That retail task force that Mayor Parker put together about the same time that Macy’s announced it was closing the Downtown store came through with its first report yesterday, recommending that Dallas St. between Milam and La Branch — or between the hotels on the west side of Downtown and the hotels, Discovery Green, and George R. Brown Convention Center on the east — be prettied up into a kind of retail promenade. And the task force recommends that it happen sooner rather than later, in time to capitalize on the disposable incomes of the hordes coming to town for the NCAA Final Four in 2016 and the Super Bowl in 2017.
The rendering above, included in the report, shows a Kardashian body double strolling through the intersection of Main St. and Dallas; the Sakowitz building, catty-corner across from the to-be-demolished-in-a-week Macy’s, would pair with GreenStreet to anchor the linear district and provide similar photo opportunities. It appears that the task force hopes to lure national retailers and rally existing tenants and landowers, like Hilcorp, to the cause with tax breaks and other incentives, including waiving the city ordinance requiring that signage Downtown be no taller than 42.5 ft.
The news that Downtown’s old 
“I am dumbstruck at the sheer genius (or is it audacity?) of a Texas-shaped lazy river. The turns around El Paso and Brownsville might be a little hazardous, but that’s a great analogy of the current state of affairs along the Rio. I’d also expect to encounter armed poachers along the Sabine, and flag-waving tea partiers along the Red, but I’m still pretty sure that by downing 3 beers from a floating cooler, I could not only survive, but conquer that bitch. The hardest part would be commemorating the accomplishment with (another) barbed wire arm tattoo and slapping one more bumper sticker on my pickup about guns, secession or liberals (pick one).” [
Houston Politics’ Mike Morris is reporting that city council will vote today to decide whether it will loan Pearl Real Estate up to $7.4 million toward the $81 million renovation and redevelopment of the 22-story 
The Joseph Finger designed Lancaster Hotel at 701 Texas that dates to 1926 will receive about $10 million in “aesthetic and technological upgrades” designed by Gensler, reports Nancy Sarnoff. She cites a hotel press release that claims the Lancaster will introduce Wi-Fi and “intuitive” keycards that you don’t have to insert into the door, as well as new interiors featuring “
Back in 2003, 2 of the 3Â Humble Oil buildings at 1212 Main and Dallas St. were turned into hotels. The oil-to-hospitality transformation will soon be complete, reports the Houston Business Journal’s Shaina Zucker: 
