Here’s a little handy graphic from Mayor Parker’s Metro transition task force, identifying what the team considers “major unresolved design issues” in the planned East End, Southeast, University, and Uptown light-rail lines. Attempts to resolve all 6 of them appear to be “bogged down” at the Metro staff level, according to the task force committee. Each problem might delay construction or increase cost, and each has already been “actively discussed” for at least a year.
What are they?
- the Downtown alignments of the East End Line and Southeast Line on Capital and Rusk streets as they cross the Main Street Line;
- how the East End and Southeast Lines and car traffic will flow around the proposed Dynamo Stadium site in East Downtown;
- how grade separation will work with a freight-rail crossing on the East End Line on Harrisburg near Hughes St.;
- details of the Southeast and University Lines near the University of Houston along Scott St.;
- how the University Line will cross and interact with Main Street Line at the Wheeler station in Midtown; and
- the design of the Uptown Line north of San Felipe, along the 610 West Loop.
Oh, and then there’s this little bit about finding the money to build it all:
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Read more about: Light-Rail, Metro, Metro Rail, Proposed Developments, Public Transportation
March 19, 2010 – 10:51 am
Metro’s lame-duck board gave its staff a half-million-dollar go-ahead yesterday to figure alignments, hold public meetings, and begin environmental studies on an 8.2-mile commuter rail line along U.S. 90A. The hunt for federal funding comes next: “It was the second development this month in efforts to bring commuter rail to the Houston region. The Gulf Coast Rail District recently hired a Houston engineering firm to study a line along U.S. 290 to Hempstead. A key advantage of Metro’s [Fort Bend] plan, [Chairman David] Wolff said, is that it would use trains Metro already owns on tracks that would parallel Union Pacific freight tracks in the same corridor, tying into the existing Main Street light rail line to create a seamless experience for passengers. The commuter line would begin at Fannin South, the southern end of the Main Street line, and continue to the Fort Bend County Line at Beltway 8.” [Houston Chronicle]
Read more about: Commuter Rail, Fort Bend County, Light-Rail, Metro Rail, Proposed Developments, Public Transportation
March 18, 2010 – 12:50 pm
The property intended to be home to the Waterlights District — the proposed mixed-use shopping and eating extravaganzorama in Pearland — has been posted for foreclosure by its main creditor, Amegy Bank. The 1.9 million-sq.-ft. development was to feature condos, luxury apartments, office buildings, retail space, restaurants, 2 hotels, a conference facility, a “water wall,” and a Venice-like “Grand Canal.”
The site, off the Shadow Creek Pkwy. exit on the west side of Hwy. 288, has been marked for more than 2 years now by a curious semicircle of David Adickes sculptures, a preview of the development’s Presidential Park and Gardens. That park was to feature giant white busts of all 38 U.S. Presidents. But unlike Adickes other presidential suite, I-45’s Mount Rush Hour just north of Downtown Houston — in which each of the sculptor’s busts rests on its own podium — in the Waterlights grouping the 7 Presidents moved to the site appear from the freeway to be buried in the earth up to their chests, somehow managing to keep their heads above the often-times-soggy land around them. Yes, it was the perfect marker for a freeway-side development buried in debt and treading quicksand just to keep itself afloat:
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Read more about: 77583, Art, Cancellations and Delays, Financing, Foreclosures, Mixed Use, Parks, Pearland, Proposed Developments, Public Art, Sculpture
March 15, 2010 – 12:07 pm
About 100 people showed up to that Saturday protest on the former site of the Wilshire Village Apartments, organized by a group calling itself the Montrose Land Defense Coalition. Organizers had originally expressed a desire to have the 7.68-acre site at the southwest corner of West Alabama and Dunlavy be turned into a park. Protesters told reporters they wanted the property’s trees preserved. But the organization’s website now features this clarification:
The aim of our campaign is not to alienate or place our Coalition in direct opposition to any one entity seeking to develop the land. We are concerned with the degree to which communities have a say in the development of land directly adjacent to their places of residence.
Specifically, organizer Maria-Elisa Heg tells Swamplot,
We are still fighting for a green space, a public commons, and we need to show HEB that they need to be mindful of smart urban planning.
And . . . uh, they have some plans for the site to present — shown to them by an unnamed “group of architects”:
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Read more about: 77098, Lancaster Place, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Trees, Wilshire Village
March 12, 2010 – 12:07 pm
“H-E-B’s plans [to build a new store on the former site of the Wilshire Village apartments] may not be as sure as some think. Cyndy Garza Roberts, the chain’s public-affairs director, tells Hair Balls that plans ‘are still in the very, very early stages.’
That includes not just rudimentary things like due diligence on title and legalities, but even a feasibility study to determine whether a store at the location would be economically viable.” [Hair Balls; previously on Swamplot]
Read more about: 77098, Grocery Stores, Lancaster Place, Proposed Developments, Wilshire Village
Suddenly, 2 of Metro’s 5 planned new light-rail lines are looking a lot less inevitable: “Parker said members of her transition team have ‘drilled down’ into Metro’s finances and she now feels comfortable only with the funding plans of three rail lines: the East End, North and Southeast. Construction on those lines is under way.
Parker’s goal is to make sure those three lines are built “very, very rapidly,” she said. The other two, the Uptown and University lines, ‘are lines that I want to see built, but until we can finalize all the numbers, and some of them are still moving, I’m not going to commit to whether that is possible.’” [Houston Chronicle]
Read more about: Financing, Light-Rail, Metro Rail, Proposed Developments, University Line, Uptown Line
If H-E-B can figure out a way to keep this sort of thing going even after the new store is built, that Fiesta won’t have a chance: “The Montrose Land Defense Coalition will hold a rally this weekend at Menil Park to raise awareness of H-E-B’s plans to build a new store on the site of the long-gone Wilshire Village apartment complex. The group will walk from the park to the property at the southwest corner of West Alabama and Dunlavy on Saturday around 1:30 p.m.
Last week, H-E-B confirmed that it’s under contract to buy the nearly eight-acre site across from a strip center anchored by a Fiesta.
Resident Maria-Elisa Heg recently formed the Montrose Land Defense Coalition to call attention to the property and attract investors who might be interested in buying it with the city of Houston for use as a public space.” [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
Read more about: 77098, Grocery Stores, Lancaster Place, Land for Sale, Neighborhood Disputes, Parks, Proposed Developments, Wilshire Village
No, H-E-B isn’t just buying the former site of the Wilshire Village Apartments at the corner of Alabama and Dunlavy as a real estate investment. H-E-B Houston president Scott McClelland tells the Houston Business Journal’s Allison Wollam that the company expects to open its Montrose store on that site next year:
We . . . have a site tied up at Alabama and Dunlavy in the Montrose area that we’re finalizing. I think that it’s far enough from our recently opened Bissonnet and Buffalo Speedway store and it will be a good new market for us.
Okay, while we’re at it . . . what are H-E-B’s plans for the Heights?
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Read more about: 77098, Grocery Stores, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Retail, Wilshire Village
A representative of H-E-B confirms to the River Oaks Examiner’s Mike Reed that the grocery company is buying the 7.68-acre site on West Alabama in Montrose — across Dunlavy from Fiesta — where the Wilshire Village Apartments once stood:
H-E-B spokeswoman Cyndy Garza-Roberts said she could not disclose a proposed purchase price.
“Right now, we are doing our due diligence,” she said. “We are in the very early stages.”
One part of Swamplot’s due diligence, of course, might be figuring out who H-E-B is actually buying the property from. Some sort of transaction related to the property appears to have already taken place. We’ll have more details on that later.
Update: A few details from the Chronicle.
Photo of Wilshire Village Site from Dunlavy St., South of West Alabama: Carl Guderian [license]
Read more about: 77098, Buying and Selling, Grocery Stores, Lancaster Place, Land Sales, Proposed Developments, Wilshire Village
At a meeting last week at Kenny & Ziggy’s Deli organized by Jim “Mattress Mack” MacIngvale, owners of businesses located along Post Oak Blvd.’s vast double phalanx of front-loading strip centers — and representatives of a few of their landlords — groused about Metro’s design for the new Uptown Line and prepared for possible battle. The Examiner Newspapers’ Michael Reed first brought attention to a few quirks of the latest design for the Post Oak stretch of the light-rail line late last year: It features 7 stations, 5 gated crossings, and in all close to 2 dozen traffic signals along the 1.7-mile path from Richmond Ave. to the 610 West Loop. It also blocks all instances of that staple of sprawl-style shopping-center development: the non-intersection left turn.
Had Metro been communicating its plans to the property owners? Had the property owners been relaying any information they received from the transit agency to their tenants?
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Read more about: 77027, 77056, Galleria, Light-Rail, Metro Rail, Proposed Developments, Public Transportation, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers, Traffic, Uptown, Uptown Corridor, Uptown Line
February 26, 2010 – 12:00 pm
When last we looked in on the stalled Dynamo Stadium deal for East Downtown, Commissioner El Franco Lee was holding the ball. Today, the HBJ’s Ford Gunter provides a few clues about the dealmaking behind the scenes:
Lee has steadfastly refused to comment on the issue, and did not respond to interview requests. Speaking in Lee’s place during several recent interviews, [Harris County Community Services Dept. Director David] Turkel has become more guarded, citing the delicate situation and his desire to avoid hampering a possible agreement. In a nutshell, though, Lee wants concessions from the city and the team that he has not yet received.
“Lee is not comfortable putting it on the agenda as is, because it will get voted down,” Turkel says.
For one, the county is looking at who will own the stadium after the lease runs out in about 30 years, and how that would affect a deal in which the city would buy out the county’s share. Precinct 2 Commissioner Sylvia Garcia wants Dynamo family ticket packs priced comparably to movie tickets, which has been more or less agreed upon.
What is Lee really after?
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Read more about: 77003, Attractions, Buying and Selling, Dynamo Stadium, East Downtown, Financing, Harris County Government, Proposed Developments
February 22, 2010 – 1:04 pm
What are the stations for the new Metro light-rail lines gonna look like? This full-scale mockup of a section, cobbled together from foam core, poster board, cardboard mailing tubes, and Plexiglas, now waiting way off-site in the offices of RdlR Architects provides one clue.
And here are a few more:
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Read more about: Light-Rail, Metro Rail, Proposed Developments, Public Transportation, University Line
February 17, 2010 – 10:40 am
It’s easy! Just start talking about an alternative plan for a stadium in some other area of the city. Neighborhood groups will be very supportive. Hey, it worked for Bellaire! “The [Bellaire City] Council voted 6-0 in favor of a resolution calling on the three parties to close a deal on a stadium just east of U.S. 59 near the East End. It also asked the dealmakers not to support a recently emerged proposal to build the stadium along Bellaire’s northern border.” [Houston Politics]
Read more about: 77003, 77056, Attractions, Bellaire, Dynamo Stadium, East Downtown, Proposed Developments, Westpark
Comment of the Day: Montrose Ain’t Like It Used To Be
“What’s with the petitions and the rainbows and unicorns? Renderings? Real hippys would squat on the land, throw up some tents to sell their bead jewelry and homemade hippy stuff until the police and/or bulldozers come. 21st century Montrose is full of pussies. 20 bucks sez the guy with the hearts on his sign is in line on opening day ready to fill his hemp messenger bag with organic chicken breasts and a sustainably farmed pomengranate flavored something or other at the overpriced new neighborhood-centric HEB.” [meatsack, commenting on What the Montrose Land Defense Coalition Really Wants To See at Wilshire Village]