tamtagon

You act is if there isn't residential already in downtown Houston.

I wasnt at all trying to act like downtown Houston doesnt have any residential; I know it does. Mostly I was refering to iniatives in Dallas "to solve the anemic downtown atmosphere."

I think biggest intent behind the municipally expensive Merc deal is to create a solid residential base, encouraging additional rennovation of nearby buildings obsolete as office space, and deliver the concentrated local population to provide a baseline support for retail ventures to return to the vacant store fronts. Comparing the similarly priced Houston Pavillions and Merchantile redevelopment the anecdotal difference is the Pavillions will delivers downtown retail/entertainment component to attract residential development while the Merc delivers the residential component to attract the retail/entertainment. My personal POV, developing the residential inventory first is the best way to solve the anemic downtown atmosphere.

It's accurate that the geographic location of the Merchantile complex will have as much impact to invigorate as will the number of residents it will bring.

groundbreaking ceremony 10:30am today!

dude, sweet

All I want for you and others to know, as I stated long ago, is that they're awake, and that you can expect great things from east Downtown.

Okay, so maybe that's a little different from what you stated initially - they're awake - but at least you've indirectly and mostly answered 19514's question. Hrumph.

It's more fun to watch this skillful stalk and pounce between Niche and 19514 than the redundant D v. H tirads.

Anyway, if the land around Houston's big downtown stadiums turn into something for people to do rather than car parking, then we're cooking with gas! The Houston Pavillions is going to be a good thing, but it's not so big in realtion to what's already in downtown to have a significant impact on the whole area. Only a development as massive as Victory Park has the umph to redefine the boundaries of Downtown Dallas across the highway. Similarly, only a massive mixed use development surrounding the stadiums on the edges of Houston's downtown will have the umph to significantly expand the perception of Downtown Houston.

ROTFLMAO!!

I wonder if the people living in downtown San Antonio - the only authentic downtown residential neighborhood in Texas - think this is funny or pathetic. Eh, probably just another roll of the eyes.

Dude, Sweet!

I can tell right now, that my favorite time to visit Victory Park and soak up the ambiance of the development would be right after a Monster Truck Rally, WWF event or Three Ring Circus lets out of the AACenter.

I haven't really thought of the bolded part before.

Potentially increasing the volume of American exports through Houston is the most intriguing part of the whole deal to me. The king of cargo shipping in the Gulf is New Orleans:

Port of New Orleans Overview

With the Mississippi River moving about 500 million tons of cargo each year

Color me surprised that Rantanamo, of all people, thinks it looks great... has he ever had anything less than glowingly positive to say about any Dallas development, ever? ;-)

... Also, Tony's Restaurant is there.

Rantanamo is very efficient, direct and accurate (my opinion) when pointing out the negatives of developments in Dallas. On this website, though, it's understandable that the focus would be more on successful developments in Dallas....

I remember back in Jr. High School when I first started reading Texas Monthly and would always get that prideful stir to read the reviews of Tony's Restaurant - "one of the best in the country." I still wonder what would have happened if I had gone to college in Houston rather than Denton.

I really like the AA Center, and the throw back architecture. On paper, I still prefer the old plans in which plaza buildings adjacent to the AAC looked similar. I've never been there to really know whether or not I would actually like the architectural juxtaposition, but everyone I know in Dallas has positive if not glowing reports about the street level feel of the development so far.

Rather than define a "port" as a place where cargo merely clears U.S. customs, how about using a better indicator of economic impact? Transloaded tonnage, perhaps. Data, anyone?

During the two+ years I've been following it, there have been a handful of names used by the media to label components of the agile port, but none of 'em seem to stick. Since this is a cooperative of many entities, municipal, public & private rather than a development with one dominant player, I'm hopeful the soft machine in Dallas will come up with agreable long-lasting tags and avoid the wonder-struck proclimations of recent North Texas masterplans - Legacy, Victory Park, Glory Park.

I do not recall any estimates on cargo tonnage to be received in Dallas through the Port of Houston - letters of intent abound, but not a whole lot of transaction guestimates. And what has made me really anxious is that I've run across plenty of anecdotes describing how cargo will be shipped to Houston, trained to Dallas and distributed across the country, but hardly even a hint or whisper about domestic products & goods received in Dallas, trained to Houston for shipping around the world.

I only have handy this eventual container volume estimate:

06:14 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 5, 2006

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...n1.3e3b8e3.html

These shipments currently arrive in huge cargo containers at Long Beach, Calif., the nation's second-busiest port. The annual number of containers (6.7 million) and the number of vessel visits (5,300) has overwhelmed the port, requiring ships to wait up to eight days to unload.

To reduce the backup, about 60 percent of these unopened containers would be shipped by rail from Long Beach to southern Dallas County. Once here, the goods would be divided up, or even warehoused, until they could be distributed via truck, train and even airplane to the Midwest and East Coast.

I believe the Port of Los Angeles intends to join Long Beach to train cargo to distribution facilities in Dallas, and no fewer than two ports in Mexico will deliver cargo to facilities in Dallas for domestic distribution.

The Allen Group has lead the charge to develop South Dallas County real estate to handle the cargo containers, and brands the development as The Dallas Logistics Hub. There's plenty of good reading (if your interested more info) on the website.

I've been very curious to find out the cargo container volume through the Port of Houston; my perception is that currently fewer containers are handled through the PoH than has been estimated will be shipped by rail from Long Beach to Dallas County. The Dallas County cooperative is vital to grow activity at the Port of Houston. As for real time data, the $100 million Union Pacific Intermodal train terminal has been open for about 1.5 years, has focused on moving cargo containers from Long Beach, but I dont know what kind of volume has been reached so far.

Exactly Trae. As 2112 mentioned, this is another proffessional marketing ploy by Big D, and it's beyond goofy. It's similar to the article I read yesterday from the Dallas Morning News touting Victory as comparable to Times Square. Simply hillarious.

Simply hillarious and flat out gross. The DMN does a pretty good job to report most of the newsworthy stories out of North Texas, but I cannot stand the way current event articles are written as advertisments. Even when there's an obvious attempt to tone-down the usual pretentious DMN fluffing, the writing still strokes the siss-boom-bah boosters. The DMN editors should be going out of their way to eliminate the advertisorial tone and focus on reporting the news. One thing funnier/grosser is how the Houston pep squad choses to impose DMN disappointments onto that local population.

So anyway, the Inland Port of Dallas, presumed misnomer and source of humor.... anyone know when all this talk about facilities for inland PoH cargo processing will get going? It's looking more and more like BNSF will build a giant facility, joining Union Pacific in the Dallas NAFTA Trade Corridor initiatives; but the PoH connection and the Cargo Airport components seem painfully slow to gain any tangible traction. I know the whole inland/agile port thing is still in its infancy, but I'm certain the whole State will benefit economnically from the Houston-Dallas connection into the global flow of trade.

Now Houston has its own fashion Week, and I guess this adds to Dallas' also: http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories...html?from_rss=1

It will be interesting to see how long this reality TV inspired marketing campaign for New York-based IMG will last. I guess it'll last as long as groomed famous supermodels replacements can capture the attention of the American public. It's pretty cool that Houston and Dallas are site selections -- I wonder if event is a once time deal or if it's intended for many years, and also wonder if site selections will change from season to season....

If 'Glory Park' is the area surrounding the stadium, is it safe to assume that they have named the hole in the roof as well?

I cant believe I didnt think of that. Good one.

It would make sense that the stadium cost so much. If Dallas Cowboys Park will not be built, perhaps it's because Jerry Jones and Arlington decided to put most of the money into the stadium instead.

Hicks, owner of the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars and almost billionaire, is the one developing Glorypark. At this point, the mixed use shopping center is pretty much locked. The baseball stadium is more ingrained into Glorypark than the new football stadium or Six Flags, though I suspect at some point the amusement park will orient the park's main entrance with the shopping center.

I think the new stadium promises to kick ass.

This is interesting. I would have thought Uptown would have more residents than this. If you look at Google Earth, you can see the ZIP code boundaries for 75201 and 75202 include Downtown, Victory, and Uptown up to Turtle Creek and over to Routh.

I think most of the Uptown residents are found North of Routh, closer to Cityplace West Village....

... two-year-old estimates had about 27,000 people living in the broader downtown neighborhoods, including Uptown, Deep Ellum, Bryan Place and the Cedars.

Loosely defining downtown Dallas' residential semi-circle like this is an excellent geographic measure of 'the city'. The amount of new residential construction in this area has been impressive, but the ~30,000 residential number shows just how much ground must be covered before it's the kind of 'city' Dallasites desire.

Thanks for that pointless piece of misinformation. ;-) I guess Carolina Herrera, Salvatore Ferragamo, Fendi, Movado, Giorgio Armani and many others over the years haven't received the memo.

Certainly is not pointless misinformation. Trade Area data are essential for retail and other decision making processes. And like I said, Dallas is a more likely entry point for brands to enter the SouthCentral US, but it's not the only one.

"The company is also searching in Austin, Houston and other areas of Dallas for potential sites, said Michael A. Webb, chairman and CEO of Nevada-based Woodside Capital and a shareholder in Oakville Grocery." So much for DallasBoi's theory about these exclusive stores not opening elsewhere in Texas or the South any time soon. ;-)

Both Houston and Dallas are the big marketplaces capable to tout location exclusives for many premier brands. Dallas, however, is a more likely choice for brands to enter the SouthCentral US because that trading area holds more than twice the population of Houston's trading area.

Dallas is merely the nutsack.

Source of Life?

This downtown Houston park promises to be very nice. I'm still a little amazed that big trees like that can be transplanted -- so cool. Buffalo Bayou improvements would be more appealing to me personally since I like natural water features.

Greenway Plaza

As you can see from the article, it is between Downtown and Uptown. Perhaps at one time it was meant to be like a Victory. It does have hotels, condos, office towers and now the world's largest church

I think the penis party were simply HAIFers having a little fun. No way anyone should take it personally. This never should have been Victory vs. Houston Pavilions. They are two way different projects. Enjoy the Greenway article.

I still subscribe to the dream that Houston's different skylines will eventually unite. Will the train run through Greenway Plaza?

Go Spurs!

BTW, Houston doesn't come up on Dallas forums, because we don't care enough to even read them. Funny how that works.

I've always wanted more Houston urban development discussions at dallasmetropolis, but it does seems the knowledgeable participants mostly keep to HAIF.

Maybe if Sen. Hutchinson hears enough outrage from Houston area voters that Culberson impedes rail expansion, she will "talk" to him about the importance of letting METRO experts handle this one. When the request is made for Federal dollars toward rail expansion, the last thing METRO needs is a political muckety-muck antagonizing the process.

its going to start happening. fingers two phases and woods hp deal.

we will find out if what appears to be a home run on paper translates into successful developments in reality.

It'll happen, and once the pump gets primed, it'll be a whole lot at once.

So I guess there are really two, maybe three completed, existing TOD's that have been built along DART's light rail line. Can you remind me when the line opened?

It's been open about ten years, or so.... I think there was some unfortunate timing in DART's short history for stimulating transit oriented development. Right about the time Mockingbird Station was being praised for sucessfully introducing the TOD concept, the Metroplex got hit by an economic recession, and outside of single family homes, not much 'development' really occured. An economic slowdown doubly impacts the likelihood of significant TOD near Dallas Area train stations as the DART's strategy is to locate stations next to but not inside existing retail/employment/entertainment 'districts.' With this approach, the maximum amount of new stuff is prompted as an extention of what's already there - a pretty big difference from Houston's street level METRO approach which builds the train stops into existing development.

The disappointment should go away quickly, though. The Metroplex economy seems to have been 'back on track' for a couple years, giving the time intensive coordination and preparation needed to pull together large scale development adjacent to DART train stations. Park Lane Place is an excellent example of a successful (albiet unfinished) DART spurred transit oriented development. After a couple years groundwork, construction has been underway since the summer to bring a $400+ million retail/residential/entertainment development to the DART's Park Lane Station. Cityplace West Village has several undeveloped parcels of land awaiting approval. In my opinion, these West Village pending projects will be the heart of Cityplace transit orientation as this phase of the development will flank a promenade from the subway entry/exit.

Additions to the Mockingbird station area have been announced - some apts or condos or something, but I think developers are holding off making the 'big' decisions for that area until the GW Bush presidential library site is announced this winter. If SMU hosts the library, I'm betting Mockingbird Station TODs will really expand....

Is there any relation between this development in Southeast Dallas and the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor?

I think there should be, but I dont think there is. I'm not really sure if the TTC is an approved program yet???? It's a good bet that if TTC gets whatever it needs to start, the Dallas Agile Port will have a roll in decision making.

So far, most of the strategic alliances bridged by the Dallas NAFTA Trade Corridor folks have focused on domestic distribution of imports; that's certainly understandable, and hopefully once the widening of the Panama Canal is done, more of the Asian imports will reach the Dallas distribution center via the Port of Houston.

What concerns me, though, with the agile port cooperative between Dallas area entities and the Port of Houston is an apparent (but unconfirmed) lack of effort to channel American exports through the system. I dont remember the organization off the top of my head, but I read about a proposal to put together a new rail route from the Panhandle/South Plains to a Pacific Mexican port for export of American agricultural products. Understanding there may be a compelling business reason for Asian-bound exports to embark from the Pacific coast, I think every effort should be made to direct Midwestern & Great Plains exports through Texas ports. Apologies to economic rebuilders of New Orleans, but I want to see the Dallas/Houston agile port system become the primary route of American exports.