It seems son-of-a-son-of-a-guv Paul Hobby wasn’t quite clear at first what to do with a huge industrial site he bought in the First Ward:
Over the years, Hobby says, there was interest in turning it into an indoor soccer facility. There was also talk of growing lettuce inside the large warehouse. But a year ago, Hobby came up with the idea to create a data center in the space.
But that’s just the start of it. The site is the former Budweiser distribution plant Silver Eagle Distributors left behind when it built its new bunker further west on Washington Ave. Hobby bought the First Ward facility quietly from Silver Eagle in 2004 and leased it back to the company for a while before it left. The site stretches along Edwards St. from Sawyer to Silver, a few blocks north of Washington.
Indoor farm . . . server farm . . . why not? The possibilities are endless! But then, there’s always . . . townhomes!
A row of eight to 10 townhomes are slated to be built along Edwards Street. And an undetermined number of units are being considered for the eastern-most part of the property.
Of course! But it gets better . . .
***
Synergies! Think synergies! Turn negatives into positives! How do we allay the concerns of would-be urban pioneers wary about buying a home next to an industrial site? Make it a real castle:
A manned, elevated security tower at the data center’s entrance would also provide security for the homes.
Yes!!!
- Change brews at Bud warehouse [Houston Business Journal, via Swamplot Inbox]
Photo: Flickr user forcedtothink
This would be interesting to watch. The area from Sawyer to downtown north of Washington is moving forward with lot of new homes like Rice Military did a few years back.
Target has helped this a lot by allowing more convenience to the residents in the area.
And now there’s a new Spec’s Yeah!
WHAT WHAT WHAT?? New Specs? WHERE?!
CK, Where is that at in the first ward?
I don’t know of any Spec’s near there. The only ones even close that I know of currently is their Midtown Location and their clearance location at Westheimer and Montrose.
There is a new smallish Spec’s at the WOW end of Washington at Westcott. We at the east end are closer to the downtown mega-store.
Yeah there actually are two Specs stores adjacent to each other in the strip center on the roundabout at Washington and Wescott. The store on the east side is open longer hours since it doesn’t serve liquor. It has the small deli, beer and wine, along with the various foodstuffs you can generally find at neighborhood Specs. The one on the west side is actually the lickuh stow. Now, even if I forget to get my coffee beans at Costco, if I run out, I can go a few blocks and get my gourmet beans. It still amazes me that the fickle grocery store industry continues to ignore this booming neighborhood. I told them at Specs that they were going clean up at this location.