Swamplot Archives by Category: Mixed Use

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Friday, March 13, 2009

The Land of Oz: Ready to Rise Again?

March 13, 2009 – 9:23 am

Here’s a surprise: a construction permit for a new 23-story Chinatown Asiatown condominium tower was issued yesterday for Park 8 Place. Remember Park8? That’s the freeway feeder megastrip project planned for just across Brays Bayou from Arthur Storey Park, along Beltway 8 south of Bellaire Blvd. The one that called itself “The Land of Oz.”

The entire development was supposed to include three 20-something-story residential towers, a hospital, two 2-story retail-and-office strips, and a couple of parking garages — all in a quaint freeway-and-park-side setting. A foundation was poured for the first condo building last year, but Park 8 CEO David Wu put the project on hold after he was unable to secure financing. So the construction crane came down.

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9:23 am | 6 Comments | Read more about Cancellations and Delays, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Hospitals, Medical Buildings, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Chinatown, Proposed Developments, Retail, Strip Centers
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Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Bill’s Junk: It’s Only Art If You Don’t Buy It

February 3, 2009 – 8:44 am

There’s a lot of junk for sale in this tiny Norhill storefront: Thermoses from the 1970s, a bouffant-hairstyle catalog, a 1967 Delta Zeta sorority photo, hand-painted cans of Campbell’s Soup, and — writes Kelly Klaasmeyer in the Houston Press — “what is possibly the world’s largest extant collection of macramé owls.”

Who would want any of this stuff? Even the owner wants to be done with it:

[Bill] Davenport decided to get rid of stuff because of a move. “I had to move all my junk over from storage, and I thought, ‘Oh no, this can’t go on.’ I had to look at everything as I unpacked it.” As a result, he started thinking that maybe he didn’t need all of it.

Davenport and Francesca Fuchs, both artists, bought the 4,320-sq.-ft. 1930 commercial building at 1125 E. 11th St. (off Studewood) more than 2 years ago. After 16 months of renovations, they recently moved in upstairs with their kids. And Davenport opened Bill’s Junk in one of the retail spaces downstairs:

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8:44 am | 3 Comments | Read more about Art, Commercial Real Estate, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Norhill Historic District, Neighborhoods: North Norhill, Renovations, Retail
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Where Have All the Small Commercial Rehabs Gone?

January 27, 2009 – 8:25 am

A question from a Swamplot reader:

My husband and I lost our Heights bungalow (and the hundred-year-old oaks that shaded it) to Hurricane Ike. We have decided donate the remnants of the house to Historic Houston for salvage, sell our lot . . . and use our insurance settlement to pursue our dream of purchasing an older commercial building, like an old two-story brick grocery store, somewhere inside the loop in the $200K - $350 range, 3000 - 4000 sq. ft., for mixed use as a residence upstairs and studio space/small theater downstairs. We are not having much luck.

My question is this: aside from all the usual avenues–Commgate, Loopnet, HAR, reading blogs, driving around, submitting LOI’s, what other resources exist for novice commercial buyers, like us?

8:25 am | 6 Comments | Read more about Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Home Design, Homebuying, Mixed Use
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Monday, January 26, 2009

West Ave: Going South?

January 26, 2009 – 11:44 am

Is Gables Residential’s West Ave development doing so well already that plans are already in place to build the mixed-use development’s second phase? Or are the cause and credit markets so hopeless that architects of a once-hoped-for follow-on project decided they might as well post images of their design, since that’s the most exposure their work will likely ever get?

Ziegler Cooper Architects, designers of the 2727 Kirby highrise going up across the street, now have posted this image of a building on the company’s website. It’s identified it as West Ave Phase II.

And there’s this description:

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11:44 am | 10 Comments | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Upper Kirby, Office Space, Proposed Developments
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Monday, January 19, 2009

Even Better Than Greenspoint: New AstroWorld Festival Office Park!

January 19, 2009 – 6:43 pm

One of Swamplot’s best tipsters forwards a link to a website featuring lovely renderings of a family of glassy office buildings and blocky parking garages squatting on the former AstroWorld site — along with a rather direct question: “Is this real???”

Well, the Crosswell Torian website is a real website, where the development company proudly presents its AstroWorld tower roundup under the name SouthPointe: “a hundred+ acre, transit-oriented mixed use development.” But a brand-new 13.5-million-sq.-ft. project doesn’t exactly seem tailor-made for today’s cautious real-estate market.

If the SouthPointe design isn’t real, though, it’s a brilliant parody — down to the ultra-generic name and its not-so-silent extra vowel. It expertly answers this question: How might a bunch of suburban developers — some of them from, say, Conroe — make a complete mockery of Houston’s highest profile and best connected redevelopment site?

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6:43 pm | 12 Comments | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Reliant Park, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Transportation
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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Pavilions Office Tower: First!

January 13, 2009 – 1:01 pm

That see-through office tower above the new Houston Pavilions development Downtown won’t be empty much longer. Globe St.’s Amy Wolff Sorter reports that law firm Sheehy, Serpe & Ware has leased the top floor and a half.

Only 7 1/2 floors left!

Photo of Pavilions Tower: Houston Pavilions

1:01 pm | 2 Comments | Read more about Leasing, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Downtown, New Construction, Office Space
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Monday, December 29, 2008

Heights Village: It Was All Just a Good Old Fashioned Dream

December 29, 2008 – 12:02 pm

Here’s something we can all feel tingly and nostalgic about: Developer Bobby Orr’s Heights-ish fantasy — of brand-new old-timey storefronts facing long streetside parking lots off Yale St. and Heights Blvd. just south of I-10 — is dead. The Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff drops news of the demise of the Heights Village dream as an aside to her update on the stalled-out High Street development.

The entire 4.9-acre property, across Heights Blvd. from the ArtCar Museum, is back on the market, at $75 a square foot.

Sadly, Cushman & Wakefield’s listing for the property doesn’t include any misty watercolors to memorialize what might have been. But Swamplot remembers! Here’s a brief trip down invented-memory lane . . . in 3 quick images:

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12:02 pm | 20 Comments | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Houston Heights, Neighborhoods: Washington Corridor, Parking, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers
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High Street: Left High and Dry

December 29, 2008 – 10:50 am

Problems getting credit have stalled or dashed hopes for many Houston developments, leaving vacant sites, ratty construction fences, and more than a few misleading “coming soon” signs touting unachievable goals. Off Westheimer just west of Mid Lane, though, we’ll have a much bigger and longer-lasting reminder of changed fortunes to look at, for a good long while: The steel frame of the first building in Trademark Property’s High Street project.

Work has stopped.

What happened?

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10:50 am | 4 Comments | Read more about Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Highland Village, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers
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Monday, December 15, 2008

How To Bring the Mall Closer to Main Street: Katy Shows the Way

December 15, 2008 – 10:45 am

Just line that short central driveway through your new power-center parking lot with a small number of stores and head-in parking. Fortify the freeway frontage with an FM-1960-worthy strip of more than the usual number of pad sites, and build the whole thing next to a mall! Next problem?

Introducing the new Katy Main Street, a just-announced 86-acre shopping center named for the short strip of 4 retail buildings meant to line its gullet.

The mixed-use development is designed to include 485,000 square feet of retail space, 500,000 square feet of office space and a full-service hotel and convention center at the southwest corner of Interstate 10 and Pin Oak Road in Katy.

All this . . . just across the street from the Katy Mills Mall!

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10:45 am | 4 Comments | Read more about Katy, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Shopping Centers, Streets
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Friday, November 21, 2008

Die, Sell, or On Hold: Big Houston Projects in Crisis

November 21, 2008 – 1:14 pm

What effects have difficulties with bank financing stemming from the global financial crisis had on some of those big new developments planned for Houston? The Houston Business Journal’s Jennifer Dawson weighs in with a “Where Are They Now?” roundup:

  • Regent Square: That big design change meant a year’s delay; the first parts of the 24-acre Inner Loop development are now scheduled to start construction in the second quarter of 2009. A marketing center will open at 1203 Dunlavy next month, but have some more official kickoff in February.
  • Sonoma: “Called off — for now,” but you already knew that. According to Dawson, it wasn’t so much the banks but the developer that grew skittish:

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1:14 pm | 15 Comments | Read more about Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Retail
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Thursday, November 20, 2008

Sonoma Developers: We Were So Close, Really!

November 20, 2008 – 10:28 am

Sonoma’s would-be developers try to explain to West U Examiner reporter Michael Reed why the Rice Village retail-and-condo project was put “on hold” only a few weeks after the sales team sent out an email to prospective buyers claiming it had received financing:

Julie [Tysor], president of the Appelt Companies, said in an e-mail response to Examiner questions about the financing, “We had secured a substantial majority of the financing for the south building through the cooperation of some local lenders who have also supported this project since its inception.”

She said a number of factors contributed to the financing falling through, “not the least of which is historical world economic crisis that is unprecedented…”

So what’s going to happen to the site — which includes that block of Bolsover St. purchased from the city — now?

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10:28 am | 1 Comment | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Financing, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Rice Village, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Retail, Streets
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Friday, November 14, 2008

Sonoma in Translation: Not Gonna Happen

November 14, 2008 – 11:04 am

Rendering of Proposed Sonoma Development, Bolsover St., Rice Village, Houston

Last month, a Sonoma sales rep told the West U Examiner that the project had secured financing — which turned out to be condo-sales-speak for “Maybe if people think we’re definitely going ahead we can still sell units and somehow find a way out of this mess.” Now Nancy Sarnoff reports in the Chronicle that the developer of the condos-and-retail complex slated for what used to be Bolsover St. in the Rice Village has told her that the project “is being put on hold ‘for the short term.’” This appears to be developer-speak for “We’re toast.”

Was the problem just “economic uncertainties and tumultuous credit markets”? After developer Lamesa Corp. and partner Randall Davis pulled their switcheroo, deciding to start with the project’s second phase because they couldn’t get the more grandiose first phase financed,

they went back to the market and were negotiating for a $70 million loan with 40 percent equity to build the smaller second phase of 85 units.

At that point they had nearly 70 buyers who had put down deposits. More than half were interested in the second building.

Translation: Almost half their buyers bailed.

There’s good news for the trashed 2-block section of the Village Sonoma leaves behind, though:

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11:04 am | 5 Comments | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Financing, Land Sales, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Rice Village, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Streets
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Monday, October 27, 2008

Costco Greenway Commons Sidewalk Obstacle Course: Fun!

October 27, 2008 – 11:15 am

Sidewalk Along Weslayan St., Greenway Commons, Houston

The wise folks behind Greenway Commons — the new shopping center replacing the old HISD headquarters building at the corner of Richmond and Weslayan — have apparently taken some extra-special steps to make sure the new development (which includes a brand-new Costco) is super-friendly to pedestrian visitors!

Making everything welcoming to people arriving on foot makes sense — the project had been criticized for exhibiting suburban-style development patterns in a location that some dreamers had imagined would be a street-fronting mixed-use center. It’s already a busy corner, and Metro’s new University Line will have a stop only a short walk away.

But “easy to access” can also mean “boring.” So it’s comforting to see these pictures of the project’s street edge sent in by a reader, which show a gentle, fun infrastructure-themed obstacle course taking shape along the new Weslayan and Richmond sidewalks in front of Trammell Crow’s grand development:

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11:15 am | 16 Comments | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Greenway Plaza, New Construction, Retail, Shopping Centers, Sprawl, Strip Centers
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Friday, October 24, 2008

Go-Aheads for Sonoma

October 24, 2008 – 10:10 am
   

Randall Davis’s Sonoma development couldn’t get financing for its first phase, but the condos-and-retail project’s sales team is now saying it has financing for its second phase, planned for the south side of Bolsover St. And requirements for taking over the block of Bolsover between the two projects have been fulfilled: “In an e-mail sent Saturday, sales team member Keith Kaposta said groundbreaking at the Rice Village site was still expected in February following the expiration of Walgreens’ lease on the property at 5313 Kelvin St. In another development, the city of Houston said Tuesday that developer Randall Davis property owner La Mesa Corp. had successfully completed all work that was required by the extended deadline of Oct. 27. . . . [Public Works Department spokesman Alvin] Wright said even if the work covered under the letters of credit was not completed by the deadlines, the city would not get the property back. [West University Examiner; previously]

10:10 am | Add a Comment | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Financing, Land Sales, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Rice Village, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Streets
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Putting Off the Ritz: Boulevard Place Towers Stalled

October 21, 2008 – 11:22 am

Aerial View of BLVD Place, Showing Proposed Ritz Carlton and Hanover Apartment Towers

Remember the two 30-plus-story towers planned for Boulevard Place on Post Oak — the Ritz Carlton Hotel and the Hanover apartment tower? How have they been surviving the rumbling credit crunch?

A HAIF user last week

got slight confirmation that both the hanover tower and the ritz are going to be delayed at least slightly… they still expected both to happen, but they will be phased in.

Then yesterday came another comment:

i can confirm this in regards to hanover.

dont expect their tower to be built anytime soon.. i would consider it postponed indefinitely rather than slightly.

Followed by this:

As a sub on this project I will also confirm this. We have been told at least 6 months of delays.

But they still look great on paperscreen!

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11:22 am | 1 Comment | Read more about Apartments, Financing, Hotels, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Galleria, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment
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