Yeah, a lot of Houston neighborhoods have a management district; Heights, Kirby, Montrose, etc. I agree about the Kirby area, if I could swing it, I would have a townhouse around the Virginia St./ Ferndale area.

’Disco Kroger’ Site Sold for Montrose Redevelopment

Thanks for the info on the mgmt districts...

And yes... the area you mention is quite nice.

Awesome, this corner of Montrose is finally turning a page. I used to live a few blocks from this Krogers about 10 years ago and they were putting the finishing touches on the remodel. Then HEB came and ate their lunch.

It's cool and sad at the same time; Montrose was a pretty funky area back in the day (hence Disco Kroger) and now it's become a rapidly overpriced and sterile area. The developments are awesome but something is still lost in the process. My wife and I went on our first date at the Starbucks across the street.

Who says Houston is slowing down? $1.9 Billion in downtown construction alone.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/bus...a-chron-result

Even when I lived downtown in 2010-12, Montrose was still fairly funky but I recently went back and all the old bars and cool art studios I used to hangout in are mostly gone. I never got to see Montrose in the 90s or 80s but I bet it was super cool and also run down Id imagine.

I was a kid in the 80's but remember it being pretty eclectic and then moved back down here in the late 90's when they still had the Westheimer Street Fest and when the Pride Parade was still there before it was moved downtown and became a giant commercialized event.

In the 70s, there was a stretch of Westheimer in that area that was lined with very good ethnic restaurants. My parents took me to a Greek restaurant on that stretch. It was really good, and the dancers made us all blush.

When I would come home from college in the 70s, I would escape in the evenings and head right for Montrose. There was a bar called the Farmhouse that use to be a huge mansion. That's where I saw Paul Lynde, who was totally obnoxious and not funny like on Hollywood Squares.

At that time, a lot of Montrose didn't feel safe and looked pretty seedy. Some parts were not bad at all, like where my grandparents lived on Vermont, across the street from Dan Rather. It's a nice area now, but definitely not funky like it was.

From my experience, Lower Westheimer / Montrose is a seedier environment with Rice Village demographics but you can still bar hop. Going back to the management districts, Montrose's has been notoriously corrupt and ineffective. The state of Lower Westheimer is pretty inexcusable, it's not just the broken sidewalks but the awful street lighting.

Can the montrose management district leadership be... re-elected?

Technically the shell of the old management district exists, Montrose Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ). A TIRZ captures a small chunk of the taxes from an area to reinvest in infrastructure, parks, etc. All these areas (midtown, downtown, upper kirby, montrose, etc) have TIRZs and they are managed by various pseudo private/public "management districts"/ ""redevelopment authorities". Like anything... it's only as a good as the people running it.

It looks like the Montrose TIRZ is trying to start over with a new plan.

https://communityimpact.com/houston/...treach-effort/

Minute Maid Park Mixed-Use

Historic home in Minute Maid Park's shadow on the move - again

They are moving the historical homes and train engine but they knocked down the dilapidated bars in the dilapidated historical structure. Seems like it will be a parking lot for the near term, especially with regular season baseball starting early April. Rumors on HAIF is that it will be retail and residential.

Memorial Park

Well on their way constructing this:

https://res.cloudinary.com/sagacity/...ltz_mcvxu6.png

Reconstructing Memorial Park Drive and connecting the southern and northern portions with a land bridge.

This is one major project of several involving Memorial Park, which was devastated by a major drought several years back. The Eastern Glades is complete and the Sports Complex is well on its way too.

https://www.memorialparkconservancy....r/master-plan/

Hyatt Hotel

https://i.imgur.com/oqMgIoE.jpg

Photo of the week: Same Hyatt Hotel in the TMC.

https://i.imgur.com/BzC1PEF.jpg

Thanks twitter1! Renders of the final product?

https://i.imgur.com/IzEsIiJ.jpg

From yesterday

https://i.imgur.com/csaT1Q5.jpg

:yuck:

BIG TIME :yuck: !

^ This was clearly designed by someone who does not enjoy their job.

It is simply upsetting, an insult to mankind. A shame, today in 2021.
Heck, it even almost makes some crappy social housing designed by some communist suburbs over here look good.

Often, I tell myself - the Communists want to enslave everybody, taking us all down to insulting mediocrity, because they are selfish and want power on us all.

But this... Sweet Christ, not in my town. Ever.

The good news is if there is a car fire in the parking garage all you got to do is drain the pool.

Haha! True. I was going to note that the only redeeming quality of the design is that they placed the pool above the parking ramp to allow for a deeper deep end of the pool, but I doubt that is even the case.

I will say, the fact that this is a hotel meant to cater to out-of-town or international families with loved ones being treated at the nearby Texas Medical Center, affordable utility was likely the overriding design concern. But still...YIKES! And that is the back, though the front is only slightly less offensive.

T'es sûr? :P

https://cdn4.hotelopia.com/giata/big...a_hb_a_130.jpg
https://www.geprif-developpement.fr/...e_italie_2.jpg

FWIW, here's the rendering of the front.

https://communityimpact.com/uploads/.../04/100529.jpghttps://communityimpact.com/uploads/.../04/100529.jpg

The Hyatt will be in a rather blah part of the TMC anyway....next door to a Subway surrounded by a bunch of long vacant lots and some ancillary medical buildings.

Yeah, well, those are old middle-range Accor hotels, especially the 1st you picked.
That's no 5-star New York City Sofitel in which a French maid would get raped by an ugly French politician.
Referring to that shocking story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_v._Strauss-Kahn

;) Bloody French Socialist politician to rape a regular French maid...
Who did he think he was? He is ugly, old-fashioned, worthless Socialist establishment...
No woman would be seduced by that retarded, sadistic psycho.
He has to pay the price for prostitutes to satisfy his weird fantasies.
I hope he dies in pain...

Crap, people can do better than that for a reasonable price today.
This is no longer the 1970s or 80s, huh.

For some reason... this made me giggle... A LOT.

For Sale sign spotted at Richmond & Buffalo Speedway. Very lucrative land. High probability something tall would go here.

https://i.imgur.com/QM7RZNZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UZmhp17.jpg

^ that whole area is ripe for redevelopment. Most of the buildings around there are MCM era that are crumbling and weren't well built to begin with.

Elon Musk investing in the Houston area
 

Tesla is making a giant battery to plug into the Texas power grid

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bus...y-2021-3%3famp

I wonder what it will look like.

Class-A office on San Felipe.

https://i.imgur.com/xbXcw0K.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/aYyopx5.jpg

Looks like it is just starting.

https://i.imgur.com/wY66zeQ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/xZxhsDA.jpg

Why the palms? These kind are useless.

Drove by the construction site of the block enclosed by Drew, Helena, Dennis, and Albany Streets. Looks like the parking ramp is starting to rise above the ground.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e485dd0a_b.jpg102 Dennis St, Houston, TX

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...11ae9075_b.jpg102 Dennis St, Houston, TX

Also, the Spec's, Half Price Books, and 24 hour Emergency room on Westheimer (across from Kung Fu Tea) is now almost fully demolished.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d697a64a_b.jpg1011 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...81d4a585_b.jpg1011 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX

That parking lot entrance on Yoakum just feet from Westheimer always irritated the hell out of me.

Ha, yea it was super steep and just right by the light and people wouldn't let you in or out the parking lot entrance and stuff. One of the many joys of Houston driving :-)

Thanks for the updates, brew.

Is that the strip center on corner of Westheimer and Montrose? That intersection will look radically different now.

Yup, south of Westheimer across from that Shake Shack and Circle K gas station north of Westheimer. I'm so used to seeing that Half Price Bookstore there, it kinda saddened me. But Houston's always changing, lots of construction projects.

That location was the 'new' Half Price Books. Used to be in an old house a few blocks away. I wonder if they stayed in the area or just downsized locations. Rice University area lost theirs a few years ago.

I remember when they were in that house... wow.

It was actually an old church.

Deleted by request.

That looks pretty nice!