Swamplot Archives by Tag:
Sprawl

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Greenway Commons: Gas Station Too!

March 5, 2008 – 11:42 pm

Greenway Commons Costco at Richmond and Weslayan, Houston

Didja know that the new Costco going up on the former site of the HISD headquarters building at the corner of Richmond and Weslayan . . . is gonna have its very own gas station right out front?

Costco liked the idea of coming inside the Loop so much . . . it decided to bring all its friends! The city just issued a building permit for the new Costco Fuel station. But that’s just the latest addition to Greenway Commons, which is turning out to be quite a mix: A 45,420-sq.-ft. LA Fitness is going above the Costco, next to a 4-story parking garage which is connected to a 2-story retail strip center. It’ll all be protected from the busy surrounding streets by more than 500 surface parking spaces and 2 corner pad sites slated for “banks.” In back: a 550-unit Morgan Group luxury apartment complex . . . with two more separate garages!

After the jump, more drawings and plans of this surprising development.

Continue Reading This Story >

Read more about: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

11:42 pm | Read more about Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Neighborhoods: Greenway Plaza, New Construction, Parking, Proposed Developments, Retail, Sprawl, Strip Centers
Monday, November 19, 2007

Metro Chief Very Excited About Sprawl

November 19, 2007 – 11:52 am

Aerial View of Wolff Companies Projects Along I-10

Sure, Metro talks a lot about transportation in this city’s central districts. But a Houston Business Journal profile shows us Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority Chairman David Wolff is also enthusiastic about Houston’s westward spread:

Many developers are building various types of commercial properties west of Houston and beyond.

The city of Katy, with an estimated population of 205,000, sits square in the path of Houston’s westward growth pattern.

“The whole city is going that way,” Wolff says. “I think Katy is going to be the next Sugar Land.”

He recalls the creation of Park 10, and how much the area has grown over the last three decades.

Says Wolff: “It was just rice fields. That was really the edge of the world then.”

After the jump, the METRO Board Chairman’s exciting projects way out west, plus how to get folks in the “next Sugar Land” to build freeway on- and off-ramps for your developments!

Continue Reading This Story >

Read more about: , , , , , , , , , ,

11:52 am | Read more about Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Freeways and Toll Roads, Katy, Land Development, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Investing, Sprawl, Transportation
Tuesday, November 6, 2007

What Those Inspired Masters Are Planning near Alvin

November 6, 2007 – 10:48 am

Map of Proposed Aperion Communities Developments

Why do we need the Grand Parkway? To connect all those new green-living communities spreading way out into the Texas prairie!

An Arizona development company is master-planning a master-planned community for a tiny 4,000-plus-acre plot in Alvin, linking the Grand Parkway, FM 1462, and highway 288. Yes, that’s bigger than Shadow Creek Ranch.

It’s called Inspiration at Alvin, if you believe the mayor, or Inspiration @ Chocolate Bayou if you believe the Aperion Communities website.

Alvin mayor Gary Appelt announced that the expected population when the project is built out — in 30 years — is 25,000 people. That’s just over six people per acre. No wonder they’re calling it green!

Inspiration is the first lifestyle enhanced sustainable community model ever created. It’s where Aperion’s programs for energy, health, business and transportation are connected directly to your home.

The company website lists the development at a just-slightly larger 5,500 acres, which means residents will have even more room to spread their windmills. Aperion is also threatening a 6,000-acre development called Inspiration @ Lake Houston. All in all, there are five Inspiration communities proposed for Texas and two for New Mexico. That’s more than 36,434 acres of currently wasted farms and ranchland transformed into sustainable, productive living spaces. Go green!

Read more about: , , , , , , ,

10:48 am | Read more about Brazoria County, Development Strategy, Land Development, Master-Planned Communities, Proposed Developments, Sprawl
Monday, October 22, 2007

Big! Lots for Small! Fry

October 22, 2007 – 8:02 am

Firewheel Village Shopping Center, Garland, Texas

Worried that all those big-money real-estate investors have turned the Texas landscape into an unending sprawl of soulless shopping centers populated by the same boring chain stores?

Well, worry no longer! That’s right: Now even small investors can get in on the act!

As of this month, a new company called Nexregen will let even grumpy, middle-income sprawl curmudgeons put their money where their mouth is—by investing in shopping centers, strip malls, and other commercial real estate with as little as $2500.

For now, the options are limited: Nexregen is for Texas investors only, and there’s only one property available so far: the 14.5-acre, 148,870-square-foot Firewheel Village Shopping Center in the sprawling Dallas satellite of Garland, Texas, pictured above.

Yes, it’s a REIT, but you’re investing in a single property at a time. And that’s a pretty small minimum investment. If you think Houstonians aren’t proud enough of their commercial strips—or that there aren’t enough of them—just wait until Nexregen sells property here!

Read more about: , , , , , , ,

8:02 am | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, For Sale by Owner, Real Estate Investing, Shopping Centers, Sprawl, Strip Centers
Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Big, Expensive HISD Box To Be Replaced by Big, Cheap Costco Box

August 7, 2007 – 11:05 pm

Former HISD Central Administration Building on Richmond

Proposed Costco on Richmond

The building was simply too big, too lavish, too expensive, too outmoded, and too hot a property for a school district to keep. The site was prime real estate, near the projected path of a new rail line, and perfect—said the buyers—for a dense “New Urbanist-style” mixed-use center. The big concrete box surrounded by parking just didn’t seem to make sense. So after HISD sold its Central Administration building on Richmond at Weslayan, Trammell Crow Co. had it razed last year to make the site ready for new, fresher, denser development.

And the new development is . . . a Costco! With an LA Fitness above it! Plus some outside-the-mall-style pad sites in a big surface parking lot facing Richmond! A small parking garage too. Oh, and an apartment complex tucked in back.

What happened?

[Trammell Crow project manager Craig] Cheney said the project had quietly shifted direction some time ago.

“We looked around, and we had all these competing projects with integrated residential, office and retail, all competing for the same few retailers,” he said. “Life is too short to get into that kind of situation.”

So the project — which had an initial design including a hotel, high-rise and garden homes, a bookstore, grocery store and other features integrated into one “village” — took on a different form.

Shorter version: Costco wanted the site, so the developers jumped at the chance for some of that inside-the-loop big-box excitement.

After our jump, dreamy architect sketches of Paseo, the mixed-use European-style “lifestyle center” Trammell Crow and the Morgan Group waved in front of us for a brief, shining moment in our—yes, too-short lives.

Continue Reading This Story >

Read more about: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

11:05 pm | Read more about Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Development Strategy, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Greenway Plaza, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, Sprawl
Friday, July 7, 2006

Music Festival Planners Offer Gentle Critique of Houston: How Do You Navigate This Thing?

July 7, 2006 – 3:04 pm

Some visitors to last weekend’s blockbuster Essence Music Festival at Reliant Park had a hard time getting around Houston:

“It was a difficult city to navigate and that can’t be ignored,” said Michelle Ebanks, president of Essence Communications Inc. “The end result was a general lack of systems to manage the sprawl. Houston underestimated the enormity and significance of this event.”

Festival organizers said they heard numerous complaints from attendees related to the distance between hotels, shopping, downtown entertainment and Reliant Park, where the Essence Festival was held.

But Houston officials said the transportation hiccups that occurred during the three-day festival were the result of taking on the challenge of hosting the national event with less than a year to prepare.

Ebanks said organizers had suggested that free or subsidized shuttles be available to ferry attendees about town but that did not occur.

Don’t these people have cars? That’s our “system to manage sprawl.” Sheesh. Next thing you know, these folks will be complaining about a lack of nightlife.

Oh . . .

While transportation was a major issue for attendees, Ebanks said many also complained that after the late night concerts ended there was nothing for them to do.

Who are these people? Event planners or city planners? Remind us what the difference is, again?

Councilman Ronald Green sets the tourists straight, though:

Green, who has attended the event in past years, said the community did “just the minimum” in hosting the event.

He said Houston’s layout is different from that of New Orleans, and event attendees will have to deal with sprawl. But he said the city could do more to appear hospitable.

Read more about: , , , ,

3:04 pm | Read more about Neighborhoods: Reliant Park, Nightlife, Transportation, Uncategorized