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Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Park 8 Chinatown Condo Project: Parked?

July 9, 2008 – 10:43 am

Crane for Park 8, Beltway 8 Near Arthur Storey Park, Houston

Lou Minatti notes that the construction crane parked on the site of the Park 8 condo tower project on the west side of Beltway 8 between Bellaire and Beechnut has at long last been dismantled and removed. Is it time to say goodbye to the Land of Oz?

More bad news for fans of the 3-tower (plus hospital and strip center) project: The video originally embedded in our story about the project from last year is down too. But don’t worry . . . YouTube has a copy! See it again — and relive some of that Oz highrise magic — after the jump.

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10:43 am | Comment | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Medical Buildings, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Chinatown, Parks, Proposed Developments, Strip Centers
Friday, June 27, 2008

The Loneliest Doctor in Houston

June 27, 2008 – 9:51 am

River Oaks Physician Plaza

Medistar’s brand-new River Oaks Physician Plaza adjacent to the just-shuttered River Oaks Hospital has just one tenant, reports Monica Perin in today’s Houston Business Journal:

The 105,000-square-foot, five-story River Oaks Physician Plaza was intended to house offices for River Oaks Hospital physicians as well as a sports medicine center, sleep lab and an endoscopy and pain management center, all operated by River Oaks Hospital, which was originally set to lease space in the building. . . .

But, according to Dr. Leroy Sterling, a physician investor in River Oaks Hospital, there is currently only one tenant — a physician — in the building.

Colliers is now trying to lease the building to commercial tenants. Space is listed at $21 a square foot, triple net. The building has been renamed River Oaks Plaza.

Photo of River Oaks Physician Plaza: River Oaks Hospital

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9:51 am | Comment | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Leasing, Medical Buildings, Neighborhoods: Greenway Plaza
Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The Hospital Formerly Known as Twelve Oaks Is Dead

June 24, 2008 – 10:53 am

River Oaks Physician Plaza, Houston

Looking to lease medical offices near the Southwest Freeway? Medical Properties Trust — which last year bought the former Twelve Oaks Hospital building just west of Greenway Plaza and the 6700 Bellaire building in Sharpstown from Hospital Partners of America and leased them both back to the River Oaks Hospital — may soon have a lot of space available! HPA announced yesterday that both of its River Oaks Hospital locations are closing.

Be sure to check out Medistar’s brand-new River Oaks Physician Plaza (above), designed by Kirksey — also part of HPA’s complex!

Photo of River Oaks Physician Plaza: River Oaks Hospital

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10:53 am | 2 Comments | Read more about Leasing, Medical Buildings, Neighborhoods: Greenway Plaza, Openings and Closings
Thursday, June 5, 2008

Twist and Whisper: Texas Children’s Neurological Secret

June 5, 2008 – 10:57 am

Rendering of Dan & Jan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s HospitalIt sure looks like there’s been a dramatic twist in the plans for the new Dan & Jan Duncan Neurological Research Institute that Texas Children’s Hospital is building in the heart of the Med Center Campus, right behind the waterfall parking garage on Moursund St. Renderings of the building looked a little different at the groundbreaking ceremony last December. A construction permit for the superstructure of the 14-story, 370,000-sq.-ft. tower was approved yesterday.

Texas Children’s doesn’t seem to be putting out a huge amount of detail about the new structure on its website, which is probably understandable for a building that will be housing hundreds of thousands of lab mice. Any knowledgeable readers want to share a little more about the plans . . . and that new twisting corner?

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10:57 am | Comment | Read more about Institutional Buildings, Medical Buildings, Neighborhoods: Texas Medical Center
Monday, April 21, 2008

Pierce Elevated Face Change

April 21, 2008 – 11:53 pm


View Larger Map

The St. Joseph Professional Building, which looms over the Pierce Elevated, will be getting some sort of face lift soon, reports Amy Wolff Sorter in Globe St.:

The building, which underwent a $10-million renovation in the past year, will get an additional $7.8 million of upgrades from its new owners.

Alex Brown Realty of Baltimore and locally based Mission Equities GP LLC are taking on the 44-year-old building at 2000 Crawford St. St. Joseph Professional Building has a mix of retail and medical office space. . . .

Upgrades to the 18-story building will include replacements of the HVAC and sprinkler systems. Also on tap are upgrades to the elevator, life-safety system, exterior façade and interior common areas. The renovations are anticipated to be completed within six to nine months.

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11:53 pm | 1 Comment | Read more about Medical Buildings, Neighborhoods: East Downtown, Neighborhoods: Midtown, Office Buildings, Renovations
Monday, March 17, 2008

New Memorial Hermann Tower: Great Location for a Head Office

March 17, 2008 – 9:54 am

Memorial Hermann Tower at I-10 and Gessner Under ConstructionNewspaper and radio technology answer guy Jay Lee snaps this photo of the new 30-story Memorial Hermann tower going up along I-10 next to the Memorial City Mall . . . then posts it to the “Look Like a Robot” photo pool on Flickr.

Does he realize offices in that robot-head are available for rent? From a January report in the Houston Business Journal:

Marshall Heins, Memorial Hermann’s real estate guru, says he gets asked about the cone at least four or five times a day by inquiring citizens.

The top three floors of the cylinder will house mechanical systems, but the bottom three floors will house small offices. . . .

The cone’s footprint is 2,500 to 3,000 square feet, while the office floors below in the main building have a 25,000-square-foot floor plate.

Building developer MetroNational Corp. will lease the three small floors to tenants, but Memorial Hermann will not be one of them. No word yet from MetroNational on who might occupy the special space.

After the jump: what the whole thing’s supposed to look like when it’s finished!

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9:54 am | 4 Comments | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Highrises, Medical Buildings, Neighborhoods: Memorial City, New Construction, Real Estate Marketing
Thursday, February 28, 2008

Newest and Tallest: The Texas Medical Center Goes Condo

February 28, 2008 – 10:26 am

Here’s what we know so far about the new 40-story hotel-and-condo tower Medistar Corporation is planning for the corner of Main St. and Dryden, between Rice’s new Collaborative Research Center and the Baylor Clinic on the west side of Main: not a whole lot.

But at 40 stories, the new building would likely be the tallest tower in the Texas Medical Center. (The new Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza is only 31.) That’s taller than those twin hypodermics, too.

A lot-line variance for the project is item number 111 before the Planning Commission this afternoon. And the request provides a few clues. Medistar wants the same 10-foot setback along Main St. that the Baylor Clinic has, so the new building can have a similar passenger dropoff and a “pedestrian friendly” entry on that side. The building’s longer axis will be perpendicular to Main. The arguments imply Medistar intends to have “ornamental decorations and balconies” on the Main St. side, and that the tower will be linked by skybridge to the Medical Center main campus across the street.

According to the Southgate Neighborhood Newsletter, the tower will include a 1200-car parking facility.

This isn’t the only new building type Medistar is planning to stir into the Medical Center mix. A block down the street, just south of the company’s Best Western Hotel at 6700 Main St., Medistar is planning a 600,000-sq.-ft. medical mall. The Houston Business Journal reported on that project late last month:

The high-rise would house offices and showrooms for companies that sell equipment, supplies and pharmaceuticals to Texas Medical Center institutions. Tenants could also include organizations working to develop new medical technologies and treatments.

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10:26 am | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Malls, Medical Buildings, Neighborhoods: Southgate, Neighborhoods: Texas Medical Center, Proposed Developments
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Park 8: The Land of Oz Comes to Houston

October 30, 2007 – 2:51 pm

CEO David Wu told the Houston Business Journal last year, “It’s the sort of thing you’d see in Taiwan or Hong Kong, but we’re putting it here in the U.S.”

That’s a good description of Park 8: The Land of Oz. Here’s another one, from the project website:

The Park8 is carefully designed over and over again, improving to its perfect design today. More important, it nicely put urban life and nature together with equal force. With it’s high quality exterior finish, and it’s splendidly designed floor plans, the Land of Oz emphasis on unrestrained openness and convenience. Every penny is well worth for its consideration on security and safety issues, recreational areas, leisure activity clubhouses and beautiful landscaping design.

Wow.

How about a third try: three 26-story condo towers and a couple of parking garages on 17 acres next to Beltway 8, south of Bellaire Blvd., bounded by Arthur Storey Park on one side and parking lots for two two-story retail strips on the other. Also part of the project, but not shown on the plans: a new Chinatown General Hospital.

The first phase is under construction. And condos are for sale! All come with good Feng Shui and karaoke, courtesy of the 3CmyBox included in every unit. If you like the project video above, you’re going to love the development’s website, which includes a “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” soundtrack and prominently features six videos for the feature-packed 3CmyBox in the Photo Gallery section.

The project’s tagline:

A union of Western an Chinese Culture. A combination of fantasy and reality.

After the jump, off to see the Wizard!

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2:51 pm | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Medical Buildings, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Chinatown, Parks, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers
Friday, October 5, 2007

St. Luke’s: We’re Selling So We Can Renovate and Demolish

October 5, 2007 – 9:16 am

The O’Quinn Medical Tower at St. Luke’sWhy did St. Luke’s decide to sell the Texas Medical Center’s most recognizable building?

Once the tower sale goes through, St. Luke’s — which plans to lease back its current space on floors nine through 12 for continued hospital operations — plans to extensively renovate and update the 27-story patient tower, which opened in 1971. The original seven-story hospital building, built in 1954 and now used for administrative functions, will be torn down, and new facilities will be built on that space as well as possibly on other nearby undeveloped land owned by St. Luke’s, according to [St. Luke’s senior vice president David] Koontz.

“That is the ‘why’ behind the move to sell this medical building,” he says.

For sale: The Madonna tower. Designed by Cesar Pelli. Officially named only a couple of years ago for donor and breast-implant litigator John O’Quinn.

After the jump, a picture-postcard-perfect view of the original 1954 St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital building, not long for this world.

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9:16 am | Read more about Demolitions, Highrises, Institutional Buildings, Medical Buildings, Neighborhoods: Texas Medical Center, Office Buildings, Renovations
Thursday, August 30, 2007

Sunrise for the Sunset Medical Clinic

August 30, 2007 – 7:42 am

New Six-Story Medical Clinic of Houston Tower in Southampton

The construction permit for the Medical Clinic of Houston’s new six-story building on Sunset Blvd. in Southampton has been approved by the city. So up it goes! Behind the new building, facing Rice Blvd., will be a new seven-story, 600-space parking garage.

After the jump, a view of the new garage from the adjacent alley.

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7:42 am | Read more about Medical Buildings, Neighborhood Disputes, Neighborhoods: Sharpstown, New Construction, Parking
Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Building Tissue Donated for New Organ Donation Facility

August 28, 2007 – 10:38 am

New Headquarters Building for LifeGift, Viewed from Lantern Pt. Drive

How fitting: The former St. Catherine’s Montessori School across from a Reliant Stadium parking lot is gone, but its spirit will live on. The school itself now has a new location on the other side of the South Loop, but the concrete bones of the “castle-like” building it left behind at 2510 Westridge will be . . . reused!

That’s right, organ-donation organization LifeGift will be spending $7 million to graft new space onto the existing structure, which will be renovated and kept alive presumably with an infusion of stucco. The completed building will be the organization’s 26,000-square-foot headquarters. A new blue-glass prosthesis will connect it to a parking lot along Lantern Point Dr. and serve as the front entrance. Among the features inside: LifeGift offices, an organ-donation education center, and operating rooms for onsite tissue extraction and organ recovery.

Let’s hope the transplant is successful. But really, this is nothing new for the patient: Before it became a school, the building was a firearms museum.

After the jump, more views of the bionic building from m Architects and Burwell Architects.

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10:38 am | Read more about Development Strategy, Institutional Buildings, Medical Buildings, Neighborhoods: Reliant Park, Neighborhoods: Texas Medical Center, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Renovations