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GreenStreet: Mixed-Use Development At 1201 Fannin St.


MontroseNeighborhoodCafe

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The Houston Pavilions is scheduled to break ground by the third week of this month, according to its developers.

"The project will be completed in October of 2008 as originally planned," William Denton and Geoffrey Jones said in an e-mail.

The project was originally planned to be completed in early 2008... not October! But, it's all good... as long as it's still going to open! :-)

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Nancy Sarnoff's article did mention that the old Texaco Building will be renovated into about 400 loft-style condos (apartments) ... which would, with One Park Tower, add nearly 800 new residences downtown. It is a good thing. The old Texaco Building is really cool. I like the arches and ornate touches. Yay, downtown. ;)

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Nancy Sarnoff's article did mention that the old Texaco Building will be renovated into about 400 loft-style condos (apartments) ... which would, with One Park Tower, add nearly 800 new residences downtown. It is a good thing. The old Texaco Building is really cool. I like the arches and ornate touches. Yay, downtown. ;)

Well according to someone's numbers, that would actually be about 1200 new people living downtown.

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I, for one, would love to someday move downtown... once it becomes more "urban" with more places within walking distance to eat, go out to, shop (inclucing grocery stores), etc. My boyfriend and I recently bought a townhome in the Heights. When we were looking to buy, we did look at a loft right on Main Street, but b/c of several reasons, we didn't buy it. I like the Heights, and our home is much bigger than the loft we looked at, but I for one would love to live somewhere more "urban"... and I wouldn't mind less space. He likes more space, but when I told him about what Downtown might be like a few years from now, he definitly seemed interested.... so we will see. :-)

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Was the original talk some five or so years ago concerning the Texaco Building was that it would be converted into a hotel? Anyway, I like the idea of residential conversion better if it pans out. It would be located roughly equidistant from the Main Street attractions and the Pavillions development.

Yes, originally, it was to be a Ritz-Carlton. Then it was going to be a Renassaince Hotel, and construction on that project actually started, and then quietly stopped. Both hotel projects included some residential as well.

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There are a lot of old buildings in the vicinity of Texaco, but what is the building with the construction crater on the northwest end of the block? I cannot remember if I was walking by the Texaco building or something else.

Sounds like Texaco. There used to be a REALLY decrepit ugly building there... I don't remember excatly what. When they started to rehab the Texaco building a couple of years ago (into what was initially planned to be a Ritz-Carlton, and then was to be a Renassaince) they tore down the old structure on the northwest corner. The plan was to build an addition, with meeting space, the main entrance and some other stuff as part of the planned hotel/residential development. I would still love to see the hotel/condo combo, preferably with Ritz-Carlton back in the game.

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... and so it begins! :D

Yep. The block is empty and there is nothing on there left.

It will be fascinating to see how they plan getting the equipment in and building it. Are they going to start on that one block by getting read of the asphalt and dig it out and form a "Parking" area for their equipment while they work on the other two blocks, or they simply going to go from one block to another?

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After all the naysayers, I'm so happy that this and the Finger tower are actually going to get built. I think with these two projects, I would guess the next few years are going to get really exciting with all sorts of new construction. Now can't we just build a time machine and make it Fall '08 already. I can't wait to see both of these finished with the new park.

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Would someone please explain to me where the old Texaco building is. Is it that building that looks bad and is the tallest looking from the South? I hope so. I have often wished someone would redo that building since it is an eyesore when heading into downtown from the south.

http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/Buildi...co_Building.php

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Oh OK. Thanks for the response.

So does anyone know what the building it that I am talking about? It is over near the Exxon building, but I believe farther south. It is ugly and right now it has something like plastic over some floors, but I am not sure if that means that it is being worked on or not. If I were to guess, I would bet it is at like Travis and Clay and is at least 25 stories.

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You are referring to the Exxon Building at 600 Bell.

it is currently going under renovation. They were initially going to buy the enron Buildings, but decided that it didn't want to be associated it in any way. They have opted to renovate that old girl and see what they can do. The time line for completion wasn't disclosed to me, but I would hazard a guess that it's going to be late this year or next.

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What about that statement has you down in the dumps? ;-)

If it's the stated failure rate of retail at Denver Pavilions, well, I'm not sure what FirstnGoal's source or credentials are for that statement... but the Denver Pavilions shows very few vacant spaces on any level. Casualties in the restaurant field, gosh, what a surprise. ;-) In any event, Wolfgang Puck's just closed last January, after Seven years in Denver Pavilions, and it's closure had more to do with Wolfgang Puck's divorce than with Denver Pavilions.

If your concern is the statement "if the developer can't make residential work at the Pavilions, it probably can't work elsewhere downtown, ignores the rest of the information we've gotten about the residential element, to-wit: the problem was the underground parking, which was making it too expensive to stay within the market prices for apartments. Very simple. Apparently, others (including especially Marv Finger) are still seeing a market.

Also, Firstngoal stated that Denver is 10 years ahead of Houston in residential development; therefore Denver Pavilions didn't need a residential portion, but Houston's does. But Denver Pavilions opened 9 years ago, so that puts Houston in relatively the same place that Denver was when Denver Pavilions opened. (In fact, we'll be in a better place than Denver was, since Houston Pavilions won't open until nearly 11 years after Denver Pavilions did; so if we're only 10 years behind in residential development... well, you can do the math. ;-)

I know who's got my back. Keep in mind that Houston19514 doesnt live in Houston, and hasnt in a long time. Any astute reader has probably noticed his steadfast defense and loyalty to our city, for years mind you. There is so much pessimism that litters all around. We should probably all learn a little from 19513 and stop looking at all the things that could go wrong. It's all good.

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Thanks 2112. Houston 19514 is a trooper. 19514 has an optimistic outlook and knows how real estate deals work. Time is always on your side in these matters. Thank you, 19514, for your posts. I always read what you have to say. Meanwhile, R I S E PAVILIONS!!!!! B)

P.S. Ricco, you mentioned when Houston Center was built ... yeah, there was a lot of ifs and buts and actually changes made. Houston Center was going to be a little larger and contain something like the Pavilions. It actually got built with the Park Shops (which was a shot in the arm for that part of town), but it looks like now we will have it all -- a 500 ft tall highrise on Discovery Green and the condos in the old Texaco building AND the Pavilions. :wub:

Edited by houstonfella
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May be a little late to the game, but I took a stroll after the Rockets destroyed the Bobcats on Saturday on the lot between San Jacinto and Caroline and on the parking kiosk, the statement to parkers to find somewhere else was, "AREA LOTS CLOSING FEBRUARY 2007...PARK NOW AND SAVE...at PAVILIONS PARKING GARAGE...1301 MAIN". It goes on to say the price if $50.00 for the first month, which I would perceive is either February or March.

I haven't cruised the forum for a few days but this sign confirmed it for me! To see it called "Pavilions" Parking Garage left the "is this really happening feeling". "Pavilions" garage was part of the deal to include a current parking garage for the parking for HP, right?

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I'm glad to see that this project is moving closer to reality... for the longest time i was starting to jump on the bandwagon with the people that doubted that it would get off the ground. But after reading what was in the Chronicle on Sunday, I'm off that wagon. HAHA. I think when completed, it will diffidently boost the popularity of Downtown Houston as a tourist and Area resident destination for fun, entertainment, and great restaurants. Now come on Houston, we can't be behind both San Antonio and Dallas as far as tourists; this oughtta hook a few more though,

YA PAVILLIONS!!!!!!!!

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I was about to doubt that it wouldn't happen, but since February started and that Chronicle article happened, I knew it would. We should be seeing a lot of new towers popping up in Downtown now, not to mention the new office tower that will be going up because of the low vacancy rates in DT.

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Ohh the Exon building. Thanks. It looked pretty bad and was long overdue. I thought it was abandoned. I thought I remembered broken windows too. hmmm. Anyway, Glad to hear they will make that building look nicer.

I would also love if Macy's would do a redo on the old downtown foley's. It just looks so drab around there. Heck if they just power washed off the urine it would smell better and cleaned it up a bit inside and out. That would go nicely with the Pavillions coming soon nearby.

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Ohh the Exon building. Thanks. It looked pretty bad and was long overdue. I thought it was abandoned. I thought I remembered broken windows too. hmmm. Anyway, Glad to hear they will make that building look nicer.

Hate to burst your bubble, but what you see is what you get (except the temporary sheathing that's covering the renovations, of course). Believe it or not, they've already finished all but the top few floors. I got my hopes up when they started that project months ago, with the lowest 10 or so floors under wraps. But when they moved on to the next section and revealed the renovated section, I was sorely disappointed. Can't tell the new from the old.

I guess they're doing more extensive work on the inside?

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Hate to burst your bubble, but what you see is what you get (except the temporary sheathing that's covering the renovations, of course). Believe it or not, they've already finished all but the top few floors. I got my hopes up when they started that project months ago, with the lowest 10 or so floors under wraps. But when they moved on to the next section and revealed the renovated section, I was sorely disappointed. Can't tell the new from the old.

I guess they're doing more extensive work on the inside?

Yeah, i don't know what the whole point of the rennovation was anyway. It's like they've done nothing at all. It really still looks like the same ol' ugly Exxon Mobil building

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I was about to doubt that it wouldn't happen, but since February started and that Chronicle article happened, I knew it would. We should be seeing a lot of new towers popping up in Downtown now, not to mention the new office tower that will be going up because of the low vacancy rates in DT.

I wonder what the vacancy rate will be like when HP is completed and I would like to know most of the details as to what the final project is going to look like.

I was a bit taken aback about the parking at 1301 Main, though.

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Yeah, i don't know what the whole point of the rennovation was anyway. It's like they've done nothing at all. It really still looks like the same ol' ugly Exxon Mobil building

The exterior work was not a rennovation as such. It was a stablization of the exterior. As for the inside, it is still a forest of columns set on 10' centers.

I was up in my best friend's office last week helping him pack for his move to Exxon's Greenway offices. I asked him why he was being so frantic and he said he could not wait to get out of "this stinking hell-hole." He used to be in the old First City Exxon space adjacent to the Pavillions and South Texas and was looking forward to perhaps buying or leasing another condo there. Then Exxon moved him to Bell Street and now to Greenway. As it turns out, the condos at the Pavilions are dead so he is now looking at properties around Greenway.

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