The website of New York real estate firm Thor Equities has switched out the renderings for the full-block Kirby Collection mixed-use development it’s been threatening to build on the west side of Kirby Dr. between Colquitt and W. Main St. for almost 6 years now. And the new Collection drawing collection does look pretty whizzy. It appears to show 2 levels of retail facing Kirby, a dozen-or-so-story office tower along Colquitt, and a taller squashed-cylinder-shaped residential tower on top of a parking-garage base hanging back toward Lake St.:
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In the middle of it all is this signature tent-like structure — which in the rendering, a commenter posting on HAIF notes, “appears to be made of light.” It hugs a pair of escalators in the retail section of the mixed-use development:
There’s not much more information available on the website, other than a list of tony retailers the development (will? would like to?) have there: “Major area retailers include: Tiffany & Co., Grill on the Alley, Brooks Brothers, Thomas Pink, Vilebrequin, Madewell, Intermix, Sephora, Borelli, Apple and Nike.“
Currently on the block, in the 3 buildings at 3320, 3212, and 3200 Kirby Dr.: The former Settegast Kopf funeral home, converted in 2011 to house bars Hendricks Pub and Roak; the OTC Patio Bar; and the 2-story retail-and-office building that houses Café Express and the Owl Bar.
- The Kirby Collection [Thor Equities]
- The Kirby Collection by Thor Equities [HAIF]
- Previously on Swamplot: How the Jury Tried to Resolve the Upper Kirby Funeral Home Bar Battle, Heavy Drinking in the Old Funeral Home: Kirby’s Settegast Kopf Going Multi-Bar
Renderings: Thor Equities
Looks to be a ’56 or ’57 Ferrari Sport Prototype in the lobby. I’d stop by to see that.
Hope the developer has some good lawyers. If the NIMBYs didn’t like the bars operating there in the former funeral home and were willing to take them to court, they sure as heck are gonna fight on this one.
I think the biggest problem the neighbors had was the service of alcohol to the affliction wearing doucheouise and 2am drunken walks to the cars parked in the neighborhood. If the development provides proper parking and has no nuisance producing businesses, there might not be as much pushback.
The car would appear to actually be an Aston Martin DBR1, an interesting choice.
the NIMBY’s would find themselves in a much tighter spot though. battling after hours nuisances is one thing, but suppressing development for personal satisfaction is something entirely different.
This is amazing.
It seems as more and more projects like this fill in, the vocal minority of Afton Oakians and other Culberites will finally be drowned out (with the extra ppl in the area and the campaign $ from developers), and the needed University line will get built.
I don’t know where the $ will come from, but all these extra cars (from the apartments and visitors to the area) are going to incentivise the building of that line.
Nice! It will make a nice addition to the area …. now lets see what we can do to the NE corner of Kirby and Richmond (a real eyesore)
I know this isn’t news, but my god, Houston is on fire.
Hopefully the influx of new residents—who will suffer monumental repair costs from driving their lease special econo-luxury cars with 19s and rubber band tires up and down Richmond Ave.—will produce a sufficiently loud uproar to finally get the city to resurface that damned road, stat. Oh and yes, screw Afton Oaks and their premium McMansions, I’d like my toy train too, thank you very much.
Geez, what a load of developer BS–get real, very little of this pie in the sky will ever get built–this developer probably has never even set foot on the site–yawn, call me when it actually has financing and a shovel in the ground, anyone can draw a dream development, let’s see you build it.
Looks like a giant steamship funnel. What’s with the other building, are those blast shields?
I thought malls were done.
Jeez Shannon, why the negativity for this project? I don’t understand what makes this development any less realistic than other development in Houston.
I really only want to have to say this once, but will people just stop responding to Shannon? The comments are dumb, but I dont dignify them by commenting on them. Just ignore it and move on to the next comment, why is that so hard? Instead you get multiple comments from Shannon and it only gets worse.
Xtxn, you don’t get it, I’ll teach you real quick. If you read commonsense post he is actually comes off positive about this development. This means Shannon by the laws of physics, has to be negative about the development. If they both end up being positive about something the Earths core freezes and we all die….. I believe Neil deGrasse Tyson will have a cartoon about it this week on Cosmos.
David Peck’s factory and showroom are above Cafe Express, too. A great local fashion designer.
I know its oversimplifying, but Upper Kirby is only really a few teardowns away from being completed transformed (I’m looking at you OfficeMax and Bed, Bath, & Beyond). I just wish Kirby south of 59 would work on a few of their own beautification projects.
I like this project, I hope it comes to fruition, I’m just curious about the financing and the date of actual construction–the negative comments in relation to my posts are just counterproductive, simply ignore my comment or respond, it’s really no big deal–there are many on here that I roll my eyes when they comment, but I don’t advocate banning them from the site or making them persona no grata–look this is a fan boy site, a blog of threads from people who have strong opinions on issues dealing with developement and architecture–it’s that simple, don’t over think it, dear.
Tejas76–you really made me laugh–perhaps you’re right –but I actually do like this proposed developement, it looks really cool.
@Shannon
“this developer probably has never even set foot on the site–yawn, call me when it actually has financing and a shovel in the ground, anyone can draw a dream development, let’s see you build it.”
Let’s see…here is this particular developer’s portfolio:
Fifth Avenue
139 Fifth Avenue
245 Fifth Avenue
445 Fifth Avenue
520 Fifth Avenue
562-564 Fifth Avenue
590 Fifth Avenue
597 Fifth Avenue
693 Fifth Avenue
SoHo/NoHo
440 Broadway
470 Broadway
494 Broadway
496 Broadway
529 Broadway
560 Broadway
452 West Broadway
151 Wooster Street
21-27 Mercer Street
115 Mercer Street
155 Mercer Street
136 Greene Street
57-63 Greene Street
60 Greene Street
70 Greene Street
30 Bond Street
Midtown West/Theater District
725 Eighth Avenue
ROW NYC
Meatpacking
837 Washington Street
875 Washington Street
412 West 14th Street
446 West 14th Street
Madison Avenue
545 Madison Avenue
680 Madison Avenue
1006 Madison Avenue
1122 Madison Avenue
Flatiron
933 Broadway
Upper East Side
1566 Third Avenue
1231 Third Avenue
60 East 66th Street
Garment District
25 West 39th Street
Chelsea
124 West 24th Street
Downtown
36-38 Park Row
88 Greenwich Street
Brooklyn
209 Smith Street
519 Fulton
525-541 Atlantic Avenue
295 Atlantic Avenue
130 Montague
280 Richards
Shore Parkway
Coney Island – Surf & Stillwell Avenue
292 Atlantic Avenue
Coney Island – 1218 Surf Avenue
463 86th Street
Chicago, Illinois
1-15 Oak Street
133 South State Street
28-32 South State Street
36 South State Street
Palmer House Hilton
Miami, Florida
605 Lincoln Road
663-667 Lincoln Road
852 Collins Avenue
120 Northeast 39th Street
London, England
Burlington Arcade
Paris, France
65 Avenue des Champs-Élysées
Cannes, France
65 Boulevard de la Croisette
Houston, Texas
The Kirby Collection
Cinco Ranch
San Francisco, California
152 Geary
760 Market Street
Los Angeles, California
145 North Robertson
142-146 South Robertson Blvd
Mexico City, Mexico
421 Masaryk
426 Masaryk
97 Calderon
102 La Fontaine
Shopping Centers
Beach Place
Military Circle
South Dekalb
Naaaaahhhh! They’ll never get financing!
Tejas76, I wish there was a like button because that was awesome.
I lived in a Thor building in NYC. It was fine.
Well, there goes the neighbrohood.
There had better be a Bork.
@Jenny
Great? Hardly.
Local? Definitely.