Schemers at over- capitalized WEDGE Group International appear to have hatched a complicated plot to cover up that 11-story blank parking-garage wall at the base of the company’s Downtown tower at 1415 Louisiana. The plan: slide a new building of equivalent height — say, a Hilton Garden Inn — right next to the tower’s north base, then add a suburban-style porte-cochere entrance along Clay St.
HAIF user lockmat unearthed this small rendering of the hotel (above), which was hiding in plain view on the WEDGE Real Estate Holdings website. It shows how the completed wallcovering would look from Louisiana St., just north of Clay — if WEDGE’s separate 12-story Clay Garage wasn’t there to block the view. The tall buildings shown in the background are the WEDGE tower and the ExxonMobil building just behind it to the left.
How far along are these plans?
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WEDGE Hotels Corporation is actively engaged in the pre-development process for a 240-room Hilton Garden Inn adjacent to WEDGE International Tower on Louisiana Street and Clay in downtown Houston, TX. Project is expected to break ground in 2009 and open in 2010.
Of course there’ll be that little issue of getting financing, too. A subdivision plat for the new hotel was approved by the Planning Commission last week.
- Hilton Garden Inn, Downtown [HAIF]
- Development [WEDGE Real Estate Holdings]
- WEDGE International Tower [WEDGE Commercial Properties]
- View Southeast from Louisiana and Clay Sts. [Google Street View]
Image: WEDGE Real Estate Holdings
Omni Hotels planned to renovate an old Sheraton right by the aformentioned Hilton. What ever happened to that? The answer is probably credit related but I’m not sure.
I wouldn’t have thought that half-lot parking adjacent to Wedge would be large enough to support a hotel like the one in the rendering. But I guess if you can make entire parking garages disappear, anything is possible.
Didn’t the old Sheraton have really serious asbestos issues which made it prohibitively expensive to renovate? Or was that the Days Inn building? Or both have the same problem?
The double edge sword is that since it’s full of asbestos, you can’t just knock it down either.
There was a whole thread dedicated to the Sheraton/Days Inn building in HAIF somewhere.
just get them to tear off the ugly green neon border lighting on the building. its very “Dallas”
Financing? WEDGE’s principal can find the money for this project in his couch cushions. According to ArabianBusiness.com, Issam Fares is currently the 32nd richest Arab on the planet with a net worth of $2.4 Billion.
That’s what I like to hear, Bernard!
It doesn’t look like the parking garage still exists in that rendering.
I wish we knew who the architect was.