RocketSci

Ongoing work this week on the block at St. Joseph and San Jacinto (#22 on the development list), apparently earlier than 4th quarter start. Per HBJ :

 

 

Houston-based Allied Orion Group plans to build an eight-story, 242-unit apartment on a city block bounded by San Jacinto, St. Joseph, Caroline and Jefferson. Construction is expected to start in the fourth quarter with the estimated completion date in the second quarter of 2017.

Without a radical redesign, even with the Kirby Collection, Kirby will never be pedestrian friendly. I have taken walks down Kirby (I am usually the only pedestrian for several blocks), and have tried riding a bike down Kirby. Forget the bike, as traffic was too heavy to share the road, and I ended up riding on the sidewalk. (I have passed bicyclists on Alabama in my car, and they are very difficult to see or pass due to lane width and visibility). There are too many lanes of cars to comfortably walk or ride between 59 and Westheimer. The sidewalks feel too narrow and close to whizzing traffic and parking lots, plus there are many obstructions along the way. Dips and rises along the way due to driveways, and trees are in the path. On one Saturday I had to dodge at least 3 cars while walking on the sidewalk due to drivers pulling out from the lots straight into the sidewalk area without looking both ways. The presence of separate parking lots for each business discourages pedestrians since there is no need to walk, and there is really little to walk to as there is nothing between most lots. The setback of the businesses at Kirby and Alabama is also an issue as pedestrians must walk thru a sea of cars, on one side the parking lots' traffic, and the other side multiple lanes of vehicles on Kirby. Also the lack of street side storefront business entrances is an issue, since there is little to walk to other than walking around to a parking lot entrance. Kirby will not be a good pedestrian street unless there is traffic calming introduced by reducing the number of traffic lanes, providing better sidewalk design that is pedestrian friendly, lowering the speed limits, removing the driveways on Kirby, and increasing storefront and store entrance density on Kirby. I have heard Kirby called the new Post Oak, which his about right since that is not pedestrian friendly either. That said, I like the changes and new things on Kirby, but even with the hundreds of new apartments added few people actually walk at any given time of day.

Chron.Com reported earlier that a pizza joint out in West Houston is planning their 2nd location in Houston. The owner wouldn't say where other than somewhere ON Montrose... Connect the dots?

The "For Lease" signs on the old Blockbuster at Westheimer and Montrose have been removed. Maybe here?

Work should begin very soon. No more parking lot at the site, as the property is now fenced off.

Trucks on site today, tearing up the lot.

Work should begin very soon. No more parking lot at the site, as the property is now fenced off.

Site preparation began in earnest this week, with several excavators and other heavy machinery active on the property. A construction trailer has been set up at the back of the property closest to Woodhead. Phase 2 looks like it is finally getting underway. 

Several pieces of heavy equipment have also been delivered to the Fairmont Museum District site today at Richmond and Dunlavy. If Phase 2 gets underway, there will be nearly 1000 new apartments along Richmond between Main and Shepherd.

All of the structures on this property have now been demolished, and a construction fence is being erected around the perimeter.

There is a lot of other nearby activity ongoing - several condos are under construction on the adjacent Mt. Vernon; several apartment properties are also being demolished at the Yoakum-Richmond-Mt. Vernon block; and remodeling is ongoing at the long-neglected house/business at Richmond and Dunlavy.

I noticed a new barber shop going in under Post Midtown Phase II

"Best Little Barber Shop" is moving from the soon-to-be-demolished Fiesta center at Dunlavy and Alabama.

There has been a lot of ongoing work the last few days clearing the remaining slabs and grading the very large lot at the southwest corner of Dallas and Dunlavy, 2 blocks west of the Sovereign construction site. It looks as if they may be preparing an area for parking and/or equipment staging.

A rig and crew were onsite taking soil core samples this morning on the empty Phase 2 property. I saw the rig operating in the Northeast corner of the property, close to the corner of Richmond and Dunlavy. Most of the property consists of the slabs from previous buildings, so perhaps this area was more easily accessible. Trucks were gone by the afternoon.

The apartments formerly at Binz and Chenevert are no more. The bricks were removed and salvaged, and today the only structure left standing is the garage.

What is HCAD?

Harris County Appraisal District.

http://www.hcad.org/

Since I last checked a couple of weeks ago, HCAD has been updated and now shows that this property is now owned by the Post Oak School, who recently bought the building 2 doors down on Autrey for their new High School. It will be interesting to see how their new "campus" will develop, and if they are actively seeking the apartment house which sits between the two sites.

The long-empty house/restaurant at Montrose and Autrey (at the 59 bridge, across from Danton's) has been stripped of all of its additions, and is now back to its basic structure. Also this week the large billboard in it's back yard that overlooked the freeway has been hauled away, opening up more land. Any word on what is to be done with the house and property?

Lately I've seen workers doing what I assume are surveying and taking measurements (not too familiar with the development process) on what appears to be the phase 2 part (fronting RIchmond). Anyone hear about phase two starting up?

There were lots of cars parked on the phase 2 site today. I suspect and it is being used as an employee lot for the new HEB down the street, since there were fewer vehicles in the HEB lot.

Richmond @ Graustark would be a likely site. If it were the Wheeler Transit Center site, I'd have expected an official announcement by now. The northwest corner of Richmond @ 527 is close to that size, but still a bit smaller. It might also be an assemblage of two full blocks east of Main or excess land held by a church along Main Street.

There are only so many possibilities.

I saw today that all of the "For Sale" signs have been removed from the properties along Richmond across the street from Lucky Burger (corner of Mandell toward Dunlavy). These signs have been up at least 3 years, and the properties have been poorly maintained. I do not know if there is enough land for apartments, but it would be good if the properties were fixed up or replaced.

I saw that all of the large signs at the site have been removed, and there are new "For Lease" signs at the apartments on the corner. Is this project dead already?

The developer gets to anything he wants with this propert, as long as its approved. Since the original plans were denied again today, I would imagine a lawsuit is coming.

I live in the neighborhood, and whenever I go to the meetings at Poe Elementary, its so funny to see everyone get all riled up. Everyone wants to keep this inner-city neighborhood a suburb, that is not good for city infustructure. That means all other people that live furthur out have to travel THROUGH Bissonnet to get to the inner-city. They should build it, maybe it will start a trend of more dense development, where you dont have to rely on cars to get around. Oh well, probably going to bet flamed by anti-ashby people.

BTW, this is my first post, so make me feel welcome lol.

Welcome.

I live near the area, but I have been ambivalent about the development. My only personal concern is how 2+ years of demolition and construction affect my commute and local traffic patterns.

In driving down Bissonnet the other day I noticed about a dozen For Sale signs, For Lease, or recent teardowns. What I am afraid might happen is not densification of the neighborhoods, but the more typical of Houston buy/trash/hold speculative real estate action, where the existing density will be replaced with more rentals and empty lots which will sit vacant for years. There have already been several nearby teardowns of livable homes with no replacement with new ones, and many of the spec homes built in the last 2 years have never been sold.

I would much rather see infill than teardown of existing structures. The trend in the loop had been predominately teardown and replace, but after watching the number of vacant lots grow in the Museum District and adjacent Montrose these last 2 years I could easily see Bissonnet from Mandell to Shepherd turning into weed filled lots during construction of Ashby, or storage areas for construction vehicles. The narrowness of the street does not lend itself well for anything but very small businesses to survive due to lack of easy parking, and the construction traffic will be a great discouragement to existing businesses and homeowners on the street for quite some time.

The more I drive and walk by the location of the highrise, the more I doubt whether its location can really be successful in drawing buyers of the condos, mainly because it will bring down Bissonnet at the least. I would really love to see this built in the empty lot at Hermann Drive and Jackson Street, or the empty blocks along Binz, about a half mile to the east. That would put them right at the park, right by the museums, and right near the Metro. Maybe the owners of Maryland Manor can trade properties with the owners of these lots?

Like I said, I can't get myself riled up but I also have doubts about the success of the development as proposed.

I saw today that there is fencing around the large property at the NE corner of Dallas and Montrose. Last year it was fenced off during the July 4th celebration, but this year there are little orange flags throughout the property and a port-a-potty. I didn't see if it was fenced all the way to Allen Parkway - could this be the long awaited Aga Khan complex?

Large tower crane just installed between 30 Sunset, the temple, and Rice Graduate apartments. It looks like a large structure will be in the backyards of the new homes.

Thanks for the link.

The perimeter fencing has been removed, but there is a port-a-potty in the middle of the land, and there were surveryers along Dallas this afternoon.