JWW

wow one has to wonder how one tower being bankrupt and one tower not will work.....can't be good though for some reason I think the non-renatl one being the bankrupt one is better than the other way around

Anyone familiar with bankruptcy (if the lender, and I guess that's the takout/permanent lender on the first building and that the construction loan was taken out already?, takes ownership of the Mosaic condo building) know what happens here with the communal areas shared by both buildings? (parking, pool, workout room, etc)???

yahooooo glad to see it finally go haha!

any word on how or what day they will take down the building itself? i am thinking of camping out across the street to watch and celebrate!

Anyone else have a date for building demolition?

Today I heard that 2727 is now going to be a lease building. Does anyone know whether this is true or not?

Considering the fact that it is constructed as condominium, pre-sales of condos are strong as well as the near $850 per ft , near 10,000 sq ft penthouse was sold in July, I would PRESUME that is false?

Where did you hear that?

$2.20 a ft is One Riverway, Museum Tower, Parklane territory. I can't see how they SHOULD be able to pull $2.20 a ft with the buildout quality and level of services that building provides.

Did he happen to slip you any info about Sonoma?

Davis said, at his ULI event at the Cosmopolitan yesterday, that he has 50% pre sales on the residential part of sonoma, they have restaurant after restaurant lined up for retail, and he cannot get financing so far.

Sure it has been making him want to pull his hair out - with his track record, I would think it would have been easier.

wow.. the ballet must have some coin!.. Are they a non-profit who gets tax exemptions? If so that would at least save 40% off the bottom line..

Could you expound with details about the 40% cost savings for the project if it is a non-profit with particular tax exemptions?

I think the City and a few of our billionaires should toss down some cash to make this building standout.

Although, since no actual performances will occur in the building, that may be a stretch.

Yeah, like the city doesn't have enough it needs to spend $ on that affects most Houstonians. Dan Duncan, Sarofim, Richard Kinder, et cetera give away a lot of money - I'm sure they appreciate your thoughts on what they need to do with their own $.

Not quite. A downtown block is slightly more than 60,000 square feet (62,500sf to be exact). The ballet sold half the block to another party. As you no doubt know, few new downtown Houston buildings take up the entire footprint available, so the building's footprint likely would not comprise much more than 20,000 square feet per floor.

Great info - thanks a lot for that. Would you post something like that in the Development and Real Estate thread so readers who weren't interested in this particular project thread could learn this?

A ceremony commemorating the fist day of construction of a building.

What seems to NOT be going on here...

So would you still technically call a ceremony before a demo of a previous structure on the site one will develop out of the ground later a ground-breaking ?

Posting this in the Sonoma and Development and real estate threads , but we can we have a really brief conversation on what everyone knows or feels "ground-breaking" is, including on a site where there was a previous structure?

You don't have to have a lot of construction equipment on site to have a ceremonial ground breaking. Not saying that things are a go, just that the lack of construction equipment might not necessarily be an indicator of anything not happening.

Posting this in the Sonoma and Development and real estate threads , but we can we have a really brief conversation on what everyone knows or feels "ground-breaking" is, including on a site where there was a previous structure?

Who is developing the project?

Also, what exactly is a "contingent agreement"?

I ask since the latest edition of the Houston Business Journal included a commercial real estate market guide, and one page focused on the mixed-use developments in the area, including BLVD Place. It mentioned that a luxury hotel & full-serivce spa (the presumed Ritz Carlton) was under such an agreement.

It means that the hotelier's obligation to build is only triggered by the occurrence of some event stated in their agreement with Wulfe. A contingency can be anything, but it typically is obtaining financing. e.g., hotelier is not obligated to build and operate until it obtains a loan in the amount of X dollars at Y% interest payable over Z months secured by a....

Please also post those questions under the Development and Real Estate thread as I know a lot of readers would like to be a part of discussions and learn information such as this but some of the readers may not read this project thread.

This month

In July 1938, after setting a new speed record flying his Lockheed 14 Super Electra around the world, Howard Hughes flew to Houston for a 3 day celebration.

During a banquet at the Rice Hotel, the City announced that the recently opened Houston Municipal Airport would be renamed the Howard Hughes Municipal Airport.

A few months later, it was learned that the airport would not be eligible for Federal funding if it was named after a living person.

So the name was changed back to Houston Municipal Airport, and that was the end of that.

So that 'rule' was changed before Intercontinental took George Bush's name, I assume? Where did you read about the statute regarding federal funding for airports with living names? I read it was due to opposition from people who preferred posthumous naming ?

16,685 apartment units in 65 projects; 93.32% of these (15,570) are physically occupied units.

There are 8,190 units in 27 projects presently under construction, ranging from site work to those that are partially completed and already leasing units. These will deliver to market between now and about 20 months from now (early 2010)--but more of them sooner than later.

What that will mean is that about 33% of new supply over a ten-year period will have delivered in the last 20% of years being examined. That is not only a continuation of what had already been a strong trend, but an acceleration.

Niche, where do you get your market data?

1. Hughes's family was at Beaconfield at (1700?) Main but for a short time. One story is that he was actually born in Humble, some others say Houston. The story is that his birth records were falsified. According to Howard Hughes: The Secret Life, his birthdate is even innacurate; Should be August 24th instead of December 24th. As difficult as this man was in so many areas of his life, leave it to him to not have an easily identifiable birthday.

2. The "Hughes House" is on Yoakum and currently houses Religious Studies for USThomas. After he "fled" to Los Angeles, he begged his aunt and uncle to stay in the house and paid for an addition to the house to keep them there.

3. HH married Ella Rice at a church on Texas Ave. downtown, across the street from the current Magnolia Hotel.

4. His closest relative is William Lummis, who is President of the Houston Country Club and resides in Tanglewood (an easily recognizable modern home very near the HCC).

5. Buried at Glenwood Cemetery by George Lewis & Sons on Washington Ave.

6. Hobby Airport was once named after HH until the name was taken away - I'd love to hear why this happened.

7. Apparently used to eat at the "Pig Stand" on Washington Ave. Cannot verify that, unfortunately.

8. Does anyone know if Hughes Tool still possesses any of that furniture they wanted to sell?

I saw a television program on Howard Hughes recently. It told of his secluded childhood with his mother, her paranoia (he later inherited), his mental issues. It was really sad, that he was so intelligent, but had mental problems that went undiagnosed & untreated. Several documentary style moving films were featured within the show, displayed how Howard Hughes disorders were apparent from his mannerisms. One example was how he tugged at his pants leg during an interview. The injuries he suffered in the plane crashes hastened his mental collapse. The TV program also said that anyone else would have been dead long before he died, with all the physical problems and chronic pain.

What station had this program? Remember the name of it?

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/bc0418cl.html

So buildings made of masonry are actually better at reducing energy?

For those insulatory reasons, I have always presumed so..

Finalizing some lending specifics is the word...

you can 99.9% blame these guys (<- some great reading material) for the project failing.

really was a shame. current owner was 75% presold, poured the piliars, ready to start hard construction, and then MM went *poof*. after 2+ years, finally found a new lender but all the presales backed out due to being spooked, which was understandable, and he could never recapture the velocity.

its a great site and a shame it took this long to develop.

MM?

http://www.uli-houston.org/newsevents/news...s_YL_080716.htm

Deadline is today, though!

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Why did you post these? Great information.... also, don't have the address, but are you aware of the church downtown across the street from the Magnolia hotel on Texas Ave., where HHughes married Ella Rice?

Yes. . . they break ground tomorrow. . .

kidding!

I think there is a contractor shack there, so that is a good sign that something is brewing.

Wow, you got me for a second. I'm going to stop by that shack...

This applies to anyone interested in Hotel ZaZa Houston or even Dallas, hotel development, redevelopment of existing structures (hotels), innerloop Houston development, or just nicer Houston hotels.....

ULI is putting on an event Wednesday that members of ULI or non members can attend for 20 or 25 dollars. Think it includes food, as well. President of Hotel ZaZa is coming from Dallas to Houston to talk about the obstacles and process of the development of Hotel ZaZa Houston, including the permitting and financing of the project from the Warwick Hotel. Should be doing a Q and A as well as leading everyone on a tour of the hotel from his end. Should be informative and would be good to support events like this - it'd be great to get Marriott to do something like this for the new Ritz someday.

http://www.uli-houston.org/newsevents/news...s_YL_080716.htm

Deadline to sign up is today - post if you are going to go and maybe we'll all meet at the event

Does anyone have a status update?