- Fresh Market Opens First Texas Store Today in Former Rice Epicurean Spot at W. Holcombe and Kirby, with 3 Others Soon To Follow [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Greenspoint Trying To Revamp Image of Crime, Large Vacancies To Attract New Office Tenants [GlobeSt.com]
- Median Price of Single-Family Houston Home Rose 12.9 Percent to $192K [Prime Property]
- TxDOT Seeks To Reduce Congestion, Enhance Safety at FM 529 and Texas 6 [Houston Chronicle]
- That Traffic Jam Trayvon Martin Verdict Protesters Caused on Hwy. 288 [KHOU; slideshow]
Photo of the Club Quarters Hotel at 710 Fannin: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Greenspoint mall will always be called Gunpoint mall. Just like downtown, if you want to change the reputation, you have to change the environment.
Benny,
“Greenspoint mall will always be called Gunpoint mall.”
So according to your logic, if the environment changes, it will still be called Gunpoint (at least by you). Good job.
The environment has not changed. Everytime I drive through that area I see people drinking 40s with their pants falling down.
There’s density in Greenspoint with all of the apartments so why isn’t it a very hip place? Maybe they just need to make it more walkable in order to attract young professionals and the creative class.
I drive through that area every single day and I don’t see people drinking 40s with their pants falling down. (I do see people eating chicken and waffles at Resie’s; in other words, this is still a heavily African American neighborhood, which probably colors a lot of people’s perceptions.)
What are the TM people protesting against? TM was clearly the aggressor and GZ clearly was within his rights and the law itself.
Moral of the story: Don’t bring Skittles to a gun fight.
Maybe my comment was a bit of an exaggeration. My wife works in the area so I drive through occasionaly. I see a lot of people who seem to have no job milling around and hanging out on the street corners during the middle of a weekday. I see trashed out old sedans with 22″ wheels on them. I don’t want to be around people that drive a $500 car with $2000 wheels on them. For some reason I don’t see people doing this in my neighborhood.
Moral of the story is: don’t shoot a kid walking home with a bag of skittles.
jgriff
What stretches of what streets are you seeing this stuff that you mention? I’ve worked in Greenspoint for 5 years and haven’t seen anything like that.
Then you are just not progressive if you do not want to constantly be around the refuse of society/feel guilty about it and are a bad person.
@Alan. Moral of the story: Don’t jump on someone and try to kill them for following you.
I want a security officer in my neighborhood to engage anyone in a conversation to make sure things are like they’re supposed to be, that’s their job. When I was a teenager, it happened all the time, and I don’t remember jumping any of them and giving them a beatdown. A little civility and some small talk on TM’s part could have gone a long way.
In order to change the public perception of Greenspoint, changes would need to happen, not saying that they will, but should:
– Cut government subsidized housing. Why would a corporation want to move to an office park surrounded by projects.
– Fix the BW8/45 interchange. Every morning there is heavy bottlenecking on BW8 Eastbound, that’s what happens when you suddenly merge 5 lanes to 3.
– Greenspoint mall needs to go.
– The management district should provide some kind of incentive for businesses to revitalize themselves, who is going to want to move to an area that looks like was last upgraded in the late 80s.
I do believe it can be corrected, and it should serve as an example for developers and massive corporations to plan smarter before they go and build massive suburban campuses in Huntsville or Colombus.
more importantly guys, i think jgriff just solved the thousands year old issue of poverty. just act like jgriff and his neighbors and we’ll suddenly have 6MM more jobs in this country.
this is big news!!!
I work in Greenspoint, too. It’s poor and the mall is crappy (but the movie theater is very nice), but the “Gunspoint” reputation doesn’t jibe with my personal experience. Then again, I have never gone into a Greenspoint apartment complex parking lot late at night to buy drugs–that could change my opinion.
That said, you can find people milling around on street corners in the neighborhood where I live, too. It’s a scary little neighborhood called Memorial.
@ LRS: While some apartment complexes in Greenspoint might accept Section 8 vouchers, it is not “government subsidized housing.” These are simply privately owned properties that have devolved to low-mod rent Class B/C. You can’t raise the rent because people who can afford to pay more in rent refuse to live in that area.
commonsense,
Valid notion. Unfortunately, even by his own account, GZ did not once try to engage TM in a conversation even when he admitted he had the opportunity when TM walked past his car while he was sitting inside.
@4×4,
Moral of THIS story is: if someone is following you, kill him first and just claim that you feared for your life and then go home a free man. GZ got it right.
@ Local Planner: I just don’t know if potential office space seekers actually distinguish section 8 from class B/C apartments. A low income neighborhood is never something established corporations want to be close to. So long as Greenspoint continues to be surrounded by low income (don’t see it changing in the near future), it will continue to lose big company leases, so the focus may have to be growing companies, and being able to retain them.
The only other thing that may help Greenspoint would be … light rail.
@LRS agreed, I was just trying to make sure readers didn’t perpetuate an inaccuracy.
However, the office market in Greenspoint really isn’t bad at all, especially by Houston standards. Exxon’s vacancy will be large, but most experts believe it will get filled without too much problem. The regional access to Greenspoint is better than most of the other suburban centers, plus it is close to IAH, which is important for some tenants. And a number of the buildings themselves are quite nice (Hines wouldn’t own anything trashy).
@Alan: I hope you are never on a jury.
I remember working at the Bennigan’s on BW8 in the early 1980s when Greenspoint was indeed the hip, cool area to live in. They couldn’t build apartments fast enough to handle the influx of Yankee immigrants such as myself. Then the oil bust happened in ’85, and that area became a ghetto practically overnight. It’s taken years for Greenspoint to recover from that.
That’s why all this new apartment construction makes me a bit nervous, especially large concentrations of units in one area. Our economy is still energy-heavy, and if the price of oil drops far enough, we could see the same situation again.
For Greespoint to work again it has to be made attractive. If given a thorough make-over, Greenspoint coutld be a fabulous ‘Front Door’ for Houston. But first:
1. The power lines along BW8 between I-45 and JFK Blvd must go underground.
2.BW8 between I-45 and US-59 must be widened.
3. The interchanges at I-45/BW8 and US-59/BW8 must be modernized.
4. Greenspoint Mall has to go, and that entire quadrant where it is should be replaced with a CityCentre type development with elegant 20 – 40 story office and residential luxury towers, creating an exciting walkable neighborhood for business and pleasure.
5. Developers/City leaders must rebrand/rename Greenspoint. Perhaps:
* Emerald City at Greenspoint Plaza
* Greenspoint City
* GreensPlace Plaza
* GreensPark Place
* CityCentre at GreensPark Place
It’s not that difficult folks, just needs good marketing. And you can’t ‘half-ass,’ all #’s 1 – 5 must happen to do it right. What’s difficult is getting good leadership to do it.
In essence, that area should say, ‘Welcome To Houston.’
Greenspoint is actually a really nice area, west of all the offices. I have some friends who live in one of the many apartments behind there, and I have driven there at night, and felt a little edgy. Nothing happened to me, but I don’t think anyone would rob someone in a Jetta. (You came to the wrong neighborhood, sweetie).
There are some interesting abandoned townhomes back there. Yes, you seem some shady people walking around, but it’s not that bad in the day light. Of course, saying that, my friends who live there have been broken into twice, and are immigrants, who are shooting for the American Dream.
Brighter street lights could fix the area, but the Mall has got to go. It is a very weird place to go, and you can’t even try anything on because all the clothes are attached to the stands with wire loops.
As far as the offices, they shouldn’t have too much trouble finding tenates, other then Exxon’s $2,000,000.00/yr security budget, the offices are located close to the Airport.