Fortune

Well a lot of people will be happy that the oaks are staying on the site.

Place will have a bunch of competition with the 552 apartments that will be built across the street.

Culturemap:

If the rents are comparable, then I don't see any competition. This unique tower will win out over the project that is going up across the street which is townhomes and 8 story apartment buildings that looks exactly like a bunch of other apartment buildings that are going up.

And the location ?

Oh wow I hate to hear that the redevelopment plans stalled. Any idea why they stalled ? It's good to hear that the site is on the radar for redevelopment though. Hopefully the plans will move forward soon. Do you happen to have any details about the redevelopment ?

This is 100% office-based occupancy. The Renaissance pulls in some extra business with the church, Rice, and Qantas flight attendants (yum) but realistically this will be filled with business use. The site today is not used as a public space, and the corner, in general, could use some love. As someone who goes through there every day, I support this. My only complaint (if you could call it one) is that this isn't happening on the NORTH side of Richmond, which is a site waiting for a bulldozer.

I agree that huge parking lot in front of that building bothers me every time I pass by it.

It's only one building going up. It's a hotel/apartment building---mix use if you will.

No if you look at the post on Swamplot as well as the original article it says that plans for the site also include 400,000 sq ft of office space.

Also a thread was already started for this topic on HAIF.

Yeah that grove is amazing. It's a large site though, plenty of room to build the hotel and keep the trees. Not that I expect that, but it's certainly possible.

I agree it is a large site I don't see the 20 story hotel and the office building taking up that entire site especially since they plan on tearing down the 8 story building on the site. So maybe they will leave the green space or atleast some of the trees. Two buildings won't take up that large of a lot unless thy have very large footprints which I doubt.

Great to see some new development in that area. That's a pretty large lot especially with them tearing down the existing 8 story building. Seems like they could fit more then two buildings on the site unless the two buildings will have large footprints.

Here is some more information about the development :

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2012/11/southwestern-energy-releases-more.html

What I don't understand is why they need 25 acres for a 10 story building. Even with expansion in the future, 25 acres is a lot.

There's a reason the UH president lives by Rice and not UH.

Which has nothing to do with crime.

University of Houston doesn't have anymore crime than the majority of other universities.

Took a couple of shots yesterday.

It appears that they removed the gates in one section and moved the fence in another.

That is a very large site. Looks like a entire city block.

The next big question, what will become of the old school?

A couple of mid rise apartments? Major mixed-use or maybe a park?

I believe HISD is doing some remodeling to the HSPVA building. They may retain the property and use it for other purposes. Maybe for administration purposes or possibly a new school. If not most likely a mid rise apartment building.

They moved the two older homes from the site some time ago. They will now be incorporated in the new cultural center downown.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Businessman-to-donate-8-million-to-new-cultural-3919032.php

Hopefully it's something substantial and tall !!!

Anyone think downtown and the Med-district could join too?

It would require more highrise construction in Midtown... possible?

I think so if Midtown ever gets any highrises. It's the perfect location for a residential highrise neighborhood with its city block layout. However all that seems to be developed in Midtown are mid rise apartment complexes, suburban shopping centers, and town homes. You would think with land prices as high as they are in Midtown that high rises would be built.

Obviously there are neighborhoods in between that will never be torn down for high rises BUT, at the rate we're going, I think one day uptown and downtown skylines will merge, not as dense as new york or chicago but definitely enough that if you look at a panoramic pic one day, all the buildings will look "connected". The path is slowly being made from weslayan to kirby and along and up allen parkway into downtown...

I totally agree. I just wish that more developers would build buildings such as this one instead of the 5 story buildings that are going up. I understand mid rises going up on the larger sites being developed but smaller sites like the cafe adobe site that Hines is redeveloping should be high rises.

i've been waiting for an update that development but so far haven't heard or seen anything. they initally proposed a 6-8 story mixed use apartment complex... pretty sure there's a thread on it somewhere.

It's very interesting when there is a property such as this one that has been planned for a long time and hasn't been able to get developed even when other projects have come online and been developed in a much shorter time. At one point in time prior to the economic downturn a residential highrise was proposed for that site then a mixed use apartment midrise. You would think with all the other apartment complexes going up they would have atleast been able to build a apartment midrise on the site.

Huh. I can't quite figure out what angle this rendering is from. Is this from the south looking north? What's with the weird landscaped driveway ...thing? It just seems like a huge waste of space.

It's from the north looking south across westheimer from St. Anne's property. The weird landscaped driveway is St. Anne's driveway on their property.

Well I was hoping for a signature residential highrise. It's nice that they thought outside of the box though as far as design. It's great to see some variation in the design as compared to the rest of the multifamily buildings that are going up that look the same. It looks like the apartment buildings being built in places like California and Toronto.

I hope not, if that's the case it will just be a sea of 3 story town homes.

Would you rather that townhomes were built at 18 units/ac. around the light rail stations on $30 PSF land, or that dense midrises at 80+ units/ac. and eventually highrises get built around the light rail stations at $80 PSF? Land speculation has a vital role in the long-term future of our city. Just gotta be patient, let market forces to their work.

Well it will be great when market forces start working and some midrises and highrises start going up in midtown.

Saw on front page of the chronicle this will be demo'd to build luxury high rise! Zing!

Sorry no link, im on the go....

It's not a Highrise it's a 7 story apartment building.

@swtsig

Yes.

@Fortune

Too early to tell; Architect has not yet been selected. Broadly speaking, it will be a residential mixed-use development - mid-rise, possibly a high-rise component.

Wow Hines is really building a lot of residential in the area with this project, the cafe adobe site, and the WaterWall project. Hopefully they will build something downtown as well.

Definitely a watered down version of the Studio Gang's Aqua Tower (pun intended), but grateful for a step in the right direction for Houston.

Look for Hines to develop the super block just east of this project - surrounded by W Alabama/Westheimer and Buffalo Speedway/private street just east of St. Luke's Methodist Church.

What is it going to be developed in to ?