Welcome to Texas. Cellphone pioneer Motorola announced Wednesday that it’s opening a Texas manufacturing facility that will create 2,000 jobs and produce its new flagship device, Moto X, the first smartphone ever assembled in the U.S. The company has already begun hiring for the Fort Worth plant. The site was most recently unoccupied but was [...]
Posts Tagged ‘construction’
Alexan Heights gets approved
The Leader News updates us on the latest news regarding the proposed development on Yale at 7th. Houston’s Planning Commission has approved Trammell Crow Residential’s replat application without variance for the site of its 360-unit Alexan Heights mid-rise luxury apartment at Yale and 6th streets, West Heights Coalition’s website reports. The replat for the 3.5-acre [...]
North Line on track to open early
Excellent. Metro’s North Line light rail extension will open ahead of schedule in December, officials said Thursday, providing the first new light rail service in Houston in almost 10 years. The announcement at the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s monthly board meeting followed a series of delays and setbacks for the agency’s light rail expansion project, authorized [...]
Alexan Heights trying again
The Leader News reports that the proposed mid-rise apartment complex for Yale at 7th Street has been reworked in a way that would avoid the need for a variance. The deed restrictions involved single-family homes within the proposed complex — properties that the owners did not want to sell and that TCR was able to [...]
290 toll lane opens
You solo drivers on US 290 can now take advantage of the HOV lane to make your daily commute a little less grim, beginning today. Based on time of day, drivers will pay between $1 and $5 for using the lanes, while eligible carpoolers can still use them for free. In the mornings, vehicles must [...]
Five years of Discovery Green
Five great years for a great park and an awesome city amenity. Five years after its opening, more than 1 million people annually come to stretch out on the grassy slope to take in live music and movies with the skyline as a backdrop, to play with Frisbees and soccer balls, to splash in the [...]
So long, Skylane Apartments
This is happening in my neighborhood, and it’s already generated a lot of interest from the locals. The aging Skylane Central apartments, perched near the entrance of the Woodland Heights neighborhood, are headed for demolition as a developer makes plans to replace the building with an upscale rental complex. Charleston, S.C.-based Greystar is under contract [...]
Revamped Chapter 42 ordinance finally passes
Strangely enough, in the end it was not very contentious. Houston City Council on Wednesday voted 14-3 to allow greater single-family home density outside Loop 610, while also strengthening the proposal’s already robust protections for neighborhoods concerned about unwelcome development. Council voted to drop the threshold of support needed to impose a minimum lot size [...]
Astrodome anti-climax
That’s it?!?!?!? The Harris County Sports & Convention Corp. board of directors approved a resolution Wednesday calling for staff to collect ideas for what to do with the vacant Reliant Astrodome between now and June 10. The Sports Corp., the agency that manages Reliant Park, would analyze any proposals its receives before bringing them to [...]
A STEM vision for the Astrodome
Tory Gattis has an idea for what to do with the Astrodome. Where can America’s kids go to be inspired toward careers in our country’s most crucial need: science, technology, engineering and math (aka STEM)? Something far beyond their little local science or children’s museum? Houston could be that city, building not only on our [...]
It’s Chapter 42 week
We won’t know for years what the upcoming revisions to Chapter 42, the development and density codes in Houston, will mean to the city and its development and population patterns. There’s certainly a lot of hope that the changes will be positive. Southwest Houston, with its glut of apartments and condominiums, is three times denser [...]
Fifth Ward revitalization
I’m very glad to see this renewal project going on it the Fifth Ward. But now the stains of that past are being scrubbed clean by the Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation with what it calls the Lyons Avenue Renaissance. The multimillion-dollar project aims to attract new businesses and homeowners to one of Houston’s oldest [...]
Someone will do something sort of soon about the Dome
I can’t be more specific than that. While Houston’s Super Bowl Host Committee continues its bid to win the vote for Super Bowl LI, the next step in the possible demolition of the Astrodome could be taken next week by the board of directors of the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation. The HCSCC presides [...]
How will Chapter 42 affect housing in Houston?
Yes, we’re still talking about Chapter 42, the local development and density code. One of the goals of revamping Chapter 42 is to make it easier and more attractive to build mid-range housing in the city limits. How do we hope that will work? “We have housing for the working poor, we have a lot [...]
There’s no such thing as a free road
I have an issue with this. Texas’ boom of toll roads has made the “free” part of freeway mean something different lately. As toll lanes become the preferred choice for adding capacity to Texas roads, a growing number of state lawmakers and toll critics are looking for assurances that state-built freeways will stay open to [...]
Ashby Highrise gets its permit
Ready or not, here it comes. The city of Houston [last] week granted full permitting approval for the 21-story apartment building planned near Rice University at 1717 Bissonnet and Ashby. An existing apartment complex at the site is now vacant and will be demolished soon, the developers recently said. But one major piece of the [...]
Alamo Drafthouse at Regent Square
This is an interesting development. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, which is opening its second area location Thursday in Vintage Park Shopping Village, just announced that it will open a third location in the Inner Loop mixed-use project Regent Square, where it will also show outdoor movies in a park there. [...] At Regent Square, occasional outdoor [...]
Alexan Heights update
The developers of the Alexan Heights project on Yale will go before the Planning Commission tomorrow to get a variance that would remove a single-family restriction on part of the property. Some folks in the neighborhood have been petitioning against the variance. The Leader reports from a meeting that was supposed to be between residents [...]
Time for another report on how much traffic sucks
We love this sort of thing, don’t we? Houston commuters continue to endure some of the worst traffic delays in the country, according to the 2012 Urban Mobility Report released Tuesday by the Texas A&M Transportation Commission. Area drivers wasted more than two days a year, on average, in traffic congestion, costing them each $1,090 [...]
First Hobby expansion details announced
Moving forward at Hobby Airport. The Southwest Airlines-proposed expansion, green-lighted by the Houston City Council last May, calls for construction by the end of 2015 of a new concourse with five gates capable of accommodating midsize aircraft; a federal inspection services facility with 16 stations; three additional baggage carousels; six security checkpoints; and an expanded [...]
The 288-to-the-Medical-Center connector takes a step forward
I still have a bad feeling about this. In a first step toward providing relief, transportation officials will spend the year winnowing six possible locations for reversible toll lanes that would provide a direct connection between the sprawling medical campus and Texas 288. They hope to start construction in 2014. Texas 288 between U.S. 59 [...]
More from the Larry Marshall files
This guy is a piece of work. HISD trustee Larry Marshall, fresh off a two-day school board retreat, flew from Houston to Tampa, Fla., on a clear winter day to watch the 2009 Super Bowl in Raymond James Stadium. Cheap seats for the match-up between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals cost $500 each, [...]
Yale Street Bridge work set to begin
Good to hear. Work to rehabilitate the Yale Street Bridge south of Interstate 10 is scheduled to begin in April. According to the Houston Department of Public Works and Engineering, the process will involve installation of external carbon-strip reinforcement along the bridge beams, significantly increasing the load-bearing weight of the structure, which now is set [...]
Alexan Heights on Yale
If you live in my neck of the woods you’re probably interested in the news (via Swamplot) of the new apartment complex being planned for the empty lot on Yale between 6th and 7th. The RUDH January newsletter has details. Trammel Crow Residential is planning its first project in the Heights, at the corner of [...]
Your other one-minute real estate update
Basically, real estate good in Houston. Inventory of homes for sale has fallen to a level not seen in more than a decade. Builders are trying to keep up with a growing demand from buyers relocating here for jobs. Realtors are going to new lengths to find properties for their buyer clients. A letter from [...]
Your one-minute real estate update
I just have one mostly tangential thing to say about this. Houston will see a modest and steady growth in retail activity in 2013, according to Ed Wulfe’s annual retail forecast. And the following year should be much better, said Wulfe, who is chairman and CEO of Wulfe & Co., a retail development, brokerage and [...]
Amazon comes to Schertz
Hello, Schertz! After about six months of negotiations, this city, the Schertz Economic Development Corp. and Guadalupe County have approved about $7.6 million in direct tax incentives to land a $166 million distribution warehouse for Amazon.com. The 1.26 million-square-foot warehouse, called a fulfillment center, will become the largest facility in Schertz and Guadalupe County, Schertz [...]
Why does Midtown need a big box store?
This story is about a forthcoming six-acre “superblock” being developed in Midtown, and about Midtown’s rise as a successful residential/entertainment area. What caught my eye was this bit at the end: Still, Midtown has yet to see any significant new retail, retail broker Ed Page said, referring to big-box stores like Target, TJ Maxx and [...]
The Heights Wal-Mart is now open
On the plus side, the world did not come to an end. On the minus side, it’s still a lousy location for a Wal-Mart and a giant missed opportunity for better, more urban-oriented development. For nearly 2½ years, Heights-area residents fought against one of the largest corporations in the world, employing yard signs, meeting with [...]
But was it worth it?
No doubt that traffic on the Katy Freeway moves a lot more smoothly now than it used to. But there’s a lot more to the question of whether the $2.8 billion that was spent to widen it was a good investment or not. Four years after the project was completed, a comparative analysis of drive-time [...]
Why not a university?
Tory Gattis has an interesting suggestion for that 136 acre tract of land east of downtown. This parcel of land could be the last opportunity for Houston to add a major college campus to the city. We should consider something similar to what NYC just did with Roosevelt Island, where after a long evaluation process [...]
TxDOT finally publishes comments from last year’s public forum on I-45
From the Inbox: Hello I-45 Coalition folks – There are finally some updates regarding I-45! As you may recall, back in mid-November 2011, TxDOT held 2 public meetings to get the public’s input on their thoughts on what should be done regarding the expansion of I-45. Comments were encouraged via email, website, comment forms, etc. [...]
Et tu, Leo?
At least one person living near the Ashby Highrise is looking forward to its construction. Linbeck Group, a general contractor whose top executive lives in the neighborhood adjacent to the building site, is expected to start construction at the beginning of next year. Executive chairman Leo Linbeck III said the company is taking on the [...]
White Oak Bayou Bike Trail closed at 610 until 2014
Bummer. It is with regret that we inform you that project delays (utility relocation) has negatively impacted the schedule for the IH-610 at TC Jester improvement project, causing the trail closure to be extended into Spring 2014. TxDOT is as greatly concerned about these delays as much as you are as the bicyclist, pedestrian or [...]