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Office Tower At 1111 Travis St.


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Historically, Downtown Houston is a proven retail market. Before Uptown/Galleria ever existed, all the big retailers...Foley's (later Macy's), Battlestein's, Palais Royal, Neiman Marcus, Sakowitz, etc., were all Downtown. The Galleria and Northwest Mall lured them all away over the last 50 years (with the old/tired Macy's being the last and most recent to fold), but today millions more live in Houston as the city booms, especially Downtown.

It's really a no-brainer. The mayor and her Retail Task Force are smart to bring in Bloomingdale's and a relocated Macy's, and others to the Dallas Street Retail Corridor Project. Her initiative is very similar to Michigan Avenue in Downtown Chicago. And when you factor this plus GreenStreets, it's a home run and gives Downtown Houston the world class retail it desperately needs and deserves. Houston will have world class retail Downtown and Uptown...two different exciting retail experiences.

With tens of thousands of new residents filling these luxury developments, legions of Downtown city/state/federal government workers there daily, hundreds of thousands of Fortune 500 corporate employees filling the towers every day, and an expanded convention district with numerous new hotels bringing millions more people Downtown each year, a quality retail district is imperative.

  

Yeah that will be amazing if they are able to pull it off. I like the sound of what you are saying.. I hope it turns out to be reality.

Walking downtown in the summer really isnt as horrible under the covered sidewalks. Why don't they building more of those

Yeah.. I always figured they could/should probably implement horizontal roman shades over Dallas Ave (and the pedestrian mall portion of Main, and maybe areas around Market Square) for this new district to enhance pedestrian activity in those areas..

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrTcXLr5gRUmS4A5cOJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTIyMHQ3djBtBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1nBG9pZAM2YWQ1NWZkNzg3MjllYzBmZmQ5N2YxYTRhYzZjODJjOQRncG9zAzMEaXQDYmluZw--?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dhorizontal%2Broman%2Bshades%26fr%3Diphone%26fr2%3Dpiv-web%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D3&w=650&h=488&imgurl=morancanvas.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F05%2FThe-Grand-Del-Mar-Horizontal-Roman-Shades.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmorancanvas.com%2Fcommercial-portfolio%2F&size=69.7KB&name=The-Grand-Del-Mar---+%3Cb%3EHorizontal-Roman-Shades%3C%2Fb%3E&p=horizontal+roman+shades&oid=6ad55fd78729ec0ffd97f1a4ac6c82c9&fr2=piv-web&fr=iphone&tt=The-Grand-Del-Mar---+%3Cb%3EHorizontal-Roman-Shades%3C%2Fb%3E&b=0∋=21&no=3&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=11cc0vkmn&sigb=13dh3o55b&sigi=12o33ii33&sigt=11j7q8ptq&sign=11j7q8ptq&.crumb=QoUi0WUGkzy&fr=iphone&fr2=piv-web

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hundreds of thousands of Fortune 500 corporate employees filling the towers every day........

I appreciate the spirit of your post. This statement is false however.

There are about 150,000 office workers downtown. Less than "hundreds of thousands" and of the 150,000, not all of them work for Fortune 500's...... For instance, there are a BUNCH of government workers (federal, state, and city) as well as more lawyers than you can count. There are accountants and consultants. None of those are "Fortune 500" employees. Except for the plethora of government workers, They earn good money (the spirit of your post) but they are not "Fortune 500" workers

http://www.downtownhouston.org/site_media/uploads/attachments/2013-06-03/Retail_Brochure_FINAL_ONLINE.pdf

Edited by UtterlyUrban
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I appreciate the spirit of your post. This statement is false however.

There are about 150,000 office workers downtown. Less than "hundreds of thousands" and of the 150,000, not all of them work for Fortune 500's...... For instance, there are a BUNCH of government workers (federal, state, and city) as well as more lawyers than you can count. There are accountants and consultants. None of those are "Fortune 500" employees. Except for the plethora of government workers, They earn good money (the spirit of your post) but they are not "Fortune 500" workers

http://www.downtownhouston.org/site_media/uploads/attachments/2013-06-03/Retail_Brochure_FINAL_ONLINE.pdf

I appreciate the spirit of your post. This statement is false however.

There are about 150,000 office workers downtown. Less than "hundreds of thousands" and of the 150,000, not all of them work for Fortune 500's...... For instance, there are a BUNCH of government workers (federal, state, and city) as well as more lawyers than you can count. There are accountants and consultants. None of those are "Fortune 500" employees. Except for the plethora of government workers, They earn good money (the spirit of your post) but they are not "Fortune 500" workers

http://www.downtownhouston.org/site_media/uploads/attachments/2013-06-03/Retail_Brochure_FINAL_ONLINE.pdf

I appreciate the spirit of your post. This statement is false however.

There are about 150,000 office workers downtown. Less than "hundreds of thousands" and of the 150,000, not all of them work for Fortune 500's...... For instance, there are a BUNCH of government workers (federal, state, and city) as well as more lawyers than you can count. There are accountants and consultants. None of those are "Fortune 500" employees. Except for the plethora of government workers, They earn good money (the spirit of your post) but they are not "Fortune 500" workers

http://www.downtownhouston.org/site_media/uploads/attachments/2013-06-03/Retail_Brochure_FINAL_ONLINE.pdf

I appreciate the spirit of your post. This statement is false however.

There are about 150,000 office workers downtown. Less than "hundreds of thousands" and of the 150,000, not all of them work for Fortune 500's...... For instance, there are a BUNCH of government workers (federal, state, and city) as well as more lawyers than you can count. There are accountants and consultants. None of those are "Fortune 500" employees. Except for the plethora of government workers, They earn good money (the spirit of your post) but they are not "Fortune 500" workers

http://www.downtownhouston.org/site_media/uploads/attachments/2013-06-03/Retail_Brochure_FINAL_ONLINE.pdf

Perhaps, but that's just semantics...150K/250K...you say potato, I say potato. To the contrary, many Downtown employees ARE Fortune 500 employees (rank-and-file, executive and highly-paid) as many Fortune 500 corporations have their world headquarters in Downtown Houston. Moreover, it gets busier by the day.

At the end of the day, the market is there...it's clear what they're trying to do with this project, and Houston's CBD can definitely support it. Downtown needs it...let's hope they're successful.

Edited by HTOWN LIVE
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I certainly think the Task Force's effort and vision are great, but I have to remain skeptical of any sort of plan to create a pedestrian-oriented environment that doesn't identify the ridiculous surface parking lot problem as its primary obstacle. Few large U.S. cities have as pervasive an issue with vacant downtown lots as Houston. These are just enormous blank spaces in an otherwise urban environment that do a damn good job at killing any sort of pedestrian vitality. There's a reason why the Market Square area and Midtown are redeveloping at faster rates than the southern side of the Convention District and the entire southeast quadrant of Downtown. Unless some serious infill occurs - even if the buildings are only one or two stories tall - those parking lots will present an enormous roadblock to creating a comprehensive urban shopping district.

 

GreenStreet is nice, but you're not getting much of an urban experience in a complex bounded by office buildings, parking garages and surface lots. Creating a shopping environment in this area is still going to be difficult, even with the presence of some retail. Forming organic street life is an immense challenge.

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The photos are actually confusing. In the renderings you can see retail on both sides of Dallas street (looks to be on the ground level while keeping the parking garage?) but in the legend map it doesn't label that side as retail, just parking.

post-12904-0-60112000-1409638304_thumb.j

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The photos are actually confusing. In the renderings you can see retail on both sides of Dallas street (looks to be on the ground level while keeping the parking garage?) but in the legend map it doesn't label that side as retail, just parking.

Apologies! It's correctly labeled as existing retail.

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I certainly think the Task Force's effort and vision are great, but I have to remain skeptical of any sort of plan to create a pedestrian-oriented environment that doesn't identify the ridiculous surface parking lot problem as its primary obstacle. Few large U.S. cities have as pervasive an issue with vacant downtown lots as Houston. These are just enormous blank spaces in an otherwise urban environment that do a damn good job at killing any sort of pedestrian vitality. There's a reason why the Market Square area and Midtown are redeveloping at faster rates than the southern side of the Convention District and the entire southeast quadrant of Downtown. Unless some serious infill occurs - even if the buildings are only one or two stories tall - those parking lots will present an enormous roadblock to creating a comprehensive urban shopping district.

 

GreenStreet is nice, but you're not getting much of an urban experience in a complex bounded by office buildings, parking garages and surface lots. Creating a shopping environment in this area is still going to be difficult, even with the presence of some retail. Forming organic street life is an immense challenge.

 

Surface parking lots in Downtown Houston are quickly vanishing. Most major metros have too many CBD surface lots. The difference is that no other city is booming like Houston, and our lots are going bye-bye very fast. 50 years ago, pedestrian vitality and Downtown's comprehensive retail scene was booming...all the great retailers were there. The mayor's Dallas Street Retail Corridor Project is neither difficult nor a challenge, rather a masterful plan...a plan to restore world class retail to Downtown Houston, again.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think Tiger meant "Main at Dallas" and "Main at Lamar".  Not "Lamar at Dallas".  Those streets don't cross.  Easy Mistake.

 

Actually, they almost do meet - but it's in the block between Discovery Green and the Hilton, where they rerouted Lamar as part of building DG.  :rolleyes:

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  • 2 weeks later...

What's amazing to me is how some projects, with three tower cranes in a small footprint no less, can only muster up one floor every couple of months, while other projects in Houston seem to rocket skyward overnight.

Poor management and organization I would guess.

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