The Future Of Lower Galleria

[Pumapayam]

. I read this article at the chron today about Bellaire's "mixed-use neighborhood centered around a proposed light-rail station on Westpark between South Rice and the West Loop." Hopefully this project will come to frution as the light rail gets started. With Uptown to the north and Bellaire to the south, the area the OP mentioned will eventually turn around.

Chron

Great link dmoneybangbang, but your Chron.com link has %20http: in it, thus the link is broken.

Here is the correct link.

BELLAIRE

City

[plumber2]

During the 60's and early 70's the area around the Galleria was being marketed by some business groups as "The Magic Circle". Not to sure why a circle was dreamed up as part of this theme, for there are certainly no circle's anywhere in the area.

[ProHouston]

The "Galleria area", though, is sometimes more useful of a descriptor. For instance, the first map shown below is the Uptown Management District. The second map shown below is the Uptown TIRZ. And neither of these includes the areas around Riverway, the office complex along St. James Pl., or the areas immediately inside the Loop such as the Westcreek redevelopment or the area around the Park Towers.

Hence why I like the term "Uptown." It has defined boundaries, and you have to agree that most of the time people use the term "Galleria" as a geographic description, they mean Uptown. However, in instanbul's description, neither Galleria or Uptown really describes the area. I've never heard the term "Lower" Galleria which is why I thought we were going to be discussing the ice rink. "Lower" Uptown would've made more sense, but still not the right area.

I guess the area in question is not named. In true HAIFer form we oughtta be able to come up with a name for the area. How about SOUP (South of Uptown)?

[dmoneybangbang]

Great link dmoneybangbang, but your Chron.com link has %20http: in it, thus the link is broken.

Here is the correct link.

BELLAIRE

City's Village Vision Plan unveiled

Thanks for correcting that.

[CandW]

Back on topic....the area you have described has been a cash cow for many years for a very limited group of ownership...the values in the Gulfton area have been stable whereas the price per sf on the dirt does not exceed the value of the improvements, i.e. cash flow....the area that could be know as "lower galleria" (north of 59 and south of Westheimer) has experienced a renaisance the past few years....once the older homes west of Sage were purchased, it created a new market and thus the expansion of land values along Sage...hence the newer development of the multi-family and high rises...the movement has not gone to the west to close the gap between Sage and Voss for many reasons, namely too many single family units which have high values still....the property located at the corner of S. Rice and Westpark has been cleared and made ready for development by the owners....the anticipated development as stated in the article is for some type of Transit Oriented Development otherwise known as TOD....that property could set a gold standard for any future development along the much anticipated never loved MetroRail....this property will be the confluence of two rail lines, the Uptown line going through the Galleria Area and the University line coming from Hillcroft transit center all the way over to just east of the University of Houston....the anticipated TOD will be a live, work, walk, ride development with shops, high density living as well as an intermodal station for commuters...keep in mind, this tract is also one of the largest tracts available inside/near the loop system...a great in-fill site for sure...can't wait to see what happens there...