Bacchus

I'd personally never go to an upscale bar, which is what Sawyer Park is -- particularly at night -- with the expectation of getting in with basketball shorts on. Come on -- they have to maintain a good atmosphere to keep their desired image in tact. 2 minutes of internet research or even a glance at the clientele prior to entering would have clued you in to the dress code. It sounds like you were embarrassed at the door, but honestly it shouldn't have come as a surprise. Not every bar desires an extremely relaxed dress code, and the ones that don't aren't being unreasonable.

Where are those Jeep pics taken? Is that North of Washington or South? We've got similar ditches out in front of our houses a few blocks south of Washington, near Ei8ht. I've been expecting a situation like this to occur for a while now... Just a matter of time.

Do people still go to Drake? I drove by at 10:15pm on Saturday (granted, that's fairly early for them to have a crowd), and it was DEAD. Just wondering if Eight, Blue Lable, Knox, etc have stolen their customers.

In the past week, near the new Busty (Rusty?) LaRoue's and Ei8ht, they have added more sidewalks along Washington Ave, and behind it, along Center St. They also tore down Lee's Upholstry (which was behind them) on Center St. - maybe for more parking? I know that Crew gym (between Shepherd & Durham) is advertising that they are adding more parking - this lot would be a couple blocks away, but maybe that's what it's for?

Also, that elementary school in the neighborhood (also on Center Street) is for sale. Hopefully it will not ALL be parking!

Hopefully it IS all parking, so these establishments don't ruin the surrounding neighborhoods.

There is no question that Pearl Bar is the problem. That said, the city should not have issued permits without demanding a better parking solution. Hopefully that error is corrected with the trio of bars set to open near Washington & Roy.

The two bars on the N side of Washington in b/w Roy and Reinerman are making good progress. It looks like they are pouring cement in the 'front yard' of the larger bar soon and that physically, it is nearing completion. As someone who lives 3 blocks south of these 3 bars (including the purple one referenced above), I am very concerned about parking. Anyone know what is planned on this front? The Pearl Bar parking-disaster situation should obviously not be the model here. The purple bar and across Roy from the larger bar appear to have dedicated lots, although woefully too small for what will likely be big crowds at night. There is not much parking in the surrounding areas, as narrow streets have ditches for shoulders.

This definitely looks like it will bring a critical mass of bars to the area just west of Shepherd/Durham.

It appears as though notices have been posted on buildings and land is being cleared (and buildings cleaned out) on the South side of Washington in between Lester and Detering (just East of the CVS) as well as the same side of the street one block closer to downtown (in b/w Lester and Reinerman -- the purple building). These are both pretty good sized lots, especially the United Hardware lot in b/w Lester and Detering.

Anyone know what is going in there? Please tell me it's not the titter that was referenced earlier in this thread.

Who are these people claiming that Pearl Bar has been taken over by the yuppie hipster crowd, against the owner's wishes? For goodness sake, there is a valet stand outside the place and a DJ playing fast-paced remixes of hip hop songs inside. The place is purposefully catering to this crowd, not operating in spite of it.

At the risk of breaking hearts I have the following to share. I worked in the corporate office of Mr Gatti's Pizza for a period of time. The restaurant makes virtually all of its operating cash flow from its gaming section. There are huge free cash flow margins associated with a skee ball game that pays itself off in 3 months and lasts for 15 years. Anyways, the most interesting factoid I learned related to the "crane-grab" game. You've seen the game I'm talking about, where there is a glass box full of prizes and you operate a small crane to try to grab one of the prizes, pull it up and then deposit it into your chute. Well, the game is rigged. The tensile strength of the 'grabber' is only strong enough to pull up the prize on every X number of turns. So in other words, you could display the greatest skill in crane operatorship known to mankind, but unless you got lucky and put your money in on one of the predetermined strength settings, then the prize would drop right out of your grasp. Sorry kids.

A close friend of mine is a second-year law school student at the University of Houston and will soon become a part of the JD/MBA program there. She has an interest in real estate development and would like to get her feet wet this summer and begin learning about the industry with an internship in the field. I would think that she would be a value-add to any developer since she brings a legal background (2/3rds of the way to becoming a lawyer), strong research skills, access to UH's legal research tools, and an understanding of the city that comes from having grown up here.

Any names or contacts would be appreciated, as well as advice for succeeding in landing a job in real estate development.

Best,

Bacchus

I drove by there tonight and there is a TON of work to be done before they start entertaining guests... I could see through the opened door off of Center and it is AWESOME inside. The outside is still very much a construction zone. What are they doing with the front part of the building? There appear to be several entrances to the place, leading me to think that it is suitable for several different bars. Or is the plan to have this be one massive lounge?

There is not a doubt in my mind that this will be successful. Those guys have the winning formula.

Midtown has a few fatal flaws that killed it's "plan" of a pedestrian friendly mixed-use area and turned it into what I call "Downtown's drive-thru".

Biggest flaw: It sits right in between the CBD and the 59 spur, making it ripe for the 'getting off of work' driving crowd that commutes out to SW/W Houston. This sprung the Spec's warehouse, the pharmacy's, the banks, etc. It also leads to wide streets with high speeds of traffic, an absolute killer for pedestrians.

Other flaws:

1) Homeless problem/Bum traffic - coming from the Greyhound station and the 'Freedman's Town' area of town, nearby

2) Residential base is too young -- All the apartment complexes bring in young people, which is great for bars, Subway, Quizno's, Starbucks, but not so great for higher end anchors that could really hold down a nice mixed use complex

3) Price of land -- Too high, given the points above, to stimulate developers to go after something nice.

I was very interested in how midtown would develop over time. I gave up on it about a year ago and bought a place near Washington Avenue -- a place that is rapidly turning into something special.

when I notice a bulldozer with the arm extension (not sure the official name of this machine...)

It's either a crawler backhoe or hydraulic excavator.

Tonight I drove by the new bar/lounge/club being put together by the ownership group of Red Door. This is directly across Washington from The Corkscrew. They are remodeling what was once a very nice historic commercial building. A few takeaways:

1) The building is huge, not sure if they will sub-divide it into several places or keep it as one massive bar

2) The views of downtown from the upstairs deck will be second to none in the city

3) In terms of progress, they are currently working on the roof deck, and the windows now have been boarded up in preparation of replacement. Didn't look inside, but they are still gutting it and removing things from what I could see.

4) The entrace to this place appears to be around the back, so in other words, facing the side street behind Washington (not sure of the name)

5) One of the owners told me last weekend that they still needed a month to complete it. Looks to me like that is optimistic, judging by the current state of affairs, although visible progress has been made in the last week.

It should be interesting to see how this transforms that area of Washington (near Houston Street). The Red Door guys have been successful everywhere they've gone, and several bars popped up in Midtown around them. I wish they would have done something a little further West on Washington, but this building is a spectacular opportunity for them. Perfect for their style.

I would like to buy some large photos and/or prints that I would like to frame that capture images from historic Houston. Specifically, I'm looking for downtown shots of Houston near the beginning of its history, the Astrodome during construction, old photos of Rice University, and possibly some photos of oil derricks from the turn of the century.

Does anyone know of a place that might have something like this? The thought would be to frame them and put them up on my walls at home.

That is fantastic news for Washington Ave. There appears to be a couple of cleared lots on the north side of Washington on either side of Shepherd, as well as a hollowed out former strip center that looks to be in the process of being refurbished. I'm excited to see how this street develops over the next couple of years.

I went to Corkscrew last night and it was standing room only. Bars/restaurants tend to follow apartment complex developments, so hopefully this new project will spur additional activity. Exciting stuff!

The Morgan Group is the same bunch that developed 2222 Smith, according to their website. That's a nice property and is probably the most high end apt complex in midtown. Hopefully they'll deliver another good project.

Any update on some of the retail projects going in near Washington/Shepherd? I know Blue Label Lounge is going to be in the shopping center near Azuma. I presume Azuma is the sushi restaurant similar to the one on Kirby near the Rice Village? Should be a cool place. Cobain is a nice bar addition to the area, hopefully someone can restart The Social and get some more critical mass over there. Right now that critical mass is in midtown with Roof/Whiskey Creek/Epic/Esco/Red Door/Pub/etc. A couple more lounges on Washington and perhaps things could shift over there. I'd like to see it happen.

Any updates, Bacchus?

I ended up getting about 4% off list. Reflecting back on it, I'm not sure you can apply a rule across all purchases. Each house is priced differently by realtors, with some being fairly accurate as compared to market and others not. This place I thought was very appropriately priced to begin with. It had everything I wanted and I'm really pleased with how things went.

The topic here centers around why builders tend to discount the last unit of a cluster of new builds. Let's say you have a block of 6 townhouses that are in a development. Why would the builder be more likely to discount the 6th unit to sell? Does it relate to being able to extinguish the construction loan? This would assume that the construction loan is linked to the entire development, as compared to there being 6 loans. That case makes sense, as you would be incurring carrying costs (interest on the loan) on 6 units, even though you've sold 5. The other argument could be comps. If you discount unit #1, then other buyers would want that same discount.

Am I missing anything here? A buddy of mine bought the last unit in a development several months ago for 30% off list.

Many thanks

Apologies for bumping an older thread, but was reading through this and find myself in a similar situation. I am looking at a place built by Aziza and would like to hear any feedback on their inner loop townhomes. A window vendor I had dinner with recently was very negative on their product. That was troubling.

I'm also in the no-agent boat. All of the forms are readily available at the TREC website and seem very straightforward. I've got a good handle on what market prices are by monitoring HAR and by talking to recent buyers in the area. With an inspector on my side as well as an attorney, I see no value brought to the table by an agent. I had an agent the last time I went through this process and he was pitiful. He misspelled my name on every single form.

Bacchus... I am representing a builder in the area... thought you might want to some factual information.

We are building three detached townhomes (aka single family dwellings) at the corner of Malone and Venice in Rice Military....

Lot cost $203,000

Price Per Sq Ft to Build ranges anywhere from $75 to $85 ... but finally coming down after Hurricane Katrina spiked the price of materials.

Sold corner unit in 9 days after listing before construction started.

Asking Price: $349,000

Thank you for that information. That is encouraging that construction material prices are beginning to come down. That's likely good news for buyers and sellers alike. Congratulations on your sale. You got that one sold very fast.

Over a year later and here's an update on the project:

http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/sto...ml?surround=lfn

February 19, 2007 is the planned re-opening. I hope it meets with great success, although I hate the ZaZa name. And I sure as heck hope that the lights for the Mecom Fountain are operational once again by then.

I drove by the Warwick/Zaza today and I'd be very surprised if they met the Feb 19th opening date. There remains quite a bit of exterior work to be done. I really like this property and am glad it's being restored to its status as a premier entertainment/hospitality destination with a high amount of character. I'm hoping Givens & crew do things which aren't too tacky and gaudy. This one could be a real homerun for Houston.

Any updates?

I have yet to take action on the house.... still suffering from analysis paralysis. That said, a new build house right around the corner just was dropped $30,000 in price. An interesting data point.

Im guesssing a 5000 or so sq foot lot would sell for around $200k in that area? I haven't looked, so... subdivide into 2 lots and you are looking $100K for land alone? Sub into 3 lots and its whzt $66K. Throw in soft costs and my guess is before you even scrape any dirt you are at $90K or $125K or more. I would then say construction costs in the $70 per foot range.

Oh, thank you for that clarification. I was thinking you meant the improvement alone was $120/psf.

In that case, I'm estimating the builder has roughly a 35% markup (pre commission to agents). This gives me a LOT more room to negotiate, assuming that my theory that the market is soft is true. Thanks again.

I would guess the avg builder in RM has about $120-$125 per foot into the house? My guss is they would not drop price a whole lot unless they had it sitting for more than 4 months?

My guess is most of the homes have sold for near full price but they had a lot of concessions in that number?

Thanks, I value your opinion, as I've seen some of your other posts and you are very informed as to construction costs. That's a bit higher than I would have guessed, but I would be truly guessing.

Using what HCAD appraised the land for last year and this psf cost estimate range, I calculate that there is 3.5% - 7% of margin built into the builder's list price. That is skinnier than I would have thought, particularly when the seller's commission must also be deducted.