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Courtesy of houstonfella: http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/sto...2789200^1370677

I think Sakowitz is going to be a home run as soon as H. Pavilions breaks ground, which should be very soon.

Are you serious?

The Astrodome can't be Wrigley Field because it was built in the 1960s, has a big roof on it, and is surrounded by a surface parking lot, a convention center, an arena, and not much else!

Part of the Wrigley Field experience is the environment on game day. Local restaurants and pubs are open, people mill about the surrounding streets, folks watch the games from their rooftops. It's a great thing to check out if you like baseball.

We built Minute Maid (Ballpark at Union Station) to try an spur development downtown. It was hoped that the Ben Milam and the Penn would be renovated. It was hoped that lofts and apartments would fill out the empty lots. Unfortunately, since this is Houston, we saw a loft apartment built on the other side of US 59, the Penn get demolished for an asphalt parking lot, and a couple of businesses get turned away when they couldn't secure a liquor license because they were too close to a school.

Now, we did get the B.U.S, the Lofts at the Ballpark, and Tillman's Inn at the Ballpark a few blocks away with a Vic and Anthony's. We also got a sign telling us that some exciting development was on its way. Unless they were talking about that sign, I've yet to see it!

It' so easy to complain... Yes, this is Houston and I don't see anyone standing in the way of anyone's great ideas, so with that being said...I'm sure we have all probably heard the expression if you really want for something to be done...then why not do it yourself !!!

It is very easy to talk about what our goals and objectives are, but reaching them is another matter altogether. Puma kind of skirted around what I was trying to get at, but Hizzy is on the mark.

I think that downtown's best prospects are presently in the works. Between Pavilions, One Park Place's retail component, and the as-yet unnamed park, I think that we'll be able to create a sort of critical mass at street level, with retail development snowballing incrementally. And I'd argue that downtown's meager population will not be the driving force so much as will the draw from the region.

Over time, this may change and the residential population may foster significant retail development catering to the neighborhood. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

Great posts Hizzy and Niche.

The AA website says the downtown location should be open this winter. They have the locations mixed up though saying that the Westheimer location is in downtown and the Main location is in Montrose.

http://www.americanapparel.net/storelocati...?metroareaid=93

That's great news.

Thought there might be some interest in the progress of Downtown Public Skatepark Project on this site. The detailed design is close to complete and the following renderings show much of the anticipated layout for the park. Here's a link to the design/build company which put the design together - http://grindline.com/cgi-bin/view.pl?view=houston .

It's great to be close to completion for this phase of the project but construction is still ahead and is not an easy task without the support of the Houston community. With over 2000 public skatepark already built (many in major metropolitan areas), Houston has a lot of catching up to do. Please relay this information to your friends and colleagues and explain to them that this skatepark will provide a sense of place along the Buffalo Bayou walk/bike trails. Having more destinations along these trails is the type of catalyst needed to get more people to use them. More information about this project is available at http://www.hpbinc.org and http://www.pushhouston.com .

While your checking out the Grindline site, you may want to look at the photos of the Austin skatpark which was completed this summer - http://grindline.com/cgi-bin/view.pl?view=austin .

i like the idea especially downtown. Where will it be located ?

Even so, the longterm success of HP will greatly depend on DT's ability to attract a critical mass of residents, who will make the area more of a neighborhood, just as the people who live in Uptown, Montrose, Rice Village, Upper Kirby, et all have made those areas all encompassing neighborhoods.

I agree with you about the need for chains and securing tenants with name recognition would benefit the entire area. It is so weird to me that in driving down Main how few chains are existing.

I think H. Pavillions will be able to succeed even without more residents coming to the area and in fact will draw more people to live there by just being built to a certain extent because of a couple of things it has going for it. Timing: Light rail is done downtown, and the rest of the city is freaking out(unnecessarily) about it. I think the nationals haven't really been courted to come downtown to a certain extent until HP came along. The city groups I think push tenants to H. Pavilions because they feel like to a certain extent it is their best bet in getting securing new bus. for downtown, but I personally think H. Pavilions actually sells itself in reality. Anyway, I think that the city groups see H.Pavilions as a great vehicle to increase attendance to G.R. Brown by being able to couple the amenities of G.R.B and the proximity of H. P. to hotels,etc. It should get a considerable amount of business from the app. 1 million conventioneers frequenting GRB. Additionally, House of Blues I believe will have live entertainment 270+ days out of the year, along with Toyota center also having 270+ events per year drawing crowds. On top of that HP brings businesses to the area that people are used to having to drive back home to find. Last it will have 2 condo/apt. buildings giving it a built in residential component. I don't see how such a well thought out project with such support wouldn't be able to make it.

As for the commercial aspect of the towers - I wonder if it will attract mostly chain venues or mostly local businesses. IMO, the towers ought to attract a mix of both to cater to various crowds.

Are you talking about the office tower, or the condo towers ? It is my understanding that there will be one office building in the middle of 2 condo/apt. towers.

...And we couldn't build a Schlitterbahn at the Astroworld site? That with the Astrodome hotel within walking distance would kick ass!

I think that's a great idea. The rendering is actually what gave me the idea for Shclitterbahn. No offense, but the rendering looks sort of like a redone Astroworld that even has the green Asrto-water, and I'm sure they could squeeze an Astro-disco or something out of it somewhere. It just has such a "kid attraction" type of look for a hotel to me.

What's with the fascination, and ultimate celebration of "new pages?"

btw, I think this will be a very cool project for dt. I'm glad to hear that more contracts have been signed, which would signal that the Pavillions project is more solidly financed than it appears. . .now if we could just get more people to reside dt.

I think you make an interesting point regarding people living downtown. It is my understanding that downtown has close to 5,000 people and midtown has app. 10,000 people. Combined that makes app. 15,000 people. Why don't the downtown groups just call downtown , simply "downtown" and combine the 15,000 people to promote growth downtown? I think we can all agree that Midtown is intended to be a residential downtown neighborhood. Midtowners want Midtown to be more of a residential neighborhood anyway from what I can tell reading this blog anyway.(for example: CVS types of issues) Downtown can simply be what it is intended to be the commercial area where people come to do business and with 15,000 people residing in and around it. Additionally, you have some that like living in the middle of the action downtown, and then those who want maybe a yard and more of neighborhood feel but yet next to downtown or the Midtown area. Let's discard all of these names for the same downtown area and focus on exploiting strengths the entire area already has as a whole instead of inventing more and more cute names that end up watering down the demographics and that scare businesses from coming downtown. I thought 10,000 was the magic # for retail, I think a number closer to 15,000 better reflects what truly already exists downtown, but unfortunately so much is made of having all of these diff. names that downtown is having to market itself froma position of weakness, which is just a shame.

Tear it down and build a Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort.

I agree. We sure want Downtown to become something huge, like it is now. The Astrodome Convention Center and Hotel shouldn't hurt though. Downtown, to me seems like the overall better location if you look at it. Once the Pavilions gets up, and then the Downtown Park, I wouldn't know why anyone would not choose Downtown over the Dome Hotel. Well, maybe if Downtown was booked solid, then I could see .

Also, how big is that Hewlett Packard Convention?

I do think that a dome where people go in and do everything is not good for the city and only for those investors involved. I think it would be a great problem to have over-booking, and discussing solutions for this downtown would be huge for downtown. Unfortunately though I recently read an article in the Houston Chronicle about hotels working on ways I believe with the city on restructuring their debt....I understand that it is easy for downtown groups to push Houston Pavilions and feel a sense of accomplishment ,but Houston Pavilions doesn't really need their help in my opinion because it sells itself. I am convinced the Houston Pavilions is definately happening, and it will have a great impact on the area. I sure would like to see instead the downtown groups actively promote downtown as a whole. I think if they were doing more promoting of downtown as a whole (which requires a lot of real hard work) then you wouldn't perhaps have two tenants (M.Bia. /R.Cat) moving from one side of downtown to open 4-5 locations under different names in the Pavilions. How does this occuring benefit downtown ?? I am pro H.Pavilions and think it is great for the area, but I am also pro- all of downtown and wish that these downtown groups would tackle this need to promote the downtown area as a whole. I heard H. Pack. /8,500 people ? Also maybe Microsoft looking with 10, 000 ?

It appears that the downtown groups are pushing all of the retailers interested in considering downtown right to Houston Pavilions so that it can be kind of a package with G.R.B. to better market the city and from what I can tell it is working. I heard in passing that Hewlette Packard just decided to have its convention here, and that there are some other major groups looking at Houston harder now. This would be really bad timing for a dome- theme type of hotel thing to occur right when it looks like Downtown is positioned to have a real big up swing that is long past due. We all want more people to come downtown right ?

This whole hotel dome thing is a joke anyway. So, almost any idea including a disco makes better business sense at this point in time in my opinion instead of competing with GRB. It appears that the downtown groups are pushing all the retailers to Houston Pavilions so that it can be kind of a package with G.R.B. to better market the city and from what I can tell it is working. I heard in passing that Hewlette Packard just decided to have its convention here, and that there are some other major groups looking at Houston harder now. This would be bad timing for this hotel thing to occur right when Downtown looks positioned to have a real big up swing that is long past due.

Ok, here it is.

woot 1000 posts

The rendering reminds me a little bit of the Kiam building .

Well I am glad we all agree. Lets move on.

Any ideas what the towers (for a lack of a better word) will be. Three office buildings? I would think so, but there is not a pent up demand for that much office space to come online at once. Maybe the project is phased and the plan is to build a building at a time.

I think when you consider that 2nd floor space above retail centers in that area is being marketed at $210/SF, and look at the high retail rental rates in this area over the years it has always seemed like a very underestimated area with a lot of potential to me.

Is this an Uptown B. promotional thread ?

Tollhouse cookies are only good if made fresh from scratch. The stores put weird ingredients in the cookies which make them tase funny. Trust me on this one. I am fat. Thanks for listenting.

I think if they spiked cookies with liquor and served them that it would be like throwing jello shots to hot chics from on top of a bar at this particular location. I believe F. Saucer recorded almost $200k in liquor sales in May ?

God Bless Them for wanting to sell cookies there ! I really hope they do well and think its great.

I originally didn't know what you were talking about, but today's article in the chron cleared it up a little. The American Apparel that is also in Montrose is the same that has posters on the Saks building. However, from today's article, it sounds like AA Concepts, a Houston company, is talking to Wulfe about a ifestyle store in downtown - Wulfe owns the sakowitz building, 1+1=2...

"They fulfill a niche a lot of landlords are looking for," said Monte Large, an urban broker with Wulfe & Co. who is working with AA Concepts on various properties, including one in downtown Houston that will house a lifestyle store, where customers can buy a variety of home products.

Link

KB owns Saks, rt ?

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/disp/story...nt/3599661.html

Should be an interesting project. Curious as to if it will become a reality...

No such article.

You really nailed it! I have been to nearly every city you mention and despite a few minor disagreements (San Antonio/Tourist Trap, Vegas Downtown/iffy, LA/downtown?Really?) I think you are absolutely accurate. We in Houston are definitely above dead and have already joined Decent territory. We are light years beyond so many other cities and the great news is downtown Houston is just getting started! So many projects and restaurants and bars are underway.

I am new to Houston and as an outsider I have to say, things are so much better in Houston than many locals give it credit for. It's a great city and the renaissance has clearly begun and is taking hold.

I like your positive attitude. Welcome to Houston.

The guy who bought it paid for the whole bar - furnishings & all, so it will probably look very similar. I also heard that not only will "Pi" be the name, but it will be the theme - complete with drink specials that cost $3.14 - which I don't really get, because I don't think I would be very happy walking around with a pocket full of change after buying a couple drinks (tips including pennies is rude, right?), but whatevs... it's all hearsay till the bar opens!

Is it open yet ? How is it doing ?

Speaking of the Galleria. Has Simon ever said anything about the rail line? Do they have a position? If Simon was to lobby for the line to have stop(s) near, in, or under the Galleria, I'm sure that would go a long way to keeping the line from being to far south. It would seem that a stop(s) near, in, or under the Galleria would be something they would want. A few years of construction means nothing when you think about the benefits that will be reaped for years after. Why not go down Richmond, and then begin to tunnel at the HISD site to the Galleria. That way Afton Oaks has no arguement about unsightly bridges and the line can get people where they want and need to go. I feel for the businesses along Richmond, but I'm calling bullshit on their arguements about the trees and construction. I know that if the city were to say that they were going to widen the street instead and the trees would still have to go...well, those same ones trying to 'save the trees' would be chopping them drop and induring years of road construction because it's good for the city as a whole.

I think Richmond makes much more sense then Westpark. I don't believe there is much along Westpark for people to want to stop at.

I originally didn't know what you were talking about, but today's article in the chron cleared it up a little. The American Apparel that is also in Montrose is the same that has posters on the Saks building. However, from today's article, it sounds like AA Concepts, a Houston company, is talking to Wulfe about a ifestyle store in downtown - Wulfe owns the sakowitz building, 1+1=2...

"They fulfill a niche a lot of landlords are looking for," said Monte Large, an urban broker with Wulfe & Co. who is working with AA Concepts on various properties, including one in downtown Houston that will house a lifestyle store, where customers can buy a variety of home products.

Link

I guess the more the merrier.

AA Concpts-Wish 1614 Westheimer St

http://www.luckymag.com/cityguides/texas

If so, then I take back what I said. No way they would build two stores so close to each other.

That's an interesting observation on your part. Apparently there are two different companies that use the AA name and it is my understanding that the lower westheimer store is not the group being discussed at Saks .

Hong Kong Diner-Chinese restaurant and Yappas is now open. Demassis is soon to be open also. On Franklin in between Main and Travis.