tigereye

  

But I have already given the Turkish developer a down payment for my condo because he said he was going to make Dallas shine, on the quiet south side of downtown behind city hall, 2 blocks from the Ghetto. He told me that even though all his other major projects and super tall skyscrapers have fallen into to the toilet, this one REALLY won't this time and he has learned his lesson and he is going to open a Subway franchise next to city hall so their is something to eat near city hall. He said almost all the condos are already sold and that if I didn't give him a check for $30,000 I would be homeless in Dallas. Are you calling me some kind of idiot or something?

Strata. East of 75. It's also by JLB. Exact same number of units.

If this is what the exterior ends up looking like, I'd be ok with it.

hey gang, does anyone have any new illustrations as per the JW MARRIOTT?  have they positioned the new letters upon the new porte cochere?  are they now officially open?  i shall probably be back in town within a couple of weeks... upon then i shall book a weekend...

No letters said yet.

Man, we always wanted a residential, hotel, and commercial component for GreenStreet. If it really is 275, The Marlowe coupled with The Alessandra will actually make it happen ...(kinda, but it's close enough)

Capitol Tower's office next door to now demoed Houston Club Building.

I will ask. I can't imagine how it would be black and white.

I can ...if the Black & White exterior rumor is true, that sounds like The Titan.

Sources: It's Block 251. 102 stories with a W Hotel. Described as an even taller Sky House cause one can never have enough of that design in Downtown.

This is correct. It is not on the embassy suite site but it is replacing a parking lot near there.

I'm gonna call my shot - Block 251

From street-level.

Is this back on? The Van Loc plot next door was apparently bought by Crosspoint.

1 last look at Houston Club for me.

May swing by during lunch to check out the scene at street level.

With the Florida Panthers reporting record low attendance, I wonder if there is interest in Houston in case the team decides to relocate. Quebec would be the most likely destination, but perhaps Houston can mount a bid for the team. I'm already imagining the first Houston Aeros vs. Dallas Starts NHL match up

This all comes down to Les Alexander. and you never know ...he did flirt with buying the Dynamo last year. Owning an NHL franchise would allow him to maximize profits at Toyota Center.

Quebec City has a new arena under construction but I'm not sure whom the investors would be for a team there. Seattle does not have an arena and Hansen's bid already lost Steve Ballmer to the Clippers. Portland could be a possibility but the Moda Center would likely need a renovation. Kansas City has the arena but like QC, not sure on the ownership front. An NHL franchise to Houston is there for the taking ...if Les wants it.

ive pondered this idea as well.. put escalators down to the tunnel level from the middle of the platforms and have connections underneath to the transfer stations with a big open area in the tunnel level with a type of underground mezzanine/plaza down there to make it feel like a grand underground subway-esque terminal or something. truly a "Central Station"

The current leadership at Metro is too incompetent to make this idea a reality. They couldn't even manage putting up a decorative shed structure at this site, even with the Downtown District's financial contribution. A tunnel connection is beyond their handling.

I've seriously heard the Rayford/Sawdust area reffered to as SOWO.

At least EaDo is in an urban area, where most neighborhood acronyms come from. SOWO is suburbia, thus making way more of a reach than EaDo.

The point remains.. We don't need some silly indoor water park. We NEED an indoor ski slope. Heh

Why stop with just a ski slope? How about a year-round "Igloo Hotel" made completely of ice, complete with an ice bar. Or maybe a frozen distant outer space-themed futuristic Ski Lodge to accompany the ski slope.

Either hotel concept could be cross-marketed as an NRG Park Convention Center hotel to benefit the complex and all tenants.

From the same vendor I mentioned in the skyhouse thread he said this was supposed to be the site of the 100-story tower. Go ahead and laugh. Just passing the "rumor" on. Who knows...

Well, we got a tower here so he was %25 right lol

Plaza exterior takes shape.

ADLA will be half its current size. Basically, the east half of the street (from the current median to the GRB, will be converted to what you see in the renderings. The west half of the street (the current southbound side) will be converted to 2-way traffic.I thought I heard this too but it doesn't appear to be true. Look at slides 8 and 21. It seems that they are CLOSING the ADLA (both sides) from the underground garage entrance southward. Thereby fully connecting GRB to Disco. ADLA will be four lanes of traffic (two in and two out) from the Northside of the GRB to the underground entrance only.

Am I missing something?

Edit.....

Now, if you look at the last picture in the post above, it makes sense. You can see that the "blue cube box" that is in disco now (stairs to garage), is in the rendering. The new space shown is permenant new "park" space that connects the GRB to disco. The road is completely gone in this section.

A zoom in of the site plan on the PDF reveals that only rthe Southbound lanes of ADLA will go all the way through the site. The Northbound lanes will be cut off from the garage to Dallas St. The Southbound lanes are optional closure for events from the garage to Dallas St.

This makes sense. Traffic leaving the garage can go north then left at Walker or right on Texas. Meanwhile traffic entering from Polk can left turn and proceed down Lamar. And with the optional closure of the southbound lanes at the garage, events can still go on without blocking access to the garage.

This will be one busy, multipurpose building. Office/Hotel/Bus Station/Restaurant/Parking Garage/Lift Rail Tunnel-Station... This really feels like "outside-the-box" thinking. Love it.

When it was originally announced that ADLA would be reconfigured and bus drop off moved to the side of GRB, I was initially concerned. But relocating the convention bus drop off to be within the new GHP building, easily connected to 2 hotels & the convention center itself is simply a brilliant idea. Masterful planning.

The blue fabric that was covering the south (Rusk) side of the building is all gone now.  I don't know if it blew down or they took it up, but it was sailing like a curtain in the breeze yesterday at lunch time as the squall line was about to blow through downtown.  There was also so much particulate being blown out of there that it looked like smoke.  

Blue Fabric is still up on the Pennzoil Place side.

View from street level.

These are all in development, none have broken ground yet. The only one that may happen in the near future is the Hines Market Square. I would love to see all these created, it would change the profile of downtown. I just wish someone would come along with a super tall downtown.

ALL of those previously listed are happening ...no doubt about it. The bigger question marks are with Chevron, Stream/Essex, 5 Allen Center with the latter 2 in the most doubt.

Houston transit takes a $168M hit for useless projects

Metro admits it blew a large fortune

Ill-advised plans to the tune of $168 million to be written off

February 21, 2011

The Metropolitan Transit Authority is preparing to declare that it has spent $168 million on what have turned out to be useless assets.

Most of it was spent over several years on rail expansion projects that never will be built or will have to be started over.

For example, Metro has given up on what it calls an intermodal terminal just north of downtown at Main and Burnett streets on the planned North rail line despite having spent $41 million on it.

"We're not going to put the public's money into monuments. We're going to put it into transit services," Metro President and CEO George Greanias said.

The design for the terminal included bus bays, a kiss-and-ride area, light rail, commuter rail and possibly a Metro RideStore, restrooms, food service, newsstands and gift shops.

Greanias said there will be a light rail stop at Main and Burnett, but it has not been determined whether the station will serve other modes of transit. He added that the now-shelved design called for a facility that would have cost far too much to maintain and operate.

An additional $28 million went to a Spanish rail car firm for a now-canceled deal that never produced a single car. Metro actually spent $42 million on a contract with the firm, but recently persuaded the company to return $14 million.

Metro ran afoul of federal rules requiring the transit agency to buy American-made rail cars, so it had to eat the money it sent to the Spanish firm and rebid the rail cars or forfeit eligibility for $900 million in Federal Transit Administration grant money.

'Unrealized assets'

Metro lists another $61 million in what it calls "unrealized assets" for rail expansion in addition to the terminal and rail car spending, including:

· $17 million: A result of switching contractors to do design work.

· $7 million: Redundant development work by a third contractor.

· $9 million: Related to Metro's switch from a light rail plan to a bus rapid transit plan, and back to light rail.

· $16 million: From repeated design changes that occurred after laborious review and negotiation.

In addition to the $130 million on projects for which Metro has nothing to show, it also is wiping from its books $38 million in operating expenses that had been listed incorrectly as capital expenses.

We could've had THIS at Central Station, but even despite a donation from the Downtown District, Metro didn't have enough money.

I'm all for rail and bettering this city ad its mass transit option but Metro needs to be radically overhauled. No organization in this city upsets me more than this one. And when I usually get the chance, I voice my displeasure on their own Facebook. This city needs to overthrow Metro leadership.

Hadn't seen a pic of this, thought I'd share. The new fountains at GreenStreet lit up at night. I call it "The Fountainbleu" lol

Took a tour with Andre ...hotel apparently opens at 3pm but is essentially open now.

This art piece faces Main and is their marquee piece, made in Germany, the only lighted 3D art piece in the Northern Hemisphere. Both spheres and bricks light up in patterns and will be viewable from the street.

The Monet meeting room (street level)

The Picasso Room (Tunnel Level)