The Grid: Mixed-Use Development In Stafford

[texas911]

Is this why Houston can't hang on to its districts? I've been in Houston long enough that whenever a popular area gets mature, it loses its popularity? Richmond strip, lower Montrose, Westhiemer, Washington corridor. Does the city turn its head away instead of nurturing? Or is it that there's always a new area to develop since Houston is so large?

[Texasota]

Depends on what you mean. I'd argue Washington and Westheimer are continuing to mature. If you mean the club scene, then it's pretty universal that that's going to move around, especially in a city that's pretty unsettled and still developing.

[Amlaham]

 

I love Whataburger but I also love In-N-Out! Thought this video was pretty cool. 

[texas911]

Drove by the Stafford In n Our and its crazy! Wow!

[Triton]

1 hour ago, texas911 said:

Drove by the Stafford In n Our and its crazy! Wow!

Well it's only been blasted on every news outlet.

[ArtNsf]

On 9/15/2019 at 10:42 AM, Amlaham said:

 

I love Whataburger but I also love In-N-Out! Thought this video was pretty cool. 

I'm in the Whataburger NEVER "in-n-out" camp and damned proud of it.  but, hey, try for yourself and enjoy it if you like it.

[texas911]

Its just a burger, not a religion guys.

[Texasota]

True. It *is* just a burger. Their fries are too terrible to be acknowledged. 

[Luminare]

7 hours ago, texas911 said:

Its just a burger, not a religion guys.

 

Your right, I only follow the one true faith, and that's the sacred halls of the orange and white chapel, otherwise know as Whataburger, otherwise known as the Lord's Burger of Thy Holy Flesh bathed in the Lord's Red Spicy Blood of Greatness.

Edited November 27, 2019 by Luminare

[mkultra25]

3 hours ago, Luminare said:

 

Your right, I only follow the one true faith, and that's the sacred halls of the orange and white chapel, otherwise know as Whataburger, otherwise known as the Lord's Burger of Thy Holy Flesh bathed in the Lord's Red Spicy Blood of Greatness.

 

Clerical vestments, Old Testament:

 

Clerical vestments, New Testament:

 

I've gotta draw the line at the application of the Lord's Red Spicy Blood of Greatness to the Lord's Burger of Thy Holy Flesh, however, because everyone knows that ketchup on a burger is apostasy, pure and simple.

[ChannelTwoNews]

I stayed at the Homewood Suites across from this development over my last trip and was genuinely surprised by the seemingly unending line around the In-n-Out Burger. From just after opening (11A)  to about 30-45 minutes before close (1:30 AM), it was fairly consistent each day of the week - minus Christmas of course. One family staying at our place seemed to be super thrilled about having survived the wait one day and came in with close to a dozen bags of food from there, eager to eat it in the dining area of the hotel. 

 

To each their own, I suppose. I'd tried it once at their location in Irving at Las Colinas and was unimpressed.

 

Their suppliers are definitely on it though. I went out one night maybe around 2 AM for a Whataburger/Shipley's run (don't judge me!), and right behind the restaurant was an 18-wheeler already unloading stuff for the next day.

 

I should be back in the area in June. I'm curious to see how much the hype may have faded by that point.

Edited January 7, 2020 by ChannelTwoNews

[asubrt]

4 minutes ago, ChannelTwoNews said:

To each their own, I suppose. I'd tried it once at their location in Irving at Las Colinas and was unimpressed.

 

Weirdly enough, that's also the only location I've ever tried. I was similarly disappointed, but I have a feeling it's not just that store. Those fries 🤮

[Avossos]

11 hours ago, ChannelTwoNews said:

I stayed at the Homewood Suites across from this development over my last trip and was genuinely surprised by the seemingly unending line around the In-n-Out Burger. From just after opening (11A)  to about 30-45 minutes before close (1:30 AM), it was fairly consistent each day of the week - minus Christmas of course. One family staying at our place seemed to be super thrilled about having survived the wait one day and came in with close to a dozen bags of food from there, eager to eat it in the dining area of the hotel. 

 

To each their own, I suppose. I'd tried it once at their location in Irving at Las Colinas and was unimpressed.

 

Their suppliers are definitely on it though. I went out one night maybe around 2 AM for a Whataburger/Shipley's run (don't judge me!), and right behind the restaurant was an 18-wheeler already unloading stuff for the next day.

 

I should be back in the area in June. I'm curious to see how much the hype may have faded by that point.

 

11 hours ago, asubrt said:

 

Weirdly enough, that's also the only location I've ever tried. I was similarly disappointed, but I have a feeling it's not just that store. Those fries 🤮

 

I have tried that one too! those fries are awful.

 

I did try one closer to SMU and the burgers were a bit better. Moral of the story... don't go to the Irving one. hah!

[zaphod]

Google Maps/Earth has updated their imagery for this area to December 1st, 2019 and so the new streets and the first phase of apartments being built is now visible.

[Luminare]

So on my day off I've decided to go checkout places which we haven't been too in awhile or don't really touch in our regular updates. Took a bunch of pics which I'll post later. If I were to do a one word review of this site in the year 2020, all can say is...disappointing.

[august948]

5 hours ago, Luminare said:

So on my day off I've decided to go checkout places which we haven't been too in awhile or don't really touch in our regular updates. Took a bunch of pics which I'll post later. If I were to do a one word review of this site in the year 2020, all can say is...disappointing.

 

How was the line at in-n-out?

[zaphod]

6 hours ago, Luminare said:

So on my day off I've decided to go checkout places which we haven't been too in awhile or don't really touch in our regular updates. Took a bunch of pics which I'll post later. If I were to do a one word review of this site in the year 2020, all can say is...disappointing.

 

To be fair, they really only just started. What's visible in the aerial images is the internal streets. So whatever happens there, even if its not like renderings, it will at least be kind of like some new town center area based on the way its laid out.

[Luminare]

Decided to take a look to see what this area is like in 2020. Went here and Redemption Square at Generation Park just to see the two approaches in this early stage. While its still too early to tell which of these will be successful in the long run, it was interesting to see both initial approaches to development. While Redemption Square at Generation Park left me impressed and hopeful for the future, The Grids initial approach left me wanting and disappointed. I'm genuinely shocked that they have this amazing post-industrial building just sitting their which can make this place an interesting destination and instead they decided to start with cheap retail pavilions with Chipoltle, Pluckers, etc... Like what? This place actually has a huge initial advantage over Redemption Square, and instead of pursuing the best parts of their plan first to distinguish themselves they have decided to focus on the lowest common denominators which will make them the same as everything around it. Oh wait...I'm sorry, I forgot they have an In-and-Out Burger, yeah ok...whatever.

 

The post-industrial object that has enormous potential, that they have decided to do nothing with yet:

 

 

 

Look at the structure of this! Are you kidding me? This was a  hidden gem. I'm definitely coming back to do some actual photography of this building:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The apartments that they have built, and the next phase. Nothing special. You can find apartments like these anywhere:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Streets...Look at our big plans for this site everyone! Yeah I'm sure you do:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now get excited everyone, here is what we have thus far...

 

 

 

 

 

And the Cherry on Top:

 

 

 

 

When your biggest get is a gimmick like an In-and-Out Burger, along with an ensemble of the usual suburban suspects...I get worried. Fine its "phase 1". Your phase 1 is crap. You can find these things anywhere in Houston. Congrats you are just like everyone else The Grid. You have this beautiful found post-industrial object, but instead you go for the easy bacon. Right now it just feels like this is a development that is trying to get rich quick, instead of creating an actual place. I really hope that I am wrong. Please build something worthy of this site, but you believe that first impressions are everything, then this is one lame first impression. Right now out of the two, Redemption Square at Generation Park knows what it is, and is sticking with their mission, while The Grid lost the plot along the way. If you want to see my initial reactions to Generation Park then check out that thread.

[thatguysly]

Wow that post-industrial building is amazing. Save it for the beautiful support structure alone. It looks like it is being worked on and could turn out nice. The renderings had me thinking this place looked a lot different then it does but maybe it'll be closer to that in 3-5 years.

[Luminare]

4 minutes ago, thatguysly said:

Wow that post-industrial building is amazing. Save it for the beautiful support structure alone. It looks like it is being worked on and could turn out nice. The renderings had me thinking this place looked a lot different then it does but maybe it'll be closer to that in 3-5 years.

 

Unfortunately its not being worked on. It just has a fence around it, and actually its not really done well either. Lets just say if I really wanted to do some urban exploring inside, I definitely could and nobody would be the wiser. No equipment on site, no sounds of work going on, and no people walking around. Its just sitting there.

[thatguysly]

1 hour ago, Luminare said:

 

Unfortunately its not being worked on. It just has a fence around it, and actually its not really done well either. Lets just say if I really wanted to do some urban exploring inside, I definitely could and nobody would be the wiser. No equipment on site, no sounds of work going on, and no people walking around. Its just sitting there.

 

That is a shame. Glad you took these pics. I had an idea in my head what this development looked like and it was way off. I was somewhat interested in checking it out but will hold off for now.

[BigFootsSocks]

Glass half full viewpoint; you almost had an Outlet mall here like the ones off 290/99 and 45 South by the Buc-cee’s. Thank the Rosenburg outlet for that (which, funny enough, also failed)

[dml423]

Wow, pretty harsh Luminare. Yes it's only phase 1 so far, but this has helped bring a little bit of notoriety to the small and often overlooked city of Stafford. The restaurants are usually packed. They are currently doing some more work on some parts closer to the 59 feeder road for some new buildings. It's not the urban development we all on this site want, but a nice addition to the city of Stafford and the other phases were always the parts that were supposed to be more urban, not this phase.

 

I've also heard rumors that Torchy's is considering putting in a shop here in one of the other phases (yes in addition to the one already in Sugarland by the Whole Foods).

 

Buddy of mine is a landscape architect for this project and mentioned that they have not been able to garner the demand they were hoping for the office aspect of this project and that is why the building hasn't been worked on yet. They are trying to see if they need to change their plans on how to renovate the building.

 

 

[Texasota]

"restaurants"

[cspwal]

I biked there a few weeks ago from downtown (by the time I got down there I couldn't even think of photography, so sadly no photos) but there's so much interesting industrial equipment and structures visible from the streets.  I understand the current places just being stock pad restaurants, but I hope the next phase can incorporate all the gantry, arches, etc that litter the whole area.

 

On a plus side, the streets are wide and low traffic, so I was comfortably able to bike in them.

 

[august948]

3 hours ago, cspwal said:

I biked there a few weeks ago from downtown (by the time I got down there I couldn't even think of photography, so sadly no photos) but there's so much interesting industrial equipment and structures visible from the streets.  I understand the current places just being stock pad restaurants, but I hope the next phase can incorporate all the gantry, arches, etc that litter the whole area.

 

On a plus side, the streets are wide and low traffic, so I was comfortably able to bike in them.

 

 

What route did you take?

[kdog08]

I grew up in this area, closer to Houston than Sugar Land. I think this is great for the area as I don't see a  City Centre like project developing.

[cspwal]

On 2/21/2020 at 5:31 PM, august948 said:

 

What route did you take?

Bray's bayou trail all the way to Keegan bayou, then Keegan bayou trail up until it ends at Kirkwood, then Kirkwood to In-n-Out.

After my burger I rode around the empty streets north of the restaurants and looked at the structures.  Ended up giving up and taking the bus back into town

[august948]

19 hours ago, cspwal said:

Bray's bayou trail all the way to Keegan bayou, then Keegan bayou trail up until it ends at Kirkwood, then Kirkwood to In-n-Out.

After my burger I rode around the empty streets north of the restaurants and looked at the structures.  Ended up giving up and taking the bus back into town

 

You know your bike trails are getting awesome when you can go so far that you either have to get a ride back or find a hotel.

[HoustonIsHome]

I have never had in n out in Texas but the ones I have had in California is not very impressed with. And the overhype doesn't help.

 

I don't think Whataburger is anything to shout about either but I do think it is a step above in n out. I think if you grow up with these there might be some nostalgia around them but neither are things I would que up for any extended period of time for. The best Burger I have had was at a place called City Diner near a Laquinta in Metaire off the Causeway. Absolutely delicious.

 

Idk. These types of developments don't excite me much. Doesn't add much to the city like an awesome tower filling in a gap in our skyline or increasing the street pedestrian realm of an up and coming area or adding critical mass to one of our urban pockets.