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Big E

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  1. Big E
    Google lists hotels by their star ratings. You can go to Maps and simply search for Five-star rated hotels, or search Google itself. Just search "Five star luxury hotels in Houston"
  2. Big E
    Houston has only five 5-star hotels, and only one of them is downtown: the Four Seasons. The only other five star hotel remotely close to the area is La Colombe d'Or. The remaining three are in the Galleria Area.
  3. Big E
    That's what I've been saying!
  4. Big E
    That poor little Four Seasons just looks sad in this picture. The poor short thing. This building should go over and give it the hug its giving the Embassy Suits right now. Tell it that its okay to be mediocre.
  5. Big E
    They could do what they did at L.A. Live and split the building between two hotels; half the rooms would got to the Ritz-Carlton, the other half to another hotel, like a J.W. Marriott.
  6. Big E
    Ah, I see. That must have been the infamous Ritz-Carlton Houston that was one of the four hotels to lose the use of the Ritz-Carlton name in 1997.
  7. Big E
    I wouldn't have my hopes up for "sooner". Look how long its taking to finish this!
  8. Big E
    That's why I hedge my bets and put "probably" in front of my predictions. I know its not impossible for most brands to have more than one hotel in a metro. but I figured that existing upper upscale brands, being already represented, are probably unlikely to put another hotel of the same brand in the same city and cannibalize sales from existing hotels unless there is a real need. Houston isn't the most happening market in this segment, so I would consider a major hotel like this attracting a brand that isn't already present because that will draw more immediate interest. I would consider JW Marriott more likely than not. I only discount W because there's one already planned and its yet to get off the ground. I'm actually curious why you see W Hotels as a tired brand, other than the simple fact that Marriott already has similar hotels in that market segment. Among Marriott brands, I'm pulling for a Ritz-Carlton, though. As for Luxury brands, you generally only ever see one of those in a city, unless its a really large and world class metro area. You won't find two St. Regis Hotels in one city generally, so, its unlikely this is a second St. Regis, for instance. Houston lacks five star hotels in general as there are only five: Hotel Granduca, The Post Oak, The St. Regis, La Colombe d'Or, and the Four Seasons. That's pretty pathetic for a metro area of this size, compared to metros like Greater Miami, Greater L.A., Greater Chicago, and Greater New York. So, if they are shooting for that market segment, they have room to do so, but it won't be under a brand that's already here. Hyatt Regency is possible because, outside of downtown, all the other Hyatt Hotels are in West Houston or North Houston, so Hyatt underserves the area. But this isn't that far away from downtown or the Galleria area, which are served by Hyatt Hotels, including Hyatt Regencies. Hyatt may not see a point in pointing one here. In terms of the major hotel companies, though, I do agree that Hyatt is actually quite underrepresented in Houston, though that is probably by Hyatt's choice. They lack the shear number of brands Marriott International, for instance, has. Yeah, I forgot that Houston's one InterContinental is already in the area. Explain. If it is a Hilton brand, I'm hedging my bets its one of these. I think a Waldorf-Astoria, in particular, would be a huge boon for Houston. Those are status hotels that will bring in a lot of attention to a city that "doesn't get tourists" as we so often hear. Considering the rest of the project, I figure that this hotel will be pulling in the rich doctor and researcher clientele. People who bring in a lot of money in the healthcare and medical research segment. That's why they are focusing on Luxury and upper upscale brands. Thus, I wouldn't put a Ritz or Mandarin completely out of the running. I do agree that a Fairmont or Kimpton are probably more likely though.
  9. Big E
    Unlikely to be a Hyatt. Houston already has multiple Hyatt Hotels, including four Hyatt Regencies, along with multiple Hyatt Places, and Hyatt Houses. Not impossible, but Hyatt is pretty well represented in Houston. In the same vein I mentioned the Autograph Collection in my previous comment. But this being one of those is also unlikely. The Autograph Collection already has two hotels in Houston, The Hotel ICON, and The Laura. Unlikely they will put another one of those here. You also probably won't see a Tribute Portfolio hotel for the same reason; Houston already has one, the Magnolia Hotel. I figure that Fairmont is a reasonable guess.
  10. Big E
    "Upper upscale" or "luxury" is it? That narrows the field quite a bit. Well, when it comes to Marriott International, Houston already has a JW Marriott and a St. Regis, so it can't be one of those. It could be a W Hotels, but there were already plans to build a W Hotel next to the convention center over the Houston Partnership building, if I'm not mistaken (though we haven't heard about that project for awhile). A Ritz-Carlton is also a possibility as is a Bulgari Hotel. It could be a part of The Luxury Collection, or an Edition Hotels hotel. It could also be part of the Design Hotels or the Autograph Collection, though these are less likely. If they go for Hilton Worldwide, that limits the luxury options to Waldorf-Historia, Conrad Hotels, and LXR Hotels, while the upper upscale options would be Hilton, Canopy, Embassy Suites, Signia, and The Curio Collection. All of the Upper Upscale brands already have hotels in Houston (the Curio Collection actually has two, C. Baldwin and The Sam Houston), so that leaves only the three luxury brands as likely candidates). If you consider Hyatt Hotels, That leaves you primarily with Hyatt Regency, Park Hyatt, and Grand Hyatt. Houston already has a Hyatt Regency, which is their top tier brand, and I consider the other Hyatt brands less likely. As for their independent collections, their Destination Hotels collection used to include Hotel Derek, but I don't see them reopening a new hotel here. Their Joie de Vivre collection is mainly made up of boutique hotels, not big ones like this one. It could be part of the Unbound collection I guess. As for their Boundless portfolio of Hotel brands, Houston is already getting a Thompson Hotel via the Allen (if it ever finishes), and I don't see them opening any of their other brands here anytime soon. If we consider Accor, the most likely candidate would be a Fairmont Hotel, of which there is already a prominent one in Austin. A Raffles Hotel is unlikely. If they go with an IHG Hotel, it could be a Regent Hotel, InterContinental, or Kimpton Hotel (which recently had a canceled hotel development in Midtown; Houston is the only one of the top five largest cities in Texas that lacks a Kimpton). Hotel Indigo are small boutique hotels, so unlikely this will be one. As for the Premium Collection hotels, Houston already has a Crowne Plaza, Voco doesn't operate in the U.S., and I doubt its an Even Hotel, of which there are only 20. If we look at Wyndham Hotels, Dolce only manages historical properties, and while Houston lacks a Wyndham Grand, I don't see a chain that minor being a premier brand to put here. For independent chains, Houston already has a Four Seasons and an Omni Hotel, and there is already a hotel in Houston that is part of The Leading Hotels of the World (Hotel Granduca Houston), and there were plans, at one time, to build a Hard Rock Hotel. It could be a Mandarin Oriental.
  11. Big E
    Are they finally starting on this? Bout time. This is the largest piece of phase one and it hasn't started yet.
  12. Big E
    I'm not sure, but I think he was talking about Dallas's convention center?
  13. Big E
    If you actually read the MOU, this crap is so vague, a lawyer could drive a semi through those holes. Read under the heading "Reducing the NHHIP Footprint during detailed design" on page 35. It doesn't actually commit TxDOT to reducing anything, and in fact gives them so much wiggle room in regards to what they will consider when discussing any potential "reduction" in the footprint, and gives them an all encompassing out in that "any proposals to reduce the Project footprint must not compromise the safety, flooding mitigation, design standards, freight mobility, and evacuation effectiveness", that that section might as well not exist at all.
  14. Big E
    What I seem to be getting, and what I've heard others articulate, is that, based on these memorandums of understanding, the TxDOT isn't really obligated to do anything but "try" to mitigate certain impacts, like housing loss. This agreement isn't requiring them to do anything they weren't already planning to do anyway, except pay people more money to move. Am I understanding this correctly? Someone help me out.
  15. Big E
    Big news, coming from the "Holiday/Days/Heaven On Earth Inn At 801 St. Joseph Parkway" thread: There's apparently a major residential conversion coming to downtown. To quote pg. 148 of the Downtown Redevelopment Authority Board Meeting: At first, the speculation was that the old Holiday Inn was the building that was being talked about, but now, it appears that it may in fact be 800 Bell. Per @Ross, Shorenstein has sold 800 Bell and the associated parking garage to Bell Business Investments, LLC. The warranty deed was recorded on January 3, 2023. Tax notices are to be sent to CMI Developers, LLC (Here's their website: https://www.cmidevelopers.com/). The timelines match up, so this appears to be the correct building. If so, this could be the largest residential conversion in the city.
  16. Big E
    I-14 is probably decades away from being completed, if its completed at all. It has to go through some of the poorest states in the Union, which lack the money to build it. We know this, because two of those states are also states where I-69 will go through, and only one of them has done the bear minimum of effort to do any work on I-69 and the other has done absolutely and will do absolutely nothing because there is a laundry list of projects ahead of it, and I-14 is almost certainly behind that.
  17. Big E
    You act like cost overruns weren't built into the projections. Look at the Big Dig; it cost billions more than what the projected budget was, but was built as originally planned, and Boston is all the better for it.
  18. Big E
    Looks like this is the tallest tower planned for this development. I am glad it will have GFR. leave it to Hanover to build a marquee residential high rise.
  19. Big E
    Because the only real realistic idea...is to tear it down. We can argue till we are blue in the face about what to do about the space after the building is gone.
  20. Big E
    There's no other open space anywhere inside the Loop large enough for any sort of stadium outside NRG park.
  21. Big E
    I don't know about the rest of you, but I for one am glad that all this BS stalling has ended. This project has been held up long enough. The sooner it starts, the sooner it ends. The whole region has been waiting in limbo for this to finally start happening. It needed to happen sooner, if only to prevent the costs from skyrocketing, but better late than never.
  22. Big E
    I don't consider lack of vision to be the issue with this particular idea. Its just not feasible to put a stadium that big at that location.
  23. Big E
    Illustrated how? What illustrates this? Houston has a stadium for every major league in the U.S., numerous college stadiums, high school stadiums, etc. Who needs a stadium, and why couldn't they just build one themselves? This really has nothing to do with cars or automobiles. The stadium is already surrounded by hundreds of parking spaces. adding a few more means nothing. It being county owned is irrelevant. It has no purpose and serves no uses. Its a money pit, which apparently no one who actually lives in the county cares to actually put money into. All of those are college stadiums that get regular use and have permanent tenants in college teams that aren't going anywhere, with the exception of the Cotton Bowl, which at least gets regular event games in the form of the Red River Showdown, State Fair Classic, and the First Responder Bowl, even if it lacks a permanent regular tenant. And yet you are arguing against tearing it down?
  24. Big E
    The fact of the matter is, nobody really needs this stadium as a stadium. Its why nobody is using it now. Houston has so many venues, it could successfully host the Olympics, and not have to construct many permanent new ones. Nobody can do anything else with the stadium, because the Rodeo and Texans would veto any business taking up their parking during their respective events, and no business could operate there year around because of the issues with those two groups. The only thing that can, realistically be done with the stadium is to tear it down and pave it over with more parking, because that's literally all you can do with it. Its one of the last traditional domes still standing. Why? All the other ones got torn down. Texas Stadium? Gone. Georgia Dome? Gone. Only the Superdome is still in use, and they are desperately trying to renovate it because its showing its age. This one should be gone, and, frankly, its an embarrassment that its still standing.
  25. Big E
    It'll be finished...someday.
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