CREguy13

Agreed on targeting a larger Renewable Energy company and wasn't aware of the Opportunity Zone inclusion. I also have to think Midway is working to lure back KBR. It adds to the history of the site, they are currently in a desolate part of downtown, and the company has made big changes in recent years so a move like this adds to the company's transformation. Going back to the old Brown & Root 'roots' makes a ton of sense in my opinion.

Does anyone else have the feeling we are about to see another big tenant announcement soon or released plans of the next phase and a projected start date? With the Ion opening and tenant build-outs for Common Desk, Chevron, and Microsoft commencing, then Greentown Labs opening in April with several clean tech startups and a growing list of big corporate partners, I get the sense something substantial is around the corner. Whether it's a lead tenant building or Rice considering spec start considering the amount of interest/tenant demand they expect to receive in the district over a ~24 month construction period. Total conjecture, but there's too much momentum in this area to believe it will be quiet after everything is delivered later this Spring.

Interesting. I've heard from several sources that this site was quietly bought late last year by a large, notable developer, not this group. Perhaps something changed, but hopefully my sources are accurate as the hype would be comparable to Skanska's purchase next door.

I just drove by, and it looks like they could start demolishing this in the next few days. The whole block is already fenced off and Signature care is out with their sign taken down and a banner stating they've relocated across the street.

Midway noting preliminary negotiations being underway for build-to-suit opportunities is interesting, even if only preliminary. This development takes off quickly, if a company decides to relocate its headquarters here... Preferably a company from outside Houston and most preferable is 'companies' with interests in space exploration, EVs, clean/battery tech 😎

For me it was - I accidentally posted it in the wrong thread. Hopefully @HNathoo knows something we don't!

Yep! Or at least I hope this was big news... no idea what is on tap for the remaining blocks, but looks like they may reveal more information later this year. Having BIG involved is absolutely huge and gives us a lot to look forward to.

HBJ Article: Skanska plans demolition of Montrose retail plaza By Jeff Jeffrey – Reporter, Houston Business Journal Jan 12, 2021, 1:37pm CST Skanska USA Commercial Development expects to begin demolishing a key retail plaza in Houston’s growing Montrose area to make way for a mixed-use development within the next six weeks, a spokeswoman for the company told the Houston Business Journal. The retail plaza located at the southwest corner of Westheimer Road and Montrose Boulevard had been home to Half-Price Books, Mattress Firm, Spec’s Wine and Spirits, and Mattress Pro for several years. Half-Price Books recently revealed that location would close on Jan. 17, according to reports. Other tenants have also been moving out. While Skanska has not yet finalized its master plan for the site, the company plans to clear the property in the coming months to allow for the development to begin moving forward, the spokeswoman said. According to Harris County Appraisal District records, the land and buildings on the site had an appraised value of $13 million as of Jan. 1, 2020. An entity affiliated with Houston-based PM Realty Group had owned the property since June 2012, according to HCAD. PMRG was acquired by Washington, D.C.-based Madison Marquette in June 2018. Sweden-based Skanska paid $27 million to acquire the 2.86-acre site in August. Skanska said the new project it is planning on the site is targeting LEED Platinum certification. While the final plan for the site is being sketched out, the company plans to build a pop-up retail shop on the site. “We want to put something that is Covid-19-safe on the site that the community can enjoy while we finalize the plan for the site,” the spokeswoman said. More details about the project will be released within the next few months. The property, at the corner of Westheimer and Montrose, has long been a target for developers looking to convert it to a mixed-use development. When PMRG acquired the property, it had similar plans to build a residential building with retail on the first floor, according to reports at the time. But the company ran into opposition from some of the site’s existing tenants, who had long-term leases in place. For Skanska, the acquisition of prime real estate in Montrose is just the latest in a series of splashy deals the company has done in Houston. Last year, the company purchased four parking lots near Discovery Green for a planned mixed-use project that will include office, multifamily and retail space. Skanska paid $55 million for the four parcels, which total around 3.5 acres. Skanska is also the developer behind the 35-story Bank of America Tower in downtown Houston. In December, the company announced it had sold a 90% stake in the tower to an affiliate of Boston-based Beacon Capital Partners for $373 million.

Happy to see this. The announcement of the lead tenant will be in the next week or so from what I'm told and I think this group will appreciate the renderings. This project does a nice job of closing out Discovery Green (along with Block 98) and completely hiding/wrapping around the Embassy Suites when standing at the park.

I can corroborate. If it's something different, even better.

Interesting. Hopefully Levcor is planning for this to be mixed-use and not strictly retail. High-rise hotel, residential or both is perfect for this location.

Not seeing any mention of Skanska, makes me hesitate to believe this is current. Perkins Eastman and Madison Marquette partnered on District Wharf in DC, so unclear if this was drawn up for the previous owner. This would be significant for the area so hoping this is accurate!

This seems very positive - it was only a matter of time. I wonder how much interest this project created following the pandemic. I would bet several companies in the Bay Area/West Coast and Boston/East Coast are looking at this and Hines/Levit's project even more seriously than they were 9 months ago.

https://houston.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/12-09-20-post-houston-mixed-use-development-food-hall-downtown-vendors-salt-time-lea-janes-hot-chicken-taco-fuego/#slide=0 First 6 food hall concepts announced. Can't wait to see announcements continue to flood in. Really excited about Post Houston and the destination it will be for visitors/residents downtown.

Chevron is really doubling down on the local innovation ecosystem. Can't wait to watch Shell, BP and other majors/larger companies join the fold. A lot to be excited about.

They have updated their marketing flyer and it appears the Maritime Museum is no longer part of Phase 1... they are now showing that site as a smaller boutique office/retail building. Hopefully the Museum is planned for a later phase and didn't fall through. That would be a real bummer.

It's listed as 50,000 SF above, but the existing structure is 40,000 SF, so I wonder if they're adding on to this building? $670/SF is extraordinarily high and far exceeds Greentown's original budget they mentioned publicly so I'm thinking something has changed... hopefully demand has been so strong it's made them rethink their original expansion plans.

Full Costar article: Timber Office Project Planned Near Houston's Buffalo Bayou Local Partners to Develop Mid-Rise Project at Autry Park A boutique office project is tentatively set to break ground next year in what could be Houston's first office building constructed of cross-laminated timber. (Local Partners) By Marissa Luck CoStar News November 20, 2020 | 5:09 P.M. Developers behind a 14-acre mixed-use project overlooking Houston's Buffalo Bayou Park are betting on a boutique, sustainable office design to gain a competitive edge to attract tenants in a tough leasing environment. The office project is part of Autry Park, the newly named mixed-use project being developed by Hanover Co. and Lionstone Investments. At full build-out, the project is expected to include 1,400 apartments, 350,000 square feet of office space and 100,000 square feet of retail space near Allen Parkway at the corner of West Dallas Street and the future Buffalo Park Drive. Local Partners is developing the office portion of the project and plans to include two office buildings: one 20-story building built with traditional concrete and one six- or seven-story building built with cross-laminated timber. The mid-rise office building with cross-laminated timber for the floor and ceiling decks in combination with a steel frame is the first publicly proposed cross-laminated timber office project in Houston. Another unrelated timber project, involving apartments, was announced earlier in the city. However, it is "very likely other developers are considering this technology" in the city as the nascent building technique gains traction, said Shon Link, managing partner at Local Partners. Link previously worked at the Houston real estate firm Midway before breaking off to form his own development firm two years ago. Cross-laminated timber consists of glued together strips of wood in prefabricated slabs and is touted as a more sustainable building material than steel or concrete. While research into the material's sustainability varies, at least one study published in the Journal of Sustainable Forestry found that using mass wood for buildings and bridges could cut greenhouse gas emissions between 14% and 31%. “We wanted to create a unique experience on the office floors. You can tour plenty of properties that use lay-in ceilings or exposed concrete, but this exposed wood ceiling is something really unique and something really beautiful,” Link said in an interview. The cross-laminated timber building could be between 75,000 square feet and 90,000 square feet, depending on demand. Construction is slated to start in 2021, if a tenant signs on, and the shell of the building could be complete by mid-2022. Link said the team is hoping the unique design as part of a major mixed-use project will make the office building appealing enough to compete in a tough leasing environment. “I think the amenities and the connection to Buffalo Bayou Park is just a very special opportunity,” Link said. While a couple of developers in Austin and San Antonio have used cross-laminated timber for office projects, the material is still rare in Texas and nationwide. That could help it stand out in Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city by population, which has one of the highest office vacancy rates in the country that has been made worse by the pandemic and energy downturn. "Given the overhang in office supply in Houston, this shows that developers are trying to gain a competitive edge to attract tenants," said Justin Boyar, CoStar's Houston director of market analytics. The proposed Houston office building would follow the lead of a few other timber structures around the state. Earlier this year, Hixon Properties completed construction on a cross-laminated timber office project in San Antonio called The Soto. The Soto, located at 711 Broadway St., is believed to be the first office project in Texas that used mass timber not only for the floors and ceilings but for all the beams, columns and everything structural above the concrete podium, said Andrew Herdeg, partner with Lake Flato, the architecture firm who designed the project. While there are more mass timber projects in the Pacific Northwest, Herdbeg said the fairly rare building material is starting to crop up in more projects in the East and the South as the technology advances. The architecture firm now has seven office projects either in construction or in design using mass timber across Texas, Colorado and Pennsylvania, he said. Lake Flato also worked on the first mass-timber boutique hotel in Texas, the Hotel Magdelena, which recently completed construction in Austin’s South Congress neighborhood and used dowel laminated timber — a slightly different technology than cross laminated timber — he said. The firm also designed the 39,000-square-foot Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation Center for Conservation for the Museum of Fine Arts’ in Houston that used dowel-laminated timber for the ceiling and opened in 2018. “Mass timber is relatively unusual still. I think the technology has really advanced so that it is quite cost competitive now, if you know how to design within the system. It’s just a matter of education and priorities. Some clients would rather have a steel or concrete building for other reasons, but if you’re interested in an interior environment that is warm and tactile, if you’re interested in driving down your carbon footprint, if you’re interested in substantiality in general , it’s quite cost competitive and creates a wonderful environment in which to work,” Herdbeg said. Elsewhere in Texas, Endeavor Real Estate and Pegalo Properties used cross-laminated timber in an East Austin project at 901 E. Sixth, which sold for a premium to Clarion Partners last year. Like the Autry Park project in Houston, the Austin project also used cross-laminated timber for floor and ceiling decks with steel framing. Lionstone Investments was an equity partner in the 901 E. 6th project and saw first-hand how using the unique building material could attract tenants and buyer interest, Link noted. As a codeveloper of Autry Park, Lionstone Investments is also involved with the office portion of the project. Houston has had at least one other significant cross-laminated timber project proposed but it is an apartment project, not office. Rice University is planning a five-story student housing tower out of cross-laminated timber in a project expected to break ground in May or June, a Rice University spokesman said in an email. Houston-based developer Hines, which has developed several timber office buildings around the country, has hinted it was interested in building a timber office project in Houston but solidified plans have not been revealed. A newly unveiled rendering of Autry Park, the 14-acre mixed use development by Hanover and Lionstone where Local Partners is building its new office project. (Hanover) Beyond the boutique office building, the Autry Park development is planned to include a larger 20-story, 275,000-square-foot office building featuring views of Memorial Park and downtown Houston. The larger office tower's use of traditional concrete building materials is because it incorporates a parking structure, Link said. He expects leasing on the larger office tower to take longer than the mid-rise. “For the most part, those [big] tenants are being strategic and any kind of movement has slowed down. There are some that need to make a move but not as many. They are going to be strategic, but they’re probably going to start coming back into the market in early 2021,” Link said. Local Partners plans to wait to have one or two office tenants committed to the project before it breaks ground on either building, Link said. Right now, Local Partners is doing direct outreach and marketing for tenants but expects to hire an undisclosed brokerage to assist with leasing in the future. There are several high-rises proposed or underway near the emerging submarket that stretches along Allen Parkway near Buffalo Bayou Park. DC Partners is planning additional office high-rises directly across from the park at its 6-acre mixed-use project where condominium and retail buildings are currently under construction. Radom Capital is redeveloping the historic Star Engraving Co. building, where technology company Thrasio leased about 17,000 square feet as part of its headquarters relocation from the Boston area to Houston, a spokeswoman told CoStar News in an email. For the record The Autry Park office design team includes Munoz+Albin and Kirksey Architecture.

To be fair, Trammell Crow was not involved during that time period. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if this project and/or Skanska's downtown project break ground sooner than many think.

That site is still planned for a 1m SF office tower developed by TC and Linbeck. They are trying to secure lead tenants, which is certainly a challenge in the current climate, but I believe the designs have all been completed.

I drove by this afternoon and while there wasn't much activity, there were a few construction workers on-site. So hopefully you're right @kennyc05

Can anyone speak to the hold up on the Ion garage? Is it still moving forward as planned and is just delayed, or has something happened that's made Rice re-assess the full use of this block? Greentown Labs has a massive parking lot to utilize, but can this garage be finished by early spring of 2021 when both Greentown and Ion open their doors?

$1.4m in federal funds to launch aerospace tech accelerator? In partnership with NASA's Johnson Space Center? SIGN ME UP. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/techburger/article/The-Ion-gets-1-4M-in-federal-funds-for-space-15630626.php

No just their Houston office, I believe.

I'm not sure if it's this site or the adjacent lot, but one of them is currently under contract.