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Levit Green: Life Science Mixed-Use District By Hines


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Topping out story in the Biz Journal.  "Hines is already planning the next phase of Levit Green’s development.  In a few weeks, the firm will break ground on Levit Green Boulevard, a key access point running through the complex. Hines and HOK are also already working on the design for the second building on the site."

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2022/05/20/hines-topping-out-levit-green.html

Levit Green Boulevard project on CivCast.

https://www.civcastusa.com/project/62322f42b739faa9ba635714/summary

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On 5/20/2022 at 2:59 PM, houstontexasjack said:

From the article:

“Hines is working on designing the second building in the complex, although it has not set a timeline for breaking ground. Additional buildings will follow to meet market demand, Mooz said.”

 

"Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Hines has not yet hired an architecture firm for the second building. The architecture firm HOK designed the first building."

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On 5/20/2022 at 9:10 PM, strickn said:

Wish it weren't a Westchase office vibe all over again

Fair, only counter is that this type of design is what these companies know and are familiar with. Plus, that rendering is more lush and full of trees than anything on Westchase. 

Given their propensity to highlight access to public transit, the boulevard will probably will be pedestrian/bike friendly one would think. For projects like this, a little downtown Bagby street treatment should be in the cards.

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On 6/15/2020 at 9:30 PM, Lux said:

Synergism or competition with TMC3?  The references to Kendall Square in Cambridge, Mass. and Mission Bay in San Francisco are lifted directly from the TMC3 playbook.  An amalgam of life science clusters from 288 to the TMC would be a beautiful thing, and it’s going to take massive CRE Life Sciences investments, in addition to TMC3, for Houston to rise by leaps and bounds in the U.S. Life Science cluster rankings (JLL, CBRE, etc.).  Thoughts?

Two years on, I still think it will be impossible for us to rival those regions without the financial industry legacy tailwind that made it advantageous for them to develop as clusters to begin with.  And with no more backing than our area has, it might be better spent developing a cluster that is suited to our regional culture, rather than the most superheated (competitive but overpriced, where you rise the least in the rankings for the greatest table stakes) industry in the nation's economy.  But when I have to eat crow, then, to quote H Town Man, it will taste just fine.  And if our value play attracts a lot more people from around the world, provides careers that develop local talent without having to move away, and of course beats Dallas, then it will be hard to argue that our timing was wrong.  

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On 5/23/2022 at 12:23 PM, strickn said:

Two years on, I still think it will be impossible for us to rival those regions without the financial industry legacy tailwind that made it advantageous for them to develop as clusters to begin with.  And with no more backing than our area has, it might be better spent developing a cluster that is suited to our regional culture, rather than the most superheated (competitive but overpriced, where you rise the least in the rankings for the greatest table stakes) industry in the nation's economy.  But when I have to eat crow, then, to quote H Town Man, it will taste just fine.  And if our value play attracts a lot more people from around the world, provides careers that develop local talent without having to move away, and of course beats Dallas, then it will be hard to argue that our timing was wrong.  

This, I believe, is the problem. Not only does Houston not seem to have enough venture capital, but any that comes along goes to the oil and gas industry. With all the products being invented out of the TMC, there should have been several start-ups that would have gotten themselves established in the last decade. There certainly is plenty of know-how...

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But we don't even want to be a clubby insidery back-slapping shark town which is exactly the mentality that VC requires.  It's not an industry, it's a network, and they often make entrepreneurs let them refuse to sign nondisclosure agreements, so they can collude (ahem, compare notes on a startup) with their network of competitors before any of them agrees to terms with a startup.

 

Until we can build a more hospitable but not more impersonal form of participatory accountability, to support a genuinely open and quirky (in a word Houspitable) form of reputation management and risk management ecosystem, then it isn't going to be practical for us to fund the value chain locally.  
 

That is, it will either take continued imports of outside investors like we're having recently (meaning a lot more of the capital gains flow back out of the area too), or a change in our own business culture to be more insidery in its expertise and outlook like those older metro areas.

Edited by strickn
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1 hour ago, Avossos said:

Why is this a “trophy” building? I like the building and I like what it means for the area. I even like the campus vibe of the master plan… just not sure why everyone is so giddy about the architecture.

Because the bar is low. We're the architecture limbo champions. 

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On 5/23/2022 at 10:57 AM, X.R. said:

Given their propensity to highlight access to public transit, the boulevard will probably will be pedestrian/bike friendly one would think. For projects like this, a little downtown Bagby street treatment should be in the cards.

Careful, now - that's the kind of "should" that can break a fella's heart.

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