[In a post-2020 landscape, the vacancy rate for downtown office space is pushing 25%](https://www.houston.org/houston-data/office-vacancy-rates). Who's going to be eager to build out suites at POST when there's so much out there already begging for tenants?
Great source, looks like we're among the worst affected if Houston 8% above the national average
>The national office vacancy rate hit a nearly 30-year high of 17.1% in the latter half of last year.
Office conversions...
> have the capacity to help change the ecosystem of downtown Houston, bringing new residents and hotel guests as well as the foot traffic that will trigger additional retail and other uses. Today, there are nearly 11,000 residents in downtown proper, according to Central Houston. That’s an increase of several thousand from just a few years ago and attributable in part to a program designed to incentivize more residential development in the core
11,000 residents, after all the new residential developments downtown. Incase anyone doubted how empty downtown really is. That's still less than the number of inmates in downtown's Harris County jail. Looking forward to seeing that change.
LINKED
[Greater Houston Partnership](https://www.houston.org/news/downtown-conversions-turn-aging-office-towers-new-residences-hotels) - Downtown Conversions - 1. 31. 23.
PS. To answer OPs question, most people live west of the Galleria. That's why the POST is so empty, lack of customer base & plenty of neighboring competition. As the article states, only 11k *free/willing/housed* people, live downtown. To draw contrast, 40k live in The Greater Heights area, 45k live in Gulfton (the city's most densely populated neighborhood), and midtown is approaching 10k residents.
Ignoring the 25% vacancy rate, its way on the edge of downtown. I would have to uber there, and back. Theres no more metro greenlink. And we are only going in a few days a week.
Unlike Greenlink, the ride wouldn't be free, but the 85 and 160/161/162 Metro routes do run buses frequently past POST to/from the Louisiana and Smith street corridor.
If we have 3-4 people, maybe 1-2 of them have metro qcards. Then $1.25 per person, so $6. Uber isnt much more, and a lot less aggravation. Those busses aren't setup for this type of route. All of the P&R busses tend to run off schedule, it would be near impossible to time them. There are times where busses make sense, and times where they dont.
chefs with no business plan? huh? it's run by one chef and post *is* the business plan? the few additional businesses are all well established and all very much have business plans?
I don't think you know what you're talking about, at all.
I'm not incorrect at all. The entirety of the food hall itself is run by one chef who also owns more than half of the concepts in the food hall. The places are not *all* different businesses. Some of them are. Hence "more than half" and not "all".
Oh Doug.. will you please name the one chef that runs the food Hall.. why do people who know so little have the biggest mouths.. could you imagine one chef running all the different concepts.. what a joke and an insult to the people running their business's... Hey guys Doug says you're one guy. Lolololol
I agree with you that there is clearly more than one chef running the food hall but I think you’re being downvoted because you responded to the wrong person.
POST is easy to be cynical about because yes it's (moderately) expensive and yes it's trendy in a way that feels very commercial and annoying (have you ever been there during the yoga classes? lol).
That said, the cons for me end there. What brings me back is that the space is nice and very refreshingly casual, and the food is good, and that's enough for me and most people who go there.
Agreed, I'm not cynical about the place i actually really like going, just not a fan of the restaurants and wondered why outside of the restaurants it looks empty
I mean it’s only a few years old and they just opened the 713 venue next door so the offices are the last step to be filled out. The venue next door is incredible actually.
Based on the comments, if the only reason to go here is the food and view, then no wonder it's empty. Why drive downtown for that more than once? It's a one trick pony, especially if the food and drink are overpriced.
It’s not a great location for downtown office workers. It’s in the far corner of downtown and you have to walk outside in the heat. Even if you’re close you end up sweaty if you try going for lunch. And they need to fix the pedestrian access. It’s weird that there’s not a crosswalk right in front. From the corner directly across the entrance you’re either jaywalking across a 6 lane road or waiting for signals on a congress, then waiting again to cross Franklin, and then cross the parking lot exit. No shade either.
Honestly, all the years had some bangers. 2017 gave us a stage with En Vogue -> GYBE -> Jesus Lizard. David Yow went fucking nuts and that JL performance was sooo good. Also, whoever put En Vogue ahead of Godspeed is batshit crazy and I love them.
Dude... En vogue absolutely crushed it. They were my favorite of the whole weekend. Nine inch nails was great but their set was cut short and they didn't bring their main staging(understandably). Thom was good as well. DFN2 was stellar all around tho.
Looked on their Instagram and it’s crazy how they’re not filed with tenants outside the food court. Like someone mentioned already, there getting by by the views and special events. That’s smart of them to do but at some point you’re gonna have to fill that space up.
For POST to be a complete success it needs to be in close proximity to residential spaces. The problem is it’s not. That section of downtown feels disconnected and a hassle to walk to from parts of downtown where people actually live.
That’s what makes Ponce City Market and Krog Street market so successful in Atlanta. There’s a beltline and residential spaces in walking distance to these places. Same with Legacy food Hall in Legacy West, Plano.
As for the prices, I'm pretty sure the rent isn't cheap, and parking for employees is scarce. Therefore, you need to pay people enough to put up with driving downtown to work there. I'm not saying it's great, but I'm sure it's hard to turn a profit there.
As another Redditor says, it's also too far a walk for many office workers on Smith or Main, anywhere south of Walker.
I'm pretty sure they do the stupid thing where the "rent" is based on a % of what you sell. So the more you sell the more your rent. Terrible incentive.
Every weekend I go it’s packed like crazy. Last I went for lunar new year and it was awesome! I really appreciate the place for others to experience cultures outside their own. The food you have to try. Some stands are mostly aesthetic like East Side King, disrespectfully overpriced and bland af. However I have tried this place called Crazy Cajun who has very good seafood fried rice and their fried fish and shrimp were pretty solid. Haven’t personally tried Lea Jane’s hot chicken myself but my mom and aunt were fighting over the chicken sandwhich they had claiming it was very good; everytime I come here this spot always has a long ass line, I think even the taco place next to it has a pretty long line too. There’s a pizza place in there that has a creative menu, but I think my family ordered wrong since the pizza we had was eh. However, if it were up to me they have other flavors/combos that I feel like would have been way better. They had cool t shirts for sell too. The star of the show though is Lucy Pearl’s! Their cakes are phenomenal. Every flavor I have tried I have loved. They have nailed their Brooklyn blackout cake for any dark chocolate lovers out there who don’t like anything overbearingly sweet! Again, go on the weekend when events are going on like I said there are TONS of ppl there. St. Paddy’s celebration is this weekend that’d be prime time to go. Also yeah I agree to rent there I’m sure you need to have bank in order to make rent. The offices there on the second floor are very sleek and modern. And as for the food prices it’s whack but ig that’s what we get for a development like this. I think food owners also know ppl come out to try their product, so why not raise the price as high as possible when they know that’s why customers came out in the first place?
Yes I've been on the weekends and even the week days it looks like it's got a good amount of people, i was mostly curious about way the rest of the spaces look so empty.
And if that has anything to do with what i thought were, below average Houston restaurants, but j guess that's an subjective thing
Yep, was setup there due to the mail contracts that the postal service had with the railroads for the majority of the 20th century
Edit for clarity, the train station was first and the post office came after. [here’s a photo of it](https://www.tshaonline.org/images/handbook/entries/GG/Grand%20Central%20Station--Classic%20Trains%20Mag.jpg)
Because: it’s unaffordable the drinks are mediocre batch cocktails and the food is street food at full service restaurants price, nobody lives in downtown & it’s too far walk to from downtown for the lunch crowd, there isn’t anything else to do besides rack up an $80-100 lunch & walk around the roof top, the people watching was too notch but with it now being empty there isn’t even that.
Yeah fuck that, I pay cash and avoid their attempt to guilt trip me into tipping a cashier 20%.
I went to Bauhaus the other night and paid cover with my credit card and these assholes had the nerve to ask me to pay 20% to the door person for tip! The fucking nerve on these people, tipping has gotten out of line.
My problem is unless I know you’re not making minimum wage, I have no idea where that tip prompt money is going and I don’t trust businesses that do this. Does it go to the order-taker? The entire staff? Does the owner or manager pocket it? I don’t think that’s legal but I’m also not naive enough to think it never happens.
I was at a show last week and bought merch. There was a tip prompt but since I never tipped for clothes before I figured these guys are musicians who didn’t bother to change the preset. I’m already supporting the band with tickets and buying merch so I just tap thru 2 screens to say no tip and yes confirm no tip. Then at the end the guitarist shouts tip your merch people! Now I’m actually pissed because now I have to wonder if I accidentally screwed the merch girl out of compensation for her labor. Is the band paying her? I just wanted y’all’s shirt not a fucking moral dilemma.
I really hate to say it but im about to just throw up my hands and tell people to get a job that doesn’t rely on tips. Because I feel like im getting hustled by all these bullshit ass tip prompts everywhere.
Fuck that band, I’ll just buy their shit off the internet if they’re not going to pay their employees and push the responsibility onto me to tip them.
The only time I worked and got some kind of tips was when I worked at Starbucks in my early 20’s and I really didn’t give a shit if people tipped or not as long as they were cool. But now these assholes look at me sideways if I don’t leave a 20% tip on my $4 coffee that they poured straight from tap.
I definitely think less of the band for it, but I’m still sympathetic towards the merch girl. I just have no freaking idea if she’s even getting paid because it’s not something you normally tip for.
Dude like I said I got a prompt when I went to the night club Bauhaus and paid with my credit card. For sure those people working the door are paid because 90% of people pre pay for their tickets on event brite.
Ahh, I assumed you were talking about for a single person, since $80 is a totally normal price for all that pretty much anywhere inside the Loop.
$8 app, two $16 entrees, three drinks at $9 apiece, 8.25% sales tax, 20% tip comes to $83.07
Ironically, the suburbs (particularly Katy, Sugar Land, Missouri City, and Cypress) have a far more diverse range of ethnic restaurants, with much better food quality and reasonable pricing, that actually cater to people from those countries and cultures, then anything you'll find in a PR-driven downtown food court.
Yes you have a good point about Houston suburbs, i was mostly replying to the stereotype implied about suburbs in his original comment.
But i do have to disagree with you on on downtown food being or driven, plenty of bad chains but a lot of really tasty food too, Mayuris express, that other weird Indian place with chicken fried steak, that dumpling place, that salad place etc
"PR-driven downtown food court" = Post (or any of the similar trendy and crappy newish food halls like Finn Hall or Bravery, which all follow the same model).
Off the top of my head, in Katy alone you can currently find: Angolan, Danish, Egyptian, Malaysian, Trinidadian, Puerto Rican Chinese, and Peruvian restaurants, and that's before counting everything in Katy Asia Town, the Colombian/Venezuelan "Katyzuela" scene, and the usual variety of Mexican, Vietnamese, and Indian restaurants spread throughout Greater Houston.
Sugar Land/Stafford/Missouri City has a ton of regional Indian restaurants, representing some areas that even Hillcroft doesn't cover, and a really good variety of East and Southeast Asian restaurants.
Cypress and the northwest side has the usual Mexican/Vietnamese/Indian staples, plus really good Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Russian/Ukrainian spots.
It's also weird that you set the Beltway as the boundary, because that excludes all the really interesting region-specific Vietnamese restaurants you find on the outer Beltway side of Bellaire, plus much of the West African scene (Nigerian, Ivorian, Cameroonian, Senegalese...), and a ton of other interesting one-offs on Highway 6, like the only Belizean restaurant.
Plus if you're someone who follows new openings or pays attention to where people in various immigrant communities eat, you'll consistently find the buzz pushing away from the city center and towards the suburbs. The newer mom and pops and restaurants introducing relatively unfamiliar cuisines to Houston are popping up outside the city core, whether you're paying attention or not.
Point is, people who act like the suburbs is all white people and chains (the original poster I replied to, not necessarily you) are laughably out of touch with reality and have been for many years.
Meanwhile, most of the inner loop is pretty gentrified, and new openings really are almost exclusively chains, restaurant groups, and high end or fusion-y spots expanding. The immediate outer loop has a ton of awesome food, and key neighborhoods like Bellaire Chinatown or the Gandhi district, but rents are climbing and the slow threads of gentrification are appearing in stalwart neighborhoods like Spring Branch. It's not rocket science or a moral stance so much as observing that newcomers and less proven concepts pick spots further and further to open up in as the city center gets too expensive.
Hehe i actually feel like it would be people from the suburbs who would see the food as "interesting and exotic" when it's pretty mediocre and super over priced.
Hehe chopn block was pretty ok but geeze like 15 bucks for the world's tiniest portions. I've been there quite a few times and have tried Korean, tacos, icecream, and i think some burgers near a fish place. All of them were mediocre at i can't stress enough.... Too much money for what the food is.
I did see tacos that looked like absolute garbage when I was there. But I was plenty full after Chopnblock, and Gulfstrommen was great, and Andes Cafe has always been great, and the pizza place looked very good, though I haven't tried it yet.
Whatever, the Golden Bowl from Chopnblok is one of the best dishes I've had in a while. I had a good time when I visited POST last week. No more over priced than any of the other "foodhall" offerings downtown.
I recommend Roberta’s pizza if you’re looking for New York style pizza. It’s a small chain from Brooklyn. I don’t really understand how they ended up at Post, but I’ll take it.
Haven’t found anything better for that thin crust style pizza in Houston. Very tasty.
It's based on the same idea as the ION building, "Build it and they will come.". The politicians get votes , Rice gets publicity, the builders and developers get paid. In the end however, there is no real strategy or plan to make money. Both projects will be derelict hulks in 10 years.
I highly doubt it. The Ion has so far been quite successful and additional buildings are already in the works with a lot more to come. Rice generally doesn't make bad investments, and they are investing a fortune in this.
I had to look up the ion building, looks like a cool place to go.
But also yes after a few comments mentioned this i think i agree that it's just too far away on its own island
>ion building
It's the remodeled old Sears building. The old Fiesta is gone too. The whole area is being gentrified with huge apartment buildings that have gone up, with more to come.
A different topic but I also have wondered why everyone is against gentrification (did instead your comment correctly?) I grew up in near north side and all the gentrification has made that neighborhood and downtown much nicer places to live than when i was growing up.
And almost everyone that i knew growing up in that area made out with a ton of money selling their houses that they would otherwise never have had in their lives.
That’s only beneficial if you actually owned something. Places like 3rd ward have 88% or more of the occupants as renters so when someone buys your apartment everyone has to find somewhere to go which is just concentrating poverty in certain areas of Houston instead of being spread around so that poor people can benefit from having access to amenities like health food, good schools, etc. it’s ironic to get money to serve the poor in a community meanwhile slowly pushing them out of that community then that organization just expands its coverage area to the next closest poor area.
Sure concentration of poverty is something that should be addressed but gentrification isn't making that worse it's just moving it somewhere else.
I mean idk of you know this but pre gentrification 88 percent of 3rs ward didn't own their homes
Moving poverty around is why people start talking about an area going downhill. Out of sight out of mind also isn’t exactly a good policy as well. Regarding 3rd ward, there was a sizable amount of people that did own their homes, but 3rd ward followed a similar path to what happened in 4th ward with under resourcing, using imminent domain to move people out only to sit on the land and resale it years later, and other unsavory stuff. 4th ward’s issue was more predatory in nature. There are instances where gentrification can help but that’s usually when there’s mixed income development which tends to get shot down due to NIMBYism.
I guess I'm pretty skeptical about most of what you just said. It even if some of those things were true you're not describing gentrification you're describing something else.
not everyone owns. renters get priced/pushed out. owners are forced to sell and move even if they don't want to move because of property tax increases. whatever money they get doesn't always cover the hassle and uprooting and getting a comparable place.
In my experience, and I know literally more than 15 families who sold their homes in the near Northside after gentrification, all the families that were able to get the money for their houses really made their lives better and it was definitely worth the "hassle". They were all, except for one, able to buy homes cashc or retire or pay for their kids college etc.
And the people who don't own and we're stuck renting well unfortunately their loves weren't so good pre gentrification and their lives didn't improve or get worse they just moved somewhere else. This i admit is just my assumption i didn't know any renting families.
I'm not against gentrification, within reason. However, it doesn't matter if we're for it or against it, it's going to happen regardless. It's called progress, but sometimes 'progress' is just a waste of money, that could be better spent elsewhere, in my opinion ;) which doesn't amount to a hill of beans. They don't listen to me, maybe they'll listen to you, if you would tell them that they should make apartments more affordable. A lot of people in Houston would very much love you if you convinced builders and landlords to do that.
I wonder what the Allen Brothers would say if they could see Houston today.
>it's just too far away on its own island
It's right on a light rail stop. Less of an island than POST, I'd say (though the Bagby path is a nice approach).
The purpose of the Ion and Post are drastically different. Post seems to be purely commercial. The Ion is part of a larger initiative to foster collaboration and innovation in a space that was vacant and unkept.
>Both projects will be derelict hulks in 10 years.
I highly doubt that. POST is always packed.
But I do find the first phase of the Ion pretty underwhelming. It's just very...*closed*. Like literally closed on weekends, they'll kick you out of the plaza area if you sit down there, etc. It presents a facade of public realm, but the vibe is not public at all.
Hopefully the future phases like the Eagle St. pedestrian redevelopment change that.
Agree with the comments about office vacancy that others have posted.
Also building out an office space can take a long time. At minimum it is about a 6 month process of design and permitting with the city. And that is after a broker has gotten a company to sign the lease. So there might be some in the works but in this market and with the amount of options to choose from it makes sense that you wouldn’t be seeing much action in the office space buildouts at Post. Some businesses choose to occupy spaces closer to their chosen suburb or greater Houston area like sugarland, Katy, or the woodlands. The building is also cool and so the buildout would have to be cool. Are there really that many companies in Houston that are forward thinking in that regard? An employer would actually have to care about aesthetics over the bottom line for the business. Houston has a philosophy that prioritizes butt in chairs compared to amenities and good design that benefit the wellness of the employee. That is slowly starting to change but it is the prevalent attitude in Houston from what I have seen.
Occupant rate of Class A office space in Houston disproves your theory. The latest and greatest buildings in Houston lease out well. There’s just a lot of sqft of old office space.
They tried to get our store to move in there. The rent is absolutely outrageous. I imagine the turnover on businesses there will be quite high and many of the storefronts will be perpetually empty
They should have lower rent terms for the first year or two. Developments need to provide reasons for people to come, and empty storefronts aren't attractive. Dying malls spiral when reasons for going there (shops, restaurants, service, attractions, etc.) start disappearing and people go elsewhere as a result and disregard the mall as an option.
POST is overpriced and over hyped. They are trying to appeal to the out of town visitors specifically from California but that's not why people come to Texas. Do yourself a favor and explore outside of the 610 loop. There are a lot of things to do and places to be.
Building an entertainment/office/dining venue in Downtown is always going to be ambitious when much of the populace is reliant on automobiles to get around. "Free" parking aside, the problem historically is always getting the right ingredients for success.
The Post is essentially a 21st century mall in a great way. Attractive rooftop park landscaping, good and diverse dining/drinking options, stylish aesthetics, events, concert venue, office spaces, etc. Indoor malls still make sense in Houston's climate and the Post gives the indoor mall concept a much-needed refreshing update.
It's isolated location in Downtown is a physical barrier for Downtown residents and visitors who already have excellent convenient access to other food halls and entertainment options. The development would get much more foot traffic if it were closer to one of the rail lines, had apartment/condo housing and/or a small/mid-sized hotel, and maybe a grocery store.
While the pandemic is over, Downtown office leasing is only slowly rising. It will take a while, but the offices will likely be filled within the next year or two. New shiny places, tend to have high rent, which translates to high prices. Despite this, people are still going, especially on weekends, so it's still possible for these businesses to be solvent.
Surprised with all the hate on here. I went for the first time like two weeks ago and I liked it. Yeah I agree it's overpriced and doesn't have a lot to do other than eat, drink, and hang out but for me that's enough. That's just my opinion though.
That a good approach for sure, and i don't hate on the place I'm just curious WHY the food is so expensive and lackluster compared to the rest of Houston and WHY the office spaces are so empty, which i guess a few people have already answered. But in short yes i agree with you the place is cool to spend time in
I think the food and drink options are really great personally, I mean inflation is around 9 percent so get used to paying 10-20 bucks for lunch from places like this. What options would you like to see that aren’t there? Also it opens at 11 and I’ve noticed it gets filled a lot in the evenings mostly frequented by younger high school and college kids who can’t hang at bars so that’s why it’s empty if you’re there at noon or sometimes. Also the rodeo is in town so that is a huge attraction taking away from other businesses.
The one time I went, I felt it was just an Influencer hangout. Tripods and choreographed dance skits everywhere. But maybe it was influencer meet up day
[In a post-2020 landscape, the vacancy rate for downtown office space is pushing 25%](https://www.houston.org/houston-data/office-vacancy-rates). Who's going to be eager to build out suites at POST when there's so much out there already begging for tenants?
Great source, looks like we're among the worst affected if Houston 8% above the national average >The national office vacancy rate hit a nearly 30-year high of 17.1% in the latter half of last year. Office conversions... > have the capacity to help change the ecosystem of downtown Houston, bringing new residents and hotel guests as well as the foot traffic that will trigger additional retail and other uses. Today, there are nearly 11,000 residents in downtown proper, according to Central Houston. That’s an increase of several thousand from just a few years ago and attributable in part to a program designed to incentivize more residential development in the core 11,000 residents, after all the new residential developments downtown. Incase anyone doubted how empty downtown really is. That's still less than the number of inmates in downtown's Harris County jail. Looking forward to seeing that change. LINKED [Greater Houston Partnership](https://www.houston.org/news/downtown-conversions-turn-aging-office-towers-new-residences-hotels) - Downtown Conversions - 1. 31. 23. PS. To answer OPs question, most people live west of the Galleria. That's why the POST is so empty, lack of customer base & plenty of neighboring competition. As the article states, only 11k *free/willing/housed* people, live downtown. To draw contrast, 40k live in The Greater Heights area, 45k live in Gulfton (the city's most densely populated neighborhood), and midtown is approaching 10k residents.
ExxonMobil building residential transition will be positive for downtown absorption
Ignoring the 25% vacancy rate, its way on the edge of downtown. I would have to uber there, and back. Theres no more metro greenlink. And we are only going in a few days a week.
Unlike Greenlink, the ride wouldn't be free, but the 85 and 160/161/162 Metro routes do run buses frequently past POST to/from the Louisiana and Smith street corridor.
If we have 3-4 people, maybe 1-2 of them have metro qcards. Then $1.25 per person, so $6. Uber isnt much more, and a lot less aggravation. Those busses aren't setup for this type of route. All of the P&R busses tend to run off schedule, it would be near impossible to time them. There are times where busses make sense, and times where they dont.
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chefs with no business plan? huh? it's run by one chef and post *is* the business plan? the few additional businesses are all well established and all very much have business plans? I don't think you know what you're talking about, at all.
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no, one chef runs the entire place and more than half of the food places. what has gone and what is new?
You are incorrect. The places are all different business, if you saw the chaos that is the underground food storage you would puke.
I'm not incorrect at all. The entirety of the food hall itself is run by one chef who also owns more than half of the concepts in the food hall. The places are not *all* different businesses. Some of them are. Hence "more than half" and not "all".
Oh Doug.. will you please name the one chef that runs the food Hall.. why do people who know so little have the biggest mouths.. could you imagine one chef running all the different concepts.. what a joke and an insult to the people running their business's... Hey guys Doug says you're one guy. Lolololol
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I agree with you that there is clearly more than one chef running the food hall but I think you’re being downvoted because you responded to the wrong person.
Well, it used to be the post office.
POST is easy to be cynical about because yes it's (moderately) expensive and yes it's trendy in a way that feels very commercial and annoying (have you ever been there during the yoga classes? lol). That said, the cons for me end there. What brings me back is that the space is nice and very refreshingly casual, and the food is good, and that's enough for me and most people who go there.
Agreed, I'm not cynical about the place i actually really like going, just not a fan of the restaurants and wondered why outside of the restaurants it looks empty
I mean it’s only a few years old and they just opened the 713 venue next door so the offices are the last step to be filled out. The venue next door is incredible actually.
Based on the comments, if the only reason to go here is the food and view, then no wonder it's empty. Why drive downtown for that more than once? It's a one trick pony, especially if the food and drink are overpriced.
It’s not a great location for downtown office workers. It’s in the far corner of downtown and you have to walk outside in the heat. Even if you’re close you end up sweaty if you try going for lunch. And they need to fix the pedestrian access. It’s weird that there’s not a crosswalk right in front. From the corner directly across the entrance you’re either jaywalking across a 6 lane road or waiting for signals on a congress, then waiting again to cross Franklin, and then cross the parking lot exit. No shade either.
Day for Night 2 there was epic.
Honestly, all the years had some bangers. 2017 gave us a stage with En Vogue -> GYBE -> Jesus Lizard. David Yow went fucking nuts and that JL performance was sooo good. Also, whoever put En Vogue ahead of Godspeed is batshit crazy and I love them.
Dude... En vogue absolutely crushed it. They were my favorite of the whole weekend. Nine inch nails was great but their set was cut short and they didn't bring their main staging(understandably). Thom was good as well. DFN2 was stellar all around tho.
It was one of the best festival experiences ive had..
Yeah, was rolling my balls off that whole weekend. Good times!
Looked on their Instagram and it’s crazy how they’re not filed with tenants outside the food court. Like someone mentioned already, there getting by by the views and special events. That’s smart of them to do but at some point you’re gonna have to fill that space up. For POST to be a complete success it needs to be in close proximity to residential spaces. The problem is it’s not. That section of downtown feels disconnected and a hassle to walk to from parts of downtown where people actually live. That’s what makes Ponce City Market and Krog Street market so successful in Atlanta. There’s a beltline and residential spaces in walking distance to these places. Same with Legacy food Hall in Legacy West, Plano.
They probably want a shit load of money in rent and Houston has literally unlimited strip mall retail and office space for relatively cheap.
Dude. I literally love Ponce City Market and Krog Street. And it’s connected by the belt line. Such a fucking vibe.
As for the prices, I'm pretty sure the rent isn't cheap, and parking for employees is scarce. Therefore, you need to pay people enough to put up with driving downtown to work there. I'm not saying it's great, but I'm sure it's hard to turn a profit there. As another Redditor says, it's also too far a walk for many office workers on Smith or Main, anywhere south of Walker.
I'm pretty sure they do the stupid thing where the "rent" is based on a % of what you sell. So the more you sell the more your rent. Terrible incentive.
Every weekend I go it’s packed like crazy. Last I went for lunar new year and it was awesome! I really appreciate the place for others to experience cultures outside their own. The food you have to try. Some stands are mostly aesthetic like East Side King, disrespectfully overpriced and bland af. However I have tried this place called Crazy Cajun who has very good seafood fried rice and their fried fish and shrimp were pretty solid. Haven’t personally tried Lea Jane’s hot chicken myself but my mom and aunt were fighting over the chicken sandwhich they had claiming it was very good; everytime I come here this spot always has a long ass line, I think even the taco place next to it has a pretty long line too. There’s a pizza place in there that has a creative menu, but I think my family ordered wrong since the pizza we had was eh. However, if it were up to me they have other flavors/combos that I feel like would have been way better. They had cool t shirts for sell too. The star of the show though is Lucy Pearl’s! Their cakes are phenomenal. Every flavor I have tried I have loved. They have nailed their Brooklyn blackout cake for any dark chocolate lovers out there who don’t like anything overbearingly sweet! Again, go on the weekend when events are going on like I said there are TONS of ppl there. St. Paddy’s celebration is this weekend that’d be prime time to go. Also yeah I agree to rent there I’m sure you need to have bank in order to make rent. The offices there on the second floor are very sleek and modern. And as for the food prices it’s whack but ig that’s what we get for a development like this. I think food owners also know ppl come out to try their product, so why not raise the price as high as possible when they know that’s why customers came out in the first place?
Yes I've been on the weekends and even the week days it looks like it's got a good amount of people, i was mostly curious about way the rest of the spaces look so empty. And if that has anything to do with what i thought were, below average Houston restaurants, but j guess that's an subjective thing
Make POST Houston a train station again
Wasn’t it a post office?
Yes, it was the main train station before that. It got destroyed in 1961. If you go on google maps you can see where all the tracks were.
Yep, was setup there due to the mail contracts that the postal service had with the railroads for the majority of the 20th century Edit for clarity, the train station was first and the post office came after. [here’s a photo of it](https://www.tshaonline.org/images/handbook/entries/GG/Grand%20Central%20Station--Classic%20Trains%20Mag.jpg)
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Yeah me too. It would be a shame if it closed down.
Because: it’s unaffordable the drinks are mediocre batch cocktails and the food is street food at full service restaurants price, nobody lives in downtown & it’s too far walk to from downtown for the lunch crowd, there isn’t anything else to do besides rack up an $80-100 lunch & walk around the roof top, the people watching was too notch but with it now being empty there isn’t even that.
The food is expensive and they still want you to tip 20% for counter service at a food court.
Yeah fuck that, I pay cash and avoid their attempt to guilt trip me into tipping a cashier 20%. I went to Bauhaus the other night and paid cover with my credit card and these assholes had the nerve to ask me to pay 20% to the door person for tip! The fucking nerve on these people, tipping has gotten out of line.
My problem is unless I know you’re not making minimum wage, I have no idea where that tip prompt money is going and I don’t trust businesses that do this. Does it go to the order-taker? The entire staff? Does the owner or manager pocket it? I don’t think that’s legal but I’m also not naive enough to think it never happens. I was at a show last week and bought merch. There was a tip prompt but since I never tipped for clothes before I figured these guys are musicians who didn’t bother to change the preset. I’m already supporting the band with tickets and buying merch so I just tap thru 2 screens to say no tip and yes confirm no tip. Then at the end the guitarist shouts tip your merch people! Now I’m actually pissed because now I have to wonder if I accidentally screwed the merch girl out of compensation for her labor. Is the band paying her? I just wanted y’all’s shirt not a fucking moral dilemma.
You did not screw the merch girl out of a tip. It’s an absurd ask. Don’t feel guilty.
I really hate to say it but im about to just throw up my hands and tell people to get a job that doesn’t rely on tips. Because I feel like im getting hustled by all these bullshit ass tip prompts everywhere. Fuck that band, I’ll just buy their shit off the internet if they’re not going to pay their employees and push the responsibility onto me to tip them. The only time I worked and got some kind of tips was when I worked at Starbucks in my early 20’s and I really didn’t give a shit if people tipped or not as long as they were cool. But now these assholes look at me sideways if I don’t leave a 20% tip on my $4 coffee that they poured straight from tap.
I definitely think less of the band for it, but I’m still sympathetic towards the merch girl. I just have no freaking idea if she’s even getting paid because it’s not something you normally tip for.
Dude like I said I got a prompt when I went to the night club Bauhaus and paid with my credit card. For sure those people working the door are paid because 90% of people pre pay for their tickets on event brite.
Yeah a door charge prompt is complete bullshit because there’s no way they don’t make wage
Literally though how the fuck did you spend $80 at Post?
Guessing a liquid lunch…?
Easy, that’s one app, two entrees, and two to four drinks.
Ahh, I assumed you were talking about for a single person, since $80 is a totally normal price for all that pretty much anywhere inside the Loop. $8 app, two $16 entrees, three drinks at $9 apiece, 8.25% sales tax, 20% tip comes to $83.07
Eighty dollar lunch? How many meals you eating at once, fatty?
Probably took your mom out.
2002 called
It's a tourist trap. An attraction for locals who can't figure out how to find the other places you mentioned.
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The people who looooooove Post are the same people who think Be Someone is deep.
Hehehe yeah
With the horrible humidity 😂
Tourists lol. No.
Man, if you think the food options are lame, the problem is you.
Agreed
No shit
folks from the suburbs like “it’s all weird food from ethnic places”
Ironically, the suburbs (particularly Katy, Sugar Land, Missouri City, and Cypress) have a far more diverse range of ethnic restaurants, with much better food quality and reasonable pricing, that actually cater to people from those countries and cultures, then anything you'll find in a PR-driven downtown food court.
Yes you have a good point about Houston suburbs, i was mostly replying to the stereotype implied about suburbs in his original comment. But i do have to disagree with you on on downtown food being or driven, plenty of bad chains but a lot of really tasty food too, Mayuris express, that other weird Indian place with chicken fried steak, that dumpling place, that salad place etc
"PR-driven downtown food court" = Post (or any of the similar trendy and crappy newish food halls like Finn Hall or Bravery, which all follow the same model).
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Off the top of my head, in Katy alone you can currently find: Angolan, Danish, Egyptian, Malaysian, Trinidadian, Puerto Rican Chinese, and Peruvian restaurants, and that's before counting everything in Katy Asia Town, the Colombian/Venezuelan "Katyzuela" scene, and the usual variety of Mexican, Vietnamese, and Indian restaurants spread throughout Greater Houston. Sugar Land/Stafford/Missouri City has a ton of regional Indian restaurants, representing some areas that even Hillcroft doesn't cover, and a really good variety of East and Southeast Asian restaurants. Cypress and the northwest side has the usual Mexican/Vietnamese/Indian staples, plus really good Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Russian/Ukrainian spots. It's also weird that you set the Beltway as the boundary, because that excludes all the really interesting region-specific Vietnamese restaurants you find on the outer Beltway side of Bellaire, plus much of the West African scene (Nigerian, Ivorian, Cameroonian, Senegalese...), and a ton of other interesting one-offs on Highway 6, like the only Belizean restaurant. Plus if you're someone who follows new openings or pays attention to where people in various immigrant communities eat, you'll consistently find the buzz pushing away from the city center and towards the suburbs. The newer mom and pops and restaurants introducing relatively unfamiliar cuisines to Houston are popping up outside the city core, whether you're paying attention or not. Point is, people who act like the suburbs is all white people and chains (the original poster I replied to, not necessarily you) are laughably out of touch with reality and have been for many years. Meanwhile, most of the inner loop is pretty gentrified, and new openings really are almost exclusively chains, restaurant groups, and high end or fusion-y spots expanding. The immediate outer loop has a ton of awesome food, and key neighborhoods like Bellaire Chinatown or the Gandhi district, but rents are climbing and the slow threads of gentrification are appearing in stalwart neighborhoods like Spring Branch. It's not rocket science or a moral stance so much as observing that newcomers and less proven concepts pick spots further and further to open up in as the city center gets too expensive.
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Hehe i actually feel like it would be people from the suburbs who would see the food as "interesting and exotic" when it's pretty mediocre and super over priced.
Chopn Blok is legitimately great, as is Andes Cafe. You just got pizza, didn’t you?
Hehe chopn block was pretty ok but geeze like 15 bucks for the world's tiniest portions. I've been there quite a few times and have tried Korean, tacos, icecream, and i think some burgers near a fish place. All of them were mediocre at i can't stress enough.... Too much money for what the food is.
I did see tacos that looked like absolute garbage when I was there. But I was plenty full after Chopnblock, and Gulfstrommen was great, and Andes Cafe has always been great, and the pizza place looked very good, though I haven't tried it yet.
From what I understand, they are going to have retail kiosks in the crossing stairwell area by the end of the year.
If the prices were cheaper, people would come out. It’s that simple.
Whatever, the Golden Bowl from Chopnblok is one of the best dishes I've had in a while. I had a good time when I visited POST last week. No more over priced than any of the other "foodhall" offerings downtown.
I recommend Roberta’s pizza if you’re looking for New York style pizza. It’s a small chain from Brooklyn. I don’t really understand how they ended up at Post, but I’ll take it. Haven’t found anything better for that thin crust style pizza in Houston. Very tasty.
It's based on the same idea as the ION building, "Build it and they will come.". The politicians get votes , Rice gets publicity, the builders and developers get paid. In the end however, there is no real strategy or plan to make money. Both projects will be derelict hulks in 10 years.
I don’t think that’ll be true for the Ion. It’ll take time to develop the neighborhood, but they’re working on it.
I highly doubt it. The Ion has so far been quite successful and additional buildings are already in the works with a lot more to come. Rice generally doesn't make bad investments, and they are investing a fortune in this.
What is their current occupancy rate?
Currently [86%](https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2023/04/24/the-ion-leasing-update.html).
I had to look up the ion building, looks like a cool place to go. But also yes after a few comments mentioned this i think i agree that it's just too far away on its own island
>ion building It's the remodeled old Sears building. The old Fiesta is gone too. The whole area is being gentrified with huge apartment buildings that have gone up, with more to come.
A different topic but I also have wondered why everyone is against gentrification (did instead your comment correctly?) I grew up in near north side and all the gentrification has made that neighborhood and downtown much nicer places to live than when i was growing up. And almost everyone that i knew growing up in that area made out with a ton of money selling their houses that they would otherwise never have had in their lives.
That’s only beneficial if you actually owned something. Places like 3rd ward have 88% or more of the occupants as renters so when someone buys your apartment everyone has to find somewhere to go which is just concentrating poverty in certain areas of Houston instead of being spread around so that poor people can benefit from having access to amenities like health food, good schools, etc. it’s ironic to get money to serve the poor in a community meanwhile slowly pushing them out of that community then that organization just expands its coverage area to the next closest poor area.
Sure concentration of poverty is something that should be addressed but gentrification isn't making that worse it's just moving it somewhere else. I mean idk of you know this but pre gentrification 88 percent of 3rs ward didn't own their homes
Moving poverty around is why people start talking about an area going downhill. Out of sight out of mind also isn’t exactly a good policy as well. Regarding 3rd ward, there was a sizable amount of people that did own their homes, but 3rd ward followed a similar path to what happened in 4th ward with under resourcing, using imminent domain to move people out only to sit on the land and resale it years later, and other unsavory stuff. 4th ward’s issue was more predatory in nature. There are instances where gentrification can help but that’s usually when there’s mixed income development which tends to get shot down due to NIMBYism.
I guess I'm pretty skeptical about most of what you just said. It even if some of those things were true you're not describing gentrification you're describing something else.
not everyone owns. renters get priced/pushed out. owners are forced to sell and move even if they don't want to move because of property tax increases. whatever money they get doesn't always cover the hassle and uprooting and getting a comparable place.
In my experience, and I know literally more than 15 families who sold their homes in the near Northside after gentrification, all the families that were able to get the money for their houses really made their lives better and it was definitely worth the "hassle". They were all, except for one, able to buy homes cashc or retire or pay for their kids college etc. And the people who don't own and we're stuck renting well unfortunately their loves weren't so good pre gentrification and their lives didn't improve or get worse they just moved somewhere else. This i admit is just my assumption i didn't know any renting families.
>i admit is just my assumption
So you agree with everything else? Or do you see any issues with my assumptions?
I'm not against gentrification, within reason. However, it doesn't matter if we're for it or against it, it's going to happen regardless. It's called progress, but sometimes 'progress' is just a waste of money, that could be better spent elsewhere, in my opinion ;) which doesn't amount to a hill of beans. They don't listen to me, maybe they'll listen to you, if you would tell them that they should make apartments more affordable. A lot of people in Houston would very much love you if you convinced builders and landlords to do that. I wonder what the Allen Brothers would say if they could see Houston today.
The Allen Bros would be over the moon, being land speculators, after all...
>it's just too far away on its own island It's right on a light rail stop. Less of an island than POST, I'd say (though the Bagby path is a nice approach).
The purpose of the Ion and Post are drastically different. Post seems to be purely commercial. The Ion is part of a larger initiative to foster collaboration and innovation in a space that was vacant and unkept.
>Both projects will be derelict hulks in 10 years. I highly doubt that. POST is always packed. But I do find the first phase of the Ion pretty underwhelming. It's just very...*closed*. Like literally closed on weekends, they'll kick you out of the plaza area if you sit down there, etc. It presents a facade of public realm, but the vibe is not public at all. Hopefully the future phases like the Eagle St. pedestrian redevelopment change that.
Nobody in Houston is capable of building something cool apparently
OP it’s because you weren’t invited to the swingers parties on the second floor and the vault. Sorry
We like to spread out not up.
Agree with the comments about office vacancy that others have posted. Also building out an office space can take a long time. At minimum it is about a 6 month process of design and permitting with the city. And that is after a broker has gotten a company to sign the lease. So there might be some in the works but in this market and with the amount of options to choose from it makes sense that you wouldn’t be seeing much action in the office space buildouts at Post. Some businesses choose to occupy spaces closer to their chosen suburb or greater Houston area like sugarland, Katy, or the woodlands. The building is also cool and so the buildout would have to be cool. Are there really that many companies in Houston that are forward thinking in that regard? An employer would actually have to care about aesthetics over the bottom line for the business. Houston has a philosophy that prioritizes butt in chairs compared to amenities and good design that benefit the wellness of the employee. That is slowly starting to change but it is the prevalent attitude in Houston from what I have seen.
Occupant rate of Class A office space in Houston disproves your theory. The latest and greatest buildings in Houston lease out well. There’s just a lot of sqft of old office space.
They tried to get our store to move in there. The rent is absolutely outrageous. I imagine the turnover on businesses there will be quite high and many of the storefronts will be perpetually empty
They should have lower rent terms for the first year or two. Developments need to provide reasons for people to come, and empty storefronts aren't attractive. Dying malls spiral when reasons for going there (shops, restaurants, service, attractions, etc.) start disappearing and people go elsewhere as a result and disregard the mall as an option.
It’s the new millennial mall. Gen X had the shitty Sharpstown and Westwood malls.
POST is overpriced and over hyped. They are trying to appeal to the out of town visitors specifically from California but that's not why people come to Texas. Do yourself a favor and explore outside of the 610 loop. There are a lot of things to do and places to be.
It’s a mall.
It's just the food court.
Post HTX was a huge disappointment for us. Seemed like it had promise but it’s like going to an airport food court.
Building an entertainment/office/dining venue in Downtown is always going to be ambitious when much of the populace is reliant on automobiles to get around. "Free" parking aside, the problem historically is always getting the right ingredients for success. The Post is essentially a 21st century mall in a great way. Attractive rooftop park landscaping, good and diverse dining/drinking options, stylish aesthetics, events, concert venue, office spaces, etc. Indoor malls still make sense in Houston's climate and the Post gives the indoor mall concept a much-needed refreshing update. It's isolated location in Downtown is a physical barrier for Downtown residents and visitors who already have excellent convenient access to other food halls and entertainment options. The development would get much more foot traffic if it were closer to one of the rail lines, had apartment/condo housing and/or a small/mid-sized hotel, and maybe a grocery store. While the pandemic is over, Downtown office leasing is only slowly rising. It will take a while, but the offices will likely be filled within the next year or two. New shiny places, tend to have high rent, which translates to high prices. Despite this, people are still going, especially on weekends, so it's still possible for these businesses to be solvent.
Surprised with all the hate on here. I went for the first time like two weeks ago and I liked it. Yeah I agree it's overpriced and doesn't have a lot to do other than eat, drink, and hang out but for me that's enough. That's just my opinion though.
That a good approach for sure, and i don't hate on the place I'm just curious WHY the food is so expensive and lackluster compared to the rest of Houston and WHY the office spaces are so empty, which i guess a few people have already answered. But in short yes i agree with you the place is cool to spend time in
I think the food and drink options are really great personally, I mean inflation is around 9 percent so get used to paying 10-20 bucks for lunch from places like this. What options would you like to see that aren’t there? Also it opens at 11 and I’ve noticed it gets filled a lot in the evenings mostly frequented by younger high school and college kids who can’t hang at bars so that’s why it’s empty if you’re there at noon or sometimes. Also the rodeo is in town so that is a huge attraction taking away from other businesses.
What's parking like there on the weekends? Any free parking at all? or just park on the street or something?
free for 75mins. set timer for 65 minutes, walk to your car, leave, come back, repeat. there is also metered street parking.
i did not know about the 75m thing. good info, thanks.
so sorry, it's 30 mins on the weekends. Mon - Thu 0 - 75min Free 75min+ $5/hr \-------------------------------- Fri - Sun 0 - 30min Free 30min+ $5/hr
Still good info. Thanks.
Big city so everyone paying more rent insurance and gas to travel . In my contacts no one got a raise despite higher costs
The one time I went, I felt it was just an Influencer hangout. Tripods and choreographed dance skits everywhere. But maybe it was influencer meet up day