Geoff8201

Yikes, and their website says there are 50 store fronts. So in year, they will still have 44 empty retail spaces?

no bueno

Actually, if Tootsies is indeed going to take over 34,000 sq feet of space, then it's more space than any pre-allotted amount and will most likely reduce the total number of store fronts down from the original 50 or so (biggest I see according to the original plans is 12,000+ sq feet.

Also looking at the floor plan Level 1 and Level 2 There are allotted spaces (prior to construction) for Wildfish, Social House, The Pie Bar, Swig, and a Microplex. If those are indeed still going to be present then that cuts it down to 39. Not sure the status on any of these, but they are on the plans...

One thing I wish they would have is a nice pool hall. There's really nothing super close to this area now, the Slick Willies on 59 between Weslayan and Buffalo isn't there and the only other place for pool super close in the 77098 or 77027 zip is Harlow's inside the Edwards Grand Palace movie theater. If I'm wrong please enlighten me, I miss playing pool...

So are there any stores open here yet? Are they even done with construction? It's been a long time since I've been by.

Hmm, well I guess those are valid questions...

I don't think yet officially.

Yes, with exception of the store and restaurant interiors. The exterior IMO looks amazing, especially at night, it makes this intersection and this section of Kirby something to behold.

Residents have been moving in, I have a good view of the garage and its looking much fuller.

After this event I'll post what I see, I wonder where this Menu of Menu thing is actually going to take place within West Ave... still empty retail area perhaps? Guess I'll find out.

EDIT: From the West Ave site:

Coming Soon- May 2010

• Rome - romedayspa.com

Coming Soon – Fall 2010

• Zaika – indikausa.com

• Cru – cruawinebar.com

• Eddie V’s – eddiev.com

• Ad West

Coming Soon – January 2011

• Tootsies – tootsies.com

There's going to be an event Tuesday April 13th that I'm definitely going to attend. Here's the link for those who are interested:

Houston Menu of Menus

Actually, the majority of the retail parking is underground beneath the Kirby/Kipling building and the building behind it.

Ah, I stand corrected. I didn't recall any underground work when they first started, but you are right. I took another look, even the master plan for the first level on the West Ave. website indicates the retail parking goes down to basement level(s). That's good, can never have too much parking, kinda makes it more Galleriaesque in that way.

According to this article in the Houston Chronicle one more lease will be filled by Tootsies, 34,000 sq ft of it on the ground level opening in about a year. They're hoping a monkey see monkey do effect with filling the rest of the retail space following Tootsies.

After nearly three decades as a Highland Village institution, Tootsies is relocating to West Ave, the new mixed-use development at the southwest corner of Westheimer and Kirby.

The Tootsies announcement marks the first major retail lease at West Ave, whose shop space has sat partially leased yet vacant amid a national recession where many national retailers stopped expanding and others couldn't get financing to open new stores.

A high-end boutique like Tootsies is likely to get the attention of other fashion boutiques and provide an energy boost to the project, which has nearly 200,000 square feet of retail space and almost 400 upscale apartments.

“It already has turned the heads of other prospective retailers,” said David Fitch, president and CEO of Atlanta-based Gables Residential, which is developing West Ave with Northwestern Mutual.

While the tenant roster has changed over the past year or so, about 40 percent of the retail space is leased, according to Gables. The first tenants will open this summer.

Tenants include Zaika, an Indian cafe from Houston restaurateur Anita Jaisinghani of Indika; Cru, a wine bar and cafe; Eddie V's, an Austin-based seafood, steak, and live music concept; Rome, a day spa and salon; and a new restaurant and lounge concept by Ad West, a group known for operating The Drake and Red Door in Houston.

When Tootsies opens in its new digs a year from now, it will be leaving Highland Village, a prominent outdoor shopping center that runs along both sides of Westheimer near Weslayan.

But the vacancy shouldn't be difficult to fill, local retail experts said.

“When most retailers come to Houston looking for street retail, that's the first place they want to be,” said Blake Tartt III president of New Regional Planning.

Highland Village CEO Haidar Barbouti said the old Tootsies building will be demolished and 100,000 square feet of multi-level retail space with underground parking will be developed in its place.

“With Tootsies' departure, we are excited to announce the next phase in the modernization and expansion of Highland Village,” Barbouti said.

In its new home, Tootsies will occupy 34,000 square feet on West Ave's ground level at Westheimer and Kirby.

Architecture firm Gensler is designing the space, which will be under construction this summer.

The new Tootsies location will provide more room to house the store's fashions, owner Mickey Rosmarin said.

“By moving to West Ave, Tootsies will offer shoppers a fresh retail experience.”

The deal with Tootsies has been in the works for a while.Fitch wouldn't discuss the terms of the lease.

In today's economy, some landlords have to get aggressive to fill their empty spaces. Many retailers stopped expanding when the country went into a recession and perks like free rent and build-out allowances have grown.

“The financial responsibility of landlords has increased,” said Fitch, adding that tenants that sign onto projects early on typically get more favorable deals.

While Fitch said it's taken longer to finalize deals with retailers, the apartments at West Ave have leased faster than the company expected.

The residential component is 70 percent leased for rents that average $2 per square foot, though the company is offering concessions.

“From a financial modeling standpoint, the project looks similar as originally conceived,” said Fitch, who declined to reveal the project's development cost.

Construction on West Ave is nearly complete.

Designed by Looney Ricks Kiss, the first two floors of the seven-story brick, stucco and cast stone development include two floors of retail space comprising 190,000 square feet for more than 50 storefronts and underground parking.

The top levels have 389 high-end apartments ranging in price from $1,400 to more than $3,000 per month.

“It's truly going to be the first urban project like this,” said Nick Hernandez of Page Partners, which is leasing the retail space.

One falsehood I see in this article is they mention underground parking... there is a massive parking garage... but nothing underground. Minor details.

On a side note...

For now it seems that the Phase II expansion is on hold for obvious reasons... but I'm wondering, as discussed earlier on this thread, what will become of the Chuy's property? Personally I'm most excited for the new restaurants seeing as how they are practically within walking distance from me.

Are the restaurants / retail still slated to start opening in March?

Personally, I have to ask what does Houston need there. More mixed use development? More Medical Center extensions? Necessity is the mother of invention afterall.

Let me interject my wishful thinking... very wishfully... by saying it's too bad Houston, as large as we are, doesn't have a theme park. Astroworld went down the drain, but I'm not talking about another Astroworld... Rumors have been coming and going for years about another Disney park... why not a smaller Disney park that's geared with more Tomorrowland type rides? This is Space City afterall, I see a theme.

Yes, it's a want more than a need, and I await many replys to why this is impractical... but what the hell, we don't dream enough on here.

There was water coming from the building. Not sure what the deal was, but they had PVC pipes coming off the building and they were dumping all the water on to Main Street as well as Rusk, on top of the rupture right in the middle of the street as well.

You don't think this may have been a flow test on the fire sprinkler system begin installed?

^^^

I wonder if, from these views, Discovery/Hess Tower will appear taller than OPP.

With the wind turbines, it's going to be close. I hope it will be just a hair taller than OPP, though even if it's a hair shorter I think will still fit in just fine.

Man this thing should have gone downtown...

That's a coin toss on that one.

I think it would have gotten lost in downtown, especially considering HP, here it stands out, and caters to the RO crowd.

The architecture on this thing far exceeded my early expectations. At night the exterior lighting is amazing.

When does the first retail portions open? I'm anxious to check some of the restaurants out when they come to be.

What do you mean it was mirrored? Thats exactly how it looks.

My mistake, I took a closer look. I thought this was a shot from the side nearest Beck's Prime, in which 2727 was facing the wrong way, therefore I thought it was mirrored. At closer glance I see you took it from inside the courtyard area, facing Buildings 1 and 2 looking southward. I guess that's what happens when you have a bout of insomnia and do some 2am Haif'ing

Photos from yesterday. I also included the development across the street, West Ave.

Very nice shots once again! Tell me something, something is off in the West Ave pic... is it mirrored? And btw, even though this isn't the exact right thread I'll comment on this anyhow, West Ave. looks very nice at night with its lighting scheme, got to drive by there last night and liked what I saw.

According to this video, it's pronounced, West Ave, not West Avenue.

http://www.westaveriveroaks.com/video/west...-video-NEW.html

Unless she was reading it Verbatim from a teleprompter? She is blonde...

I would hate to say it wrong while there and get weird looks.

So one more month to go, yes? I wanna check this place out when the retail section opens.

I do not like the design for this building. It looks incomplete to me...

Any particular part or element that makes you say that?

I'm just disappointed by the overhang at the top and the change in the original design... that and most of the balconies on the northwest and southwest corners not being all glass, this is the only thing I can think of that makes it look incomplete. I like this building as part of the skyline, but all in all its too "cold" looking for me to ever live in if I struck it rich.

I know some people who would be perfectly at home here. That pretty much sums up their personalities.

And thanks for the link lockmat... I've been curious about what more of the Aqua level looks like.

This does look like a nice place. I've been seeing it going up when looking at 2727 Kirby going up, and I noticed: "Hey! there's more going up right behind it!" Kinda shot up in the shadows... 2727 and West Ave have been stealing all the attention in this area, so that's maybe why we haven't had much talk about it.

This place is supposed to be a New Orleans / Louisiana / Southern type style of architecture? Yes?

I've been seeing these little apartment midrise type places rapidly appearing, at least 5 near me alone. All with a lot of units which I'm wondering will they get filled? So many new residences all coming up at one time.

It is notable that all these new little places are quite nice on the inside, top dollar as far as looks go. Hopefully they stay maintained as such in the years to come.

Personally I just call them all by number only. 59, 45, 610, etc And I'll add N or S depending on which direction I'm going, and the 610 part I will say North, West, South...

It was funny for me being out west in Arizona and California, cause every freeway was a number with "The" in front of it. "The 60", "The 101", "The 5", "The 8" etc you get the picture.

Surely there must be something we can do.

There isn't. And stop calling me Shirley.

Also looks from the top view like they're trying to spell something out... I see strange E's an O, a U... some other deformed letters I cant really put my finger on...

Some shots of the progress. Nearing a finished exterior.

I took a walk down to Kirby and got a few current shots of whats going on with the progress on building 3. Most of it has the protective netting on there so I got what I could. Its been a while since we've had an exterior update. They are what they are.

And walking by it was nice to see people chillin on their balconies and another resident walking their dog. Signs of life! I'm anxious for the opening of the retail sections... just a few more months to go.

Nice night shots again.

Does anyone know if the reason why DT is going up so much faster than MainPlace is because DT already has the entire building leased out? MainPlace has some, but not nearly all, right? And if so, are they just taking their time with construction to buy theirselves time to find some more tenants?

I would guess that Main Place is just larger and more complicated to build.

M guess as well. Take into consideration that Mainplace has a much larger footprint, and a combined garage element (sloping floors integration of foot traffic patterns and vertical transportations for both elements), and has just gotten to the point recently where the concrete structural buildout is a repetitive floorplan, where as Discovery Tower has been a repetitive floor plan all along.

And great night photos as well. I could see these framed, hanging in the common areas of Discovery Tower... never know... keep up with the artsy, it works.

Omg, a Buffalo Wild Wings?? I hope they're not teasing. This would be even closer to me than the one on Rice in the Village is! I think I found my new hangout if they do lease it. Hopefully parking will be less of a headache than it is in the Village too.

Geoff, "attacking him for his opinion, and misunderstanding your question" is "wrong on so many levels" ??? Do I even respond to that? I do.not.care.what.anyone.thinks.it.should.be. Hess will not be owning the building, either, so that comment of yours made no sense.

"I'm sure if they were they would certainly remind you not to call your fellow..." - Thank you for projecting an opinion for a moderator, but, again, I could not care less what you think. In case you need it explained to you, I did not call a "fellow Haif'er" an ingnoramus due to his opinion ; I called him an ignoramus because he is not answering the question and is repeating the hackneyed waste of time of throwing out an opinion of the name of a project when that had nothing to do with my question. Stop wasting people's time by giving an extraneous answer that does not answer the question. That's the moral of this story.

Your frustrations are noted, however, the main reason I jumped in was because there are a lot of Guests who see these new projects going up, and in searching for information about them they find their way to these forums. Many of them see replies worded such as yours and rethink any prior thoughts about joining the forum. We lose potential contributing members, as well as develop a reputation as not being a friendly forum. Whether you don't care or do, That's the other moral of the story.

And in referring to Hess as the buildings owner was a brain flub on my part. I meant the leasing tenant of the building.

I think our points are made and this thread can get back on topic. If you want the last word on the matter you can have it.

Whoa JWW, take a chill pill! Attacking him for his opinion, and misunderstanding your question is wrong on so many levels. Personally I think the name Hess Discovery Tower does sounds better based on its location, but that's just my opinion too. Extra dollars get spent on Extra letters, so I can understand why the owner would totally throw that opinion out the window and just name the building he is moving into what he pleases.

In response to your question, I haven't seen any posts by the mods in this thread, so perhaps they aren't looking at this thread as often to know to make the change. I'm sure if they were they would certainly remind you not to call your fellow Haif'ers Ignoramuses based on an opinion. I'm sure a simple PM to one of them would clear the need for renaming the thread right up, if you feel the thread title has become outdated or inaccurate. I'm gonna request right now that when the title gets changed that for familiarity's sake the mods add a thread description stating: "Formerly known as Discovery Tower". Thank you drive thru.

No burning desire to wallow in the mud or aversion to the smell of bacon?

Haven't had much of an appetite with the stomach virus I've been fighting, but as soon as I get it back, I'm all about the bacon!

If anyone is too afraid to eat regular bacon there's always the beef bacon they serve at Katz's

So I've been sick the past 3 days, i wont go into the details for those that are visual people, but despite it all I have no fever, and am feeling much better and am trying to get my appetite back... of course all I've heard from everyone is "Do you have Swine Flu?? You need to go to the Doctor, you could have swine flu!" Jesus Christ people I don't have swine flu! Fever is a pretty important symptom in flu and I have a normal 98.6... this "pandemic" that has yet to kill a single American is getting so blown out of proportion.