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Levit Green: Life Science Mixed-Use District By Hines


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On 5/23/2022 at 12:23 PM, strickn said:

Two years on, I still think it will be impossible for us to rival those regions without the financial industry legacy tailwind that made it advantageous for them to develop as clusters to begin with.  And with no more backing than our area has, it might be better spent developing a cluster that is suited to our regional culture, rather than the most superheated (competitive but overpriced, where you rise the least in the rankings for the greatest table stakes) industry in the nation's economy.  But when I have to eat crow, then, to quote H Town Man, it will taste just fine.  And if our value play attracts a lot more people from around the world, provides careers that develop local talent without having to move away, and of course beats Dallas, then it will be hard to argue that our timing was wrong.  

This, I believe, is the problem. Not only does Houston not seem to have enough venture capital, but any that comes along goes to the oil and gas industry. With all the products being invented out of the TMC, there should have been several start-ups that would have gotten themselves established in the last decade. There certainly is plenty of know-how...

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But we don't even want to be a clubby insidery back-slapping shark town which is exactly the mentality that VC requires.  It's not an industry, it's a network, and they often make entrepreneurs let them refuse to sign nondisclosure agreements, so they can collude (ahem, compare notes on a startup) with their network of competitors before any of them agrees to terms with a startup.

 

Until we can build a more hospitable but not more impersonal form of participatory accountability, to support a genuinely open and quirky (in a word Houspitable) form of reputation management and risk management ecosystem, then it isn't going to be practical for us to fund the value chain locally.  
 

That is, it will either take continued imports of outside investors like we're having recently (meaning a lot more of the capital gains flow back out of the area too), or a change in our own business culture to be more insidery in its expertise and outlook like those older metro areas.

Edited by strickn
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1 hour ago, Avossos said:

Why is this a “trophy” building? I like the building and I like what it means for the area. I even like the campus vibe of the master plan… just not sure why everyone is so giddy about the architecture.

Because the bar is low. We're the architecture limbo champions. 

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On 5/23/2022 at 10:57 AM, X.R. said:

Given their propensity to highlight access to public transit, the boulevard will probably will be pedestrian/bike friendly one would think. For projects like this, a little downtown Bagby street treatment should be in the cards.

Careful, now - that's the kind of "should" that can break a fella's heart.

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6 hours ago, Avossos said:

Why is this a “trophy” building? I like the building and I like what it means for the area. I even like the campus vibe of the master plan… just not sure why everyone is so giddy about the architecture.

Yeah this is your standard beltway 8 suburban office. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

So it appears we have our first tenant announcement, but no mention on square footage of the lease...  hoping its sizeable.

Sino Biological out of Beijing, will be opening its 'Center for Bioprocessing' at Levit Green. Great to finally have a little momentum on this campus.

https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/602480783/sino-biological-announces-construction-of-its-new-us-based-center-for-bioprocessing

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"The company, headquartered in Beijing, signed a 10,000 square foot commercial lab and office lease within the first phase of Levit Green, under development by the Houston firm Hines and partners 2ML Real Estate Interests and Harrison Street."

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/levit-green-sino-biological-tenant-17601254.php

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