Walmart Supercenter At 111 Yale St.

[RedScare]

HaHa! Now, you're going to try to shame us that Dallas does better? Go look at all of the threads about Dallas' 30% downtown vacancy, empty Victory highrises, and empty ground floor retail that Dallas city planning forced developers to add to their projects. Then get back to us.    

[s3mh]

I did not say it was within the Heights, merely in the area. It is probably closer to 19th and Yale than the WalMart development is as the crow flies, though.

 

You know the streets have names in Houston.  People have been known to identify tracts of land by reference to street names.  It is a fairly effective way to show that you are not making things up to try to prove a point.

[s3mh]

HaHa! Now, you're going to try to shame us that Dallas does better? Go look at all of the threads about Dallas' 30% downtown vacancy, empty Victory highrises, and empty ground floor retail that Dallas city planning forced developers to add to their projects. Then get back to us.    

 

So, I am talking about mixed use developments and your retort is downtown office space?  Planning=better land use.  Just look at what is going up in Frisco:  http://www.dallasnews.com/business/commercial-real-estate/20130626-cinema-complex-will-kick-off-huge-frisco-mixed-use-project.ece

 

I have dealt with Frisco's planning and zoning.  It is as restrictive and controlling as it gets.  But here we are.  Giant project that is many times the size of anything in the Houston area.

[RedScare]

Oh, it gets even better! Suburbs! He uses Dallas suburban planning to shame us on inner city Houston!

 

Dude, stop! My sides are splitting!         

[JJxvi]

You know the streets have names in Houston.  People have been known to identify tracts of land by reference to street names.  It is a fairly effective way to show that you are not making things up to try to prove a point.

Your problem is that I am not making it up. That means I can pretty much name it at any point, but after you came out so strongly against the notion that such a "magic" piece of land could possibly exist, I decided to keep giving you rope.

[JJxvi]

Also I used "as the crow flies" reference as a nod to the poll at the top of the thread, which I guess might pre-date your appearance here to argue against all things Wal Mart.

[august948]

If you think that you can just look at 70 mil v. 6 mil in a vacuum, then there is absolutely no hope for you. The circumstances and goals of each project are radically different. The bottom line is that it is totally pathetic that a low to lower middle neighborhood in DC can get a landmark mixed use development when a thriving area in Houston only gets strip malls. Houston shouldn't have to pay a penny to get quality development in the middle of one of the most economically thriving areas in the country, if not the world. All Houston needs is some planning and we could actually see the kind of high quality development that even lame ass Dallas gets.

Dollars vs square footage and Walmart are about the only commonality to be found in your apples-to-oranges comparison. What's pathetic is to try to argue that this Walmart is somehow the "lowest possible use of the land". Only a very contrived set of criteria would lead to that conclusion.

[livincinco]

3200 posts and still going strong! This thread truly is the gift that keeps on giving!

[s3mh]

Your problem is that I am not making it up. That means I can pretty much name it at any point, but after you came out so strongly against the notion that such a "magic" piece of land could possibly exist, I decided to keep giving you rope.

You either cannot name it because it does not exist or do not have the guts to name it because you are afraid of the collective laughter that will pummel you at the idea that the property could support a mixed use development. You may not like what I have to say most of the time, but at least I have the guts to come out and say what I believe without hesitation and deal with the fruit thrown from the peanut gallery.

Last chance. Man up and name your magic 50 acres.

[JJxvi]

Back in the early 2000's there were plans to redevelop the Eureka Yards into a large mixed use, and possibly transit oriented site, since its situated on right of way that METRO would like to use for both light rail and a possible commuter rail to the planned Burnet intermodal station. Some of the property on the south side has been sold for redevelopment, and townhome communities have been built that connect into cottage grove, but over 50 acres remain, plus the remaining portion on the south that has not been redeveloped closest to TC Jester and a piece of land adjacent on north line of the property that was platted for a subdivision called Stanley Park that connected out of Timbergrove, which never happened that is probably also about 10 acres or so. I think there is also many acres of vacant land on west side that could potentially connect to a Eureka Yard redevelopment also, but the main unsold portion is about 50 acres.

Edited July 5, 2013 by JJxvi

[JJxvi]

Anyhow, I never heard of any plans for a large scale mixed use development for the Trinity Steel site, even though it was potentially situated on the long term (and now really, really long term) plans for Metrorail expansion (hard to see a Yale orientation now anyway with the new access road and bridges)

Edited July 5, 2013 by JJxvi

[RedScare]

You seem to have left him speechless.

[samagon]

What if they had done mixed use here, except the Walmart would be the retail portion of mixed use?

That would still be bad right?

[TGM]

Update:

More man hours have been wasted to protest this thing than to actually build it.

[Ross]

What if they had done mixed use here, except the Walmart would be the retail portion of mixed use?

That would still be bad right?

 

Yes, because WalMart is inherently evil, and there is nothing that can change that other than total destruction of the company, with its stores demolished and the earth they sit on converted to mixed use development with "approved" retailers, chef driven restaurants that remain open regardless of economics, and cute little boutiques that will be subsidized to help them remain open, despite not carrying anything the general public wants to buy. Plus, senior management, their wives, children, grand children, and anyone they've ever spoken to, is to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, and their body parts strewn for the jackals to consume.

 

(for the humor impaired, this is sarcasm. No hipsters were harmed during its writing)

[RedScare]

Ross, you are wrong. Walmart has its place...in low income minority neighborhoods, apparently.

 

 

 

 

Oh, and isn't hanging AND drawing and quartering a bit of overkill, so to speak?

Edited July 5, 2013 by RedScare

[JJxvi]

Yeah would have been great if the city had spent 60 million more to make it mixed use and make sure it was in more of a transitional neighborhood, er, I mean more transitional than this one was.

[august948]

You either cannot name it because it does not exist or do not have the guts to name it because you are afraid of the collective laughter that will pummel you at the idea that the property could support a mixed use development.

Do you mean like the collective laughter that is pummeling you at the idea that the Walmart space would support a mixed use development?

[Ross]

 

Oh, and isn't hanging AND drawing and quartering a bit of overkill, so to speak?

 

No, because to do it properly, the victim isn't hanged until death, just until almost dead, thus prolonging the entire ordeal.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanged,_drawn_and_quartered

[samagon]

You either cannot name it because it does not exist or do not have the guts to name it because you are afraid of the collective laughter that will pummel you at the idea that the property could support a mixed use development.

Do you mean like the collective laughter that is pummeling you at the idea that the Walmart space would support a mixed use development?

I was thinking it would have been at least 8 stories, Walmart on the first floor, of course. The rest of it would work itself out from there.

[RedScare]

No, because to do it properly, the victim isn't hanged until death, just until almost dead, thus prolonging the entire ordeal.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanged,_drawn_and_quartered

 

Well, I stand corrected, then.

[august948]

I was thinking it would have been at least 8 stories, Walmart on the first floor, of course. The rest of it would work itself out from there.

As long as it has a Walmart, I'm all for it. But for the ultimate mixed use you'd have Walmart on the bottom, with a Sam's on the next level, Whole Foods on the third floor, Best Buy on the fourth, Office Max on fifth, self-storage on the sixth and seventh, and a food court on the eighth.

[s3mh]

Back in the early 2000's there were plans to redevelop the Eureka Yards into a large mixed use, and possibly transit oriented site, since its situated on right of way that METRO would like to use for both light rail and a possible commuter rail to the planned Burnet intermodal station. Some of the property on the south side has been sold for redevelopment, and townhome communities have been built that connect into cottage grove, but over 50 acres remain, plus the remaining portion on the south that has not been redeveloped closest to TC Jester and a piece of land adjacent on north line of the property that was platted for a subdivision called Stanley Park that connected out of Timbergrove, which never happened that is probably also about 10 acres or so. I think there is also many acres of vacant land on west side that could potentially connect to a Eureka Yard redevelopment also, but the main unsold portion is about 50 acres.

This isn't 2001. TS Allison put most of that property in the 100 year floodplain. The rail easement isn't going away and will certainly never be part of any light rail or commuter rail as long as Culberson or a like minded successor is in office. Road access to that tract is dismal. The T C Jester bridge makes it extremely difficult if not impossible to put in an intersection with adequate turn lanes to get people in and out of the hypothetical development. The I-10 feeder cuts off at Cottage Grove, making it impossible to have any meaningful street grid connectivity to the south. This property, if anything, just further brings home the point that the Walmart land was a huge lost opportunity.

[samagon]

This isn't 2001. TS Allison put most of that property in the 100 year floodplain. The rail easement isn't going away and will certainly never be part of any light rail or commuter rail as long as Culberson or a like minded successor is in office. Road access to that tract is dismal. The T C Jester bridge makes it extremely difficult if not impossible to put in an intersection with adequate turn lanes to get people in and out of the hypothetical development. The I-10 feeder cuts off at Cottage Grove, making it impossible to have any meaningful street grid connectivity to the south. This property, if anything, just further brings home the point that the Walmart land was a huge lost opportunity.

 

Up until your last sentence I could have SWORN you were describing the property that Walmart is currently on.

 

In other news, I needed soap and a tire pressure gauge so I went to Walmart. Sunday evening about 7:30.

 

Parking lot was decently full, lots of Audis and BMWs parked in there, I felt embarrassed to park my Subaru in the same lot, but I did it anyway instead of parking across the street in one of the other development's parking lot and risk being towed.

 

I was surprised also that traffic was so light considering the number of cars in the parking lot (and the number of people I had seen while inside), and I was also shocked that there weren't any pedestrians trying to cross under the freeway on Yale. No motorized wheelchairs either.

[s3mh]

Up until your last sentence I could have SWORN you were describing the property that Walmart is currently on.

 

In other news, I needed soap and a tire pressure gauge so I went to Walmart. Sunday evening about 7:30.

 

Parking lot was decently full, lots of Audis and BMWs parked in there, I felt embarrassed to park my Subaru in the same lot, but I did it anyway instead of parking across the street in one of the other development's parking lot and risk being towed.

 

I was surprised also that traffic was so light considering the number of cars in the parking lot (and the number of people I had seen while inside), and I was also shocked that there weren't any pedestrians trying to cross under the freeway on Yale. No motorized wheelchairs either.

 

Only a tiny finger of the NE corner of the Walmart property is in the 500 year flood plain.  The Yale St. Market is in the 100 year flood plain and a little bit in the flood way, but will only have parking on that part of the property.  None of the rest of the Walmart property is in the flood plain at all.   So, yeah.  Identical.  More than half of one property is in the 100 year flood plain and almost none of the other is in any flood plain at all. 

 

The Walmart property could have potentially had a street grid that could have connected N/S via Bonner (they did not even bother to up grade the rail crossing at Bonner) and had additional E/W grid out what is the main entrance for the development out West on Shuler and cut through to Heights to the East.  Koehler, whether Walmart or not should have been curbed and guttered all the way down to Shep to make that connection.  And there is already access to both the EB and WB I-10 feeder.  At the magic 50 acres, there isn't even a good place to put in a single turn lane to get people off of and back on to TC Jester.  Any attempt to connect with the I-10 feeder WB would just connect you to a dead end.

[Leonard]

I wonder how much Parker would have had to spend to make that 50 acres acceptable to Walmart?

 

In other news, stories about what people buy at Walmart and how crappy their cars are compared to the other Walmart shoppers's cars are SO interesting.  Please keep these kinds of stories coming, but with more detail - like the enthralling coffee stories of the past. 

 

What kind of soap?  How long have you been out of soap?  How did you feel when you used the last of the soap?  Have you washed anything with the soap yet?  What did you wash?  Did it get it clean?  When do you think you will have to buy soap again?  If you washed your car with the soap, would you feel less embarrassed? 

 

 

[august948]

I wonder how much Parker would have had to spend to make that 50 acres acceptable to Walmart?

 

It'd be zero since the current location is a much better place for a Walmart.

 

In other news, stories about what people buy at Walmart and how crappy their cars are compared to the other Walmart shoppers's cars are SO interesting.  Please keep these kinds of stories coming, but with more detail - like the enthralling coffee stories of the past. 

 

What kind of soap?  How long have you been out of soap?  How did you feel when you used the last of the soap?  Have you washed anything with the soap yet?  What did you wash?  Did it get it clean?  When do you think you will have to buy soap again?  If you washed your car with the soap, would you feel less embarrassed? 

 

I've got plenty of Walmart stories for you.  I'll tell some of them as long as you keep entertaining us with stories about fire hydrants and how much cooler HEB is.

Edited July 9, 2013 by august948

[RedScare]

Don't forget the caliper inches. Can't forget the caliper inches.

[crunchtastic]

I for one am growing increasingly upset by this constant harping on caliper inches.  Heights activists need to stop fat-shaming!!!!!!!

 

 

 

[TGM]

At the magic 50 acres, there isn't even a good place to put in a single turn lane to get people off of and back on to TC Jester. Any attempt to connect with the I-10 feeder WB would just connect you to a dead end.

The Magic 50 acres can be accessed from the various back roads off of old Hempstead Hwy, 11th st, etc. There is no looming crisis of accessibility to this area.

Hopefully they'll give them the mineral rights so they can tap the Eureka Heights field some day.