toxtethogrady

Some of those don't look like storefronts, so it's hard to tell.

This will most definitely be one of the tallest buildings on Washington.

 

Pearl Washington Houston by Marc longoria, on Flickr

Until it is joined by all the other 5-story apartment blocks being planned for that neighborhood.

I just love the marriage of those European-style townhouses with that cellphone tower. Classy.

Since they also showed H & M in the renderings, can we assume they are a serious tenant?

A lot of people in New York.

Actually, both the New York and Miami residential building booms are being financed with foreign money. There seem to be a lot of people with lots of money in other parts of the world who would like a place in the US, and they seem to want a residence in New York or Miami. Houston could serve the same function for a lot of Mexican nationals (and in fact it seems to be attracting a lot of residential sales to Mexicans).

I'm not sure the relocations are going to generate the demand for the new building. Apache's been under pressure from activist shareholders to "maximize shareholder value". Which is often code for sell or break up the company. It certainly does not favor new office construction - especially when oil is still only $59 a barrel. We'll see if these plans get revisited when oil hits $75 a barrel again.

Apparently the permit department is way behind. Not sure if that is the source of the delay here but I have seen several projects that had been announced take a long time to get through permitting.

They've been backlogged for a while, which is why they've got contract people in the office trying to work on the backlog.

UNcurled? My hair always frizzes up.

I know of one fairly large downtown law firm in negotiations with Skanska to move in 2017.  I also know that another large downtown law firm is looking to move in early 2018 and are possibly in talks with the Capitol Tower folks.  Fingers crossed.

Yes, but can we get an out-of-town firm to put, say, 500 employees in a block of space in the building?

The music stage kinda looks cool with the steps leading to the water.

The music stage at Panther Island in Fort Worth actually faces the river. For the benefit of the tubers.

That Dick - always one for a pithy quote.

"It would have been GLORIOUS!"

$16 million is a pretty minor commitment. We'll have to see if they get to that second patient tower.

So you got that picture after the floods?

Californication.

Don't complain. It could be orange.

And in other news from Tweak Coffee...

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2015/05/28/grand-texas-reworks-master-plan-delays.html

Looks like everything's delayed, and they want to add an outlet mall.

At least one of the apartment complexes underway on Memorial Drive had water up to the second level of the garage.

Just remember - you can't be big on Broadway if you don't have any Jews...

I think I saw the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the AD Players in the 1990s one time. I am actually pretty surprised they get something like this, it seemed "community theater" back then, not bad just small.

It was gifted to them by Bob McNair. Equivalents in DC would be the church-related theater companies (Aldersgate, St. Mark's) but on a much more ambitious scale.

I found something else that's going up faster than Block 334...

^^^ wow, that white stone is of such thickness and high quality, that it shall render this place virtually indestructible.  it's going to be quite expensive to reside at this magnificent edifice!  

You mean, it got stone and I missed it?

Damn - a PM holding a GC's feet to the fire on a guaranteed maximum price? How novel. Usually a GC files a claim for changed conditions and the project owner rolls over like a dog wanting its belly scratched...

Oh, let's spread the pain around...

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/columnists/mitchell-schnurman/20150420-schnurman-how-low-oil-prices-are-squeezing-jobs-in-dallas.ece

Bill Gilmer now says Houston will create only 13,000 jobs this year.

They did whatever they thought was right for their company to survive at the time and the thing about layoffs is that if everything is going good again then you bring them back on.

Well, if they don't depart from someplace like San Francisco.