NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND UTILITIES Don’t want a hurricane knocking down your power lines again? Move out to a brand new neighborhood! “CenterPoint Energy, the power distribution company for much of the Houston area, has installed 12 times as many miles of underground residential lines as overhead lines in the past two years: 924 miles versus 77. ‘In the marketplace for new homes it’s assumed you’ll have underground lines,’ said Doug Konopka, president of DHK Development. Going back, however, and burying existing lines in older areas, or even the higher-voltage lines that feed new developments with underground lines, is significantly more expensive. Where an above-ground line might cost about $20 per foot, below-ground service can exceed $400 per foot, said Terry Finley, vice president of distribution engineering and services for CenterPoint.” [Houston Chronicle]
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Tag: Utilities
From the company’s website: a current (as of this morning) map of Centerpoint Energy power outages resulting from Hurricane Ike.
It sure looks a lot like Houston.
- Outage and Restoration Updates [Centerpoint Energy]
Photo of W. Alabama near Dunlavy: Swamplot Inbox
AND JUST IMAGINE HOW WELL THEY’D DO IF THERE WERE JOBS OR SHOPPING NEARBY! Discovery at Spring Trails, Land Tejas’s gated and solar-panel-badged community north of Spring, is selling well, says Lisa Gray: “. . . only a few weeks after Discovery put itself on the market, and without even a finished house that would-be buyers can tour, most of the lots ready for building have been optioned, and the developer is scrambling to make more available fast. In fact, Discovery is off to the fastest start of any development in the company’s 11-year history, and Land Tejas expects demand to pick up even more this fall. Already, propelled mostly by Google searches, 200 to 300 people a week are touring the neighborhood’s ‘Discovery Center.'” [Houston Chronicle]
One advantage of keeping your Houston-style Big Tower in a Wealthy Residential Neighborhood project secret: You can plat the property, prepare traffic-impact studies, and upgrade utilities before anyone notices. One downside: Media-savvy neighbors might catch on and announce your project before you do. Or at least release renderings.
Here’s what Buckhead Investment Partners is saying about the 23-story mixed-use tower the company is planning for the current site of the Maryland Manor apartments, on the south side of Bissonnet near Dunlavy: A six-story base will include a 467-car parking garage, space for retail and a restaurant on the ground floor, and five live-work townhomes. An “amenity plaza” level on the sixth floor will have an exercise room, spa, and office space. Above it all: 17 floors of either apartments or condos.
Rainwater collection. LEED-Silver rating. Red-brick exterior with cast-stone details. But best of all is the spin:
The project design has been chosen so that all building residential units will be above the tree line, ensuring the greatest level of privacy for the surrounding neighborhood and the maximum view of Houston’s skylines and tree canopy from the units.
Emerging Boulevard Oaks development strategy: You won’t be able to see us, because we’ll be above the trees.
- We want development…but not that much! [Houston Political Blog]
- High rise plan not picture perfect with Museum District residents [abc13]
- Redevelopment of 1717 Bissonnet [Buckhead Investment Partners, Inc.]
