The duo of 1970s midrises and their parking garage companion on the I-10 block edged by Town and Country Way, Ln. and Blvd. has gotten the ol’ chain-link wraparound in the last few weeks, a reader notes. Midway bought the office park a few years ago to assimilate it into the northern side of the CityCentre complex; since the purchase, 15-story office highrise CityCentre Five has been completed, across Town and Country to the south (and visible on the left above).
Plans for the freshly barricaded block appear to include those 2 planned office towers Midway started trying to lease out last year; previous renderings of the spot also include a residential highrise:
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Also visible in the renderings of the expansion is that ring road planned at the nexus of Town and Country Blvd. and the proposed extension of Town and Country Way; the bill for some of that roadwork may be footed by TIRZ 17.
- CityCentre Expansion To Include Offices, Retail and Apartments [Houston Chronicle (2014)]
- Previously on Swamplot: Midway Planning New Mixed-Use Development on Methodist Hospital Land Southeast of CityCentre; The Next 2 Buildings at CityCentre; Straits at CityCentre: Courtyards Are the Devil’s Playground
Images:Â Stephen Garcia (photos), Midway (rendering)
Dear Midway,
Super! You are going to add more offices and residential. Congrats! How about adding a sundry store or a few quick food options that tailor more towards people that work in the office space that you have already built instead of sit down restaurants that take forever. We get that you want the entertainment and shopping to be the main experience but you have 5 office buildings, a hotel and apartments and yet you DO NOT HAVE THE BASIC AMMENITIES FOR THEM within reasonable walking distance (remember this is Hot Houston). It’s boggles the mind. Learn something from the tunnels in downtown.
MicroscopeHouston did a report on how midway is ripping off taxpayers to pay for a roundabout close to here. Wonder what subsidies this new project will get? Midway used to be about walkability but once they create a hub, they just build office towers and donut apartments. So generic blah.
Midway needs to pay for all of its improvements….Im sick and tired of the city subsidizing anything. Midway owns the buildings, is paying through the nose the high property taxes, its not going to let it just sit there…its going to build it. The person who benefits from this the most needs to pay for it.
They have already made city centre a miserable experience, with virtually zero free parking, and valets or reserved parking encompassing over 60% of the place.
I also think Midway needs to answer for its impact on flooding….City Cetnre seems to be putting an awful lot of water into the surrounding areas. Its time for this to end. We should study ending credit for previous impervious surfaces because all that is happening now is that commercial space is flooding residential because they can.
Talk about needing an aspirin….all you guys do is complain. Do you really think Houston would be better off with Town and Country Mall and some tired old office buildings? If CityCentre’s biggest problem is parking, I’d say they are doing okay.
@Tirz watch Where is the roundabout going you mention?
Midway’s recent move to meter all the ground floor parking in the CC garages was pitched to office tenants as a move to maximize parking turnover for retail customers. A month in to the new policy, with utilization rates of this new metered space hovering in the single digit percentages, the change has proven to be only an attempt to maximize Midway revenue
@Walker, you can read about the roundabout at their website microscopehouston.com. they seem to be covering this pretty close.
@Tirz: read the article. Sounds like business as usual; rich people behaving badly, shafting the plebs yet again.
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Link for the lazy: http://www.microscopehouston.com/west-houston-gets-a-roundabout/
@Tirz watch and @brian, do y’all know who is behind the website microscopehouston.com?