Snapshots from the scenic Robbins Brothers jewelry store parking lot on the West Loop show how much progress has been made on the 34-story Arabella (formerly Arábella) condo tower next to the Target parking lot on San Felipe. Construction on the bumpy building began in 2015 on a portion of the former Westcreek Apartments at the corner of San Felipe and Westcreek. The photo at top shows the new building at 4521 San Felipe towering over the 25-story SkyHouse River Oaks apartment building, as well as the 17-story Wilshire condo tower.
A closer view of the trio:
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- Previously on Swamplot: Randall Davis’s Arabella Is Losing Its Accent; Meet Arábella, the Wispy 34-Story Tower Randall Davis Has in Mind for San Felipe and Westcreek; A Randall Davis-Flavored Highrise for the East Side of the West Loop
Photos: Swamplot inbox
In Height Order
what’s the story with this building? I haven’t seen any progress on the exterior in months.
Is there a work stoppage?
My thoughts are the same as Diggity’s…they took down the construction crane, but there’s still more fascia that needs to be added near the top. What gives?
In the past Randall Davis has targeted foreigners wanting “investment visas” to purchase units in his condo buildings. I wonder if the changes we’ve seen lately regarding H1B and H2 visas is interrupting his business plan.
Fisher took over management.
If the city really cared about traffic studies and the effect of towers full of ppl and their cars on local roads, two of these towers would have not been built.
It is still an abomination.
Wealthy foreigners would probably see opportunities for relatively-great deals in NYC and London; Houston, maybe not so much.
I was speaking with a builder yesterday, and apparently after construction it was discovered the fire escape/stairwell was too narrow and not up to code. Folks are apparently scrambling to figure out how to widen the space, but it appears to be a huge mess.
Either way, delaying the project softens the impending traffic blow….silver lining?
No need to widen a staircase. Just pay some one off. It will happen
Snh245, wow! That’s a bad screw up. I can’t imagine how the “who pays for this” gets resolved.
The folks who are freaking out about traffic are laughable. First of all, we shouldn’t be including traffic at all in the approval criteria for a new building – especially in the middle of the city like this one is. How are you going to pinpoint traffic problems on any one project? Collectively, we are ALL traffic, at least those of us using a motor vehicle (including Uber or similar services) – and new residents shouldn’t be treated any differently from existing or long-time residents. The focus should be on enhancing alternatives to traffic, not disallowing new development. By the way, the density of high rises, especially luxury ones with large units, is usually not much different, or even less, than low- and mid-rises.
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Secondly, residential uses in general are far less damaging to traffic – especially at the small-area level – than retail and office. Yes, as the residential population in the core of the city generally goes up, so too will traffic levels, over a wide area; but the traffic issues people complain about so much are generally driven by people going to workplaces and places of consumption. So urban traffic complainers, what do you want to do, ban all new development inside the Beltway? And have you ever noticed how bad the traffic gets in low-rise suburban areas too?
I know someone else who bought a condo from Randall Davis that was supposed to include two parking spaces. Shortly before closing she found out that a mechanical room and stairway had been constructed where one of her parking spaces was supposed to be. Apparently the architect changed the plans after the condo declaration was recorded and nobody thought to amend the declaration. The brokers, of course, assured her that it could be fixed after closing, but the building was fully sold and none of her neighbors seem to be interested in selling a space back to the developer at any price. Total shitshow.