Here are the renderings of the apartments that Mill Creek wants to build right across the street from the gameday roar and glare and incessant rhythmic drumming that goes on at BBVA Compass Stadium. Dubbed EaDo Station, the 5-story, 315-unit complex will sit at the corner of Dowling and Texas. Mill Creek tells the Houston Chronicle that the goal is to have these apartments ready to go to coincide with the running of the light rail, still under construction itself, next August.
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This aerial view shows that the apartments would be about 3 blocks from that planned pedestrian path along Bastrop St., the so-dubbed EaDo Promenade.
This appears to be Mill Creek’s second residential foray in Houston. The first, under construction, is that apartment building behind the St. Regis Hotel near the corner of San Felipe and E. Briar Hollow Ln.
- Texas Communities [Mill Creek Residential]
- Some big doings may make EaDo a go-to place [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Previously on Swamplot: Stadium Walking in East Downtown, The Luxury Trackside Apartments Coming to Briar Hollow, A Soccer Ball’s Eye View of the Houston Dynamo’s New East Downtown Stadium
Renderings: Mill Creek Residential
Love to hear how the rail-doesn’t-lead-to-development crowd responds to this
Exactly the type of developments I would love to see more of in that East Downtown area. But is there ground floor retail? :)
I think the argument is that rail doesn’t lead to MORE development, but is certainly can lead to concentrating that development into specific locations.
Love the look of this!
Densify,
That comment is just as bad as denying that the rail could ever have any effect on development.
-just outside downtown
-just outside a developing(since before the rail) entertainment district
-in an area that a lot of people are looking at as the next gentrifying neighborhood
-in an area that has already had a lot of non-rail related development
Yea right, nothing was going to happen if the rail hadn’t been built. Or. Good thing we are spending billions on the rail, see, we are getting an apartment complex.
Densify,
Sure, I don’t know if I’m part of the “crowd”, but I’ll give it a go.
Proximity to downtown is the most important factor, not the rail. The three blocks of apartments E of 59 and S of Texas were there years ago, before the line was planned and before the Dynamo Stadium, and they have more apartments than this new development.
After the real estate market bottomed out, there has been a lot of residential built in East Downtown (and some was built before the recession). The vast majority of it has been single-family housing, and most of it has been more than 5 minutes from any of the planned rail stations. While 4-5 blocks worth of housing has been built near the Capitol Station, pretty close to jack $%*^ has been built near the Scott/Leeland station because:
-it’s 1.3 miles to walk to the Dynamo Stadium, and 1.7 to the Astros.
-it’s even further to walk to downtown to get to a job
-there are fewer options for on-street parking in that area (trust me – almost all these people will commute by car every single day)
-it has more crime
Furthermore, other places that are distant to downtown and to freeways but along the planned rail lines have seen very limited development, if any. South of UH on the Southeast Line? Nothing. East Line east of Lockwood? Nothing of significance.
I eagerly await your counterargument that hopefully relies on more than, you know, ONE data point.
awp, the return on investment is astounding. Just spend $670 million, and you get a $20 million apartment complex – which would have been built anyway!
We can argue for a lifetime about what came first, the Chicken or the Egg, but there is no denying that rail has spured development in areas close to the light rail line, I mean who knows if these exact apartments would have been built elsewhere, really no one can say, but to listen to the anti rail crowd praddle on until they’re blue in the face about how light rail adds nothing, is a massive waste of money etc and then listen to them try to explain away the massive amounts of new developement completed and in the pipeline around rail is comical. Light Rail is built for now and the future, its return on investment will be felt for years. The Rail system will grow and connect more and more areas. In time the airports and far flung suburbs will be folded into the line making commuting by rail all the more desirable. You always have the crowd that wants nothing spent and nothing built, thankfully Houston politicians are on board for light rail and thus will continue to expand the rail lines into the future. Rail is the future and Houston is always looking forward.
I appreciate everyone pouncing on my initial comment and some folks actually offering up points to support their opinions. I usually go about trying to defend or diffuse a point based on specific data, but I wanted to try out the unfounded quip just once to see what it was like. Conclusion – it didn’t do much to advance a well-reasoned discussion on the subject, but certainly drew more comments in response.
Again, I LOVE these ProRail/AntiRail arguments:
EiEiO
Why do you cite walking distance from rail stations to points of interest in your argument AGAINST Rail development?
You have made the exact point ProRail folks are trying to make.
Leeland/Scott… seriously? Of course there has been ZERO development a year ahead of the little train making its first stop at the Leeland station… Why would they? Wait and see what the area looks like after the train is running…As you so astutely pointed out, you would have to walk miles to get anywhere worth going. BUT…. what if you could walk out your front door and get on a train that would take you to all the locations you mentioned? Good job, you just made the arguement that rail will spur residential development in areas it travels that would have otherwise been undeveloped for years.
If you look at the site of their other project, it’s pretty obvious that Mill Creek does not place a high premium on site location.
Timing your construction completion with light rail completion does not mean that light rail proximity was critical to site selection. It only means they didn’t want to come to market with new apartments when the site was surrounded by the dust, noise and street lane closures that come with every major infrastructure project.
For every ONE renter at this project who decides to live here due to the light rail proximity, TEN or more will live here because they work on the north side and want easy access to I-45, but still want to live close-in.
The rest will live here because the rents will be cheaper than the areas where they really want to live: Midtown or Montose.
Light Rail will certainly be a magnite to developments…and It will add density to the developments that it attracts, as the land value near the stops is greater. Thus creating transit nodes. Is the anti-rail lobby against this kind of Density…in the City? And to say that this project Named “EaDo Station”…for god sakes…has nothing to do with the rail line…is just wrong. It is clearly built to cater to users of the LR System.
If you look at the site of their other project, it’s pretty obvious that Mill Creek does not place a high premium on site location.
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I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic but their other project is in a very nice area.
What’s your objection?
“Why do you cite walking distance from rail stations to points of interest in your argument AGAINST Rail development?”
Because the walking distance to downtown is far at Scott and much closer at the stadium. THIS explains the area’s attractiveness much more than rail does.
Also, development one year before the rail opens should be attributed to the new rail line at one station? And at the other station – well OF COURSE we shouldn’t expect any development? Are you being facetious?
Pretty sure these would not have been built a couple blocks from Scott and Leeland if light rail wasn’t coming through… Not high-density, but the 2 houses did replace 1 house that had burned down :)
http://swamplot.com/now-listed-the-slightly-bigger-half-of-that-new-small-modern-east-downtown-duo/
Spencer, those’re the exact ones I was thinking of. It’s not no development, but it’s different than what’s going closer to downtown.
On the bright side, the employees at the milk factory will be able to commute by rail if they want.
Eieio…
Development within walking distance of amenities can be expected with or without rail…. At Leeland/Scott the rail becomes the amenity and brings the rest of the city effectively within a “walkable distance” … Therefore, I wouldn’t expect development to occur substantially before rail is operational… Like I said before… Let’s wait and see what kind of development is in the pipeline by October 2014 in the lost ward (Leeland/Scott)
This morning’s light rail was more therapeutic than usual, to the scallywags that never pay. I look forward to increased flow to/from Eado, eventually paying peeps may outnumber the soylent green slurpers, but sofar without any enforcement, these rails are just honey slapped on day-old tamales.
I don’t understand the rail nay-sayers. Some people say the rail doesn’t service everyone, but that’s just because we’ve invested too much on our widening freeways instead of expanding the system. And if the argument is that rail doesn’t service everyone, then what about people who don’t have a car and feel alienated by freeways and our relatively bad transit system?
And I know some people think these things would’ve eventually been built anyway, and maybe they’re right, but this is about planning (or a degree of it) and rebooting the city’s car dependent infrastructure in the long run.
Rail across the street probably added some $ to the land and eventual rents but the lot was hot regardless.
It looks like twin buildings, but one has a roof and the other a sun court. Interesting.
This would be a good place to have a recreational roof area for soccer parties. Then again, the added noise might make living there hellish on gameday.
Hello ladies,
My house near Leeland and Scott has been gaining 10% appreciation since 2009.
Eado is Awesome!
PS: I remember back then no one wanted to touch the neighborhood with a ten foot pole. Fast forward to 2013, every developer in Houston is building out here.
This is an undisputed fact.
@#19 (IS)
Certainly one can argue that if we go back to, for instance, 1970 and allocate X billion dollars to light rail or subway instead of freeways (however politically infeasible or impossible that might have been), that Houston would be a better city. Or at least more walkable. Or less sprawled. Or something like that. You might be right or wrong. It’s an interesting thought experiment. I’m a huge fan of historical fiction and often think what might have been.
However, the money all spent on freeways (and not rail) is sunk costs. I think our energy is better spent starting with the present day and the dollars and current infrastructure that we have. If a $1 billion investment in rail adds more quality development than the same freeway investment, let’s do rail.
God knows without rail the city would be shrinking. Please. Apartments were going to be built anyway.
FWIW. Took the rail from Dryden to Downtown last Thursday at 8:00 am. Train was half full, but no bums so to speak of. Took longer than driving, but was somewhat close (10 minutes more). I’m still convinced the numbers light rail touts to show the light rail is used often is purely the doctor/nurse to parking lot crowd.
@#21, I’m developer in Houston…..not developing in EADO,
Undisputed fact.