downtownian
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Posts posted by downtownian
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$8 million to bring it up to code and $17 million to make it OK for office occupancy. The JW Marriott cost $80 million with $12 million in city subsidies provided.
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15 minutes ago, KinkaidAlum said:
I'll continue to shop in stores because I am afraid of what our society will become without retail jobs. Plus, I like human interaction and I am picky with my produce.
Same reason I continue to send telegraphs, travel by horse carriage and insist on having a human reset my bowling pins.
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2 hours ago, Chi-Char-Hou-Dal said:
I kind of feel you @downtownian - i know there are constant calls for a target downtown but having just survived a quick trip to the one on Sawyer, I think the days of the big box target store's are numbered. Picking up on your comment, an Amazon GO store where there is no checkout. I will start the calls for one of these to pop up!
Yeah, all physical retail is pretty much done for me. I value my time too much to deal with it. I bet 90%+ of my retail dollars go to Amazon, online grocery shopping, online clothing shopping, etc. The only time I go to a physical store is when I absolutely need something quickly and it is not available via a 2 hr Amazon delivery.
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10 hours ago, 102IAHexpress said:
I think the opportunity has come and gone for a large scale full size grocer in Downtown. Grocery delivery services are upending traditional grocery chains in urban neighborhoods. Here in Chicago, In an absolute shock, long time Chicago grocery chain Treasure Island Foods announced they are closing all their stores by next week. I think the best downtown can hope for is Peapod delivery (if it ever comes to Houston).
There are plenty of other grocery delivery services beyond Peapod. I live downtown and use Instacart every week or do HEB curbside pickup. I imagine Whole Foods + Amazon will start doing an extremely efficient delivery service. Delivery is much more time efficient than grocery shopping - I have zero desire for a grocery store to be located downtown.
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48 minutes ago, j_cuevas713 said:
There are prob a lot of historical elements behind that facade. Idk
Controversially, the facade itself is considered historical (Stephen Fox is very opposed to this idea).
Yet, unlike some of the historic structures nearby, the original facade of 723 Main will remain hidden beneath cladding that was placed over it 50 years ago.
Franks said his group met with officials from the Texas Historical Commission who suggested the developer restore the building not to what it was in 1914, but to its 1966 vintage.
When the facade was put up 50 years ago, Franks said, many of the architectural features were compromised.
"In order to put the facade up, they had to bastardize the building, really shave off all the beautiful features," Franks said. "So when you take that skin off, you end up with black mastic over stone with no features, no cornices, no anything. The historic commission didn't want to do that."
According to the commission, which provides standards and guidelines for the treatment of historic structures, properties must meet certain requirements to be considered historic. One of those is being 50 years old.
"We're going to be one of the first buildings in the state of Texas to do a 1960s historical renovation," Franks said.
'Twisted logic'
Frustrated by the commission's stance, architectural historian Stephen Fox called the 50-year rule "twisted logic to preserve a mediocre exterior."
"It's a kind of fundamentalism among preservationists to stick to the rules and ignore the consequences," he said.
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This looks like it should be a condo building and not rentals. Can anyone confirm?
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49 minutes ago, houstontexasjack said:
They have already lease 367,000 square feet to Hines (moving their HQ here) and V&E. The total building is 1,000,000 square feet so that's pretty good.
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24 minutes ago, Twinsanity02 said:
Not to be argumentative, but why do you all care whether an eating place opens up here first or in Dallas, Austin, etc? Doesn't food quality and customer service outrank those others. Please enlighten me on this issue.
If you believe that a restaurant and food should reflect the local aesthetic and have a sense of place, then it should originate from where it is located. If restaurants can just cut and paste the format, design and food and place their business anywhere, it's just generic and sort of bland.
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2 hours ago, HOUCAJUN said:
I tend to not support businesses that open in Dallas before Houston. Am I the only one? Am I wrong?
Agree. There’s a number of austin and Dallas concepts that invade Houston. I’m not aware of many that do the reverse.
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I think we all agree it needs to be changed. How about we vote first on if it should be changed and then have a second vote on what it should be changed to?
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How do we actually get the change done? Any advice from the mods?
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If this tag deserved to be changed in 2016, it is more than overdue in 2018 (so many more residents, hotels, towers, food halls, coworking spaces, the super bowl, etc).
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13 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:
1st Quarter, 2018:
A net 205 units were absorbed in the CBD, while zero new units were delivered. While it slowed a bit in the 1st Q, Downtown is still maintaining a good pace of absorption. (Assuming 1.4 people per occupied apartment, downtown continues to add almost 100 people per month.)
The "Central Houston" market (downtown, Montrose/Museum/Midtown, Heights/Wash Ave., Highland Village/Upper Kirby/West U, and Med Center/Braes Bayou) delivered 770 new units during the quarter, with 626 units net absorption.
Anyone have average rent, current occupancy, number of units currently and number of units under construction?
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10 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:
What do yall think could become of the site? I'd hate to see a developer rip this thing apart. If the Ford structure could be converted somehow that would be awesome!
100% wishful thinking but love to see a Pearl-style redevelopment similar to what San Antonio did with the old Pearl Brewery and Hotel Emma.
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1 hour ago, cspwal said:
Spaghetti Warehouse isn't reopening there anyway and is planning on moving. I think Harvey determined that building's fate
The building is listed for $1.2 million on loopnet if anyone is interested.
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Does anyone else dislike this sign for being too derivative of "I [Heart] NY" rather than being an original piece? Same goes for HTX which is based on the popularity of ATX?
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1 hour ago, 102IAHexpress said:
From Nancy's article yesterday:
Wow, I didn't know residential demand was that poor in downtown. Hopefully it picks up soon.
I think it's part of a lot of supply coming online but the overall occupancy and rates seem to be strong. The below is a link to Transwestern's 2017 YE residential report. Some highlights:
- As of YE 2017, there were 23 apartment buildings in Downtown with 5,951 units
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Occupancy was 67.1% which is on the low side but think it is due to how many recent openings there have been. Downtown absorbed 1,086 units in 2017
- Compare this to YE 2016: 4,819 units open, occupancy of 58.4%
- This means that 1,132 new units opened in 2017 but occupancy increased by 8.7%
- Average effective rent is $1,978 and rent / square foot is $2.05. This is 12% higher than Midtown/Montrose/Museum. I think it is a good indicator that rents are higher Downtown than anywhere else in the city
- https://assets.recenter.tamu.edu/Documents/MktResearch/Houston-Multifamily-TranswesternOutlook.pdf
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1 hour ago, CrockpotandGravel said:
The Post HTX video on Vimeo is no longer private (Lovett Commerical marked it private after Swamplot's report on the mixed use details with renderings)
The video is outdated and doesn't show the newer renderings from the brochure that was online last year. Outdated as it may be (I think it was from late 2016), it's similar to the newer renderings and depictions from Post HTX's leasing brochure and website design plans that hasn't been updated to show the renderings.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/201923389The video mentions that there will be co-working (1:35) and a food hall (1:38). I feel like downtown is already saturated with these things.
We already have 4 food halls open / in planning stages and there is a 10 story WeWork coming to 708 Main...
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41 minutes ago, monarch said:
it just does not get any worse than this for us.... period!
I would relax a little bit. I can imagine plenty of worse things than not being on a list of 20 cities that a large company wrote down.
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This building would be perfect for an Ace Hotel or a non-chain, independent boutique like the Wythe in Brooklyn.
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2 hours ago, Avossos said:
There are a couple additional buildings that I think would be great for high end hotels or condos...
building next to jw marriott
harris county annex building / (newer) cotton exchange building
Agree with newer cotton exchange building. The building next to the JW is awkward... those long, horizontal windows don't seem very well suited for modern tastes .
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3 hours ago, nate4l1f3 said:
This being a hotel is new info right?
cant wait for the details..
It was originally supposed to be residential but then got switched to a hotel in May 2017 (see link below). I really wish it was still going to be residential but I'll take it.
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54 minutes ago, CrockpotandGravel said:
The interior is kind of sterile-looking for my taste. The Honeymoon and the coffee place in Greenstreet are better design-wise.
My favorite downtown coffee shop design is Prelude. They also have the best coffee
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3 hours ago, bobruss said:
This is a great addition to the neighborhood in terms of sight lines
It actually destroys the view from my office : (
JW Marriott At 806 Main St. & Expansion Into Battlestein’s - 812 Main St.
in Downtown
Posted
Same. If a city has an Ace, I stay there.
For Capitol, the entire front of the building is floor to ceiling windows. The sides of Capitol Lofts actually open to interior courtyards (you can see it on google maps satellite view). One of the courtyards is bounded by Club Quarters and the soon to be open AC Hotel and you can see the top of BG Group Place from it. There are balconies both over main street and one of the courtyards which makes it a lot less claustrophobic.
Looks like there is a courtyard between Battlestein and the JW.
Note: I'm using courtyard loosely here. More like spaces between buildings.