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Bank Of America Tower At 800 Capitol St.


barracuda

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  • 2 months later...

This is going to SUCK.

They're going to tear down a perfectly viable building (that would make wonderful apartments by the way) for a speculative office project. Only problem is, they aren't the only player in the game (see Brookfield, see Hines, see Shorenstein's Exxon Bldg. plans, see the two block Macy's deal now in play...)

When will we learn? There's a greater than 50/50 chance that if this thing comes down, nothing will replace in the near future.

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This is going to SUCK.

They're going to tear down a perfectly viable building (that would make wonderful apartments by the way) for a speculative office project. Only problem is, they aren't the only player in the game (see Brookfield, see Hines, see Shorenstein's Exxon Bldg. plans, see the two block Macy's deal now in play...)

When will we learn? There's a greater than 50/50 chance that if this thing comes down, nothing will replace in the near future.

At least the potential Brookfield and Hines projects are on vacant lots. The problem with Macys and this is that they involve tearing down existing structures, increasing the risk of ending up with vacant lots for years.

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There must be a ton of upside in taking a risk like this. The interesting thing to me is how a usable, building like HC is underused in its current state, but something new in its place would justify the cost of a whole new tower. I guess that's the devil in the details of real estate development.

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My niece just landed a new job downtown. She is moving from Denver where she currently lives downtown. While walking around today to show her the area and explore the tunnels, she decided to check out a few places to live.

As of right now, there are NO apartments at all in the Humble Tower Building. Zero. The next one scheduled to come on the market wont happen until April.

One Park Place's availability was pretty much non-existant. There were a handful of 2 bedrooms open but at whopper prices.

The Hogg Lofts were also 100% spoken for and only efficiency studios were being shown at the Rice Lofts.

The demand, especially for apartment living, is there. I simply do not understand why the rumored Texas Company conversion hasn't happened? It also makes me sad to see a building like the Houston Club come down. Again, that place would make for some killer apartments with some ground floor retail thrown in.

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My niece just landed a new job downtown. She is moving from Denver where she currently lives downtown. While walking around today to show her the area and explore the tunnels, she decided to check out a few places to live.

As of right now, there are NO apartments at all in the Humble Tower Building. Zero. The next one scheduled to come on the market wont happen until April.

One Park Place's availability was pretty much non-existant. There were a handful of 2 bedrooms open but at whopper prices.

The Hogg Lofts were also 100% spoken for and only efficiency studios were being shown at the Rice Lofts.

The demand, especially for apartment living, is there. I simply do not understand why the rumored Texas Company conversion hasn't happened? It also makes me sad to see a building like the Houston Club come down. Again, that place would make for some killer apartments with some ground floor retail thrown in.

I think central Houston has a spreadsheet with downtown vacancy rates and it's like 3% or something crazy like that

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As of right now, there are NO apartments at all in the Humble Tower Building. Zero. The next one scheduled to come on the market wont happen until April.

They've had a steady waitlist for a couple years now. I was on it for a while, but found something else.

St. Germain and Capitol Lofts both have leases available, or there's one in 1011 Wood St. Club Quarters also actually just got some reasonable priced lease units. Might try CityView also.

Edited by kylejack
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I think central Houston has a spreadsheet with downtown vacancy rates and it's like 3% or something crazy like that

Ok, so maybe I overstated the vacancy rate, but it's still pretty dang low. Check out this excel spreadsheet

http://www.downtownhouston.org/site_media/uploads/attachments/2012-09-13/2012_Residential_Stats_Spreadsheet.xls

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They've had a steady waitlist for a couple years now. I was on it for a while, but found something else.

St. Germain and Capitol Lofts both have leases available, or there's one in 1011 Wood St. Club Quarters also actually just got some reasonable priced lease units. Might try CityView also.

Thanks for the heads up. We walked by CityView, but she didn't feel comfortable with the area. She's 23 and barely 5 feet tall and less than 100 pounds. It's just too isolated and would be too far of a walk at night from her office tower (Chevron Bldgs).

I thought the St Germain and Capitol Lofts were both condo buildings? When did they swing rental?

Our next step was going to be to hit har.com and look for individual rentals that might be on the market. She was thinking she was going to move into the Montrose area but she really liked the feel of downtown and said it reminded her of where she lived in Denver so she's now very open to the idea. Her job starts Monday!

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Thanks for the heads up. We walked by CityView, but she didn't feel comfortable with the area. She's 23 and barely 5 feet tall and less than 100 pounds. It's just too isolated and would be too far of a walk at night from her office tower (Chevron Bldgs).

I thought the St Germain and Capitol Lofts were both condo buildings? When did they swing rental?

They're condos with some owners who rent their units. Has a building manager and etc. There's a few listings right now on HAR.

Our next step was going to be to hit har.com and look for individual rentals that might be on the market. She was thinking she was going to move into the Montrose area but she really liked the feel of downtown and said it reminded her of where she lived in Denver so she's now very open to the idea. Her job starts Monday!

Lots of cool stuff happening in Downtown right now. OKRA Charity Saloon is now open, The Modular and Batanga restaurants opening soon. I hear a couple other bars are coming in that area as well.

Edited by kylejack
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She just signed a 6 month lease in Greenway Plaza but will spend the next few months looking for a downtown pad... if she ends up loving her job.

Have you been to OKRA? I love what they are doing and want to swing by to show support. The owners of Batanga are friends of friends. I've heard they are about 2 weeks from a soft opening.

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I was sad to see Redcat go away. That building is so nifty.

I was passing through downtown today. Did Redcat re-open off Franklin over there by where Pink Monkey used to be? I never heard of them opening.

I tried to go in but it was locked. I couldn't tell if they were in the process of re-opening or if they were just closed outside of regular business hours.

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I was passing through downtown today. Did Redcat re-open off Franklin over there by where Pink Monkey used to be? I never heard of them opening.

I tried to go in but it was locked. I couldn't tell if they were in the process of re-opening or if they were just closed outside of regular business hours.

Yes, they reopened there a while ago - was at Brewey Tap a couple nights ago and people where in and out of there

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  • 2 weeks later...

I notice on downtownhouston.org's downtown map they have already labeled the block as "Capitol Tower". Jumping the gun?

 

Aha!  That explains why they've got it on the tunnel signage too.  I thought I was missing something. . .

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Aha!  That explains why they've got it on the tunnel signage too.  I thought I was missing something. . .

 

I'm still curious if they are going to make some accommodation for the tunnels during construction. Seems a long shot, but it makes you wonder why they would bother putting up signage for something that is about to be a hole in the ground. 

 

EDIT: Odd error message. Strange things are afoot at the Circle K

Edited by Nate99
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I noticed this morning that Brown Bag Deli has relocated from the Houston Club Bldg to where Ziggy's used to be. I think they were the last tenant, so demo must be nearing.

 

There is still a Skyline Deli in the tunnels underneath, but maybe that corner that connects to the Esperson building is going to be spared. 

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I'm still curious if they are going to make some accommodation for the tunnels during construction. Seems a long shot, but it makes you wonder why they would bother putting up signage for something that is about to be a hole in the ground. 

 

That's an excellent question.  Given that it's the intersection of the Pennzoil/Esperson/Chase tunnels, it would be a big disruption.

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I can't find a link online anywhere,  but I read an article in a Sunday Chronicle Business section from the last month (apoligize - can't remember the date) talking about the auction of the Houston  Club items.   And it had an offhand comment that was something to the effect of Skanska was going to replace the 385,000 sq. foot building with a 625,000 building.   Again -  I am going off of memory, so the numbers might be a little off.  

 

I can't find anything official anywhere - but if anybody has an old copy of the Chronicle - maybe they can confirm by fuzzy memory.

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That's an excellent question.  Given that it's the intersection of the Pennzoil/Esperson/Chase tunnels, it would be a big disruption.

 

It's hard to imagine that they could leave the tunnel section open, given that a new foundation would be necessary.  That said, in other building temporary tunnels have been opened as soon as feasible, and there is at least an alternative route to get from Pennzoil to Chase (from the other Pennzoil tunnel entrance, to Esperson, and back up to Chase).

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  • 1 month later...

So Gensler put up a display in the lobby of the Pennzoil building with a model of that section of downtown:

 

vc1s9.jpg

 

Since Gensler was connected to whatever is going in the old HC space, and the block in the model is conspicuously bare, I'd say it's plausible that we will see a model of whatever is supposed to be built there in  the empty spot in the near future. 

 

Unless Gensler wants to promote the empty block they're designing. 

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