hindesky

Saw someone hook a bag of lunch for the operator near the crane block, he/she hoisted it up to their window so they could grab it at the Law Center. Med school.

Found a hawk at the north end of this.

Hanging iron, looks like this project won't get a tower crane. A second crawler crane is assembling the steel structure for the hospital.

Found the tower crane and crew setting the flooring supports to get ready for the next concrete pour.

Northwest corner.

Striping the parking lot.

Parking garage. I talked with some laborers and they said January start but all they've done so far was run some electrical conduit so far.

Digging down and removing dirt.

Adding some color to the Greentown Labs. Patio tables.

https://www.houstoniamag.com/home-and-real-estate/2021/02/kathleen-english-cohousing-houston-east-end#.YB2dulFaibE.reddit HOUSTON’S FIRST-EVER COHOUSING COMMUNITY IS UNDERWAY in the East End: Last spring, a group of like-minded livers selected a site at 115 Lennox Ave to construct Cohousing Houston, which puts connection and the environment ahead of just about everything else. Cohousing communities are intentional collections of private homes clustered around a communal living space. At Cohousing Houston, residents from up to 33 member homes must (get this!) make decisions about their community via consensus and will (gasp!) interact with their neighbors through shared spaces, like kitchens, meals, and greenspaces. Kathleen English, founder of English + Associates Architects, and her husband are one of 14 member households that are already onboard for the project that’s slated to wrap up in fall 2022. She and her firm also happen to be designing the property and homes there—which range from $330,000 to $780,000 for one to four bedrooms—with the help of Caddis Collaborative out of Boulder, Colorado.

Camden report shows difficulties in Houston apartment market R.A. Schuetz, Staff writer Feb. 5, 2021Updated: Feb. 5, 2021 2:28 p.m. Camden Property Trust’s annual earnings report reflected a number of setbacks the Houston apartment market has suffered in the past year. Camden’s 2020 net income fell 43 percent to $124 million ($1.24 per diluted share) from $220 million ($2.22) the year before as a result of increased maintenance costs and taxes and a drop of income from deferred compensation plans and property sales. Adjusting the lease of a retail tenant who has not been able to pay rent will likely cost Camden $3.5 million in rent from a retailer, which was reflected its released earnings. For the the quarter ended Dec. 31, the Houston-based multifamily real estate investment trust reported net income of $29.1 million (29 cents a share), down sharply from $95 million (95 cents) in the year-earlier period. The Houston market saw some of Camden's biggest hardships in 2020, with net operating income falling 8.3 percent from the year before and the weighted average monthly rental rate falling 0.4 percent. The apartment developer and operator blamed the energy slump and a high number of newly built units on the market's performance and said it planned to sell off Houston assets in the second half in the year. “We had 20,000 apartments delivered last year, and we’re in the process of delivering another 20,000 apartments this year,” Keith Oden, executive vice chairman of Camden’s board, said in a Friday earnings call. The influx of apartments came as the oil industry was struggling with profitability. Then COVID hit. Oden estimated 40,000 apartments would require a net increase of 200,000 Houston-area jobs to provide the population growth needed to fill them. “And that just hasn’t happened,” he said. “It’s just as simple as that. We’ve got way too much supply. It’s hand-to-hand combat on the stuff that’s either downtown or close-in assets, which makes up a decent part of Camden’s portfolio.” Camden officials believe the economy will begin to recover in the second half of 2021 as the vaccine allows more workers to return to offices. At that point, it plans to begin selling off its older properties, including properties in the Houston and Washington, D.C., markets, and acquiring newer properties, which will require less maintenance. “Our strategy this year is going to be very similar to what we did in the last cycle,” said Ric Campo, Camden’s chief executive. “Beginning in the last cycle, we disposed of roughly $3 billion of property with an average age of over 20 years and acquired properties that were on average at the time five or six years old.” Despite the challenges, Houston outshone the rest of Camden’s portfolio on one metric: rent collections. Although the occupancy of Camden properties in the Houston area have fallen to 93.8 percent in 2020 (the lowest of any of its markets) and rents have fallen by 0.4 percent (the only market where they have contracted), nearly all of its Houston residents are paying their rents. Only 0.4 percent of Camden residents in Houston have fallen behind on rent, compared to 6.4 percent in California. Campo blamed the high delinquencies in its California properties on politics. “Both the state and local governments have just put it into the brains of folks there that they just don’t have to pay,” he said. “And all of the various legislation and moratoriums and what have you, you just have a group of people that look at it like getting a free loan from Camden. Ultimately, they’ll have to pay or their credit will be destroyed, and it will be interesting to see how that all plays out and how the government responds to that moving forward.” The call also engaged the idea that markets such as New York and California may be exporting not only residents to lower-cost-of-living markets but also their attendant incomes. That may eventually push up aspects of the cost of living in cities such as Austin and Houston when they arrive. “Right now, the market is soft enough where you can’t push rents today no matter what people make,” Oden said. “But ultimately, as the market firms up, our resident base are higher income and can take rental increases once we have the pricing power to be able to do that.” rebecca.schuetz@chron.com;

By Jeff Jeffrey – Reporter, Houston Business Journal 6 hours ago Rob Bridges is a man with a vision. As an asset manager with Houston-based Woodbranch Management, Bridges is overseeing a massive update of Market Square Tower, just four years after the building opened to residents. And Bridges’ plan for the 40-story apartment tower is nothing short of ambitious. He wants to take what was already a high-end, luxury multifamily project and turn it into something Houston has never seen before — a property that offers amenities on par with some of the finest hotels in the world. You say it, Bridges is considering it. Everything from a concierge service capable of tracking down hard-to-find concert tickets and booking reservations at the city’s finest restaurants to an on-site, chauffeur-driven Mercedes Maybach that tenants can take out on date night. “Our vision is to reestablish how to run a luxury high-rise building, so that it finally meets the needs of the clients who call Market Square Tower home," he said. To achieve that vision, Woodbranch Management is pulling out all the stops. The company recently fired South Carolina-based Greystar as the property manager for Market Square Tower, opting to bring those services in-house. Additionally, the company did a complete overhaul of the team responsible for maintaining the building. Bridges said the company hired new resident services, maintenance, landscaping and cleaning crews to take over at Market Square Tower. All of these upgrades will cost millions of dollars — Woodbranch Management declined to put a price tag on the project — but Bridges said the cost is worth it to create an apartment environment unlike any other in Houston. In many ways, what Market Square Tower is trying to achieve is just the latest escalation in the ever-intensifying amenities arms race among Houston’s multifamily developers. “What you’re looking for is that ‘wow’ factor — the thing that residents didn’t even know they wanted but then can’t imagine living without once they see it,” said Kate Good, a principal in Houston-based Hunington Properties’ multifamily development and operations division. Whatever it takes The improvements to Market Square Tower’s amenities package truly aim to impress once they go live later this year. Woodbranch Management recently hired a new director of marketing and resident services, who has been charged with retraining all staff members who work with the building’s residents. Those employees will be responsible for responding to whatever requests residents have on an around-the-clock basis, including valet service, delivering packages to residents’ door and scheduling tee times at local golf courses. The building, located at 777 Preston Street downtown, scored a coup last month when it announced renowned Houston chef Chris Shepherd had signed on to open Georgia James Tavern in the building, replacing Coterie, which opened on the ground floor of the 40-story tower in 2018 and closed in September 2020. Georgia James Tavern will be a more casual offshoot of the acclaimed Georgia James steakhouse in Montrose. But Bridges said the goal was to land a restaurant that would generate a buzz around the building, with the eventual goal of offering a room service capability to the building’s residents. “When we spoke with Chris Shepherd, he immediately got what we’re trying to do, which is take all of the best things about a resort hotel and offer them in a multifamily setting,” Bridges said. “Having an amazing restaurant is a key part of that, so we couldn’t be happier to be partnering with Chris.” As for Coterie, Bridges said the restaurant was fine, but he envisioned having a well-known elite restaurateur for Market Square Tower. “We took what had been a traditional high-rise restaurant and elevated it to a four-star one that is one of the best restaurants in Houston,” Bridges said. “That’s our vision: We want everything we do and everything we offer to be the absolute best. We want to be the Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton of multifamily.” Market Square Tower’s high-end retail offerings don’t stop there. Bridges is in the process of leasing other retail spaces in the building to a full-service pet care and boarding company, and to a day spa and massage studio. “By having those businesses in our retail spaces, we’ll be able to offer our residents a significant break on the cost,” Bridges said. “We envision eventually offering a pet butler service that will come to your door to pick up your pet, give it the full treatment and then bring it back to your home. For the spa, we want the kind of place you’d find at any one of the world’s top resorts because that’s what you do on vacation. You get a massage or a manicure or a pedicure.” The level of white-glove amenities Market Square Tower aims to offer go far beyond what is normally available in high-rise apartment. That’s part of the reason Woodbranch Management parted ways with Greystar, which managed the property since it opened in 2016. “The vision we created for the asset never really materialized under Greystar,” Bridges said. “It wasn’t anybody’s fault. But when you hire a huge company with a global portfolio, their property management has to be consistent across their platform. We felt like we were forced to fit into their box rather than them fitting into our box. By bringing property management in house, we can fulfill a vision that is far grander than what any third party can do.” All of those amenities come at a cost, of course. Rents at Market Square Tower range from $1,900 per month for a studio apartment to $16,000 per month for a penthouse suite. Keeping up with the Joneses Given the incredible amount of time and money Woodbranch Management is putting into Market Square Tower’s amenities, it’s fair to ask whether it’s worth it. At the rental rates the company is asking, many people would be able to afford a sizable single-family home, which would build equity rather than line a landlord’s pocket. But multifamily experts say that unique amenities can often attract tenants, who might otherwise look elsewhere. “Renters who opt for brand new product generally are seeking luxurious finish-out and an array of in-unit and common-area amenities,” said Greg Willett, chief economist for Richardson-based RealPage, which tracks apartment leasing nationally. “Properties that don’t dazzle aren’t even considered by a sizable block of renter prospects. That’s especially true in select urban core neighborhoods where there are so many properties that have been completed recently.” Gone are the days when simply having a fitness center or a pool were enough to pique the interest of prospective renters. As those amenities became commonplace, developers had to think outside the box to make their multifamily projects stand out. These days, renters increasingly want units to be equipped with top-of-the-line finishes, including quartz countertops, tile backsplashes, faux-wood flooring and a full range of stainless-steel appliances. For developers, investing in the fit and finish of unit interiors is often a way to boost rental rates. Allison Nesbitt, director of national sales for Zumper, a San Francisco-based online apartment brokerage, said amenities like in-unit laundry appliances, dishwashers and a balcony can add, on average, $170, $77 and $35, respectively, to a unit’s monthly rent. Multiply by Market Square Tower's 463 units, and the additional income adds up fast. “The assumption that if all renters could own, they would, is just not the case today,” Nesbitt said. “Renting allows for a level of flexibility and convenience that is often very appealing to young professionals, families and empty-nesters alike. High-end amenities continue to be very attractive to a large community of renters.” Meanwhile, the sky is the limit when it comes to community amenities. Rooftop pools, climbing walls, pet-care facilities, bike repair rooms, movie theaters and yoga studios have all found a place in many of Houston’s newest multifamily developments. And as Covid-19 took hold, forcing many renters to stay home for months at a time, renters sought a new range of amenities. Developers have rushed to provide internet service capable of handling hours of streaming, pathogen-eliminating HVAC systems and furnished work areas. Additionally, many developers have looked for properties near a grocery store, using that proximity as an additional amenity on marketing materials. Two recent projects, Midway’s Buffalo Heights in the Washington Avenue Corridor and Morgan Group's Pearl Marketplace, incorporated a grocery store into their plan for a mixed-use development. Buffalo Heights is home to an H-E-B location, while Pearl Marketplace landed a Whole Foods store. Both multifamily developments emphasized the grocery element of the project when marketing to new residents. Last year, Bethesda, Maryland-based RCLCO Real Estate Advisors found that developers can typically charge 5.8% more in rent, if they have a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe’s on-site. What every developer will tell you, however, is that many costly community amenities go unused, even if they help to convince tenants to sign a lease. But the additional investment is usually offset by higher rents and amenity fees. Several developers who spoke to the HBJ said that amenity fees, which usually add an extra $80 per month to the base rent, help to drive up the price of a multifamily property when developers sell to an investor. Finding a niche Hunington Properties’ Good said the ability of amenities to land and retain tenants helped to drive the design of her company’s The Vic at Interpose development in Rice Military. Good said she planned the project to include only micro-sized units, outfitted with high-end finishes. The rest of the space — and money — is going into amenities, she said. “In past project, we often saw that the micro-sized studios were the first to get leased up, and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t be great to have a building made up entirely of those units,” Good said. “In talking to residents, we found that they don’t need all the additional space. No one eats in a dining room anymore, so why include one? That allowed us to invest in amenities that are truly jaw-dropping.” Those amenities will include Dish fiber internet service and a rooftop pool with an adjoining Jumbotron-style video wall tenants can use to watch movies or sporting events. None of those amenities came cheap, Good said. A rooftop pool, for example, often costs about $150,000 more than the $300,000 a typical in-ground pool at an apartment complex costs. To show off the building’s amenity deck, Good said Hunington Properties decided to put the leasing office on the top floor. “One of our chief amenities is the view of Houston’s skyline,” Good said. “By having them see that before they tour the property, they’ll have an image that will stay with them when they leave.” One amenity Good said The Vic at Interpose will not include are “smart” systems beyond keyless entry to units. “In past projects, we’d go into a unit after someone had moved out and the smart system would have been removed,” Good said. “We’d call them, and they’d say, ‘Oh, I forgot to tell you. I took your system out and installed my own.’ That told us that people want their own systems that are programmed to their specific schedules. That’s the first thing they unpack when they move in somewhere new. Why would we invest in that, when our tenants want their own systems?” By targeting renters looking for micro-sized apartments and luxury community amenities, Good said Hunington Properties carved out a niche that while different than the one Market Square Tower caters to, is still based on offering the best amenities renters can afford. “Houston is a diverse market,” Good said. “There are people who want all of the luxurious amenities imaginable and are willing to pay for it. Others are looking for a place they can come home to and relax without a whole bunch of wasted space. If you find a niche, whatever that is, you can be successful.”

Eastern buildings are down.

For those who don't remember, this is the building that used to be there, a metal cladded Engine and Grinding shop.

One of the cool features of the remodel from yesterdays Houston Chronicle.

Greentown Labs gains support in guiding Houston to cleaner future L.M. Sixel, Staff writer Feb. 4, 2021Updated: Feb. 4, 2021 6 a.m. As Houston, the world’s longtime energy capital, tries to maintain its crown during the transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy, Greentown Labs is offering an increasingly stronger push. The Houston home of the Massachusetts-based clean-energy incubator gained more corporate support last week and now has lined up more than 20 partners and 16 inaugural startups working to make the city a clean-energy hub. Five corporate partners, CenterPoint Energy, Gexa Energy, EIV Capital, Wells Fargo and Williams, joined Greentown Labs Houston on Tuesday. The incubator, plans to open this spring in a former Midtown Fiesta store with about 40,000 square feet, large enough for 50 early-stage companies. For local entrepreneurs, Greentown Labs will provide fundraising and networking connections, and office and lab space. For corporate partners, it’s a chance to get in on the ground floor of green energy innovations as the world shifts from fossil fuels to renewables. The lab, which will focus on climate-related technology on the road to commercialization, including carbon capture, hydrogen fuel technology and battery storage, shows that Houston isn’t just an oil and gas town anymore but a city eyeing the next big thing in clean energy. The lab is the first big tenant in the city’s Innovation District, the Rice University-designed zone expected serve as a gathering place for entrepreneurs, large companies looking for new technologies, financiers and academics. Greentown Labs set a fundraising goal of $7.5 million — later increased to $10 million — to renovate the former grocery store and to cover three years of operations. “I’d say the response has been overwhelming,” said Greentown Labs CEO Emily Reichert. Several companies have signed on as partners, contributing money and expertise, including Chevron, Shell and BHP. Others, such as the law firm Vinson & Elkins, have agreed to provide free or reduced-cost services. Greentown Labs, a private company that relies on membership fees and corporate partnerships for revenue, wouldn’t say how much each partner is contributing. The lab grew from a small group of startups a decade ago near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. The Massachusetts lab helped launch 280 companies. In Houston, one of the latest young companies to sign on is Black Mountain Metals, a Fort Worth-based owner of a nickel and copper mine in Australia. The company, which spent $15 million to buy the once-shuttered mine and invested $60 million into operations, is scheduled to produce its first batch of nickel concentrate this spring for use in lithium batteries, President and COO Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes said. Zumwalt-Forbes, a petroleum engineer who worked for Exxon Mobil in Houston until 2015, said she became familiar with Greentown Labs when she was a graduate business student at Harvard. She is drawn to the social promise of the lab in Houston and networking with other entrepreneurs engaged in disruption and innovation. “I want to be surrounded by people who see like I do,” she said. Ennuity Holdings, which sells long-term solar energy contracts, also has signed on with the Houston lab. The retail electricity provider got its initial financial backing from angel investors, typically wealthy individuals who provide funding for startups in exchange for an ownership stake. Now it wants to raise more funds so it can launch its service in Texas. Ennuity gets its power from solar farms and is aimed at customers who can’t install panels where they live, CEO Nisha Desai said. Desai said she was drawn to Greentown Labs for the help it provides with raising funds from investors. Another company, Quantum New Energy, signed on to Greentown Labs Houston to develop an electricity shopping site. The service will provide smart meter data to help consumers determine if they’re wasting electricity or if it’s time for them to buy more efficient water heater or update an air conditioning system. Quantum would receive commissions from retail electric providers selling plans on the site. The company initially planned to market its services through presentations at libraries and to community groups, CEO Patricia Vega said. As the coronavirus pandemic spread, however, Greentown Labs suggested alternative sales channels, including through employers who have pledged to reduce their carbon footprint. The service then becomes an employee benefit, said Vega, an energy veteran who spent her career with oil and gas companies. Greentown Labs Houston is the highest profile tenant in the 16-acre Innovation District under development by the Rice Management Co. which manages the university’s $6.5 billion endowment and $957 million of debt. The center of the project is the Ion, an office and collaboration hub in the former Midtown Sears store that will offer shared workspaces, prototyping and maker resources, classrooms and event space. Microsoft and Chevron have announced they’ll open offices in the 288,000-square-foot building that is expected to open during the second half of the year, said Sam Dike, manager of strategic initiatives for Rice Management Co.

Heights residents to protest storage facility planned at former Stude Theater Ryan Nickerson, Staff writer Feb. 4, 2021Updated: Feb. 4, 2021 5:53 p.m. A group of Heights residents said they are prepared to protest the development of a storage facility on Saturday at 11 a.m. The protest will take place at the site of the former Stude Theater, which was demolished after the property was purchased late last year. The protest comes after a petition was formed by a community group called Stop BigTexStorage that, as of Feb. 4, is almost at its 5,000 signature goal. The petition calls for the Houston City Council to stop the permitting for Big Tex Storage Heights at 730 East 11th Street because they believe the project is poorly suited for its location and will have a negative impact on the community. “We don’t know of any historically appropriate seven-story storage facilities,” SBTS said in a statement. “Our concern is with the size and function of the structure. It will be large and not contribute in a meaningful way to the neighborhood streetscape, and in any form, will detract greatly from the charm of the neighborhood that so many moved here for.” Bobby Grover, the president of Grover Ventures and the developer behind Big Tex Storage, released a statement addressing resident’s concerns. He suggested that the facility will have a very light traffic footprint, be pedestrian-friendly and the facility will be architecturally designed to be complementary to the character of the Heights. “We consistently strive to build aesthetically pleasing best-in-class storage facilities in some of the area’s best neighborhoods like River Oaks, Montrose, Garden Oaks and The Woodlands,” Grover said in a statement. “As a life-long Houstonian, I recognize the importance of our properties being an integral part of the unique and diverse neighborhoods they serve,” said Grover. “Our Heights facility will bring a first-class storage experience to the Heights neighborhood. We look forward to working with Heights residents and organizations on this project.” The property is scheduled to begin construction in March, according to local newspaper The Leader. However, the protests are still commencing as the community group is calling on elected officials to hear their concerns. “We want them to realize the depth of anger about this project and the breadth of support for opposing it,” said SBTS in the statement. “We elected them to represent all our interests, not a select group of developers.” On Feb. 8, District C City Council Member Abbie Kamin is speaking at a Houston Heights Association meeting, giving a general overview of the city’s planning and permitting process alongside a presentation by the city’s Principal Planner Kimberly Bowie-Ihedigbo. Although Kamin will not be addressing residential concerns over Big Tex Storage, according to her office, the meeting is intended to provide information about how neighborhoods can use Houston’s neighborhood protection tools. Heights resident Viula Torgerson who will be attending the protest hopes the protest sends a message not only to their elected officials but to Grover himself. “I’m just hoping that it demonstrates both to our elected officials, but mostly to the owner of the facility, that the community does not support his project as it currently stands,” said Torgerson. “Our homes are the largest investment we will ever have and his project has the potential to really impact our quality of life in a negative way.” ryan.nickerson@hcnonline.com