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SMU1213

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Everything posted by SMU1213

  1. I spoke with someone on their design team a few weeks ago that said they are working on Phase 2's design right now. Who knows what that really means from a start date, but I was somewhat surprised considering where the real estate market is right now...
  2. That land is worth $200m+. They could easily sell it to a developer and require the developer to include a brand new 400 unit affordable housing tower as part of the master planned development. More affordable units that are brand new would be a positive outcome.
  3. They bailed either right before or after covid. They have a Cowboys Fit that is part of The Star that is extremely nice. To your point, it literally butts up to the Cowboys gym where you can watch them working out next to you (separated by a glass wall). People in Dallas love the Cowboys and will pay for the expensive gym membership to be "a part of the organization". I'm not sure that's the case in Houston.
  4. My guess is one of two things: 1) the retail is too valuable so the value he wants to put the land in for a development deal is too high or 2) Haidar is difficult.
  5. Haidar Barbouti's vision is definitely to have high rises as a part of Highland Village. He's been talking to developers for over a decade about trying to get one done. The conversations just haven't gone anywhere.
  6. Chelsea Market's skybridge and Herald Square's sky bridge are both pretty photogenic.
  7. Supply, lack of quality product, lack of tourism, age of existing hotels, etc. Think about how poorly our high-end hotels compare to the same flags in other cities. Our Four Seasons just got a face lift, but you still have low ceiling heights and other issues that couldn't be fixed due to it being an older building. Our JW Marriott and St Regis are two of the worst ones in the country. I'm hopeful that The Thompson will get some high rates. If they do, I bet we see three hotel starts in the next few years (if hard costs normalize).
  8. Our hotels' RevPARs are too low to support new development (with the exception of The Post Oak which doesn't release their information since they aren't part of a chain), especially with the rapidly rising construction costs. Houston's hotels rely on business travel which typically has a cap on room rates and their RevPAR peaked in 2014 when oil peaked. Our only hope for a new hotel that isn't an ego tower (Tilman's) is that the high energy prices start translating to higher RevPAR.
  9. Dallas' Federal Reserve is built at Pearl and Woodall Rogers, catty corner from Klyde Warren Park (so in the best real estate in the city). It takes up much more space than ours, although they do have a tower element and a more modern design.
  10. I walked by Georgia James yesterday and the door was open so I poked my head in. The drywall looks like it has been installed and they were tiling behind the bar. It looksike it'll be open in the next 60-90 days.
  11. Soft goods retail is extremely difficult to lock in until the building is open and the tenants can actually see the space. They are also concerned about who the other tenants are in the space, so even if you have a signed LOI, they won't sign a lease until they know their co-tenancy. F&B is a destination so they care less about co-tenancy and they typically have more financial backing so they can sign leases earlier and start spending money on design earlier. That's why you always see F&B announced first and soft goods dragging behind.
  12. Crazy that Highland Village's owner's money comes from chemical weapon sales to Iraq... https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1992/02/09/exporters-of-death/3810097b-cd11-45cf-b284-d72275a611af/
  13. The group of companies known as Related Group and Related Companies are unrelated. 😀 My understanding is that Stephen Ross helped found Related Group with Jorge Perez (its founder and CEO), but that it is completely unaffiliated with Related Companies.
  14. I'm pretty sure that Related Group is the one buying the site, not Related Companies. Related Companies isn't looking in Texas to my knowledge.
  15. Maybe it could replace the Greenspoint Mall.
  16. Personally, I'd rather keep leaked info here for us to enjoy and allow the developers to release information to news outlets based on their PR group's carefully thought through plan.
  17. I actually walked by it last night also. I feel like they need more dart boards? The place looked empty but 80% of the boards were being used.
  18. I drove by it today. It's crazy how much nicer the park looks next door just because they removed the chain link fence.
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