Former Copa Cabana Club At 306 Milby St.

[ljchou]

Copa Cabana Club for sale 280k. Could make an interesting corridor of Milby + Harrisburg if a commercial group scoops this land up.

 

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/306-Milby-St_Houston_TX_77003_M90677-61512?cid=prt_patch_listings_web_forSale

[thedistrict84]

Drove by on Milby earlier and noticed a crew demoing this building. It was a minimal-setback building probably dating back to the 1940s that had an interesting inverted curved eave along the front of the building, similar to White Rhino (which is more or less across the street). 

It formerly operated as a night club, but had not been occupied in a long time. I’m not sure when it shut down, others in the neighborhood might know better.

The bigger loss might be that whatever gets built there does not keep the minimal setback.

[thedistrict84]

This listing for the property shows that it has sold, so someone has some plans for the lot.

[ljchou]

This was purchsed by Rick Ngo, per Houston Biz Journal. Looks like it's the owner of 322 Milby St, which is the current location of Voodoo Queen

 

Edited September 26, 2021 by ljchou

[samagon]

according to the TOD map, they do get to take advantage of the ToD and walkable places stuff, at least the secondary, which is 50% parking, and other setback changes, which is overall good.

https://mycity.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=21c363261727416fb517977a27407df9

and that building looks rough in the street view, I wonder if it was just too far gone to bring back?

[wilcal]

13 minutes ago, samagon said:

according to the TOD map, they do get to take advantage of the ToD and walkable places stuff, at least the secondary, which is 50% parking, and other setback changes, which is overall good.

https://mycity.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=21c363261727416fb517977a27407df9

and that building looks rough in the street view, I wonder if it was just too far gone to bring back?

Annoying application of the automatic TOD rules here :/

3 different set of requirements less than 100 yards apart.

Green circle has no TOD designation at all, likely because it is exclusively residential except for one barber shop (has to be 25%+ existing commercial I think?)

Red star is this building. And of course, there is something going on across the street at the former rental hall.

White Rhino is actually renting the parking lot next to Voodoo Queen. 

This area between Menard and Harrisburg has some real potential to be a cool little area. Even stretching down to Sampson to include Night Shift and How to Survive. 

[thedistrict84]

1 hour ago, samagon said:

and that building looks rough in the street view, I wonder if it was just too far gone to bring back?

That would be my guess, it was abandoned for quite a while.

[wilcal]

56 minutes ago, thedistrict84 said:

That would be my guess, it was abandoned for quite a while.

 

2 hours ago, samagon said:

and that building looks rough in the street view, I wonder if it was just too far gone to bring back?

 

Counterpoint: White Rhino looked pretty rough, too.

 

Additionally, 306 Milby is a 2,400 sq ft building on a 5,000 sq ft lot. Even if it did opt-in to the TOD secondary street, you are looking at a 50% reduction of 10-14 spots per 1,000 sq ft. Even if they didn't use the backyard, you would need 12-17 parking spots. 

Maybe they can rig up a deal to share a parking lot of be across the street?

Also, with it previously being a bar/club without parking, I wonder if there is some type of grandfathering in available if you aren't changing the structure or something.

[ljchou]

What do you mean "Of course something is going on across the street at the event hall"?

I've been watching this place like a hawk, but it's been listed as for sale forever.

[wilcal]

20 minutes ago, ljchou said:

What do you mean "Of course something is going on across the street at the event hall"?

I've been watching this place like a hawk, but it's been listed as for sale forever.

It was lit up green when I drove past the other night (I think?) and I thought some type of food truck thing was happening back there. 

[ljchou]

17 hours ago, wilcal said:

It was lit up green when I drove past the other night (I think?) and I thought some type of food truck thing was happening back there. 

Oh right, they definitely have a food truck park in the parking lot.

[ljchou]

They also recently increased the price for the event center, it used to be 1.2-1.5 from what I recall:

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/3801-Garrow-St-Houston-TX/4699194/

Perhaps Read King attempting to sell the corner lot of Harrisburg and Milby for 8.1M persuaded them to increase.

[ljchou]

They already demolished it. Guys on site aren’t sure what’s going in

[wilcal]

8 hours ago, ljchou said:

They already demolished it. Guys on site aren’t sure what’s going in

Well then. That certainly levels my theory.

Can't imagine it'll be something too large unless they have an off-site parking solution :/

[wilcal]

Asked the bartender at Voodoo Queen if they knew what was happening here, and they said that they heard it would be some townhomes. Walked down and snapped a pic of the lot: