HINES NOT STOPPING SAN FELIPE SKYSCRAPER 
Speeches? Yard signs? Websites? Alarming maps portraying the inevitability of equally tall Petco and Red Lion Pub towers popping up nearby? Apparently, Hines has been unmoved by the various media deployed by concerned neighbors, telling the Houston Chronicle that it will start construction before Thanksgiving on that 17-story office building at the corner of Spann and San Felipe, just outside the boundaries of River Oaks. Erin Mulvaney reports that John Mooz, senior managing director, says that Hines plans to get going on the 167,000-sq.-ft. tower “in the next 60 days.” [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Hines
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Money rules.
Starting construction before Thanksgiving? Maybe they can all sit down together and realize the Pilgrims are here to stay and will come in large numbers like the leaves on a tree while the outskirts of theirs, and many other neighborhoods are carved up like fat turkeys with the carcasses remaining like ritzy reservations. Best to just take the offered shiny beads and accept the inevitable.
OH OK. These folks are NIMBYs of the highest order since they can’t seem to pull the Huntington highrise-sized plank from their eye before criticizing Hines. For the record the Hines building will look better than the Huntington. From the website “…is being built in a vulnerable residential neighborhood across the street from River Oaks.” OMG will someone please call Sheila Jackson Lee to protect those poor vulnerables? The humanity! Think of the children!
money does rule. always has, always will. get a job.
This isn’t Hines building but yall can continue to think this way..dig deeper…
The Huntingdon is a much prettier building than this after thought. How unlike to Hines to design on the cheap, especially for River Oaks! The building looks fat, like an over blump lump of lard in a Raphael painting. If it were elegant and lean like the Huntingdon it would be at least more aesthetically pleasing. It’s obviously going to be built that was evident from the start, let’s just hope it translates better in person than this less than pleasing computer sketch
Since the Ashby High Rise remains a grassy field 7 years after its proposal, can we hand over the throne of NIMBY power to Southampton instead of River Oaks?
What? If it isn’t Hines building why widths they keep releasing this sketch? It would be very unlike Hines to present a sketch of a proposed building and then build something completely different without notifying the public. Highly unlikely
Hey Rez, not sure what your job is, but I think you might be getting overpaid for it. Ever hear about capitalization? Go back to school.
The difference isn’t River Oaks, because we all know there is no more powerful neighborhood in the city, it’s the fact that Hines is behind this building and with Hines comes enormous power and serious Capital, very unlike the people behind Ashby, a case of Caviar vs Spam
Hines is a greedy, self-absorbed capitalist who thinks what he thinks is akin to god-given.
I look forward to seeing it being built. We are blessed to live in a time and in a place of growth!
Afton Oaks is the king of nimby. They have kept the rail off of Richmond since 1982. First the monorail and now the light rail. They will come to regret it with all the retail/hotels and apts going in on West Ave, etc. Major gridlock and no easy escape on Westheimer and Richmond.
Amen, say what? Afton Oaks takes the NIMBY prize, and they will be sorry for not accepting rail when congestion gets so bad, they’ll have problems accessing their precious neighborhood.
As for the Hines building, you can’t really compare it to the nearby Huntingdon, which has a large setback from the street and from neighboring buildings, while the new building is being crammed onto a very small lot and will look nothing like that artist’s rendering above, with its wide open spaces.
The boring design sucks. Too bad Hines doesn’t use their A team architects in Houston anymore.
It not that impressive of a thing to build an office building in a city with no zoning…
Takes some money but their is plenty of dumb money out there…
@Greg: Rayndian much?
@roadchick: So we’re calling the fenced-in parking lot of the Huntington a setback? That property would look nicer without it. I’m for removing setbacks and really changing up this town. And you gotta laugh at the Riveroakies that think they can step toe-to-toe with the deep pockets of this developer. Hence the pre-Thanksgiving construction which effectively says: “Think you can stop us? Prove it.” Must suck to take a dose of your own medicine after a lifetime of forcing it down the throats of the less fortunate. Tables have turned and I’m stuck here feasting on delicious schadenfreude.
NIMBYs or not, homeowners in Afton Oaks homeowners have seen HUGE increases in value over the past decade or two. Every time I drive through, there another seven-figure house being built. Afton Oaks is getting more desirable every year.
jack – is that a proper noun as in “Jack”? Just wondering since you’re calling someone out about capitalization. . .
I have to laugh at the sheer jealously that always seems to permeate these threads whenever an affluent area of town is faced with something considered adversarial–Ashby Highrise, Hines River Oaks, Afton Oaks Rail, etc….Some of you just gloat and it really is no more appealing than the opposite camp guffawing at the problems of the lower socio-economic level. Grow up you whiny brats.
Not jealous. I live in one of those neighborhoods and have lived in the others. I am ok with the rail and the high rises and it is frustrating that some of the vocal ones against it get their way. The rail would have been a plus for me living in Afton Oaks, but they voted it out thinking undesirables would ride it! The very people complaining about Ashby would likely live in it when they are ready to downsize out of their homes on North/South etc. And the Hines building will be leased by River Oaks Attys and trusts. Hines could build 5 more floors on it and it would still be 100% Pre-leased. So, no, JT, not jealous and not whining.
matx, funny that you noticed that. But, it’s not a name.
“The rail would have been a plus for me living in Afton Oaks, but they voted it out thinking undesirables would ride it!”
Have you ever taken a ride on one? haha
Yes SB, I’ve been on trains in DC, Chicago, Houston, London, NYC. Etc.
How did Hines even imagine building a 17-story office tower at the intersection of two lane San Felipe and two lane Spann, in the midst of residential development and right down the street from River Oaks Elementary school made sense. This proposed building seems so out of character with the fine reputation that Hines has established in this city? Perhaps that reputation has hit a “speed bump” in the road.
My last child only has this year and next left to go at River Oaks Elementary. Pick up and drop-off along San Felipe is a major crap-fest already, and the additional workers commuting to the building won’t help that situation. Thankfully the completion date on their website corresponds to when my boy be finishing up at ROE.