UtterlyUrban

Crazy transformation

What is the approximate date of these images?

This building has been under construction for, what?, 18 months?

Is it just me or is it progressing quite slowly?

There's the problem. You don't care what other people think or that their lives might be impacted. You aren't willing to explore alternatives at all, even if they are better than your first impression. Northwest Mall is much closer to the center of population for the area. Everyone I know who goes to Dallas for business leaves from home, not the office. No one I've spoken to wants to be forced to go Downtown to catch a train to Dallas when it's much easier to get to Northwest Mall.

As for the folks who live along the rail, their main issue is that no one is really answering their questions fully. No analysis of what happens if a freight train derails and takes out HSR pylons. No answers on what the construction process behind their houses will look like. No answers on what happens to the drainage ditches that run along the freight lines. No answers on how much, if any space the HSR work will need. I have a colleague who has lived on the same street in Garden Oaks for all but 10 of his 65 years, whose comment was "I deserve some explanation of what might happen, not just to be told to suck it up and get out of the way"

I work (and live) downtown with 100,000 other office workers. Everyone I have spoken to would prefer the train leave from downtown.

here is how I see your position: you want the rail as long as any impacts are in someone else's backyard. Bottom line: the train is going to impact someone. Your position is "as long as it doesn't Impact me, I am fine with it." Well, that really is the issue for me. I am totally fine if your position is "I don't want the train AT ALL because of the folks impacted along the ENTIRE route..... In my opinion the burden is too high.....".... If that were your position, I am fine with that. Unfortunately you are saying just the opposite: "I want the train as long as only others are impacted." In my opinion, That is NIMBY at its worst.

Personally, I want the train and I want it to go downtown to downtown (my neighborhood). I also want passenger trains running along main and rusk. Also my neighborhood and were I work. I want buses and trains connecting to the new station. Oh, the horror! A passenger train cutting across busy intersections right in my neighborhood! In fact, right in front a of a magnet school! Lord! Think of the children! Heavens! And buses! Think of the traffic! Think of the children!

I see no legitimate argument that would suggest that adding a passenger train to an existing fright train right of way represents an undue burden to property owners living along the existing, highly used, 24-hour per day noisy, freight lines. I am just not buying your position..... Unless you are completely against the entire project.

sure but really when you look at it, it was just a bunch of finish changes, new paint, and pavers. Not much.

Correct.

Take a look at the original renderings for greenstreet that midway put out a couple of years ago. Look at it now. To me, they are not even close. One was a terrific vision of the future. The other is some grass and pavers.

Now midway publishes the first hotel. Then publishes a much revised hotel that is much less lofty. Then they suggest that the first hotel "did not fit the surroundings"..... Well, I agree. And, the reason I agree is because they haven't done much to greenstreet to fulfil their original vision.

Midway has only owned the property for a couple of years. That is not much time to make the changes needed to fulfill the original vision. Perhaps over the next 3 years that vision will be realized. I hope so.

It is utterly amazing what is happening to all these blocks. A walk down Rusk is a crane lover's dream.

20 years ago there was, essentially, nothing here other than a smaller GRB...... Now? Wow!

Post office site, downtown

Why is this thread in " going up"?

Shouldn't it be moved to "downtown" since this is reportedly a renovation of an existing building? (Just like the JW?)

Weatherford which is based in Houston announced 5000 layoffs

How many in Houston?

So, I guess I have to eat my words from yesterday. It will be yet another hotel on yet another blighted parcel. Very surprising to me but good to hear!

I love this building it is absolutely among a couple of favorites of mine in downtown. The dozens of homeless who sleep under its awning won't be happy though. Oh well.

Anyway, do we think that the City will grant a variance to allow the "balconies" that already exist on the building to get a "clear glass" railing so that they can actually be used as balconies?

Personally, I don't think that this will be a new structure in downtown. I think it will be in the Houston First planned hotel space.

If it really is yet another hotel on another parcel, I would be surprised.

There are a lot of hotel rooms coming on line within a year or two in downtown. Probably something like 2000 new rooms (JW, holiday inn, Marriott Concention, Houston First, Greenstreet, humble apartments, Hampton inn or whatever it is under construction now, the mysterious aloft hotel..... Did I miss any?).... That is a lot of new capacity. I am struggling to think that developers will plan yet another one.....

Le Meridien will go into the Houston First building.... That's my prediction.

Only the younger crowd shops at Forever XXI, but there is the biggest problem.

Have you shopped there?

Me (fifty something) and my wife (fifty something) BOTH shop there. And while I would agree that the demographic is geared toward a younger crowd, MANY of the folks in the store are OVER 35 if not over 40. Older buyers need to focus on "age appropriate clothing" and hunt for it in the store. It is not always easy to find but to say that "only" a younger crowd shops there is flat wrong and speaks to someone who is more prone to write about experiences that he (or she) has never actually experienced in person (hearsay) over multiple visits over many months (or more) than someone who has actually been three dozen times.

Have you been to F21 downtown 30 times over the last 2 years? and, have you personally looked at the age of the shoppers at the downtown store? Or, are you just repeating what you have been "told"?

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

So, what does this news about le Meridian mean?

Will the hotel be constructed as part of this current construction or, will construction start some years hence (after the office/garage construction)?

Lol. Why do people want to see this building redesigned so badly? It's a classic. Just needs a nice shine.

I agree. I kinda like it like it is. I do have a question though.....

Do the sunscreens actually work? Do they actually make the building less dependent on air conditioning because the shades actually blunt the sun's rays?

If so, this was a "green" building before its time! One City Center seems to be of similar concept.

May take some time to fill those up. Retail follows residential growth. More inclined to think we'll see something there once Block 334 opens.

There is a terrific space at the corner of Lamar and la Branch. It is in one park place. It has hundreds of residences above it and tens of thousands who walk by it weekly. Yet, in 5 years, I don't think it has ever leased and I am at a loss as to why.

Separately, if the city does lease it, I think that the old petroleum club is gonna make one heck of a happy hour joint for cops and judges to hang out!

Just adding to what I said above... a 20-30 year lease with an AA tenant at $30/sf could sell at a 6 cap. Once the lease is done, Shorenstein could sell this building for $600 million, which would be a record for a Houston office building. If it's a gross lease with landlord paying expenses, that could knock it down to around $500 million, still tying the record.

Someone correct me if I'm missing something. Just unbelievable.

But would landlord not need to put a bunch of money into property to "modernize" it for a law enforcement use?

Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this but I find it strange that the press release highlighted anchor tenants House of Blues and III Forks Steakhouse rather than "House of Blues and Forever 21".

Is Forever 21 going away or something? I'm always afraid of it failing because I never see it as busy as other locations such as the Galleria and Memorial City.

With the construction that will take place next door, I am uncertain what the impact will be on F21. But, if they leave, it will really suck. My wife shops there routine on the weekends. It is never mobbed but has a good flow. I buy the occasion tee there (upstairs has a small men's area).....I hope they make it.

So, Navarre will build 3 highrise resi buildings.... Two towers right next to each other within maybe.... 3.5 years..... All the while the midtown superblock stays as a decade-long conceptual rendering (but is now slated to start soon) and Camden Conte flattens a building to become a parking lot instead of twin highrises.?

Clearly there are two very different corporate cultures at play here.

they need to aggressively market tech/software companies for the second floor office space. most traditional office users wouldn't touch it but you could really help create a nice vibe and a lot of millenials if they geared their efforts towards that end of the office using spectrum.

Or, they could focus on renters in the art space. They already rented to an art gallery. They could market to artists or an art coop. Folks needing non- traditional space also close to rail.

Weatherford is going to announce layoffs within two weeks, 7.5-10% of workforce

Will these cuts be in Houston?

Projects are canceling. Money for new development is (reportedly) drying up. This cycle has already ended.

Current projects - where dirt has already turned -- will continue.

New projects won't start.

If $45 (or below) oil persists, by this time next year, real estate will be down 20%

This one was listed as under construction in the most recent downtown development map, but it doesn't look like they've done anything to me.

Grass is hard to grow. That's why I live in a high rise. No green thumb here. I will give them some credit for growing grass on their flattened lot.. But, they aren't turning dirt, it seems. $45 oil strikes again?

They are testing a double train on Rusk. A City of Houston Prius is double-parked on the tracks at Louisiana blocking it. The train is out there blowing its horn! LOL -

Please tell me you have a video of that to send to city council and every news outlet in town!

You use smaller tools to make bigger tools...

(Well, that line has some alternate meanings I didn't initially consider)

Nah.

I'm going with Aliens. It's the only explanation.