TheSirDingle

You know I wouldn't mind if neo-gothic, or art-deco skyscrapers (even Italian renaissance) came back into style. Maybe something like a combination of the modern glass architecture going up and the more ornamental styles mentioned? I wonder if we can convince Crane to build something like the Woolworth building. 

Looks like they've already raised enough money to start building the FOB. 

On 7/23/2022 at 12:40 PM, hindesky said:

Construction fencing is down and road open. Looks nice, I wonder if the interior is ready for students this fall semester?

I think it is? 

Well they're having meetings in it rn. I also remember seeing a presentation hall with a bunch of well dressed students inside the med school on facebook, but I can't find it for some reason. 

Wonder if they're ever going to get that tower built. This lot is kind of the odd one out in the area now, especially since you have a bunch of high end residential and office towers directly next to it.

17 minutes ago, hindesky said:

@TheSirDingle Don't forget about the 57 units at the City View Lofts II and the 20 units at the Prairie St. renovation.

Thank you, forgot about them. Gonna edit them in.

Anybody know why http://www.downtowndistrict.org/ stop posting updates on the Downtown markets? They were always fun to look at, and had a lot of good information. 

Anyway, there seems to be a lot of apartment development going on in downtown right now. On top of the 41 residential properties and the 6,279 units that come with it, we have another 2,254 units under construction. That would bring the total units to *ding* *ding*... 8,533 units. Downtown is accelerating faster and faster towards that 12k units goal, honestly exciting to see. 

List of under construction apartment (re)developments within the downtown area:

Note: There's maybe 1 or 2 of these already completed, but I'm keeping them in for consistency sake. 

McKee City Living: 120 units - completion 1Q 2022.

Brava: 373 units - est completion 4Q 2022.

Sovereign at the Ballpark: 229 units - est completion 2022.

1810 Main: 286 units - est completion 2022.

Parkside Residences: 309 Units - est completion 1Q 2023.

Warehouse District 1: 304 units - est completion 4Q 2023.

Warehouse District 2: 184 Units - est completion 2Q 2024.

1801 Smith Conversion: 372 Units - est completion 2Q 2023.

City View Lofts: 57 units - est completion 2023

Prairie St Renovation: 20 Units - est completion 4Q 2022

One of the great things about this is that a lot of these buildings will be done relatively soon.

Now for some numbers crunching. If we're assuming an person/unit range of 1.41 - 1.71, and we're using an occupancy range of 84.1% (last official statement) - 91% (2019 Q3). We can get a Downtown apartment population of (with all the units completed) 10,118 - 12,271 at 84.1% occupancy, and  10,948 - 13,277 at 91%. 

Hopefully we can get nightlife foot traffic back to its pre-covid levels. I haven't seen the foot traffic during the day, but I heard it has almost gotten back normal, especially with those huge conventions like Anime Matsuri going on. Hopefully Downtown can pass its pre-covid self foot traffic in the next year or so. 

EDIT: Added City View Lofts II and Prairie St Renovation.

1 hour ago, BEES?! said:

Huh, so it looks like these will be loft-style? (2-story units?) if that render is anything to go by…

Might be a mix of single story and multi-story lofts, Looks really cool imo. 

Hope they start doing more conversions of the older office stock into residential/hotel or maybe even mixed use with a sizeable retail component on a few of them. I could see something like 601 Jefferson,  1111 Fannin, or even 800 Bell like y'all proposed above being converted. Wouldn't mind thinning that office stock to get more people living/visiting downtown. 

Also, wouldn't mind seeing something like a sizeable public plaza and a couple attractions that could anchor it. There are definitely enough parking lots in the area to do something like that. If there's one thing downtown needs more of(Houston in general) it would be big open plazas where people could gather, just need to find a way to make that viable and an enjoyable experience. 

Nice infill for that part of downtown, having another hotel/apartment in that area should help bolster an already decent size pocket of hospitality/residential buildings.

1 hour ago, hindesky said:

All tenants in the old building have moved to the new one. Both it's parking lot and the one next to it are blocked off. The prosed high rise would go in the latter.

It's looking much better now, just wish they would of made all of the glass look like the glass panels on the left, or something that better fits with those panels. If the whole building had that deep blue glass it would look amazing. Doesn't look half bad, but the cyan blue doesn't fit the building. 

Also, excited for the next phase of development hopefully that high rise comes to fruition. 

Gives me futuristic vibes, I like it. 

5 minutes ago, august948 said:

They've been trying to do this for years.  Has something changed that makes it likely to happen?

There seems to be a huge surge in support from the legislative in Austin, along with the Governor also expressing support of the endowment. This also along with a $50 million appropriation for "institutional enhancements" in 2021 from the state that they've never received before, which is a type of funding UT/TAMU has been receiving for years, seems show a favorable push for something like this.

On 10/19/2021 at 7:28 AM, texan said:

UH gets quite a bit of love in the newly passed TRB (now called capital construction assistance projects) bill.

Medical research facility: $59,897,111

Hobby School of Public Affairs Building: $40,000,000

IDEA Lab: $52,409,972

https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/873/billtext/pdf/SB00052F.pdf#navpanes=0

https://stories.uh.edu/2022PresidentPubLegislative/index.html

Speaking of government funding, UH intends to ask the state for a $1 billion permanent endowment during the 2023 legislative session. At first providing an extra $40-$50 million/year disbursement to the UH system, with the potential to grow it like the other state funds. 

This in addition with UH's current endowment of $1.103 billion (2021) will allow for a much needed boost in funding, especially for its goals to be a top 50 public university, and an invite into the AAU. 

Also, should allow for easier funding of campus buildings and ultimately higher quality projects. Should be a treat for us Haifers in the future. 

5 hours ago, hindesky said:

It must have some type of architectural feature/spire at 31 floors and 512 ft. Parkside residence by discovery green is 43 floors and clocks in at 468 feet, along with Brava at 46 floors and 549 ft. Wonder what the new design is?

1 hour ago, tigereye said:

Hope the new FOB doesn’t block the skyline view from within the stadium bowl. 
 

Sadly, there's a good chance it will block the lower bowl view. 

While part of the stadium will lose what would have been an amazing; ever improving view of the Houston skyline, the university will gain a much needed facility in its move back to a major conference after a good 26 years. The FOB is pretty much a necessity in the move and should greatly improve recruiting success and in turn on field success, all leading to greater alumni participation which will help many other aspects of the university.

Almost looks like they're missing glass

Got to give them this, it's definitely a unique idea.

3 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

$90 oil, folks! I imagine Skanska is already pushing forward on planning for these.

 

This oil boom should allow for a good buffer and boost to our technology and life science industry. Gives Houston more time to prop up (maybe even dominate) other industries without having to go through a massive dry spell like we did in the 80's. 

Looks like a bright future ahead, hoping this coupled with the increased tech and life science investment allows for a massive but continuous boom for the area.

Don't know if I'm late or anything but Exxon Mobil is moving HQ to Houston.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2022/01/31/exxon-mobil-to-exit-irving-headquarters-for-houston-area-megacampus/%3foutputType=amp

downtownhouston Instagram posted a video of some of the interior/exterior areas of the POST.

Link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CU5XpUggpDs/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Along with posthtx Instagram and a fly threw of the complex. They're a private account so I can't directly post the video into HAIF.
Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CUffqfggBlB/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

With the recent conference realignment news, and acceptance for that fact, I went dinging around for some of the old TDECU 60k renderings and plans. I'm hopping in the near future there's going to be a need to expand the stadium, although this should be a given if they're competitive in the BIG 12.

Also, does anybody have any other renderings of the expanded stadium; or just old renderings in general? 

On 7/22/2016 at 9:51 AM, gmac said:

It would be HI-larious if UH finally got into the Big 12, and Texas and Oklahoma promptly moved to the Pac-12.

It's the SEC this time around, but I'll give you slightly accurate pre-cog credit. 

Anyway, it's about damn time