Early renderings are out for the next round of construction — promised for 2011 — at CityCentre, Midway Companies’ mixed-use assortment on the former site of the Town and Country Mall. The 3rd and 4th office buildings in the complex will together be called CityCentre 3, and they’ll go on the leftover patch of grass just west of the Hotel Sorella, sidling up to Beltway 8. Like the others, the two new 6-story buildings will feature retail space on their ground floors: more than 33,000 sq. ft. out of a total 250,000. The feeder-road view:
***
And zooming in from the hotel entrance:
The drawings were produced in-house; a spokesperson says Midway Companies is still selecting an architect.
Images: Midway Companies
God forbid there be any actual green space.
Zooming red sports car,
you’re free to roam as you please.
No green to stop you.
There’ll probably be better landscaping in the final product.
You’ve got to understand that renderings should never be taken as be a complete or accurate depiction of what will come to be. They are not a binding covenant with the public.
Good to know they are moving forward. I haven’t had time to venture through the place yet. I’m guess over all it’s doing well.
Last time I was there, there still seemed to be lots of vacancies. People show up to drink at the bars, but they are pricey and nothing you can’t find better in other parts of town. (Fortunately, one of the city’s best dive bars, The Burlap Barrel, is in a crappy strip center just around the corner.) The parking garage is never full, which is quite handy when I want to go see a movie there (they have one of those Alamo Drafthouse-style theaters where you can order a burger and a beer, which is nice).
I had a meeting at the conference center, which was a nice set up, but very generic. I can’t figure out what’s generating traffic to the few retail spots, as the movie theater seems pretty dead.
They have a lot of weekend activities, such as car shows, art shows, etc. When I’ve been there on a Friday evening the area was nicely busy (but not crowded). I’ve been impressed.
Although I agree about the theater not being all that busy.
I work right by here and the few times I’ve been it’s been absolutely dead. I appreciate it’s aesthetics and encouragement to park and walk around, but it also made it impossible to find what I was looking for while in the car, which just encouraged me to leave.
I’ll trade you the Heights Walmart for this
I remember all the hoopla before they built that it would be this great euro style street cafe environment. Didn’t turn out that way since they slapped parking slips all along the faux main street and made pedestrian sidewalks wafer thin and akward with blocky supports to buildings overheead. Yes the courtyard green is nice, but they really missed an opportunity to have something more encompassing than the little postage stamp of a greenspace that looks like it is getting overrun a little too much. It gets muddy and beaten up with all the foot traffic.
You’re right Brad. It seems like having on street parking is the new fad these days but it’s really a total waste here. There’s plenty of parking just a few steps away in the garages. The cars lined up in front of the retail are just in the way.
I go to City Centre around 4 times a week and it always seems pretty busy to me. My wife and I tried out Flora and Muse last week. It’s the closest thing there yet to a euro style street cafe environment. Other posters are correct about the theater though. It’s never very busy. Lifetime Fitness brings in a lot of traffic. When I go to work out around 7:00pm the garage is pretty full. We went to a function at the conference center on a Friday a couple weeks ago and the garage was full all the way to the roof.
There’s farmer’s market there on Thursdays. We were at Yard House last night, and all the appetizers were half price. Also, Straights has their 1 year anniversary next Wednesday, free food, free champagne and 2 DJs. You can tell I’m bored to death out here in Memorial.
I come here for lunch almost every day. Hoped to try Cyclone Anaya’s, but the kitchen was broken on the planned opening day Wednesday. Yard House hired so many servers that my regulars have been kicked back to evenings (Ask for Fred if you go there!) I never see the same server twice at RA’s and got into it with one today when he managed to lose my full frequent lunch card sometime during the short walk between my table and the register. I’ll try Flora & Muse next week since I won’t be returning to RA’s anytime soon. Ruggle’s is nice, but the sewerage smell around the parameter rather kills the ol’ appetite.
Ruggle’s and Cyclone Anaya’s are good at their other locations.
Cyclone’s is essentially upscale Tex Mex. Picture Papasitos with imagery of wrestlers everywhere but done tastefully. The brunch at Cyclones on Sunday is good. The midtown and Shepherd locations are packed. Mitdown is usually and hour or long wait if you don’t get their early.
Maybe it’s my own preferences, but I just don’t like the office-chair and mini-table setup of the movie theatre. That being said, the digital projection and sound is awesome… and the food isn’t too overpriced, considering the decent selection of non-traditional fare. Maybe most people just don’t know it’s there yet- it’s not a “destination” for teens like the Edwards theaters. I guess that’s a good thing for movie viewers, bad for sales.
After having worked for the Midway morons, the lukewarm existence of CityCentre is anything but surprising. It is YEARS behind projections. The unleased retail space, empty parking garage and extreme dining incentives are further evidence that this project was never fully planned out and has been developed ‘on the fly,’ as is characteristic of Midway projects. European cafe-style environment indeed. They’ve changed the design concept of CC so many times it would make your head spin. When Midway’s four ‘top dogs’ flew around the country to tour and research other mixed use developments and malls, these ego-maniacs leased a private jet that cost $50K per trip in jet fuel alone instead of flying commercial (per my friends in accounting). Guess first-class wasn’t good enough. All that expense just to rip-off what The Woodlands and Sugar Land had already done, and quite successfully, I might add. (How much is a plane ticket to The Woodlands these days?) What Midway can’t seem to ‘copy’ is the success achieved by other respected commercial developers.
The above comments confirm what I have gathered from knowing a friend that lives in the Lofts. The retail space was not site specific – just generic, so Cyclone Anaya wants to be across from the square it gets the spot; no room for garbage cans and no delivery truck dock. The Lofts are made of 2×4 sticks and rice paper walls so on Sat. morning at 6:30 we hear the delivery trucks idling and a truck dragging the garbage bins off to another location. We hear all the street talk as well. Even the pumps that drive the fire pit water fountains. The Lofts should target the deaf community.