They Are Building A Wal-Mart On My Street continues to be a great resource for details about the proposed “Heights” Wal-Mart development. In this latest update, we learn quite a few things, including:
-There is a set ‘warehouse’ type of architecture; they noted the ‘Core’ apartments, and ‘Berger Iron Works’ on the corner plot of land. They intend to keep that type of neighborhood feel to the development
-It was described as a more modern warehouse/urban type of feel
-The retail anchor (walmart) has had no resistance to these requests
-Ainbinder assured that the infrastructure of the land, and surrounding, would be brought up to appropriate specs to support.[…]
-The total development will be 24 acres; 15 acres of it will be Walmart
-The old ‘Sons of Hermann’ site is not included in the development. This is being developed by Bobby Orr.
-There is no plan for hi-rise, or mid-rise development
-Ainbinder/City are in the process of finishing traffic studies now
-Streets around the property will be widened/improved
-They are including plans to improve the Yale St. Bridge just south of I-10; they acknowledged that the bridges need to be renovated
-They are treating Heights Blvd. as a signature street in the development, central to Houston
-They are presently in the middle of all of the improvement plans
-Ainbinder has no information on delivery truck routes/planning/times
-Specifically, Yale, Koehler, Bass, and Bonner will need to be improved/widened. The current plan is to improve Koehler street up to Bonner, and Bass st. up to Bonner[…]
-The Timeline for this project is for an opening to happen in the 1st or 2nd quarter of 2012
-14-18 months will be used for infrastructure improvements, and some parallel construction
There’s a lot more, there and elsewhere on the site, so click over and check it out. KTRK did a story on this as well. I’ll say this much – the nature and scope of the infrastructure improvements will be key to determining whether or not this is viable and ultimately acceptable to the community. We should be getting some details soon, so we’ll see.
Very typical. They come in with “We are concerned about your concerns” but fail to finish the sentence with “But we ain’t gonna do shit for you cuz we are building the Walmart with or without you.”
They did the same thing to us in Clear Lake with a toxic train, San Jacinto Rail. We were able to kill it.
Good luck. You will need it.