Fortune

6 hours ago, shasta said:

WHY IN THE WORLD are these mixed use Urban developments, with many 1 bedroom units AS PART OF THEIR PROJECT, leasing out their restaurant spaces to $100 a person places like Georgia James, MF Sushi, or Turner's Cut?

Go to any synergistic high traffic urban center and you find a number of "casual" dining options for the urban loving people that are looking for something they grab and hang out in the adjacent urban space

Grab a slice of pizza, grab a cocktail, grab a taco, etc. and HANG OUT.

Leasing to the like of Georgia James and Turner's Cut and Pastore are going to kill these developments.

There is a reason why The Flight Club is still going strong...it creates Urban Synergy!

The casual Mexican Restaurant going into Regent Square is MUCH better!

So does nearby Piggys Kitchen

I mean, Autry Park leased a space to a high end boot maker fronting their green space.....what?

How are they continuing to get the selection of Urban center retail spaces wrong?

 

I believe the goal of this development is to be a high-end mixed-use development. They are catering to the River Oaks crowd, not the crowd that would make up the average "synergistic high traffic urban center". The casual dining options you are seeking aren't willing to pay to lease out these spaces. The type of urban center you are seeking will most likely take place on the east side of downtown. Places like East River and East Blocks.   

Prime real estate that no one appears to want.

2 hours ago, Sanjorade said:

Apparently the entire leadership team of The Ion and Greentown Labs were let go last week. Guessing they weren’t able to attract enough renters. 

As a startup guy, The Ion is a nice idea but doesn’t actually deliver what most early stage companies need. There’s a major disconnect between the stakeholders and startup founders. 

Will be interesting to see what comes next …

 

Why would The Ion and Greentown Labs have a single leadership team? Aren't they two separate entities that are tenants of The Ion District? 

What do most early-stage companies need that The Ion does not deliver? 

At least the buildings are on the street and not the parking. . . 

What a blow to the ground floor retail enthusiast. The closure of such a high-profile well-known store. I'm sure this will affect other chain store's thoughts on expansion in the midtown area. 

What is going on with midtown. First 24-hour Fitness, then CVS, now Whole Foods. 

3 hours ago, CREguy13 said:

I'd say there's a 0% chance they keep all 3 and a close to 0% chance they keep any of them. Unfortunately, these buildings have underperformed for many years on the office front (just lost Apache for a considerable portion of the complex) and I don't see a bunch of capital injected into them to remain an office asset. Then how much $$ do you put into a conversion to MF or hotel and how would they expect those to compete with all the new MF and hotels in the area? I've always admired Phillip Johnson and his work, but my gut is Post Oak Central's days are numbered

I'm guessing the only reason they put this deal together was for a total demolition of all or nearly all existing structures. However, you could see some short term leasing activity in the near term to generate some additional income before the future plans move forward. Just my take.

With all the available open land and one-story buildings in the area I would hate for them to demolish those three towers. Just seems like it would be going backwards. Develop all the undeveloped and underdeveloped properties first.    

2 hours ago, CREguy13 said:

Parkway has acquired Post Oak Central and CityWestPlace in an all cash deal (wonder which billionaire 👀👀) and Midway will oversee the Redevelopments.  This is an amazing transaction and I'd heard there was big money behind it because of the opportunity with POC. Truly, anything less than several towers with incredible retail/walkability offerings would be a major disappointment. 

This is the size of River Oaks District right on Post Oak Blvd. Cheers to potentially the next mega development in Houston 🍾🥂

I hope they don't plan on demolishing the three towers.  

Not surprised at all. Houston never lands these types of things. 

4 hours ago, Amlaham said:

Residence inn usually look like the cookie cutter hotels :/ would prefer the land to stay empty in that case 

Given the location of the piece of land (the backside of a Kroger grocery store) a cookie cutter hotel as you call it is a win. 

37 minutes ago, Nate_56 said:

Anyone else having trouble getting the pictures to load? Or is it just on my end. 

I have noticed that as well. It has been like that for me for a few months.  

2 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

Don’t we have massive office vacancy rates in Houston right now? 

Did not stop the office space at Montrose Collective, MKT Heights, East River, or Discovery West. 

2 hours ago, J Money said:

None of this seems particularly new. Agree with CREguy. I will only believe it if they break ground on the section facing Allen Pkwy in the near term. They’ve indicated that’s their next step, and once again have been delaying execution. 
 

Also, what’s a “Master community”?

Pretty sure they meant master planned community and left out planned . . . However, that is just an assumption based on the context clues.  

Sounds like this may not be moving forward. 367 acres is a big chunk of the 500+ acres that was planned to be the bioport. "Backed out" does not sound like a term that would be used if the seller and TMC/co-developer could not agree on terms. Sounds more like the TMC and co-developer have changed their minds in regard to the development itself. 

2 hours ago, Ross said:

 

I don't really get the point of putting out a sign. It's not like some guy is going to be walking or driving by and suddenly think "800 Bell is for lease? Cool, I need 1 million+ square feet of space for my startup". People who really need that sort of building will be talking with commercial real estate firms, not looking for for lease signs.

I think that is done more so for branding/advertising for the firm marketing the property. 

The title says 2 office towers. Are there 2 building going up here?

I'm curious to see how this development will be modeled off of The Battery in Atlanta and Ballpark Village in St Louis. Those developments seem like they had more space to work with. 

5 hours ago, bookey23 said:

This isn't exactly on topic, but could someone explain to me whether the "Estimated Cost" figures on the TDLR filings are actually accurate? I noticed an article that called Alta Sunset Heights a "luxury apartment complex", but the price tag on this is $499,999. Meanwhile, something like Coop at Farmer's Market is nearby and seems generally similar in scale, but has an estimated cost of $23 million. What accounts for that humongous disparity?

No way that is accurate you can barely build a single-family home for $499,999.00 now a days. 

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/housing/article/third-ward-cuney-homes-hha-eminent-domain-17813213.php

Key Points:

-Houston Housing Authority to purchase or use eminent domain to acquire 45 properties in Third Ward, including both empty lots and occupied homes.

-Will include both affordable housing and market-rate units.

-Reimagining, revisioning of what Cuney Homes is.

-Replacing all 550 current units and adding an additional 550 units.

-Rentals and homeownership opportunities.

-Properties being acquired for expansion are concentrated on St. Charles, Tuam, Drew and Dennis streets and Emancipation Avenue.

-A significant portion of the properties were owned by the Midtown Redevelopment Authority

-Homes replacing Cuney Homes will be a mix of single-family housing and low-rise multifamily apartments, all built to today's standards and likely reusing some of the original bricks in order to preserve part of the community's architectural identity. 

-Estimated construction on the actual Cuney Homes site will begin in 2025

15 hours ago, ShipPunk said:

They had a stipulation that upon their death it will never be sold.

How does this work? How is this enforceable? 

4 hours ago, Mark Resident said:

I saw them taking soil samples a few months ago and got my hopes up but then nothing. The property is covered with graffiti and looks awful. Right across the street is 3535 Sage which a new for sale sign just went up. Found an advertisement for 3535 saying they are going to demolish the now abandoned commercial building on the 8 acre sight. This area has really declined in the 15 years I have lived at the Mark and has brought the property values along with it, I’m afraid…

This portion of Uptown is very unattractive including The Mark, 3525 Sage Condominiums, and The Bristol which are very dated looking buildings. However, have property values really declined in the area?

I'm glad they removed that horrible wooden fence that was up between this property and Target. 

2 hours ago, toxtethogrady said:

$239M and 355KSF sounds like more than just a two-story strip. Looking for renders.

Says it will be a 10-story building. 

WOW a gas station . . . I wonder how the people that were complaining about the medical office building feel about this turn of events. 

What are they going to do with the olde baseball field?