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Originally Posted by zrx299
Interesting reads, thank you!
That whole area just seems like one big "What If..."
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I live adjacent to the area -- can actually see that old building from my windows -- and there is some incremental progress happening around there. A few new restaurants in the last couple of years on West 5th and 6th streets, including Better Half and a brand-new, just opened brewery associated with Better Half called Hold Out that is right next to it. Also a fantastic little coffee shop/bakery called Nate's hidden away right there too.
A couple of the perpendicular side-streets that dead end in to the railroad tracks -- Orchard and Pressler I think -- have been cleaned up too and have nice sidewalks. There's a relatively new condo/apartment building right there too. And new/redone commercial + hopefully small retail going up across from Clark's.
The whole West 5th/6th area between Lamar and Mopac is absolutely a huge opportunity. From an urbanist perspective, it's a substantial amount of land *directly* next to downtown that for some reason currently has self-storage places, car painting, and car dealerships which really boggles the mind. Such an obvious place to restore a light-rail or tram in to Tarrytown and hopefully densified Breckenridge track one day. There could easily be 6-8 story apartments and condos lining both sides of 5th and 6th all the way to Mopac if it was zoned appropriately and the neighborhood was on board.
I suspect the train track/Union Pacific are a big reason development has been so slow. It is *very* loud heading west towards Mopac when it hits its horn, so any residential will need to be done with that in mind. Obvious solution to me is that Union Pacific should just buy all the cheap, under used lots there, develop them, then make the necessary safety/sound wall updates to reduce noise and then sell the developed properties.