Camden McGowen Station & Midtown Park At 2727 Travis St.

[Luminare]

2 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

 

This is highly sensitive to location and age of the building. If you are getting those rates from ground floor spaces in new multi-family buildings along Main Street, you cannot compare that to a 10-year old strip center on Smith or Milam.

 

On Main Street I think we are there in terms of the parking lot hurting more than it helps. On the streets that lead to/from the Spur, I think the parking lot still adds positive value because of the high traffic counts and the nature of commuters wanting to make a quick stop on the way home. On Travis I am not so sure, would be interesting to analyze the numbers.

 

 

Upcoming developments such as The Mix and that Oxburry tower will be very telling what the next stage is going to be here. Now with the exemptions to parking minimums and the fact that there is already so much over-saturation in parking already, it will be interesting to see how developers rethink their approach here.

[H-Town Man]

3 minutes ago, Luminare said:

 

Upcoming developments such as The Mix and that Oxburry tower will be very telling what the next stage is going to be here. Now with the exemptions to parking minimums and the fact that there is already so much over-saturation in parking already, it will be interesting to see how developers rethink their approach here.

 

Right, and in my post above, I was thinking in terms of strip center vs. storefront retail (single story). Obviously in the portions of Travis near Elgin, the highest and best use is high-rise with ground-floor retail and garage parking.

 

[dbigtex56]

The apartments, the parks, parking garage, and sidewalks are all pretty much complete.
Can we agree that this project has finally gone from "Going Up!" to "Gone Up", and move it to the 'Midtown' section?

(If, and when, the promised restaurant(s) on McGowen materialize, a thread can be started to cover that development.)

Edited September 24, 2019 by dbigtex56

[jmitch94]

On 9/23/2019 at 7:20 AM, dbigtex56 said:

There was a sold-out game at Minute Maid Park (Western Champs!)
Isn't this is about half the going rate (maybe less) than the lots adjacent to the ball park? Covered parking, adjacent to McGowen Station, perception of better security...for some people, $25 might look like a good deal.

 

Some of the lots across the street are like $20. I park in a grange 3-4 blocks from the park for $10. This is way too far from the park for people to use it for the game, just simple price gouging. 

Edited September 24, 2019 by jmitch94

[Angostura]

22 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

 

This is highly sensitive to location and age of the building. If you are getting those rates from ground floor spaces in new multi-family buildings along Main Street, you cannot compare that to a 10-year old strip center on Smith or Milam.

 

On Main Street I think we are there in terms of the parking lot hurting more than it helps. On the streets that lead to/from the Spur, I think the parking lot still adds positive value because of the high traffic counts and the nature of commuters wanting to make a quick stop on the way home. On Travis I am not so sure, would be interesting to analyze the numbers.

 

 

The question isn't current rents for aging strip centers. It's the opportunity cost of keeping a parking lot a parking lot. And at typical rents, that opportunity cost is about $800/month per space (assuming you're just building single-story retail, which you're probably not).

 

With CoH parking minimums and assuming surface parking, parking takes up 55-75% of land area. So unless parked rents are much, much higher than unparked rents, we're going to see less parking in the area over time, and more of what remains priced at a level above zero.

[H-Town Man]

27 minutes ago, Angostura said:

 

The question isn't current rents for aging strip centers. It's the opportunity cost of keeping a parking lot a parking lot. And at typical rents, that opportunity cost is about $800/month per space (assuming you're just building single-story retail, which you're probably not).

 

With CoH parking minimums and assuming surface parking, parking takes up 55-75% of land area. So unless parked rents are much, much higher than unparked rents, we're going to see less parking in the area over time, and more of what remains priced at a level above zero.

 

The opportunity cost is based on the market rent at a given location. You cannot pick out the highest asking rental rates in Midtown and pretend that these would be the rents at every location. As I mentioned before, Main Street is probably at a point where surface parking is not justified, Travis might be as well, but on Smith or Milam Streets, the numbers change and I don't think they're there yet. Of course we are going to see less parking in the area over time, but we are still a long way from the point where it does not make sense to provide surface parking anywhere in Midtown.

 

[hindesky]

Totally open but the grassy area has barricade tape around it. Turned out nice.

[Brooklyn173]

The mosaic artwork is going in on the water feature. It's very interesting.

[IntheKnowHouston]

 

 

On 7/21/2019 at 1:41 PM, Luminare said:

  On 7/21/2019 at 1:32 PM, CrockpotandGravel said:

I thought I something about the below post in the forum a few months ago. I searched and scanned the Midtown threads but saw nothing. So if this is a repost, please let me know so\ it can be removed.

From an April meeting the board of directors of the Midtown Redevelopment Authority, there was this update on the Midtown Park, part of the Midtown Superblock in the posted minutes:


Mr. (Bob) Sellingsloh reported that the Midtown Staff and consultants were exploring the possibility of constructing a food hall with multiple smaller food vendors in the area designated for a restaurant on the Front 90 portion of Midtown Park. He outlined the benefits of a food hall and stated that several of the top 7 potential tenants for the Bagby Park Kiosk also expressed interest in leasing space in the food hall.

https://midtownhouston.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/MRA-Minutes-4.30.2019.pdf (archive link)

 

 

 

Additional Intel on the Midtown Park food Hall from Eater Houston:

 

 

It looks like Houston’s food hall boom will never slow down. On the heels of Bravery Chef Hall, Politan Row, Finn Hall, Understory, and more projects either open now in the works, it looks as if another food hall is headed to Midtown Houston. This news comes just days after Eater Houston reported that the neighborhood would get its first food hall via Miami’s 1-800-Lucky.

 

A tipster pointed Eater in the direction of meeting notes from the Midtown Houston Management District’s monthly board of directors’ meetings, and the organization has been working since September on an as-yet-unnamed food hall that will open in Midtown Park. Per those notes, the organization has already approved a preliminary design for the food hall, and is currently anticipating a final design from the architects.

 

https://houston.eater.com/2019/12/11/21010974/midtown-food-hall-international-smoke-closed-common-bond-expansion

[Angostura]

Food halls are the new food truck parks.

 

 

They give aspiring restaurateurs a chance to test a concept before committing time and capital to a full build-out, and are a vastly more pleasant experience for the diner than a food truck park, which (in Houston at least) are generally in un-shaded parking lots with little to no seating, no bathrooms and lots of generator noise.

[phillip_white]

The synergy between this food hall (if it materializes) and the Hawker food hall across main will be incredible for foot traffic. Not to mention, once the hotel, condos, and additional rental units at Laneways come on line AND with the AMCAL highrise going up... this section of McGowen will be unrecognizable in 5 years.

[Brooklyn173]

New sign by the new water feature. Is this standard language or is it in response to recent activities?

 

Edited January 16, 2020 by Brooklyn173

[jermh]

The first rule of water feature rules is that we don't ask about water feature rules.

[zaphod]

Rule 2 seems too specific to be anything other than a reaction to a certain incident

[mattyt36]

And rule 3 is a bit redundant, I think "Do not drink water from the feature" would have been more efficient.

 

 

[Texasota]

The implication is that you can drink from the water feature, as long as what youre drinking isnt water.

[corbs315]

There's a new lease sign on what I imagine is the proposed restaurant spot. Either good news or....maybe someone had it and it fell through?

[phillip_white]

17 hours ago, corbs315 said:

There's a new lease sign on what I imagine is the proposed restaurant spot. Either good news or....maybe someone had it and it fell through?

 

If you're talking about the pad site next to the plaza park on McGowen, I think there was talk about Midtown negotiating a lease. But I could also be confusing that with a lease for the former Rico's spot at Bagby Park.

[Brooklyn173]

The timing is curious.

[H-Town Man]

On 1/16/2020 at 3:19 PM, Brooklyn173 said:

New sign by the new water feature. Is this standard language or is it in response to recent activities?

 

 

Do not taunt water feature.

 

[Naviguessor]

...do not expose Water Feature to direct sunlight. ...

[H-Town Man]

If water feature begins to smoke, seek shelter and cover head.

[dbigtex56]

Everyone sing along:
"Science fiction....Water feature..."

 

[Naviguessor]

...picture show."

[Brooklyn173]

Not really related to anything, but that is the McGowen Camden sign up in the corner.

 

[ArtNsf]

16 hours ago, Brooklyn173 said:

Not really related to anything, but that is the McGowen Camden sign up in the corner.

 

wow !  Cool AF !

[Brooklyn173]

Scaffolding is going up all along the north side of this property. Not sure what the repairs are for but I think the building is just 4 years old.

[dbigtex56]

32 minutes ago, Brooklyn173 said:

I think the building is just 4 years old.

Yet it's still listed in "Going Up!". 
Go figure.

[Texasota]

Still waiting on the little retail pavilion next to mcgowen, so technically it's not finished yet...

[dbigtex56]

31 minutes ago, Texasota said:

Still waiting on the little retail pavilion next to mcgowen, so technically it's not finished yet...

I see your point.
Still, when the apartments have been occupied so long that leases have expired and been renewed, it's not going up, it's been up. I'd be surprised if any of the tenants think of themselves as living in an unfinished building.
Suppose the retail pavilion(s) are never built. Will it be "Going UP!" in perpetuity? 
Please forgive me for belaboring the point, but I'm bored and convinced I'm right.