Here’s the latest cloud-edged rendering of what could be coming to the corner of Yale and W. 21st streets, if Wellington Development gets its requested setback variance wish granted. A reader noticed the notice of the request posted outside of the building currently at 2105 Yale, which formerly housed Dorsey’s Beauty Academy prior to a decade of abandonment.
Wellington bought the spot last July, around which time Collum Commercial put out a leasing flyer showing a new floor-slash-parking plan for the property, which is boxed in on the non-Yale-and-21st-streets sides by the 2125 Yale apartments. Planned renovations to the building, which is listed in county records as 13,000 sq.ft., appear to involve some major trimming and resculpting to fit in new off-street parking spaces:
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Another floorplan, submitted to the agenda of yesterday’s city planning commission meeting, shows the building pared down to about 5,000 sq.ft. and subdivided up for 3 tenants:
Other documents submitted for the latest round of consideration of the variance request show the intended footprint of that outdoor patio area being depicted on the 21st St. side (in tomatoey orange below); those diagrams indicate that the existing building on the site is already toeing over the property line, anyway:
Here’s a closeup of the patio plans, pulled out of 2D:
- Heights Retail Development [Collum Commercial]
- Retail developer plans project in “vibrant Heights” [Houston Chronicle]
Images: eStudio Architecture (renderings), Swamplot inbox (photo)
Future customers, no matter if they arrived on foot, bike, transit, or car, will all be paying for the costs associated with the demo of this building and construction of its parking lot through the increased price on goods they will purchase. Only one cohort of those customers will actually be using this required parking. Another great example of the poor subsidizing the habits of the well-off and the congestion inducing policies that free, ample parking produces.
JT: I agree with you. These parking minimums cause a catch-22 in the desire to have more open/walkable areas.
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I have a property that,s steps from a light rail stop, and SURROUNDED on all sides by new class A properties. Yet it’s required to have 10000 parking spots. And it’ll only be open at night when the street parking will otherwise be unused.
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So dumb.
Cody: 10,000 parking spaces??? just curious, what is it?
Super great news for North Yale. One of the last handful of remaining eyesores on the way out.
Interesting to see all the comments posted. This building has been vacant for over a decade, we feel that our redevelopment will be an asset to the area. Our intention is to create value while using a portion of the existing building and hide the parking in the rear. It’s not the cheapest route, but better for the neighborhood. We want to be a good neighbor to all.
I hope this gets approved. While I hate the ridiculous parking minimums, I hate setback requirements even more. Nothing has contributed more to the suburbanization of the inner loop than front parking for (almost) every building.
My neighbor’s and I are so excited about this! The old closed down Dorsey Beauty Salon is such as eye sore. YIKES! But the developers should be aware that there are a lot of crazies in the Heights that protest everything and are against positive changes. It seems that they (and they are a small minority) would like to go back to dirt streets with horses and buggies. LOL. I have directly heard one of these mental cases in a meeting assert that they wanted to protest a past development “just for the sake of protesting”. Anyway, the new breed of Heights residents welcome this development and wish the owners the best of luck!