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Monday, August 20, 2007

Sonoma Units Available?

August 20, 2007 – 3:54 pm

Interior Rendering of Model Living Room, Sonoma

Our story on the Rice Village’s Sonoma development last Thursday repeated KHOU reporter Lee McGuire’s claim:

The developer says potential buyers have reserved all but four of the new condos.

But Jennifer Friedberg’s writeup in this past weekend’s Chronicle sez otherwise:

A total of 115 of the 220 units for sale in Sonoma are already reserved, Tysor said.

That’s quite a number of buyers backing out of their reservations in a very short period, no? But even more curious is this:

The number of units continues to change depending on the square footage potential residents select for each condo.

Contracts won’t be signed until later in the process.

That’s right, ma’am, just tell us how big you’d like your kitchen and we’ll move the wall there.

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3:54 pm | Read more about Buying and Selling, Condos, Development Strategy, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Rice Village, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments
Friday, August 17, 2007

Mosaic: Second Tower Rising

August 17, 2007 – 10:40 am

Mosaic Tower Under Construction, July 2007

The glass tower is half full: 218 of the 394 units in the first Mosaic tower have been sold, reports the Houston Business Journal. Are those just the north-facing units? Because directly to the south, the second tower is ready for liftoff:

Phillips Development & Realty LLC of Tampa, Fla., which is developing both condominium towers near Hermann Park at a cost of $203 million, secured a $141 million loan from Chicago-based Corus Bankshares Inc. last week to refinance the first building and finance the second one. . . .

Phillips says the company financed the first Mosaic tower as a rental property because that was the only way to secure funding.

Why is it called Mosaic? There are a lot of tiny units in there, 18 to a floor, averaging 980 square feet. They start at $165,000.

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10:40 am | Read more about Condos, Development Strategy, Financing, Highrises, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Hermann Park, New Construction, New Construction: Residential
Thursday, August 16, 2007

Council Bowls Over, So No More Street

August 16, 2007 – 10:43 pm

Rendering of Sonoma in the Rice Village, Showing Bolsover Street

Ignoring the objections of snooty inner-loopers who think they’re somehow entitled to a continuous grid of streets, City Council voted yesterday to let a block of Bolsover in the Rice Village become two private circular driveways and a restaurant patio. The deal nets the city a whopping $1.5 million—the price of a couple of small luxury condos, maybe.

That’s the last hurdle for Sonoma, which appears to have gained two stories since its last appearance here. Developer Randall Davis claims buyers have “reserved” all but four of the 225 condos. There’s also 125,000 sq. ft. of retail and office space in the complex.

After the jump, a revised aerial view of the new Bolsover dropoff.

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10:43 pm | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Leasing, Lofts, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Rice Village, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments
Friday, August 10, 2007

River Oaks To Move West, Add Hotels, Apartments, Offices, and Shopping

August 10, 2007 – 7:29 pm

Street Perspective of Proposed River Oaks District Development by Oliver McMillan

Aerial View of Proposed River Oaks District Mixed Use DevelopmentThe Houston Business Journal gives more details on the River Oaks District, a 15-acre, $600 million mixed-use development proposed for Westheimer just inside the loop, on the site of the Westcreek Apartments, between Highland Village and the Galleria. It’s hard to imagine River Oaks moving further west than that. Once you get to the other side of the loop of course, you might as well call yourself Tanglewood.

Two luxury hotels are on tap. The five-star properties will have a total of 500 guest rooms, and 150 condominiums for sale at the top of one tower.

Another building will hold 300 upscale apartment units. A 10-story office building with 250,000 square feet of space also is part of the mix. And since the Galleria is synonymous with shopping, the developer plans 350,000 square feet of mostly ground-level retail space.

San Diego developer OliverMcMillan says groundbreaking is scheduled for a good year-and-a-half from now. So there’s plenty of time for this project to morph into a more typical Houston-style mixed-use project: maybe a stylish Sam’s Club next to some shiny new apartments?

After the jump, plans and more flashy drawings!

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7:29 pm | Read more about Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Malls, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Highland Village, Neighborhoods: River Oaks, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers
Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Big, Expensive HISD Box To Be Replaced by Big, Cheap Costco Box

August 7, 2007 – 11:05 pm

Former HISD Central Administration Building on Richmond

Proposed Costco on Richmond

The building was simply too big, too lavish, too expensive, too outmoded, and too hot a property for a school district to keep. The site was prime real estate, near the projected path of a new rail line, and perfect—said the buyers—for a dense “New Urbanist-style” mixed-use center. The big concrete box surrounded by parking just didn’t seem to make sense. So after HISD sold its Central Administration building on Richmond at Weslayan, Trammell Crow Co. had it razed last year to make the site ready for new, fresher, denser development.

And the new development is . . . a Costco! With an LA Fitness above it! Plus some outside-the-mall-style pad sites in a big surface parking lot facing Richmond! A small parking garage too. Oh, and an apartment complex tucked in back.

What happened?

[Trammell Crow project manager Craig] Cheney said the project had quietly shifted direction some time ago.

“We looked around, and we had all these competing projects with integrated residential, office and retail, all competing for the same few retailers,” he said. “Life is too short to get into that kind of situation.”

So the project — which had an initial design including a hotel, high-rise and garden homes, a bookstore, grocery store and other features integrated into one “village” — took on a different form.

Shorter version: Costco wanted the site, so the developers jumped at the chance for some of that inside-the-loop big-box excitement.

After our jump, dreamy architect sketches of Paseo, the mixed-use European-style “lifestyle center” Trammell Crow and the Morgan Group waved in front of us for a brief, shining moment in our—yes, too-short lives.

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11:05 pm | Read more about Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Development Strategy, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Greenway Plaza, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, Sprawl
Thursday, August 2, 2007

Airport Living

August 2, 2007 – 2:24 pm

The Williams Home at Hooks AirportContinental pilot Stephen Williams and his wife Nancy are the proud owners of one of several homes built in airplane hangars at Hooks Airport, a private airfield in Spring.

Initially, the Williamses wanted to add on to a Hooks Airport hangar they owned which contained a small apartment. But that plan was rejected by the FAA because it would have been too close to the runway.

They worked with Architect Kyle Cox to create their new 3,300-sf hangar-home.

At the top of the spiral staircase is the pinnacle of this unique home. The tower room is complete with a 360-degree set of windows, providing guests an overview of the airport. It has a steel catwalk that adds to the design, and provides visitors a chance to step outside to enjoy the view as well as the weather. The room also houses a bar and a dumbwaiter to make entertaining simple.

“We put in the things that we wanted. I wanted a nice cooking area,” Nancy said.

With a host of friends and a community full of fellow aviation enthusiasts living at Hooks Airport is nothing short of spectacular. “It’s a neat, quiet community,” Nancy said. “We love it here.”

Photo: 1960 Sun Group

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2:24 pm | Read more about Airports, Development Restrictions, Development Strategy, Environmental, Home Design, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Spring, New Construction: Residential, Transportation
Friday, July 27, 2007

My Tower Will Be 500 Feet Taller Than Your Tower

July 27, 2007 – 2:16 pm

Norfolk TowerOne of the biggest office landlords in Texas has announced that he wants to build a very tall tower in either Chicago, Los Angeles, or Houston. Zaya Younan, who’s been in the real-estate business for five years, wants to show the world how tall a building he can erect. How tall is that?

. . . he doesn’t want a building that will barely rate a mention in the history books, a delicate titleholder surpassed in some Asian capital before its paint dries. “I want it to be the tallest for as long as I am alive,” Younan told the Sun-Times. . . .

The chairman of Younan Properties Inc. said that to build something with a lengthy hold on the record, he’ll need about 500 feet of cushion between his building’s height and any probable competitors.

By today’s standards, that means going up about 3,000 feet. It’s Sears Tower times two. It could cost $4 billion.

The Chicago Sun-Times article declares that the wealthy and powerful L.A. developer “is not crazy.” Younan Properties owns and manages the Norfolk “Tower” (it looks maybe ten stories tall; see the photo above) at Greenbriar and 59 in Houston. The company is the top office landlord in Dallas and the third-largest owner of Class A office space in Texas.

Houston airspace height restrictions blah blah blah downtown blocks too small a base blah blah blah free publicity in three cities blah blah blah.

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2:16 pm | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Highrises, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: River Oaks, Proposed Developments
Thursday, July 19, 2007

Developer To Take “Tuscany in a Parking Lot” Concept Nationwide

July 19, 2007 – 9:31 pm

Aerial Rendering of Villagio Shopping Center in Cinco Ranch

A Woodlands developer has decided its latest creation—a not-yet-opened shopping center in Katy—should be replicated statewide and beyond. Marcel Inc. CEO Vernon Veldekens told GlobeSt.com that

the concept behind Villagio involves smaller, mixed-use centers in neighborhoods rather than fronting freeways or interstate highways. “This gives a more intimate relationship with the community, similar to a European town square,” he says. “We feel like we can put these all over town in mid- to high-end areas and have the same success as we have in Cinco Ranch.”

The Villagio at Cinco Ranch, a boutique lifestyle center slated to open this fall on a 12-acre site at the corner of Westheimer Pkwy. and Peek Rd., is almost three-quarters leased. The center combines 112,285 square feet of retail and office space in a parking-lot-like setting. The developer’s marketing director told the Houston Chronicle that the Villagio will have a “Tuscan look and Tuscan feel to it.” Many of the cars in the 307 spaces surrounding the buildings and the 225-space garage will likely be European as well.

The project is a departure for Marcel Inc., a property development and management firm whose base portfolio includes more mundane shopping centers and a gas station and convenience store, and which previously developed a motorcycle superstore and a handful of Family Dollar stores. Already, the firm has plans for Villagios in north Austin and The Woodlands, and is contemplating additional locations in Round Rock, San Marcos, New Braunfels, and Dallas, according to Globe St.

After the jump, more views of the expanding Tuscan landscape, including the Tuscan villas on the lot!

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9:31 pm | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Fort Bend County, Katy, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Cinco Ranch, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Parking, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, Sprawl, Townhomes
Thursday, June 21, 2007

How the Magnolia Lofts Got Their Name

June 21, 2007 – 10:36 am

Sketch of Magnolia Lofts in Houston Heights by Tim Cisneros

Commenting on an article describing plans for a 40-unit condo building on the site of the former Ashland Tea House in the Heights, with another 40 townhouses and “garden villas” to be sprinkled around it later, Chronicle blogger Martin Hajovsky writes:

I remember when the Ashland Tea House, the McDonald Home, was demolished in 2005, the plan at the time was for a Victorian-themed restaurant to go there. The mere idea that someone would tear down a Victorian-themed restaurant to build a Victorian-themed restaurant struck me as the height of irony.

That memory came back reading the article because there’s a beautiful old magnolia on that site right now. It’s a perfect example of the species. Wonderful, fragrant, old and stately. If that tree survives the building of the “Magnolia Lofts,” it would be a miracle. Once again, irony triumphs.

Construction is expected to begin in August or September. The Magnolia Lofts will feature a tiny ground-floor commercial space—at 750 sf, even smaller than the average condo size of 900 sf—and two stories of parking, one of which the article describes as

“partially submerged” so the building would only appear to be five stories tall.

Maybe the developers should claim that the bottom level of parking is really at a normal level—although it’s underground, it is in the Heights.

Architect Tim Cisneros’s vague storybook sketch of the facade, though, has aroused the ire of Heights resident Mark White:

“While the description provided by the architect sounds like the building’s proposed style is in keeping with the Victorian-era architecture of the Heights, the initial drawings suggest a more ‘updated’ factory-turned-condo facade,” he said. “We would ask that the developer consider making a few changes to the style to make it more consistent with the architecture of the time period represented by the Heights neighborhood.”

By our estimate, that time period would be approximately 1891 to 2007, with the average construction date moving toward the present at a pretty steady clip.

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10:36 am | Read more about Condos, Development Strategy, Historic Districts, Houston Architects, Lofts, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Houston Heights, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Townhomes
Monday, May 21, 2007

West Ave: Shiny, Happy People Holding Shopping Bags

May 21, 2007 – 9:57 am

View Down West Ave

The teaser website for the apartments-and-retail complex slated for that large, recently scraped site at the southwest corner of Kirby and Westheimer is up! What will you find there? For starters, a trance soundtrack you’ll have a tough time figuring out how to turn off, plus slick rendered views and a whizzy video of a dark and urban-looking streetscape where pedestrians wield shopping bags and hover precariously on balconies.

This is the former site of the River Oaks Tennis Center. The development is named West Ave, and to prove it they’re putting in a new street by the same name just west of Kirby, extending from Kipling to Westheimer. Of course the big news is the two floors of retail space facing Kirby, West Avenue, and Westheimer. On top of that: five stories of apartments, managed by Gables Residential. The parking garage is tucked in back.

After the jump: The plan and more images.

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9:57 am | Read more about Apartments, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: River Oaks, Neighborhoods: Upper Kirby, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments
Friday, July 7, 2006

It Takes the Village: New Mixed Use

July 7, 2006 – 4:37 pm

Rice Village Residential Project by Ziegler Cooper Architects

Rice Village Residential Overhead View by Ziegler Cooper ArchitectsHere it is: The mixed-use giant about to plant itself at the northern edge of the Rice Village, at the 2400 block of Bolsover Street, between Kelvin and Morningside. “Abandonment proceedings” for the property have already begun. Say goodbye, Nit Noi!

It’s about 250 residential units perched over high-end retail and office space, all wrapped around a parking garage with a pool on top. Lamesa Properties vice president Julie Tysor tells the West University Examiner that construction is to begin early next year, and that the retail will likely consist of “a boutique grocer, a bookstore, and several upscale restaurants and shops.”

Tysor goes on to say that “nothing is defined or set in stone yet,” but Ziegler Cooper Architects features these drawings of the project on its website.

One question: will all that head-in parking along Kelvin have signs in front of each space that say “Parking for Bailey Banks and Biddle only“?

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4:37 pm | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Rice Village, New Construction, Parking, Retail