danes75

Driving a leased BMW 3 series and maxing out credit cards to hang out in the "VIP" room is "self reliant, financially secure"?

The economy is going to tank worse than I thought.

Again, I think you too misread. That's the MO of the wannabe-hip crowd. The ones that can't actually afford the lifestyle they're trying to emulate.

You can watch these creatures in the wild at Meteor. Gays are some of the worst.

Well its still shown as a "project" on Allen Bianchi's site:

http://www.allenbianchi.com/projects_des.p...ct_auto_id=4904

But then I'm sure you could still find the Chariots of Fire Tower listed somewhere as a "project". I love the design and think balconies would be a horrible idea. I've lived in two high-rise apartments on the 18th and 28th floors and the balconies were tiny and way too windy to do anything on. You couldn't have a grill (city ordinance) and two chairs barely fit out there. When I'm paying a premium to own a high-rise condo in a market where you can get a 5000sf house for 250k, I want every square inch of it to be year round livable space.

I think the location is a good decision. Every room in every condo above the 3rd floor would have amazing, unobstructed views, and isn't that what most high-rise dwellers buy for? Putting it in the galleria area or downtown or the med center would lessen the availability of of those views and risk having an office tower or faux lofts built right next to it.

There's such a success story in Power Tools. It catered to punk/hardcore/dance/trance/hip hop all at the same time. Very cool. A natural offshoot of Rich's and Numbers, but with much broader appeal.

When PT opened, I was sort of club-weary. It really energized some of the old punk/dance club crowd in town.

What happened to PT?

Quite frankly, the only thing I hate more than hanging out with wannabe rappers and thug kiddies (aka, your code word for DARK people) is hanging out with self important white people who need to buy memberships to access certain levels of a "club" and who then move on when anyone not as desireable as they are start to move in.

The only "club" worth anything in downtown was the old Power Tools. All the newbie stuff was built to eventually fail. Investing in "exciting and trendy" is STUPID. Trends in Houston change as soon as some wannabe The Hills star watches the new episode.

Reading the post might help. I didn't use code words. I quite blatantly said wannabe rappers and pretend ghetto gangsters. I'm not sure where the code words are in either of those terms.

It was brought up earlier in the topic about the

"gang-sta" scene, or rap for that matter. I dont like people making gangster references, glorifications of implied violence, and overtones of anger"

and shootings in both downtown Houston and the parking lot at a club in Dallas. Whether its black, white, hispanic, or even Asian, a culture (explained: rap & hip hop) that uses fear, denigration, and hate as a means to control others is not something most "young urban professionals" (explained: self-reliant, financially secure individuals) feel comfortable being around. No one likes being outside of their social group whether it be hipsters, rappers, or countryboys.

I mentioned kiddies in reference to the fact that large-scale 21 & up clubs in this area eventually lower their entrance age in order to keep their attendance up. Hence "kiddies" (explained: kiddies = 17 - 20.99 year olds).

I'm looking for an old church building that has great, classic design that is either condemned or abandoned within the city limits (preferably in the midtown area). I saw one once near all those Urban Lofts near PE but haven't been able to find it again. It looked like it was just the walls left.

Does anyone have any photos or suggestions?

Thanks.

Upon further research there doesn't seem to have been a remodel -- just a name change. Our design of the club cost nearly 8 million dollars -- I doubt they remodeled it again after just 4 years.

Guidelive says this: "Downtown

On the nightclubs issue. I'd have to agree with the poster that mentioned the "thug life" element killing downtown. It happened in Dallas with Deep Ellum and even a club my firm helped design (Blue). We created it to be "the" place to go with a restaurant, amazing sound system and light show, and several floors and VIP "levels" that, depending on the membership you purchased, you were given access to.

When it was done, it was amazing and billed as one of the downtown destinations to visit. My old business partner still lives there and said the last time he went (a year or so ago), they weren't charging a cover anymore and it was filled to the brim with pretend ghetto gangsters (that probably lived in Frisco or some suburbania) with big asses and boobs all hanging out everywhere. There was a supposed drug related shooting in the parking lot in 2005 which made it all the more thug-like.

I looked around and I don't even think the club is open anymore -- their website is down and there's a new one in its place called Cirque.

I found an article (a while ago) that said they weren't going to start on this project until sometime next year.

I hate to point out the obvious, but the naysayers have a foundation for their /our/ skepticism. Orion... Scamrock... both had pretty little sales centers/models/trailers and neither amounted to squat. When the sales offices mysteriously close and will reopen "soon", emails are sent out saying that floorplans and pricing aren't "available", and the website information isn't right and is "being updated", something's up.

Websites don't take months to update, brochures don't take months to print, and established pricing that's now being refigured means the plan they had isn't going to work and they're having to make changes. Sure they may be building the apartments and thats great. But I'm not going to buy an apartment/condo conversion. They're usually built on the cheap and I don't want to hear my neighbors walking around upstairs no matter what the view.

Has anyone heard anything about this project lately? I know there are construction cranes, but has anyone seen them DOING anything?

I went by there Thursday (around 10am) and Friday (around 3pm), the sales office was locked, no cars in the parking lot, and all the lights were out. I went back this weekend (1pm on Saturday and 3 pm on Sunday) and there's now a sign in the door that says "The Sales Office will open again soon."

edit: I just got an email this morning from the marketing director for Phillips saying the Sales Office will reopen again in a few weeks and that brochures, floorplans, and pricing are not currently available but that she'll email me when they are.

Which is odd... since the floorplans are already posted on their website.

I smell something...

goodfella--

MAHARISHI GLOBAL DEV FUND was the previous owner and I don't remember what the Director's name was.... just that he personally answered the phone that was listed on the organization's website. Must be a big company with a lot of employees.

Oh... and he had a REALLY bad squeaking chair.

houstondevelopment --

any word on whether there's a buyer for 2727?

Are they not working on other parts of town? I could have sworn there was some sort of construction in the Galleria area. And Midtown. And the Heights.

Wait a second, Houston's ALWAYS under construction!

Saturday I was told they said 130psf. They don't have a lender... They are sort of, without going into much detail... government?

hmmm... i'll have to ask who they spoke with and how much they offered (ballpark). last time i spoke with them i was told 145/150

getting this thread back on topic:

one of my investors just made an offer on 2727 (a little less than the 160) and was told that Atlas was not selling, but that he had two more projects in the pipeline if they were interested in either of those developments.

i'm considering buying @ Mosaic... beautiful building in a beautiful area. the name's cheesy though. makes me think of some self help group.

FROM SOURCES I DEEM RELIABLE - SO TAKE IT FWIW

per my sources (yes, there is more than one), atlas is looking for someone to buy him out at $160 psf. with 3333 ap going into the crapper and about to be relisted as rental, its become difficult for a first-timer to build vertical projects.

im not attempting to piss on anyone's parade, just passing along what i heard yesterday.

Thanks for that info. Does this mean that all of the funding has already been secured and its ready to go and he just wants out? Or that he's having trouble finding financing for the project? Or there are no sales....

According to the Tremont Towers website, 19 units have sold. I read an article on a newspaper site, don't remember where, that 3 or 4 of the regular units and all of the penthouses (shown as "sold") are owned by the building's investors.

i found HCAD listing the owner as Bagby Apartments LLC. I then found another article stating that Urban Lofts, Bagby Apartments (Camden), and Perry Homes own the majority of the property in that area.

thanks for the info!

Does anyone know who this belongs to or what they plan on doing with it? Its amazing this much vacant land is still, well, vacant right next to downtown and midtown. I've driven around in it before and I can tell there used to be houses there... but what was it all bulldozed for?

I spoke to a representative with the developer; he said they were SELLING 450/sf and raising the price to 500/550 in Dec05/Jan06. Not beak even. He also said they were justifying these prices by not offering any upgrades to increase the price... everything is already completely finished out top of the line.

He further explained that they did not expect many buyers of the individual smaller units. They think that most people will buy two units and combine them into one.

Well the Michael Raider of Days Inn is in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I spoke with the selling organization's national director a few weeks ago who gave me MR's contact information, along with a Ray Marshall.

I found this on GlobeSt.com:

"The Block 98 development will be the second project that LandCo has tackled in Houston's CBD. The company recently acquired the former Days Inn Hotel at 801 St. Joseph Parkway for redevelopment into 251 luxury apartments and retail space. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2006, with units delivering in early 2007."

I've checked a little bit and Raiders Lofts is owned by a guy named Michael Raider in Colorado Springs... the Planning and Development Services Division hasn't recieved any new building permit paperwork for that address in 9 months... if I'm not mistaken, about the time it was sold.

hmmm.... well i'm glad they put such great attention to asthetics and detail into the bridge. :-\ looks like a train trestle