swtsig Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 1 hour ago, Triton said: Hmmmm... Haven't we been hearing something about the parking lots across 59? One lot is gone to the new expansion. I know it sucks but maybe this parking garage actually makes sense. parking garage here absolutely makes sense - a lot of astros lots will be meeting their maker soon, especially when the 59 construction begins. i would think a garage isn't simply a luxury for them at this point but an absolute necessity, especially one on the main thoroughfare leading to the ballpark. curious if this is one of the lots crane owns around MMP or as someone else mentioned if they're ground leasing this. although i'd certainly wish we'd start paying more attention to the aesthetic of these structures. they may be a necessary evil but that doesn't mean we shouldn't attempt to make them an interesting part of the streetscape. like why not continue the red brick motif to create a stronger sense of place? it's amazing to me that the developers in this city willingly ignore obvious details like this so routinely. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nole23 Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 Can that please be a retail spot on the ground floor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmitch94 Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 20 hours ago, swtsig said: although i'd certainly wish we'd start paying more attention to the aesthetic of these structures. they may be a necessary evil but that doesn't mean we shouldn't attempt to make them an interesting part of the streetscape. like why not continue the red brick motif to create a stronger sense of place? it's amazing to me that the developers in this city willingly ignore obvious details like this so routinely. Oh I'm sure they notice then they notice how much they can save by not using a nice facade. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swtsig Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 1 hour ago, jmitch94 said: Oh I'm sure they notice then they notice how much they can save by not using a nice facade. the price differential to add brick facade, at least just to the Texas Ave facing side and around both southern corners would not be significant. i'm certainly not opposed to being pragmatic about costs but these types of missed opportunities are really inexplicable in situations like this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 I am going to hold out hope that this is an interim use until freeway construction is finished and downtown residential market improves. 10 year ground lease to Astros, then tear down and build a high rise. That is my hope. The typical cheerful throng of pedestrians along Texas Avenue on game day is going to have a lot of cars pushing through them as they enter and exit the garage. There is a reason why the big boy cities do not allow curb cuts on nice pedestrian streets. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luminare Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 More attention was paid to the visuals of the cars flying by on Texas Ave. than the actual design of this garage. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KinkaidAlum Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 Two steps forward... getting run over by someone exiting an ugly garage to speed back to the burbs. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vy65 Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparrow Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 If building a garage on one property means getting rid of a parking lot or two on others, I can get behind it. Frankly, I almost wish the next Downtown initiative would be just that--build about a dozen large parking garages Downtown to reduce the "it's too expensive to park Downtown" barrier. If the empty lots keep making heaps of money by being a surface parking lot, where's the incentive to improve the land? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texasota Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 (edited) The last thing downtown needs is more parking garages. For one thing, there is still a subset of suburbanites who will look for surface parking first, and only consider a parking garage if they have no other choice. Surface lots will always make money. There are ways to discourage hanging on to surface lots (beyond just market forces), but they'd have to come from the city. And even then, some people are just stubborn and don't like change. As long as their nasty surface lot is making money, they'll keep sitting on it until they die. Edited December 6, 2018 by Texasota 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angostura Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 It seems irrational that a lot of buildings get demo'd and replaced with surface lots while waiting to construct something new. Sometimes for several years. Usually if a seemlingly irrational thing happens frequently, it's probably to do with taxation or regulation. (One of) the reason(s) you see buildings get knocked down and replaced with surface lots is that the property tax on a vacant building is a lot higher than the property tax on a surface parking lot. There are ways to deal with this kind of under-development. One is to use a land-value tax rather than a tax based on the land plus improvements. That way, every square foot of land is taxed at the same rate, independent of what's built on it, which incentives land owners to develop to the highest and best use. Another way would be a special assessment on any land area dedicated to parking, exempted if it's structured parking with non-parking uses fronting the sidewalk. Something like $5/sf/year would make structured parking economically attractive compared to surface parking. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted December 8, 2018 Share Posted December 8, 2018 On 12/5/2018 at 6:47 PM, KinkaidAlum said: Two steps forward... getting run over by someone exiting an ugly garage to speed back to the burbs. Are you saying that people from the suburbs shouldn't go to Astros games? 13 hours ago, Angostura said: It seems irrational that a lot of buildings get demo'd and replaced with surface lots while waiting to construct something new. Sometimes for several years. Usually if a seemlingly irrational thing happens frequently, it's probably to do with taxation or regulation. (One of) the reason(s) you see buildings get knocked down and replaced with surface lots is that the property tax on a vacant building is a lot higher than the property tax on a surface parking lot. There are ways to deal with this kind of under-development. One is to use a land-value tax rather than a tax based on the land plus improvements. That way, every square foot of land is taxed at the same rate, independent of what's built on it, which incentives land owners to develop to the highest and best use. Another way would be a special assessment on any land area dedicated to parking, exempted if it's structured parking with non-parking uses fronting the sidewalk. Something like $5/sf/year would make structured parking economically attractive compared to surface parking. If you have a building that requires significant improvements to make it rentable, then demolition and use as a parking lot makes sense. The types of buildings that get demolished are usually a fraction of the value of the entire property. Everyone's recent favorite, 1621 Milam, for example, has a lot value of $16 million, and the building was valued at $1.4 million. Demolition didn't reduce the taxable value by much, but does make revenue from parking possible, and without the headache of a short term lease that requires a bunch of renovation to make possible. I don't think the City can create special assessments under the current laws, nor can they impose special assessments based on usage. I could be wrong, since I haven't dug through the relevant statutes lately. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Urbannizer Posted June 14, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted June 14, 2022 https://mcshouston.com/ 27 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted June 14, 2022 Share Posted June 14, 2022 10 minutes ago, Urbannizer said: https://mcshouston.com/ Interesting. The parcel changed hands last October - now owned by Neway Hospitality. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted June 14, 2022 Share Posted June 14, 2022 1 hour ago, Urbannizer said: https://mcshouston.com/ This is wonderful! I just walked by this parking lot the other day and was hoping a hotel would fill it before long. I think American Liberty Hospitality had some stake in this lot a few years ago when the old warehouse was torn down, something like a ROFR to purchase, but this is better than their designs (though not by much). I guess we are going to lose the trees along that stretch of Texas, but maybe they just didn't put them in the rendering? Not likely, but maybe? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSirDingle Posted June 14, 2022 Share Posted June 14, 2022 Nice infill for that part of downtown, having another hotel/apartment in that area should help bolster an already decent size pocket of hospitality/residential buildings. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate99 Posted June 16, 2022 Share Posted June 16, 2022 Nice. This would "complete" Texas Ave/St from the new Jones Plaza/Wyatt Square to the ballpark, unless you count the parking lot that used to have the B.U.S. bar as a net minus. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted June 16, 2022 Share Posted June 16, 2022 I sure hope they've got their construction loan rate locked in or this just got a lot harder to finance. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post hindesky Posted September 2, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted September 2, 2022 Architect - https://mcshouston.com 14 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DotCom Posted September 6, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted September 6, 2022 Civ -Brooks & Sparks Struct - SCA MEP - CFI Companies PM - Mathis Group GC - EE Reed 10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post hindesky Posted October 4, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted October 4, 2022 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhjones74 Posted October 22, 2022 Share Posted October 22, 2022 Saw this posted at the property when walking by today. Alpha Hotel Management/Neway Hospitality are the guys behind the adaptive reuse of the Stowers Furniture building into the Aloft downtown back in 2016, only 5 blocks from this lot. They sold the Aloft to MCR earlier this year. Excited to see this get off the ground in 2023. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Downtown-Aloft-hotel-trades-hands-16830373.php#photo-21987651 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hindesky Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 Looks like it will have a convenience store in it. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyt36 Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 1 hour ago, hindesky said: Looks like it will have a convenience store in it. Great addition, esp if it is more of the Royal Blue variety than the Fannin Corner Store. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 4 hours ago, hindesky said: Looks like it will have a convenience store in it. Ooh! I've been looking for a place to get quality none others downtown! 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jhjones74 Posted February 11, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted February 11, 2023 So it begins.. this is the lot at 502 Austin St, adjacent to 1319 Texas Ave, but I have to believe this work is related 9 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hindesky Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 I stopped to talk with the workers who said they were repaving the parking lot for the building next to it which is owned by Harris County and is the Domestic Relations office. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
004n063 Posted February 11, 2023 Share Posted February 11, 2023 (edited) 35 minutes ago, hindesky said: they were repaving the parking lot for the building next to it Edited February 11, 2023 by 004n063 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhjones74 Posted February 18, 2023 Share Posted February 18, 2023 On 2/11/2023 at 2:20 PM, hindesky said: I stopped to talk with the workers who said they were repaving the parking lot for the building next to it which is owned by Harris County and is the Domestic Relations office. Yeah this was a major bummer, love to see Harris county spending taxpayer money to replace a surface lot.. with another surface lot. In all seriousness though, the pictures you sent got me interested in that building Harris County occupies, the Anderson Clayton Building. I couldn't find any real info on here, but I'm curious of what the details of this building are. It's clear it was the headquarters of Anderson Clayton and Co., who were at one time the largest cotton traders in the world. Though the building has two entirely different facades when looking from Caroline St or Austin St. Does anybody know if this is how it was originally built? Or is there some separate reason the building is this way? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted February 18, 2023 Share Posted February 18, 2023 37 minutes ago, jhjones74 said: Yeah this was a major bummer, love to see Harris county spending taxpayer money to replace a surface lot.. with another surface lot. In all seriousness though, the pictures you sent got me interested in that building Harris County occupies, the Anderson Clayton Building. I couldn't find any real info on here, but I'm curious of what the details of this building are. It's clear it was the headquarters of Anderson Clayton and Co., who were at one time the largest cotton traders in the world. Though the building has two entirely different facades when looking from Caroline St or Austin St. Does anybody know if this is how it was originally built? Or is there some separate reason the building is this way? A few details here https://www.harriscountyarchives.com/Portals/1/Documents/Manuscript/FA-Houston Cotton Exchange MC005.pdf https://texashistoricalmarkers.weebly.com/anderson-clayton--co.html 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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