Houston19514

I'll obviously give you "pedestrian friendly" but that's sort of the point... We'll never achieve a pedestrian friendly city if we don't start constructing a few places at least some people might have to walk a block or two to get to. As to the weather, Yeah, and we all know that NYC has perfect weather 24/7/365 and is never uncomfortable to walk in...right? Good grief, man/woman. No rain, snow, sleet, stiflingly hot/humid summer days when you were growing up there? You must not have been paying much attention.

Has anyone heard anything at all about what plans (if any) Macy's has for the downtown store? Are they doing any upgrading? Any plans for a full remodel or expansion to use the space vacated when they closed down the Foley's headquarters operation? Any other plans to use that now-vacant space? Anything at all?

Love the interior. Not so sure about the exterior.

Before you roll your eyes out of their sockets, you might want to look over your list a little more carefully: uhhh, Lift - local creation. Does not meet your description. N9ne Group, I guess I can give you, but when we started this conversation I was thinking in terms of retail stores, not restaurants and bars. Mandarin Oriental. Not so much. First, I thought the discussion was clearly about retail. I'll allow it to be stretched to include bars and restaurants, but hotels? Whatever. . . The fact is, there are currently 5 Mandarin Oriental Hotels in the US, with another three under development in addition to the one under development in Dallas. So that doesn't fit your description either. (Besides which, I am not yet convinced that building will make it out of the ground any time soon.) Now don't take any of this the wrong way and go all Dallas on me... I think Victory is going to be a lovely development. But I also think you are trying to make it out to be much more than it is.

Alright then. Can you give me two or three examples of stores that fit your revised description? (i.e., stores that are not local creations and that are the second or third locations in the US.) (Most of the shops I have read about are locally-invented stores. So, yeah, they are the "first". That truly says nothing about Dallas, one way or the other.)

Beware of relying on the Chronicle to get the facts straight. Sometimes their "reporters" just string words together without paying attention to what they mean. According to Vintage Park's website, "the HEB at Vintage Park will capture the traditional grocery features with expanded Central Market features". That makes it sound like it might be one of the hybrids, like they built in The Woodlands.

Dallasboi, I asked you a serious and relevant question back in post #334. I presume you have overlooked it. But if you could put down your spitballs long enough to take a look, I would appreciate seeing your answer.

And my original intent was to correct the inaccurate impression you left. I think I succeeded in that. ;-) (and by the way, Filio's definition was not incorrect; perhaps incomplete, but not incorrect.)

Well, first off, you didn't say "Christianity", you said "religion" and any historian will tell you religion existed before Christianity. Second, as I said in my post, I was not and am not questioning your conclusion that basilicas were originally created as secular spaces. I agree. No need to repeat it again. All I said (and in fact said quite explicitly) was that their mere existence in the second century BC does not prove that they were secular structures.

[quote name='Dallasboi' date='Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 @ 5:25pm' post='129267'And Tierwester we have international brands in Victory not chains.So it will be hard to match that.I think every store in Victory will be the second or third in the United States.That's because International brands go to the hottest markets first. I guess I haven't kept up with the retail leasing at Victory. Can you give us a list of the stores, especially the "international brands" for whom Victory will be their 2nd or 3rd US location? Since the initial posting of my question, I have spent a little time on Victory Park's website and I cannot find a single store slated to open in Victory Park that matches the description you gave us. In fact, the Victory press releases say they are offering a "colletion of both nationally established and emerging restaurant and retail brands". Not a word about "international" brands. The information I found shows that most of the retail will be of local creation, with a few chains mixed in. I can find no international brands for whom Victory Park will be their 2nd or 3rd location in the US. It appears that DallasBoi might be providing us with just a bit of disinformation.

Thanks for that insightful bit of ... well, did you have a point?

There are many many townhomes around Houston that have elevators. I recently saw a listing for one that touted it's $25,000 elevator. I think that would get you a very nicely-finished cab.

Source please? My understanding is that the Colosseum had a retractable awning shading the specatators. Not quite the same as a retractable roof.

Sheesh, Dallasboi and Troyboy... Take a breath; yeah, a nice deep breath. Redscare was just playin' with ya. and man, did you two fall in, hook, line, and sinker, as they say. Let's try to stay rational, and on subject now, shall we?

I'm not sure what the psychological term for this is, but I am finding it amusing that the only ones saying anything about DTD "dying" are the Dallasites. Hmmmm... ;-)

I don't see anyone "freaking out" and I also don't think I've seen anyone predicting the "death" of DTD. This has all been in the context of answering the question of whether the Victory project and developments in Uptown help or hurt DTD, specifically the office market in DTD. Your discussion of residential development in DTD and moving employees to southern Oklahoma or McKinney barely seems relevant. (And FWIW, your point about an office park in McKinney being limited by its remote location, is exactly the point made by some of your Dallas confreres about the problems hampering DTD.)

Cool pics? No update on Victory Tower?

If the price is right, a buyer can almost always be found . . . even for a completely empty, dated, inefficient building. Keep in mind that when a building is being bought, it, by definition, is also being sold. So one might just as easily ask "If the market is so good, why do investors sell these 80%-occupied office towers?" (And what you didn't tell us is that the building actually sold twice recently, initially in a multi-city package of buildings, and the initial buyer didn't want anything to do with it; so immediately re-sold it). Bottom line, bargain basement prices will usually attract buyers. By my calculation, the Renaissance Tower that was purchased last week was purchased for approx. $88/ per square foot, which does seem like a bargain basement price for such a high-profile, well-located tower. Clearly, the new owner hopes the market will improve in downtown Dallas. But at that price, and with a solid tenant base, they probably don't need for it to improve in order to make money. (And just to clarify, I don't think anyone either said or implied that downtown Dallas was full of literally "empty" buildings. In fact, I have posted the occupancy numbers, clearly showing they are not "empty".)

The official audited accounting records shows 2005 operating income of almost $24 million. I guess you were talking about the interim number titled "deficit before contributions" of almost $33 million. After capital contributions (from the federal government), the true bottom line number for the airport system for 2005 was a positive $31 million. (To paraphrase someone from earlier in this thread, 'statements of gains or losses don't mean anything without including a total measure of revenue.')

EFD Master Plan

Good post. Until you got to that last paragraph, then you kind of went off the rails. Other than highways, what investment does the state and county make in roads and infrastructure in the suburbs? And how does infrastructure investment (to the extent it exists) make Houston's suburban housing less expensive? I think it's fair to say most "suburban" development in the Houston region is in planned communities and other unincorporated areas. The roadways in those areas are built by the developer. The other infrastructure (sewer, water lines) are built by a municipal utility district. The only "infrastructure" I can think of built by the county or state is the major highways. (eg. Grand Parkway, expansion of the Katy, Beltway 8) I'm not sure I get how such highway projects would lead to less expensive suburban housing. With the added capacity of highways, comes more potential buyers, which, all else being equal, should lead to higher prices. And how would a failure to expand roads to the suburbs ever cause the gap between the cost of city and suburban housing to shrink? Failure to expand roadways will limit the supply of suburban housing (thereby limiting the overall supply of housing in the market) and drive all prices up. Simultaneously, the failure to expand roadways to the suburbs would theoretically limit the number of people willing to make the commute, therefore lowering demand for suburban housing, therfore exerting a downward pressure on suburban prices and an upward pressure on city prices. Market forces would still be at play and would drive the city housing prices up even further, very possibly creating an even larger price gap between city and suburb. All of this ignores the very real possibilty (seen in many cities with less agressive roadway expansion plans), where the suburbs still grow and the jobs follow the people to the suburbs. (I guess that's one way in which you can level the price differential... stop investing in highway expansion, cause gridlock in your city, causing people and jobs to leave the city . . . in this way you would lower demand, and therefore pricing, for city housing, and reduce the price gap)

What is your source for this factoid about the Houston Airport System losing $30 million per year? My understanding is that airport system is a completely self-funded operation.

Source for this "homicide spike during recessionary periods"? The July 1, 2005 Census estimate was 2,016,582. With the normal (and probably accelerating) growth plus the Katrina influx, the 2,198,000 seems like it might be little high, but not that far out of line.

He actually did say that, but he's using the same flawed logic that if the law firms had not chosen the Victory and Arts Districts Towers they would have moved to Plano or Irving. And that is his entire reason for saying that such moves are "good" for the CBD. (Sort of the, 'well, it's not really good, but it's the best we can hope for' argument). I remain unconvinced that any of the major law firms are likely to move their offices to Plano or Irving. That sort of move just does not tend to happen. The federal and state courthouses are not moving to Plano and Irving, and neither are the major law firms. While he did sort of say that these spaces would be fillled by other tenants, here's exactly what he said on that subject: "But the iconic 1980s towers that make up Dallas' skyline will be hard pressed to fill the empty spaces these moves create. "It does finally get leased up, but it takes longer," said Joel Pustmueller with Dallas' Peloton Real Estate Partners. "My hunch is the space is not leased up by big 200,000-square-foot tenants."