Montrose Developer Unhappy About Parking Requirements

Developer Fred Sharifi of SFT Investments is planning a $20 million, 60,000-square-foot mixed-use development for the corner of Genesee Street and Fairview—the current site of nightclub Meteor and a small apartment complex—that will include retail, office, and restaurant space, as well as six to eight loft-style apartments. But because of the city’s onerous parking requirements, the project’s tallest structure will be a six-story parking garage. Architect Peter Merwin told the Houston Business Journal that he will be forced to provide eight to ten parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of development. Merwin said he hopes Houston will change its approach to parking: “I think the city is starting to see that if you let engineers optimize everything for the automobile, you’re going to have a city optimized for the automobile and not the pedestrian.”