COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON FIRST SKIPS THE BULLY SALES BLOCK “Instead of ‘hoping’ to get residential/retail development on the site, why not REQUIRE such development on the site via deed restrictions or other contractual agreements with the buyer? This is how HISD screwed themselves on the sale of their old administration building. They sold to the highest bidder and ‘hoped’ they would build something like the fancy mixed use rendering they were passing around. Instead we got a Costco and an LA Fitness. When you consider that HISD pockets more than 50 percent of every tax dollar paid by the property, they might have made more money in the long run by GIVING AWAY their land to someone who would have developed it more intensely.” [Bernard, commenting on Headlines: Downtown Block for Sale; Accessing Remote Hermann Park]
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Sounds like a great idea to me.
Even back then I could have told everyone that the Richmond rail line will never happen inside the loop. Nobody in the area wants it and this is not a powerless population in our fair city.
Even David Crossley seems to have accepted that it won’t happen before 2025. You can dream all about the magical mixed use development that could have been. But it was not commercially viable, and the magic train is not happening. If HISD had put thse ort of restrictions on at sale the land would either remin undeveloped or would hav been just another underoccuppied Tuscan eyesore. At least now Costco is very convenient, and I don’t have to drive out of the loop to get there.
I’m sorry you don’t like Costco…
Costco is great, so its a chain. We all use chains at one point or another. It treats employees well and sells good products. Rare for a chain these days and commendable considering.