Sellanious Caesar

It looks a low rise that would go up in DC or Boston, I dig it.

I like it too. It's befitting of TMC.

Guys, it's a hospital. Architectural wonders are better suited for Downtown, Uptown, or even Greenway.

Not only that but the context of both threads at this point have conversations going two separate directions.

It will be an awkward merger.

I love both buildings' designs.

The bigger picture for me is that both are almost assuredly 360-500 feet tall. For DT that's nothing, just another skyscraper somewhere in the concrete jungle circled by the 69/10/45 loop. For Uptown, this will immensely start filling in holes. That skyline is pretty linear and it's built from 59/610 north to where Uptown Park is in that manner.

Uptown covers such a massive land area, where if a towers' design doesn't appease you, it's nothing to fret, there'll be more in the districts tenure to compensate a lackluster design or two.

We all know the Gables residential one is 36 floors by now. I got 33 stories for the office tower!

Assuming 15 feet floor spacing, 495 feet! The Gables Perennial looks about the same height or taller!

Memorial Hermann chief facilities office Marshall Heins, speaking at Bisnow's Healthcare Real Estate summit Tuesday, says you have to grow to be competitive in a post-Affordable Care Act world. (Like a football player or a lion.) That explains the absurd amount of development our panelists have up their sleeves. For example, Marshall is up to the construction doc phase of his $700M master plan. It'll be a 4.5-year project, including building a new 1.4M SF tower and refurbishing some of its six older pavilions. Memorial Hermann also just opened its second convenient care center (he says each costs about $40M to build). The first has been an overwhelming success, and is three years ahead of pro forma.

http://www.bisnow.com/commercial-real-estate/houston/1706-now-you-can-live-near-citycentre/

I would imagine by any standard a 1.4 million SF tower will have either substantial height or very massive?

The entire area should b called the river oaks district.

This.

It can become similar to how majority of the people in and out of Houston call Uptown "the Galleria area". A massive (world class) mall basically went and defined an entire area (unfairly IMO). I've already started thinking of the part of Uptown inside the Loop as a different animal than the part outside the Loop. It's ironic that right after you cross the freeway, the roads instantly become wider and everything instantly becomes more suburbanized.

Calling the area River Oaks District would be an incredible opportunity for this area to market itself independently.

Alright that does it, before I was just giddy with excitement but now it's just starting to become a staggering portfolio for this city.

Looks like those demographers got it right, Houston is Americas next great elite city. It's not just the highrises but the city is booming in every way except public transport IMO.

BTW, start expecting more from TMC and other med centers in Houston metro. HBJ has the healthcare boom neck in neck with the energy boom, which speaks for staggering volumes.

hmm...

Man you're good.

The 11 story Hyatt Place next to the Homewood Suites/Hampton Inn has been removed. 

 

Last months development map had it, this months has removed it: http://www.downtownhouston.org/site_media/uploads/attachments/2014-03-06/140303_Downtown_Houston_Development_Map_11x17.pdf

http://www.houstonproperties.com/houston-neighborhoods/river-oaks/townhomes/saint-honore

I guess they'll start when they sell out the remaining units?

I saw someone on CD mention this missing from the new development map and made me wonder if this has been stalled. Has anyone been near the development site? Any activity?

Is this article a canary in the coal mine that things are going to slow down in Houston soon and are we about to see the new buildings slow to a trickle?

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2014/04/energy-execs-more-pessimistic-about-future.html

No our onshore energy industry is booming while offshore declines until 2018 when LNG takes off. It'll stay at equilibrium. Our imports (offshore) will decline and our exports (again offshore) won't really take off until LNG infrastructure is ready in 2018. Our energy companies have spent the last few decades investing heavily into domestic onshore, now we're planting seeds in our offshore markets too. It will take off, just be patient.

All the construction activity will be needed.

5,000 being the new cap limit for units in the incentive program Downtown Houston.

3,337 units slated for Downtown Houston, after including this one.

1,663 units remaining.

I wonder how many blocks compose downtown, how many are occupied with buildings and how many are parking lots? Then we can get a sense of how much is filling up etc and how much growth can occur...of course you can tear down old stuff too.

Downtown has 119 buildings over 10 stories. Uptown west of 610 has 103.

Downtown has 99 surface parking lots. To me defined as complete parking or partial parking for strip malls or a lot where more than 10% of the space is parking lot. I like to be extra strict on the definition, it'll make Houston's infill look better.

Then there's an additional 19 lots north of the bayou and south of I-10 with grass on it or former industrial.

Downtown is scheduled to annihilate 28 surface lots in total. -28% surface parking.

Downtown Houston has 99 parking lots (any block plot that is 10% or more surface parking) and 118 total vacant plots (99 are parking lots, 19 are some grass plots).

This does not include what's under construction now or the proposed. Excluding 609 Main, Skanska Capital, and Hilcorp since they're replacing existing/recently demolished structures. All the new development will kill 28 surface lots. Let's round 99 up to 100, we're talking about a 28% decline in surface parking in just 3-4 years. Those 19 grass plots are all north of the bayou and south of I-10. We'll have to wait forever for those.

Thoughts anyone?

Excuse my crude drawing, but based on the above photo I placed outlines of where all the buildings planned for the next 3 years (from the March Downtown Houston Development Map) will go. It's amazing how much will be filled in!

Holy mother of pearls

Total lots: 24 (blocks with more than 90% surface parking)

Total scheduled to be annihilated: 12

Remaining: 12

Parking lots -50%

Awesome!!

1,883 units left I see. They got the first 3,000 really quick. They'll have to raise the cap again really soon if pace stays current (or even drops off slightly).

Edit: lockmat beat me to it. Nice calculations and thanks.

I'm originally from Sydney and have spent staggering time in Mebourne and that alley with shops reminds me of some of the outer lane ways in Melbourne. All that is missing are some tables in the alley for outdoor eating, some benches, and resi and hotel.

Some public art and mood lighting would be a nice touch.

Ah look at me blabber away

The architecture alone makes this one of my top favorite projects. Finally this is moving skyward.

Agreed.

Pound for pound this has to be the most architecturally stunning highrise project in Houston. International tower and 609 Main could round out the top tier.

It was still open as of last Friday. I suppose it could have closed over the weekend, but it is always slammed . . . .

Sorry. My bad. Was thinking Ninfas but got them confused. Ninfas is permanently closed down. I tried to go there to pick up tortillas last month and saw it was closed for good.

Yesterday I had an architect tell me that the Office Depot and Pappasito's at the corner of Kirby and Richmond were going to be demolished and redeveloped. It makes sense to me, but I've not heard anything about it. Has anyone here heard anything?

The Pappasitos has already closed down.

I work for Chevron. They will build downtown, the last I was told the tower broke 855 feet and was going to be possibly 52 stories and they are thinking about a few more floors but nothing official yet. The towers details aren't final yet, there's still a while before they get to it but just wanted to share.

If Chevron gets approved to build their campus they will not be building their campus near the Woodlands over downtown.

This project is immense when you think about it. $1 billion dollars to build a lifestyle center. West Houston has several Memorial City, City Centre, Westchase, and now this in Energy Corridor.

I saw this part of town tonight as well as a huge chunk of metro Houston. Memorial City's blue glowing skyline is starting to creep into Energy Corridor, with Westchase's growth in every direction, especially north towards 10, although there are neighborhoods passed the district, it's getting as far north as it can before the sizable cluster in City Center takes over, connecting in the center the three larger districts to its south, east, and west. There's a growing medical center and campus as well as a few hotels north of City Center on the other side of 10.

West Houston can faintly remind of Shenzhen with all this and future developments.

They will build downtown.

It would definitely be neat to see Hines attempt at a mixed use (3+ component) project. The residential projects with retail is nice, but I want to see some real mixed use developments where you can live work and play without having to leave the vicinity. Midway seems to have it down.. Why not Hines?

Hines just recently boarded the residential train. They spent much of their existence building office.

Also it's harder to build mixed use. More components the more banks, money, approvals, planning, etc will be needed.