htownproud

Today they increased their incentive for referrals to $1000 from $200.

am I the only one that thinks this will never really happen?  it's likely being awarded the first teleport terminal or first station for a train to the planet jupiter, 

I wonder if the market will go in the area that is along Greenbriar.  That would be great.  Seems like something should be done with that land (and people could then park in the Rice parking lot).  

Kroger is in the business of making money.  If it is cheaper to have a supply source elsewhere, then they should move there. They aren't holding anything over anyone's head.  They are telling it like it is.  

Looks nice, but I will believe it when I see it.

It is funny that most of this site has flamed me for saying that before this year nothing happened along the rail, but now they all agree that not being on the rail makes commercial sense (which I agree with).

one nice thing about the current system is that you have alternative routes if there is a wreck (and only half of the total traffic in that direction is affected by a wreck b/c the other half is on the other route).  that goes away with this proposal (I suppose you can drive on the streets in downtown).  And how many lanes will be needed when 45/10 and 45/69 are merged?  10 lanes each way?  12?  At some point you would think you couldn't just keep adding lanes.  

can someone that has worked in the industry comment on this whether 40% occupancy 10 months after opening and 4 months after the entire building opened is good/normal?  that sounds bad to me, but others think that sounds good.  and although the developer says this is expected, offering significant concessions seems to suggest otherwise.   

That sounds pretty bad. Hopefully it is just a bleep, but there is some logic behind it. There is not much in close walking distance to that location, as compared to Midtown, Rice Village (although really only Hanover is there), or Washington Ave.

Everything is an eyesore? Geez. We need to give that word a rest

Okay, the current building is a dilapidated run down hole in the wall surrounded by homeless people.  It is not pleasant to see when you drive by or ride by on the train.    

Wow. This place is currently such an eyesore. Wow.

That building no longer exists. If they were going to stick in remembered icons of another era, they should have added the Shamrock.

 

I still have to wonder what kind of finances are behind Medistar and whether they can pull this off. If nothing else, the residential building shows they're ambitious.

I had the same thought about financing, but if they are advertising the hotel as an Intercontinental, that gives me a bit more confidence that this could be serious.  

There is also the 9-story forensic building that has already broken ground

Still no GFR (at least that I can see from the train).  I assume that examples like this (and the 3 year wait at post midtown 3) is why developers are reluctant to include it.  

I think the picture at the top of the "team" page is suppose to be of the pool for the Marlowe:  http://www.argalipartners.com/#xl_xr_page_team

$2000/month apartments next to a railroad and scrap yard.  Love it.  

I don't share the same dislike that others have expressed for this location.  Families coming in from the suburbs for a baseball, basketball, or soccer game could have also gone to this museum afterwards.  And people in town for business or a wedding could spent an hour there if they had some down time (although the museum district is close, I suspect that the perceived difficulty in getting there dissuades people with only an hour or two from trying).    

Also, if this was in the museum district, it would be overshadowed by the bigger attractions and I suspect would not get that much foot traffic.  

According to this website, the project is 90% funded.

I guess I should have said it doesn't look like they have the equity yet.  Do you think this means they have 90% of the equity funding or 90% of the total funding?  If it is total funding, then they still need to line-up some fairly big equity partners.  I sure hope that the foreign investors don't look at more recent statistics than the 2013 stats in their promotional literature.  

So they don't have the financing yet.  I doubt this gets built.  If it does, they need to make the pool much bigger.  That looks like a backyard pool.  

More activity on site this morning. Unfortunately I was not able to snap a quick pic. Late for work.

Yes, I saw surveyors out there this morning.  

At this point, they should use the land to make a parking deck with a sky bridge over to Buffalo Park.  It will be ugly, but the park needs much more parking and it will be better than the eye sore that has been there for the last 7 or 8 years.  

whose interests should the City promote--the local residents immediately surrounding the proposed project, or those of the greater area/city as a whole?  i'm sure one's point of view depends almost entirely on the group in which you fall.  in any event, seems pretty clear that the city decided to pander to the immediate neighbors this time.  

if i were the developer, i would be talking to Smoochies to see about opening a second store directly in the heights.  

Le Meridien needs to make just the absolutely worst rendering possible for us at first and gradually improve it overtime for HAIF.

picking this building to redevelop has already tempered my expectations significantly.  they have nowhere to go but up from here.  

Maybe the Heights will finally get a new HEB

Once a few more residential buildings are completed in the area, a coffee shop, sandwich shop/convenience store, or dry cleaner would work well.