nate

Agree with you. One of the tenants in that center told me perhaps four or five years ago that their lease and all the other leases in the center expired in seven years. I don't know if that information is still accurate, but if I'm the Landlord, I'd want to manage the property in that way to expedite redevelopment.

Keep in mind that the existing use of this property is two massive surface parking lots for TMC employees who are shuttled into other buildings. Those parkers will have to be accommodated or relocated to another site. Underground parking for the TMC3 site alone would be astoundingly expensive. We shall see. At least OST and Braeswood are pretty big roads that should be able to handle the extra traffic.

They thought about this when designing Latitude. If you look at the floorpan, the only units in the building that exclusively face downtown are sub 450 square foot micro units. Also, the views to downtown are mostly blocked anyway by other buildings, except maybe the upper floors. https://www.latitudemedcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Latitude_M2.pdf https://www.latitudemedcenter.com/virtual-tours/m2-showroom/ As a Southgate homeowner, I've actually read the deed restrictions. Those Northwest facing views, which are excellent, will never, ever be obstructed. I'm not thrilled with the extra traffic this will bring but accept that it's part of the price to be paid for living here, though additional steps should be taken to discourage cut through traffic. The rooftop restaurant & bar is a cool feature.

That's good work with 5555 Morningside. Will be nice with the patio. The Politan Row space suffered from damager during the storm yesterday.

I had assumed F&B meant food and beverage on that plan but not what I expected! I think it's a cool spot though.

We are both speculating here so I'm not saying that you are incorrect, but I'll note that 5555 Morningside is a two story building with almost 22k improved square feet per HCAD.

Agreed on very curious what's going on there. As I mentioned above, I suspect that if there is a food hall at Rice, it would be there. Certainly just speculating at this point though. It is an outstanding location for a food hall since, as you suggest, the parking lots at the property could be used for patio space just like they did across Morningside. There is no need for those surface parking lots since there is easy garage access. The property is two levels and would have nice late night synergy with the adjacent bars.

Are we sure that this is going in the location reflected in the 2016 plans? Those 2016 renderings don't identify which particular space the food hall would be located in, but all the first floor space along University is currently leased and occupied by national retailers. The second floor space is partially leased and occupied currently, with only ~7200sf of contiguous space shown on the Site Plan as available. However, Rice owns a ~22,000sf two story building at 5555 Morningside that is currently under renovation. The only current occupant is Doc Holliday's, but the buidling has otherwise been totally gutted. It was previously occupied by Gorgeous Gael and a few other tenants. This would seem like a good food hall location since Monringside is a big restaurant focus of Rice Village and would be available for occupancy sooner than the University Site, I would think. RV_Lease-Plan-Website_2018_0919-colored-compressed.pdf

It depends. You'll note that the FAA determination letter went to Richard Yates in Santa Fe, NM. Richard Yates is an oil heir and shareholder/director of the Yates Petroleum Corporation, the 4th largest private oil and gas company in the United States. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-09-17/new-mexico-s-yates-family-said-to-seek-buyer-for-oil-firm https://portal.sos.state.nm.us/corps/(S(yfw4ubozcbmapjihkw51p4nk))/Corplookup/Details.aspx?Nmscc=425736 Assuming good market conditions and a healthy equity investment, I doubt it would be difficult to find a "real" co-developer and raise some money. The entity's been in existence since last April. 546124180002.PDF Might be something to this.

Disassembling one of the cranes.

From Southern Smoke yesterday: http://southernsmoke.org

Crane #2

For those interested in the allegations.... 64600983.PDF

Crane #1 going up today. Presume the bit lying in the mud is the base piece of #2.

It isn't empty, but sales are very poor. D Magazine reported in January of this year that only 34% of the building has been sold. http://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2015/january/museum-tower-condo-sales Hopefully the developers of the new building have taken the glare into account, otherwise their balconies could be toasty.