Jump to content

s3mh

Full Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,145

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    13

 Content Type 

Everything posted by s3mh

  1. s3mh
    https://tritenre.com/projects/swift That is a different property. MKT's "Phase 2" is the old Freedman Distributor building. The only info on it is that it will be multifamily. Triten Real Estate is just calling it "Swift" for now. I found the deed for the property on the county clerk's records. The owner of Presto sold the property to FF Realty IV, LLC. This looks to be an entity controlled by Fairfield Residential, which makes sense given the name "Fairfield Shepherd" on the variance sign. They do not have any info on the project on their website yet.
  2. s3mh
    https://www.har.com/homedetail/1642-arlington-st-houston-tx-77008/2971763 Long time Heights residents will recall that there was an Italian restaurant called La Bella Cucina in this house 20+ years ago. La Bella Cucina later moved to the building that currently houses Better Luck Tomorrow. This building has been stucco-ed up on the outside as long as I can remember. The interior design is about what you would expect and is pretty over the top. But there are some amazingly well preserved original woodwork all over the house. That is a nice surprise.
  3. s3mh
    Variance sign is up for a 10' setback for a multifamily project at 580 N. Shepherd. Presto Maintenance Supply sold their company and moved out recently. Keep your eyes peeled for the next planning commission agenda for more details.
  4. s3mh
    https://www.houstontx.gov/mayor/press/public-private-park-improvements.html Love park is on the Mayor's list of 50/50 park partners. No word yet on plans or funding, but hopefully something really big will happen. Love Park has so much potential and could be a big amenity for the Heights if the pool and community center are fixed up.
  5. s3mh
    I think the kind of money that is currently flowing into Houston to build these projects is not at all concerned about short term occupancy rates and whether the oil and gas market is up or down or in between. We are getting big money following into Houston from national and international equity funds. They are more concerned with the movement of interest rates, stock market valuations and national and international real estate trends. Over building in Houston in a low interest rate environment may very well be a better bet than an overvalued stock market or other real estate markets that are overvalued. And gone are the days when local guys would live or die by whether the development leased up within a few years.
  6. s3mh
    Bumping this thread. Please support the Wilde Collection. They met their goal of $50k for donations, but they really need more than that to be able to rebuild quickly and stay in business.
  7. s3mh
    TABC notice in the window for a second location of Shandy's Cafe. That is the hole in the wall place over on Memorial Dr. across the street from Bayou Bend. Not what I was expecting in Houston's hyper foodie driven restaurant market. But it might do well with those who just want something simple and good.
  8. s3mh
    https://houston.eater.com/2019/10/17/20919161/karne-korean-barbecue-opening-houston-heights Restaurant tenant announced for this development. Also, the neighborhood is getting a bit frothy about the parking garage. The developer for the garage needs a variance because there is a pending minimum lot size application for that section of the Heights. Planning commission will be getting an earful on Oct 31.
  9. s3mh
    https://houston.eater.com/2019/10/1/20892841/the-studewood-cantine-open-houston-heights-tex-mex-margaritas Not sure whether this in any way related to Molzan or Ruggles. But Los Cucos is out and Studewood Cantine is in.
  10. s3mh
    It is where Patterson St. NB dead ends into the trail. There is a vacant lot on the west side of Patterson.
  11. s3mh
    Jinya is now open in the Heights Waterworks.
  12. s3mh
    https://houston.eater.com/2019/8/29/20838118/jenis-splendid-ice-creams-opening-houston-heights-carter-and-cooley-delicatessen-space Smoosh, Fat Cat, Sweet Bribery and now this, all within a mile of each other.
  13. s3mh
    All the wine looks to be along the wall behind the counter in the La Grande Rue part of the building. So, they aren't really sacrificing any floor space for wine bar patrons with retail displays for wine. I thought they might do like Coltivare and not take reservations at Savoir so that everyone would hang out at La Grande Rue drinking wine before dinner. But Savoir is set up for reservations. Wine bars are funny concepts. You have a wide range of consumers that go from someone who just likes to drink and wouldn't know Burgundy from a boxed wine all the way to full on wine snobs who buy Bordeaux futures every year and won't blink at paying $150+ for a bottle. So then, people beat each other with sticks to get a table at Postino to drink some very average but affordable wine and eat above average food, while places like the Tasting Room and 13 Celsius will sell $500+ in wine to a group of 4 wine snobs. It sounds like La Grande Rue is looking to serve the high end of the market. If that is the case, they do not really need a lot of space and the retail side need not rake in a ton of cash.
  14. s3mh
    http://houston.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/08-27-19-savoir-new-restaurant-the-heights-wine-brian-doke-william-meznarich-micah-rideout/#slide=4 First look from culturemap. Says that the wine bar/retail side should open today. Restaurant side is still in soft opening with limited reservations, but they are up on resy now. https://houston.eater.com/2019/8/28/20836675/la-grande-rue-heights-houston-opening-august-2019 Eater article on the wine bar side that is opening today.
  15. s3mh
    Maryam's Cafe on 19th st appears to be gone. Building has been gutted. No permit sign in the window for the interior demo. So, no bread crumbs to follow. I thought the owners of Maryam's were going to be developing the spot next door where the junk dealer used to be. But nothing has happened over there yet. I am surprised Maryam's lasted as long as it did, assuming that the restaurant has closed and is not renovating (which seems like a safe assumption). The food wasn't bad, but it wasn't even close to be competitive with the many other breakfast and lunch offerings in the Heights. It is a great space for a restaurant. Hopefully something better is on the way.
  16. s3mh
    Soft opening is imminent. Looks like they have staffed up and are getting ready.
  17. s3mh
    People in the industry like to say "retail follows residential", but I think this development may have gone the other way. Independence Heights is still pretty rough even though residential construction is on the upswing. I think in about 5-10 years it will start looking a lot like Cottage Grove and will better support the Whole Foods and other retail. I do not think that people are staying away because of the neighborhood. The Whole Foods 365 concept stunk and then HEB opened near by. If HEB opened in the same spot, it would have been just as packed as the one on N. Shep.
  18. s3mh
    Ok. I can see where the wine storage is going to be. But doesn't look like it has been completed.
  19. s3mh
    The build out has taken almost a year. The interior design does look amazing considering what they started with. But it is a bit odd how they left the cinder blocks exposed on the exterior, looking kind of shabby and not in a decorative way. And the parking lot on the north side does not drain properly. A big puddle forms and hangs around for a day or two after a downpour. I thought for sure they would put in a drain when they did all the work on the parking lot. I have only been peeking through the windows, but I cannot recall seeing a big wine fridge anywhere. There is a big open shelf in the La Grande Rue part of the building, but if you are going to sell high end old world reds, you have got to have it ready to pour at the proper temperature. Maybe that will be one of the last things to go in before they open. I presume that they are going to have to valet park a majority of the people coming for dinner. The parking lot on site is tiny. Maybe they have a deal with the funeral home to use their lot in the evening. Given the long build out and quirks, I hope they hit it out of the park and have crowds like Coltivare every night. My fear would be that the restaurant is just another new flashy high end thing that gets forgotten when the next new flashy thing opens.
  20. s3mh
    I was actually shocked that they put in a green space in the middle of this development. Standard operating procedure in Houston is to fill the lot with concrete. Just look at what they did to poor Slowpokes next door.
  21. s3mh
    Sushi restaurant coming to the old Happy Fatz bungalow on 3510 White Oak.
  22. s3mh
    They very purposefully used that background because one of the big issues for this thing is where will cars cue up when it is busy and the robo-garage can only handle so many vehicles at once. If you show people exactly where it is going to go, they will realize that the cue for the garage will spill out onto White Oak or Studewood and block traffic. And the only way this project will not stick out like a sore thumb is if someone puts an even bigger sore thumb next to it (which may be the plan for the Fitz lot).
  23. s3mh
    Read my entire post. I clearly note that the business model stand alone automated garages is for downtown areas. My point is that they would never come to exist purely due to market forces in areas like White Oak Blvd because they are too expensive and demand would never be high enough to generate sufficient revenue. The only way they get built outside of the CBD is if the parking minimums force landowners to use them.
  24. s3mh
    It is true. There are lots of places in Houston where parking is as bad if not worse than on White Oak, but no one has ever even thought about putting in structured parking without being required by the parking minimums. It is pure fantasy to think that these sort of parking garages will start popping up if we let people build retail developments with no parking requirements. The dirt is too expensive. The cost of an automated garage is too expensive. And even regular old structured parking lots are too expensive to run just for profit without having the city require the owners of the retail properties to fund. The robot garage business model for stand alone pay lots is taking very small and otherwise unusable plots in dense urban areas and building very skinny and tall parking garages. These are areas where they can charge $25-40 max for daily use and get contracts for monthly users. On White Oak, you are not going to have any contract parking and no one is going to be willing to pay much more than $5-10 for parking, assuming that there will be some amazing new retail establishments. I am not sure the crowd at BBs and Tacos Agogo are willing to pay anything for parking.
  25. s3mh
    This parking garage would never have been built if there were no minimum parking requirements.
×
×
  • Create New...