swtsig

kinda wished they mimicked the undulating glass curtain wall of the phase I office on the larger phase II... it would make for a very visually appealing and cohesive development.

What types of rents are these retailers paying per square foot for this type of luxury retail space?

for the prime spots i've heard in excess of $200/sf... insane numbers for houston.

While I was talking to a very nice Oliver McMillan rep in their office and looking at the model he casually said this bottom cube in the lower part of my image above of the model is the site for the new drum roll please!!!! Ritz Carleton.

The other building just to its left is the back of the Target store. Phase two is the tower up on the westheimer end of the development. Hermes was busy as the president of the company cut the ribbon today. A very simple but beautiful space.

If it's the site adjacent to target then it looks like the same site as the proposed WA that ultimately died - most likely bc ritz overtook it.

^^^ where on earth is my W when i need it.....

Not on this site but very likely somewhere in the area. We all know they've been rumored all over uptown.

wouldn't be shocked to see that 50-story tower come to fruition if the first phases go well which i bet they do. Dallas' economy is flying high like Houston's was 18 months ago when we thought it would go on forever. biggest difference is that Dallas' economy is so much more diversified that a local "crash" is unlikely in anytime in the near future. of course they'll overbuild bc that's what every real estate boom does but good for them.

and i agree that they generally get much stronger residential/hospitality architecture. for whatever reason over the past 25 years Houston has relegated itself to very cost-conscious and often banal aesthetics. how stucco ever got popular here is beyond me but it refuses to die.

went to the bonobos grand opening party last night - great turnout, nice store. really glad to have one in houston, they make some of the best khakis around.

Le Meridien is my biological father!

i feel like slick vic posting this:

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2015/10/13/statoil-begins-houston-job-cuts.html

Got a sneak peak of the base building design. I'll be interested to see how this forum reacts - the multi family is a high rise.

I don't think it will be particularly well received honestly... It's a good reuse of the existing structure and will include a market concept, grocer, lots of retail and even green roofs(!) but if I was a betting man I'd bet the design will leave most on here wanting more. They're working through some issues to really activate the bayou as well.

My understanding is that the high rise is not part of the first phase so I'm not sure we can count on it at this point.

Well, how about that? Some off-hand information regarding construction of a tall tower has some veracity.

From native onion no less.

Excitement should probably temper a bit though.

Since this thread has already derailed and TC is no longer active w this project I might as well put this here:

http://www.houston.org/pdf/research/quickview/Economy_at_a_Glance.pdf

Pretty much echoes Triton's comments above. The economy is not great, it's gonna get worse and the numbers bear that out.

Very uninspiring design to be sure. Hopefully not stucco.

Whole foods is out btw. They could never agree to terms.

Money NEVER dries up here. Oil used to be 75% of the Houston economy, today it's 37% as Houston has greatly diversified and has extraordinary staying power...economic resilience. It's finally hit critical mass as a city and economy, so whatever oil does doesn't matter as much anymore, while it's other powerhouse economic sectors still thrive. The same stats are about the same for New York's biggest economic sector: financial (which is also down like oil). Do you think investors/developers are leaving New York because financial is down? Exactly, and they aren't leaving Houston either. To think otherwise is what we call 'stinking thinking.' That's how Houston haters and negative nellies think. And OMG don't believe everything you read in the pitiful Chron: there are Houston haters who've infiltrated there and in other media that love hyping oil bad news to try to sway opinion and psyche people out as if it's 1980's Houston all over again: NOT! Things have slowed in financial and oil, but the show must and will go on. Cranes continue to go up and fly all across Houston and New York (many people are EXTREMELY JEALOUS of this and want to try to bring Houston down: not gonna happen, sorry haters...wherever you are). This is not 1980's Houston...this is a new dynamic resilient Houston economy that's here to stay. Get used to it. So take that negative nellie loser mentality crap somewhere else. Houston, like New York, is not having it.

Why is stating the truth taken as being "negative"? Most of what bobruss said is spot on - the market here is not all rainbows and unicorns. Most of the money has in fact left town and almost all the cranes you see up or going up are for projects that were approved in a substantially better market. Oil still dominates our economy, maybe not to the extent as before but it still drives this economy. And no one is "jealous" of all of our cranes besides architecture forum fan boys.

Perhaps you shouldn't be so threatened by an economic downturn... It happens to all cities and all economies of all sizes. Relish in the fact that after this downturn the houston market will rebound as it always does. Maybe not next year or even 2017 but soon.

Has Witchcraft closed down? I drove by yesterday and it was closed, lights out. We stopped going when they decided to change their menu. 

bad mistake if you stopped going bc of the menu change - the revamped menu/format is awesome and the chef is the real deal. they're no longer open for lunch, though. they open at 4pm now.

I'd much rather have a Patagonia store than any of those others HTX rattled off.

With your insider knowledge something tells me this isn't just a hopeful dream of yours...

Well at the time it was but I think folks will be pleasantly surprised...

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/PM-Realty-pushing-ahead-on-Midtown-residential-6535646.php?t=85ba5aa965&cmpid=twitter-premium

second half 2017 and especially 2018 and 19 will see a real gap in multifamily deliveries... if you're a developer that has access to capital and believes the market will turn around by then it's a solid strategy, particularly in this low interest rate environment.

If this is the one behind La Colombe D'Or...

I was told this one is going to be a 30 story hotel behind the existing house. If that's not the one, add it to the list of potentials.

Correct.

Correct. Hines only has one other deal in the pipeline I'm aware of near 3400 Montrose.

Hopdoddy is overrated. Ya the burgers are pretty good but they're definitely no better than bernies and definitely not better than lankford. Every time I see a line 100 people deep at the south congress location I'm reminded at how much austonians buy into their own BS.

 

Hines was working on some of the residential components awhile back - not sure if that's still the case though.

it's tacky and looks like it should be on the Vegas strip...

tackier than a 50-story office building with a mayan temple as a crown?

I like Dallas ok but this just screams look at me, i'm insecure....

i tire of houstonians notion that every eye-catching thing dallas does is some outward sign of insecurity... this is cool. period. it's art and it's an interesting conversation piece. 

i'd love to see houston developers take that sort of pride in their projects that they actually want people to notice them.

i'll be dining at hakkasan in london this week so i'll have a pretty solid frame of reference on how tarakaan stacks up... not that i'd expect it to stack up favorably to a michelin-starred restaurant.

that has the same initial wow factor that hotel alessandria had before they decided to houston the sh!t out of the final product.