Bayou Place: Entertainment Development At 500 Texas St.

[Trae]

Good news for Downtown. Less vacancy, and another company. Next, ExxonMobil.

[ricco67]

This is excellent news for more reasons, it'll give the B-place plenty of potential people to entertain after the office hours.

I'd like to see the current and future layout of the place, though.

now that I think about it, should this be merged with another thread?

[musicman]

I'd like to see the current and future layout of the place, though.

This will most likely go on the portion near/west of bagby that is empty.

[dbigtex56]

now that I think about it, should this be merged with another thread?

Yes.

Threads merged.

[musicman]

Inside the crowded nightclub Rocbar last Saturday night, women in cocktail dresses danced on a couch.

Like the trendy lounge Mosaic next door, the immense downtown bar was mobbed with 20-somethings.

Located on the second floor of Bayou Place, both clubs open onto a shared stylish balcony overlooking Wortham Center. Below them at street level is elegant restaurant VIN, whose talented young chef was imported from San Francisco.

What makes the three ventures unusual is that they are conceived and owned by a division of Bayou Place's landlord, the Cordish Co.

Cordish's reasoning: If you can't find the tenants you need, create them.

"It's a brilliant strategy, an ideal way to fill a hole in a tenant mix," because they can get exactly what they want, said Michael Beyard, senior retail fellow at the Urban Land Institute in Washington.

It's not easy for developers to create their own concepts as Cordish has done, because typically they have no expertise in nurturing retail, Beyard said.

In 2000, Baltimore-based Cordish established a subsidiary called Entertainment Concepts Investors, charged with creating business ideas for its entertainment-oriented projects across the U.S.

"It was time to reinvigorate Bayou Place," said Reed Cordish, vice president of the Cordish Co.

"We've raised the bar high with these concepts."

full article

[bachanon]

bayou place needs more residential development in the area.

[musicman]

bayou place needs more residential development in the area.

but land is pretty much filled in the area. i think residential development would only occur if something were to be demolished.

[The Great Hizzy!]

Perhaps a redevelopment of the post office site on Washington/Franklin might be a start in that direction. Isn't the U.S. Post Office going to eventually vacate that site?

[musicman]

Perhaps a redevelopment of the post office site on Washington/Franklin might be a start in that direction. Isn't the U.S. Post Office going to eventually vacate that site?

the buffalo bayou partnership HOPES they do but their proposal wasn't residential. my neighbor works there i will ask her when i see her.

Edited May 7, 2007 by musicman

[dbigtex56]

From Nancy Sarnoff (Houston Chronicle, Dec. 14, 2007):

Downtown's Bayou Place has landed a big tenant for its new office space component.

Technology hosting company The Planet is relocating from the Greenspoint area to 80,000 square feet at the entertainment complex at 315 Capitol.

To fill retail vacancies, developer Cordish Co. conceived two nightclubs and a new restaurant to add to the lineup, which includes Hard Rock Cafe, Angelika Film Center, Mingalone Bar & Grill and Slick Willie's Family Pool Hall.

link to full article

[barracuda]

The sign for The Planet was installed awhile back. I was wondering what that was for. I thought it was some kind of club.

[Jax]

"We envision our new offices as a showplace where customers can see firsthand the IT infrastructure-hosting capabilities we provide," Planet CEO Douglas Erwin said.

It's kind of cool that this IT company will let people come in and see their web hosting in action. Most hosting companies are so anonymous (GoDaddy for example). I would be interested to check it out, although I know seeing thousands of servers and hard drives might be kind of boring for some people. I think they chose the perfect location to make their services more visible. It's almost like free advertising. I always except these types of companies to be in anonymous concrete warehouses in the middle of nowhere.

[TheNiche]

It's kind of cool that this IT company will let people come in and see their web hosting in action. Most hosting companies are so anonymous (GoDaddy for example). I would be interested to check it out, although I know seeing thousands of servers and hard drives might be kind of boring for some people. I think they chose the perfect location to make their services more visible. It's almost like free advertising. I always except these types of companies to be in anonymous concrete warehouses in the middle of nowhere.

I'll bet that most of the hardware actually is in an anonymous concrete warehouse in the middle of nowhere. From the article, it sounds like what's coming to Bayou Place is just the front end of the business, not the whole enterprise.

[dbigtex56]

80,000 square feet is one hellava front end; and why would the CEO boast about seeing something "firsthand" if it's not firsthand?

[memebag]

80,000 square feet is one hellava front end; and why would the CEO boast about seeing something "firsthand" if it's not firsthand?

My employer locates all of its servers off-site. I think there are 2 people who have been to the server farm and another 2 who know where it is. No one else cares, and there's no reason they should.

Why would anyone pay downtown real estate prices to house gear that can be anywhere within reach of fiber optic? It sounds like a very dumb idea to me.

[Jax]

Why would anyone pay downtown real estate prices to house gear that can be anywhere within reach of fiber optic?

The only reason I can think of is so that they could show it off. The CEO said it will be a "showplace where customers can see firsthand the IT infrastructure-hosting capabilities". I don't think all of their servers would have to be in there, but I imagine they are going to be showing something besides people sitting at desks.

I personally think it's a neat idea.

Edited December 18, 2007 by Jax

[MidtownCoog]

My employer locates all of its servers off-site. I think there are 2 people who have been to the server farm and another 2 who know where it is. No one else cares, and there's no reason they should.

Why would anyone pay downtown real estate prices to house gear that can be anywhere within reach of fiber optic? It sounds like a very dumb idea to me.

You employer must have a rinky-dink IT shop. When you do real IT your Infrastructure technicians are at the data center all the time

Check out CyrusOne on 59.

[memebag]

You employer must have a rinky-dink IT shop. When you do real IT your Infrastructure technicians are at the data center all the time

If your techs are at the data center all the time then you're doing something wrong. Ours went to the data center to set up our first set of servers. After that, everything is remotely administered.

Check out CyrusOne on 59.

Why?

[MidtownCoog]

We have 450 production servers.

[memebag]

We have 450 production servers.

Good for you. Why do your people have to spend so much time at the data center? What are they doing there?

[bkjones98]

Am I the only one who feels confused and/or "out of the loop" on this argument?

Edited December 19, 2007 by bkjones98

[memebag]

Am I the only one who feels confused and/or "out of the loop" on this argument?

Probably not. I'll try to resolve any confusion if you tell me what you don't understand. Here's a Wikipedia article about it: Data Center

[MidtownCoog]

The original question here by meme was why someone would want to pay downtown prices for a downtown data center.

The answer is that not every company pinches pennies like meme's.

Using that logic why would we pay downtown pricies to have downtown offices?

[memebag]

The original question here by meme was why someone would want to pay downtown prices for a downtown data center.

The answer is that not every company pinches pennies like meme's.

Are you trying to insult me or my employer with these remarks? Have I offended you in some way?

Using that logic why would we pay downtown pricies to have downtown offices?

That's easy. Putting people next to each other provides benefit for some industries, and a central location spreads transportation costs more evenly among employees.

Putting racks of servers on land that could be used more profitably for people when those servers could provide just as much benefit on cheaper land makes no sense. Then we add in disaster tolerance factors and it makes even less sense. Why put your servers closer to possible terrorism targets than you need to?

[MidtownCoog]

Then we add in disaster tolerance factors and it makes even less sense. Why put your servers closer to possible terrorism targets than you need to?

Maybe becuase the DR sits is in another city?

[TheNiche]

The only reason I can think of is so that they could show it off. The CEO said it will be a "showplace where customers can see firsthand the IT infrastructure-hosting capabilities". I don't think all of their servers would have to be in there, but I imagine they are going to be showing something besides people sitting at desks.

I personally think it's a neat idea.

If they're showing off their capabilities, that doesn't mean that they're necessarily showing off their hardware.

Remember, they are in the business to sell customers their capabilities. The capabilities that are sold and the infrastructure supporting them don't have to physically be in the same place for the capabilities to be shown off.

Edited December 19, 2007 by TheNiche

[KHazard]

Hi everyone,

One of my coworkers pointed me to this forum thread, so I wanted to jump in and answer a few of the questions that have cropped up about The Planet moving into Bayou Place. We built out 60,000 of the 80,000 square feet (leaving the extra 20,000 for growth), and we moved our two North Houston offices into the downtown location at the end of last week.

While we don't plan to host any of our customers' servers in the downtown office space, we have relocated our call center, network operations center, and a small percentage of our internal hosting infrastructure to Bayou Place, so the core of our team and our service is on display in the new location. On our company blog, we've posted a few pictures from inside the new facility at the ribbon-cutting, and we plan to add more pictures detailing more of the space soon.

I certainly don't intend to "advertise" our products or services... I just wanted to share a little insight about the newly-opened space.

-Kevin

[Jax]

have relocated our call center, network operations center, and a small percentage of our internal hosting infrastructure to Bayou Place, so the core of our team and our service is on display in the new location

That's for the info, that's exactly what I thought.

[Vertigo58]

Bayou Place had so much promise when it opened. Much of the excitement has waned since its opening several years/decade ago.

Our company used to have big employee holiday gatherings at Slick Willie's several years ago. (Is it still opened?) and it seems like you seldom hear of any really exciting things going on or advertised that would entice people to go there.

Does this have to do with publicity folks or the PR firms that should be promoting this venue?

The whole block has so much potential, especially being in the Theater District. What is the deal?

Its such a good focal point with grand views of the skyline (from Slick Willie's looking East).

Can anyone think of 1 or 2 venues that would encourage out of towners to go there?

[musicman]

Sake Lounge shuttered amid landlord dispute

Restaurant is second at Bayou Place to close in recent months

The Sake Lounge at Bayou Place has shut down, making it the second restaurant casualty at the downtown retail and entertainment complex in less than five months.

The landlord is seeking damages in a lawsuit filed against the operator of the Japanese restaurant, claiming that it was unauthorized to use the property.

The original owner of the Sake Lounge