Kevin at BlogHouston writes that 10 condo developments are going up in the Montrose area in a one half mile square area. The story was carried by KHOU TV.
I hope those developers don't end up overbuilding. Maybe $60+ a barrel oil fever is hitting some of them! I can remember as a teenager around 1981 or so listening to some well respected voices in Houston at that time saying that oil was going to go to $100 per barrel by 1990 and that downtown Houston was going to encompass the entire 610 Inner Loop.
I don't know how many townhouse or condo units are being developed, but it is clear that we are seeing the revelation of public preferences here. Those who want to live in the Inner Loop want to live in Montrose and not downtown! There are a number of obvious reasons for this. One is that you probably don't such a problem of dealing with the homeless and the derelict. Another is that downtown is relatively close by, ergo you don't necessarily have to live downtown to have access to it. What I would find amusing (if my tax dollars hadn't been wasted along the way) is that the political classes have spent a horde of taxpayer money trying to lure people to live downtown when the real estate developers are putting their money where their mouth is by betting that people might like what Inner Loop life has to offer without wanting to live there.
Come to think about it, if we had a strong zoning ordainance, it is conceivable that some of those projects might have been blocked politically by people who already live in the area and would not want to see anymore development.
Traffic is not the only issue here. There are also the issues of sewers and drainage infrastructure. Also, it is density but density over a much wider area and much higher scale that would be needed over the long run to justify the building of rail. As it is, we will see at least one vehicle on the road for every two newcomers in Montrose and this still is a relatively small area. Furthermore, the Census and FTA data shows little correlation between density and how many miles people drive.
Midrises are something of an economic compromise when it comes to development. The problem with highrises is that developers might underestimate their costs because the marginal cost of building way up goes up the further you build upwards. The same principle applies to parking lots. You do not see to many multi-story parking garages because they are expensive to develop vis-a-vis simply acquiring some land and paving it over for parking space. Usually you only see parking garages in major real estate developments, primarily commercial in nature.
The problems associated with rising costs from building highrises sometimes results in early buyers getting into lawsuits with the developers over the fact that buyers might have been lured into buying a condo at a price, only to have the developer see cost overruns and then try to either get out of the deal or renegotiate the sale. This is what happened to a former owner of the property I now own.
It will be really interesting to see what the 2010 Census numbers turn out like. Despite the building boom, I still am of the opinion that there is more development happening outside of the City limits then inside of them.
Mayor White and Council do have a problem on their hands. Street layouts will need to be rethought and maybe even widened - yikes! Nonetheless, this is a yet another sign that we are living in good times here in Houston. I would much rather be trying to deal with these problems rather than presiding over a city which is struggling economically.
Addendum - May 20, 2007: I saw an ad in the Sunday May 13, 2007 edition of the Houston Chronicle. There were two downtown lofts being advertised. I cannot remember the details of one of the lofts, but I do remember that the other was being pitched for $165,000. And what, pray tell, do you get for your $165,000? How about 704 square feet of living space. Isn't paying $230 per square foot for the equivalent of a one bedroom apartment a bargain?
Also, there was a story carried by Channel 11 recently whereby people who now live in Montrose are starting to complain not only about the construction, but also about the added crowding that the new density is probably going to bring. Stay tuned.
Posted by The Mighty Wizard at March 2, 2007 01:35 AM