swtsig

funny that it won't let you type Brown & G a y

yeah, i read that article this morning... great news. hopefully it transpires. downtown could use all the residential it can get.

very very cool... love all the projects going up in austin, although traffic there is brutal.

Actually, according to this report, The Woodlands is losing office occupancy share, while Greenspoint is gaining. Certainly, Greenspoint took a hit during 2009, but that had everything to do with the recession and the bottoming out of oil prices, and nothing to do with Exxon's impending departure. The Woodlands held up fairly well during the recession, but has tanked during the current year, actually achieving net absorption during the 1st quarter of 2011.

I am confident that The Woodlands will recover nicely, but their current numbers do not induce either jealousy or hyperventilation...at least from me.

the report you posted shows a -9K absorption number for the woodlands, while the numbers i have show +50K thru 1q11... it depends where you're sourcing your numbers as everyonwe tracks them differently. additionally, i know of one and likely 2 major tenants, both currently in greenspoint, that will be vacating their current digs for new ones in the woodlands and neither one of them goes by the name of exxon. i also know of several multifloor tenants who have relocated or intend on relocating from greenspoint to the woodlands in the near future.

exxon's departure spells doom for the greenspoint area imo... major tenants do not want to stick around in a ghostown where many of their employees feel unsafe and the amenity pool is shrinking. with the proposed grand parkway construction, hardy toll road, etc transportation between IAH and the woodlands is not a major concern. as most greenspoint employees likely live on the northside anyways, the woodlands is a logical place for many tenants to consider and the amenities that the woodlands provide is a huge draw to large tenants and their employees.

Wow, no offense meant to Editor, but is HAIF dying? An announcement that a big project like this is breaking ground in an area like the galleria and nobody is talking about it? What is going on? A few years ago this topic would have already been on it's second or third page.

yeah, i thought the exact same thing... strange to see such little activity. this is the type of news this board used to eat up.

http://blogs.chron.com/primeproperty/2011/04/bbva_to_consolidate_offices_in.html

i initially thought they (BBVA) were going into redstone's proposed 2nd tower at the houstonian but thought even then i was likely mistaken. no word on the rest of the mixed-use development.

and if i were a betting man i'd expect another large tower announcement on post oak in the near future.

i've also heard not to hold your breath on skanska...

feel free to merge with the other thread(s) on this topic. just thought it was worth a new one.

i shudder at the thought of that thing opening...

(sigh)

i wonder if the springwoods village announcement has set other potential developments in motion? 4 waterway avenue isn't full. is there demand for more office space in the woodlands area right now?

i guess the site plan showing up on zc doesn't necessarily mean anything is happening soon.

office demand is gaining a ton of momentum in the woodlands and it haseverything to do with everyone fleeing the greenspoint area mainly due to exxon's forthcoming departure. i'd expect to see a couple of tenant-lead office buildings pop up over the next year or two.

Still haven't been there and don't feel like I am missing out on anything. It might be named CityCentre, but it isn't a destination for anyone other than Westsiders and area office workers. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

perhaps it's nothing special to ITLers (which i consider myself as well) but CityCentre is incredibly popular and successful... it doesnt need ITLers at all, in fact, as the population it pulls from is both wealthy enough and abundant enough that pulling people from the "true" geogrpahical city center is of no importance. and hell, it is technically the demogrpahic center of the city anyways... being a destination for westsiders and office workers in the area is coup for the developers.

office building 3 will be under way soon and i wouldn't be surprised at all if they went forward with #4 soon after. the location is highly desirable to office tenants in the energy corridor/westchase areas.

I am not sure of any of the details. I just heard that an office project at this address was in the works with funding and a teneant in place. The people that I talked to were being all 007 about it.

hmm... well that's good to hear bc it coincides with some chatter i heard last week (although i have no specifics). i'm pretty sure the hines/blvd place office tower has its lead tenant. and i could have very easily confused the lead tenant i mentioned for the redstone/houstonian bldg with the redstone/perennial bldg.

Seems like this will happen relatively quickly. There is a lot of momentum for this project. It would be great if we could get another residential tower or two in the next few years.

funny this topic came back up... i heard the same thing last week.

I wonder what buildings are losing tenants as a result.

one allen center (hess)

bank of america center (kpmg)

5444 westheimer (bg)

I am hearing some rumbling rumors that something going to start on this site soon. Could be wishful thinking, but the rumor mill says that it has financing and a tenant. Does anyone have anything to add to the rumor mill?

if you're talking office tenant i can think of at least one major company that is looking in the area but don't have any real specifics as to where they'll end up, although i'm fairly certain they've had a site selected for at least a few months. are you perhaps thinking of redstones proposed 2nd houstonian office building? i heard very recently that they do have a lead tenant and that it is a go.

i will echo the sentiments on bernie's burger bus... absolutely top notch burger in every possible way. juicy and beefy patty, fantastic toppings, handmade everything including the fries and condiments. and it sets up shop at my local watering hole (lizzards) fri and sat nights

also, on the recommendation of allison cook, i stopped by ninfa's on nav yesterday to try the fajita burger..... HOLY flurf. perhaps the best burger i can recall having. the juicy ground beef had chunks of chargrilled fajita bits in it and it blew my freakin' mind. topped w gooey white mexican cheese, grilled and seasoned red onion and avacado slices, it was an other-worldly burger experience. just another reason why NoN is the bomb.

man, what a botched project this became... three blocks of prime CBD land all for an outdoor mall and an office building. the developers had a chance to make this a very solid contribution to downtown but really dropped the ball here. if it wasn't for NRG this project would've traded hands already or would've gone back to the lender by now. to think they had all that perimeter sidewalk space and willingly chose to not take advantage of it.

Chris Shepperd of Catalan fame will also be opening up a new restaurant called Underbelly in one half of the old Chance's/soon-to-be Hay Merchant building. The Montrose area is quickly becoming a mecca for foodies... think about it:

Mark's

Hugo's

vinoteca poscol

El Real

Hay Merchant

Uchi

Dolce Vita

Indika

Feast

Underbelly

Da Marco's

Sorrento's

Royal Oak

and places like bb's, little bigs, nidda, biba's, katz's, tomi, micaelangelo's, crepe guy, niko niko's, etc. If you want you can even include places like Brasil, Empire Cafe, Angora (eventually), Paulie's... That's a tremendous amount of high quality establishments (expensive or otherwise) in a very small area.

Just got back from the Pavilions and was blown away by how much space NRG now occupies. They are not just in the tower, but are also on the ground floor and a big chunk of the second floor. You can literally walk up to their offices and be creepy by staring at employees working at their desks... or stand in at their board room. Just added pics of it on InnerLooped. The offices are really cool looking btw.

NRG saved the project.

neither one of those will have much of an impact on the pavillons nor downtown houston. the pavillons especially is struggling very badly.

This is good for downtown and Houston Pavilions. This place is just across the street from HP:

This, too, which is one block further

http://www.chron.com...te/7284024.html

Throwin in a pic I took last Friday

IMG_1203 by lockmat9, on Flickr

Even better news would be some tenants! some day...

there's already someone onboard for 250K SF... it's a start at least

The linked HBJ blurb was hideously bad writing and certainly left one with the impression that the HQ is up for a relocation bidding and Houston has been eliminated. Don't be expecting intelligent writing in a newspaper. Other than having earlier left the impression that the HQ was part of the current study (which impression may have been the result of bad journalism) there has been absolutely no indication that they are considering relocating their headquarters.

I'm still hoping that the mayor and downtown developers (Hines) are doing everything imaginable to try to get Exxon Mobil to build downtown rather than a new campus in Spring. Imagine an urban "campus" around the Exxon Tower downtown. Could fill up those vacant blocks surrounding their current tower with an amazing complex.

highly unlikely for the reasons niche posted as well as security reasons... a suburban XOM campus provides them with significantly more control and thus security that a CBD location couldn't.

Or quite the opposite...perhaps it was scrapped because Springwoods Village intentionally chose that location because word was leaked about the Exxon Campus going in at that location. I bet they tried to capitalize on it, like The Woodlands, to have a fortune 500 company in its 'downtown' area. I wonder if that would have scared Exxon away?

completely misleading post... nothing is said of the consolidation and campus near the woodlands being scrapped, only that the official XOM HQ would not be moving here. the 4M SF (or whatever # it is now) campus is happening, it just won't be XOM HQ.

Well supposedly this has a 91% vacancy rate, but seeing how beautiful this building is, hopefully it won't stay that way for long!

well technically kpmg is the only tenant so far and they're only going to occupy the top 4 floors... that could change soon though

looks mighty suburban

http://newyorkrealestate.citybizlist.com/yourcitybiznews/detail.aspx?id=95828

Quote

Scant on details about the plan, New York-based Coventry Development Corp. is poised to begin work on a mixed-use, sustainable project in North Houston.Details will be unveiled Oct. 5 in a one-hour web briefing, according to company officials. The developer did reveal that the development will be transit-oriented and include residential, retail, office, recreational and educational uses.

guessing something near the proposed intermodal transist station (or whatever its called).

the waldorf astoria is a very upscale hotel chain which includes the world famous waldorf astoria hotel in manhattan... strange that they would be building one here in Houston. i'm gonna say that this is strictly conceptual.