H-Town Man

On 6/3/2022 at 1:57 PM, JBTX said:

This is the building Abraham Watkins is in, yes? If so, yes. It floods frequently.

It is a pity that this entire block is pretty much condemned to never having ground floor retail or office uses. In the past you could have just bought more flood insurance and done what you wanted... there are new retail developments all over the U.S. in Flood Zone AE. If you could make it work economically, it was your choice. But the Harris County city law that any new construction must be four two feet above the 500-year floodplain makes that impossible. Even the buildings facing Market Square like La Carafe would be impossible to build (or rebuild) under the new law. The I.M. Pei-designed drive-thru bank would also be impossible, and any future development on that block will have to elevate the site considerably if they want GFR.

https://msc.fema.gov/portal/search?AddressQuery=802 commerce st%2C houston%2C tx#searchresultsanchor

Interestingly, the entire French Quarter of New Orleans is in the 500-year floodplain. 

https://msc.fema.gov/portal/search?AddressQuery=802 commerce st%2C houston%2C tx#searchresultsanchor

Maybe not a "boom" just yet, but office leasing in Houston is turning things around. Here is Costar's summary of the office market:

Office leasing volume in Houston rose significantly during 22Q1, eclipsing the 4 million SF mark, something not seen since 19Q4. Helping bolster leasing volume was the 293,000-SF lease signed by Enbridge during 22Q1. The midstream pipeline company signed a 14-year sublease at Energy Center V and will be moving from the Galleria/Uptown area to the Energy Corridor later this year.

Leasing demand from the oil and gas industry has slowly picked back up over the past couple of quarters. During 22Q1, Linde PLC committed to nearly 41,000 SF at the Sierra Pines Business business park in The Woodlands. Also in 22Q1, Cox Oil signed a 24,000 SF lease at the recently renovated Lyondell Basell Tower in the CBD.

Houston's office market experienced 630,000 SF of net absorption over the past 12 months as of 2022q2, and annual net absorption has been positive for the past three consecutive quarters. Furthermore, CoStar is anticipating 3.4 million SF of positive net absorption during 2022 — the highest level since 2015. This relatively bullish assessment draws on the rebounding economy at both the national and regional levels.

While encouraging, the market is still facing significant headwinds. The vacancy rate has shifted by 0.8% to 19.0% over the past year, which compares to the five-year average of 16.8%. This ranks Houston among the highest out of all U.S. metros in terms of vacancy rate. Compared to nationally, office vacancies stood at 12.3%.  

Another headwind is the amount of sublet space available in Houston, which is currently at approximately 8.1 million SF —  about 2.3% of the metro's total inventory. This is up from about 5.1 million SF at the start of 2020. However, it remains below the figure of 11.2 million SF, recorded during the oil bust during 16Q4. The CBD alone accounts for more than one-third of all of Houston's available sublease space.

Houston benefits from business-friendly regulations, its relative affordability, strong talent pool, and the presence of George Bush Intercontinental Airport, and despite the aforementioned headwinds, the metro has landed some major corporate tenants since the start of the pandemic. For example, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), a Fortune 500 technology company, relocated its global headquarters to the Houston region from San Jose, California. The headquarters is located at the company's new 440,000-SF state-of-the-art Springwoods Village campus, which opened in early 2022.

Exciting to see some FINE-GRAINED DEVELOPMENT happening on a small lot. A little disappointing that the first floor is a parking garage, albeit a very nice one. Gotta Houston a little bit, I guess.

9 minutes ago, iah77 said:

Are you saying this whole project is affordable housing? Plot twist*

I guess that would explain the Spartan design.

3 hours ago, Texasota said:

I have never lived someplace with an HOA and doubt I ever will. 

You are conflating "saving our homes" with "preserving the single family nature of an area". Those just aren't the same thing, and you've made no effort to explain why "preserving the single family nature of an area" has any inherent value, especially an area that never was completely single family. Even putting Studewood aside, most pre-WWII neighborhoods were built as a mix of single family homes, duplexes, triplexes, small apartment buildings, and shops. They were built that way because that's how you build a self-sustaining neighborhood. That's how you ensure that people at different financial means can all afford to live in the same neighborhood. 

In an environment with rapidly increasing property values, all these kinds of zoning restrictions do is artificially restrict the supply of housing and price out a lot of the same people who, in the past, would have moved to the neighborhood. Look at the neighborhoods that do have historic district status. Buying a modest house in Heights East or something is no longer realistic for most people. At least the historic ordinance doesn't regulate use though, so you can still open a shop, cafe, or restaurant. And at least we have garage apartments. 

I don't agree with many of your posts but this one makes sense.

Too much parking. Our parking minimums don't allow urban synergy.

On 5/5/2022 at 9:38 AM, Urbannizer said:

Good to hear the residential tower is still 58-stories.

 

 

 

That is good to hear. Horrible to hear that there will be a skybridge.

2 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

Census Bureau this morning released 2021 population estimates for cities.

New York City:  8,467,513, a net loss of  305,465 (3.48%) in one year. 

 

Yes, the pandemic dealt them a blow.

Nice project. Also a nice historic house giving way to it. Built in 1913 for some baron, 4,248 square feet (!). Had been an office for awhile.

On 5/20/2022 at 9:54 AM, Ross said:

I remember 1983 and 1989. 1983 was pretty bad. I had gone to stay with my parents in Katy, and the thermostat on my car failed in the open position. Nothing like changing a thermostat in 12 degree weather, with your hands getting wet. 1989 didn't seem nearly as bad.

If it failed open, I guess your car would have been ok, just taken a while for the engine to warm up.

On 5/20/2022 at 9:22 AM, Twinsanity02 said:

Very true.  An example is what happened in the freeze of 2021. The last vivious freeze we had was in 1989 ( there was another one in 1983). By the time the Valentines day freeze of 2021 hit, a large number of people in the Houston MSA had either been too young to remember or had moved from regions where such low temperatures either do not happen or do nor pose a threat. Hence many people did not drain their pipes and we had a repeat of 1983.

We had one in '86 where there was accumulated snow. I'm too young to remember '83, although I do remember Hurricane Alicia in '83.

23 hours ago, Twinsanity02 said:

As much as elevated freeways are an eyesore, how does sinking roadways in Houston ( or anywhere along the Gulf Coast) benefit the people living there? The rainfalls along the Gulf Coast can be incredible and no amount of pumps is going to prevent flooding and hence trapping people. If someone can explain the benefit of sinking freeways  ( outside of looks) please feel free to explain. 

What is the benefit of sinking freeways, outside of looks? That is kind of like, what is the benefit of removing graffiti, outside of looks? I mean, that's the benefit. But it's a substantial one! Along with noise, another benefit. And no places for the homeless to camp out.

I thought that the looming recession and tech downturn might put this one "on hold" and eventually kill it but it doesn't look like it. The one consolation for Houstonians sad about losing the state's tallest is that no one ever seemed to notice or care before who had the tallest, and so nobody will probably care now. On the other hand, when Austin holds the title, don't be surprised if it suddenly becomes important, just like fresh-delivered cookies and cheese shops suddenly became important when they got them. We can expect Texas Monthly to do a special feature on high-rise architecture in the next couple years, with Austin singled out as the leader.

20 hours ago, mattyt36 said:

I see what you're doing, trying to get me to click the LOVE button there, Augie 🤣

Apparently when this was broadcast they actually had "Na Ga Da" written on the cue card. 

To those neighborhoods that have not, even what they have will be taken away.

Hope it turns around soon, esp. before inflation, interest rates, and possible recession make new construction unfeasible.

Just when you thought Montrose Blvd was turning into Post Oak Blvd, you see it's actually turning into North Shepherd.

17 hours ago, Big E said:

This building is on relatively condensed plot of land, no room to build a separate parking garage.

The point is, what is the effect on Montrose Blvd? If you care about Montrose Blvd being a great boulevard, then the end result facing the street is all you care about. If you can put a detached garage away from the street, that is always better than a parking podium on the street. Would the Rice Hotel look better if it had ten levels of parking between floors 1 and 2? No, it looks better with the parking in a separate garage facing Travis and Prairie.

Most people on this forum just want to see Houston have as many tall shiny buildings as possible. Some of us have come to the realization that Houston has a ton of tall shiny buildings (fourth most in the U.S.) and yet we're not a city that many people want to visit, or that has many neighborhoods where lots of people are outside walking around. So something besides tall shiny buildings is needed. We've got the tall building ingredient. We need some other ingredients.

Montrose is one of the most aesthetically pleasing streets in the city, and yet it's dead to pedestrian life. What is the problem? How do we fix it? Do we fix it by building highrises with stacks of parking looming over the street and cars zipping in and out of curb cuts all day?

15 hours ago, editor said:

Same color palette they use in prisons and Catholic schools to help keep everyone calm.

Strake Jesuit, St. Thomas, etc. don't seem like such bad places, esp. compared to the public schools around them. Clamor of families trying to get in.

21 hours ago, shasta said:

Didn't Randall Davis, with the Rice conversion to Residential, along with a few other pave the way before Fingers?

 

Plus, how many here remember the once proposed residential high rise on the block on Main that used to house a suburban style McDonalds?

I said there was no modern precedent for "new residential construction downtown." The Randall Davis stuff was renovations of older buildings, which is much easier to pull off financially, and it did pave the way in a sense. But the two proposed high rises that died before breaking ground - Ballpark Place and The Shamrock (the one you're referring to) - were basically blood in the water that served as a warning for developers trying to build new residential downtown.

On 5/12/2022 at 6:15 PM, KinkaidAlum said:

He'd be insane to not build residential immediately. That gives me pause. The last thing we need is another Green Street. I cannot believe those morons nixed the residential component and went with an boutique office building instead. 

At the time, there was no modern precedent for new residential construction downtown. Marvy Finger's One Park Place was in process of development in a much better location, and even Gerald Hines gave Finger credit for "creating a market" where few thought one could exist.

On 5/13/2022 at 10:45 PM, mattyt36 said:

Hotel guests are what? Probably 3-5 more times likely to eat out on a given night than a resident (for obvious reasons)? Convention business is also key to developing the tourism market. It’s fair to say a nice mix of both is essential—take a look at any city in that regard.

I tried to make this same point in regard to hotel vs. residential a few months ago and the chorus of respondents said that residents would have better taste in where to eat out than hotel guests. Shrug. I agree, a mix of both.

44 minutes ago, Texasota said:

We don't know what the Skanska development or the Kroger replacement are really going to look like (though no driveway from Montrose at the Kroger development is a good start.)

Even with this thing - what does the ground floor actually look like? WHat is in the space facing Montrose? Could go either way.

I do have high hopes for those developments and for Westheimer in general. I don't have much hope for the ground floor of this. Maybe a 2,000 SF retail space would be par.

40 minutes ago, Texasota said:

But theres way more pedestrian activity on cross streets currently than on Montrose Blvd, just because Montrose is less comfortable and theres less facing the boulevard itself.

Do you see it becoming more comfortable anytime soon with what's being built on/proposed for it? Fortress-like towers/garages and afterthought retail...

Thought Question: As Montrose Boulevard transforms into Post Oak Boulevard II, will there be any net increase in pedestrian activity?

On 2/27/2022 at 4:19 PM, MidCenturyMoldy said:

Cliché downtown skyline shot with Texas Tower and Brava's bad side. 

Cool shot. I still don't know how I feel about the diagonal orientation. It looks like it's photobombing the rest of the buildings.

2 hours ago, CREguy13 said:

I was at a breakfast week where Crane way the keynote.  He briefly mentioned their plans then too and that a hotel, a lot of entertainment/retail, and possibly high-rise apartments were a part of the plan.

I'm excited about the fact he owns several other lots all around the ball park for future phases.  This will be a very active part of downtown in the next couple years. Hopefully they release the official plans soon.

Possibly high-rise apartments? I would certainly think so...