, dbigtex56 said:

No intended sarcasm here.
Aside from both being retail outlets, the two are dissimilar. Sears spent the extra money to make the statement that this is a modern store, substantial, where quality items are sold. Fiesta is a bare-bones box with a token façade slapped on, where a wide variety of groceries can be purchased inexpensively. No further statement needed.
Because Sears abuts the Main Street corridor, aesthetics play a larger role. Fiesta? I hope they gussy up the exterior a bit, but the main concern (if, indeed it is under consideration) is creating more square footage of workspace. Preferably pleasant.
An aside: many years ago I worked in the R&D building of a well-known instrument manufacturer. That building had no windows whatsoever. No one liked it, but the engineers still came to work.

Yeah, the Sears was built in 1939 while Fiesta came in-line 50 years later, and looks very similar to how it did from that period, including that track marquee lighting. What I'm confused about is the actual lease agreements. An article from the time that Fiesta opened says that Sears sub-leased to Fiesta, and prior to Fiesta there was a parking lot there. Sears, on the other hand, was a 99-year lease from Rice that Rice bought back early. However, in the 1940s and 1950s, Sears only had half of the block bounded by San Jacinto/Eagle/Caroline/Wheeler, the other half was houses, and in the late 1970s aerial you could see the difference in the paving where those houses were cleared for additional parking (this "additional parking" didn't last long, by 1989 it was the Fiesta).

So....did Rice always own those houses, and then lease that land to Sears later on a different lease, or did Sears buy out that land itself? If the former is true, then Rice had to have made one more purchase, and if the latter is true, then there's nothing Rice can do since Sears is still sub-leasing Fiesta, unless Rice bought that too. But if Rice bought the Fiesta out, then why is it still operating and Sears isn't? You could argue that Sears is not doing well, but Fiesta has shown to empty out quickly if there's a better commercial interest waiting in the wings, and if the land Fiesta sits on is too valuable to continue operating as a grocery store, Rice wouldn't hesitate to bump it out as part of their "Innovation District" plan.

On 4/19/2018 at 10:19 AM, mcook2002 said:

La Coqueta is open sporadically, though it is not located on the transit center lot, its adjacent to a portion of it to the east.  The transit center was abandoned in 2015.

I didn't say that La Coqueta was on the transit center lot, but nearby. I just remember driving by and seeing just total darkness except the red neon border of La Coqueta. The 2015 abandonment makes sense, from Google Maps it looks like it was abandoned in the mid-2010s, and 2015 was when the bus routes were revamped.

2 minutes ago, cspwal said:

What is the building just south of Bayou Place, where the Hobby center is now?

Should be the Sam Houston Coliseum and the Houston Music Hall.

There's more buildings in the "modern" shot, but I'm a bit surprised how relatively-filled out downtown Houston was in the 1970s and how few relatively few buildings have been demolished, with the only really noticeable ones are the ones at the bottom of the picture, north of Washington.

35 minutes ago, mollusk said:

Judging by the sea of humanity at the Sawyer Heights Target, there are still a lot of people who don't rely on Amazon for their every non perishable need.

Sawyer Heights is a bit different, it has a pretty big draw (The Heights, the upper parts of Montrose, Washington Avenue corridor, etc.) but it's also one of only three Target stores in the entire Inner Loop, and the only one that's not less than a mile from 610. Given how dense the Inner Loop is, it's not THAT packed to the gills that a second one, at least in downtown, would be justified. Then again, I mostly go in the evening, but even still...

12 hours ago, MarathonMan said:

When the “unveiling” began, I got a glimpse of some of the tile accents on this building and was excited to see more.  But as the metal cladding continued to come down, I must admit I became a little disappointed.  IMHO this is not living up to the hype.  It’s kind of blah, actually.  Reminds me of an outdated Sears department store.  As the cornerstone for an innovation hub, I’d rather see something modern, new and edgy.  Knock it down and start fresh, in true Houston fashion!

It's been covered up for years, and probably slightly damaged--I know the facade on 806 Main ruined the original brickwork.

1 hour ago, JLWM8609 said:

 

FYI: The Gulf/Ace Hardware is getting ready to close in preparation of the new ramp. Employees don't know when the closure is happening, just that it'll be "any day". Everything in the Ace  Hardware portion of the store is 25% off.

I visited sometime late last year, no pics, but I got to see it at least!

1 hour ago, JLWM8609 said:

 

Not necessarily. The schematics I've seen for the project don't show the mainlanes being rebuilt. The mainlanes may be a mess in some places where they have to shift the traffic to make room for construction of the toll lanes. Once they're done with the project, most of those mainlanes will be restriped to their original condition or possibly given an asphalt overlay. 

I don't know, in Pearland they had the ramps all torn up and even started to take down part of the outside retaining wall.

288's mainlanes look like they're being rebuilt anyway, so "designed for 55" isn't an issue. If it was just the toll roads, the main lanes wouldn't be a mess at all, save for some nightly closures on the inner lanes, at best. The original 610/288 interchange, which is being rebuilt as well, had some ramps "stubbed out" for future connections.

3 hours ago, Specwriter said:

I also wasn't thinking government subsidized house either but, like cspwal mentioned, something a family making $40-60k a year could afford. Yes, I overlooked the Randall's. I should stop in there one day and see how it compares to those I am familiar with. Another HEB near by like the one at Alabama and Dunlavy would be great, or maybe an Aldi.

Heck, I'm just grateful something positive may be happening with this building after all these years.

I stopped at the Randalls a year or two ago after the renovation. Partially due to how the Houston blocks are shaped, it's a very small store, feeling like an H-E-B Pantry but with full service departments (and at least the deli can cook you a hamburger per the signage I saw last time, something they haven't done in nearly the last twenty years).

10 hours ago, mollusk said:

Another former Holiday Inn (Memorial and Silver) was converted into senior apartments, and seemed to be doing pretty OK until Harvey flooded it.

That's not a good comparison. In the link below, I show an article that says the hotel in 1986.

The city had planned it for elderly housing as early as the late 1980s, but it didn't open until 1998. Plus, according an article from 1997, there were actually new appliances, fixtures, and flooring in rooms from an attempt in the mid-1990s. Price to clean it up in 1997 dollars? About $3 million. Here, not only is the "structurally sound" part dubious (allegedly, there's problems in that department... ) but it deteriorated for far longer than the Memorial Holiday Inn ever did.
 

A few years ago during a rainy day I decided to roll down the window despite the weather and the somewhat sketchy neighborhood to get a wisp of the coffee smell, but instead I got this nasty burnt smell (the same sort of thing I got when I visited Houston for a weekend a few years back and left the coffee maker on the entire time) and rolled the window back up.

14 hours ago, native_Houstonian said:

You are correct....the gas station was only at the southern tip.   I think they tore down houses on the north side to complete the station?   I can't remember now.   I was at the grand opening of the transit center, I do remember that!

Aerials seem to indicate houses between Louise and Adele. Lot was also cleared--the trees that were there were torn down completely, though the trees that are there now have grown up. The transit center was dedicated in March 1992. I can't find the date it was (largely) abandoned.