Downtown Retail Market

[kylejack]

Mmmmmm Treebeards

[TheNiche]

Yay! That's the sperrit!!

Restaurants (evening and late nights)

Frank's Pizza http://www.frankspizza.com/

Mia Bella downtown http://www.bellarestaurants.com/mia/indexmia.html

Cabo downtown http://www.cabomixmex.com/

Spaghetti Warehouse http://www.meatballs.com/index.htm

Hard Rock Cafe http://www.hardrock.com/locations/cafes3/c...amp;MIBenumID=3

House of Blues Houston http://www.hob.com/venues/clubvenues/houston/

Birraporretis http://www.birrarestaurant.com/

Now we're talking. If we can get someone that is anal retentive enough to put together a database of downtown retailers and then map them out, we'll have a viable thread that Puma won't hate on.

[RedScare]

Now we're talking. If we can get someone that is anal retentive enough to put together a database of downtown retailers and then map them out, we'll have a viable thread that Puma won't hate on.

We used to have one. It may have been just bars and restaurants, though.

[totheskies]

Clothing/ apparrel...

Macy's downtown http://www1.macys.com/store/locator/index....TOR_BUTTON.y=-1

BCBG Maxazaria http://www.bcbgmaxazriagroup.com/fall2008/...ge=storelocator

XXI Forever http://www.forever21.com/store/storelocator.asp

The Tipping Point http://www.thetippingpointstore.com/

Houston Center clothiers http://www.houstoncenter.com/home/category...46&catid=11

[Daniepwils]

I have honestly never been inside the downtown Macy's yet. Is it even crowded ever?

Compared to the others, no. Also that Macy's doesn't have certain things that other Macy's has (Lacoste for one)

This last Red Apple sell was the only time I have ever seen it remotely crowded.

[Pumapayam]

Now we're talking. If we can get someone that is anal retentive enough to put together a database of downtown retailers and then map them out, we'll have a viable thread that Puma won't hate on.

Why reinvent the wheel? I am sure there are tons of links on other Houston related news/blogs that cover this better.

[TheNiche]

Why reinvent the wheel? I am sure there are tons of links on other Houston related news/blogs that cover this better.

To generate traffic from Google and generate more ad revenue for Editor so he doesn't have to sell any more of his wife's purses to make rent.

[Houston19514]

Why reinvent the wheel? I am sure there are tons of links on other Houston related news/blogs that cover this better.

Based on that, I guess one might ask why we have this whole forum. Sheesh. If you don't want to read or contribute to a topic, just move along.

[totheskies]

Why reinvent the wheel? I am sure there are tons of links on other Houston related news/blogs that cover this better.

I added houstondowntown's site to my top post, as it is a great resource. But this is a forum, and everyone here may have different opinions about the places downtown. So for someone moving to downtown (I know I know God forbid that EVER happen), they could come here and read what people think about certain places in downtown. Again the mods can do as they wish, but I'm just trying to promote downtown retail.

[LTAWACS]

Yay! That's the sperrit!!

Restaurants (evening and late nights)

Frank's Pizza http://www.frankspizza.com/

Mia Bella downtown http://www.bellarestaurants.com/mia/indexmia.html

Cabo downtown http://www.cabomixmex.com/

Spaghetti Warehouse http://www.meatballs.com/index.htm

Hard Rock Cafe http://www.hardrock.com/locations/cafes3/c...amp;MIBenumID=3

House of Blues Houston http://www.hob.com/venues/clubvenues/houston/

Birraporretis http://www.birrarestaurant.com/

The Grove at Discovery Green http://www.discoverygreen.com/accommodations/

Mingalone Bar and Grill ($$$) http://www.mingalone.com/

Josephine's Italian Restaurant http://www.josephinesitalian.com/

I've been to Mangalore's (Mingalone's) and it was overpriced. Not THAT expensive but still overpriced.

[Pumapayam]

To generate traffic from Google and generate more ad revenue for Editor so he doesn't have to sell any more of his wife's purses to make rent.

Okay just make me feel bad now why dontcha. I just thought it was a silly idea.

[LTAWACS]

Nice

[KinkaidAlum]

When I worked on Main St. in the early to mid 90s, I used to head over to Macy's at lunch sometimes. There was also a Woolworth's there. The Payless was there as was everyone's favorite convenience store.

There used to be a really cool Western boot/hat store in an old bldg that was surrounded by a sea of surface parking over near Christ Church too but I think that's where the new Diocese/Homeless Facility stands.

Isn't there a lawbook store over near South Texas College of Law?

[RedScare]

There used to be a really cool Western boot/hat store in an old bldg that was surrounded by a sea of surface parking over near Christ Church too but I think that's where the new Diocese/Homeless Facility stands.

Actually, it is the diocese headquarters, meeting rooms, and a parking garage, though I am quite sure that the homeless assistance and jobs facility relocated somewhere in there as well. The boot store was on Prairie.

[Houston19514]

Actually, it is the diocese headquarters, meeting rooms, and a parking garage, though I am quite sure that the homeless assistance and jobs facility relocated somewhere in there as well. The boot store was on Prairie.

Yes, exactly what KinkaidAlum said. The homeless assistance (which is really quite a remarkable set of facilities (meals, laundry, showers, medical, job assistance, housing assistance, counseling) is in the same building with the parking garage and the Diocese HQ.

[lockmat]

Not that we should give up, but after watching this video on "reinventing urban retail" by the UIL, it seems downtown's prospects for becoming a true neighborhood, especially with retail, are not good.

The older gentlemen compared our downtown population to smaller mid tier cities and it is just sad. (a little after the 8 minute mark).

Something the Hines rep said (towards the end) made me think we ought to require retail to be on plots fronting all rail lines.

If anything, midtown's future seems much more bright to become a great urban neighborhood because land prices in some cases are almost half of downtown.

Video link: https://vimeo.com/60880017

Edited May 11, 2013 by lockmat

[scarface]

Funny how i was just thinking about this.

 

I have high hopes for downtown, but maybe its not going to be the urban mecca we all hope for it to be, although Midtown is showing signs of being on the upswing. I know there's only one downtown in Houston, but it seems like the real heart and soul of the city is in the Uptown/Galleria area. I just wish it wasn't so automobile plagued. They may be making strides to make it somewhat more pedestrian with the BLVD place development, but it still looks like it will be dominated by the automobile. The killings/delays of the Uptown and University lines surely didn't help matters any.

 

It may be unrealistic, but the only real way to make Uptown more pedestrian friendly would be to either raise or trench Westheimer.

[mfastx]

Well in order to have a vibrant downtown people have to live there.  There's just too many dead areas now and in order for that to change developers just have to build residential downtown. 

 

Maybe in 50 years things will look different, who knows.

[scarface]

I have used this example plenty of times. San Antonio, i don't think has the residential pop there but its successful retail wise from a tourist standpoint.

[H-Town Man]

I disagree with the lady who said that as the city evolves, downtown will be just one of several multi-use centers, and not a "dominant downtown" as it was in the past.  Of course it will never be as dominant as it was when Post Oak was a country road, but the idea that downtown is destined to be on the same level as the Uptown, Memorial City, Woodlands Town Center, etc., just doesn't wash.  People in Gen. Y crave a return to authenticity, and these new developments will never have the authenticity that downtown does, no matter how badly the tunnels and parking garages screw the place up.  I have given tours of Houston to a lot of people from out of town and out of country, and downtown simply registers with them in a way utterly different than the Woodlands Town Center, which leaves them cold.  The theater district, the historic architecture, the sports stadiums, the bayou, the 150,000+ jobs, and the transportation infrastructure are here to stay.

 

Proof of this is the number of residential units that have been built and sold surrounding downtown in the past ten years.  Glaeser mentioned 3,000 units in Midtown planned for delivery within 24 months, and that doesn't include "EaDo" (still think it's a silly name), Wash Ave., Montrose, etc.  What do these neighborhoods have in common?  They're all next to downtown.  No other multi-use center in our area has generated such interest.  It is a magnet drawing people towards it, and the only reason the residences and retail haven't come into downtown itself is the prohibitive price of real estate, which won't remain a barrier forever.

 

In the short term, I look forward to seeing the post office site redeveloped.  This could add hundreds or more than a thousand residents to downtown's doorstep, and as the city controls the land, they can (hopefully) make sure it's done right.

 

[Houston19514]

I disagree with the lady who said that as the city evolves, downtown will be just one of several multi-use centers, and not a "dominant downtown" as it was in the past.  Of course it will never be as dominant as it was when Post Oak was a country road, but the idea that downtown is destined to be on the same level as the Uptown, Memorial City, Woodlands Town Center, etc., just doesn't wash.  People in Gen. Y crave a return to authenticity, and these new developments will never have the authenticity that downtown does, no matter how badly the tunnels and parking garages screw the place up.  I have given tours of Houston to a lot of people from out of town and out of country, and downtown simply registers with them in a way utterly different than the Woodlands Town Center, which leaves them cold.  The theater district, the historic architecture, the sports stadiums, the bayou, the 150,000+ jobs, and the transportation infrastructure are here to stay.

 

Proof of this is the number of residential units that have been built and sold surrounding downtown in the past ten years.  Glaeser mentioned 3,000 units in Midtown planned for delivery within 24 months, and that doesn't include "EaDo" (still think it's a silly name), Wash Ave., Montrose, etc.  What do these neighborhoods have in common?  They're all next to downtown.  No other multi-use center in our area has generated such interest.  It is a magnet drawing people towards it, and the only reason the residences and retail haven't come into downtown itself is the prohibitive price of real estate, which won't remain a barrier forever.

 

In the short term, I look forward to seeing the post office site redeveloped.  This could add hundreds or more than a thousand residents to downtown's doorstep, and as the city controls the land, they can (hopefully) make sure it's done right.

 

Good post.   (But the city does not control the post office land.)

[livincinco]

I understand your enthusiasm and I agree that there is some trend in Gen Y towards urbanizatioon, but I'm not sure its as significant as many people on this forum would like to believe. Young professionals have been drawn to urban areas for several generations. Once they have kids they migrate to the suburbs. I haven't seen anything that leads me to believe that trend has changed. What has changed is that Houston has become a more attractive destination for young professionals which has increased the population in areas that they would traditionally settle. Overall though, its still a reasonably small percentage of the overall growth in the city.

[H-Town Man]

I understand your enthusiasm and I agree that there is some trend in Gen Y towards urbanizatioon, but I'm not sure its as significant as many people on this forum would like to believe. Young professionals have been drawn to urban areas for several generations. Once they have kids they migrate to the suburbs. I haven't seen anything that leads me to believe that trend has changed.

 

But fewer young professionals are having kids, and they're having them later and later.  This is a bad trend for our long-term economy, but a good one for urban development.

[Slick Vik]

I understand your enthusiasm and I agree that there is some trend in Gen Y towards urbanizatioon, but I'm not sure its as significant as many people on this forum would like to believe. Young professionals have been drawn to urban areas for several generations. Once they have kids they migrate to the suburbs. I haven't seen anything that leads me to believe that trend has changed.

 

I can say about 95% of the people I know my age are not going out to the suburbs even after marriage and kids. There is definitely a shift in mindset.

[livincinco]

I can say about 95% of the people I know my age are not going out to the suburbs even after marriage and kids. There is definitely a shift in mindset.

 

The numbers just don't support that.

[samagon]

The numbers just don't support that.

 

The overall numbers don't, but if Slick knows 20 families with kids and only 1 of them has chosen to move to the burbs, then it's true.

 

I have a lot of friends that live in the burbs and have had kids and stayed in the burbs, I know 2 couples that have had kids while they lived in town, and so far they are both indicating they have no desire to move to the burbs. so the track record of families I know that have kids while they live in the loop is 100% of them have no desire to move to the burbs.

 

I wouldn't say that my experience, or Slick's is indicative of a shift in mindset, but I'd say it's a worth noting.

[livincinco]

I wouldn't say that my experience, or Slick's is indicative of a shift in mindset, but I'd say it's a worth noting.

 

Agree that it's worth noting, but let's say that over the next ten years all numbers stay consistent and Houston draws another 600k or so people.  Even if the optimistic number of 40k moving inside the loop triples to 120k, that still means that only 20% of the population is going there with the balance 80% moving outside.  The other factor to consider is economics.  The more people that do move inside the loop, the higher it will drive housing prices because of the finite amount of land (which we're seeing already).  That will cause the suburbs to look more attractive to a number of people because of the relative value in those properties and will start to shift things back.

 

This is no different than what happens anywhere else in the country.  Take SF which is the poster child for most urban planners.  The population of the city is only about 800k, and the population of the CSA is over 7 million and that's even considering that SF has a reasonably unique geography that makes certain areas much more desirable.

Edited May 22, 2013 by livincinco

[H-Town Man]

This is no different than what happens anywhere else in the country.  Take SF which is the poster child for most urban planners.  The population of the city is only about 800k, and the population of the CSA is over 7 million and that's even considering that SF has a reasonably unique geography that makes certain areas much more desirable.

 

Which simply means that we don't need a majority of population living in the center for downtown to be successful.  Even New York has only 1-2 million living in Manhattan, out of around 20 million in the metro.

[KinkaidAlum]

It also means that Manhattan, San Fran, and the Inner Loop are LAND LOCKED so that any and all growth is quite impressive. Not sure why livincinco can't see this. It isn't quite a fair fight to pit the inner loop against everything else in the region when everything else can expand infinitely. 

 

To me, single family lots being turned into 6 condos, older office towers being converted into lofts, rice silos giving way to 1,500 apartment units, and former industrial spaces making way for residential development is quite impressive. If there was no demand by people to live "close-in" then you wouldn't find developers spending hundreds of millions to accommodate them. Just the same as if there was no demand for owning 3,200 square feet of KB Homes on the prairie, then you wouldn't find KB Homes mass producing them.

[august948]

It also means that Manhattan, San Fran, and the Inner Loop are LAND LOCKED so that any and all growth is quite impressive. Not sure why livincinco can't see this. It isn't quite a fair fight to pit the inner loop against everything else in the region when everything else can expand infinitely.

Manhattan and SF are both surrounded by water so they are land locked in a more significant way.