brian0123

If I live in Katy, will I need to evacuate? [sciGuy reference/]

Great comment. That gave me a good laugh this morning.

You mentioned Archstone in Memorial Heights, but it's going to be recycled over about the next ten years into new higher-density housing.

It seems unlikely that the Midtown Management District will be collecting tax revenues from properties owned by the Houston Community College System. Government-owned properties are not taxed.

In time, it may behoove you to try and create an independent identity for east Midtown. Whether you like it or not, you are going to get associated with discussions about Midtown issues.

On the first point, this is what I was trying to get to... Yes, these properties will decline eventually... BUT their location will cause them to be recycled (just like you said about Archstone). Also, even if the apts decline some and rents go down... there will still be people living in them with retail on the bottom. Who knows, there might be more (and better) retail filling in underneath those places (middle income folks have to eat too). Also, I highly doubt declines in those apartments will ever be that dramatic. Heck, you can walk from your apartment right into downtown in a matter of minutes... you can't do that anywhere else in Houston.

On your second point, I attended a public forum w/ HCC and the MMD last month and HCC said that they finally joined the MMD, and joked that "I'm sure you MMD guys are glad to start collecting our money!" I was surprised by this too, but my guess is they joined because of something related to my third point...

Third, the MMD (and why East Midtown shouldn't form it's own entity) is going to be investing heavily on infrastructure improvements to East Midtown soon. They will be redoing all of Caroline from HCC to Elgin to make it a "grand entranceway to HCC", and after that phase redo all of Caroline from Elgin to Pierce. They are also working on McGowen right now, and will soon be doing Gray as well. They will also be redoing Alabama from Main eastward touching the bottom of HCC.

Very few parts of Houston have so many apartment complexes so densely clustered as the northwest quadrant of Midtown. There haven't actually been all that many new apartment complexes built within the Washington Avenue corridor or in the Heights (yet), and although there has been plenty of new construction in the Montrose area, individual apartment complexes are fairly well spread out.

The apartment section of Midtown (even though it's what most people think of when they think Midtown) is not all of Midtown. On the other side of Midtown, there is a huge swath of very nice town homes owned by non-party types... and the town homes are in high demand. We are in the middle of a horrible recession, and the house behind me just sold in two weeks, and the one across the street has been on the market 1 1/2 weeks and I just drove by on the way home for lunch and it has an Option Pending sign on it. I agree that poor mgmt can bring down apartments, but I fail to see how they will bring the ENTIRE Midtown area down. Gulfton is a so so example (even though it is outer loop). They might be crap, but they haven't brought down nearby Bellaire.

I mentioned Washington Ave as an example because it does have a lot of apartments too (i.e. the Memorial Heights areas, CORE apts, Jackson Hill, and what about Archstone taking the ENTIRE Washington block from Studemont to Heights Blvd?)

Looking strictly at the proximity of complexes, Midtown has a situation that is more akin to Gulfton than to Montrose. And don't forget that Gulfton is very well located relative to the Galleria and other employment centers, and that it is adjacent to the McMansions of Bellaire which themselves are proof that the location could be desirable but not for the crappy old apartments.

All it would take is for a couple of badly-managed apartment complexes to age poorly, for rents to decline, and for demographics to trend in the wrong direction, and Midtown's fate could be sealed by way of a slow-motion domino effect.

Again, I think you are focusing on Midtown as an apartment area... when town homes (and other single family residences south of Elgin) take up a lot more blocks than the apartments in Midtown. Also, the largest land holder in Midtown is HCC, and they are going to be spending millions upgrading their campus and surrounding properties soon. The MMD will be collecting $$$ from them for a long time and will continue to funnel that into district improvements.

Yes, apartments make up SOME of Midtown... but large businesses, town houses, single family residences, and govt. entities make up the other... and they operate independent of any club scene.

We all know better than that. I give Midtown another decade, maybe fifteen years. As their apartments start to age, rents begin to decline (adjusted for inflation), and the air of exclusivity is lost forever, this lemming-like population will only move on to rape and pillage another inner city neighborhood that's cool because the man says it is.

Sorry Niche, but that comment pisses me off. First, have aging apartments destroyed Montrose/The Heights/Washington Ave/etc... or do you give those places another decade as well? I seem to remember in past threads (esp Washington Ave more urban than Midtown) that you were quite fond of Washington Avenue. However, by using your logic above, Washington Avenue (in another decade or so) should return to the craphole it once was.

Also, remember that a lot of the development you see in Midtown today occurred when Midtown was an ultra ghetto, not necessarily "hip" place to live. The reason it occurred was because of the location, convenience, and access this chunk of land has to Downtown, the Med Center, Museums, Montrose, etc. My wife and I bought our townhouse in Midtown for this very reason... not because we are lemmings or the man told us to.

I think the more important thing is the Chronicle article this originally came from. It sounds like the Mix at Midtown will be filling in soon, and we will be getting a new Mexican restaurant in the old building at Dennis and Louisiana. I love the beginning sentences of the article...

The recession seems to have forgotten about Midtown.

A drive around the neighborhood reveals forgotten buildings undergoing restoration and new apartments being framed.

Welcome to the real world. You can try to move as far out into the suburbs as possible... but eventually your utopia in the farm fields will be introduced to the real world. Maybe some of the churches that drive from Katy into Midtown can stop that and start offering services to the homeless in Katy.

yes, however the rate of new places opening has shifted to washington.

Probably because Washington had nothing but a lot of rundown, crap buildings all near each other (like Midtown used to have, but no longer does). In other words, Midtown's core "club" area is matured and built out... and development is now slowly trickling out of the core "club" area to additional areas (i.e. 2901 Fannin currently being built).

Also, what's the deal with the former Pig Stand on Washington? When redevelopment first started on it... it looked like it would be cool. Now that they are further along... that building is soooo fugly (especially with the cheap brown siding on it)! It makes me angry everytime I drive by it and see how they turned a cool building into an eyesore.

It looks like they may have attempted to, but construction ceased due to unknown reasons. You can see this single row of identical townhomes which were partially constructed on the north side of the block around 2007-2008.

They have been sitting vacant and fenced off for over a year. I imagine due to the open window frames there is significant damage from Ike and other weather since they stopped construction. I'm not familiar with the builder, but at least one of the units was sold at one point.

Thanks for resurrecting this old thread. I've always wondered about that empty block of town homes. I can't stand looking at them (they sure do ugly up the street in their current state). So do you think these things sit vacant for another ten years... or do you think a developer will eventually try to repair and sell them?

I just looked around online and found this about the developer... http://waterhillhomessuck.com/page11/page11.html Looks like they are now bankrupt (the url of the company no longer works either)

I live in Midtown and yes, I ride the light rail sometimes... but bike more often for getting around. I bike to Herman Park (and everywhere around like the zoo, etc), Downtown a ton, and sometimes down Washington.

WOW! What do you say in response to a statement like this? Clearly, the poster has no concept of what Midtown looked like prior to the last 10 years. My guess is he did not even live in Houston prior to 2000, or he would know that Midtown was a barren wasteland of vacant lots and only a few thousand poor residents and some vietnamese restaurants. Land sold in the area for $2 a square foot. Today, it has an estimated population of 25,000, there are canyons of apartment buildings, all built in the last 10 years, restaurants, bars, clubs and retail that never existed prior to the late 90s. Land sells for $50 a foot. This post could not project a bigger lack of knowledge about one's neighborhood.

You took the words right out of my mouth, RedScare.

Also, everyone should remember that even though Washington might be becoming the "IT" place for clubs/bars... Midtown is transitioning to a better phase as well. I've been to MMD meetings, and I've heard a lot of residents complain about disrespectful bar and club patrons. It's not uncommon for people to drive in from the burbs, get drunk at the clubs, be loud and rowdy at night (keeping RESIDENTS awake), pee in a resident's yard (the homeless don't even do that!), throw some trash on the ground, and then head back out to the burbs. With these types urinating along Washington now... Midtown is becoming a more walkable, urban neighborhood for LIVING... not just partying. We still have tons of awesome restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. within walking distance (not to mention the best Specs in town!)... but they are now being frequented by residents that care about the neighborhood.

As for the homeless, we are living in one of the most walkable communities in Houston. Hell, if I was homeless I'd want to live in Midtown too! The fact is that as more development occurs, they just get pushed along to the next place. Camden Travis is the most recent example. Before, it was a run down shopping center w/ rundown buildings nearby. Now, there is a new apartment complex going up that will house a bunch of fellow yuppies like me... AND the neighborhood around it is changing as well. I noticed just yesterday that two rundown buildings on Louisiana that homeless used to camp at are now being totally renovated.

The fact that you have your choice of walking/short bike ride to Buff Bayou Park of Memorial Park is a big selling point of Washington.

Whether this constitutes urban or not, I'm not sure, but Memorial Park does remind me of a juxtaposed Central Park.

I know Midtown theoretically has Hermann Park, but I believe the number of park visitors to Memorial Park outnumbers Hermann greatly.

Not sure I would say Memorial is like a Central Park. IMHO, Herman is way more of an "urban", central park. Also, the number of joggers does not make a park more "urban". Instead, I would judge it based on the variety of users that attend the park.

For example, I used to live along Washington and now I own in Midtown. From my experience, I hardly used Memorial Park. It's a great place if you are into jogging/biking (or play league sports on one of the fields)... however, I still ended up just jogging/biking along Buffalo Bayou into downtown. I also found myself driving to Herman all the time for golf/Miller Outdoor/Picnics/etc.

Now that I live in Midtown, I go to Herman all the time. On nice days, I'll ride the bike there in 10 minutes. Other times I'll ride the rail down (something you can't do at Memorial). Also, Herman is more of a melting pot and gathering space for different types of users... from museum goers, to golfers, to joggers/bikers, to event-goers at Miller, to zoo patrons, to people coming over from the Hospitals, to people dressed up all fancy coming from Za Za or other restaurants, to tourists, weddings, etc.

I was seriously considering large rocks in the yard, but then I limit parking for my own guests. Maybe I will get one of those air soft guns and start shooting folks. I imagine the pellets dont hurt all that much, and everyone is so drunk they will have no idea where the shots came from!

Maybe you should just put up a sign at night that says "Self Parking $100 a car". That should scare off most people (and give you a nice chunk of change for those willing to pay it).

Last night HCC had a community forum about improvements that are going to be made in the near future. It was very informative, and there are some really cool things in the works.

Here are some of the highlights:

1. Star Plaza: HCC is going to turn that parking lot in front (and tear down the building at Hollman and San Jacinto) into a park type setting called Star Plaza. You can see renderings here: http://www.theldnet.com/details.php?project=HCC%20Central They are also going to be adding various types of gardens, trees, etc. around the campus. Demo should begin around Winter so they don't disturb classes.

2. The building on the corner of Hollman and San Jacinto (on the other side of Hollman) will be renovated into a Barnes and Noble and coffee shop soon! The Barnes and Noble will be open during student hours at first (public can still come), but the coffee shop will be open later for anyone in the community to come get coffee. The really exciting thing that they said is that the ultimate goal (although they aren't promising it, but it is "in planning" and is still a couple years off) is to build an 8-10 story building on this lot and put a Super Barnes and Noble and Starbucks on the ground floor.

3. Austin Street (that cuts between the campus and is cut off right now) is going to be opened up for bikes and walking through. They are going to make it similar to the wide dirt road @ Discovery Green where all the trees overhang it (between the restaurant and sports field).

4. Midtown is going to do street improvements on Caroline from Hollman to Elgin that will look like Elgin's (and now McGowen's) renovations. In a couple years, Midtown is going to continue renovations on Caroline all the way to Pierce elevated. Midtown is also going start the same types of street improvements on Alabama from Main to Chenevert.

The HCC staff talked about how HCC is the largest land holder in Midtown, and that they plan on making the campus one of the larger college landmarks in Houston and want the Midtown campus to be their flagship. Needless to say, I left very impressed and excited knowing that HCC really cares about Midtown and wants to start developing the area more.

Regarding a smaller concept target, I noticed the other day that the vacant lot around 3000 Fannin has been cleared. I wonder if that would be enough for a mini-Target? They would have to build an underground parking lot but it could be done.

Ah, don't get my hopes up! I noticed them clearing that lot the other day (the bulldozer is still parked on it). I wonder what's going on there.

rolled by the site at about 11 last night after the stros game... lots of activity, buldozers buzzin and everything

Yeah, at 8pm they started tearing up the concrete. Goodbye surface parking lot!

I emailed Target asking if there were intentions to build one there. Seems they misunderstood my question:

I emailed them yesterday and received a response just now saying that they cannot find any information about a planned Target in this area... so I'm guessing my friend was lied to by the Realtor (I'm SHOCKED!!!!) The rest of the email looked similar to yours. Maybe all of the HAIF Midtowner's should start writing in and it will become a reality!

A friend of mine was looking at homes in "EaDo" over the weekend, and the Realtor was telling him about upcoming projects in and around Downtown. One project the Realtor mentioned was that Target is going to build a smaller, two story store in Midtown. Has anyone heard anything about this?

I wish developers would think bigger when it comes to names.

I wish they wouldn't create "Master Planned Communities" centered around some stupid phony theme. To me, this looks like you'd be living at Epcot Center. Pretty soon Houston will have it's own "Master Planned" Japan, China, Morocco, France, and Norway neighborhoods. I wonder if the "European" feel of Europa means they'll have fake statues like "The Thinker" lining each street.

Taken this evening. They are starting to put the brick up...

Yes infrastructure has been improved, thanks in a large part to Federal Matching funds. Just imagine how far along the process would be if the funds AND Federal Matching funds had been utilized.

As a resident, I believe that is how development should occur. Midtown is doing it completely right by doing phased development for infrastructure improvements (especially with Federal Matching funds instead of us having to pay for it all). It would be a mess if we had Elgin, McGowen, Gray, etc. all torn up at the same time. Also, Midtown's budget in years past isn't what it is now. As Midtown grows, the budget increases.

Also, you keep forgetting that they are spending the budget based on what the law is. If you have problems with how the budget is spent, GO TO THE MIDTOWN MEETINGS. They are open to the public, and you can probably even talk to Garnett afterwards. According to the calender, they are meeting June 25th . If you don't go to a meeting to learn, then you are in no position to be upset until you have all the facts.

Midtown suffers because the money spent to hold land for 10 years could have been spent to improve infrastructure in Midtown versus being wasted to outbid other parties interested in 3rd ward land.

Infrastructure is being improved as we speak. Elgin has come along nicely. McGowen is a crazy mess right now because of the work being done on it. Gray is going to be next.

So, that's part of why I don't think dumping all of Houston's poor people in the third ward is such a good idea.

Everyone needs to calm down Remember, EVERY TIRZ formed by petition in Houston must provide 1/3 of its money to low income housing. Midtown is not the only TIRZ doing this, so not all poor people are going to be "dumped" into 3rd ward. Also, we should keep in mind that the third ward wants this. A lot of them fought the Metro University rail line because they are worried about gentrification. Also, a lot of people living in this area are people that have lived there a long time and are retired, etc. and need this sort of protection to stay in their homes/apts (especially if they rent).

I believe it's a win/win for everyone. The third ward gets what they want and Midtown continues to grow and prosper.

I thought the third ward was the Binz area and the medical center, Riverside area.

Just found this... http://images.chron.com/content/news/photo...02/08/wards.pdf

I'm worked up by the idiotic statement that I quoted more than anything. I also think that area residents like myself have a right to be upset that the local politicians are using local taxes to stall rather than encourage development in the area. I somehow don't think that was the original idea behind forming the TIRZ.

I agree. I'm a Midtown resident and find the quote very stupid. I was also upset about our money going to something other than us. That was until I found earlier today that link on Houston's website about TIRZ's and that by law, they have to use 1/3 of the money they collect for low income housing. Because of this (and searching HCAD), I'm assuming that the properties they purchased in 3rd ward have allowed them to be compliant with the law. By them putting money for low income housing on the other side of 288 (as opposed to our side), I believe it is better for Midtown's development. We know now that they have to spend the money for low income housing no matter what... so it's better to have it on the other side of 288. Imagine if they funneled all of that money for that type of housing within Midtown itself.

Also, when you think about it... if they keep development stifled on the other side of 288, wouldn't that only further increase Midtown's property values? Instead of cheaper real estate opportunities on the other side for people to buy, people are forced to buy/live within Midtown.

You're right, area residents have no right to complain about their tax dollars being spent to further one man's mission to keep white people out of midtown.

Read my post above yours. By law, Midtown is required to spend 1/3 of the money it collects on low income housing. I think everyone is worked up because of the idiotic thing the state rep said. Despite his comment, I'd rather them be abiding by the law and developing low income housing OUTSIDE of Midtown... not within it.