The shopping center at the southwest southeast corner of Montrose Blvd. and 59 known as Chelsea Market has just recently gotten the chain-link wraparound, as shown above from the west (top) and east (above). Its days had been numbered ever since plans showing a Broadstone apartment tower in place of the 3-building retail complex surfaced online last year.
Renderings of the tower, to be named Broadstone Museum District, show it rising 16-stories high:
***
 
You wouldn’t know it from the images above, but that’s 4 stories lower than The Carter (formerly Chelsea Montrose) highrise next door.
The garage and leasing office entrances, off Montrose Blvd.:
- Broadstone Museum District [EDI International via HAIF]
- Previously on Swamplot: Highrise Land Sale Triggers Early Chelsea Market Exit for Main Street Theater; Here’s Chelsea Montrose, Another 20-Story Apartment Tower for the Museum District; Construction Starts Next Week on Main St. MATCH Arts Complex in Midtown; Main Street Theater Reaches the Renovation Stage
Photos: Swamplot inbox. Renderings: EDI International
Montrose Blvd. at 59
I know this complaint is old hat by now, but where’s the ground floor retail?? The Museum District could be the most interesting, vibrant neighborhood in the city, if it actually had any street life outside of Hermann Park and the sidewalks around the museums. It keeps growing and growing in residential density. It has the transit and all the cultural amenities to be an amazing destination neighborhood, possibly the most exciting and attractive for tourists in the entire city.
.
But to get there, the Museum District desperately needs a strong retail corridor, and I can think of nowhere better in the city for a high-end restaurant row than either here on Montrose Blvd or a little southeast on Binz.
.
And yet, it keeps not happening. Moves like this are even *shrinking* the retail in the area. We keep getting these massive high rises which add hundreds of residents without adding any retail to support them. And people wonder why traffic is so bad in Houston? (Here’s a hint: It’s because you can’t walk anywhere.)
Correction. It is the Southeast corner of 59 and Montrose.
With ya Christian!
The new building is a piece of sh*t architecturally. The lack of retail is shocking. This is a terrible location for multifamily. Could you be any closer to freeway pollution and noise?? The LA times did some really good articles on the health dangers of living right next to a major freeway.
Some of us who live in the area couldn’t care less about adding traffic to the area with some notion of “ground floor retail”. We don’t want more of you either walking or driving in our increasingly crowded area. It is already a “destination neighborhood” with museums and one of our two major parks. It DOES NOT need to be a freaking shopping district. It is already quite walkable, btw.
Stop advocating more congestion for every corner of our city. Who NEEDS ground floor retail in that building?
No one, as Chelsea Market demonstrated. Do you all work for developers? It has underachieved as a retail center for decades. There’s a hint.
Now this site is a PRIME PLACE for a ground floor restaurant/coffee shop, at least along Montrose, as there are several other residential highrises and museums nearby full of potential customers. Then again, I have no faith that the developers can think beyond “the box”
@DDraper–I too live in the area. I yearn for more amenities within walking distance. And, as a former high-rise resident (in another city), I’d venture to guess that most residents would love a cafe, shop, etc. downstairs.
Take a trip to other cities. Walkability requires places worth walking to.
@city cynic Tell that the revolving restaurants 200 yards north (see Pax Americana).
LONG LIVE REDWOOD GRILL!
As someone who works just a few blocks from this site, I too wish they would have considered ground floor retail. A coffee shop and/or a non-crappy restaurant (no offense, Little Bigs or Chelsea Grill) would have been great.
nice, the way edi (or whoever did the renderings) flattened everything else around the proposed development, lol. whatever happened to urban context? anyway, sorry chelsea market, it’s time to go!
I’d forgotten that Danton’s had moved and is rebranding as Eugene’s in the old Mockingbird Bistro space. I enjoyed many great meals at Danton’s in years gone by and look forward to the new restaurant.
@dee –
there is no urban context. Every new building exists in a technicolor vacuum, with blue sky, green esplanades and Audis.
Am I the only that’s been reading stories for 2 years now about the escalating vacancy rates of ground floor retail in NYC?
And as a close neighbor, I liked the Mockingbird best after it was long gone. Can’t recall a single car accident or pedestrians getting hit while the space was unoccupied compared to when it was occupied and the streets were overparked.
.
Glad I ditched the area before another restaurant moved in.
Ground level retails works when the parking spaces are sufficient, have easy access and are free. City of Houston requirements for number of parking spaces is usually inadequate and the developer can and does ask for a variance to reduce this requirement.
Even if restaurants have struggled there in the past, adding 300 new residents literally right on top of the site is a large new customer base to draw on, not to mention The Carter which just reached completion right next door. There’s density there which didn’t exist before, and it’s just good business to add retail when you add residents.
Ground floor retail was obviously not wanted…the places that were there before did not do well.
Someone should tweet this to Beyonce. Her mom used to cut hair in a salon at Chelsea Market back in the day. Maybe she’ll buy it instead and put up a development with ground floor retail!
The area has already increased traffic and too many apartments. This just calls for more construction and no respect for the historic heritage of the area. The home
Owners in this area need retail amenities in their surrounding area so we don’t have to keep driving through highway traffic. I believe this will be bad for the area for many reason.
Correct, SC.
As for my fellow residents, walk over the bridge for your fix. As noted, Chelsea was ultimately a failure, nearby highrises (3+) or not. Chelsea St. itself is a fiasco, with all the tiny schools shoved in w/the 2 new highrises. We do NOT need more GFR in the area. If you do walk across the bridge, again, as noted, the north side of Montrose is testament to how shaky business is, except for 2 Asian restaurants. You need a scorecard to keep track of the failed efforts, food and otherwise.
If the new residents want/need an interior-oriented coffee shop inside their structure, well, build them one, or upgrade the vending machines. Just do nothing that causes the “usuals” to do mid-Montrose u-turns, abrupt stops and all the brain-dead maneuvers we see the phone-addicted pull daily.
“…the Museum District DESPERATELY (emphasis added) needs a strong retail corridor.” First, stop at three cups of coffee, take a deep breath. OK, now: The Museum District has no need whatsoever for a ‘strong retail anything’….PERIOD. The short Bissonnet-59 Bridge stretch is (generally) a highly attractive LOW-STRESS drive, dominated by churches, parks, museums and schools, with a significant residential element.
It is delightful, few tacky signs to distract attention, and wide sidewalks to propel the intepid north to their beloved retail or south to parks, museums, etc…
Leave it alone. Obviously, some work in development on this site. Leave it alone anyway.
Leave it alone
Why would they ever put the vehicle entrances on the Montrose side of the property? That’s insanity at rush hour. They clearly have no idea what they’re doing.