The Great Hizzy!

The problem is that it's difficult to bring in mom-N-pop authentic retail to places with relatively high rents. The average "individual" doesn't have that kind of jack and needs assurances that their investment will see a return. Opening a new retail unit DT, even with its impressive strides over the last seven eyars, is risky for an individual, because they don't have the longterm financial backing to help them through the rough couple of years they need to establish a competent and reliable customer base. I don't think you should reasonably expect a significant growth in smaller non-chain type places DT until the residential population is above 10,000 within the downtown "loop". The larger residential population would be more dedicated to these establishments, especially more so than your casual visitor to DT.

As it stands, if you want people who don't live DT to find DT "comfortable", yes, you want to have some uniqueness in place but you want some of that old stand-by: the familiar. Uptown isn't wanting for activity, and it has a mix of chain and non-chain establishments.

It also has a higher inventory of residential within a 2 mile radius.

Downtown Houston needs the same in order to remain viable, and, more importantly, to become the urban "hot spot" that urbanists want it to be.

There's a Marshall's in DT Miami. And a Hooters.

Hell, they even have a Walgreens AND a CVS.

It would seem...

I like the idea of the shops and restaurants, though. Don't like the all glass enclosure. I could see a canopy-type thing to help seal in ventilation but all glass kind of seems to ruin the outdoorsie affect that they are somewhat trying to establish with the landscaping and the water features.

Jumpin' Jesus! These projects are being shot out like bullets from the guns of Alfonse Capone's #1 Hitman.

The Mosaic proposal isn't a surprised, though, because the parcel of land in question is a prime spot for a residential projects, especially with the stretch of Almeda running to the south undergoing construction. Like with the NE quadrant of downtown and the West End/Rice Military, this section of the city seems to be quietly (and impressively) growing while we continue to lament over the pace of Midtown's growth.

The intersection of 288 at McGregor could be very asthetically appealing in a few years with all the new construction taking place. Hopefully they will extend the attractive landscaping down the median further south and maybe add some enhanced lighting. In fact, one of the city's best views is already seen from North MacGregor on the east side of 288 but facing the Med Center. The MacGregor's juxtaposition in front of the more distance Med Center skyline is pretty surreal.

Does this bolster potentially bolster Reliant's bid to host SB 2010 (or any SB shortly thereafter)?

You spoil sport! You Scrouge!

No, in all seriousness, I agree with RS about the hotel. All you would be doing is putting the nearby hotels out of business. The shops idea is a novel one but how many people do you think will go out of their way to shop at Reliant Park in late winter/early spring when the Texans are done playing and Astroworld isn't even open until late March?

I still say an observation tower with some restaurants/gift shops/etc would be a better draw, especially since Reliant Park is going to be the home of some future major national conventions.

If true and comes to fruition, it certainly will help densify the Post Oak corridor. If the competing properties to the south of the intersection (the Pavillions, etc) also come to fruition, then you really have an active corridor that has a future at becoming a denser secondary urban corridor such as Wilshire Blvd in LA.

Very attractive night viewing. Good lighting.

If true and the actual effort comes to fruition, it would be an excellent location for a life music venue. I'd imagine a deck extending toward the bayou, with proper lighting and a pretty good backdrop. Now, if only they could complete landscape renovations to the Bayou in advance...

Yes, if you consider human waste a delicacy.

All jokes aside, I've never seen a rat downtown, and for the reason that TB pointed out. Rats tend to stay out of sight when there is a lot of people around, and of course that's when I'm mostly around.

There is also a Horn Elementary in Bear Creek.

Or is it spelled Horne?

I get the impression from their website renderings that it will be open-air for the entire three blocks, with some bridges and canopy-type structures sprinkled in.

It looks to be structured very similarly to the one in Denver, which also creates it's own  pedestrian area isolated from the street.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Looks that way to me as well, with the open air corridor (the pedestrian corridor) being narrower than your typical street--like the corridor at the MarqE, onlly without the covering.

So maybe this is why they chose that particular location in downtown Houston, since it has connectivity to Foley's, Main Street Square, the LRT and the nightlife district around Preston Station.

Ah, so I'm reading too much into the article. Okay then.

So is it a good thing that both the Monaco and now Orion have accepted the need/desire for more "average joe" type units, be they rental or purchase inside the Loop?

On the one hand, I say yes, on the other... will the markets cannibalize each other? There are a handful of highrise residential proposed, including those in Uptown, the Orion(s), 2727 Kirby, the project on Almeda, the project on W. Alabama, the Riparian, and so forth.

Would it help sales if they were all centralized in one area or does it really make a difference, like the massive townhome construction that's going crazy inside the loop?

Interesting. How bout some retail (I know, I know, we all scream retail at the first site but I'm bloody serious). There is absolutely NO ground floor retail space in any of the structures south of Clay between Smith and Main. Considering the proximity of the original Enron to the Crowne, adding some ground floor retail might actually make better sense right now than trying to pioneer and empty parcel on, say, Texas Ave. near MMP. The daily traffic is much greater, for one.

And, let's face it, just as the Texas School Book Depository site in Dallas has become a national monument, so has (in a much smaller way) the Enron building. Visitors will want to see it just for the trivia. Might as well make a buck off of 'em!

I think he's talking about the Market Square market that's been struggling over the last few weeks.

Yeah, HBJ had an article on the 249 @ Louetta development some weeks ago.

I've been wondering why it's taken so long for Greenway Plaza to see some newer mixed-use development on the northern side of the SW Freeway.

Budgetary constraints at the time of planning and designing?

Great info from our correspondent downtown. I love the part about overhearing the conversation on MetroRail about the UH expansion. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the SE corner of Fannin and Congress the old courthouse?

Yeah, that's my fault. It should be Commerce.

Yeah, the place is called Topz, IIRC.

Also,

There's a new convenience store on Travis @ Rusk (NB side). Looks clean and promising, though the selections appear to be limited.

This is exactly the sort of thing we need for the Podcast. Care to record that into an audio file, Hizzy?

Not at all--that is, if I knew how to do such a thing, or if I even have the equipment.

How does it work?

Signed,

Techno-dinosaur.

Not by name, no. However, they're located due north of MMP amongst a group of other conversions (on the west side of 59, around Hamilton). We've talked about them before on another thread, I believe. It's just an entirely different thing to see the work in progress and how well the future lofts will fit in with the other lofts that have been converted over the past few years. Really nice feel to it. The more I see stuff like that, the more I think there should be a limit put on the heights of new buildings in this area. A neighborhood of midrises similar to these loft conversions (3-5 floors) would be great, especially given MMP's design and location.

1. This morning, there were posters put up in the windows of the Sakowitz Building on Main Street. The posters showed ladies in a variety of styles, some in jeans and what have you, while some woman was taking pictures in front of the building. I'm assuming that this was some promotional campaign. I have no idea if the posters are permanent.

2. A liquor license has been applied for by some entity (Houston Retail may know who) who will presumably fill in the space vacated by Logans in April of last year. The license was applied for within the last 30 days, which coincides with some clean up work that I saw being performed at that location in May.

3. "The Teahouse" will apparently be opening soon at the retail parcel on the southwest corner of Main @ Commerce. Finally, the renovated spaces in the building along Commerce are getting tenants.

4. More work is underway at the lone empty building on Main between Texas and Prairie, on the west side of Main (between the Rice and Grasshopper). No idea what's going on but this time they're using the accordion stairs. My guess is that they're cleaning the interior ceilings and possibly doing some painting. Again, maybe HR knows something about a potential tenant.

5. Corner Bakery is off to a great start. Every day this week, there have been large crowds both inside and on the sidewalk tables. It's helped to make Main Street Square look more like an actual square rather than just an elaborate rail station.

6. Unlike the Binz Bldg's previous tenant, the short-lived Mediterranean cafe (name escapes me) that doubled as a Hookah bar, Little Napoli's looks like it has longterm success in its future. They're getting excellent crowds and last night, following the Astros game, they had a line of people either waiting to be seated or trying to grab a quick bite.

7. Ha-ha-ha! The Shamrock sales trailer is as empty and desolate as the Ben Milam Bldg. Ha-ha-ha!

8. Root Memorial Square is turning out great. A really like the selection of shrubbery and flowers. They seem to fit in well with the overall design.

9. Not sure, but there may be a new tenant set for the small parcel to the south of Stallone's. Then again, Stallones may be attempting to expand. In any case, work continues on the small parcel.

10. Construction on Travis Street is progressing quite impressively, and it's turning out to be a very clean job as well. I know the retailers on Travis from Texas to Commerce can't wait for the left two lanes to be done now that the right two lanes appear to be ready to go.

11. Work has already started on the Cordish Co's project to convert the rest of Bayou Place into office space. Surprised by how aggressive they appear to be. It looks like that deadline they are facing is ironclad and they take the penalties seriously.

12. Residential lull? Been to the far northeast end of DT lately? Two buildings are being converted into some very nice looking loft projects. If you ask me, we've been focusing on the wrong stuff. The NE end of DT could be Houston's most promising downtown neighborhood in 10 years if this continues. I really like the potential of the area now that most of the streets in the section (including the sidewalks) have been redone. Looks a bit European.

13. Sadly, the homeless are hip to what's going on. They're seeing more and more people now around Main Street Square, so now they're everywhere as well. Amazing how many you see between Dallas and Walker. Unreal, in fact.

14. The Stowers is beautiful. Too bad the other six buildings that make up the block all suck. (Subdude, you'd better not have been pulling my chain about the West Bldg. renovation! )

15. Based on a comment a guy who works at UH-D made on the train yesterday, the university isn't too far away from going forward with their plans to expand the campus. What that expansion will include, I don't know, but I tend to believe they're going to either convert the existing bldg at the SE intersection of Fannin @ Congress or demolish it and build from scratch. I could be wrong, though.