I'm becoming more and more intrigued by the possibility of the old Texaco Building moving forward again as a loft conversion. That could really have a nice integrating effect on the eastern edge of DT and the critical mass developing along Main Street. Having such a "large" residential component would seem to contribute to the newfound desire to make Main Street more of an upscale corridor rather than just a weekend hangout. In other words, such a conversion would go a ways in helping to make that area of DT feel more like a neighborhood.

http://www.globest.com/newspics/hou_...anishtrail.jpg
Almeda @ Spanish Trail

JV Plans 304-Unit Mid-Rise in Medical Center

By Amy Wolff Sorter

HOUSTON-Two Texas companies have joined forces for the first time to develop the luxury mid-rise Almeda at Old Spanish Trail. Groundbreaking on the first phase, 304 units in the Medical Center, is scheduled to take place in the coming months.

The project will be situated on a little more than eight acres at the intersection of Almeda Road and Old Spanish Trail. It is being funded through Crow Holdings' Realty Partners IV LP's $850-million fund. Houston-based Simmons Vedder & Co. is the developer. Almeda at Old Spanish Trail is the first ground-up multifamily project for the Dallas-based fund.

The construction cost for the Almeda at Old Spanish Trail isn't unavailable, but area sources suggest it could range from $160 per sf to $180 per sf for comparable mid-rise product. The one-, two- and three-bedroom units, averaging 916 sf, will sit on half of the development site, according to Simmons Vedders' website. The Almeda was designed by local architect, Steinberg Design Collaborative. Calls to Crow Holdings and Simmons Vedder were not returned by press time.

Colliers International principal Teresa Lowery and vice president Saul Keeton, neither of whom is involved with the deal, tell GlobeSt.com that Almeda at Old Spanish Trail is a property whose time has come due to tightening supply of and increasing demand for multifamily product. "The Texas Medical Center employs 75,000 in one location and continues expanding its boundaries," Lowery explains.

In addition, single-family home prices in the area are on the rise, with existing multifamily properties having gone the condo conversion route. "There's most definitely a short supply of apartment units," Lowery says.

Keeton adds that another aspect to the development is a high barrier to entry, most notably the lack of available land on which to build. He points out that Simmons Vedder also owns a nearby five-acre tract at the intersection of Old Spanish Trail and Kirby Drive. The developer also has demolished a Garden Ridge and Target to build Kirby at Old Spanish Trail, a four-story 293-unit apartment slated to begin construction in March. "To find good tracts of land in that area," he says, "developers and investors are looking for functionally obsolete real estate."

http://www.globest.com/news/844_844/.../152954-1.html

Midway discloses CityCentre components
Houston Business Journal - 3:27 PM CST Thursday, February 15, 2007

After more than two years of silence, Midway Cos. Thursday revealed details about its $500 million CityCentre development in west Houston.

The Houston-based firm started construction last month on the mixed-use project at the southeast corner of Interstate 10 and Beltway 8, former site of the Town & Country Mall. Specifics were outlined today at a private luncheon at RA Sushi, a restaurant in the Highland Village Shopping Center that will be one of the tenants at CityCentre.

The project will include 500,000 square feet of office space; 400,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space; a 217-room luxury hotel topped with 16 condominiums; 375 apartments; 250 urban lofts; 40 brownstones and a 140,000-square-foot fitness facility.

CityCentre will be able to boast several "firsts" for the Houston area when it opens in 2008.

Houston-based Valencia Group will build its first hotel in the Bayou City in a joint venture with Midway. Restaurants Eddie V's, Z Tejas and Brio Tuscan Grille will open their first Houston locations in CityCentre.

Minnesota-based Lifetime Fitness is building its first urban concept in the country there -- a three-story, 140,000-square-foot fitness center.

And Dallas-based Studio Movie Grill will build its first ground-up location in Houston featuring first-run films and a full menu.

The Michigan State Public Employees Retirement System, represented by L&B Realty Advisors LLP of Dallas, is providing $124 million of CityCentre's funding. Midway invested an undisclosed amount in CityCentre, and the firm has various development partners in the project.

In the span of a few weeks, the Park Tower, Houston Pavilions, and City Centre have all begun. Don't forget about BLVD Place which is just around the corner. I think all the developments we've been waiting for have finally kicked off.

BTW, in addition to the Mosaic(s) and the new complex that Trae just posted, Almeda's getting quite a bit of infill. There's a huge development across from the Mosaic(s) that's coming along. Anyone (WG?) know what it's going to be? Looks like a Phase II to the complex located next door.

But as I said over at HAIF, we merely shrug our shoulders at TMC developments nowadays. ;)

I have passed that site many times and I still do not know what it is to this day.

Apparently, the mixed-use development at the corner of Westheimer and Kirby is underway, too. It was reported by LargeTexas and others over at HAIF yesterday, and yesterday evening on the way home I also was able to confirm construction equipment being on site, including bulldozers and steam shovels.

So add that one, too.

Here are some far off pics of progress on discovery green and broken ground on the tower.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...s4559/DG01.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...s4559/DG02.jpg

I don't see any signs on site but here it is anyway:
http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/4223/what1ep0.jpg

http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/4914/what2xe3.jpg

other stuff:

http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/4369/tower2by6.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/5024/camden1sb7.jpg

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/5567/camden2fh6.jpg

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/86/camdenedgeeq5.jpg

http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/9113/edge1yd1.jpg

http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/2893/edge2en1.jpg

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/1139/edge3ez1.jpg

I have heard that the Park Tower is about ten feet deep now. What does the Pavilions look like now?

have they broken ground on the pavilions? i thought they had passed the groundbreaking date with no work being started?

more good news for downtown
 

The Planet, formerly EV1.net, is moving its headquarters from Dallas to Houston and leasing 70,000 square feet of space at the new Bayou Place office extension. They will also be opening some type of 10,000 square foot retail/showroom space.

http://www.houston.bizjournals.com/h...19/story3.html

The vacancy rate keeps on falling. Good news for Houston. Another company to add to its portfolio, too.

Whiteco Development has plans to construct twin 35-story towers in Uptown, according to this blurb from the HBJ (it's a subscription-only article).

The success of the Dominion Post Oak apartment building has inspired the developer to add another pair of posh residential towers to the Galleria skyline.

Whiteco Residential LLC plans construction of two buildings, each up to 35 stories tall, with a total of 550 rental apartments.

The February 5, 2007 date that was mentioned back in November was an estimate, nothing official, as they still needed to secure permits to commence with construction from the C.O.H., and the subsequent meeting that was to have allowed for that was backlogged with other issues and they put it off until the following meeting at the end of January. This caused the ground breaking to shift. As of now, next week is the expected "official" ground breaking.

They've roped off the parking lot furthest east (as well as taken up the fare kiosks) and have closed off some parking spots in the middle lot for work crews and the like. So work will certainly be beginning in the not-so-distant future.

The Pavilions groundbreaking is supposedly 2/27/07...at least I think that's what's on HAIF.

I saw some workers on the easternmost (House of Blues) lot last weekend.

yes, i saw the park tower site today and its about 10 feet. from the same view, part of discovery green looks more like 15 feet

Turnberry rendering

http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/8076/63581367fn5.png

I used to work at EV1 in greenspoint..

uninspiring but hey, at least it's tall. where is this thing going exactly? between the foley's garage and the waterwall?

That sounds about right, as far as the location goes.

And I keep laughing because that's pretty much exactly how I pictured the building. It's maybe a little wider than I'd envisioned but everything else--vertical lines, the crown, etc-- are as expected.

The rendering for the Turnberry is very similar to the Dominion Post Oak, which in and of itself is not bad, but with the owners of Dominion planning on two more towers, we could end up with relatively the same four towers within several blocks of each other.

I'm personally hoping for a little more glass in the final design.

It looks pretty much like 90% of all of Turnberry's highrises. It's neither good nor bad. It is just sort of there.

That said, this looks a lot nicer to me than the Dominion. The Dominion and the 1200 Post Oak just look like apartment complexes to me (which they are).

park tower
 

here is the park tower site... lots of stuff going on. you can't see the pit in the pics i took (can't get close enough, everything is fenced off)
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...s4559/PT01.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...s4559/PT02.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...s4559/PT03.jpg

I'm liking it. Were you able to swing on over to the Pavilions site?

no but i will try to tomorrow

dominion? are you sure you don't mean 1200 post oak? the building near four oaks place. dominion is narrow(er) and has a pitched roof. either way, where would the two new buildings go?

Dohh! I've been spouting out "Dominion" all day and it's the 1200 Post Oak. I was on HAIF this morning and started on a thread regarding the owners Of Dominion and got my wires crossed.

Anyway I believe the Turnberry will be on Hildago, just West of the water wall and across the street from the newly constructed Empire.

Man, I drove through the Warehouse District east of DT and they're really putting together a rash of new residential over there. It's kind of like where Fourth Ward was in 1999. If I had a scanner, I'd post pictures.

The down side is that a large percentage of the new townhome construction (not so much the warehouse conversions) are Perry Homes developments.

That will look funny so close to Williams and the waterwall will have development on all four sides. I bet these guys will still get their car out the Turnberry garage and drive to Nordstrom next door. :D I forgot what is on the east side of the lawn. The Park Tower was pretty quick. What's Finger's secret?

Another image of CityCentre:

http://cll.bizjournals.com/story_ima...00-0.jpg?rev=2

Here are some better shots of the discovery green/park tower area
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...y_Green_01.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...y_Green_02.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...y_Green_03.jpg
and here are shots of the three lots the pavilions will be at... sorry to say that theres nothing to show yet, only one of the lots has gone as far as being fenced off :(
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...vilions_01.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...vilions_02.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...vilions_03.jpg
and heres a pic taken from the bus stop
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ChaseTower.jpg

http://i13.tinypic.com/490984n.jpg

Cranes spotted on top of Chase Tower. The Image is from Montrose on the HAIF boards.

No clue what they are doing... Anybody have an idea?

I don't know.

Texas will buck national economic slowdown, economist says
Austin job growth will rise to 4 percent, he predicts.

By By Claudia Grisales
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Friday, February 23, 2007

Houston is probably the state's biggest economic hot spot, Shankar said, thanks to its sheer size and broad-based growth and booming energy industry.

http://www.statesman.com/business/co...24economy.html

The Morgan Group will build a 326 unit apartment complex on the Corner of Washington Ave @ Yale Blvd.
http://images.chron.com/photos/2007/...ineGallery.jpg

36Sixty is now open on Richmond in the Greenway Plaza area
http://www.texasexplorer.net/36sixty.jpg
http://www.texasexplorer.net/36sixtyint.jpg

Pics of the recently completed BelAir on Allen Parkway
http://www.texasexplorer.net/belairth1.jpg
http://www.texasexplorer.net/belairpoolth.jpg

The Sterling at Memorial Villages

http://www.thesterlingmemorialvillages.com/

1395 S. Voss Road

Being developed by Sunrise Senior Living, The Sterling at Memorial Villages is scheduled to open in 2010.

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/7...villagesq7.jpg

I really like the Bel Air the more I see it. I had a chance to go in a take a look out the window from one of the units. The views aren't bad at all.

Anchors to be revealed at Houston Pavilions groundbreaking

Houston Business Journal - February 23, 2007

Two new anchor tenants for the Houston Pavilions will be announced on Feb. 27, the day the project officially breaks ground.

The mixed-use project from developers William Denton and Geoffrey Jones will finally begin construction almost a year behind schedule.

The development also has changed in scope from the original vision, with 140 planned condominiums no longer part of the mix, a change that reduced the total value of Houston Pavilions to $170 million from $200 million.

North Houston Bank is providing $120.6 million in construction financing.

The three-block project bounded by Dallas, Polk, Main and Caroline in downtown Houston will contain 360,000 square feet of retail space and 200,000 square feet of office space. Developers also have a 60-year master lease on 1,600 spaces in an adjacent parking garage.

Tenants that have already been announced include House of Blues; Lucky Strike bowling center; Lawry's, The Prime Rib; Tuscany coffee shop; Yao's Restaurant and Bar; Antica Osteria Italian restaurant; Red Cat Jazz Cafe; and McCormick & Schmick's seafood restaurant.

A grand opening is expected in October 2008.


Hope this gets started. We shall see...

Sooooo, they say the 140 planned condos are not part of the project, what about the apartments?

As I said, it's so much better to speculate as to what or who will be part of the Pavillions District (I'm gonna go ahead and start calling a "district" in honor of the myriad districts that comprise DT Houston currently) rather than whether or not the Pavillions actually gets built.

It's really starting to look like ground zero, too. Went by the site earlier during lunch and things are slowly loading into place--back hoes, bulldozers, etc, etc.

Nevermind me, for some reason I thought apartments were suppose to be part of the project. I probably meant the hotel. I am pretty sure that is a no go.

So is there any word on these cranes?

seems they were just replacing some stuff up there from what I heard..

The lighting at the rooftop llooks a bit different now as well.

The new Catholic Cathedral nearing completion downtown
http://harpictures.marketlinx.com/Me...r1866463-2.jpg

The Mosaic can be seen rising on the horizon towards the left side of this pic
http://harpictures.marketlinx.com/Me...r1866463-3.jpg

Here is a pic I took of the Mosaic last week. Had no idea they would start on the second tower so late. Not saying that they already started.

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/562...b008abbnc5.jpg

So have they started the second one? This is good news. :)

Great pic. You almost never see a view in that direction. The Moody Towers stand out more than I thought they would. Also, is that a smoke stack billowing smoke just to the left of the Moody Twins?

No I was saying they have not started on the second one. I just thought they would have by now.

I am assuming the smokestack is near the port.