Houston19514

On 8/11/2023 at 7:44 AM, cspwal said:

And they are busy upgrading TX-146, so once segment A is built 146 will magically become 99

I imagine that stretch will probably be both TX-146 and TX-99

I get the downside of streets full of driveways (although the negative impact on pedestrians could be at least party ameliorated by enforcing the law that bans blocking sidewalks). Just recognize that every additional regulation such as this adds to housing costs.

31 minutes ago, BeerNut said:

I have no reason to doubt the source considering industry/HOB connections.  End of the month supposed to be last day.  

FWIW, they appear to be taking restaurant reservations well into late October (I checked for October 20, to be specific).

The batter's eye paint is interesting, but I'm pretty sure the building permits referenced up-thread are not related to this new paint.

On 9/17/2023 at 12:30 PM, steve1363 said:

Right, I said SINCE April 2022.  So in basically a year and a half the Chronicle has published nothing.

Yeah, and that article talked about as much about the other cities as it did about Houston.  Interesting that the Chron article says the four cities are working together. The recent DMN article makes it sound like it's Houston vs AUS/DAL/SAT

And the overall ranking (public and private national universities), UH moved up 48 spots!  (tied for #133)

7 hours ago, Tumbleweed_Tx said:

pissing contest over, it was Issac Tigret who told me the story. He was the HoB CEO.

ROFL  Riiiiiggghhttt     

First you told us Live Nation "drilled this stuff into [your] head".  Now it magically becomes Isaac Tigret who told you . . .  Isaac Tigret has not been CEO of HoB since 1997 and he left HoB entirely in 1998, long before anyone from Live Nation (let alone Isaac Tigret himself) was telling stories to HoB Houston employees. (The Houston HoB opened in 2008.)

16 hours ago, Tumbleweed_Tx said:

actually it was in a small house in Cambridge MA that had a stage added as an afterthought when customers started asking for music. 

Live Nation drilled this stuff into our heads as part of the corporate culture. New Orleans was the second HoB, the first one built as a restaurant/concert hall/side room / Foundation Room.

and thanks for making me think about that place more in the last 5 minutes than i have in the last 2.5 years.... .

Someone may have told you that take, but that doesn’t make it true.  The founder’s stated mission was the preservation of blues music and they opened as a restaurant and live music venue.  Here’s a story about their grand opening.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1992/12/10/the-house-of-blues-pbmbonday-november/

1 hour ago, IntheKnowHouston said:

The proposed subdivision plat for Second Amended Map of Live Oaks Partial Replat No. 2 includes:

• 1103 S Shepherd Dr
• 1107 S Shepherd Dr
• 1109 S Shepherd Dr
• 1201 S Shepherd Dr

Also, this property is considered to be in River Oaks:

River Oaks restaurant Backstreet Cafe temporarily closes due to repairs

The rich history of Backstreet Cafe in Houston's River Oaks


And from Backstreet Cafe's website:


Housed in a cozy '30s-era house in Houston's River Oaks, Backstreet Cafe affords diners several cozy dining areas on two levels. 

https://www.backstreetcafe.net/about/


 

But it’s not in River Oaks.

To be clear, the first House of Blues was a concert hall and restaurant.

39 minutes ago, wilcal said:

Such a joke that METRO keeps building these parking garages with hundreds of free parking spaces. (in reference to the 500 parking space garage on Fulton at the new Northline Transit Center) when 3/4 of bus stops in their service area are just a post in the ground. 

FWIW, Metro is also engaged in a large bus-stop improvement project, including hundreds upon hundreds of new shelters.  (And, per this Chronicle article, before these new shelters, about 63% of Metro bus stops were without shelters.)  https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/metro-fan-bus-shelter-solar-power-18298783.php

Yeah, it's bigger than a downtown block.

40 minutes ago, tigereye said:

Did they nix the cascading water feature along Smith St? Looks like a pile of steps now without an enclosure for water. 
 

Really hope that this wasn’t a cost saving move.

I think it's still there.  Zoom in and you can see what are probably the jets or inlets where the water comes in to the feature.  The layout is pretty much as was shown in the renderings.

3 hours ago, strickn said:

Does the new name also mean it's not their headquarters space (even if if was a sale and leaseback agreement) anymore?

It's a good design from Gensler.

It is still the headquarters of Southwestern Energy. IF there was a building name-change (and I'm not at all sure there was a name-change), it probably occurred when Southwestern Energy down-sized their space usage  and it became a multi-tenant building (in 2020).

14 hours ago, Highrise Tower said:

From today, South Loop near Holcombe Blvd.

 

I'm trying to locate this.  Did you mean something other than Holcombe Blvd?  I don't think Holcombe Blvd ever gets near the South Loop.

14 hours ago, BEES?! said:

Interesting! Green space is always a nice addition! :) Hopefully they can move on to Phase II. The HAIF Penthouse notwithstanding, I wonder how sales are going here? 

Sales appear to be going very well.  Per a recent Chronicle article, there were only 20 units left (out of, I think, 115).

It’s been reported on airliners.net that “Terminal B North is closing January 7, 2024 for demolition”

19 hours ago, strickn said:

You can see how far below the downtown average this building has listed a full floor sublease:  https://www.commercialcafe.com/commercial-property/us/tx/houston/three-allen-center-1/

Not an expert in accounting but I would also expect that renting to yourself depresses the value more than it elevates the market clearing price.  I would expect, even when you are involved with a third party CBRE/JLL leasing agent/broker, that there are tax rules about how hard a bargain you can agree to when a transaction isn't arms' length.  If there were none then private equity vulture capital could even more easily strip cashflow from one subsidiary to another, under the guise of holding the keys to one asset or another that the first one has agreed to lease back.  

Not seeing how it would depress the value.  They may indeed be required to charge their sister company a market rent.  But by definition, charging market rent neither depresses nor elevates the value of the building.  And more to the original point, renting to a sister company tells us nothing about the softness of the building.  Again, if the lessee sister company is going to pay market rent for office space, why would they not pay it to their lessor sister company, rather than to a third party? It would be kinda odd to do otherwise.

16 hours ago, strickn said:

Smacks of a soft building, since Toronto-based Brookfield also controls American National (the same company that the Moody family of Galveston built, and which a Brookfield subsidiary BAMR acquired last year).

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/brookfield-asset-management-reinsurance-partners-105500010.html

Interesting, but I don't think it smacks of a soft building.  Why wouldn't they want to pay rent to their sister company, rather than to someone else?

15 hours ago, Bassclef said:

I would be surprised if this happens.

Why do you say that?

2 hours ago, mfastx said:

It is kinda sad that Houston hasn't built a supertall in like 40 years. 

Or, kinda cool that, for like 40 years, Houston has been the only city in Texas with a supertall (and Houston has 2!)

28 minutes ago, Ross said:

If Trump had not committed crimes, he would not be indicted. It's really that simple. I would hope that any politician that did what he did would be indicted and tried.

So much for "innocent until proven guilty", eh?  😉

On 8/21/2023 at 2:05 PM, strickn said:

Has the rebuilding of the burned Governors' Mansion completed or can we still move it to a new one in San Angelo (to cut down on the amount of temptation of spending one's years in office attending many press conferences to announce to gratified Austinites that the state's public PUF endowment is funding them even more local tchotchkes)?

Yeah, I think it was completed ten or so years ago

12 minutes ago, Amlaham said:

https://chi.streetsblog.org/2023/06/20/chicago-deploys-its-first-tdm-requirements-for-new-construction-in-rail-station-tod-areas

https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/cdot/CDOTPRC/TDM Strategies 6.16.23.pdf

This is what i'm referring too, its related to a "Connected Communities Ordinance" in Chicago. It has to do with how new buildings are constructed, eliminating free parking for employees, there's more information in that link above. It doesn't sound like they're just manicuring a package thats merely something the IRS offers. It's obviously much more than that. 

After a quick perusal of your linked articles and a little Googling, I have not found any "incentives for big companies to persuade employees to use trains/ public transportation when traveling home/ offices!"  They might be buried in there somewhere, but I couldn't find them.  Interestingly, the StreetBlog article you linked tells us:  "Worth noting: One major way to reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips is not having on-site parking, which the Connected Communities ordinance did not address for non-residential uses, allowing them to still have an unlimited amount of on-site car parking outside of the D zoning districts."

A lot of what the Connected Communities ordinance does looks pretty similar to Houston's TOD Development ordinance. 

21 hours ago, Amlaham said:

A little off topic, but I believe a lot of other big cities have adopted incentives for big companies to persuade employees to use trains/ public transportation when traveling home/ offices! The incentives even includes discounting gym memberships within the immediate area to push more employees to stay local and not drive if they don't have to. I think Chicago just passed something like that. Maybe one day we'll get there (but I doubt it)

I think what Chicago "offers" is merely the federal (IRS) allowing pre-tax payroll deductions of up to $300 per month to be used for transit.  The same program is available in Houston.