DEMOLISHED WESTHEIMER SPY EMPORIUM’S NEXT MISSION: SURFACE PARKING 
The new-ish owner that brought down Spy Emporium‘s abandoned building at 1550 Westheimer Rd. earlier this year is now getting ready to turn the property into a parking lot, reports one local urban planner. The building changed hands at the beginning of this year — around the time the spy shop left for 610 and Westpark — to a group that owns the parcel home to Hugo’s on the other side of Mandell St.. That roughly half-acre property already includes its own set of spots in a back lot north of the restaurant building. Spottier in terms of parking availability: the recently-opened UB Preserv restaurant that took over Poscol’s former space in the strip center across Westheimer from Hugo’s about 2 months ago. It currently shares one lot with the other tenants lined up next door to it: Star Tailors & Alterations, D & S laundromat, and Urban Vapes. [C Money; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Spy Emporium
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Here’s an original idea: walk / cycle ( you know EXERCISE people ) or if you have to be self absorbed/self-anointed / self-absorbed urban hipsters take Lyft ( because Uber isn’t so uber-ish and it sucks… And not in a good way. The LACK of parking in Montrose is insane, yet the bureaucrats @ City Hall only want the money aka the fees projects like this generate…
“happy” sounds a bit unhinged . I also don’t think he knows what a “hipster” is- for if he did, he’d know they’re too poor to afford the ride hailing services aforementioned #CarCultureIsObnoxious
Poor hipsters are poor. Rich hipsters not so much.
I knew this crap was going to happen. There was no good use for this building because there was not enough off-street parking available to meet code requirements. Nevermind the fact that it’s in one of the most walkable locations in the whole city, you still need 3x the parking of the building’s footprint just to put in a small restaurant.
.
So now the neighborhood gets a little bit worse because of our insanely high off-street parking requirements. *Again*.
Christian- I couldn’t agree more. With every new development, Montrose becomes less and less walkable. In the last two years, there have been over 100+ off-street parking spaces created within roughly 1/4mile of this location.
we’re doomed.
Withya Christian, one of things I hate about our city.