- Opening Date of First Phase of Katy’s Boardwalk District Pushed Back to Early 2017 [Your Houston News]
- Greenspoint Mall Being Marketed as a Redevelopment Opportunity To Potential New Buyers [Realty News Report]
- 1,000-SF Homes or Smaller for Sale in Houston [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston Chronicle To Complete Move To Former Houston Post Headquarters on Southwest Freeway [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Johnny Rockets To Open First Houston Restaurant in Not-Yet-Open Paragon Outlets [HBJ]
- Stuttgarden Tavern Opening Second Location at Mall of the Mainland in Texas City [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Mayor Halts Stoning of Mecom Fountain To Rethink Alterations [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Houston Steps Up Cleanup in Effort To Combat Zika Virus [Click2Houston]
- ‘Rent the Chicken’ To Let Houstonians Try Their Hand at Having a Coop of Their Own [Houston Press]
Photo of the East End: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Re: Rent-a-Chicken
I read this article to my sister who lives in rural Tennessee on her horse farm, and she literally broke out into laughter. Yes, she has chickens and they do have a personality and she says the eggs taste better, but the prices quoted were crazy …. seems a egg-laying chicken costs about $10 (a chick about a $1) and the portable coop can be easily built for about $25. Seems like this outfit is playing on Katy-ville ignorance…..
Not the first . . . let’s consider the incoming Johnny Rockets a re-entry burn into the local atmosphere. Maybe they think we’ve forgotten how underwhelming they were just a few years ago before closing their previous Houston locations?
Re: Greenspoint Mall Being Marketed as a Redevelopment Opportunity To Potential New Buyers
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The entire mall should be leveled/demolished, and replaced with a very large Discovery Green-like city park/public gathering place with one-of-a-kind attractions, and then surrounded by mixed-use retail, luxury high rises, and other skyscrapers. Its location at I-45/SH Tollway make it Houston’s ‘front door’ by air or car coming in from Bush or driving into the city. It currently looks like Houston’s worn-out dirty doormat, when it should say ‘welcome to Houston.’ The developer who seizes on redeveloping it will hit a gold-mine…a transformed Greenspoint (featuring a great green public space/city park surrounded by luxury high rises/skyscrapers and mixed-use retail) is ideal for everyone, especially millennials who may work in North Houston, The Woodlands or maybe ExxonMobil, but don’t want that much of a suburban lifestyle. If redeveloped correctly, it could easily become a new thriving district…the ‘downtown’ of North Houston.
@TXT Would love for your vision to come to fruition, but there is no way in hell. This is the no-man’s-land between The Woodlands and inner loop Houston, equally distant from both, and equally sapped economically by both. Any inkling of new residential development, economic investment, business opportunity, etc. automatically moves north or south to one of those two more upscale areas. Other hindrances: The terrible traffic conditions of the BW8/I-45 interchange, which make access during peak hours difficult, and the huge flyovers that don’t let you exit for 1 or 2 miles past the interchange. Consistently having one of the worst violent crime rates in the entire metro area. Some of the worst public schools in the metro area. Decaying infrastructure, residential housing stock, and strip centers that are not being kept up because of the economic drain effect already mentioned.
As for it being the ‘front door’ from IAH – not quite. A lot of IAH’s traffic nowadays comes from I-69 and the Hardy Toll Road. If you do happen to use BW8/I-45 via Greens Road to exit the airport, you will only see part of the roof of the mall as you drive over the flyover ramps, already mentioned. That site is destined to be an urban wasteland until a lot of these conditions improve, which will be a long, long time (decades, not years).
WR: Not defending their pricing, but you can’t compare against “I could buy a chicken for $10 and go to home depot and build a cage for $25”
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Most people are not going to go to home depot and build something. There is a time value to most people and I know on my weekend, I’m not going to spend my time building a chicken coop. I’d rather just pay for a service.
Also, how many people living in apartments, midrises, townhomes, etc. have room for a damn chicken coop?
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Come on man. You knew this before you typed your comment…
Mall of the Mainland?
That place still exists?
While any regular high-rise Class A office development or upscale residential or retail is not market feasible in Greenspoint, “value” Class A (tilt wall) and logistics / warehouse is. The mall site would work for both. Not glamorous but a more productive use than what’s there now.
While I’m on the City Ordinances page…
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https://www.municode.com/library/tx/houston/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=COOR_CH6ANFO_ARTIIKEFORAGUPI
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It’s illegal to keep chickens inside the city limits unless you’ve got them either inside a building or in a pen that is at least 100 ft from the nearest habitation. This was changed recently to allow “show hens” and commercial fowl, but it still looks like they’ve got to be inside.
^ Good!