nate

49 minutes ago, talltexan83 said:

There is a construction fence up around the entire old Gorgeous Gael property on Morningside and active remodeling going on.......food hall or not, I'm very curious to see what they do with this space.  It'd be great to see them re-purpose the adjacent parking lots for some public shared use or patio space.

Agreed on very curious what's going on there.

As I mentioned above, I suspect that if there is a food hall at Rice, it would be there. Certainly just speculating at this point though.

It is an outstanding location for a food hall since, as you suggest, the parking lots at the property could be used for patio space just like they did across Morningside. There is no need for those surface parking lots since there is easy garage access. The property is two levels and would have nice late night synergy with the adjacent bars.

Are we sure that this is going in the location reflected in the 2016 plans? Those 2016 renderings don't identify which particular space the food hall would be located in, but all the first floor space along University is currently leased and occupied by national retailers. The second floor space is partially leased and occupied currently, with only ~7200sf of contiguous space shown on the Site Plan as available. 

However, Rice owns a ~22,000sf two story building at 5555 Morningside that is currently under renovation. The only current occupant is Doc Holliday's, but the buidling has otherwise been totally gutted. It was previously occupied by Gorgeous Gael and a few other tenants. This would seem like a good food hall location since Monringside is a big restaurant focus of Rice Village and would be available for occupancy sooner than the University Site, I would think.

RV_Lease-Plan-Website_2018_0919-colored-compressed.pdf

For those interested in the allegations....

64600983.PDF

And the Museum Tower isn't empty because of the location. 

It isn't empty, but sales are very poor.

D Magazine reported in January of this year that only 34% of the building has been sold. http://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2015/january/museum-tower-condo-sales

Hopefully the developers of the new building have taken the glare into account, otherwise their balconies could be toasty. 

Crane is going up this morning.

The sidewalk around this site has been fenced off, so I assume that visible work will begin shortly.

The crane base is up along Oakdale.

I'm disappointed in the redesign, but understand why Midway had to do it.

That being said, the new design looks nice and I expect that most here would be happy with it had they never seen the original proposal. 

Quite frankly, with the collapse in oil prices, we should be pleased that this is happening at all.

Hmm, sorry to say Im not sure about that. I know there are parks in that area. Maybe a mixture of both. Whatever it is Im sure it can be developed though people down there want to keep plenty of parks.

That is Maple Ave. and Reverchon Park.

The overpass is the Katy Trail.

This morning.

Is this project U/C?

Noticed a digger on site yesterday.

Today, it was in operation, there were workers, and portable toilets installed.

I'd say it is U/C.

I know they were shooting for October 18th. Idk if that's still the plan.

As far as I know, that is still the plan.

They've still got some work to do.

Great list. So 12 cranes downtown right now. How many do we think will be up at the height of all this construction.. 20 cranes?

Would think more if everything happens.

Under construction now:

2(?) - Hines Market Square

2(?) - Market Square Tower on Milam

2(?) - Capital Tower

2(?) - Hampton Inn/Homewood

1(?) - Houston First Office

1 - Additional crane at 609 Main

Likely:

2(?) - 6 Houston Center

2(?) - Skyhouse 2

2(?) - Hotel Alessandra

1(?) - 800 Bell renovation

3(?) - Chevron

Potential:

Many apartments

Three tower cranes across the street from one another.  Does that make a total of five downtown now (?)(with Hilcorp and Marquis), and with at least three more on the way this year? (Skanska, Six Houston, Market Square) It's not pre-Olympics Beijing yet, but that's pretty darned impressive.

Off the top of my head, right now:

3 - 1111 Travis

2 - 609 Main

2 - Marriott Marquis

1 - Old Texaco renovation

1 - Apartments across from Skyhouse

1 - Trammel Crow Garage on Louisiana

1 - Alley Theater renovation

1(?) - UHD

Had to detour off Fannin last night to avoid the mobile crane lying down on Texas.

They've made progress this morning. 

Nice videos.

While the apartment building is not shown in most of the renderings, it is shown at the 56 sec mark in the "story" video.

The base from Lamar near Travis.

Not easy to take good pictures out of Total because of the double pane glass, but here you go.

Sorry, nate, but your understanding of the appellate timetable is waaaaaaay off.  

 

 

*hangs hat in shame*

You're right.

Hopefully they won't timely appeal the injunction and this thing can get underway. 

Okay, so it's the principle of the thing...

 

At the end of the day, I don't see any impediments to this thing being built. Unless the developer starts getting cold feet...   

Not quite.

The District Court denied the homeowner's Motion for Permanent Injunction on 7/18/2014. They have 6 months to file an appeal.

I doubt that we will see any construction until the denial of the permanent injunction is unappealable as lenders are loath to commit funds to a project that is in controversy and could be stopped by the courts. 

Furthermore, I'd expect that if the homeowners intend to appeal, they will wait until the last minute to file an appeal so as to delay this project as long as possible.

First information on phase two:

 

I'm hearing that this will be the long rumored W Hotel.

It sounds like a very substantial building.

I would imagine that the deal with McDonalds also included some air rights or height restriction easements. Otherwise, you risk having a tower 10ft away from your expensive condo windows. If I was going to purchase a unit there, I would make sure some agreement of the sort is in place.

This was discussed earlier in the thread.

I think that it is very likely that the McDonald's tract has height restrictions.

http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/26018-updates-on-the-astoria-condos-28-stories-at-1405-post-oak-boulevard-in-uptown-houston/?p=423063

The crane base has been installed.