Swamplot Archives by Tag: Regent Square

Friday, May 15, 2009

Grave Discovery: The Secret Chicken Rituals Going on Next to Regent Square

May 15, 2009 – 4:52 pm

Okay, whichever of you folks has been doing that weird secret ceremony thing with the chicken and the bone and all down at the cemetery at West Dallas and Gross St.? Well, the gig is up! Swamplot is on to you! Or . . . at least a couple of camera-wielding readers are:

College Park Memorial Cemetery on W. Dallas (where Jack Yates among others is buried) is getting cleaned up and cleaned out, the better to walk the dog through. Interestingly enough, it may be getting used for other purposes as well. We have seen two dead chickens – having never seen any live ones there, and just yesterday, after discovering the second chicken, we also found a tableau of objects at the base of a hollow tree – a large, LARGE bone (about 15 in long), conch and scallop shell, nicely arranged, and a dead bird, stretched out to show his skeleton.

Hmmm . . . could this have anything to do with that 28-story Regent Square condo tower that’s slated to go up next door?

Parade of shocking, non-vegetarian-friendly photographic evidence follows:

Continue Reading This Story >

4:52 pm | 4 Comments | Read more about Condos, Critters, Neighborhoods: North Montrose, Proposed Developments
Read more about: , , , , , ,
Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Regent Square Loft, Soft Launch

May 6, 2009 – 2:57 pm

Okay, everybody out with your Regent Square renderings! HAIF’s lockmat digs up images of additional structures planned for the 15-acre North Montrose mixed-use complex, including two separate projects from the Venezuelan Miami architect Luis Pons.

What’ve we got here?

Pons’s “Regent Square Launch” looks more like a transit station than a boathouse. But who knows? Buffalo Bayou is just across Allen Parkway!

Many more pics:

Continue Reading This Story >

2:57 pm | 4 Comments | Read more about Lofts, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Neighborhoods: North Montrose, Proposed Developments
Read more about: , , , , , , ,
Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Regent Square Cemetery Condo Tower: 28 Stories, 2 Faces

May 5, 2009 – 12:45 pm

Here’s a view of the 28-story condo tower New York’s Handel Architects is designing for Regent Square, the 15-acre mixed-use project GID Urban Development Group is planning for North Montrose. The 450,000-sq.-ft. tower is meant for Regent Square’s westernmost reaches: the corner of West Dallas and Greenwich Place, just east of the College Memorial Park Cemetery.

Each of the 150 condos in the building has a balcony. All the units on the western face, shown above, have indented double-height outdoor spaces. The sleek eastern face, looking toward Downtown, is very different: It has a floor-to-ceiling curtainwall. Handel expects the building to be LEED-certified.

More images:

Continue Reading This Story >

12:45 pm | 22 Comments | Read more about Condos, Highrises, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Neighborhoods: North Montrose, Proposed Developments
Read more about: , , , , , , ,
Thursday, April 9, 2009

Letting the TIRZs Flow

April 9, 2009 – 10:36 am
   

Work on public improvements connected to the 4-million-sq.-ft. Regent Square project in North Montrose will begin by October, and work on the actual development will begin by a year later, according to an agreement approved by city council yesterday. GID Urban Development Group, the project’s developers, will be reimbursed for $10 million of its work on public streets and sidewalks through the Memorial Heights TIRZ. What’s next? “[Mayor] White said he generally has shied away from such public-private development efforts, but would continue to review opportunities on a case-by-case basis for distressed properties, such as Sharpstown Mall, and for other major projects already in the works that have been delayed or canceled amid the national economic crisis. . . . The mayor made note of a number of properties to which he hopes to attract developers, including in the Leland Woods TIRZ near Homestead Road and East Little York, the Near Northside TIRZ immediately north of downtown Houston, and in the Fifth Ward TIRZ. Other potential incentive packages may not be administered through a TIRZ, he added.” [Houston Chronicle; previously in Swamplot]

10:36 am | 3 Comments | Read more about Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Neighborhoods: North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Taxes
Read more about: , , , , , , , ,
Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Time for TIRZ: Regent Square’s Tax Break from the Future

April 1, 2009 – 11:31 am

What’s inside that special $10 million life-support package for the Regent Square development City Council is considering?

The reimbursements proposed for Regent Square would be administered through the expansion of the Memorial Heights Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone. Under a TIRZ, property tax revenues generated within the boundaries are frozen at a specified level. As development occurs and property values rise, tax revenue above that level, known as the increment, is funneled back into the zone to pay for infrastructure and capital improvements to help attract further development.

Under the plan before council today, part of the increment will be given back to the specific developer rather than the redevelopment authority that operates the TIRZ.

Continue Reading This Story >

11:31 am | 18 Comments | Read more about Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Neighborhoods: North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Taxes
Read more about: , , , , , , , ,
Friday, November 21, 2008

Die, Sell, or On Hold: Big Houston Projects in Crisis

November 21, 2008 – 1:14 pm

What effects have difficulties with bank financing stemming from the global financial crisis had on some of those big new developments planned for Houston? The Houston Business Journal’s Jennifer Dawson weighs in with a “Where Are They Now?” roundup:

  • Regent Square: That big design change meant a year’s delay; the first parts of the 24-acre Inner Loop development are now scheduled to start construction in the second quarter of 2009. A marketing center will open at 1203 Dunlavy next month, but have some more official kickoff in February.
  • Sonoma: “Called off — for now,” but you already knew that. According to Dawson, it wasn’t so much the banks but the developer that grew skittish:

Continue Reading This Story >

1:14 pm | 15 Comments | Read more about Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Retail
Read more about: , , , , , , , , ,
Thursday, August 28, 2008

Grave Concerns for Regent Square

August 28, 2008 – 5:49 pm
   

The College Memorial Park Cemetery once stretched across the entire block bounded by Dunlavy, W. Clay, Gross, and W. Dallas. Portions of the Allen House Apartments were built on former cemetery land that was sold in the 1960s. So what will the developers of Regent Square do? “In a statement, the company vice president said his group has created a site excavation action plan which includes continual archeological monitoring. So far, there is no documentation showing that the graves exist, but all parties agree that remains need to be preserved. The biggest goal is to restore the entire cemetery to what it use to be.” [11 News]

5:49 pm | 1 Comment | Read more about Hazards, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Neighborhoods: North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Redevelopment
Read more about: , , , , , , , ,
Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Regent Square Ghost Tower: I Come from the Future

July 15, 2008 – 11:06 am

View of Proposed Regent Square, North Montrose, Houston, Showing Ghost Tower in the Distance

This updated rendering of Regent Square’s central square, showing a ghost-like tower looming in the not-so-distant distance, has been posted to CBRE’s leasing page for the project, notes sharp-eyed HAIF user ChannelTwoNews. A reader sent it to us, too.

What is it?

Two condo towers are planned for the first phase of the project. In a rendering leaked to us back in May, the condo towers are are drawn as shadowy boxes. But this new ghost tower isn’t one of them.

After the jump: the ghost of Regent Square’s future!

Continue Reading This Story >

11:06 am | 1 Comment | Read more about Condos, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Neighborhoods: North Montrose, Proposed Developments
Read more about: , , , , , ,
Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The New Regent Square: Details and Drawings

May 27, 2008 – 11:23 am

Aerial View of New Regent Square Square, Houston

Thanks to two helpful readers, we have a solid update on Regent Square, now that the GID Urban Development Group has straightened out that kink in its plans. First comes word of updated drawings, panned in dizzying Ken Burns-worthy passes on the development’s website. And then: more of the scoop!

It’s all waiting for you, after the jump: a report on presentations at last week’s meeting of the North Montrose Civic Association, plus stationary images of the new Regent Square, lovingly stitched together for your at-a-glance perusal by another Swamplot correspondent.

Continue Reading This Story >

11:23 am | 7 Comments | Read more about Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Neighborhoods: North Montrose, Proposed Developments
Read more about: , , , , ,
Thursday, May 22, 2008

Regent Square Developers: Parking Garages Scared Us Straight

May 22, 2008 – 9:38 am

Axonometric of Proposed Regent Square Development, North Montrose, Houston

Those of you still wondering why Regent Square’s quaint crooked street was axed from the project’s most recent plan — along with a few lush-looking inner courtyards — will be interested to read this explanation unearthed from a variance request submitted to the Planning Commission for today’s hearing:

After careful value engineering, it was determined to eliminate the below grade parking and replace that parking in additional structured garage parking. In addition, the diagonal private street that bi-sected the site has been modified and now runs perpendicular to Dunlavy. This also provided for a more efficient design of the structured parking garages.

After the jump: The new plan. When . . . and what?

Continue Reading This Story >

9:38 am | Add a Comment | Read more about Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Neighborhoods: North Montrose, Parking, Proposed Developments, Streets
Read more about: , , , , , , , ,
Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The Kink Is Gone: Those Revised Plans for Regent Square

May 14, 2008 – 12:17 pm

Master Plan, Regent Square, North Montrose, Houston, March 26, 2008

A helpful reader who lives across the street from “what will hopefully become Regent Square and not self-storage” sends us a link to this revised master-plan drawing for the proposed North Montrose multi-block monster. The new plan matches the new drawing we posted yesterday.

After the jump: some closeups, plus another look at the old version for comparison.

Continue Reading This Story >

12:17 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Neighborhoods: North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Streets
Read more about: , , , , , ,
Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Going Straight: Regent Square Follows a New Path

May 13, 2008 – 7:58 am

Axonometric of Proposed Regent Square Development, North Montrose, Houston

This new drawing provides a sneak peek of the latest plans for Regent Square in North Montrose. And it shows a few changes from earlier views of GID Urban Development Group’s new 24-acre mixed-use project.

Earlier drawings showed several new streets cutting diagonally through the site of the recently demolished Allen House Apartments. But this latest leaked drawing of the complex’s first phase shows a straightened north-south axis coming off Allen Parkway, resulting in buildings with fewer odd angles.

This new drawing dates from late April. Our tipster reports:

. . . they will have some pretty cool apartments there in addition to condos and retail. This pic shows allen pkwy on the far right. The 2 shadows are the condo towers. The apartments will be 5 and 8 stories in multiple buildings and will have some awesome amenities including the rooftop pool you can see there.

After the jump: Closeups of the new drawing, plus a longing last look at those kinky old plans!

Continue Reading This Story >

7:58 am | 3 Comments | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Neighborhoods: North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Streets
Read more about: , , , , , ,
Monday, October 1, 2007

Allen House Demo Pix

October 1, 2007 – 8:57 am

Allen House Demolition

Charles Kuffner shows us a few photos from the Allen House demolition last week. Going up in its place: Regent Square.

8:57 am | Read more about Demolitions, Proposed Developments
Read more about: , , ,