Avossos

I just noticed this building the other day. Seems like an outlier, but almost a glimpse into the past. I like this building. We will see what happens to it... It seems to be sitting on a decent amount of land.

Surprised people are actually excited about this design

2014-07-19 13.21.47 by marclongoria, on Flickr

The white looks fresh. I think it would have looked nice if the whole window face area was painted white.

Yea I still don't understand why this is considered Midtown.

It is not... they just want it to appeal to a crowd looking for that name... or they are very misinformed.

This design looks bad, and I am not even concerned about the street stuff. It makes logical sense to put a garage on the bottom floor. It is the stylings that have no integrity to anything and are built to catch a trend. This building wont look great when new, and it will look worse as it ages.

When oil is at a given price, it means 50% of investors think it will go higher and 50% think it will go lower. If there was good reason to think that oil is in for a drop, that expectation would already be priced in.

In other words, no one knows what will happen.

The bust of the 80's was caused by the OPEC embargo (which had caused the boom) coming to an end, and the market being flooded with cheap oil. It is hard to see something like that happening now, since there is no embargo. Most of what keeps prices high, besides demand, is political instability in the Middle East. Do you see that suddenly ending?

I think we are less reliant on the happenings in the Middle East, and more dependent on our supply here. We are about to start exporting crude which is a big deal. The thought is once the fracking drys up our remaining supply, the market will change and many companies will fold. Hopefully that is not for a long long time.

one of the biggest shortfalls of the montrose/museum district is the complete lack of hotels... those areas are prime locations for boutique hotels. a longterm goal of mine is to develop a very cool boutique hotel in montrose.

btw i heard W was weighing between westcreek and blvd place (this was several months ago though so no clue if that's still the case).

I hope the W goes to west creek personally. More toward town, east of the loop - an area I would like to see densify

This isn't the oil boom of the 80's. Your coworkers are morons. No offense.

I appreciate your response. What you say sounds reasonable, and I hope it's true. I am glad there is confidence that Houston is recession resistant.

Not to be rude but it only took me 5 seconds to go over to the Houston discussion forum:

 

http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/forum/27-general-houston-discussions/

I saw that after I checked. I usually don't go outside the going up page, and neighborhood page. Still fairly new to the site I guess.

Anyway, the articles you posted are good, but the latest I see it going back to is 1998. I am talking  about 1983 - 1988. Coworkers are talking about that it would be even worse than that time. When I hear that kind of talk, I get pretty worried. Overbuilding may be an issue, and in a way, I think in order for any boom to slow down necessitates some level of overbuilding...

I am fearful for another 20 year slump. I hope not. I am just expressing my fears here, but it is interesting to think about. If the oil industry implodes, where does that leave Houston? The answer is: It leaves Houston in slump.

Why is this in the going up section?

Where does this belong swtsig...?

Feel free to move this wherever. I didn't have to the time to comb through the dozens of thread categories.

Just had a conversation with some coworkers who think the oil boom will last another 3 years. After that...

What does that do to the Houston economy? Should we expect all growth to cease? Does Houston's livelyhood truely rely completely on oil?

Well, the signs have been replaced with this guy:

 

image (1).jpeg

This looks like they are trying to lease the current space now... which to me is an assurance this one is dead.

Bump

Brookfield did sell property downtown in order to increase their cash liquidity for something... many speculated that they are going to use the profits on Allen Center. I think the better investment would be new construction opposed to the (unneeded) renovation of 1 Allen. Also, 37 floors seems to be an usually specific number. If it gets built, It is probably due to some sort of tennant arrangements.

Personally, I would rather see something built here now, then wait another 10 years.

It's 37-floors now;'~1 million square feet.

I had a feeling this was bound to happen. In all honesty, there were indications this was going to be 30 floors... So at 37 floors, I am good with that.

The lot itself is one of the best IMO. Easy access from freeways into the office, great views, etc... This building would be very obvious from the common "downtown skyline" view we often see.

Little cafe across from my cousins place

The Cotton Mill(?) - lofts my cousins live at

The old buildings surround a really nice central courtyard.

Old water tower on site

Old smoke stack

There are a ton of art galleries, nice restaurants, and shops lining many of the old warehouses. They have often replaced the big bay doors and openings on the walls along the first floor with single pane sheets of glass to see into the renovated places. There are even hotels in renovated warehouses, like a Courtyard by Marriott and a few others. It's interesting how some of them hollowed out the first floors to put parking and drive up entrances/lobbies. I'll try to get pictures of some of the rest of the area..

This is in houston?

I dislike the end zone designs. Houston and cougars should be bigger

I'm sure that piece of property downtown will interest many developers. I think the move to consolidate with the old post building will be a smart business move. I can't wait to see what they come up with, for both spaces. I'd like to see what the old chronicle bldg. Looks like underneath its current facade.

oooo - is it something historic?

If they dont hold on to something downtown, I think they would regret it later.

From what I heard, this will be another skyhouse, similar in design and height. It supposedly will start somewhat soon. Please take this with a grain of salt, not confirmed, but sounds promising... I know lockmat said he thought the next skyhouse was years out, not sure what to make of that and the info I just got.

this strategy - of not announcing anything until construction starts - has been used by them before... for example: River Oaks Skyhouse

Wow, so cool. I feel like i have been transported in time! What a very different, almost sleepy feel those buildings have (at the time of this picture). Now to be replaced with a 40 story tower. Wow.

It looks like they did soil samples on this block today..

Those only last 6 months before they need a retest? If true, it's something coming!

You're kind of fixated on me, always answering my posts.

You always pick on the ones you like

I'm in Chicago right now and I've gotta say this building could easily be one of the best ones here. Houston has nothing on chi town tho, this city is amazing.

I trust that we will get there. I hear it everyday that people are excited about this city. That hasn't been the norm before, now it is. So cool.

I think we can take a lot of good lessons from Chicago. I took love that city

When is the savoy sign coming down? It needs to

Wow, they have now wrapped the fencing with green tarp. Is this thing really underconstruction already? And how many new construction projects does that bring it up to currently in downtown? 8?

Skyhouse, leeland garage, 609 main, former macys, MM, alliance, uhd garage, fingers. Plus about 3 renos? Good job downtown

by the end of the year we should add: marquette residential, 8 story residential, hines residential, HSPVA, 6 Houston Center, and I am sure some others

Market square tower has an amenity list like no other MF building in Houston, or Texas for that matter. 2 pools and full floors of amenities, including a basketball court and a golf simulator. I'm afraid than in order to include these amenities (and stay competitive), they will need to go cheap on the exterior. I'd venture to say that people are more likely to make a leasing decision based on the amenity package than on the exterior materials and architectural detailing.

We can speculate all we want, but we wont know till it's going up.

On a side note, did someone say their prices seem higher than the average?... So a matter of being "competitive" is relative. Personally, if I am spending big $$$, I would want my building to not look like flurf.