- Copeland Commercial To Break Ground on 717,706 SF Interstate Commerce Center Office Park Next Month Near FM 1960 and I-45 [Houston Business Journal]
- Apartments in 8-Story Avenue Grove Building at Levy Park To Be Built in Shape of an E To Increase Number of Units with Park Views [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
- Dunkin’ Donuts Continues Aggressive Push into Houston with New Location Opening May 16 Across from West Oaks Mall [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Preservationists Mourn Impending Loss of Art Deco Josephine Apartments [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Paid Seawall Parking Generates Balance of More Than $83K To Put Toward Capital Projects [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Garden Oaks Residents Petitioning Against Alba St. Drainage Project Because of Traffic, Aesthetic Concerns [abc13]
- Remembering Ninfa Laurenzo, the Mother Houston Called ‘Mama’ [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Carts Will Be Delivered Starting This Week for Expansion of Automated Curbside Recycling to 62,000 More Homes [Solid Waste]
- Metro Doesn’t Have Enough Money Reserved To Install Clock Preserved from Former Sterling Laundry Site in Eastwood Park as Planned [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Discovery Green Soliciting Donations for Furniture To Go on New 4.7K SF Ipe Deck Along Brown Promenade [Culturemap]
Photo: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
A common thread between a few articles. Paying for intangible design and architecture.
Tricon is a business. Business pursues the greatest return. If the market supports quality construction and design, the market will provide. As Berlanga said.. You want lofts? We will deliver lofts… But we want to maximize return on investment. It would seem that lofts, given the area could max returns. If the buyer planned to live there for awhile or knew that investment in quality would be rewarded in resale. Likewise, if builders who invested in specialized design and architecture or higher quality materials were rewarded with higher profits, one would assume that it would motivate.
So…if Tricon rebuilt the apartments as designed, but with updated efficiency, charged a higher price, would consumers buy into it?
In other news, additions to projects like the clock to the rail and chairs to the patio go unfunded. These additions enhance the project and have been part of the plan. In essence, the plan is not complete until these ammenities are added. Economics and cost trump final plans.
Why doesn’t midtown get any recycling love? It seems dense town homes full of yuppies would be some of the more avid recyclers if given an option. (Now that may of the easily accessible recycling centers are closed I’m left without an option. Now I’ve just become a crazy hoarder of bottles.)
I could not be happier to be getting a big green can. No more carrying multiple boxes out to the street to get rained on and knocked over.
@Chris, some of Midtown doesn’t get the recycling love because some of Midtown uses a private garbage service. No CoH garbage service means no CoH Solid Waste services at all, including recycling. See e.g. Baldwin Square, which uses the Midtown Management Corp. to manage things like garbage pickup: http://www.baldwinsquare.org/index.php?page=management
Protesting against widening Alba Street. putting in sidewalks and better drainage? Totally “first world, white people” problems. Alba runs from 610 (and I’m not even sure it enters onto 610) to a few block north of 43rd, it isn’t a major thoroughfare and the people who zoom down it now are pretty much locals and will remain so. And as for wanting to avoid becoming a cookie cutter community? Look around you–you may be holdouts in your “vintage” homes, but a big clue, even if you missed all the new homes, is the Perry Homes sales center on Alba & Wakefield that opened last year.
Nearby in Oak Forest many residents want sidewalks for safety issues (pssst: lack of sidewalks is not the problem–it’s the a-hole drivers which we will still have) however for the most part we already have curbs and real drains instead of open ditches. At one time these were sleepy, country like suburban places (there were stables where the Judiway post office stands and a small island in White Oak Bayou somewhere around where the Boy Scout building stands I think) but no longer.
@Chris – careful what you wish for. I live on a block lined with single family homes, but there are two large townhome clusters at the end of the block, each with 48 townhomes between the two. On recycle day, there are 96 trash and recycling cans placed on the curb for those townhomes, vs. only 2 per house on the rest of the block. Of course, there is not nearly enough curbside to accommodate that, especially when the prime areas are taken by parallel-parked cars. And when it’s windy, look out – it becomes trash can rodeo.
Galvetraz has made a whole $83K with it’s Seawall parking in almost a year?? WOWWWWW!!!! SO worth it.
Where are all of the new bathrooms that were promised? Quit dragging your feet.