TexasGeneral

1 hour ago, Triton said:

 

So we should be seeing the parking lot closed off soon then.

Crews are putting up orange construction barriers around the property right now. 

Reminds me of SunTrust Plaza in Atlanta. 

Very unique design. Will be an interesting addition to the skyline. 

This is a beautiful building, but I question the location. Seems like this would be better suited as part of ROD Phase II. Or an extension of BLVD Place. Riskier move IMO to be that far south. 

This cannot be built within the West U city limits - it would be a violation of virtually all city code.  

That is why Kirby Thor Equities will be starting to rise.  The New York firm were they received financing know how many people live within 15 miles.  Which is a lot of money per capita.      

The capital markets are closed for Houston multi-family development.  There is zero appetite in today's environment.  Banks are terrified of all things energy right now, including Houston.  It took forever for Thor to get construction financing, and they got it from Bank of the Ozarks which has a reputation for extremely lax lending practices. 

Anyone know how leasing is going with this one?

That Target is so out of place.  Hopefully they will sell out at some point.

Hopefully this building will obscure some of the views of the Astoria.  

Tower crane is going up this morning on the site.

Looks like the "white" is actually what was intended.  This is by far the ugliest building in Houston.  

The construction fence is going up today, the Murphy building garage is being boarded up on the side that the ZaZa construction will be going on, the road running next to the Murphy garage has been closed and construction barriers are up.  Lots of workers on site today.

No picture, but the apartments currently on the site are completely vacant and a new demolition fence has been erected in the past few days around the entire property.

http://www.thorequities.com/sites/default/files/atoms/files/Kirby%20Collection%20Brochure.pdf

Interesting that this brochure says "Thor Equities has started development .... [on this project].  Perhaps a distinction to be made between "development" and "construction"

Hopefully one of these is a Ritz Carlton hotel + residences.

Counting floors on the office tower - it looks to be about 45 stories including parking.

GE's oil & gas business is growing and they already have a substantial presence in Houston.  With their finance/real estate business shrinking, it is not out of the question for them to move their HQ to Houston.  

$3 million for that is absurd.  

(1) Currently the law firm has approx. 104 attorneys in 4 floors.

(2) The law firm that will be leasing new space in 2018 has 220 or so lawyers and have about 9 or 10 floors now.

The first one may be Porter Hedges.

I bet the second one is Andrews Kurth.

I know of one fairly large downtown law firm in negotiations with Skanska to move in 2017.  I also know that another large downtown law firm is looking to move in early 2018 and are possibly in talks with the Capitol Tower folks.  Fingers crossed.

If you can't name names - how many lawyers does this firm have in Houston?  How much space are they currently leasing?

How would you like to live in one of those bottom units, 10 yards from 610?  Might be a tad bit noisy.  I can't imagine those are going to lease very quickly.    

On 2/11/2015 at 3:50 PM, IamHouston said:

http://www.workzonecam.com/projects/amegybank/amegybank/workzonecam

 

In case it hasn't been posted yet. Sorry in advance if it already has been. 

Great shot.  Looks like another crane base on site.

BTW, that La Quinta is very out of place there.  Hope they eventually tear it down and re-develop that parcel.  

Will be nice to see some cranes above the Med Center skyline again with this project along with Texas Children's.  

but it is because of oil prices. well oil prices in conjuction with the incredible amount of supply that is or will deliver in the next 18 months. that's it. if oil was still at $90 do you think we would be seeing this slow down? of course not. $90 oil equals job growth.... job growth equals wage growth and population growth.... wage and population growth equal appetite for highrise projects.

 

i've been told repeatedly that if the project isn't already funded the chances of anything moving forwward in this environment is slim to none with an emphasis on the none. the biggest problem is that even if we have other economic drivers that will (should) keep us afloat like medical and the petrochem industry perception is reality for national/inhternational investors in regards to houston. we are an oil town and when oil goes bust so does houston.

 

who knows maybe this time is different and without a doubt there's always one or two groups that have the wherewithall or naviete to move forward in seemingly dire conditions but you can't count on those.

I'll second these thoughts.  I was told last weekend by a Senior Development Partner of a major multi-family developer in Houston that there is no money for new projects in Houston right now.  He said their usual sources of capital (equity and debt) simply won't fund new projects in Houston right now.