Northgate continuing to go upward

4,508 Views | 29 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by mazag08
fourth deck
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AG
Not sure if this has been discussed but Northgate is continuing to get more dense. A new set of apartments is going in directly behind the apartment complex owned by St. Mary's. Northgate seemed like it was still mostly cheap run-down housing when I left in 2011.



Justin2010
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AG
Looks nice.

It's crazy how many mid-rises are going up in the area right now.
redd38
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The apartment complex owned by St Mary's is gone, btw. Supposed to be ground breaking for the new building there in September I think (not an apartment complex).
jac4
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I guess this is the Urban Core that the developers of Century Square want/envision.
fourth deck
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Are you talking about the one directly behind the church or the 80's style apartments off the parking lot?
redd38
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fourth deck said:

Are you talking about the one directly behind the church or the 80's style apartments off the parking lot?
Both are gone, the ground breaking will be on the lot behind the church, not that hole in the ground that's used as extra parking area now.
fourth deck
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AG
Wow, things have accelerated to the point where they're clearing out entire blocks now.
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aggiepaintrain
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y'all can forget about driving on university near campus and NG soon, will make 1960 look like the autobahn
FJB
Captn_Ag05
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Is this the project that currently has construction cranes up or is this a new one?

Have a link to the information/where the drawings came from?
95_Aggie
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I found a link but it doesn't give much detail

https://www.bsbdesign.com/project/northgate-residences/?expertise=student-housing
Law361
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I believe this is the project with a crane up already. St. Mary's will also be leasing the land immediately behind the church to a developer for an apartment complex as well. So there will be another apartment complex between the church and the apartments currently being constructed.
fourth deck
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Here's the info on the apartments from CS

Linky

Not technically Northgate but engineering is also finally going to be getting a garage

Polo Rd. garage
PS3D
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It's too bad the neighborhood still sucks though. Historic buildings with marred facades, pretty terrible road patterns (reopen College Main!), no grocery stores or any other neighborhood stores (the closest thing is CVS, and that was after a LONG wait), too many bars and nightclubs, etc. At least the former "Sleazy Mart" cleaned up its act by remodeling into a much nicer-looking gas station. That's a plus, I suppose.
(Removed:11023A)
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It's getting ridiculous te amount of apartments going up in this town!! Excessive, excessive and excessive!!!

This can not go on for ever, the university is NOT growing that fast anymore and we have caught up with the number of housing needed for new students!!

The city needs to put a stop to this BS, and before you ask I am a land developer.....nothing to do with student housing by the way.
australopithecus robustus
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The City won't stop it. They're not business people. They're focused on growth/taxes.

This whole thing will work out well in the long run. There will be growth, there will be lost fortunes. Such is the way of things.
(Removed:11023A)
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The city also has the responsibility to have the infrastructure to be able to deal with all this new and future development, unfortunately they are not even close to!

Chazz03
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You're right. Developers have underfunded the growth for too long. Spreading the tax dollars thin while raking in the doh
australopithecus robustus
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You're so right Andy. The city has to be watched and can't be trusted. Especially in Northgate. I've got several bad stories, but here's one that's relatable to your infrastructure comment.

I did a deal some years back. That deal required the install of sprinklers to an old building. That's perfectly understandable.

However, the water line from the city to the building was too small. The city made me spend $30,000 to upgrade THE CITY'S WATER LINE to facilitate the sprinkler install. I had to bore under a concrete city street to upgrade their line.

The problem is, as a municipality, you can't require comething by code and not provide adequate utilities to the user to meet that code.

My next deal was in Bryan. It went very smoothly of course.

My $30,000 deal is peanuts compared to a deal some friends of mine did that cost them $700,000! They had to build a city street for the city. The city of course will be sued for that one when the time is right.

These folks who paint developers as the bad guys are likely the same ones who get on these boards and say "this town needs this thing or that thing. This town needs a Woodlands water village etc.". If those same folks were told they had to upgrade some City utlities to install a swimming pool at their house, they would lose their minds!

I've got another deal coming up that happens to be in College Station. I'm already getting prepared for the city to contradict themselves about a dozen times through the process. One department will tell me to do something while the other will say don't do it etc. I have no doubt that we will go over budget by no fault of our own Now, I just expect it.
runawaytrain
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Would be able to have some tax dollars for infrastructure, but so many public/private partnerships that are not paying taxes into the city/county that the tax burden is falling on others.
Goose83
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The problem with all this overbuidling of apartments is once the bubble bursts, there are going to be a lot of apartments (especially those on the periphery) that will go Section 8. Feel sorry for those surrounding residential neighborhoods that are going to be caught in the crossfire, especially when crime spikes and land values go down.
FlyRod
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I've seen this at other student "strips" before, like U. Illinois Champaign-Urbana. Large apt complexes and pseudo high rises start going up and around the existing bars and older establishments. Surprised it took this long here.
rocketscience
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Here is the master plan for St. Mary's. The new midrise building at the start of this thread will be directly to the left of the lower building highlighted in yellow.

Will Northgate growth slow if the rest of the student housing in other areas does? Or will its location keep the redevelopment of the eyesores coming? It would also seem that student housing won't slow down, for a while at least, with the first students taking classes at RELLIS starting next fall, the plans to eventually have 20,000-30,000 students there, and with Blinn and TEEX's vision for greatly expanded workforce training.
(Removed:11023A)
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Chazz03 said:

You're right. Developers have underfunded the growth for too long. Spreading the tax dollars thin while raking in the doh


That's the part that PMO, the city cherry picks who pays and doesn't pay for the infrastructure!!

We developed 20 acres of land here in BCS and we the developer paid for ALL the services needed for the project!! We paid fees up the wazoo, built and paid for streets, sewage, utilities, and on top of that had to donate an extra number of acreage for a park.....that has yet to be built by the city. I don't have a problem with that, but I do have a problem with the zero incentives that we received compared to other developments here in the city
Cyp0111
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wow. So this project has not even started? When you add it to all the other items we are going to have to see rent compression?
rocketscience
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This one has started, they're currently finishing up with setting the piers and are about to start pouring the slab.
95_Aggie
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If student housing becomes concentrated closer to campus, maybe traffic congestion would be eased elsewhere in town?
PS3D
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AGnCS said:

If student housing becomes concentrated closer to campus, maybe traffic congestion would be eased elsewhere in town?

No because density doesn't reduce traffic, and they'll need to still get groceries, etc.
fourth deck
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Which is exactly why redevelopment of the old Albertson's property absolutely needs some kind of grocery component
Too Chains
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australopithecus robustus said:

You're so right Andy. The city has to be watched and can't be trusted. Especially in Northgate. I've got several bad stories, but here's one that's relatable to your infrastructure comment.

I did a deal some years back. That deal required the install of sprinklers to an old building. That's perfectly understandable.

However, the water line from the city to the building was too small. The city made me spend $30,000 to upgrade THE CITY'S WATER LINE to facilitate the sprinkler install. I had to bore under a concrete city street to upgrade their line.

The problem is, as a municipality, you can't require comething by code and not provide adequate utilities to the user to meet that code.

My next deal was in Bryan. It went very smoothly of course.

My $30,000 deal is peanuts compared to a deal some friends of mine did that cost them $700,000! They had to build a city street for the city. The city of course will be sued for that one when the time is right.

These folks who paint developers as the bad guys are likely the same ones who get on these boards and say "this town needs this thing or that thing. This town needs a Woodlands water village etc.". If those same folks were told they had to upgrade some City utlities to install a swimming pool at their house, they would lose their minds!

I've got another deal coming up that happens to be in College Station. I'm already getting prepared for the city to contradict themselves about a dozen times through the process. One department will tell me to do something while the other will say don't do it etc. I have no doubt that we will go over budget by no fault of our own Now, I just expect it.
Sorry to hear about your troubles with the city. We've all had our fare share of experiences with these municipalities all around Texas. Slight suggestion to help reduce the risk of a surprise is getting a good local civil or architect early on in your due diligence process. They could help identify some of these costly issues and in case they have a relationship with some of these officials that may give you a hard time. BoL!
mazag08
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australopithecus robustus said:

You're so right Andy. The city has to be watched and can't be trusted. Especially in Northgate. I've got several bad stories, but here's one that's relatable to your infrastructure comment.

I did a deal some years back. That deal required the install of sprinklers to an old building. That's perfectly understandable.

However, the water line from the city to the building was too small. The city made me spend $30,000 to upgrade THE CITY'S WATER LINE to facilitate the sprinkler install. I had to bore under a concrete city street to upgrade their line.

The problem is, as a municipality, you can't require comething by code and not provide adequate utilities to the user to meet that code.

My next deal was in Bryan. It went very smoothly of course.

My $30,000 deal is peanuts compared to a deal some friends of mine did that cost them $700,000! They had to build a city street for the city. The city of course will be sued for that one when the time is right.

These folks who paint developers as the bad guys are likely the same ones who get on these boards and say "this town needs this thing or that thing. This town needs a Woodlands water village etc.". If those same folks were told they had to upgrade some City utlities to install a swimming pool at their house, they would lose their minds!

I've got another deal coming up that happens to be in College Station. I'm already getting prepared for the city to contradict themselves about a dozen times through the process. One department will tell me to do something while the other will say don't do it etc. I have no doubt that we will go over budget by no fault of our own Now, I just expect it.
How many deals have you been a prt of where it isn't the developers responsibility to pay for the utility line upgrades? That's pretty standard and is almost always budgeted before due diligence in a transaction.
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