rechlin
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Posts posted by rechlin
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25 minutes ago, H-Town Man said:
^^The circular stuff was dated. I always liked the escalator ride inside 1 Houston Center, which I think will probably remain.
"Dated" at one point becomes historical not long later. Calling it "dated" is the same kind of thinking that led to the modernization of the Carter building a couple blocks from here in the 1960s, thankfully undone (though in styrofoam) to restore the building for the JW Marriott. I for one am disappointed to see this example of architecture demolished. Sure, it looked old, but at least it was interesting with all the circles. Now the building will be a disjoint combination of distinctive 1970s architecture and generic 2010s architecture.
My only complaint about the escalators at the Houston Center complex is that they are either always full of disrespectful people who would stand two-abreast, preventing anyone from getting around them, or they are so narrow that only one person can stand so there is no possibility of standing. I always wished they had a stairwell in the middle, because it's quicker to walk up stairs than to wait for the slow escalator ride when nobody lets you pass.
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One thing I've noticed with the search is it ignores numbers. So, for example, if I search for 609 Main, it returns all results for Main, ignoring the 609. However, if I put the whole address in quotes as "609 Main" then it will work. Any way to fix this, or should we just know to quote the number together with another word when searching for numbers?
Thanks for taking the time to maintain the site. It's working so much smoother than it did half a year ago.
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2 hours ago, Response said:
A 5-minute Metrorail will get you to the greatest museum district in the state (please don't make me list all 150 of them), Hermann Park, the zoo, the Miller Outdoor Theatre, Rice University, the Texas Medical Center 1,2 and soon to be 3 (also exploding with development) and that stadium where they have the Superbowl sometimes. All of that can be done without a car. A 5-minute Uber will get you to Montrose, the Heights and the Kirby area (also exploding with development) ect. ect. ect. Let's not forget Uptown Houston isn't really that far away either.
Central Station Main to Museum District station on the Metrorail will take you about 14 minutes, almost triple the 5 you mention. And you won't get to the Kirby area from the middle of downtown in a 5 minute Uber. At least 15, and more like 25 if there's any traffic.
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49 minutes ago, Urbannizer said:QuoteEventually, residential developments could take up about 30 percent of the highly anticipated Innovation District slated for a 16-acre stretch in Midtown. Speakers at the Urban Land Institute Marketplace event March 27 shared plans for what this new destination could look like.
Instead of looking like a large-scale corporate headquarters, the Innovation District will be more akin to a college campus: somewhere people can live, work and eat, said Allison Thacker, president and chief investment officer for the Rice Management Co.
“These are not new concepts,” Thacker said. “It’s kind of like what you did as a student.”
The Ion, the $100 million Innovation District hub set to start construction in May within the walls of the old Midtown Sears, is just the first phase of the much larger concept, speakers said. Houston-based innovation accelerator Station Houston will run The Ion once renovations wrap in late 2020.
Rice University controls the land, and Rice Management Co., which manages the Rice University endowment, is overseeing the project.
Gaby Rowe, CEO of Station Houston, said she wants to make sure programming lets those “curated collisions” happen, where small startups can sit next to tech-focused corporate giants and the general public can find a place to learn. And programming won’t only cater to young tech workers because the reality in Houston is different, Rowe said.
In her time at Station Houston, Rowe discovered the average tech company founder in town is 41 years old.
This fall, pilot programs for the public should start inside Station Houston, Rowe said.
A mix of two- and four-year institutions — Rice, the University of Houston, UH-Downtown, the University of St. Thomas, Houston Community College, Texas Southern University, Houston Baptist University, San Jacinto College and the South Texas College of Law — are creating those programs.
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The developers behind the Fairmont Museum District apartments in Montrose could break ground on a new phase later this year at 4343 Woodhead St., a filing shows.
Work on a project called Fairmont Museum District III is slated to begin Sept. 1, according to a document on Texas' licensing and regulation website.
The scope of work describes it as a 302-unit development with nine stories of apartments above a three-story garage. The leasing office will be on the ground floor, while amenities are planned for the fourth and 12th floors. The filing lists Houston-based Steinberg Dickey Collaborative as the design firm.
County appraisal records show the tract of land belongs to the entity Woodhead Development LLC, which bought the land in May 2018. In 2019, the land was appraised at $7.89 million.
That entity is linked to Josef Marom, according to the Texas comptroller site. Requests for comment from Marom via the number listed on the state filing weren’t immediately returned.
In 2003, the Houston Business Journal reported Marom offered the Houston Independent School District $2.6 million for a 3-acre tract at 4310 Dunlavy, the same address for the Fairmont Museum District apartments currently on the ground. That tract sits next to the land earmarked for the third phase.
Meanwhile, the Montrose submarket is the busiest area for proposed apartment projects, with 11, according to data as of Dec. 18 compiled by Houston-based ApartmentData.com. The research site tallied up 93 proposed communities across Houston. A March report from the site counts 61 communities, or 18,203 units, currently under construction.
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As early as next month, work could begin to convert land in the Heights that used to be part of a JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) location into a new apartment development.
A filing on the Texas licensing and regulation website shows an entity named 19th Street Property plans to start construction April 1 on Chase Heights at 512 W. 20th St. The document shows an estimated cost of $72 million for the first phase of the project with Houston-based Meeks + Partners listed as the design firm.
Requests for comment from Greystar weren’t immediately returned.
The Chase Heights apartment project will be less than a block away from Houston-based Braun Enterprises' Heights Waterworks redevelopment project, which includes restaurants and retailers. A portion of the historic property will house Phoenix-based Alliance Residential's Broadstone Waterworks apartments, which are expected to begin leasing later this year.
In December 2016, Alliance bought two tracts of land totaling almost 4 acres from the city of Houston for $15.02 million. The site featured a 750,000-gallon brick reservoir building from 1928 that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a 1939 Art Deco pumping station built by the Works Progress Administration and a 1949 pumping station, HBJ previously reported. Alliance then sold part of the property to Braun Enterprises for the restaurant and retail portion.
The Heights-Washington Avenue submarket has seven projects under construction, according to data as of Dec. 18 compiled by Houston-based ApartmentData.com.
Meanwhile, Greystar's portfolio includes numerous apartment communities across the greater Houston area. Latitude Med Center, Greystar’s first true high-rise in Houston, got its first tenants in July 2018. The 35-story high-rise is part of a dual hotel and apartment project with Houston-based Medistar Corp.
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From the article:
QuoteConstruction on The Allen — a condo, hotel, office and retail project lined up for a six-acre tract off Allen Parkway — could start next month.
A filing on Texas' licensing and regulation website lists an April 15 construction start date.
Houston-based DC Partners along with Tianqing Real Estate Development LLC — the U.S. subsidiary of China-based Tianqing Group Real Estate Co. Ltd. — are developing the project at 1711 Allen Parkway. In 2017, the New York-based luxury chain Thompson Hotels joined the mix.
DC Partners President Roberto Contreras told the Houston Business Journal in 2016 the mixed-use project would have an estimated $500 million price tag.
The state filing lists a $105 million construction cost for a scope of work that includes the new hotel, condo building, restaurants, retail, parking garage, ballroom and pool deck. It shows St. Louis-based architecture firm HOK as the design firm.
A DC Partners spokeswoman said the sales gallery for The Residences at The Allen was under construction and a project update as well as new renderings would be available in the coming weeks.
In December 2018, Swamplot reported concrete had been poured at the construction site near Gillette Street.
The Allen will be less than a mile away from the new Houston Ismaili Center set for the corner of Allen Parkway and Montrose. And in January, a developer asked the city planning commission for variances for another proposed mixed-use project near Allen Parkway and Shepherd Drive. Plans showed a hotel, residential component, office building with two floors of coworking space, retail space, activity lawn and plaza.
Meanwhile, Melbourne, Australia-based Caydon just released details on what else is in store for its three-block development in Midtown, across from Midtown Park. Along with the 27-story high-rise under construction at 2850 Fannin, Caydon is planning three more apartment high-rise towers, a condo project and a boutique hotel in a mixed-use development called Laneways.
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Guess we're never going to get the old decorative parapet (which was removed during renovation) restored, then, since the rendering still shows the current plain façade at the top. Glad to see an empty building put to use, though.
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Disappointing. Not liking that they are tearing down a recently-renovated high-rise to build another boring cookie-cutter midrise. The site plan definitely shows it replacing the Cabochon, but sparing the engineering building, even though the rendering shows it on a corner.
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Today, looks like I was just a floor or two higher than @ekdrm2d1 (not chosen for the jury though!):
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Apartment projects on former Chelsea Market site, near Memorial Park, to start construction later this year, filings show
A rendering of Alliance Residential's Broadstone Heights multifamily development. Filings show the developer has two more in-town apartment projects in the works.
State filings show Phoenix-based Alliance Residential plans to start construction on two more in-town apartment projects later this year.
Broadstone Memorial Park at 7721 Washington Ave. will be across Interstate 10 from Memorial Park and Broadstone Museum District at 4617 Montrose will rise on the site of the former Chelsea Market development vacated by tenants late last year.
Requests for comment from Alliance weren’t immediately returned.
Both filings on the state’s licensing and regulation department website list Aug. 1 as a start date and attribute Houston-based EDI International as the design firm for each project. Contractor information wasn’t listed.
EDI International’s website describes Broadstone Museum District as a 16-story high-rise with four floors of parking beneath and 357 units. Until now, Alliance hasn't built a high-rise project in Houston, said Bruce McClenny, president of ApartmentData.com. He defines high-rises as at least nine stories tall.
County appraisal records show Alliance doesn’t yet own the tract of land appraised at $8.9 million in 2018.
County records show the land slated for Alliance’s Broadstone Memorial Park at 7721 Washington Ave. belongs to an entity Silver Eagle LP and was appraised at $11.09 million in 2018. That entity is tied to the same mailing address as the headquarters for Silver Eagle Distributors. The Houston-based distributor of Anheuser-Busch products has its headquarters at 7777 Washington. Requests for comment from Silver Eagle weren’t immediately returned.
Last month the Houston Business Journal reported Alliance filed building permits with the city of Houston for $28.8 million for a project named Broadstone Minimax at 2717 Minimax, north of Memorial Park.
Alliance also has several projects under construction around Houston, including a couple in the Heights-Washington Ave. submarket. It recently filed permits for $35.2 million for its eight-story Broadstone Tortilla Factory project in the Heights, off 15th Street and North Shepherd.
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I thought there was already a thread about this, but I can't find one, so I will include all the information I know.
At 2715 Bissonnet in West U, diagonally across the street from the old Coca Cola bottling plant, there is a two-story shopping center from the 1960s or 1970s, which is being torn down for redevelopment.
Plans for redevelopment have been going on for a while; this flyer was posted in 2017 when a company called Edge was marketing it.
More recently, BPI realty has been marketing it, with the following rendering common to both flyers, showing a one-story strip mall:
And here is the site plan:
In November, the city of West University Place had a hearing to replat it.
The existing development is called The Upper Kirby Building, not to be confused with a building of the same name on Richmond, and other places have referred to it as the Shoppes at Upper Kirby and the Shops at West U, so I am uncertain of what the name of the final development will be.
Swamplot reported on the imminent demolition of the existing buildings, including this pre-demolition photo:
http://swamplot.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/upper-kirby.jpg
Here are some photos I took of it today during demolition:
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9 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:
Camden McGowen Station? I think it was completed almost a year ago.
The plaza on its north end has been slowly under construction for probably 2 years. Every once in a while they might lay one more brick, add one nail to a form, or pour a wheelbarrow full of concrete, and then take a break, as there is continuous progress, but it's extremely slow.
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Another photo update, this time from a moving bus. I noticed that the dozens of signs on the fence that used to say "Opening 2019" have had the "19" cut out, so presumably this is behind schedule and not opening until 2020.
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53 minutes ago, Triton said:
Not sure if I'm allowed to copy-and-paste the article, but here is the executive summary of new news from this:
- Houston firm Resource Environmental Solutions named for doing ecological mitigation, from a press release dated today
- Project budget has apparently increased again, now at $18 billion
- Still hoping to begin construction this year and open by 2024
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35 minutes ago, Triton said:
Just curious, what are the type of people who get these units? Are these people that usually move around the country that prefer not to buy a home and want a downtown view? I mean, I'm trying to figure out the math... at $3900 a month, why not just pay a mortgage and own a home?
Many people don't want to live in a house and would rather live in a high-rise. And many people would rather not tie up so much capital in something as illiquid as a house, especially if they don't want to live in the same area for more than 5 years.
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Has the construction begun, or is this work at 2 Houston Center an unrelated project?
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The ground level is finally coming together, as the tree mural gradually vanishes, probably never to be revealed again for decades until a future renovation:
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Looks like they would be adding a couple floors on top of that building, too, based on the first rendering. Glad to see the structure can support the extra weight.
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They haven't said anything to investors since mid-December, but then they were planning a Winter opening, which to me implies sometime before late March.
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16 minutes ago, H-Town Man said:
Hopdoddy would kill it here, I'm telling you. Lines of office workers.
Hard to say. There's a lot of competition. Downtown has so many good burger places, in the full range of prices, with Vic and Anthony's at the top end ($21ish with tax and tip), and then the new Craft Burger (in Finn Hall) and upcoming Shake Shack (next door), plus plenty of more affordable popular long-time favorites such as Hubcap Grill and Miller's Cafe.
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3 minutes ago, cspwal said:
Is it for the 59 trenching, or for something to do with the "Innovation Hub"?
From the plans that have been posted, it seems they will be reconfiguring Wheeler Station as a part of the freeway rebuild, so if it's not directly related to the IH-69 work, it's probably indirectly related for the station work. The Innovation Hub plans seem to go around Wheeler. But maybe the Wheeler rebuild will be done as part of the Innovation Hub work? Though in the end, it doesn't really matter; regardless of who does each component (Rice, TxDOT, or METRO), this whole area likely is going to be redone over the next few years.
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More soil samples going on, this time at Wheeler Station:
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Houston Center Redevelopment
in Downtown
Posted
Well, I also was very, very disappointed by what Hines did to 811 Louisiana (former Two Shell). It used to be a somewhat architecturally interesting building, with an arch-like appearance to the windows on the second floor that gradually disappeared over the next several floors. But then they replaced almost all of it with black cladding, leaving just one floor (the fifth, I believe) with slight variations in window sizes, which now looks out of place. Once again, a modernization that did more harm than good. Though I will admit I like what they did to the interior.