Not mentioned in CultureMap's article is that Continental Airlines is in the process of shrinking its downtown footprint as well. Hopefully the job losses will be kept to a minimum but of the 3,000 Continental employees in downtown Houston there has been an announcement already that 500 are being eliminated. That also means office space will not be needed by Continental either.
Last Friday the former CEO of Continental wouldn't talk to the Houston press to answer questions about the next steps with the merger and its direct impact on Houston - he just slipped out of the building to avoid press entirely. I'm not sure what that says but if it were super positive it would seem he would have hung around to spread the good news.
United Continental CEO gets camera shy at CERA week:
http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/b...cera-week.html
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CultureMap appears to have jumped the gun on their announcement two days ago for the new Hines tower. Here is the article from today's Houston Business Journal that basically does a 180 degree turn around from what CultureMap was trying to do:
New skyscraper for downtown? Not just yet
Houston Business Journal - by Jennifer Dawson
Date: Thursday, March 17, 2011, 3:03pm CDT - Last Modified: Thursday,
March 17, 2011, 3:15pm CDT.
Some real estate watchers may have been surprised to see a report this week that Hines was planning a new downtown skyscraper — and that it could happen soon.
I certainly was.
It
seemed odd that Hines would plan a new tower two blocks away from BG Group Place, which recently celebrated its grand opening at 811 Main and is still lining up tenants.
So I checked in with the developer to get an update.
The subject of speculation is a surface parking lot on nearly a full city block Hines has owned for years.
The site bounded by Main, Texas, Fannin and Capitol
has long been considered a future development site for the Houston-based developer. The 21-story Texas Tower at 608 Fannin sits on part of the block.
Mark Cover, executive vice president with Hines, said via e-mail that an office tower is envisioned for the site, but
development is not imminent.
An unnamed architecture firm has completed a schematic design for an office building to be used for marketing purposes. Creating a design is commonplace when a new building is being shopped to potential tenants, Cover said.
Cover would not share the design with the Houston Business Journal.
The Hines executive also would not say how many potential tenants have been approached, but said the firm is talking to energy, law and service firms.
The ultimate size of the building could vary since “it requires substantial pre-leasing,” Cover said in e-mail.
There’s a possibility that construction could begin later this year, but not without a large tenant, he said.
Still, it would take two years to construct a new tower, so it would not be in competition with the 46-story BG Group Place.
“
We will not compete with ourselves, but there is strong interest for the remaining space at BG Group Place,” .....
Full article here:
http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/b...-just-yet.html