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Lewis Realty Advisors Announces HOUSTON HOT SPOTS for 2008
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lewis Realty Advisors, one of the oldest and most respected real estate firms in Texas, has named the 2008 HOUSTON HOT SPOTS among the city’s most vibrant commercial real estate markets.
Houston-based Lewis Realty Advisors has expertly appraised, brokered, consulted and developed commercial real estate projects since 1961. The HOUSTON HOT SPOTS forecast identifies the submarkets with the fundamental strength, market momentum and catalyst developments to outpace the rest of the city in 2008.
“The Houston commercial real estate markets are outstanding and getting even better as we look ahead in the new year. Continued job growth and surging oil prices have bolstered the local office market and industrial properties. Retail centers have been supported by the large numbers of new rooftops that have been constructed,” said Matthew Deal, co-managing partner of Lewis Realty Advisors.
The Lewis Realty Advisors 2008 HOUSTON HOT SPOTS are:
GOLD MEDAL – Uptown. Certainly Houston’s – and possibly the nation’s - biggest success story is Uptown, a mixed-use submarket that has fully blossomed in the last 10 years. Uptown boasts an even mixture of residential, office and retail. Residential development always precedes commercial development and new residential projects are going up everywhere in Uptown. These new high-rise residences are fueling commercial development. Hanover recently locked up a Wulfe Company site on San Felipe west of Post Oak for a 50 or 60-story residential tower. Ritz Carlton is building a hotel/condo on a Wulfe site south of San Felipe. These ‘customers’ will feed Wulfe’s Boulevard Place development, anchored by 80,000 square-foot Whole Foods and redevelopment of existing restaurants, including Café Annie. These developments have fueled new office building announcements on Post Oak. The bottom line: Uptown is diverse and the uses feed off each other. With improved mobility on San Felipe Road and in Uptown Park and Metro rail coming, the future is bright for Uptown.
SILVER MEDAL – Downtown. New office towers are planned by Hines, Trammell Crow and other major developers as the office vacancy has dropped to its lowest point in years. But the biggest change is Finger Companies’ new high-rise residential tower, One Park Place. This will advance the population growth to help lift the CBD over the top. Since 1997, government has invested significant capital in new CBD projects – a baseball stadium, a basketball arena, Metro rail, expanded convention center, significant street improvements and a convention hotel. But the 24-hour environment so sorely needed has not come to pass. There are exceptions, such as the Bayou Place development near the Arts District, which has a vibrant night life. But many restaurants and bars on Main Street have closed. The underlying problem has been the lack of a significant number of residents in the CBD. Finger’s new residential tower is changing this. We could be seeing the start of an Uptown-like rebirth in downtown. The new Discovery Green park could be Houston’s version of Central Park, the Houston Pavilions entertainment/restaurant project by William Denton, and discussion of a second convention hotel, all point to a more diverse, mixed-use downtown.
BRONZE MEDAL - Texas Medical Center. A city in and of itself, the Med Center GDP is greater than many entire states. Med Center ‘citizens’ are highly educated with high-paying jobs. And the Med Center is expanding, resulting in more residential development, which is attracting new retail. Real estate prices in this submarket have shot up dramatically. Periphery sites to the east along Almeda Road and to the south of the Med Center that have been lying fallow for years are being purchased for high-rise and mid-rise residential development. Office space and other commercial square footage are at a premium. Medical institutions are seeking off-site, but nearby locales, for offices for accounting functions and other back-office workers and warehouses. Med Center demographics cannot be overlooked – some 75,000 people are employed there, including 10,000 doctors or other PhDs.
Lewis Realty Advisors, founded by David M. Lewis, has appraised, brokered and developed commercial real estate for almost 50 years. The Houston-based company provides consulting and advisory services for private property owners and governmental agencies. For more information:
www.LewisRealty.com.
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