Development Strategy

Institutional Buildings, Medical Buildings, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Reliant Park, Renovations, Texas Medical Center

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.

77054, Building-Reuse, Development Strategy, Institutional Buildings, Medical Buildings, Reliant Park, Renovations, Texas Medical Center

Commercial Real Estate

08/27/07 8:34am

Houston Pavilions: Woulda Coulda Shoulda

Condos, Development Strategy, Downtown, Mixed Use, New Construction, Nightlife, Office Buildings, Parking, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers

Houston Pavilions Aerial View, Downtown Houston

If you’re curious why the developers of Houston Pavilions, the $70 million mixed-use development under construction downtown, decided not to mix anything other than office space with their 360,000 square feet of retail and “entertainment” space, you’ll be interested to read the comments L.A. developer Bill Denton made to the CoStar Group:

[Entertainment Development Group] put the site under contract in January 2004, then three surface parking lots and a multi-level parking garage sitting on just over 4 acres, and the project has evolved ever since. “We originally planned for a hotel/condo component, but at the time, the city was just finishing off convention center hotels and hotel occupancy was only 52%; now its difficult to find a hotel room in Downtown Houston. So, we changed the plan into two residential towers, which stuck until 12 months ago. Demand on the residential was tremendous, but because of the mixed-use and density, we would have had to do subterranean parking, which blew the economics of the residences out of the water. So now its 200,000 square feet of office space, and based on demand for that so far, I wish we could do 400,000 square feet.”

77002, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Development Strategy, Downtown, Houston Pavilions, Mixed Use, New Construction, Nightlife, Office Space, Parking, Proposed Developments, Retail

Buying and Selling

08/20/07 3:54pm

Sonoma Units Available?

Condos, Development Strategy, Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments, Rice Village

77005, Buying and Selling, Development Strategies, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments, Rice-Village, Sonoma

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.

Why Houston is $1.5 M richer [KHOU]
City Council approves sale, abandonment of Bolsover in Rice Village [Houston Chronicle]
Council Bowls Over, So No More Street [Swamplot]

Condos

08/17/07 10:40am

Mosaic: Second Tower Rising

Development Strategy, Financing, Hermann Park, Highrises, Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential

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.

Mosaic orders double-dip as second condo tower moves forward [Houston Business Journal]
Mosaic on Hermann Park

77004, Condos, Financing, Hermann Park, Mosaic and Montage, New Construction, New Construction: Residential

Apartments

08/07/07 11:05pm

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

Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Development Strategy, Greenway Plaza, Mixed Use, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, Sprawl

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.

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

So the project â€” which had an initial design including a hotel, high-rise and garden homes, a bookstore, grocery store and other features integrated into one â€œvillageâ€ â€” 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.

77027, Apartments, Big Box Stores, Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Development Strategy, Greenway Commons, Greenway Plaza, Mixed Use, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Rail, Retail, Richmond-Avenue, Shopping Centers, Sprawl

Airports

08/02/07 2:24pm

Airport Living

Development Restrictions, Development Strategy, Environmental, Home Design, Mixed Use, New Construction: Residential, Spring, Transportation

The Williams Home at Hooks Airport Continental 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.”

Artistic designs make hanger a breathtaking home [1960 Sun Group]

Photo: 1960 Sun Group

77379, Airports, Development Restrictions, Hooks Airport, Mixed Use, New Construction: Residential, Spring

Commercial Real Estate

07/27/07 2:16pm

My Tower Will Be 500 Feet Taller Than Your Tower

Development Strategy, Highrises, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, River Oaks

Norfolk Tower One 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.

Towering ambition [Chicago Sun-Times, via HAIF]
Younan Properties

77019, Development Strategy, Highrises, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, River Oaks, Skyscrapers

Cinco Ranch

07/19/07 9:31pm

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

Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Fort Bend County, Katy, Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Parking, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, Sprawl, Townhomes

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!

77450, Cinco Ranch, Katy, Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Parking, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, Town-Squares, Townhomes

Condos

06/21/07 10:36am

How the Magnolia Lofts Got Their Name

Development Strategy, Historic Districts, Houston Architects, Houston Heights, Lofts, Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Townhomes

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.

Heights growing more dense? Thoughts thereof… [Home in the Heights]
Plans expand for Ashland Tea House site [Houston Chronicle]
Magnolia Lofts [Cisneros Design Studio]

77008, Condos, Historic Districts, Houston Heights, Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Parking

Briarbend

06/12/07 9:14am

You’ll Love This Home! And You’ll Love Demolishing It, Too!

Buying and Selling, Demolitions, Development Strategy, Homebuying, Homes for Sale, New Construction, New Construction: Residential

7807 Del Monte Dr.

Five little words slipped into the end of an MLS profile remind us, gently, that updated but low-slung houses on large lots in tony Houston neighborhoods aren’t meant for homebuyers who want to enjoy a simple home in a natural setting. No, an older ranch like this is meant for a family willing to tolerate a “gorgeous” and “spacious” (but also apparently cramped and doomed) home until they can tear it down and build something that’s five times as big and that blankets the 10,665-square-foot lot more definitively. It’s a sacrifice, we know.

See if you can find the magic words in this listing:

GEORGEOUS, UPDATED, WELL MAINTAINED 3/2.5/2 W/LRG ENTERTAINMENT RM & WET BAR OVERLOOK POOL, BRIARBEND SUBD, ZONED NEW BRIARGROVE ELEM. $55K+ IN UPDATES: 2007 Paint/Hardware, 2005 Silestone Kit Counters/ Dbl Ovens, Baths, Entertain Rm Roof, Replaced Ducts/Added 4 Return Vents. UPDATES LAST 6 YRS: Dbl Pane Windows, Refinished Hardwood Floors, Refinished Pool Surface/Robotic Pool Sweep, Garage Doors, Recessed Lights in Kit, LR & Hall. Park @end of blk. Live in now/Build later/2 story allowed.

More photos of the amazing $466K Briarbend house you’ll love so much you won’t be able to wait to tear it down—after the jump.

77063, Briarbend, Buying and Selling, Demolitions, Development Strategies, Homebuying, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Ranch-Houses

Commercial Real Estate

06/07/07 9:36am

A Clever Way To Develop Property Temporarily While You Wait for a Bigger Deal

Construction Materials, Demolitions, Development Strategy, Green Design and Development, Houston Heights, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Retail