Houston19514

The good news on the Hess acquisition is that their (Hess's) HQ was still in NYC.  I don't know how many people work at HQ, but those central office jobs are pretty likely the most duplicative. Reduces the likely job losses for Houston.

16 hours ago, strickn said:

I was thinking the same thing today when I heard it: except more along the lines of, “Well, sounds like ChevronTexacoHess has its new office block, without ever building 1600 Louisiana, after all.”  
Others had noted in the Hess Tower thread that Hess leased, and did not own, that office space and its associated parking.  
One forumer is now speculating that headcount reductions and offshoring are coming, in which case a new tower’s floor space is not necessary.

OK, but even if they are correct, and even if you are correct that a HQ relo is finally inevitable, Bridgeland demonstrates that Chevron bureaucracy obviously still think that R&D and laboratory experimentation benefits from a separate environment.

Therefore these same senior execs could still think this way about their own HQ culture as well (à la the former Exxon God Pod up by DFW), opting for a physical plant in which management, engineering, and back office are all kept separate from the “high-ups.”

• One scenario is that they move the HQ to Austin to hang out with their Californian c-suite golf buddies from Oracle, Tesla, et cetera — maybe even bail Google out of its empty riverfront “sail” office tower, finished but not moved into yet.
• One scenario is a pod close to the airport — either IAH or AUS or another Texas airport one with better connections than AUS (meaning most likely DFW again).
• However, a third scenario would be to use newer leased space by Discovery Green for that purpose, staying close to their big campus downtown but still not on campus.  That would be a good middle ground, no matter whether they use Hess Tower itself or the new Skanska spec spaces nearby.

I don't think Chevron has ever given any indication that keeping the execs away from the worker bees is part of their strategy.

What is "ROC"?

Pretty sure Shorenstein sold the building (and presumably the garage).

EDIT:  Confirmed. Shorenstein sold both 800 Bell and 1616 Milam in December 2022.

38 minutes ago, wilcal said:

So you'll tax the existing downtown businesses? 

If the O&G businesses next to downtown are fine with effectively paying for the project, then by all means, but there isn't exactly a lot of commerce happening in downtown Beaumont. 

Well, it's not me.  I have nothing to do with it.  I just read the linked article and posted the quote. With TIRZ financing, they establish a TIRZ district; the taxes paid to the city general fund are frozen and any increase in taxes (due to higher valuations) are dedicated to the TIRZ District projects.  No tax rate increase for existing downtown businesses.

On 10/18/2023 at 12:18 PM, hindesky said:

I talked with a worker with Forney who said their project finish date will be June '25.

Doesn't that seem like a long time, when it appears the superstructure is already in place?

22 hours ago, hindesky said:

Looks like the cross ties for the rails were the trolley will be located.

Trolley?  What trolley?

Ah, Yes.  My apologies. But let's hope they don't actually plan to call it the "South of Holcombe Campus". 

(1) it's unwieldy and (2) it's not sufficiently descriptive -- They would then have the South Campus, the Mid Campus, and the South of Holcombe Campus, all literally South of Holcombe.

By the way, could you provide a link to the master plan?

15 hours ago, Big E said:

Because any attempted redevelopment of the Astrodome is immediately vetoed by both the Texans and the Rodeo, the two biggest tenants. Its been that way for years.

Not really.  There have been zero proposals from private developers that have come anywhere near having the necessary financial backing.  Having said that, yes, any proposed use of the Astrodome has to account for and involve the Texans and the Rodeo. Of course it must. As you said, they are the primary tenants and without them, neither NRG Stadium nor NRG Center (and therefore, NRG Park) would exist.

15 hours ago, Highrise Tower said:

wow! Anderson is projected to spend $155 million on demolition to prepare for the Inpatient Bed Tower.   Can't believe the amount of work is going on to achieve the land needed to build the IBT. Everything is being shifted!  Expect to see MD Anderson's new campus called "South of Holcombe" if everything goes as planned.   Can't wait for the dual towers there!

I think they already call it "South Campus"

14 hours ago, wilcal said:

I mean... who is going to pay for all of that? The city probably has very limited funds and private developer ROI can't be there. 

"Boone said the city plans to use as many economic development tools as possible to complete the project, with a large percentage of the funding made available by a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, commonly known as TIRZ, which the city expects to designate by the end of the year."

^^ Yeah, what is the point of the OP?

17 hours ago, Amlaham said:

Hmm I wonder why Western media is sooo pro Israel 🤔 maybe this factually proven “conspiracy theory” might answer that? 

Yeah, posting a bunch of pictures with the Star of David photoshopped in behind the people really proves your grand conspiracy.  You probably should have taken a moment to verify, but since you seem to be immune to contrary facts, I guess it would have been a waste of time.   In addition to including a lot of not-Jewish people, these companies have tens of thousands of employees. Even if all of the couple hundred pictured people were Jewish (and they aren't), it hardly proves a grand conspiracy.  OMG, 1% of NBC/Comcast's employees are Jewish!!!!! Just a few examples from the false meme you posted:

• Greg Gutfeld.  Not Jewish.
• David Asman.  Not Jewish.
• Rupert Murdoch.  Not Jewish.
• Rachel Maddow.  Not Jewish.
• Matt Lauer. Kinda calls the whole list into question since left NBC News 6 years ago. There are also others in the meme who have long since left there posts.  And Lauer is not Jewish (father was Jewish but he was not raised Jewish)
• Seth Meyers.  Not Jewish.
• The meme tells us Phi Griffin is President of MSNBC.  He is not Jewish (and hasn't been president of MSNBC since 2021.
• Hoda Kotb. Not known to be Jewish.  Her roots are Egyptian Muslim.

17 hours ago, Amlaham said:

Imagined conspiracy theory? Dude, you’re literally a joke. You legit disregarded my comment that this has been on ongoing issue for years, this isn’t something that just randomly happened this past few weeks, the only time it’s been reported this wide was when Israel got a taste of what they’ve been doing to the Palestinians for years. The disregard for the thousand who have died OUTSIDE of this one attack and the media deciding covering it now and paint Israel as a victim? Your comment is clear as day that you only care about what the western media will portray to you, a sheep if you will. Just remember, you were lied to about Iraq, you were lied to about Syria, about Afghanistan, about all the wars the US has gotten involved in, congratulations for being so naive. I remained respectful to you, but to call all this a conspiracy? Lost all respect for you. 

.  I am talking about your lies.  

You told us there was  no media coverage of last weekend's downtown protest and moments later you provided a link of media coverage of last weekend's downtown protest. (and I provided links to three other media reports of last weekend's downtown protest.

You told us "the numbers are heavily under reported not just with Chron, but with the entire western media", but for most of the media reports you and I have linked regarding the downtown and Greenway Plaza protests, there is no case whatsoever to be made that the media underreported the numbers.

You are claiming a grand conspiracy, but for some reason you  are not allowing yourself to see the contrary facts.

4 minutes ago, Amlaham said:

In this article, it claims there were more than 100 people when it was in the thousands for the downtown protest. My initial comment is that, its very common that these specific type of protests are under reported throughout ALL western media. 

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/article/palenstinian-community-protest-war-city-hall-18420741.php 

Oh, in a different article about a different protest, one reporter may have underreported (and note they were reporting on a protest which, just a few moments ago, you told us got no media coverage.  Anyway, I thought you were talking about the same thing I was talking about.

One of the other reports, actually 2 of the other reports, of the downtown protest (the one that got no media coverage) reported there were thousands of protestors. Your imagined conspiracy is kinda falling apart.

18 minutes ago, Amlaham said:

I was literally there, as I was at the one in downtown. The media didn't even show up until the very end of the protest. There wasn't even any coverage on the one that happened last weekend. Anyone who was there could easily tell there were thousands of protesters, Richmond Ave and Weslayan was shut down for more than an hour. We can keep going back and forth, because this is something the other side is used to. The entire media is talking about "Israel vs Hamas" and acting like the occupation and annexation of Palestine hasn't been ongoing for over 80 years. People on the other side have been dying on a day to day basis, losing their homes, their land, for years and years. However, the media is painting it as "Israel under attack" and downplaying any type of support from the other side. 

So in what way did the Chronicle underreport the numbers, as you claimed?  They said there were thousands of people there.

and by the way, the downtown protest last weekend did indeed get some media coverage, contrary to your claim. https://news.yahoo.com/palestinians-houston-protest-war-escalates-023130734.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall

https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2023/10/14/pro-palestinian-demonstrators-rally-in-downtown-houston/

https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/rally-for-palestine-houston/285-0bc364c4-3ef2-48d3-a383-af7f9d36adb3

Just now, Amlaham said:

. I was there but ok

and you counted the people, did you?  the aerial photos of the crowd do not appear to show there to be thousands of people in that crowd. 

In any event, there is certainly no basis on which to claim the Chronicle underreported the numbers.

27 minutes ago, Amlaham said:

There were/are protests all throughout America/world, the numbers are heavily under reported not just with Chron, but with the entire western media. You're better off getting more accurate numbers and footage from social media where people are recording/ reporting live. There's a reason why, we can private message if you're interested. 

The Chron didn't underreport the number, it overreported the number.  There were not thousands of people at the protest.

Apologies, I reversed the occupancies of Buildings II and III in my prior post. Since we are inexplicably no longer able to edit our posts after a few minutes, here are the correct numbers;

More weirdness:  Per their website,

• Post Oak Central I remains 100% empty.
• Post Oak Central II is about 71% occupied.
• Post Oak Central III is about 66% occupied.

The news keeps getting worse for downtown Austin.  It appears that the horrible occupancy/vacancy numbers we're seeing probably don't even include the Block 185 Building. Google leased the entire building, which was completed early last year, but it seems they have not and are not moving in.  It's leased, and it seems Google is not even marketing it for sublease, so it wouldn't show up in the occupancy/vacancy/availability stats, but it nevertheless is another almost 800,000 square feet of office space sitting empty. (Subtract another 4.71 percentage points from their occupancy percentage.)

Houston Chronicle continues its mission of spreading ignorance:

"Thousands protest attacks on Gaza outside Houston's Israeli embassy"

1. Israel (and every other country has only one embassy in the United States.  There are zero embassies in Houston. Israel has a Consulate General in Houston, NOT an embassy.
2. The headline tells us that "thousands" protested. The first line in the article says "more than 1,000", and the accompanying picture comports with the "more than 1,000" estimate but not the "thousands" screamed in the headline.

39 minutes ago, Texasota said:

The triangular floor plate definitely helps, but you still have an oversized service core for a residential building which means unleasable space. 

That said you brought floor plans to an architecture fight and I always appreciate that.

It remains weird that they're keeping two towers and tearing down the third. Why? If not floor plate differences, why tear down old triangley? 

More weirdness:  Per their website,

• Post Oak Central I remains 100% empty.
• Post Oak Central II is about 66% occupied.
• Post Oak Central III is about 71% occupied.

32 minutes ago, Texasota said:

The triangular floor plate definitely helps, but you still have an oversized service core for a residential building which means unleasable space. 

That said you brought floor plans to an architecture fight and I always appreciate that.

It remains weird that they're keeping two towers and tearing down the third. Why? If not floor plate differences, why tear down old triangley? 

I'm not seeing the over-sized service core you are seeing. A new-build residential building will also have elevator shafts and stairways.  Presumably, the service core bathrooms would be taken out and the space converted to leasable space.

10 minutes ago, Texasota said:

But the actual depth of the floor plate matters, and building 3 looks maybe as much as 50' deeper than the other two buildings at center. 

Of course the actual depth of the floor plate matters.  Again, this building has small floor plates, hence the depths are also relatively small.

Take a look at the floor plate layout in the attached (and this is one of the largest floors). It looks pretty ideal for residential or hotel conversion.

https://www.postoakcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/POC3-Suite-950-10992-SF.pdf

1 hour ago, Texasota said:

I do wonder about floor plate dimensions of these buildings, and building 3 does look like it probably has the deepest cross-section right there at the center.

That's one of the big things that kill office to residential conversions. You get to the center of building with no way to provide natural light and there's not a whole lot you can do with it. 

That’s actually one of the things that makes this building a strong candidate for conversion.  Its floor plates are relatively small. Their website says their “typical floor plate” is only 18,183 RSF (which appears to be the measure of the size of the lowest bank of floors.) The uppermost floor(s) are only 12,795 RSF.  The next group of floors going down are one 15,279 square feet.

I remain skeptical of this plan. I feel like a semi-creative architect could incorporate the lower levels of building 3 in to a City Centre-type development, converting the upper floors into hotel and/residential. A City Centre-type development will require some hotel/residential space anyway.