fernz

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=By1pOs6feuU

That's going to be a nice pool deck.

Parking has to go in before the residents, no one will pay those prices - in Houston - for apartments without parking.

Well said Luminare.

Is it really a change, or are we just looking at a side we hadn't seen before?

Technically speaking, height is measured from average street level, not the entrance.

I see nothing odd with how heights are measured, no reason to count underground levels.

Techn

Explain airports like Austin and San Antonio where there is no segregation of outgoing passengers and no separate building just for customs that I know of for incoming international passengers.

Not familiar with SA, but Austin was designed as an international terminal, and does include segregation of passengers as well an immigration facility.

The segregation is for incoming passengers only, not outgoing. When international passengers come in, they are in 'international' territory until they clear immigration. They are not allowed to mingle with the rest of the population in the airport. The corridors between the gates and the immigration area, as well as the entire immigration area, are highly secure areas. In terminals whith both national and international passengers (such as Austin or IAH terminal E), there are corridors between gates designated for international travel and the rest of the terminal. You have no option but to go to the immigration area once you come off the plane. In terminals with only international travel, the terminal is open like any other terminal, but the only way out is thru immigration.

The only way around it is for travelers coming from countries such as Canada ( I think a handful other countries have similar deals). In Canada, passengers coming to the US actually clear immigration and customs in the outgoing airports. The US government actually operates out of these foreign airports. In that case, planes from those airports can come into any airport in the US.

It was part of the deal. There are plenty of terminals globally where customs facilities are built later for a few million to handle international flights.

You can build a facility or you can build a terminal, but the fact is a new building is needed to house the customs and immigration functions. While you're at it, you might as well build the additional gates you need for those new international flights, unless you are willing to drop existing national routes, because there are no idle gates in that airport. And if you did that, you would have a terrible experience because of the retrofit needed to segregate those existing gates for international travelers.

Not sure what 'deal' you are talking about, but Southwest is footing the bill for the most part. I'm sure they looked at the best value while keeping their customers happy. They are a profitable company for a reason.

What a wasted opportunity!

It's stupid they couldn't start international flights immediately there's technically nothing wrong with the current terminal besides missing a customs facility but it was part of the deal.

?? You just answered your issue. They cannot start int'l flights immediately without a customs (and more importantly, immigration) facility. Why is it stupid then? Technically, there's everything wrong with the current terminal as far as international flights are concerned.

I'm not going to advocate for a race to the bottom. There is nearby property, however, that does not require scraping off several very nice older houses and sticking a fork into the Asia House views, and which would still be nicely accessible for the purposes of this project.

Well, these are the owners that were willing to sell. You don't think Hines approached owners of vacant land first so they could save the cost of demolition?

That's what I'm wondering. You would think with the developments going up across the street that this would be in mind.

They may also keep West Ave in mind. Businesses are having a hard time staying open in that location.

I highly doubt that an Office Max would have any sort of contribution to any change in retail space, especially since they're downsizing and since they wouldn't have an political pull. Definitely wrong on this one.

I disagree. If your largest tenant decides not to renew the lease in full, that's when you start shopping around for interested buyers. You're not so keen on selling when you have a steady revenue stream. But if all of a sudden you need to market to get new tenants, pay commissions and TI allowances, you might as well sell your property.

Regardless of Nate's prognostications and predilections for this tower, it is off the table. Confirmed.

It's sad to loose this tower, but it's a good sign.

The developers probably got sticker shock from their fancy design when they got bids in, and realized they would need really high rents to make it work. In a healthy market, you scrap your unique design and ask your architects to come up with a more feasible alternative. If we were in the middle of a bubble, they would go ahead assuming rents will keep going up an people will pay top dollar for their awesome apartments...that's how you end up with empty towers.

Were you near Logan Circle? I remember a Whole Foods on P street there.

I lived in Mt. Vernon Triangle. We had the new Ssfeway just up the block from an old liquor store and sketchy strip club (Louis the Rogue!). The neighborhood nonetheless came along quite nicely.

Thtat's right. I was on 15th just South of P street.

That Safeway was known as the Russian Safeway because it was small, had a poor selection, things were regularly out of stock, and always had long lines. But it was much cheaper than Whole Foods!

What are the chances that the tallest building in Houston will be residential someday? Chase has got to be beaten eventually. Is there a building called the Houstonian?

Fat chance, unless it's mixed used....and still not looking very likely, IMO.

Yes, there is a Houstonian condo high rise, next to the Houstonian hotel.

http://www.har.com/highrisefinder/dispHirDetail.cfm?building_id=14

I'll be the first to agree that his restoration of the Rice, Dakota, Clarke Court on West Clay, and the Hogg Palace, are all exceptional projects that deserve the gold brick he was awarded and all of the accolades he has received. My displeasure with Randall Davis is the designs of his new buildings. Marginal at best. Thats just my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

I agree. When you say marginal at best, you're being kind.

There you go; thanks Houston 19514.

I read somewhere that 85% of this building will be diverted away from landfills; which means they will be salvaging much of the materials. Which also means the demo will take longer than usual.

No. Theme parks don't just come like that, if this one doesn't happen something more awful could replace it. Developers of this theme park plan to expand it. Theres room for it.

Like Astro World, which was redeveloped into a Rodeo parking lot!

I'm sorry to hear that Randall Davis has come downtown. It's unfortunate. Maybe he can put a David Addickes sculpture of himself on top. Fill it with artwork from Dr. Peter Browns estate and it will be the perfect example of bad taste for the people in the Houston House, Sky House and 2016 Main to look down upon. I'm sorry but he is what I feared would start filling these empty parking lots on the southeast side of downtown.

As much as I hate most his work, Randal Davis came to Downtown a long time ago, before anyone ever thought Downtown living could be cool. He developed the Dakota lofts and the Rice Lofts (there may be others I forget) about 15 years ago. And both of those are actually great projects, from RD, believe it or not.

This one has land around it, Astoria is using the entire plot. That makes logistics much more difficult.

EB5 is an immigration visa that pretty much allows wealthy foreign nationals to "buy" a green card, by investing in a job-producing commercial enterprise. In can be anything, doesn't have to be real estate, doesn't have to be condos - it just needs to be for-profit and create jobs.

From a RE perspective, I do agree with Mr. Contreras that it makes more sense for condos, since traditional financing is so easily available these days for apartments. Condos require pre-sales, and that's where the foreign investors come in.

The big news flash to me was that this is a Randall Davis project. It could be possible, that after his Galveston and South Padre projects were foreclosed, he is having a hard time getting bank financing for these apartments, so he is using this creative alternative which he already knows how to navigate.

On the 3rd rendering in the slideshow (via Urbannizer's link above), one can see BG Group Place majestically towering above 6HC, with the latter's notch proudly displayed.

But -- what's this? In this image, BG does not have a notch, it seems to have magically filled in!

What gives? Could it be ... notch envy??

That is hilarious.

nice building......20 years ago.

Exactly!