Walmart Supercenter At 111 Yale St.

[RedScare]

Yeah, looks plenty accessible to me. Just another overreaction by our favorite overreactor.

[TGM]

Time for a new cause for the over-reactors. There is a tower project in the Museum-Binz area that needs a' stopping.

Even better: They already have cool protest posters featuring the required building with arms and thick eyebrows.

[august948]

Time for a new cause for the over-reactors. There is a tower project in the Museum-Binz area that needs a' stopping.

Even better: They already have cool protest posters featuring the required building with arms and thick eyebrows.

Hahaha...in the very first sentence of the overview on the stop parc binz website they state it's a 6 story building. Who defines a 6 story building as a "Hi-Rise"? One block away there is a large 4 story apartment complex. On google maps you can clearly see The Parklane looming nearby. I don't see any burly arms or bushy eyebrows on it. Edited July 9, 2013 by august948

[Leonard]

maybe the fire dept? 

[s3mh]

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.

image.jpg

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

 

Except that isn't the magic 50 acres.  That is a different tract (two tracts, one is @4-5 acres and looks to already be divided for townhome development, the other @20-21 acres).  And even if it was, I do not think you will find many investors willing to put up the big money for a development that is only accessible through "back roads" through heavily industrial area of town.  The traffic counts developers want to see aren't going to include trains and 18 wheelers.  These tracts have no potential for mixed use development.  They will either be another townhome farm or apartment complex.  That far west towards 610 is still too industrial and does not have anywhere near the kind of residential and retail development that surrounds the Walmart tract.

 

The magic 50 acres is this property: 0440820000565 (HCAD account no.).  The only access to 11th is through a little Timbergrove subdivision.  I already pointed out the futility of trying to construct a street grid to the south.   There is simply no good way to get access to the west.  It is pretty much land locked on the western side of the tract.  Access to T C Jester is extremely difficult because the bridge goes right over the property.  You would have to widen TC jester to get a turn lane in both directions.  It would really be the only good entrance to the development and would be jammed with traffic. 

[JJxvi]

Regardless of the feasibility in your mind, the fact is that there has been talk of a large development at this location in the past 10 years similar to the possibilities at the Hardy Yards redevelopment. I myself have some of the same misgivings and do know the area having lived within a stones throw of it from within Timbergrove, but that doesn't change the fact that such things were talked about, unlike the Trinity Steel site about which I never heard any talks of anything but a retail center.

Edited July 9, 2013 by JJxvi

[samagon]

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? 

 

Glad you asked.

 

Standard soap, nothing special, ivory I think, something unscented that gets the body clean, honestly, I don't look at the name, just surf the soap isle for unscented and cheap.

 

I wasn't out of soap, just down to 1 bar left in the stockpile, I buy the family pack for maximum payload.

 

I haven't used the last of the soap yet, but I felt worried when I grabbed a fresh bar and there was just one bar remaining in the closet, I imagine if I hadn't restocked my supply, I'd convince myself that using dishwashing detergent wasn't as much of a horrible idea as it really sounds like it is.

 

Once I finish the last bar of the old supply, I'll break out this new supply, so no, it is unopened.

 

NA.

 

NA.

 

I'll buy more soap when I'm down to one bar left in the stockpile I currently have. 

 

I'd feel more embarrassed if I used body soap on my car, the formulation of soap they use in soap formulated for cars is designed to remove dirt without removing or damaging the clearcoat. It's very likely that after repeated use, the clearcoat would begin to peel and would damage the paint on the car horribly.

 

It's important to note there are very few places inside the loop one can purchase body soap and a tire pressure gauge in one stop, Target being one, and this Walmart being the other. As ingress and egress from the Target parking lot is horrible, and they never have enough cash registers open at Target, I prefer Walmart for my one stop shopping location.

Edited July 9, 2013 by samagon

[TGM]

And even if it was, I do not think you will find many investors willing to put up the big money for a development that is only accessible through "back roads" through heavily industrial area of town. The traffic counts developers want to see aren't going to include trains and 18 wheelers. These tracts have no potential for mixed use development. They will either be another townhome farm or apartment complex. That far west towards 610 is still too industrial and does not have anywhere near the kind of residential and retail development that surrounds the Walmart tract.

Apparently the developers and residents did not get your memo in time before they developed and purchased the homes in Timbergrove Point. Back roads, too industrial, 18 wheelers, etc are all present in the area surrounding this development. Also worth noting is that the Silber Walmart is only minutes away...

[Leonard]

wait -  what - you mean you can get to the silber walmart from inside the loop???????  umpossible. 

[s3mh]

Regardless of the feasibility in your mind, the fact is that there has been talk of a large development at this location in the past 10 years similar to the possibilities at the Hardy Yards redevelopment. I myself have some of the same misgivings and do know the area having lived within a stones throw of it from within Timbergrove, but that doesn't change the fact that such things were talked about, unlike the Trinity Steel site about which I never heard any talks of anything but a retail center.

 

Just because you didn't hear it doesn't mean it didn't happen.  It is in the public record with the early submissions to the City.  And just because some clowns talk up crazy development ideas does not mean that the ideas are feasible or that the land is appropriate.  There is no reasonable argument that the magic 50 acres could be developed into a mixed use development in the current commercial environment and absent some sort of crazy Dubai-esque growth inside the loop.  Thus, the Walmart acreage still stands as a huge opportunity lost with no comparable parcel available inside the loop that can serve both the Greater Heights and Upper Kirby area.

[s3mh]

Apparently the developers and residents did not get your memo in time before they developed and purchased the homes in Timbergrove Point. Back roads, too industrial, 18 wheelers, etc are all present in the area surrounding this development. Also worth noting is that the Silber Walmart is only minutes away...

image.jpg

 

And that is why I said that the property will end up being a town home farm and not a large mixed use project.  Apparently you did not read my post at all.

[JJxvi]

I am kinda confuzzled now about whether the problem with the Trinity Steel parcel was that access was too poor for a WalMart or too good for a WalMart.

[Leonard]

The problem with the Trinity Steel site was Parker gave the developer $6M to build something they said they would build anyway.  And she and her administration lied and lied about it.   And the promised infrastructure is super crappy.  The question is WHY? 

[livincinco]

Let's see...what's happening in Houston right now...

 

Residential and office developments popping up all over town. 

Downtown is starting to boom including several new skyscrapers.

Three light rail lines under construction.

Several parks under renovation

 

Forget all that boring stuff...LET'S TALK ABOUT WALMART!

[s3mh]

I am kinda confuzzled now about whether the problem with the Trinity Steel parcel was that access was too poor for a WalMart or too good for a WalMart.

 

Different issues.  The 50 acres does not have the opportunity to create an interconnected street grid with the rest of the neighborhood.  It would be a big blob with only one point in and out.  It would not integrate at all with the surrounding neighborhood.  The Walmart site could have been divided up into several blocks, creating a street grid that would integrate well with the existing neighborhood.  Instead, the west side of the development is a brick wall.  Bonner does not even cross the RR tracks and nothing was done to improve Koehler to provide any connectivity to the west. 

 

And then there is simply the issue of location.  Developers want big traffic counts and proximity to a thriving trade area.  The 50 acres is next to a very industrial area that is very, very slowly being redeveloped.  The Walmart tract is right off of a major highway and between to thriving trade areas (Heights/Upper Kirby).   

[s3mh]

Let's see...what's happening in Houston right now...

 

Residential and office developments popping up all over town. 

Downtown is starting to boom including several new skyscrapers.

Three light rail lines under construction.

Several parks under renovation

 

Forget all that boring stuff...LET'S TALK ABOUT WALMART!

 

This is a very relevant and timely debate about development inside the loop and lessons learned or ignored by the Walmart.  Costco is asking for a 2.5 mil 380 agreement to build outside the city limits.  The lessons of the Walmart 380 are very much in play and worthy of discussion.  The inner loop multifamily boom raises the issue of whether the Walmart was a lost opportunity to build mixed use inside the loop given the dwindling amount of land available.  And then there is the fact that it is a free country and no one made you read this thread.

[RedScare]

I didn't realize that Walmart built on the last available parcel for multifamily. That changes everything!!!

[TGM]

And that is why I said that the property will end up being a town home farm and not a large mixed use project. Apparently you did not read my post at all.

Read but ignored. Mixed use is a joke in a city that has the land and space not to offer compromises in retail and residential spaces. Mixed use is fine when you're stacked like rats, because it's the only option.

When I see it here I either think, "awe, an architect got someone to believe his charrette of how people will use it" or "wow, a developer used a token ground-floor retail space to negotiate for what he was really after." Either way you have a jack of all trades, master of none compromise, built on an east-coast "we're out of space" city model.

Edited July 9, 2013 by TGM

[livincinco]

This is a very relevant and timely debate about development inside the loop and lessons learned or ignored by the Walmart.  Costco is asking for a 2.5 mil 380 agreement to build outside the city limits.  The lessons of the Walmart 380 are very much in play and worthy of discussion.  The inner loop multifamily boom raises the issue of whether the Walmart was a lost opportunity to build mixed use inside the loop given the dwindling amount of land available.  And then there is the fact that it is a free country and no one made you read this thread.

 

This is a 3200+ post obsession with how 50 acres inside one of the least dense cities in the country was utilized.  You are absolutely correct that it's a free country and I retain the right to make fun of the fact that this discussion continues when the thread should have died a year ago.

[TGM]

YAWN!!! Can we just let this thing die already?

It died the day Walmart opened, but the RUDH folks bit it, re-animated it with the bridge argument, and now it walks around in a zombie stupor muttering "brains, 380, and Ainbinder."

[TGM]

Reprint from Hotair

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/07/09/sigh-d-c-council-poised-to-chase-off-900-jobs-because-they-dont-like-wal-mart-so-there/

Sigh: D.C. Council poised to chase off 900 jobs because they don’t like Wal-Mart, so there

POSTED AT 10:01 PM ON JULY 9, 2013 BY MARY KATHARINE HAM

A couple lessons, here. First, businesses are not obligated to open in your city or your neighborhood, particularly when you incentivize them to locate elsewhere. Washington, D.C. is particularly susceptible to losing potential jobs (particularly in entry-level and working class retail positions, as opposed to lobbyist slots) to nearby jurisdictions because it doesn’t take much to simply cross the bridge to friendlier climes in, say, Virginia.

Second, as Sonny Bunch reminds us of a lesson from Econ 101, hiking the minimum wage kills jobs.

Here’s the haps. In Washington, Wal-Mart, the city council, the grocery store unions, and a thousand Wal-Mart hating community groups have been engaged in a delicate, dumb dance for years over whether the giant retailer should be allowed within the hallowed precincts of the District of Columbia. Other big box stores are allowed— Best Buy, Target, and Home Depot for example—but the mother of all box stores has been picketed and pushed and generally trashed throughout its attempts to set down some retail roots. The parties seemed to be coming to an agreement on three stores inside the District, predicted to bring 900 full and part-time jobs and some fresh grocery options to those so-called “food deserts” you hear about.

But the agreement might fall apart over a “living wage” bill, which requires a segment of retailers that sounds suspiciously like “retailers that are Wal-Mart” to pay far and above D.C.’s $8.25 minimum wage:

Representatives from Wal-Mart say the company will no longer build its planned stores at Skyland Town Center and Capitol Gateway, retail sites in Ward 7. “They’re not bluffing me,” Councilmember Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) says, having just left a meeting with the world’s largest retailer. “We worked for many years to get this commitment. I really didn’t think it would get to this point.”

The Large Retailer Accountability Act requires companies that take in at least $1 billion in revenue annually to pay their employees at least $12.50 an hour, well above the District’s minimum wage of $8.25. The bill also only applies to stores that are at least 75,000 square feet, thus exempting companies like Apple and Starbucks.

Isn’t the carve-out for liberal-approved billion-dollar retailers precious? Wal-Mart’s announcement is enough to make some reconsider and see the big picture:

In addition to the two Ward 7 stores, Alexander’s chief of staff, Ed Fisher, also says Wal-Mart’s move imperils a store planned for New York Avenue and Bladensburg Road NE. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (D-Ward 5), who represents that area, was one of eight “yes” votes on the bill’s first reading.

“That was without knowing Wal-Mart was going to pull out,” says Jeannette Mobley, McDuffie’s chief of staff. Mobley says her boss is “going to give this some thought” before tomorrow’s Council session.

Fisher says each planned Walmart was going to have at least 300 full- and part-time employees, as well as enhance food shopping options in Ward 7, where there are only four full-service supermarkets. “We’re going to have fewer options for groceries and commercial retail,” Fisher says. “At least 900 people won’t have an opportuntiy whether it’s full-time or part-time. Whether it’s a student in high school or a senior or a job someone can use as a stepping stone.”

As Bunch puts it: “So instead of decreasing the unemployment rate in blighted Washington, D.C., neighborhoods, there will be no jobs. Good job, guys! You really nailed this whole ‘governance’ thing.”

The argument from the left is a petulant cry of, “Hey, the Waltons are real rich and they can’t afford to pay $12.50 an hour?!” Again, they’re not obligated to bring their stores to your city when you’re actively trying to make it harder for them to do business there, especially when they have other options nearby. In the same way, gun accessory manufacturers are not obligated to stay in your state when you’re banning their products. In the same way, smart, talented people are not obligated to be doctors when the cost of becoming a doctor and maintaining malpractice insurance isn’t worth the financial rewards of being a doctor. Incentives matter, and free people respond to them.

Oh, and if the D.C. Council does end up blocking Wal-Mart in the city, it’ll be great fun to watch them all later endorse former Wal-Mart board of directors member Hillary Clinton.

(For the record, though I’m defending Wal-Mart here, I’m not always down with the ways the company colludes with government to get into certain communities, via eminent domain, for instance.)

- end

Edited July 10, 2013 by TGM

[RedScare]

Not only that, but Walmart's presence in s3mh's idyllic Skyland Town Center is only occurring due to overt threat's to block permits for the 4 Walmart's that the company actually wishes to build.

 

 

“They’re interested in developing four stores,” the mayor said in an interview Tuesday. “All of us said, ‘What about a fifth store?’ They hemmed and hawed, and it ultimately came down to — you have a choice. You can do five stores or you can do no stores.”

Wal-Mart does not require major zoning changes or subsidies to open any of its first four stores, but two are on publicly owned land, giving the city a measure of control. Gray indicated he would be willing to go so far as to nix the company’s requests for building permits on privately owned sites, even for neighborhoods where residents favored Wal-Mart’s opening.

“We had five council members and the mayor and the deputy mayor sitting in the room at the meeting....so it was a pretty compelling argument. They have to get building permits, don’t they?” he said.

 

 

http://dcist.com/2011/05/gray_to_walmart_build_five_stores_o.php

 

Recall that s3mh railed against Mayor Parker for pushing through a 380 agreement that supposedly nobody wanted. Well, compare that with DC's threat to deny otherwise valid permits to Walmart if they do not build a store where the mayor wants them to. I am not at all surprised that s3mh trumpets this as "good governance".

[Leonard]

 “We’re going to have fewer options for groceries and commercial retail,” Fisher says. “At least 900 people won’t have an opportuntiy whether it’s full-time or part-time. Whether it’s a student in high school or a senior or a job someone can use as a stepping stone.”

 

Even this Fisher doesn't view these jobs as real jobs for people who are actually supporting themselves and their families.  Walmart jobs are suited for people who live with their parents or are collecting social security. 

 

i've read that a single Walmart costs taxbayers about $900K in welfare benefits because the jobs are so low paying. 

 

And I don't get what this has to do with s3mh or our 380 here, except to ask the question again - why did Parker give Ainbinder $6M?

[RedScare]

Of course you don't get it. I expect nothing more of you.

[Leonard]

I guess I missed s3mh trumpeting this as good governance. 

[RedScare]

I guess I missed s3mh trumpeting this as good governance. 

 

This is not surprising. s3mh contradicts himself every few pages. Sometimes he does so in the same post. But, scroll back about 4 to 5 pages, and you'll see him bragging about how great the city government in Washington DC is for putting a Walmart in their crappy poor neighborhoods.

[TGM]

“......Whether it’s a student in high school or a senior or a job someone can use as a stepping stone.”

Even this Fisher doesn't view these jobs as real jobs for people who are actually supporting themselves and their families. Walmart jobs are suited for people who live with their parents or are collecting social security.

The jobs are real, the expectations of the anti-Walmart loons are not.

You act as if they are not told what their hourly rate will be prior to accepting the job offer.

How does one know how much they need to live, apply for a job that does not meet the requirement, then complain that they do not get paid enough?

[RedScare]

Leonard, why should Walmart pay $12.50 an hour, but Apple should only pay $8.25 (or even less in Houston)? Is it because you like Apple, but not Walmart? For that matter, why should Walmart pay $12.50 but not Target?

[Leonard]

Gosh TGM, maybe because you have to take the jobs that are available.  I don't know.  I don't know why any one would complain about anything, given your logic.  That's the way it is, so just shut up.  Your City government is making dirty deals with developers, what did you expect?  You knew politicians were dirty when you moved here.  Keep your head down and shut up.  People are going to make statements you disagree with on idiotic forums, there is nothing you can do about it so quit complaining. 

I have very little interest in what DC is doing.  Why don't you move there? 

[Leonard]

So who is for giving Costco money to build something they would build anyway too?  You might guess I'm against it.