bach

Anyone work for or know anyone at Hines? Since they own, manage and/or lease One Shell, 2 Shell, BOA, 1100 Louisiana, Chase Tower, Chase Center, Chase Bank and the old Bank One, they could make a big dent in the complaints here. Surely someone in this forum knows them -- or even someone within Hines who can tell us what the deal is.

A friend of mine lives in Keystone. Quieter than most, across from Christ Church Cathedral (peaceful and green), across from the federal detention center (quiet on the outside, lots of security!), close enough to the clubs/bars/restaurants, while not in the middle of it.

Hines had their topping out ceremony last Thursday, May 3.

No tree on top, though.

What number is it that people throw around here for how many people are needed in a community to support a grocery store? Is it like 30,000? I forget.

While residents within 1-2-3 miles are what retailers count, I've heard retail brokers say it'll take 20-25,000 people living within the elevated freeways. Right now there are about 4,000. Marvy's project, when fully occupied, should produce almost 500 more. And when the Old Texaco Building project is eventually converted, that'll add another 500 or so. We've got a way to go.

Retail follows people -- residents, workers, visitors. We've got the workers. Can we really bring retail without enough residents and visitors?

5:00 traffic on Travis will get slower with all those outbound buses and commuters.

Ingress/egress on Travis is only for 30 parking spaces or so that are at street level -- the highest rent spaces. And it's on the left side of the street -- opposite of buses.

Ingress/egress on McKinney is for the rest of the almost 300 parking spaces -- and it's on the left side of the street, too.

All spaces are reserved. The top floor provides a fantastic view for a parking garage -- windows, locked-off balcony. So, the best spaces are at the top of the parking garage. And direct access to the building's elevators -- no need to transfer from garage to building. Garage has the very high-speed garage doors.

Opened April 2.

They've done a terrific job with the lobby and escalator to the tunnel. From the Tunnel it looks like the sun is shining in.

This is not meant to offend anyone, but this add-on .... well, you just have to see it. Check the back and front views too ...

http://www.har.com/6471773

Isn't the point of architecture to integrate things in an unobtrusive way?

Oh, my!

Yep, they're officially called "nap rooms"

Besides, "Naps, not coffee, boost productivity," Chron 3/11/07

www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2007_4302122

a "nap" you say?

Yep, they're officially called "nap rooms"

Short-term closures this weekend for construction or maintenance - In the 1000-1200 blocks of Polk (Main to Caroline) and the 1100-1200 blocks of Fannin (Lamar to Polk) the Pavilions contractor will close all lanes to install a tower crane for a portion of the Pavilion's construction. The closures will begin Friday night at 8 PM and last until Monday morning 5 AM with one exception.

source: Downtown District's weekly street closings e-mail

This building was part of the former "Houston Endowment" holdings, which included the remains of the Jesse Jones real estate empire. The Gulf Building, Texas Commerce Bank, Gulf Building Annex and the Houston Club building were part of this group.

I remember working in the ceiling of the men's locker room years ago, replacing rotten cast iron pipe below the kitchen. I was a skinny guy, so I got volunteered for these types of duty. I was on top of a ladder coming down out of the ceiling carrying pipe when I looked down to see who it was trying to get my attention. It was a couple of old guys, stark naked, inquiring on what I was working on. It scared the crap out of me. It seemed that these old guys, top executives from the past, liked to hang around for hours in just a towel or less, just like it was the most normal thing in the world. I myself don't even like showing my plumber's crack to anyone, much less the whole package. Wrinkled Memories!

And I understand they still have sleep rooms where club members can take a nap, or whatever. Has anyone seen these?

Here's the site, complete with sign and trailer, taken yesterday.

Im looking to get out of Tampa, but want the same kinda weather. Houston seems far enough inland that it wouldnt be as affected by hurricanes,but...

the flooding you got last yr(or the yr b4) seemed pretty bad.

how bad do the hurricanes get? how far inland would it flood?

Thanks

Houston gets hurricanes.

But live in a location that's not close to water (Gulf of Mexico, Galveston Bay, Clear Lake, other lakes, bayous), a neighborhood that hasn't been flooded before, a house that's higher than the street, a neighborhood that has good drainage, and you should be OK. I've been here 40+ years, and have never been flooded or had to evacuate -- have just had to pick up a lot of debris from trees, shrubs. Be a bit educated about it, and you should be OK. Oh, and have insurance, too, because just like anywhere else in the world where "things" can happen.

Leasing at Pennzoil is probably more attibutable to a strong local economy than this.

I haven't been downtown for a long time. So is this "architecturally significant" parking garage completed, or nearly so? Is it truly "architecturally significant" as Hines promised?

The parking garage isn't finished -- I don't think they've topped out.

It's a Hines garage being built for Sunbelt, the owner of Pennzoil and the parking lot in front of 1 Shell and 2 Shell. Hines never released renderings of the garage, but it was supposed to be sleek, and one of those garages that typically gets written up in Cite. Just like the Catholic Co-Cathedral, it has been value-engineered, and they're going in the direction of not including a skin -- just the metal cables going across, with maybe 3' of coverage on each floor. Ouch. Ugly buildings aren't illegal, unfortunately.

It is a restaurant named PicaZo, or something like that. It appears to now be open, serving breakfast and lunch (accoeding to the banner). Not sure about dinner.

It's Picazo. From an e-mail they sent out 3/27/07:

breakfast, lunch, or dinner

we cater and deliver.

thanks

anthony vowell

marketing director

713-628-0219 cell

picazo restaurant bar & grill

1421 preston @ labranch

houston tx 77002

www.picazodowntown.com

713-236-1300

They were putting up the crane for one Park place, and they were doing some serious lifting on top of one of the buildings.

*********

One of the closures: They were putting transformers on top of 2 Shell. Crane was on the ground around 6pm Sat night, taking it down.

Prisoners released from the TDC in Huntsville get a Greyhound ticket to that location in Midtown . . . state policy is to send them back to the location of their conviction; that's why it looks like a prison yard.

An article regarding the problem:

www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2002_3596352

I can't find one, however, that I think I remember reading that described what they were doing about the inmates who left Huntsville, came to Houston and were supposed to move on. They implemented a system whereby someone would be at the bus station waiting for the bus to arrive, and identifying former inmates and making sure they got on their next bus. This was supposed to help the problem at least somewhat.

The mat pour was incredible last night. Absolutely mesmerizing!

MEDIA ALERT/PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

For Fri., March 16 and Sat., March 17

CONTACT: Deborah Hartman

713-626-1529

deborahhartman@houston.rr.com

Or

Jennifer Massey

The Finger Companies

713-867-7009; ext. 192

jmassey@fingercompanies.com

OVERNIGHT FOUNDATION POUR FOR DOWNTOWN LUXURY APARTMENT TOWER

Downtown Houston gets new "welcome mat" in 15-hour "Mat Pour" for first high-rise apartment building in 40 years

WHAT: Giant floodlights will guide the150 concrete trucks as they perform a tightly choreographed, rotating chorus line to off-load 7,600 cubic yards of concrete over a 15-hour period, to form the 8'6", 27,000-square- foot mat foundation for One Park Place, downtown Houston's first luxury high-rise apartment building in more than 40 years; and the first residential development contiguous to Houston's new downtown park, Discovery Green.

A "mat pour" is the term for creating the mat foundation for a high-rise building.

WHO: The Finger Companies

94% as of last month. Very impressive considering the typical turnover rate for yuppies and the like.

Any idea about (rental) price/sf? $1.60 or so?

And how many months of free rent for a 12-month lease?

The Galleria

Group: Members

Posts: 99

Joined: Tuesday, January 16th, 2007

Member No.: 3,421

QUOTE(713 To 214 @ Thursday, March 8th, 2007 @ 7:02pm) Houstondowntown.com

Exactly. You hit the nail on the head. The first thing that stands out when you get to their site are the following words: What To Do . When you click on What To Do, they have downtown broken up into 10 different districts, or is it 17 ? Who is going to get on there and navigate 10 areas in 1 downtown. It' s all here ! (as they say), but when are they going to promote it and tell somebody about it ? They have taken so much time creating districts for one downtown instead of trying to unify the area as a whole and making Midtown blend in as downtowns neighborhood. Downtown is intimidating for most that aren't familiar with the area or that are visiting. I can't see a tourist going to that site in their hotel room trying to figure anything out, the rest of the material looks like it is stuff that their boss expects to see in order to justify getting a paycheck. No offense,but there sure seems like there could be a whole lot more thought put into promoting the area. I think anyone would be hard pressed outside of this forum to have heard of houstondowntown.com. If you and I worked for a company that built so many magnificent facilities and stadiums, and invested this much money into the downtown area and couldn't come up with a way to get off of our tails and actually promote it then I think we would be fired. It's sad...

Lot of wasted space here. Why not go to them and say something?

Thank you. I couldn't agree with you more. Bach I think the material should pertain to the area and not confuse people or frustrate them trying to figure out exactly what is going on. Additionally, I don't think anyone is even aware that this site is out there. I think that perhaps instead of spending all of this money to create new districts, more banners, more division, the same money could be spent actually promoting the area as a whole and perhaps letting people actually know what downtown has to offer.

OK, but there's more that you do want with respect to the way the info is presented. What is it? How would you do it?

There is also a parking lot covering the entire block to the north of 5 Houston Center. That is what GovernorAggie was referring to and that is the "Walker/Rusk/Austin/LaBranch" I was referring to in my earlier post. I would think either that block or the block or the block across Walker to the north of 1 Houston Center or the likely locations for 6 Houston Center. I'm pretty sure Crescent identified the location of 6 Houston Center some years back. I'll see if I can find that.

Ritz-Carlton. A few years back, before they started the work on the old Texaco Building, it was to be re-done into a Ritz-Carlton Hotel and residences. By the time they started the work, it had changed to be a Renaissance. But, as you probably know, the project was abandoned some time after the building to the north was torn down and some or most of the gutting was done. I'm still hoping Ritz-Carlton will get back in that project.

The Ritz-Carlton deal fell through ~2000/early 2001. Kimberly-Clark bought the Old Texaco Building (1111 Rusk), as a result of their tax department's desire for the tax credits. They tore down the 1960s-era building (and left a huge pit on the NE side), but left the historic portions. K-C planned to put in a Marriott Renaissance hotel, but decided to hold off on that idea when the hotel business went south. They then looked at residential projects, and then decided to "weigh their options." An investor now has a contract on the building and would make it residential -- condos as well as residential.

What a fantastic building for residential.

^^^ I wonder if it's the same type of work that I see going on at the old Days Inn. Every couple of days out of the week, I'll see three to six workers with hard hats going in and out--not enough for any massive work to be taking place but enough to make you wonder what exactly is going on.

The old Days Inn is actively being marketed for sale (again), so there will be lookers out there. Maybe somebody can figure out what to do with it.

Whoa, it's never good to lose a Fortune 500 company. They help bolster Houston's rep, among other things.

With respect to the number of jobs, Halliburton's HQ occupies only 2 floors of space in 5 Houston Center downtown. Not high-density floors. Shoot, another one bites the dust.

i think it would be interesting to have a poll asking all HAIF users to just go to www.houstondowntown.com and see if they think this is an easy way for people to find information regarding eating out, shopping, or doing anything at all for that matter downtown and see if they think it is user friendly and/or geared towards making it easy for people interested in having a night out downtown. I think it would also be interesting to see if anyone hears anything at all outside of a bad-news story or some type of self-promotion like (example: Houston Pavilions) that is directly attributed to the efforts of this group that is supposed to be paid to promote downtown. yes, it's all downtown, but where are the people who are supposed to pushing it hiding ? perhaps somewhere in this blog stuck in deep theory dreaming of neighborhoods and excuses during the day at work instead of taking some initiative and actually trying to work with all the amenities downtown has to offer ?

How would you present the material? And are there examples out there that they should look at?

i don't understand the popularity of the place. the food is ok but nothing i would wait in line for. i did go one time when they had a trio playing and enjoyed that.

Bonnie's is perfect when you need a good place for lunch when you're downtown/intown and you need to meet someone who's in Clear Lake, Ship Channel, etc.

i am open to suggestions on Realtors in the Midtown area to assist me in buying a condo.

been looking for a while and know that is the exact area i want to be in.

thanks to everyone in advance!

j

Strong recommendation: Minnette Boesel. Before I moved or told any Realtor I might move, I got to know several Realtors, because I knew I wanted to move to downtown or Midtown, and I wanted a buyer's rep. Magnificant. I recommended her to two others, and they were very, very pleased.