SpringShadows

http://www.us.airliquide.com/en/air-liquide-to-relocate-american-corporate-headquarters.html Air Liquide to relocate American corporate headquarters to Memorial City in Houston01/30/2014 Air Liquide today announced plans to move its American corporate headquarters from the Houston Galleria area to the Air Liquide Center in Memorial City in Houston, scheduled to break ground this month.Houston is zone headquarters for Air Liquide’s U.S. and American operations and one of three global hubs for Air Liquide Group. The move will provide Air Liquide with expanded space and a world-class work environment to accommodate the company’s growing workforce and robust business plans. The Air Liquide Center will consist of a 20-story, 452,000 square-foot tower and an adjacent 145,000 square foot building, located at 9811 and 9807 Katy Freeway. Both Class A office buildings are LEED Silver pre-certified and will connect to a network of skywalks providing access to Memorial City Mall and other neighboring amenities within Memorial City.Air Liquide’s administrative and industrial operations will initially occupy the upper six floors of the 20-story tower in addition to the first floor lobby and office space, totaling 155,000 square feet, with options to expand floor space. Its Engineering & Construction operations will occupy two floors of the second building, totaling 67,000 square feet. Morris Architects is the architect of record for the Tower building. Gensler is the architect for the second building and will design Air Liquide’s interiors in both buildings.“This move marks an exciting new chapter in Air Liquide’s history as our business continues to rapidly grow and evolve,” said Michael Graff, Chairman & CEO, American Air Liquide Holdings, Inc. and Air Liquide Senior Vice President for the Americas. “We are investing in our future, ensuring the right environment, space and resources to support our talented workforce and continue to enable the highest level of innovation and service for our customers.”“With the announcement of Air Liquide, four major publicly traded companies have made the decision to relocate to Memorial City in the last 24 months, filling 750,000 total square-feet of office space,” said Randy Nerren, Executive Vice President at MetroNational. “We are delighted that Air Liquide has joined the growing roster of international companies that realize all that Memorial City has to offer.”Doug Elliott and Kevin Kushner of CBRE represented Air Liquide in the transaction.Groundbreakings for both new buildings are slated for January 2014 with completion of the entire project projected for November 2015.

This is the rendering that gone-up where Bally's used to be.

Very nice. Metro National are upping thier game.

MetroNational has immediate plans to tear down this 2-story 12-year-old former Bally Fitness Shopping Center on a 3.44-acre site facing the I-10 feeder at the northeast corner of the Memorial City Mall — and replace it with some sort of new office tower, Real Estate Bisnow‘s Catie Dixon reports. The health club (along with all 9 other Houston Bally’s locations) was taken over by Blast Fitness last year — and shut down entirely this spring. As of the end of last week, all remaining tenants in the building at 9801 Katy Fwy. have closed up shop as well. MetroNational (as usual) wouldn’t comment on plans for the site half a mile east of its headquarters, but Dixon gets the scoop from the stores themselves: Le Peep plans to be gone from the site only for 14 to 16 months, however; it’s been promised a ground-floor retail space in the new building. T.N. Tailor Alterations also says it has a spot in the new development; no word on the Starbucks. [Real Estate Bisnow] Photo of Bally Total Fitness at 9801 Katy Fwy.: MetroNational

So they replaced the blue lights down the center blue column so that they can now change color to match the crown during holidays. It always dro=ve me crazy that the largest length of liights was unable to change, I'm very happy they did this. On a side note, they have a trailer up on the opposite side of the freeway. Apprently they plan on buiding there very soon.

Such great news. This area is booming right now.

Wrong. They did move people downtown, my colleague's wife was moved downtown temporarily with many of her co-workers. DO you even know anyone at BHP? Because I do.

Hate to say I told you so bitches!

That woudl be a huge plus for everyone in this neighborhood. Fingers crossed.

Never thought I would say this, but LTAWACS has a point. I see new street lights going up at Hammerly, I'm not complaining, but that isn't what folks in favor of the tax were voting for. On the very bright side, I see bright orange spray paint all over Spring Shadows streets, could better drainage actually be on the way?! That would be a dream come true for the folks in that neighborhood.

Medical buildings going where Komart was.

So about the zombie thing, if sitting outside on a sunny Sunday morning watching my little girl play with kids she just met, while my wife and I eat organic egg sandwichs, drink draft beer and finish with frozen yogut, makes us a zombies. So be it. I don't care if a 125lb, beared, hipster, wearing flanel shirts in mid July, thinks I've sold out. Interestingly enough, many of the Europeans I've toured around town with love City Center, but maybe Europeans don't get the beauty of one story fake stucco strip malls and WalMart.

I learned to ignore LTAWACS a long time ago on anything relating to Spring Branch. For some strange reason he/she appears threatened by every development in this area. Seriosly, scan the posts in the 35 Story Memorial Herman thread, it's pretty crazy. It's like they 4000+ posts of trolling. What a sad exisitance.

Sheikh Zayed Road is a freeway lined with Office Buildings and it's pretty badass. I've spent alot of time there.

I agree. The good news is that they are getting demoed. Not as fast as I would like, but it's happening. Also, MetroNational owns several, so it's only a matter of time before those get removed or upgraded. I remeber the heights looked simililar in areas about 10 years ago. But I agree. The apartments are the problem, really the only problem at this point for me.