KimberlySayWhat Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 I saw this on Channel 11's news at 6:http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/kho...e.8ceb47e3.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Great Hizzy! Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 Good to see that things are looking healthy for the office market, even if it's costing us all a buck extra a gallon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brijonmang Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 I saw that report too, it was short and sweet but good news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 Being a native, and having lived the bust and boom, this type of growth makes me nervous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desirous Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 Being a native, and having lived the bust and boom, this type of growth makes me nervous.That is assuming fuel prices plunge in the future, which is less likely than twenty years ago.I thought the reason would be downtown's bus coverage. At least among people I know, business at southwest-side Park & Rides is picking up. Any non-downtown location requires driving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montrose1100 Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 Being a native, and having lived the bust and boom, this type of growth makes me nervous. They're not constructing skyscrapers yet... or any plans... So I think we're good for a little while Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trophy Property Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 They're not constructing skyscrapers yet... or any plans... So I think we're good for a little while You are correct ----- No new skyscrapers in downtown right now. The rental market will not justify it. There are some new suburban developments going up on the West side of Town. The Midway Group is close to breaking ground on a new Office Building as part of the T&C makeover. I also heard Granite is building a new 14 story building at Richmond and BW8. It I am not mistaken, Metronational is building another office building with at Memorial City. The first two of these deals are already being pre-leased and will most likely happen. Rental rates are going for about $27 a foot in this market (for new class A stuff). which makes these deals possible. With the price of downtown dirt a new building would have to get upwards of $30-$35 PSF for it to make sense. Downtown is far from those rates. $22-$24 are legitimate rates right now with many right at $20. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 Downtown is where the action is and where the big employers should be.I've worked all over this fair city and hope to stay downtown for the long haul.The prospect of working in an office building near Memorial City sounds terrible to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trophy Property Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 Downtown is where the action is and where the big employers should be.I've worked all over this fair city and hope to stay downtown for the long haul.The prospect of working in an office building near Memorial City sounds terrible to me.Hey you are preaching to the choir here, but there has been a huge shift in the way companies look at office space. The high cost of benefits, triaining, and employee retention has caused some of these huge companies to look at many factors that were not an issues in times past. Location is one of those issues. People typically want to work close to where they live. If you live in Midtown then Downtown is ideal. I live at BW8 and Briar Forrest and would love to work in the Westchase area. Many of these companies are realizing where their employee base is coming from and will try and locate near by. THis is not always the case and is not always feasible, but it is happening more than you might think. Downtown Houston will always be the HUB, and is it also the biggest office market in Houston. It has seen some bad days with Enron, Calpine, and other energy companies contracting space. The sub-lease market has been a big problem and rental rates and lower occuapancy numbers has caused a lot of short term issues. Right now Downtown it is what it is and rental rates are nowher near the level where new construction can be justified. I know there are a lot of pie in the sky people on this website that want to see a new 100 Story massive high rise built in Houston. Well it aint happening anytime soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 In today's job market, I don't see how people are able to live near their work. I used to commute to The Woodlands from Midtown everyday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trophy Property Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 In today's job market, I don't see how people are able to live near their work. I used to commute to The Woodlands from Midtown everyday.Nevermind. You are clearly not even reading what I am saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 People typically want to work close to where they live. Oh, I am reading it, and it's junk.And I'm a little more particular when it comes to a career than to want to work somewhere becuase it's close to my house.But that does make sense for fast food workers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trophy Property Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 (edited) Oh, I am reading it, and it's junk.And I'm a little more particular when it comes to a career than to want to work somewhere becuase it's close to my house.But that does make sense for fast food workers.Great analysis MidtownCoog!!! No Seriously. Do you have any clue of what you are saying or are you just shooting generalities out there to see if any stick. I assume this is the case as I have read most of your posts and half the time you tend to argue for the sake of arguing. You did mentiond in an earlier post that you worked in the Woodlands and commuted from Midtown. Where, if I might ask, were the majority of your co-workers living? Most likely a majority lived in the Woodlands. I would also wonder why you left that job. I am sure you were offered a better opportunity downtown, but some of the allure might have been the fact that your commute was substantially lessenod. While it is possible it could have been the only factor, most likely it was just part of the equation. If you try and deny that fact I would then wonder why you brought it up in a previous post !!Bottom line is I am in the Real Estate Industry and I know Office Product very well. I see the trends happen and I am on the frontline of the analysis of these trends. There has been trend over the past few years where we have seen a movement to suburban office markets. Why would rent be more in a Westchase building vs downtown if there was a not some pent up demand for companies to be located out there?Obviously, there is a big supply and demand factor when comparing downtown to suburban markets. Quite frankly, Downtown has a lot more supply available than most of the suburbs. I will also contend the fact that recently there have been more companies moving back into downtown. This is very much due in part to the lower rental rates in the downtown market. To conclude, there is still a strong demand for new construction in certain areas of the town. Downtown is not one of those markets right now.... 3-5 years this could be the total reverse. If you read this and want to call it junk then by all means go ahead. We can agree to disagree. Most of the crap that you post is junk too. Good day. Edited June 20, 2006 by Trophy Property Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 There has been trend over the past few years where we have seen a movement to suburban office markets. Maybe you should read the article on KHOU.You obviously don't work for Cushman & Wakefield who says " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trophy Property Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 (edited) Fair enough. I went back and re-read the article - not a lot of meat in that article, but I can see where the confusion might have arisen. For starters in my last post I stated: "I will also contend the fact that recently there have been more companies moving back into downtown. This is very much due in part to the lower rental rates in the downtown market." This is precicely what Tim was saying in the article. He mentiond deals that occurred in the past 6 months. He failed to mention El Paso has a huge company that consilidated downtown. I guess for every big move downtown there are 5-10 smaller moves that effect the intended sub market and tightened supply in those areas. To answer your other question I went back and read the previous posts. Montrose made a comment that even though the market was getting better there was no new skyskrapers downtown. I responded in agreement and then mentioned a few Suburban buildings that I had heard about and thought others here might be interested in hearing about. Maybe I posted that information in the wrong thread. My bad. You then responded with "Downtown is where the action is and where the big employers should be. I've worked all over this fair city and hope to stay downtown for the long haul. The prospect of working in an office building near Memorial City sounds terrible to me." The progression started from there and quite frankly I got annoyed with the tone of your posts and that started to piss me off. That is my problem. Bottom line is that the Houston Office Market is a dynamic one and is always changing. It is easy to make a case for both sides of the discussion. P.S. I worked for C&W for years and happen to know Tim very well. But now I am just bragging Edited June 20, 2006 by Trophy Property Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 Just call me biased against suburban offices no matter how nice they are.One good thing about Bob Lanier is that he encouraged companies to locate downtown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trophy Property Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 Just call me biased against suburban offices no matter how nice they are.One good thing about Bob Lanier is that he encouraged companies to locate downtown.Its cool. You caught me at a bad moment. Chalk it up as me having a case of the extended Mondays.Keep on Keepin On. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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