Haha, someone finally did B/CS. I have folders and folders of photos I've taken but have always been too shy to make my own photo thread here. When they implode the 17-story abandoned Plaza Hotel next month, I'll probably finally have something to share here.
Downtown Bryan is great. Years ago it was a mess, the transformation has been amazing. What's great is how many of the historic buildings are occupied in some way above the ground floor. There are a number of small tech companies now.
College Station's little student area to the north of campus is called Northgate, and yeah It's not hugely impressive. Over the years it has mostly been just bars but before that it was a functioning business district, this area was totally dry not all that long ago believe or not.
In this picture:
The empty mustard and gray bank near the foreground on the left with the Citibank sign is the site for a 10 to 16 story apartment tower.
The abandoned tower that's in the distant background of your picture facing down university drive, the Plaza Hotel, is going away as mentioned. A big urban style mixed-use project is going to replace it.
The abandoned Albertson's grocery store and run down strip mall that's not visible but near the McDonald's is also in the next few months going to be scraped for another mixed-use project.
Past that, the empty married student housing, that looks like the projects, is supposedly eventually going to be redeveloped into office buildings, a conference center, and who knows what else.