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Central Houston Cadillac At 2520 Main St.


dbigtex56

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6 hours ago, dbigtex56 said:

Mixed feelings about this. Yes, it's a MCM building with the potential for being attractive - but does Midtown really need another nightclub? A matter of opinion, to be sure. 
I'm disappointed that the McGowen rail station is still not living up to its potential. Immediately adjacent to the stops there's an abandoned building, parking lots, an underused park, a bar, and the Cadillac dealership (soon to be nightclub). Hardly a destination for those riding the train.
Granted, there is an apartment building adjacent to the southbound station, but it could be so much more. I absolutely agree that another high rise on the Cadillac site would be welcome. 
Here's hoping that someday the plans for restaurants on McGowen between Main and Travis, and the food court in the former Greensheet building become reality. It's been almost 20 years since the rail started operating. I hope it doesn't take another 20 for people-friendly development to become reality.

Lack of development on half of the intersection is directly attributable to the dealership. Perhaps a nightclub is not the most desirable use for the structure, but it will create a late night street presence. And perhaps the drunks will hang out at the pocket park after closing. And maybe the additional foot traffic is the catalyst that the Greensheet developers have been waiting for.

Or maybe everyone drives to the club and parks in the empty lot, and drives home without ever interacting with the neighborhood creating a deterrent to additional development... but that seems too sad to consider.

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7 hours ago, dbigtex56 said:

Mixed feelings about this. Yes, it's a MCM building with the potential for being attractive - but does Midtown really need another nightclub? A matter of opinion, to be sure. 
I'm disappointed that the McGowen rail station is still not living up to its potential. Immediately adjacent to the stops there's an abandoned building, parking lots, an underused park, a bar, and the Cadillac dealership (soon to be nightclub). Hardly a destination for those riding the train.
Granted, there is an apartment building adjacent to the southbound station, but it could be so much more. I absolutely agree that another high rise on the Cadillac site would be welcome. 
Here's hoping that someday the plans for restaurants on McGowen between Main and Travis, and the food court in the former Greensheet building become reality. It's been almost 20 years since the rail started operating. I hope it doesn't take another 20 for people-friendly development to become reality.

I don't get that parklet.  It's had a sign reading something like "temporarily closed" for the last year.  How do you close a park?  Why do you close a park?  Closed to whom, since people walk through it all the time?  Who thought that concrete ping-pong tables and zero benches were good urban furniture choices?  At least if it was a big lawn you could use it for picnics.  Right now, it's just absorbing sun and radiating heat.

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2 hours ago, editor said:

Why do you close a park?

I suspect that security guards for the apartments use "selective enforcement" standards when it comes to who's allowed to use the park.
It's a difficult situation. On one hand if it's a public park, the public should be allowed to enjoy it. On the other, the street people who bathe in fountains, openly smoke reefer, and harass passersby for cigarettes and money don't create a welcoming atmosphere, either. 

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I wouldn't take an offhand comment from an employee at the dealership as anything approaching a real plan. Considering the general lack of imagination, it could certainly happen. But I'd just consider the source.

The Cayden bankruptcy certainly hurt the area, but covid did a lot of damage to a lot of plans. In my view of a perfect world, the Cadillac lot as well as the used car lot across Main and the old car storage lot on Travis/McGowan get developed as a large transit friendly commercial/ residential project. I forget the exact location, but I seem to remember something like that in Austin.

But yeah, another club is the more likely scenario ☹️

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2 hours ago, dbigtex56 said:

I suspect that security guards for the apartments use "selective enforcement" standards when it comes to who's allowed to use the park.
It's a difficult situation. On one hand if it's a public park, the public should be allowed to enjoy it. On the other, the street people who bathe in fountains, openly smoke reefer, and harass passersby for cigarettes and money don't create a welcoming atmosphere, either. 

They really need to just start over with that space. The ping pong tables make no sense as mentioned before, the benches are terrible and incredibly hot, and that parklet as @editor mentioned just radiates heat. The fountain is dumb. Make it a small dog park with some area for people to picnic under some shade if they choose to and call it a day. 

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  • 4 months later...

I was getting a Banh Mi at Cali Sandwiches and one of the Central Cadillac employees was in there too. I asked him when they were moving out to their new south loop location,  he said about this time next year. He told me the Midtown property was already sold and they are just leasing it now. He didn't know who bought it though.

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23 minutes ago, hindesky said:

I was getting a Banh Mi at Cali Sandwiches and one of the Central Cadillac employees was in there too. I asked him when they were moving out to their new south loop location,  he said about this time next year. He told me the Midtown property was already sold and they are just leasing it now. He didn't know who bought it though.

It was sold to Hi Tech Auto Realty in February 2022. That entity is managed by Ricardo M Weitz, who seems to have been associated with Momentum. In March 2022, there is a deed of trust to Cadence Bank and a trustee Charles J Pignuolo with a $192 million  mortgage and a 20 page list of properties that includes Baytown Nissan, Central Houston Nissan, the Kirby Mansion, David McDavid Nissan, as well as properties in Williamson and Travis counties I can't be bothered to go look for.

It's all on the County Clerk's website.

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1 hour ago, Ross said:

It was sold to Hi Tech Auto Realty in February 2022. That entity is managed by Ricardo M Weitz, who seems to have been associated with Momentum. In March 2022, there is a deed of trust to Cadence Bank and a trustee Charles J Pignuolo with a $192 million  mortgage and a 20 page list of properties that includes Baytown Nissan, Central Houston Nissan, the Kirby Mansion, David McDavid Nissan, as well as properties in Williamson and Travis counties I can't be bothered to go look for.

It's all on the County Clerk's website.

Ricardo Weitz use to own the Momentum Auto Group until it was sold to Sonic Automotive in the mid 2000s.

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On 11/11/2022 at 3:15 PM, Ross said:

It was sold to Hi Tech Auto Realty in February 2022. That entity is managed by Ricardo M Weitz, who seems to have been associated with Momentum. In March 2022, there is a deed of trust to Cadence Bank and a trustee Charles J Pignuolo with a $192 million  mortgage and a 20 page list of properties that includes Baytown Nissan, Central Houston Nissan, the Kirby Mansion, David McDavid Nissan, as well as properties in Williamson and Travis counties I can't be bothered to go look for.

It's all on the County Clerk's website.

I forgot to mention that I believe Mr.Weitz already owns the central dealerships so I guess it went from one hand to the other.

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  • The title was changed to Stewart Cadillac At 2520 Main St.
  • 6 months later...
  • The title was changed to Central Houston Cadillac At 2520 Main St.
  • 1 month later...

Saw this the other day, thought maybe Warehouse live or whoever owns that entire building might buy it for more parking, they already been using it for "valet" on show nights it looks like, and the one across the street from it. 

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