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10/7/04 DOWNTOWN HOUSTON Clubs, Bars, Pubs, Restaurants and other destinations Total Bar/Restaurant Count: 115 NORTH DOWNTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT: MARKET SQUARE (14): La Carafe (Oldest bldg. in Houston) Twelve Spot Cotton Exchange Bar Blu Torch Les Givrals (French Vietnamese Fusion) La Tapatia bar and grill Club Paesanos Warrens Market Square Bar and Grill (Great patio at back) Treebeards Restaurant (limited hours) CharBar (tailor by day, bar by night) Red Cat Jazz Cafe (restaurant/bar) Wasabi (Japanese) Kim Son (Vietnamese) FRANKLIN AVENUE/COMMERCE AVENUE (14): Six Degrees Lounge (Formerly Dusk) New Orleans Cajun Kitchen (formerly Kairo Caf

I've been posting apartment market information in the Sky House Main thread, because it originally grew out of a conversation there. In order to make them more available, I wanted to start a separate thread. Here goes. As of 2nd quarter, 2016, downtown had a 56.2% occupancy rate. 207 new units were delivered during the second quarter '16. Net absorption was 142 units. FWIW, downtown had, by far, the lowest occupancy of all the submarkets in the Houston metro. The metro-wide occupancy rate was 89.7% I think the downtown submarket has a great future, but there was little doubt there would be a glut of apartments in the short term. The "Central Houston" market (downtown, Montrose/Museum/Midtown, Heights/Wash Ave., HIghland Village/Upper Kirby/West U, and Med Center/Braes Bayou) had a 78.4% occupancy rate. 1,404 new units delivered during the quarter, with 732 units net absorption.

LARGEST EMPLOYERS IN DOWNTOWN HOUSTON COMPANY EMPLOYEES Shell Oil Company 5,744 Harris County 4,750 Exxon Mobil Corporation 4,420 City of Houston 4,000 JPMorgan Chase 3,000 Continental Airlines 2,824 Foley's 2,500 US Post Office 2,314 CenterPoint Energy 2,199 US Government 2,100 Christus St. Joseph Hospital 1,869 Bank of America 1,812 Halliburton 1,796 Reliant 1,760 ChevronTexaco * 1,700 Bank One Texas 1,200 Waste Management, Inc 1,200 Houston Chronicle 1,100 Deloitte & Touche L.L.P 980 Vinson & Elkins, LLP 903 PricewaterhouseCoopers, L.L.P. 893 Devon 875 Fulbright & Jaworski LLP 843 El Paso Corporation ** 800 Lyondell Petrochemical Co 788 Ernst & Young 771 Dynegy 700 Baker & Botts 692 University of Houston-Downtown 655 Southwest Bank of Texas 646 Kinder Morgan 600 Metropolitan Transit Authority 544 KPMG Peat Marwick 506 Amerada Hess Corporation 500 Calpine 500 *ChevronTexaco is relocating employees to downtown, after which it expects to employ 4,100 in downtown by the summer of 2005. **El Paso is relocating employees to downtown, and expects to employ 2,900 in downtown by the end of 2004. LINK

After years of suffering from urban flight, retail is returning to downtown. The adaption of older buildings to residential units, and increased pedestrian traffic due to light rail and entertainment venues will surely bring more. What's new with retail downtown, and what do we still sorely need?

It just came to me that the only decent looking large chain hotel ion downtown Houston is the Hilton Americas connected to the GRB. The Hyatt looks horrible, and so does the Doubletree, the exterior of these hotels in downtown need to be updated soon...

When I moved to Houston 20-some years ago, there was practically no residential units Downtown. The only major apartment buildings were Houston House and 2016 Main (if that's considered to be downtown). So which of the new developments offer the best in downtown living? Consider accesss to transportation, parking, noise, quality of workmanship and materials, and "bang for the buck".