Trophy Property

Would the board allow a 4-5k sf house on that site. I can see how splitting that great lot would cause a lot of heartache, but I would think there would be less they could do for a single house that was not so oppulent.

2-fers anyone.

I have been there recently. It is still good. When in the village I prefer Chino Cafe (I think that is the name) Excellent dumplings.

I knew better than to hit that link. Good work.

Coog, where is that. I am in need of some dim sum.

They used to have a much stronger presence here. There was one at Westhiemer and Hillcroft and another on Sheppard. There is still one on Bellaire in Bellaire and another on Wayside. Those are the only two I know of. I am sure there were more in the past, but this market never worked too well for them. I am not sure if it was Shipley's or what, but other chains left too. Krispy Kreme was strong, but the franchisee was apparently an idiot.

I would like to see a similar concept done in houston. Whisperings are that the Ritz might be part of the BLVd project.

how about a big statue of the Allen brothers at Allen's landing ?? I am vague on the details of Allen's landing, but isnt there something like that downtown. They did discover this wonderful steamy city of ours.

On a selfish note, I hated having the games so late in the evening or early in the morning. Hell, I have to work don't I. I would love another World cup in USA. I think South America may beat us to it since they have not had it awhile.

I guess that solves my desire for a topless club in downtown...

I completely agree with Mainvoice, I have been to Latino Cafe many times. It is fantastic. Give it a try, if you like Cuban food you will not be dissapointed.

I would say the same thing. It sounds like rps324's HOA is very active and wants better results. Demand them Good luck

Its cool. You caught me at a bad moment. Chalk it up as me having a case of the extended Mondays. Keep on Keepin On.

Fair enough. I went back and re-read the article - not a lot of meat in that article, but I can see where the confusion might have arisen. For starters in my last post I stated: "I will also contend the fact that recently there have been more companies moving back into downtown. This is very much due in part to the lower rental rates in the downtown market." This is precicely what Tim was saying in the article. He mentiond deals that occurred in the past 6 months. He failed to mention El Paso has a huge company that consilidated downtown. I guess for every big move downtown there are 5-10 smaller moves that effect the intended sub market and tightened supply in those areas. To answer your other question I went back and read the previous posts. Montrose made a comment that even though the market was getting better there was no new skyskrapers downtown. I responded in agreement and then mentioned a few Suburban buildings that I had heard about and thought others here might be interested in hearing about. Maybe I posted that information in the wrong thread. My bad. You then responded with "Downtown is where the action is and where the big employers should be. I've worked all over this fair city and hope to stay downtown for the long haul. The prospect of working in an office building near Memorial City sounds terrible to me." The progression started from there and quite frankly I got annoyed with the tone of your posts and that started to piss me off. That is my problem. Bottom line is that the Houston Office Market is a dynamic one and is always changing. It is easy to make a case for both sides of the discussion. P.S. I worked for C&W for years and happen to know Tim very well. But now I am just bragging

Great analysis MidtownCoog!!! No Seriously. Do you have any clue of what you are saying or are you just shooting generalities out there to see if any stick. I assume this is the case as I have read most of your posts and half the time you tend to argue for the sake of arguing. You did mentiond in an earlier post that you worked in the Woodlands and commuted from Midtown. Where, if I might ask, were the majority of your co-workers living? Most likely a majority lived in the Woodlands. I would also wonder why you left that job. I am sure you were offered a better opportunity downtown, but some of the allure might have been the fact that your commute was substantially lessenod. While it is possible it could have been the only factor, most likely it was just part of the equation. If you try and deny that fact I would then wonder why you brought it up in a previous post !! Bottom line is I am in the Real Estate Industry and I know Office Product very well. I see the trends happen and I am on the frontline of the analysis of these trends. There has been trend over the past few years where we have seen a movement to suburban office markets. Why would rent be more in a Westchase building vs downtown if there was a not some pent up demand for companies to be located out there? Obviously, there is a big supply and demand factor when comparing downtown to suburban markets. Quite frankly, Downtown has a lot more supply available than most of the suburbs. I will also contend the fact that recently there have been more companies moving back into downtown. This is very much due in part to the lower rental rates in the downtown market. To conclude, there is still a strong demand for new construction in certain areas of the town. Downtown is not one of those markets right now.... 3-5 years this could be the total reverse. If you read this and want to call it junk then by all means go ahead. We can agree to disagree. Most of the crap that you post is junk too. Good day.

Nevermind. You are clearly not even reading what I am saying.

Hey you are preaching to the choir here, but there has been a huge shift in the way companies look at office space. The high cost of benefits, triaining, and employee retention has caused some of these huge companies to look at many factors that were not an issues in times past. Location is one of those issues. People typically want to work close to where they live. If you live in Midtown then Downtown is ideal. I live at BW8 and Briar Forrest and would love to work in the Westchase area. Many of these companies are realizing where their employee base is coming from and will try and locate near by. THis is not always the case and is not always feasible, but it is happening more than you might think. Downtown Houston will always be the HUB, and is it also the biggest office market in Houston. It has seen some bad days with Enron, Calpine, and other energy companies contracting space. The sub-lease market has been a big problem and rental rates and lower occuapancy numbers has caused a lot of short term issues. Right now Downtown it is what it is and rental rates are nowher near the level where new construction can be justified. I know there are a lot of pie in the sky people on this website that want to see a new 100 Story massive high rise built in Houston. Well it aint happening anytime soon.

Most likely you will be appraised somewhere close to what you paid (including your upgrades). The taxing authorities have gotten smart and are doing their homeworke. It is hard to get around this fact !!

Krix, are you still in Germany? I think you said you were going to the Poland Equador game which was today. How was it? Is the country going nuts with Germany's play. I am getting feelings of 1998 when France dominated on their home soil. Keep the updates coming. THANKS

You are correct ----- No new skyscrapers in downtown right now. The rental market will not justify it. There are some new suburban developments going up on the West side of Town. The Midway Group is close to breaking ground on a new Office Building as part of the T&C makeover. I also heard Granite is building a new 14 story building at Richmond and BW8. It I am not mistaken, Metronational is building another office building with at Memorial City. The first two of these deals are already being pre-leased and will most likely happen. Rental rates are going for about $27 a foot in this market (for new class A stuff). which makes these deals possible. With the price of downtown dirt a new building would have to get upwards of $30-$35 PSF for it to make sense. Downtown is far from those rates. $22-$24 are legitimate rates right now with many right at $20.

If you think about it we took on all their uneducated after Katrina !! <insert sarcastic emoticon here>

That house looked so much better before it sat for a year. So I guess I could assume from the above the link the house traded for somewhere between 250-300k. That is a pretty substantial jump in one years time to expect $340k. Thanks for the info JM1FD What does JM1FD stand for anyway.. If you don't mind me asking.

I was thinking the exact same thing. The top 10 biggest cities were lumped in the 30-50 range. More diverse population = less educated people as a whole. This argument also does not seem to take into account the cost of living in the top 10 most educated cities. San Fran, Seattle are expensive as hell which means you must have a damn good job to pay the bills. Most of the damn good paying jobs require higher degrees. Sure NYC and Chicago are expensive, but those cities still have poorer areas and barrios that are more affordable.

I am sorry to say, but 2,000 sf on 17,000 lot is doomed for new construction. The price is right and the location is very good. A lot that big will generate alot of interest. Was the previous owner trying to split the lot and built two houses? I am sure the memorial bend association would not be too fired up for that. But with a lot that big I do not see how they could stop someone from building a single house (as long as it was within the deed restrictions.). Do you have any idea the purchase price from a year ago. It would be interesting to see if he the seller will be making a profit.

Interesting. Did they give any indication on when they might need the equipment ??