City Place: Mixed-Use Development At I-45 And Grand Pkwy.

[dbigtex56]

2 hours ago, KinkaidAlum said:

Great news! Also, suck it, Austin!

 

Just kidding. I like Austin (I love Houston) but the number of Californians who say "We love Austin, are you from Austin?" after I say I moved from Texas annoys me. Especially when I say 'No, Houston" and there's silence because they've heard Houston sucks or think that it does. Sorry, quarantine rant. 

Austin has been described as "the city furthest east in California".
I too like Austin but sometimes it borders on cutsie-ness, and diversity isn't its strong suit.
It's OK to be weird, so long as you're weird exactly the way they are.

[Texasota]

I like Austin in theory more than I like it in practice. 

[Twinsanity02]

5 minutes ago, Texasota said:

I like Austin in theory more than I like it in practice. 

I think Austin's "weirdness" is contrived and predictable. I find Houston more varied and to some degree eccentric. How many metro area have three ecological zones ( the piney woods big thicket, the marshy southeast, and the prairie like western suburbs), several clusters of large downtown like areas, huge international presence both in population and with 92 consulates, the space center,the largest med center in the world, one of the largest ports in the Americas, and the largest rodeo. Try to give that a simple label.

[zaphod]

My theory, as a millenial who was never actually part of the "weird" Austin or Portland or whatever, is that maybe the "weird" actually referred to your standard liberal college town stuff as judged by the abrasive, chain smoking WW2 vet generation who hated the hippies?

 

I can see how maybe  when Austin was small and more dominated by the UT and the state government it probably would have been a lot more liberal and a lot more open minded than surrounding parts of Texas especially back in the day.

 

Anyways the new HPE facility is underwhelming. I guess in reality a lot of the employees will work remotely and the HQ title just implies a few dozen big wigs will be based out of it. Like how Exxon is still technically in Irving while the Houston office is a behemoth.

Edited December 2, 2020 by zaphod

[DNAguy]

9 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

I'm not talking about an immediate presence downtown. But considering the move along with the development of the Innovation District, as more and more "cool" companies start to move here, I could def see offices downtown or something in the future. 

 

You’d have to assume Rice is lobbying pretty hard to get them to be involved in some way with the Innovation District.

 

[X.R.]

10 hours ago, zaphod said:

My theory, as a millenial who was never actually part of the "weird" Austin or Portland or whatever, is that maybe the "weird" actually referred to your standard liberal college town stuff as judged by the abrasive, chain smoking WW2 vet generation who hated the hippies?

 

I can see how maybe  when Austin was small and more dominated by the UT and the state government it probably would have been a lot more liberal and a lot more open minded than surrounding parts of Texas especially back in the day.

 

Anyways the new HPE facility is underwhelming. I guess in reality a lot of the employees will work remotely and the HQ title just implies a few dozen big wigs will be based out of it. Like how Exxon is still technically in Irving while the Houston office is a behemoth.

 

No. Austin's charm, even up until like 15 years ago is that it was the biggest "little town" in Texas. It still had that feel. Most of the chiefs and assistant chiefs in the govt are conservatives, so nah, there's no liberal influence there. Alot of people who work in govt are "open minded" but I mean you work for a republican governor, senate, and house so your not really spreading your "open mindedness" anywhere. They are a massive employer though, and if you want a feel for the culture, the liquor store in the capital has empty shelves on fridays, lol. Its a bit depressing. UT is whatever, their primary influence is the kids driving retail and booze sales in the city. The "weird" in Austin was created by older Texans, both vets and non-vets, who enjoyed being outside/farming/ranching while still smoking some weed and drinking too much. Think more Willie Nelson, less douchy new england style ultra-liberal student.

 

Add me to the category of hoping that the City jumps on this and gives HPE whatever they want to create some kind of presence near Rice's development or downtown. To let HPE move here and then just bury itself into Spring would be kind of an L. 

[swtsig]

2 hours ago, X.R. said:

Add me to the category of hoping that the City jumps on this and gives HPE whatever they want to create some kind of presence near Rice's development or downtown. To let HPE move here and then just bury itself into Spring would be kind of an L. 

They've already bury themselves into Spring - that ship sailed a couple of years ago. Hopefully they give some thought into establishing a significant presence ITL, though. HPE Labs at the ion or something.

[KinkaidAlum]

Didn't mean to turn this into an Austin conversation. Sorry. Last word on that, Austin is great because of it's location to some of the best geography in Texas. Highland lakes, natural springs, Hill Country, even the blossoming wine industry. Swimming at Barton is something Houston will never have.

 

As for HPE, they're moving from San Jose. San Jose is one giant suburb for the most part. It is no San Franc or Oakland. So it isn't surprising they'd be attracted to similar here.

[Houston19514]

3 minutes ago, KinkaidAlum said:

As for HPE, they're moving from San Jose. San Jose is one giant suburb for the most part. It is no San Franc or Oakland. So it isn't surprising they'd be attracted to similar here.

 

Very true, and the reality is that most (almost all) of the headquarters relocations to places such as North Texas that some HAIFers often envy, are also to suburban locations.

[mkultra25]

15 hours ago, dbigtex56 said:

Austin has been described as "the city furthest east in California".
I too like Austin but sometimes it borders on cutsie-ness, and diversity isn't its strong suit.
It's OK to be weird, so long as you're weird exactly the way they are.

 

Austin:East San Jose::Katy:East San Antonio

 

Joe Nick Patoski's book is worth a read:

 

How Austin Got Weird

[Big E]

On 12/1/2020 at 7:38 PM, j_cuevas713 said:

I'm not talking about an immediate presence downtown. But considering the move along with the development of the Innovation District, as more and more "cool" companies start to move here, I could def see offices downtown or something in the future. 

 

Doubtful. The "cool companies" (I assume you mean hip Tech Companies like Twitter and Google; I wouldn't exactly put an enterprise business like HPE in that group) generally put their biggest offices in large suburban campus locations even now (Google is based out of Mountain View, California, Microsoft is based out of Redmond, Washington, Apple is based out of Cupertino, California, etc.). Even if they did move to Houston, for lower taxes and such, they would move to the suburbs, maybe as close in as Westchase or the Energy Corridor, not to a huge skyscraper downtown. The only company I could actually see doing that would would be Amazon, since they are already headquartered at a huge skyscraper in downtown Seattle, but we all saw what happened with HQ2. Also, maybe Twitter, since they are actually based out of San Francisco, but even Twitter is not based out of large skyscraper.

[j_cuevas713]

1 hour ago, Big E said:

 

Doubtful. The "cool companies" (I assume you mean hip Tech Companies like Twitter and Google; I wouldn't exactly put an enterprise business like HPE in that group) generally put their biggest offices in large suburban campus locations even now (Google is based out of Mountain View, California, Microsoft is based out of Redmond, Washington, Apple is based out of Cupertino, California, etc.). Even if they did move to Houston, for lower taxes and such, they would move to the suburbs, maybe as close in as Westchase or the Energy Corridor, not to a huge skyscraper downtown. The only company I could actually see doing that would would be Amazon, since they are already headquartered at a huge skyscraper in downtown Seattle, but we all saw what happened with HQ2. Also, maybe Twitter, since they are actually based out of San Francisco, but even Twitter is not based out of large skyscraper.

I'm not saying they should locate to a massive skyscraper downtown. But the idea of small satellite offices downtown/Innovation District that allow people off the street to see the new products HPE is developing is a possibility. I know that big corporations all set up shop in the burbs for a number of reasons. And in no way am I putting HPE on the same level as Google or Twitter. What I am saying is they have the ability to really make their presence known throughout the city, not just in their bubble in the burbs. 

[Ross]

9 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

I'm not saying they should locate to a massive skyscraper downtown. But the idea of small satellite offices downtown/Innovation District that allow people off the street to see the new products HPE is developing is a possibility. I know that big corporations all set up shop in the burbs for a number of reasons. And in no way am I putting HPE on the same level as Google or Twitter. What I am saying is they have the ability to really make their presence known throughout the city, not just in their bubble in the burbs. 

The stuff HPE sells is expensive, and large, and the prospective buyers know about it already. It's much cheaper to use email and a website to put out the word on new products.

[zaphod]

Yes, HPE makes servers and server-room gear and owns some companies that make networking stuff you'd find in a large office or school campus setting. The side of HP that made personal computers and printers is now called HP Inc and is separate. I'd assume they employ a ton of (well paid) engineers who are sort to like living way out in the burbs and working from home whenever possible.

 

It seems like tech has always been really suburban in their location preferences, with a few like Facebook and Amazon being exceptions. Back in the 1960s IBM built campuses and plants in locations which were practically rural (but near college towns or the edge of cities) like Armonk, NY or Essex Junction, VT. Also IBM was one of the first companies to really push telecommuting, and that was way way back when the internet barely existed.

 

I think what's missed are the smaller software or IT services companies that seem to locate in downtown or urban office locations because such locations are cool. Also in some cities there are some really huge data centers in the lower floors of many skyscrapers.

 

Quote

The stuff HPE sells is expensive, and large, and the prospective buyers know about it already. It's much cheaper to use email and a website to put out the word on new products.

 

Sometimes these companies do fun stuff for customers, like you can go in person to events or whatever and they send goody boxes full of yogurt pretzels or RC powered drone toys to the IT office

Edited December 5, 2020 by zaphod

[Urbannizer]

https://www.pickardchilton.com/work/hewlett-packard-enterprise-corporate-campus

 

 

 

 

[zaphod]

It was a very nice day so I decided to take a walk around Springwoods Village to see the new HP campus and also the state of it so far. I found a lot of people walking around, enjoying the various trails and park space in the crisp fall air. The small urban center section had a couple of businesses open, including a Chipotle. This area is coming along, I think it needs much more permanent residential units to create more activity.

(All photos taken by myself)

 

This is the new HP Enterprise headquarters building, looks to be making a lot of progress:

 

Looking up the street past the American Bureau of Shipping office. To the left is Common Bond Bistro and Bakery. I think they were still getting ready to open.

 

 

The central plaza area, with the residential buildings behind it. There was Christmas music playing and there was a family with kids there doing something.

 

View towards the Marriot with the small lake out in front. So which one of you other HAIF people was out taking photos at the same time? Lol

 

 

A bridge over the lake. Not pictured, but below it is actually a dam/spillway that's a good 20 feet tall. The lakes pour over into one another.

 

 

A closer view of the HP Inc. Campus, as seen from the walking trail:

 

[Urbannizer]

Now just known as City Place

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2021/06/29/springwoods-village-rebrands-city-place.html

[hindesky]

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is starting to move in.

"Hewlett Packard Enterprises is opening its new global headquarters north of Houston as construction wraps up soon on its 440,000 square-foot campus."

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Hewlett-Packard-Enterprise-set-to-move-into-its-16921943.php#photo-20390462

 

[Urbannizer]

https://cityplacenow.com/office-leasing/

City Place 3

City Place 4

 

City Place 5

 

City Place Plaza

[ChannelTwoNews]

Harmony Public Schools planning location near CityPlace

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Harmony-Public-Schools-plans-campus-in-City-Place-17413754.php

[ChannelTwoNews]

Kelsey-Seybold is building a campus on Holzwarth Road and the Grand Parkway across from St. Luke's. The first building, a 5-story clinic, is expected to be completed next year.

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2022/09/13/kelsey-seybold-clinic-springwoods-village-campus.html