Turnberry Galleria Luxury High-Rise At 5048 Hidalgo St.

[crunchtastic]

The longhorn makes me think they have determined their market is largely foreign nationals, who still associate Texas with cowboy imagery. Somehow I doubt that local jillionaires buying units do anything as time-wasting and common as surfing the net looking at floorplans.

The quality of marketing for these exclusive properties is really awful, like they paid some college kid with a mac to slap together some royalty-free images with the renderings and call it a day. Like those ads for the Titan.

[bkjones98]

The longhorn makes me think they have determined their market is largely foreign nationals, who still associate Texas with cowboy imagery. Somehow I doubt that local jillionaires buying units do anything as time-wasting and common as surfing the net looking at floorplans.

Lol, I agree.

[kjb434]

Many of the high-rise units in the city are being sold to out of towners and foreign nationals.

Being the energy capital of the world kind of helps that. Also, serving as a financial hub for much of South America is another plus.

[The Great Hizzy!]

The problem you run into is how much of it is speculative? A lot of the new condos that went up in Miami between 2004 and 2007 were bought by foreigners who were merely speculating. They drove the market price up until they priced longterm buyers out, causing the market to burst. Now you have fancy new highrises that are only a 1/3 filled (or even less).

I realize that Houston's high-rise construction isn't that extreme but still...

[kjb434]

I don't think it's that speculative. Houston wasn't a hot speculative market to begin with even in the high-rise market.

If Houston was more speculative oriented, I think we would have saw more of the explosion of high-rise get built.

Houston is luckily to be in a much more balanced real estate market.

[treblelino]

i agree, very stupid to build a lavish sales center to only for it to last a couple years. far more posh highrises were fine with movable structures with some sort of landscaping.

I hope this ugly boxy thing does not get built. Why couldnt they have designed something with the same sleekness as Transco tower? This high-rise looks like all the other boring boxes that have been built. Again, I hope the plan falls through.

[kjb434]

Turnberry has very good record on their projects. This project looks like it'll go through.

The sales center is worth nothing compared to final structure. The sales center is also more inviting than a trailer parked on the site.

[lockmat]

from their march newsletter...

Two spectacular 15,000-square-foot tri-level Tower Suite residences with four bedrooms and nine-and-a-half bathrooms are also being offered from $8.5 million.

good gosh! 9 bath in a condo?!

Also, the wiki says 36 floors. The newsletter says 34

edit: architect website says 32 residential floors but 38 total

Edited July 3, 2008 by lockmat

[Trae]

Nine bathrooms? Why? Especially with just four bedrooms.

Millionaire....millionaires.....

[The Great Hizzy!]

Well, there are four official bedrooms and then other rooms that could serve as a bedroom if the occupants so choose. There's also a guest quarters aside from the official bedrooms.

Still, 9 bathrooms are really something.

[sanman]

Turnberry Tower Residences at the Galleria has been cancelled. The Buyers have been notified and employees have been released. I believe this occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd.

[editor]

Any paperwork or anything else to document this? It's probably not on a web site.

[sanman]

Any paperwork or anything else to document this? It's probably not on a web site.

I just spoke to the Director of Sales yesterday, who is a good friend of mine, and she said they cancelled the project.

I also have it on very good authority that several Buyers are already looking to move over to another high rise that is already well under construction (delivery 2009) and in the same price range (read between the lines).

[editor]

Interesting. Thanks for the information.

[Pumapayam]

I also have it on very good authority that several Buyers are already looking to move over to another high rise that is already well under construction (delivery 2009) and in the same price range (read between the lines).

2727 Kirby?

Probably should move this topic and merge it with Turnberry Tower and rename it.

I am kinda bummed out, but at least maybe a good mixed use project, with a combination of retail and residential can fill in the void in the future. Give some nice outdoor shopping around the Galleria.

[fewellman]

Why did it get canceled?

[editor]

This project appears to be dead. This thread is closed. Continue the discussion here.

[sanman]

Why did it get canceled?

It was cancelled due to a lack of sales.

[Trae]

The damn economy...

Oh well. Maybe something else can come in its place. Like, another BLVD Place (probably not of that scale though, but you never know).

[Pumapayam]

It was cancelled due to a lack of sales.

Can we turn the sales office into a corner cafe in the mean time?

[wxman]

Honestly, I'm not torn up about it in the least. I thought it was another run-of-the-mill concrete block with little elequence. I'm sure that eventually it will be replaced with something far more achitecturaly appealing. Just my opinion of course.

[The Great Hizzy!]

I'm not surprised. Didn't seem like there was a lot of enthusiasm about this project.

[Geoff8201]

Honestly, I'm not torn up about it in the least. I thought it was another run-of-the-mill concrete block with little elequence. I'm sure that eventually it will be replaced with something far more achitecturaly appealing. Just my opinion of course.

Yay! First post! Been browsing this forum for weeks, figured it was time to join. Anyhow, introductions aside, I agree with wxman. Although Turnberry may have looked pretty nice to many and was going to be loaded with amenities, it looked to me just like a larger version of the Villa D'Este.

I'll probably ask this question many times, but who is supposed to be moving into all of these new residential hi rises?? I'm guessing a shrinking number since this project was scrapped due to lack of sales?

Anyhow, I think the best use for that spot, ideally, would be something that compliments the Williams Tower and the green space of adjacent Waterwall nicely, whether it be a tower, mixed use, or shopping center.

[gwilson]

She's a sweetheart. I met with her on several occasions and sent a few prospects her way. I was looking at one of the smaller units but never pulled the trigger because I didn't think they'd sell enough to get started. The most beautiful units in the place had availabilities and that was a bad sign.

If they sell off the sales center it would be a great place for someone to buy, open a restaurant or cafe downstairs and live upstairs in the model. lol

I just spoke to the Director of Sales yesterday, who is a good friend of mine, and she said they cancelled the project.

I also have it on very good authority that several Buyers are already looking to move over to another high rise that is already well under construction (delivery 2009) and in the same price range (read between the lines).

[travelguy_73]

Might be a good opportunity for Hines to repurchase the land and incorporate it into Williams Tower, perhaps a smaller office tower, which seems to be much more appropriate to the space than residential ever was.

[KinkaidAlum]

This isn't surprising at all.

As I said before, those price points are not going to move on the wrong side of Westheimer. These towers were being geared towards the wealthy empty nesters of the Tanglewood and River Oaks area as well as to wealthy foreign nationals (Mexicans). Those folks aren't going to buy on that side of the Galleria. It's really that simple and has little to do with the current economy. A bad location with bad prices will FAIL in any market.

These out of town investors need to hire better local scouts.

[TheNiche]

This isn't surprising at all.

As I said before, those price points are not going to move on the wrong side of Westheimer. These towers were being geared towards the wealthy empty nesters of the Tanglewood and River Oaks area as well as to wealthy foreign nationals (Mexicans). Those folks aren't going to buy on that side of the Galleria. It's really that simple and has little to do with the current economy. A bad location with bad prices will FAIL in any market.

These out of town investors need to hire better local scouts.

While I will grudgingly conceed (and grudgingly only because it is such a petty issue) that blue-bloods (albeit not necessarily foreign nationals) have a strong preference against the south side of Westheimer, I am more hesitant to write the post mortem on that basis alone. There are a lot of things going against condo highrises in a general sense.

Many prospective buyers were no doubt going to utilize funds from the sale of stocks, bonds, or other securities in order to make a large down-payment. This would be especially true, I think, of the older crowd. As the value of these holdings has plummeted, these people may not be able to cover a purchase. Even among the younger crowd, relying more upon securities investments as savings for a rainy day and/or retirement and their current job as the financial justification for the purchase, they probably are watching the market caps of their companies shrink and have become more concerned for their current employment, their future employment opportunities, and as to whether their savings will be a large enough safety net.

International buyers aren't doing well at all and they comprise an enormous part of the demand for highrise condos in Houston. Those from Europe and many other parts of the world have seen the exchange rate become less favorable to them. Buyers from oil-rich countries are terribly exposed to a precipitous drop in the price of energy commodities and are probably pulling in the reigns. High-profile buyers from developing countries were relying upon first world consumers to keep their economic engines running, but manufacturing orders are falling rapidly and the performance of their stock markets make ours look like a cake-walk. Everybody has good reason to be pulling in the reigns.

Then there's promotion. Turnberry spent a heck of a lot of money on their sales center but did not seem to hit as heavily in terms of advertising; and where they did spend was excessively targeted. Advertising is important. Even if they had their salespeople schmoozing at the uppitiest parties in town, they would need some pre-existing brand awareness established in order to pique peoples' interests and get the ball rolling. 2727 has that in place, as do all Randall Davis projects. The sales center may be impressive, but they needed to do a better job luring more traffic in there; even if a lot of that traffic is fake traffic by people that just want to see what's going on and that have no intention or ability to purchase a unit, luring in these kinds of folks allows them to talk to their friends and family about it, establishing positive brand awareness by way of word-of-mouth.

But market demand is only one aspect of the post-mortem. Condo developers need to meet a pre-sales target in order to get the financing to break ground and it needs to be met before obligations made previously by a prospective lender expire. If I had to guess, I'd imagine that Turnberry's obligations expired recently and that Turnberry was unable to find anyone that was able to offer an even remotely feasible financing deal to them. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Turnberry's ability or credibility as a company or the location of the site, just that the money is hard enough to come by even for tried-and-true forms of real estate and that extremely speculative highrise condo money is just not there.

EDIT: Another thing that I forgot to mention is that pre-sales contracts typically have a lit fuse attached to them. If the developer fails to accomplish particular objectives within a certain time frame, the prospective buyer has a right to opt-out. If Turnberry was in such a position that their pre-sales contracts were expiring, then they were not only having to seek out new business, but also continually sell themselves to their own stakeholders and make up for cancellations. That would be impossibly difficult in this environment.

Edited October 27, 2008 by TheNiche

[HermanPark]

Honestly, I'm not torn up about it in the least. I thought it was another run-of-the-mill concrete block with little elequence. I'm sure that eventually it will be replaced with something far more achitecturaly appealing. Just my opinion of course.

Amen to that. I want steel, etched glass, titanium, curves and angles. Something more interesting, void of the "blue pants, white shoes and the $6.95 early bird special" look.

[Vertigo58]

Might be a good opportunity for Hines to repurchase the land and incorporate it into Williams Tower, perhaps a smaller office tower, which seems to be much more appropriate to the space than residential ever was.

I knew it was toooooo good to be true.

Oh well, glad I at least got to tour the model (little movie set). I can hold on to the beautiful brochure as a What Could Have Been souvenir.

[travelguy_73]

There is a huge model on display in the depths of the Galleria (near the elevators for the Galleria Financial Center) that might make a nice Christmas gift.