downtownian

Getting the official certificate of occupancy takes 3-5 days after work is complete (need inspections from a bunch of different agencies)

I think it’s strangely beautiful

Heard it is going to be either a single bowling lane or a slip and slide

I'll guess New Hope Housing and 1,000 new affordable housing units

Great news: Live Nation to open concert venue in Lovett Commercial's Post Houston development https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2021/04/13/live-nation-concert-venue-lovett-post-houston.html Lovett Commercial has landed a marquee tenant for its Post Houston redevelopment project downtown in the form of a 90,000-square-foot concert venue operated by Beverly Hills, California-based Live Nation. Houston-based Lovett said Live Nation’s 5,000-person venue is already under construction and is scheduled to open later this year. The new concert venue has been designed by the New York practice of the OMA architecture firm in collaboration with Houston-based Powers Brown Architecture. Kirby Liu, director of development for Post Houston, said the venue will anchor Post Houston and establish a major cultural and entertainment hub that complements city-undertaken upgrades to the Theatre District, including the new Lynn Wyatt Plaza and the Bagby Street project. Tom See, president of venues for U.S. concerts at Live Nation, added, “Houston is an amazing music market, and we’re looking forward to elevating the landscape in coming years.” Lovett’s negotiations with Live Nation began in 2018. After nearly a year, the two sides inked a lease for space within Post Houston, the one-time site of the historic Barbara Jordan Post Office at 401 Franklin St. Liu said work on the concert venue suffered several delays last year as a result of Covid-19 outbreaks among construction crews and supply-chain disruptions. But he said despite those delays, it has moved ahead as efficiently as possible. “We were lucky to be working with Harvey Builders, which has managed the project very safely,” Liu said. “But it wasn’t just Covid that affected construction. Because of the snowpocalypse, we had a number of materials that were tied up in the (Feb. 11) pileup in Fort Worth. In terms of force majeure events, we’ve checked off a few of them.” Liu said bringing a concert venue to Post Houston was a key part of Lovett’s development plan because the site was once the host site of Day For Night, an immersive art and music festival. “This has been the goal for a number of years,” Liu said. "We’re happy live music is coming back to the site. It’s something our core customers are very passionate about.” Liu said in addition to Live Nation's concert venue, Lovett hopes to bring an "immersive experience" to Post Houston. He declined to comment on what that experience might look like. Lovett, which purchased the Barbara Jordan Post Office in 2015, began to redevelop the 550,000-square-foot building two years ago with the aim of creating downtown Houston’s newest destination area. Lovett’s plan for Post Houston involves creating three distinct “districts” within the first floor of the building, which will be centered around cultural experiences, food and a coworking space. The dining district will be modeled on a Tokyo night market, where visitors will have a variety of food options to choose from before they move onto other areas in the building. In December, several restaurants were announced for the 53,000-square-foot food hall, dubbed Post Market, including an Austin-based butcher and boutique grocer. To offset the three district areas, Lovett’s design called for three atriums to be cut through the building’s second floor and roof. A staircase will run through each atrium, promoting interactions among visitors as they move between floors. The atriums will be covered by new-to-Houston ETFE roof systems, which are polymer-based structures that allow sunlight to come through. The building’s second floor will be reserved for office space. Meanwhile, the building’s roof will feature a nearly 6-acre park with views of the downtown skyline, along with space for restaurants and vendors. In August, Lovett announced the rooftop park, dubbed Skylawn, will include a 6,000-square-foot outdoor event venue that will be capable of accommodating up to 300 guests.

I like the concept but it sounds like Frost Bank

That would be really confusing with El Segundo Swim Club right down the street

This "Downtown Economic Recovery Monitoring Update / December 2020" posted by Central Houston, Inc. is very interesting - all metrics are downtown from what I can tell: Office -Estimated 16.1% of employees in-office downtown -Office vacancy at 21.2%; rental rates down to $36.41/sf Residential -Core population of 10,251 residents across 6,279 units -Occupancy of 82.6% in December, down 7.4%(!) over last 12 months but inline with 84% in Midtown and 84.3% in Upper Kirby -Rent is still 15% premium to other areas Lodging -14.1% occupancy in November and $131.27 average daily rate = $18.53 RevPAR -The historical occupancy by month on page 10 is very interesting - (4.1% occupancy in April 2020!) Food and Beverage -75% of street level restaurants excluding bars are open and 67% of tunnel restaurants are open Seems really negative but there is so much potential once things start reopening - the Main Street outdoor seating initiative, POST, all the construction. I'm excited to see how it all plays out. Source https://www.centralhouston.org/media/filer_public/29/8d/298d8135-942c-49bb-b83b-8cc6f5cccd9b/economic_recovery_update_december_2020.pdf

That's gorgeous. Would love to see it with the new Skanska tower too.

I’m cautiously optimistic about the Life Time Green Street. It’s going to open in the spring and the facilities are large and incredible. I went in for a virtual tour over the weekend and joined at a discounted early rate.

Wow not sure why I thought it was the airport code. Any idea of how Austin got ATX?

It seems like we’re trying too hard to copy Austin and ATX which is their airport code. The preferred abbreviation is HOU for us

Here's hoping the lead tenant will be a relocation from outside of downtown

It's great news but hard to wrap my head around it in this context: "Almost 51 million square feet of office space – the equivalent of 50 downtown skyscrapers – is currently vacant in Houston." “Houston’s office market was struggling amid a glut of available space even before the outbreak of the deadly COVID-19 coronavirus,” said Wade Bowlin, president of property services, central division of Madison Marquette. And then there could be post-pandemic headwinds of additional working from home reducing the need for space and M&A and consolidation in energy. https://realtynewsreport.com/houston-office-vacancy-hits-highest-point-since-1980s-madison-marquette/

Awesome news: Georgia James Tavern to open in Market Square Tower later this year. Sad to see Coterie go but I like Chris Shepherd's concepts: https://houston.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/01-06-21-chris-shepherd-new-restaurants-georgia-james-tavern-market-square-tower-wild-oats-houston-farmers-market-underbelly/#slide=0