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Aspen Student Housing Complex At MLK & Old Spanish Trl.


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are they bulldzoing the beauty school?  I spent alot of time in that area and they already zapped the neighborhood behind the beauty school years ago for the Spur 5 extension that never happened

 

I figured it was only a matter of time as that area is nice if kept up...but unless these "new residents" choose to attend the local schools, they're just expensive housing units for them to lay their head down at night as they will not participate in anything community related

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http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2015/03/03/new-upscale-multifamily-project-planned-near.html

 

Aspen Heights, an Austin-based off-campus student housing developer, submitted a plat application to the city of Houston for a multifamily project on the southeast corner of of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Old Spanish Trail, just south of MacGregor Park.

 

The 6-acre site, owned by NewQuest Crosswell, is under contract and is expected to close by mid-year for an undisclosed price. The existing strip mall, which includes some tenants and vacant properties, would be torn down for redevelopment if the student housing deal moves forward.

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  • 11 months later...

4971 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd is on today's demo report. Swamplot is saying it's related to this proposal, but the address comes up as the elementary school next to the strip center.

 

http://swamplot.com/daily-demolition-report-la-fine-di-figaro/2016-02-15/

 

Yeah, I don't know why the address shows there on Google maps, but that permit is definitely for at least part of the retail where Franklin Beauty School is. HCAD lists 4971 as the main address for the ~4.3 acres, but on HCAD maps, it's 4917 for the same account.

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  • 6 months later...

New details revealed on Austin developer's first student apartment project in Houston

 

Quote

A student housing developer has released more details about its next project near the University of Houston.

Aspen Heights, an Austin-based off-campus student housing developer, is building a 717-bed, 271,000-square-foot apartment complex complete with a parking garage, pool, game room and fitness center, according to a release. The student housing development is part of multiple projects Aspen Heights announced across the U.S.

The expected completion date is August 2017. The project is close to campus and near Houston's metro line, but the company did not provide a specific address in the release.

 

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5 hours ago, Urbannizer said:
 

^^^ @Urbannizer props for the info.  however, surely a prospective venture of this magnitude (717 beds) would have begun by now.  especially in lieu of the alleged completion date of "august 2017".  this sounds like a rather large development that should take at least two years to complete....

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@monarch The project sounds large, but they're counting by the bedroom in every unit. Some rooms may even be large enough to place two beds in (that was the setup for me in my previous place, had a very large room to myself for the first 6 months). The Gateway on Cullen is four-stories with 531 beds.

 

Demo occurred in Feb. and we got word from cspwal that this is u/c, so it may be a few floors up now.

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  • 3 months later...

they're gonna need bigger fences.

 

It's well known that students go to the shell station at Calhoun/OST for cigarettes. Women don't go there alone. It's not a safe area for students to go, especially once the sun goes down.

 

So how are the residents of this place supposed to get to campus? Are they supposed to walk across MacGregor park? Drive? Ride Metro for one stop? After dark???

 

More student housing is awesome (whether university funded, or private). This location is absolutely horrible.

 

UH itself is not a terribly safe place due to location, but the campus PD is very serious about keeping the students safe within their bubble of influence, there is no campus police between this housing unit and campus.

 

Maybe this will be a catalyst to help make it a safer area, but crime stats are what they are and right now, this is not a safe location for kids that are barely old enough to live on their own that have very likely lived in suburbs their whole lives.

 

This just looks like a bad idea.

Edited by samagon
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17 hours ago, samagon said:

they're gonna need bigger fences.

 

It's well known that students go to the shell station at Calhoun/OST for cigarettes. Women don't go there alone. It's not a safe area for students to go, especially once the sun goes down.

 

So how are the residents of this place supposed to get to campus? Are they supposed to walk across MacGregor park? Drive? Ride Metro for one stop? After dark???

 

More student housing is awesome (whether university funded, or private). This location is absolutely horrible.

 

UH itself is not a terribly safe place due to location, but the campus PD is very serious about keeping the students safe within their bubble of influence, there is no campus police between this housing unit and campus.

 

Maybe this will be a catalyst to help make it a safer area, but crime stats are what they are and right now, this is not a safe location for kids that are barely old enough to live on their own that have very likely lived in suburbs their whole lives.

 

This just looks like a bad idea.

Not sure what "well known" means, but here are the crime stats for the entire city of Houston.  Please use facts to support your claims. I am a resident of this area, and while it is by no 100% safe (no area in Houston is), your claims contain hyperbole that are unfounded.

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7 hours ago, quietstorm said:

Not sure what "well known" means, but here are the crime stats for the entire city of Houston.  Please use facts to support your claims. I am a resident of this area, and while it is by no 100% safe (no area in Houston is), your claims contain hyperbole that are unfounded.

 

Well known means if you ask most female students on campus to buy you a pack of cigarettes from that convenience store, they'll say no, it's not safe. If a female student wants to go to that convenience store to grab a pack of cigarettes they take a friend. According to the map below there was one aggravated assault that was listed as having happened in that Shell station. On that corner there were 2 aggravated assaults reported not in the Shell station. So yeah, it's not just well known, it's well documented.

 

https://www.trulia.com/local/77004/tiles:0|points:1_crime

 

Zoom in real close on OST/MLK, you've got multiple assault with a deadly weapon, multiple aggravated assault, inside macgregor park you've got a few robberies (note, robbery, not theft).

 

Zoom in on campus and you have multiple theft, and a few burglary motor vehicle, but the occurrence of a criminal interacting with a student to commit a crime is very low on campus, ie no robbery, no aggravated assault, no assault with a deadly weapon, just theft.

 

so no, this is not hyperbole. It's documented facts.

 

Simple question:

 

Would you allow your 18-22 year old daughter to walk across McGregor park at midnight to get from the library to this residence?

 

Would you allow your 18-22 year old daughter to walk across campus at midnight to get from the library to moody towers?

 

This is not an out of the ordinary scenario, especially around finals. Students will study in the library until they can't see straight, they then walk to their dorm.

 

Unfortunately OST is known as an area that people do avoid, most of that is holdover from when it was a lot more dangerous than it is now, but that doesn't mean that it is not still a dangerous area. Certainly it doesn't pass my test of "Would I let my 18-22 year old daughter walk through the park late at night".

 

I get it though, I own a house in a neighborhood that when I bought it and told people "I live here" They would tell me anecdotes about the neighborhood or area, "it's not safe!" they'd tell me. Women would tell me they didn't feel comfortable in my neighborhood alone. They weren't wrong for being concerned, my house was broken into twice in the first year I lived there. Nearly 10 years later and things have changed. Now the home prices have doubled (on the way to trebling) and just in my neighborhood there's probably 1 in 10 of the houses are being ripped to studs and rebuilt with many having already been renovated. There's all the normal signs of gentrification.

 

Don't worry, change will come for MLK and OST and people will recognize it for having changed for the better. Hell, this construction may even be the catalyst for the area.

 

But right now, I wouldn't allow my child to live in this off campus housing, and I'm not certain this company did sufficient due diligence or they might have come to the conclusion that there is high probability that this is not going to work out well.

Edited by samagon
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I also wouldn't want my daughter to smoke or buy cigarettes for lazy guys who ask her to go buy her some. 

 

That area isn't the safest, but neither is anywhere else in this city. My sister was held up at gunpoint in Tanglewood not too long agoAs a dad with a daughter living in The Vue, I tell her all the time to not go out alone at dark. But, I also tell her to never be by herself at a frat party or leave any of her girlfriends alone at a frat party. We can claim all sorts of stuff, but young college women are more in danger amongst their peers than they are the boogeyman in some park... sadly. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, KinkaidAlum said:

I also wouldn't want my daughter to smoke or buy cigarettes for lazy guys who ask her to go buy her some. 

 

That area isn't the safest, but neither is anywhere else in this city. My sister was held up at gunpoint in Tanglewood not too long agoAs a dad with a daughter living in The Vue, I tell her all the time to not go out alone at dark. But, I also tell her to never be by herself at a frat party or leave any of her girlfriends alone at a frat party. We can claim all sorts of stuff, but young college women are more in danger amongst their peers than they are the boogeyman in some park... sadly. 

 

 

 

ha, fair enough on the cigarettes. I know plenty of students that smoke, and they have deals with other students that smoke "I'll go buy a pack for you today, you buy one for me next time you go to buy". Anyway, that's not the point. 

 

My only real point is that this is not a safe place for student housing.

 

Whether a daughter or son, I would pay for my child to stay in a dorm on campus. There are a few off-campus student housing apartments I would pay for them to stay in (this one: https://campusvueapartments.com/ or this one: http://www.vuecollegeliving.com/). 

 

However, if I had a kid going to school right now, I would not pay for them to stay in this off-campus housing. Even though this location is less than 1/4 mile from the other locations that I would approve of, it may as well be in a different part of town for as different the types of crime that are committed are.

 

What you say is very accurate... The dangers to young women from testosterone ridden boys that have poor judgement skills is unfortunately the biggest threat. And a lot of times it's people that they know that pose the greatest risk/danger. And yeah, no matter what you do, your son/daughter is going to put themselves in positions that are harmful to their person, best you can do is prepare them to take care of themselves.

 

But that also doesn't mean you are going to put them in an apartment where the cross streets of the apartments are host to armed robberies, and assault with deadly weapons on a regular basis.

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My daughter had to text me that her car broke down... in the drive through on Scott St. at Popeye's after midnight. She was alone. I was pissed. She didn't think to get me a biscuit. 

 

My daughter lives in The Vue. She likes it but there have been a ton of car break-ins and the company that owns it charges a fortune for small crap boxes and really poor service. Sure, the kids are trashy and treat the place like crap, but it's always disgusting over there. I've been trying to get her back on campus in the Lofts for her junior year but she likes the "freedom" of the Vue. 

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She passed on the lofts???!!!

 

If I had gone to UH and my parents had offered to put me in the lofts I would have jumped on that opportunity!!!  Between post-it note wars, and the downtown views those are the best dorms on campus.

 

and popeyes biscuits are amazing. I'm not sure what they put in them, but wow.

Edited by samagon
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  • 3 months later...

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