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Developing Downtown Houston


Subdude

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Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city, hasn't had a new downtown luxury apartment tower in four decades.

That will change next year, when One Park Place opens. The $125 million, 37-story building will have 346 units, charging monthly rents as high as $7,000. The $170 million Houston Pavilions, opening in October, will have offices, shops, a bowling alley and a restaurant owned by the family of Houston Rockets basketball player Yao Ming.

Developers of the two projects are taking on the challenge of boosting the city center's population of 4,000 and enticing commuters to stay for activities after the business day ends. About 200,000 people work, shop or run errands each weekday in downtown Houston, a landscape of vacant storefronts on Main Street and acres of parking lots interspersed with skyscrapers.

and the link...

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Skeptics say it will take years to reverse decades of neglecting downtown development in Houston, which sprawls over twice the area of New York.

Really? wow. It sure doesn't look it from aerial shots of nyc. Is that accurate?

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Really? wow. It sure doesn't look it from aerial shots of nyc. Is that accurate?

They've got to talking about the city itself. Back in the day I spent a lot of time in New York, and can tell you that DT Houston is not remotely as large in area. Even Manhatten itself is bigger.

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Houston-based Finger Cos. is developing One Park Place. The building has a selling point that no other city can claim, said Marvy Finger, chief executive officer: windows looking out on lights shining from miles of refineries and petrochemical plants after sundown.

``You're really viewing a Christmas tree at night,'' he said.

That's one way to sell the view. :rolleyes:

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That's one way to sell the view. :rolleyes:

Have I ever told you about my fantasy home? Over on the East Side, near the turning basin? With a fourth-floor living room overlooking the Ship Channel and various adjoining rail yards?

Seriously, the view from OPP would have tremendous appeal to me...if only I weren't such a tightwad with my finances.

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http://www.centralhouston.org/Home/AboutCe...%20Downtown.PDF

I found this at central houston. It was published in 2007. Some interesting information...

This (OPP) is sparking interest in additional downtown residential development; at least two more tower projects are in development stages.

More than 30 projects in development

3 hotels in planning stage

A
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I found fun stuff :):)

Get your old man glasses out if you need to. Most of it's not really new, but it puts some names to possible projects.

2651729018_46585abf98.jpg?v=0

oh yeah, the link...

http://www.centralhouston.org/Home/AboutCe...01-31%20PPT.PDF

Nice. :lol:

Only thing I can't see is what is next to the Discovery Tower parking garage. I'm assuming the red lines are cross walks.

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I just talked to a friend who's tight with the GM of the Hotel Valencia in SA and they say it's a go in Houston! No details on construction, so take it for what it's worth.

It would be a nice boutique hotel addition to the DT Houston landscape. They have developed a repuation in SA for a destination-nice bar and restaurant. Before I left town the Valencia was a bar I frequented, and I lived a couple of miles from DT.

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Nice. :lol:

Only thing I can't see is what is next to the Discovery Tower parking garage. I'm assuming the red lines are cross walks.

It's kind hard to read, but it says "New Residential Tower". Would explain why the garage appears to be set back from Crawford in all the renderings.

Kinda surprised the Embassy Suites block isn't marked off. That's one of the spots that's seemed certain for a while.

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That's pretty cool. I have to admit I had my doubts that downtown could support all the new hotels, but it is great to see the demand is there for more like this and the other new ones in the map.

Quite a bit of space marked out there for retail too.

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It's kind hard to read, but it says "New Residential Tower". Would explain why the garage appears to be set back from Crawford in all the renderings.

Kinda surprised the Embassy Suites block isn't marked off. That's one of the spots that's seemed certain for a while.

Yeah, and it's kind of interesting how that was planned out with them on the same lot as the garage, and then also the other two hotels valencia and hampton, are sharing a garage.

I just talked to a friend who's tight with the GM of the Hotel Valencia in SA and they say it's a go in Houston! No details on construction, so take it for what it's worth.

It would be a nice boutique hotel addition to the DT Houston landscape. They have developed a repuation in SA for a destination-nice bar and restaurant. Before I left town the Valencia was a bar I frequented, and I lived a couple of miles from DT.

Is this link to the same valencia your friend works at? B/c it says one is coming to Houston in 2009, but it's for city centre. Does the friend know we're talking about downtown?

http://www.hotelvalencia.com/

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Yeah, and it's kind of interesting how that was planned out with them on the same lot as the garage, and then also the other two hotels valencia and hampton, are sharing a garage.

Is this link to the same valencia your friend works at? B/c it says one is coming to Houston in 2009, but it's for city centre. Does the friend know we're talking about downtown?

http://www.hotelvalencia.com/

technically speaking the valencia currently under construction at city centre isn't actually a valencia, but a spin-off boutique hotel owned by valencia.

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Is this link to the same valencia your friend works at? B/c it says one is coming to Houston in 2009, but it's for city centre. Does the friend know we're talking about downtown?

They say DT, but , it's still just hearsay. Hopefully accurate!

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And what are the asking prices of these abodes? Wonder if they are affordable or merely investments for the already super wealthy?

But hey, I think developments like these are great.

I have one question ... wasn't the Rice redeveloped into condos? That wasn't exactly 4 decades ago.

When they said "new downtown residential tower" I think they meant "new", as in new construction.

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The comparison of downtown to New York likely refers to "downtown" New York, which is lower Manhattan and would likely be considered by New Yorkers to stop just North of the WTC site. That area probably does compare as described to Houston's downtown. Of course, New York has Battery Park and is surrounded by the waterfront, and Houston's DT is surrounded by vacant lots, so I am not sure what the point is.

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It was certainly worded poorly and placed in an odd location, but I suspect they were saying Houston's geographic size is close to twice the square miles of NYC and just couldn't describe a city outside of the NE without the word "sprawl" in it. :rolleyes:

Houston 579 sq. miles of land

NYC 304 sq. miles of land

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I'm not sure how relevant this information is to date (it's from a few years back), but it goes somewhat along with that map of new developments I posted above in post# 11.

LandCo (713-471-3714) plans to build a high-rise residential project at the intersection of Walker and

LaBranch (1445D) in the Central Business District (493R). The proposed project will be located just

north of the City of Houston

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This one's a little old, but it's still a pretty nice read. There's an article at Bloomberg.com that talks a lot of nice things Houston's downtown growth and development.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...&refer=home

``I think it's going to all happen, and it's going to happen in a hurry,'' said Kathleen Hayes, 58, a senior vice president at Merrill Lynch & Co. who plans to move into One Park Place with her husband in March. ``It's almost like popcorn.''
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