s3mh
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Posts posted by s3mh
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14 hours ago, Ross said:
There was no potential for that house to be flipped for non-demolition residential. 1,000 sq ft 2/1? Not going to survive, as no one wants to live in a house that small these days. There was also no potential for a flip because the owners didn't want to flip it to residential when they can presumably make a lot more money with less liability by turning it into a parking lot.
Yeah. You are correct. No one wants to live in a 1,000 sq ft 2/1. Only option is to knock it down. Nothing else can be done. I have heard about scientists at MIT experimenting with next generation technology where they are able to use state of the art materials like wood, nails and Hardie plank siding to enlarge an existing house. But this is cutting edge stuff that won't be ready for commercial use for another 10-20 years.
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Calle Onze closing, but another Mexican concept is taking its place.
I thought Calle Onze was great when it first opened, but quality sank like a stone and the crowd after 8 pm would pull a bit too much from Midtown.
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2 hours ago, Ross said:
Did you not read the part where that property has been owned by the Kowis family or their business since the 1960's possibly earlier(it was transferred to their business entity in the late 60's). The property hasn't been sold, but is being demolished by the entity that has owned it for over 50 years. They obviously have a different use in mind, and nothing you say or do is going to change that. There was zero chance that it would be sold to a residential buyer.
And, it's not the Heights, period.
The discussion was about whether the property had any potential to be flipped not whether the owners had any intention to flip it. I am sure you feel special that you know something about the owners and we are all eternally in your debt for such magnificent insight. But your comments are a non sequitur.
Niche and Red Scare are gone. Fighting about whether something is actually in the Heights or not because it is a block or two outside the original plat for the Heights is so over even for HAIF.
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14 hours ago, Ross said:
Property has been owned by the owners of the building next door(K&K Food Market) since the late 1960's. It was never going to be flipped for residential. It's also technically not the Heights, but Stude's First Addition. Interestingly, the people who sold the property to K&K Food Market still own most of that block along Cavalcade, and a lot on Robbie. Hmm, after further research, K&K Food Market is an entity owned by the Kowis family that transferred the property to K&K. Which reinforces the fact that it was never going to be residential.
So, you are saying that a house that was well maintained for decades by someone who lived in it as their residence was never intended to be residential because whether a house is suitable to be flipped or not depends on the intent of the property owner and not the condition of the house. That is a new level of developerspeak that is even a stretch for HAIF.
And calling out properties as not being "technically" in the Heights is also so 2000.
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House was very well maintained cared for and would have been an easy flip. Location is not the best, but people are beating each other with sticks to buy in the Heights and someone would have been happy to live there. Losing a nice bungalow to nail salon parking is so 2000.
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14 hours ago, thedistrict84 said:
Another Durham/Shepherd used car lot down, only like 30 more to go!
Once all of the used car dealerships are eliminated, it’s on to the final boss: Tommie Vaughn Ford.
Tommie Vaughn dropped a pretty good bag of cash on upgrading its showroom and moving a franchised dealer can trigger protest right from other nearby dealers and long proceedings before TxDMV. Tommie Vaughn is here to stay.
There are a bunch more retail projects like this coming on the Shep side. It will be interesting to see where the market saturation point is on retail space along Shep. So far, there hasn't been much trouble filling these projects but a bunch are in the pipeline.
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12 hours ago, BigRed said:
This is a link to a Washington DC place...
Sorry. I guess "Moon Rabbit" is a pretty popular restaurant name these days.
The Houston version is doing take out only right now. Here is the menu:
https://www.ubereats.com/store/moon-rabbit/aMQB24p0TjyT6HRIVCJPnQ
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Moon Rabbit is replacing Vietnam Restaurant on 19th. Contemporary Vietnamese and much more high end/night on the town place compared to its predecessor.
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I like the MCM quotes on the design.
Surprisingly good article from the Leader on how the City screwed over the immediate neighborhood on SMLS on this lot.
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The lawsuit is ongoing and has a September trial setting (courts are pretty log jammed due to COVID, so odds aren't very good that trial will happen in September). HOA's argument is pretty thin. The tract with the Tanglewood Corp building has an exception to the deed restrictions and specifically says that the tract can be used for commercial purposes. The HOA claims that the tract is also subject to the deed restrictions that restrict using property for apartments, etc. There were also attempts in the 2000s to amend the deed restrictions to make it clear that the tract could not be used for an apartment/condo tower. The owner of the tract argues that the clear intent of the deed restrictions was to exempt the tract from the residential only restrictions and the subsequent attempts to amend did not follow the property code. Just to make things fun, the owner hired Rusty Hardin, although Mr. Hardin probably isn't doing much of the legal leg work.
This kind of dispute would usually be resolved on summary judgment motions, but the judge in this case does not like to rule on anything because she gets reversed a lot on appeal.
I don't see the HOA prevailing. It is pretty hard to argue that a commercial use exception does not apply when the property has been used for commercial purposes for decades.
And that is the fun part about Houston's lack of zoning and dedication to deed restrictions. Developers can stomp on the rich and poor alike.
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Chef announcement with rendering. Guess we now know why Michael Hsu opened an office in the Heights.
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This is a rare time capsule Midcentury Modern over in Lazybrook. No info on the architect. But almost everything looks to be original.
https://www.har.com/homedetail/2442-brooktree-dr-houston-tx-77008/7911476
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Culberson and TxDOT were able to keep light rail from becoming an effective alternative for commuters in Houston. Culberson submarined significant federal funding and TxDOT kept rail off the Katy freeway expansion. Light rail is effectively just a centralized alternative to a few bus lines. So, the light rail has no sort of nickname because it is just an alternative for bus riders.
Downtown was blossoming in a big way before COVID and will hopefully come back quickly if the Delta variant doesn't send everyone back to working at home. There are a number of food halls downtown that are pretty amazing and some big developments (Post office and a few towers) that are going to continue to transform downtown.
Energy prices in Houston are the result of the deregulated energy market. Had you moved to town several months ago, you would have had the pleasure of sitting in the dark while your thermostat sank to 37 degrees. Deregulated energy markets have resulted in higher prices and near third world service.
The apartment scene is odd due to overbuilding of high end units. CoH gave out millions in tax incentives for developers to build apartments downtown. All those units are pretty high end. Most of the other new apartments inside the loop are fairly similar. Everyone is trying to maintain a floor of $1,500 a month for the smaller one bedroom apartments, but the market has been so volatile that no one wants to put out that much info about pricing.
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https://www.har.com/homedetail/1435-rutland-st-houston-tx-77008/2969610
Only non-historic home I have put on this thread. I have to say that the interior is a bit underwhelming, but that may be more due to the random updating. I am sure whoever buys this will rip everything out and completely redo the interior. Gary Eades designed it and I always liked the building. The many McVics that came after and the current awful fad of the modern Victorian farmhouse look very cheap compared to the well thought out homage to classic Victorian homes that Eades did here.
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2 hours ago, dfwill said:
I wonder if 6th will ever be connected between waverly and rutland over the reservoir by road or pedestrian bridge or something. Would be cool to be able to walk down 6th from let's say BLT to here/MKT.
Probably never, but not a bad idea as W 8th St. ends up being a cut-through for people driving between Shep and Heights. When they did the detention pond, there were plans floated to turn it into a park with a water feature. The soil pollution at the site was so bad from prior use as a refinery and city incinerator that they could not afford to dig any deeper than what was necessary for the detention pond. I would assume that any attempt to build a bridge across the pond would be prohibitively expensive due to having to disrupt the soil to build supports.
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If Tillman ever got his way and got casinos on Galveston, there might be enough demand to make a commuter rail line make sense. But there really aren't that many people flying to Houston to vacation in Galveston. I remember when I was a little kid in the 70s, on the Price is Right showcase showdown there was always one really great prize package and one lousy one. On the lousy one, they would have a trip to Galveston. I love going to the beach in Galveston, but it is pretty obvious why people would choose to go to Florida or Mexico instead of Galveston. Houston needs commuter rail for commuters. There should be rail from the Woodlands, Sugar Land, Cypress, Pearland, Clear Lake and Katy to downtown as well as connecting the energy corridor to the Woodlands and Sugar Land. That would be an amazing option for commuters to save money and time in traffic.
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Same author wrote an article urging politicians to build an Ike dike, citing the prospect of a 20 ft storm surge tossing around giant oil tanks along the Houston ship channel and creating an epic environmental disaster. Houston real estate will always be cheaper than Austin because everything floods here. Even if you luck out and live somewhere that doesn't flood, you just have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time to lose your car to a flood. My house in the Heights does not flood. But I parked around the corner one afternoon and a sudden downpour filled the street with water flooding my car.
The desirable neighborhoods in Houston are not far off from the pricing in the hot neighborhoods in Austin. Same for the burbs with the top schools and neighborhood amenities. Houston really only looks significantly cheaper when you throw out statistics like median home price. Austin's gentrification has gone farther and wider than Houston's. So, Austin's median is much higher. But the reality on the ground is that there are no big housing bargains in Houston, unless you want to live next to an oil refinery or in a 60s rambler with a wavy foundation and crappy schools.
Yes, Austin's real estate market is hotter than Houston's right now and if you are a young attorney at a big law firm you have a better chance at finding a nice house in Houston than having to compete with Silicon Valley tech millionaires looking for a second home in Austin. But for everyone else, there really isn't a huge difference that would justify fleeing Austin for the swamp.
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Been here for 21 years. When I first got here in 2000, everyone was talking about how much Houston had changed over the past 20 years. So, this city is certainly dynamic.
I like living in Houston. I take my family to the beach on the weekends. Road trips on weekends to Hill Country for camping, tubing etc. Very diverse city. My white kids are at best a plurality in their schools and often a minority. The city has come a long way with new bike paths, park improvements and lots of great restaurants.
My favorite thing about Houston is that it is mostly a laid back, come as you are city where everyone has room to be who they want to be. I am originally from the East Coast and all everyone does is talk about getting their kid into an Ivy and working for the top law firm, corporation, or medical practice. I have had bbq's with an O&G engineer, artist, pastor and environmental non-profit organizer.
I am concerned about the future in Houston. I have been through Allison, Ike, Harvey and all the other big floods and hurricane near misses. I am concerned we are living on borrowed time with a direct hit that could destroy the ship channel refineries and cause an environmental disaster that would take years to recover from. I hope the winter freeze is a once in a lifetime event, but I am concerned that we are going to have another grid failure either in the summer or during another cold snap. I am lucky to live in the Heights and to have flood waters flow quickly down towards the bayous. But it is hard to see so many people get hurt and have the city paralyzed during Harvey, Ike, etc. And it has been almost 13 years since Ike and the Ike dike is still in the planning stages.
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10 minutes ago, august948 said:
I think TheNiche got his own day because he was the first to hit 10,000 posts. Followed very soon after by RedScare if I recall correctly. I miss the Christmas tree banners. There was also a brief time when you could post a map of a given project in the banner. That was a really cool feature. Don't recall why that got pulled.
I've been a member since 2008 and I miss some of the active posters we used to have. The Heights Walmart thread was a blast.
HAIF used to be almost like an 8chan for people interested in real estate development. Niche and RedScare could be as vicious and line crossing as they could be interesting and well informed. And a lot of posters would follow their lead making hot topics pretty toxic at times. I had fun sparring with everyone but it got to the point where the tone was limiting who could participate to only those who had very thick skins.
It is interesting to reflect back on the whole stop Walmart thing. I always wondered how much that fight influenced developers like Radom, Deal, Braun and others who have broken with the longstanding Houston development pattern of demolishing anything old and building strip malls, townhomes and generic apartments in its place.
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38 minutes ago, 77011transplant said:
I don't know very much about it - could someone explain to me how environmentally friendly and cost effective having a golf course in our climate is? We get lots of rain and the grass must get scorched in the summer...
I would take a golf course over a strip mall and concrete any day. Of course, an open prairie filled with native grasses is better for the environment than a golf course. But Bermuda grass is pretty good at beating the heat without needing a ton of water.
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Pretty amazing the turnaround there has been in participation in golf. A bunch of course in the Houston area closed or turned into frisbee golf hybrids after participation dropped off in a big way with millenials. But the big hitters like DeChambeau and Koepka and the fact that golf was one of the few safe activities during the pandemic have caused a massive surge in participation. I do see a lot of 20 somethings out playing and socializing over golf. Something like this is great because it lets serious players work on short game while playing with people who would not be ready for 18 at Memorial (not sure anyone is really ready for 18 at Memorial). The only par 3 course in Houston is Melrose Golf Club in North Houston. It could be a nice place to practice and play, but the greens are completely destroyed and there are dogs running around the course all the time.
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On 8/3/2020 at 1:36 PM, s3mh said:
New life for Petrol Station location. I would presume that they will be permitted as a restaurant so they do not have to worry about getting shut down due to the virus. I would generally think that opening a new bar or restaurant right now would be insane unless you are prepared to go take out until their is a vaccine. But the Petrol Station property is huge and has lots of room for outdoor dining/drinking, which seems to be significantly safer than indoor service. So, maybe this is a restaurant/bar that is ready for a "new normal".
This is still happening. Going to be called Grease Monkey and targeting an opening in the Fall.
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If it was 20 years ago, this would have been the end of her career. TV reporters are a dime a dozen and there are always younger and more attractive reporters who are willing to work for nothing coming up every year. But Hecker is probably going to end up getting elevated to a national job at OAN or Blaze or end up with a youtube channel making millions.
What is amazing is that her big whistleblower story is just pathetic. Her manager told her she didn't want to run bitcoin stories at 5-6pm because the ratings would be bad due to low income black viewers not being interested in bitcoin. The other scandal is that she thought that Fox News shut her down on stories about hydroxychoroquine because Trump was for it. Fox News. And basically, they did not want her going rogue on social media. The other big revelation: ads go to the highest bidder and the CDC has paid for ad time. And she is unable to provide a concrete example of ad dollars driving content. If she was a journalist who was worth a crap, she would have easily been able to do that. We all know it happens. So, after all of this fuss, she can't even establish what Noam Chomsky and Ed Hermann demonstrated conclusively in Manufacturing Consent 33 years ago.
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HAHC has generally gone soft recently on things like siding, windows, etc. I do not see HAHC getting in the way of this development.
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The Heights Restaurant And Bar Scene - More Coming
in The Heights
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The world just kind of sucks today. Golden Bagels is closing. And Angela's Oven is closing their retail cafe on Harvard and will only be at farmer's markets. I think Angela's scaled back because of family reasons (kids who worked in the store going off to college). But no clue why Golden Bagels is closing.
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/09/08/beloved-bagel-shop-closing-in-the-heights/
https://www.facebook.com/112451162140402/photos/a.1730145393704296/4528110877241053/