Proposed Developments

Adaptive Reuse
03/31/10 11:01am

The Tiny Boxwood’s Hybrid Headed for West University

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Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail, West University
No Comments

The West University Examiner‘s Steve Mark reports that the owners of the Thompson + Hanson Nursery and the adjacent Tiny Boxwood’s cafe on West Alabama are expected to buy the former JMH Market building at the corner of Rice Blvd. and Edloe. The company’s new West U retail location might include a café and nursery:

Gregg Thompson of Thompson + Hanson, says upon completion of financial arrangements, he hopes to open doors at the JMH location within six months. Thompson is mulling over varied plans for the available 7,000 available square feet of the property. Texas Citizens Bank occupies a portion and has use of parking. . . .

Thompson is inclined to open a variation of his Tiny Boxwood’s theme. The current structure on Edloe would remain the same, he said.

Photo of former JMH Market, 3636 Rice Blvd.: West University Examiner

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Buying and Selling
03/29/10 10:23am

Trying to Preserve Preserve Land

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Financing, Galveston, Landscape, Proposed Developments, Quicklink
2 Comments

TRYING TO PRESERVE PRESERVE LAND A year and a half after Hurricane Ike, what’s going on with Marquette Investments’ “The Preserve at West Beach” development plan for a huge chunk of Galveston’s West End? Here’s an update on a piece of it: “Last year, the environmental group Artist Boat applied for $11 million in federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program money to buy 343 acres of bay-front land from developer Marquette Land Investments. Gov. Rick Perry rejected the application, even though island leaders and environmentalists flooded his office with e-mails, letters and faxes urging him to save one of the island’s most ecologically diverse tracts. . . . Now, Artist Boat and the city of Galveston are working together to secure a $3 million Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program grant, administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. The grant application was submitted Thursday. . . . [Artist Boat Executive Director Karla]Klay said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association will announce the winners of the grant within six to nine months. Darren Sloniger and his partners at Marquette agreed to provide $3 million in matching land value if Klay and the city get the grant. If that happens, the city would hold the title to one-third of the 343-acre site, which sits east of 11 Mile Road and north of Settegast Road. Marquette intended to turn the site into a 35-acre marina and residential subdivision. The property is part of a 1,058-acre development that will include a 15-story resort hotel, 4,000 condominiums and houses and an 18-hole golf course.” [Galveston County Daily News]

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Attractions
03/23/10 5:11pm

The Dynamo Will Get an East Downtown Soccer Stadium

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East Downtown, Financing, Proposed Developments
8 Comments

Whatever obstacles were standing in the way of county commissioner El Franco Lee agreeing to Harris County participation in the East Downtown TIRZ — the last piece of the funding puzzle needed for the Houston Dynamo to get its new soccer stadium — appear to have fallen. A number of votes will need to take place before construction can start on the site bounded by Texas, Dowling, Hutchins, and Walker streets just east of Downtown. But media reports indicate the long-stalled project now has sufficient government support to move forward:

The city and county have asked the [Harris County-Houston Sports Authority] to take over lease negotiations with the Dynamo, oversee the construction project and act as property manager upon the stadium’s completion.

If the authority approves the request, City Council is expected to vote on the agreement March 31, followed by a Commissioner’s Court vote expected on April 13. If all is approved as planned, the two parties would turn the land over to the Dynamo for construction on Oct. 1, and the stadium is scheduled for completion April 1, 2012, just in time for the Dynamo season to begin.

Rendering of Dynamo Stadium: Populous

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Proposed Developments
03/19/10 4:16pm

Where the New Light Rail Lines Are Stuck

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Public Transportation
22 Comments

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:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Fort Bend County
03/19/10 10:51am

Extending Metro’s Main St. Rail Line to Fort Bend County

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Proposed Developments, Public Transportation, Quicklink
38 Comments

EXTENDING METRO’S MAIN ST. RAIL LINE TO FORT BEND COUNTY 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]

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Art
03/18/10 12:50pm

Pearland Heads Cut Off: The WaterLight District’s Giant Presidential Bust

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Cancellations and Delays, Financing, Foreclosures, Mixed Use, Parks, Pearland, Proposed Developments, Public Art
14 Comments

President Heads above Mud at Presidential Park and Gardens, Waterlights District, Pearland, Texas

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:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Comments
03/16/10 2:39pm

Comment of the Day: Montrose Ain’t Like It Used To Be

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Montrose, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Quicklink
7 Comments

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]

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Lancaster Place
03/15/10 12:07pm

What the Montrose Land Defense Coalition Really Wants To See at Wilshire Village

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Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Trees
42 Comments

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”:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Lancaster Place
03/12/10 12:07pm

How Certain Is That Montrose H-E-B?

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Proposed Developments, Quicklink
2 Comments

HOW CERTAIN IS THAT MONTROSE H-E-B? “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]

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Financing
03/10/10 9:56pm

Mayor Parker: Maybe We Can’t Build the University or Uptown Light Rail Lines

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Proposed Developments, Public Transportation, Quicklink
51 Comments

MAYOR PARKER: MAYBE WE CAN’T BUILD THE UNIVERSITY OR UPTOWN LIGHT RAIL LINES 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]

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Lancaster Place
03/10/10 2:45pm

Looks Like That Publicity Campaign for the New Montrose H-E-B Has Already Begun

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Land for Sale, Neighborhood Disputes, Parks, Proposed Developments, Quicklink
25 Comments

LOOKS LIKE THAT PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN FOR THE NEW MONTROSE H-E-B HAS ALREADY BEGUN 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]

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Houston Heights
03/05/10 11:12am

H-E-B Plans To Build a Montrose Grocery Store at Wilshire Village

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Lancaster Place, Proposed Developments, Retail
59 Comments

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?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Comments
03/04/10 2:39pm

Comment of the Day: The Wilshire Village Curse

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Development Strategies, Lancaster Place, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Redevelopment
9 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE WILSHIRE VILLAGE CURSE “. . . I think we can officially call this site cursed as everyone who has anything to do with it seems to begin making insane decisions about what to do with it. A grocery store?? Really?!?” [mstark, commenting on H-E-B: Yes, We’re Buying the Wilshire Village Site]

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Buying and Selling
03/04/10 12:09pm

H-E-B: Yes, We’re Buying the Wilshire Village Site

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Lancaster Place, Land Sales, Proposed Developments
18 Comments

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]

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Galleria
03/01/10 10:06am

Post Oak Strip Centers Versus the Uptown Light Rail Plan: The Gathering Storm

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Proposed Developments, Public Transportation, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers, Traffic
70 Comments

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?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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