H-Town Man

The website says it is over 750,000 SF. The document that mattyt posted says that the total SF amount includes "Future Development/Redevelopment." So it could be them. The total figure it gives is 998,304. Do we know of other campuses around Texas that could fit the description? What are the projected sizes of Levit Green and TMC3?

There is always a relationship between oil price and commercial office space in Houston, not just in boom times. This relationship has existed since roughly the time of Spindletop. Flex space is industrial space. However, there is a lot of vacant office space. But there is always a demand for new office space among deep-pocketed oil industry tenants that is not affected by vacancy of older office space.

I will only reply concerning the oil price issue, since that is all I commented on. No, there is not an increase (yet) in E&P spending. But buildings are planned a few years out. So with oil at $90, and talk of it going to $100, Skanska has to be saying, "Will the Houston office market be good in 2024 or 2025?" And if they think it will, they start planning the next building. Remember that in the 2012-2014 boom, the peak oil price was around $105. And that got us about 20 million square feet of new office space.

According to the beginning of this article, which is behind a paywall, they just announced the purchase of a "nearly 1 million SF" biotech park in Texas for $402 MM. That sounds like it could be Pegasus Park. It looks like they have an office in Dallas, but not in Houston. https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/life-sciences/alexandria-earnings-joel-marcus-111721

$90 oil, folks! I imagine Skanska is already pushing forward on planning for these.

That's fine. I don't think anyone considers them a great paper. It was nice to see that they finally won a Pulitzer a few years back. Every major metro paper is much worse than it was 20-30 years ago, except for the 2 or 3 national papers. I would gladly trade today's Chronicle for the mid-90's Chronicle, which wasn't a great paper either, but it had vastly more information than today, and the classifieds were interesting. It's like discussing in 1970 which passenger railroad company is best.

We have the bulk of ChevronTexaco, too.

I think it just says that they were still working on theirs. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Irving-based-Exxon-to-move-headquarters-to-Houston-16819300.php

I don't consider BP a Houston company - based in London, no? I'm with you on Chevron, and what I really care for that's inside them are Texaco and Gulf.

This seems to be the article of record. Can anyone get past the paywall? https://www.wsj.com/articles/exxon-to-move-headquarters-to-houston-11643648706?mod=hp_lista_pos1 In 1907, IIRC, Jesse Jones persuaded Humble Oil to locate in Houston instead of Beaumont, but they were soon controlled by Standard Oil of New Jersey (later Exxon). Now the two greatest jewels in Rockefeller's crown - Standard Oil of New Jersey and Standard Oil of New York (Mobil) - are here.

The brown brick is pretty craptacular. Too bad those two houses were lost.

But will the slices still have that unforgettably slightly-above-average taste that you remember from South Congress, when it's not on South Congress anymore?

It's just for sale. Doesn't mean anything's happening. It's a great building and a no-brainer for some sort of loft renovation but other developments in the area like Warehouse District and the stuff on Navigation are better positioned location-wise. This will not benefit from NHHIP in the short-term, assuming that happens.

That's too bad. I remember driving down this section of Westheimer (west of Montrose Blvd) in the past and it was always quite interesting. I once had a visitor with me say, "This is the real Houston." This time as I drove east from Shepherd, just as I started to say "Okay, here's where it gets good," I saw the McDonald's and my heart sank. Edit - it looks like a McDonald's was always there, it was just rebuilt. Same with a couple of the other strip centers. Overall a lot of lateral moves in terms of density and walkability, except of course for MC.

Have many of these tenants opened shop yet? A friend and I had dinner in Montrose when I was in town last week and I went by to see this, my first time since it's been built. We were both pretty impressed - my friend is not normally into architecture and had never been to Montrose before (lives in Sugarland) but sat down in one of the chairs on the patio and just took it in. The live oaks along Grant are fantastic. Only drawback was that the place was completely dead. When we walked back to Westheimer and were looking around at the shops along the street, he commented, "This place is like mini-Austin." Which I thought was funny but a little annoying, since I'm pretty sure Westheimer was what it is before Austin became what it is. Everything along Westheimer east of the Montrose Blvd intersection looked pretty great, but when you look west across the intersection, the momentum all dies. Can't wait to see what Skanska has planned for the empty lot. This needs to be one of Houston's handful of walkable neighborhoods. Hardly any human life visible outside, although it was Sunday night so not the best time. The gas station at the northwest corner is a real shame but if everything else starts going vertical, maybe it goes away before long. The McDonald's at the corner of Yoakum is also unfortunate, I didn't remember it there. Ate at Acme Oyster House and it was fairly good but overpriced. Honestly when we turned onto Shepherd from 59, that street hit me with "This is Houston and it is great," so much eclectic density. Westheimer east of Shepherd seemed less exciting, kind of listless. Just an impression though.

Please cite where the money has been appropriated by TxDOT for a freeway cap structure.

Got a chance to walk around this neighborhood on a trip to town the other day. I was not overwhelmingly impressed by the new buildings by Hines, but when I got to the corner of Milam and Capitol next to this little plaza and looked around, that is when everything sort of came together. All the new buildings in this area of downtown combined to frame the plaza in such a way that I got a very exciting feeling of being in the center of a dynamic place. The feeling was similar to some of the great small plazas in Chicago like the Federal Plaza, Richard J. Daley Plaza, or the little plaza in front of the Wrigley building (probably better than the first two and not as good as the last). I walked through the Gulf Building and over to Main Street and the feeling continued. Just felt great being downtown. I walk around downtown Austin a few times a week and downtown Houston just has a more mature and ennobling feel - everything in Austin is haphazard and chaotic, whereas the continuous vertical building faces defining the streetgrid in Houston give a sense of assurance and solidity, which stirs the heart in a way that only great downtowns can. The canyon effect of distant sirens and voices evoked thoughts of being in New York. I stood at the corner of Texas and Main, admiring the front of 609 Main, and as my glance turned, I couldn't believe the sight of the dumpy old Binz Building. What a great candidate for redevelopment! The owners have about half the block, and it could connect to the tunnel system. If Skanska can build on such a narrow site at Discovery Green, someone could surely make a great thin office tower right here. Walked a block north on Main and as I passed the Rice, I was struck by how tattered everything suddenly looked. It's sort of the feeling you get in the suburbs when you cross that invisible line between a "desirable" and a "not desirable" school district - the life just seems to get sucked out of everything. I've walked here a hundred times and never quite felt it in this way. Developing the parking lot at Main and Prairie would change this area considerably and extend the effect of the central part of Main Street. As a final note, it was sad how few people were out on the streets at lunch hour on a business day. Makes me wonder if downtown has come as far as I thought it had, but I had to keep reminding myself, "It's the pandemic." Downtown Austin for that matter has about the same level of pedestrian activity at lunchtime, except maybe along Congress. Went to check out POST and although it wasn't exactly bustling, it had more human life than the historic district. Just have to keep improving.

And the winner is.... Rendering!!

Yeah, last I checked the owner of this block was suing Hines for cutting off tunnel access during construction of Texas Tower. I hope Hines makes them a nice offer for this lot in the next few years, they've had almost a decade to do something here and have only managed a parking garage. Five other downtown office towers have either been built or broken ground since they've been trying to build this thing.

Gosh, what a ditsy voice. A little irritating to hear "Austin, Dallas, ... and Houston." I don't remember them mentioning a single thing that was happening in Austin. As to Pegasus Park, yeah, no TMC3, only advantage is that the buildings are already built and thus can be leased fast and cheap.

I didn't see your response the other day. I have not met enough architects to have a really educated opinion. Johnson's personality does seem to be the trend for other superstar architects. Frank Lloyd Wright, for instance. What I like about Johnson is his passion. He travelled to see every important new building, especially in the early days of modernism (20's-30's). He was once asked in an interview, "How did you know you were an architect?", and he described visiting Chartres cathedral and the Parthenon at age 13 and being hit with overwhelming emotion, to the point where he was bawling, just sobbing. I like someone who can experience that and reveal it about themselves. Makes up for a lot of other faults.

4 Houston Center is 986,000 SF and sits on two full blocks. Using the land price per square foot from the Skanska land sale, the land is worth at least $56 million, probably a lot more given the better location. But just taking the $56 million, the building would have to be worth about $57/SF or less for them to demolish, probably more like $50/SF to cover demo cost and entrepreneurial incentive. Best comp for the building's value is probably 1111 Fannin, which sold last year for $69/SF, although this building is probably worth a bit more (but so is the land). So... yeah. In 10 years, as the building gets more obsolete and the land value goes up, this could be a redevelopment.

The editorial reads like a press release. Doubt the Chronicle contributed much more than the title.

Can you quote from the article?

Do you find that most architects are humble and unassuming?