HOUSTON | Development Thread II - Page 598

llamaorama · #**11941** Posted **May 8, 2021, 6:18 PM**

Also to be fair, within a mile of downtown accessible via high frequency all day all week transit you have Randalls, Whole Foods, Fiesta, Kroger, Sprouts, a Target, even a Super Walmart. Houston has a lot of retail and things you need in the general core of the city, just not in the downtown proper. Except for that Phoenicia of course.

I think an Aldi's would be a nice fit downtown though. I'm surprised you don't see more of those in an urban setting. My money would be on an H-E-B though because they have urban style stores (ground floor retail space below other things, with garage parking) around the city already.

bilbao58 · #**11942** Posted **May 8, 2021, 6:36 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by DCReid

I thought I remember see a photo last year that showed downtown had lots of surface parking spaces?

Do you mean this photo? If so, it was taken around 40 years ago.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DCReid

From what I have been hearing, it seems like Houston does need more residential downtown, although I see they are building one or two residential towers. Hope the residential densification in some of the other areas, like Montrose, comes to downtown. How many people live downtown and is there a grocery store now?

Off the top of my head I can think of at least 9 existing high rise residential buildings with at least another 2 (42 and 46 stories) residential buildings under construction. There are also more and more mid rise residential buildings being built or already finished Downtown. The numbers I've seen are from 10K to as many as 15K residents in Downtown. https://www.point2homes.com/US/Neigh...ographics.html

This is the same area in the photo above seen from a different direction in 2018. There are already at least two completed high rise residential buildings not yet in this view.

Its beginning to look like Christmas in Houston by Raul Cano, on Flickr

View from another direction in 2019. Again, there are two (42 and 46 story) high rise residential buildings under construction not seen in this photo.

MinuteMaidNight by Raul Cano, on Flickr

Everything in these 2 photos was a parking lot in 1980.

Avenida, Houston by Bill Jacomet, on Flickr

Los Skarnales at Avenida by Bill Jacomet, on Flickr

The freeway in this photo is the same freeway as in the 40-year-old photo at top.

Downtown Houston Skyline-EaDo by Mabry Campbell, on Flickr

Finally found a photo that shows the location of Discovery Green Park beyond the Convention Center. The photo is five years old so it's already obsolete.
The freeway in the 40-year-old photo is directly behind the convention center. The black building on the right in the old photo at top can just be seen peaking
out from behind the building with gray and black horizontal stripes just right of center in this photo.

Discovery Green by russell.hancock, on Flickr

JManc · #**11943** Posted **May 8, 2021, 8:03 PM**

Houston lags far behind most cities its size as far as downtown residential but has built a lot in a fairly short amount of time. I suspect in another decade or so, it will look/ feel drastically different.

bilbao58 · #**11944** Posted **May 8, 2021, 8:16 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JManc

Houston lags far behind most cities its size as far as downtown residential but has built a lot in a fairly short amount of time. I suspect in another decade or so, it will look/ feel drastically different.

I think it depends on the definition of downtown. The same website that lists Houston's DT pop as 15K, lists Dallas's as 11K, Chicago's as 22K, and San Antonio's as 17K (which makes me wonder what they consider downtown).

JManc · #**11945** Posted **May 8, 2021, 9:08 PM**

That Chicago number seems awfully low and must be the just Loop and not anything north of the river which is loaded with residential.

bilbao58 · #**11946** Posted **May 8, 2021, 9:20 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JManc

That Chicago number seems awfully low and must be the just Loop and not anything north of the river which is loaded with residential.

Yup

The Best Forumer · #**11947** Posted **May 9, 2021, 8:55 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JManc

That Chicago number seems awfully low and must be the just Loop and not anything north of the river which is loaded with residential.

Dunno about Loop, etc. But my understanding is that Chitown has about 1 Million ppl in downtown,

Dariusb · #**11948** Posted **May 9, 2021, 3:31 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by bilbao58

Do you mean this photo? If so, it was taken around 40 years ago.

Off the top of my head I can think of at least 9 existing high rise residential buildings with at least another 2 (42 and 46 stories) residential buildings under construction. There are also more and more mid rise residential buildings being built or already finished Downtown. The numbers I've seen are from 10K to as many as 15K residents in Downtown. https://www.point2homes.com/US/Neigh...ographics.html

This is the same area in the photo above seen from a different direction in 2018. There are already at least two completed high rise residential buildings not yet in this view.

Its beginning to look like Christmas in Houston by Raul Cano, on Flickr

View from another direction in 2019. Again, there are two (42 and 46 story) high rise residential buildings under construction not seen in this photo.

MinuteMaidNight by Raul Cano, on Flickr

Everything in these 2 photos was a parking lot in 1980.

Avenida, Houston by Bill Jacomet, on Flickr

Los Skarnales at Avenida by Bill Jacomet, on Flickr

The freeway in this photo is the same freeway as in the 40-year-old photo at top.

Downtown Houston Skyline-EaDo by Mabry Campbell, on Flickr

Awesome pics! Does Houston have the most residents in it's downtown compared to Dallas, Austin or San Antonio?

bilbao58 · #**11949** Posted **May 9, 2021, 4:04 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dariusb

Awesome pics! Does Houston have the most residents in it's downtown compared to Dallas, Austin or San Antonio?

That particular website says San Antonio has the most residents downtown...I don't see how that's possible. Makes me wonder what they consider downtown...and if any of their numbers are correct.

The ATX · #**11950** Posted **May 9, 2021, 6:26 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by bilbao58

That particular website says San Antonio has the most residents downtown...I don't see how that's possible. Makes me wonder what they consider downtown...and if any of their numbers are correct.

There isn't a definitive definition of what is "downtown" when comparing cities. It's almost like comparing City proper populations instead of Metro population when ranking cities by population.

bilbao58 · #**11951** Posted **May 9, 2021, 7:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by The ATX

There isn't a definitive definition of what is "downtown" when comparing cities.

I think of San Antonio’s downtown as being bound on the east by I-37, on the west by I-10, on the north by I-35, and on the south by César Chavez Blvd. If they’re including South Town and King William and everything down to I-10 before it turns north then I can see where their population number comes from. I personally wouldn’t include those areas as Downtown.

Twitter1 · #**11952** Posted **May 10, 2021, 12:58 AM**

4411 San Felipe Class-A Office.

The Best Forumer · #**11953** Posted **May 10, 2021, 1:55 PM**

Thanks for the update.

drummer · #**11954** Posted **May 10, 2021, 2:35 PM**

That transformation of Houston in those pics is truly spectacular.

KevinFromTexas · #**11955** Posted **May 10, 2021, 3:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by bilbao58

I think it depends on the definition of downtown. The same website that lists Houston's DT pop as 15K, lists Dallas's as 11K, Chicago's as 22K, and San Antonio's as 17K (which makes me wonder what they consider downtown).

What website were you using?

As for Houston not having a ton of residential high rises downtown. Meh. Houston is an odd case since there are high rises all over the city. For whatever it lacks with residential high rises in downtown, there are a ton of them all over the city. It's somewhat easier to plop a residential high rise into a neighborhood in Houston somewhere than it is to do it in downtown. All I mean by that is you can build tall somewhere outside of downtown and still be fairly car oriented and not much different than any other apartment complex. But to build one in downtown where it's expected to be close to things people want that they can walk to because it is in downtown, that can be more difficult to achieve. You have to be able to acquire lots to build on and they have to be close enough to the core of the activity in downtown to be walkable. Building residential in downtown is a lot more organic than it is outside of it. It's something that takes a long time to cultivate. You can't just plop a high rise into downtown and expect it to work right away. Sure, it'll add density, but if it's not close enough to the activity in downtown people likely won't opt to walk.

bilbao58 · #**11956** Posted **May 10, 2021, 4:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

What website were you using?

The link is in the post. https://www.point2homes.com/US/Neigh...ographics.html

Plug in other cities where "Houston" is in the link. Add a hyphen for "San-Antonio."

bilbao58 · #**11957** Posted **May 10, 2021, 4:18 PM**

New photo added to my post above. I finally found an aerial photo that shows the setting of Discovery Green Park.

KevinFromTexas · #**11958** Posted **May 10, 2021, 4:46 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by bilbao58

The link is in the post. https://www.point2homes.com/US/Neigh...ographics.html

Plug in other cities where "Houston" is in the link. Add a hyphen for "San-Antonio."

Thanks. Someone recently posted this one below, and I've been looking at it a bit. I never know exactly what some cities consider to be their downtown. Not all of them even call it downtown, and sometimes there are multiple neighborhoods within it that carry their own different names. And so, unless you live there it can be difficult to figure out what they consider to be downtown.

https://statisticalatlas.com/United-States/Overview

The Best Forumer · #**11959** Posted **May 10, 2021, 6:29 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by bilbao58

New photo added to my post above. I finally found an aerial photo that shows the setting of Discovery Green Park.

Where is it?

bilbao58 · #**11960** Posted **May 10, 2021, 7:38 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Best Forumer

Where is it?

You have to go up 6 posts before Dariusb's quote to the original post. It's the last photo.