Pleak

That pic does look cool. Of course there is always this option. http://www.businessinsider.com/the-tropical-islands-resort-in-germany-2013-3

Thanks for digging that up. Sorry for the false alarm.

Plano & Irving are both 2-3 times as big as the Woodlands. Actually per Wikipedia, The Woodlands is right behind San Angelo. So that could be their slogan. "We're the San Angelo of Houston!"

I was wondering. The Terminal B phase I is pretty far along. I think its supposed to be finished sometime this year. I put several disclaimers in because I was very iffy about the source. And the link to the source. I figured it would be a big announcement by either Mayor Parker or United like the agreement on Phase I was - but I threw it out there to see if anybody knew anything more concrete.

When I saw this yesterday on the news, I thought to myself - he lurked on HAIF (or is one of us). We will know for sure if he adds an oil derrick with Jeff Bagwell astride it.

More completely idle, baseless speculation to add to the above. If there are plans for a fourth tower several years out - it makes sense on a couple of levels. IF the long-term plans are to move Chevron headquarters from San Ramon to Houston. ( I read somewhere that Houston has 7000 employees, San Ramon 3000 - before the transfer of the 800 that are being moved here). In the O&G business, there are two big age clumps of employees. A huge amount are older, nearing retirement - these are the survivors left over from the 70's-80's boom years before the bust. Then there are the huge amount of new hires in the last 5-8 years. The cohorts in between are very thin, because times sucked in the O&G industry and no one went in if they could avoid it in the late 80's through early 00's. So who is at San Ramon? All the higher ups (i.e. old-timers) who don't want to move and have the power to block the move within the company. But all these workers are nearing their RV purchasing age and planning their move to Del Webb communities in AZ and FL. All that will be left will be the younger cohort which are not long-term established anywhere (or are already hired on in Houston) and more amenable to moving. So I could see when the grumpy high-ranking old-timers start leaving, any internal opposition will be reduced. Plus if there are any promises to the city of San Ramon by Chevron (and I think there are) a few years down the road, they might have expired also, or are cheap enough to buy out of. Like I said - pure idle speculation.

I don't know for sure, but I read on an airplane forum a link to this blurb...... http://texasleftist.blogspot.com/2013/02/houstons-air-war-is-apparently-over.html It seems to indicate that an expansion of IAH Terminal B by United was approved by city council on Feb. 13. I have seen nothing else about this, but if anybody is good at searching council records. If so - looks like it was under the radar - like "I've thrown my big fit, now lets get back to work making money since the fit didn't work." My 3 1/2 year old does this all the time.

So would this be a literal example of "pave Paradise and put up a parking lot." ??

Is that the old "Hotel 31" ? I've been waiting for the Hotel Impossible guy to come in and save the place. I mean if you can't make it in the Galleria area when Houston is booming.... The bones of the building seem to be in good shape for some sort of hotel. Just think it's been poorly run (down) for several years. Here are some fun reviews: http://www.expedia.com/Hotel.h5577.Hotel-Information?&rm1=a2&semcid=13172-1&kword=%20Hotel_%2031_%20Houston!m.ZzZz.3340000081098.0.21330667397.+hotel%20+31%20+houston.%20hotel_%2031_%20houston&gclid=CMqXnfTUmLYCFaGoPAodwAYAtQ#reviews

Agreed. But when I read the name, I was hoping for several (at least 3) towers spread over the campus.

Give them a couple of years. Remember, it's basically a giant construction zone right now. Being worked on my mainly non-profits. Won't have the same expediency as if say Hines was in there directing construction and waiting on the payoff at the finish. It WILL look a lot diffent than the old overgrown jungle of invasive species that it was. It will be much more open (and usable - nice bonus) and healthy and in five years barring more droughts of a lifetime - it should look pretty good. It will have a mix of the surviving old large trees and a lot of new young trees that will mature over time.

And information on a third proposed theme park. This one in Texas City. It's small - 25 acres. http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2013/03/amusement-park-in-the-works-for-texas-city/ So is Houston going to become the Orlando of the center of the country?

Yeah - the Burger King/Citgo closed when they put in the new Burger King down at Brazos Town Center - I figured they just moved to a better location. The old one was from the 70's/ early 80's and was really showing it's age. The remodeled one is almost finished and looks like the new ones. And the gas station half is very upgraded. Real gas islands with actual covers over them. It's branded a Handi-Stop now. Oh - and the Buffet in the old K-mart closed about 6 months ago. But on a good note - across the freeway in the Lowes parking lot, the old closed Starbucks turned into a Wendys a while back. More Frostys are always a good thing.

Understand your point - although who knows if this second unbuilt theater is actually worse? That would be kind of hard to determine since no one actually appears to know where exactly it's going, etc, - so in a completely different way - it makes no sense Agreed. But my "dealings" with bums comes from working many busy seasons downtown which last about 3-4 months and would require me to stay past when the last Park n Ride buses left. Which if I recall is 9 pm. So being the cheapskate that I am, I would park in the boondocks to get the $2 parking lots (told you this was a while back - I think all of these are condos now) and hoof it in. It was at least our good ol reliable measure of 6 blocks = 1/2 mile past of plenty of bums. In the dark..... Ooooh, scary...... Not really. You leave them alone - they leave you alone. Bums are one of HAIF's biggest red herrings.

Way to blame the victim.

Why is it comical that most don't live downtown? The vast majority of downtown's population is work-related. So what. We know how to walk past a bum without crying about it. Been doing it for years. Job I have now is in Galleria. Guess what? There's bums here too. And downtown Houston is definately not the ghetto. Especially not now. It's most sketchy areas pale to what it was 15-20 years ago. Back when the Rice Lofts was a nice covered area for all the bums to piss. That's the time/place you might be wise not to take your other on a midnight stroll.

This has gotten absolutely hilarious. Once again, the hue and cry about make Houston more walkable- blah, blah, blah. But not for me. I might have to look at someone icky. I've said it before in other threads- people really want Cinco Ranch in the Heights, Midtown, Downtown. Where everybody looks just like them and THEY can control who lives there, who walks on the streets, what color they paint thier house/condo/apartment door. They think they are all hip and urbane but in reality they are just like their suburban parents they are so desparately trying to run away from.

So what your saying is for $86 million we have the architectural equivalent of Joan Rivers?

Huh - I heard all the sirens as they went by a few minutes ago. Wonder what happened

Thanks. Do we have any idea of the configuration of the additional high rises? Or are they just "proposed"? From what I understand, all the really cool configurations from earlier in the thread are all gone now - correct?

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.

Also in the Bizjournal article linked above was this last paragraph. I'm so lost on the twists and turns of Blvd Place. Can someone simply explain where the other 645 high-rise units are going and where the hotel is going. Last I knew, only high-rise buildings being built were Hanover's (above) and whatever Apache builds. I apologize in advance for being dense on this one.

No pics, but they have about four more floors to hang curtainwall on.

Easy two-step processt to fix this. Contact Camden. Use your millions to offer to buy the property from them so they make enough return on their investment that they are satisfied to move on. Develop it with all the ground floor retail and complete lack of park space to your heart's content. Voila - you have your dream! Oh - wait. You don't have millions and you're not a developer? So you are just whining on an internet board about how somebody else is spending their own money? Never mind. I thought I was replying to a useful post.

I've thought this all along. Back when United was throwing their temper tantrum about Southwest getting to fly international from Hobby - I argued pretty much the same thing. http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/26255-hobby-airport-going-international-swa-will-pay-100m-for-airport-expansion/page__st__90 United pulling back from their dominant position isn't going to hurt Houston. Only themselves. For years, IAH had little new routes and some of the highest prices in the country when Continental was here. But most people were OK with that - sort of a benevolent dictator sort of arrangement, because in the grand scheme of things, Continental was a good corporate citizen, seemed to care about Houston, and had generally decent service. Then when the merger happened, everything changed. The integration was massively flubbed. Service has gone in the toilet. Houston flyers (and citizens in general) feel dumped on by United, whether justified or not - and in return United still want to charge monopolistic prices? So when United pulled back and/or failed to expand to obvious routes to "punish" Houston - there are plenty of other carriers who will not hesitate to come in now - there is a HUGE opening. Make money - pick off the disgruntled first and business class flyers (who are the ones United is really ticking off) establish a presence in one of the few growing markets for the last several years in N.America. What's to lose for the new carriers? And what's to lose for Houston? It's now longer a second-rate city dependent upon the generosity of it's hometown airline to fly people around and having to bend over and say thank you for every morsel offered no matter what the conditions/price. Businesses actually want to fly there people to/from Houston frequently and at good prices - other carriers see this and are offering the service. Hobby just set a record for most people last year - first time over 10 million. IAH continues to grow and grow internationally. The more carriers that offer flights, the better as prices will come down over time since United/Continental is no longer the only game in town and Houston won't be their cash cow anymore. It will still be a very important piece, but I think the barn door is already open - United will never have the dominance that Continental did. I think over time - other carriers will grow their operations and more will be attracted. There is just too much money to be made here.