More structures approved for demolition at the Allen House. Plus a trio of houses around town. Where? See our demo address list, after the jump.
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Tag: 77027
More structures at the Holiday House Motel come down, along with a Holiday Inn cabana. Read the addresses in our daily list, which begins after the jump.
A whole lotta demo going on: A county outpost downtown, more industrial buildings along Studemont, plenty of houses, and more. Our daily list of addresses begins after the jump.
The 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!
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.â€
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.
Nine houses and three buildings leave Houston. Our list of the newly departed begins after the jump.
An all-residential edition of the demo report begins after the jump.
Nine houses fail to please. Read today’s list of unappreciated structures—after the jump.
Three items from the world of Houston shopping-center development:
- A suburban shopping-center developer complains to the Chronicle about Houston’s glut of bland suburban strip centers:
Retail developer Bobby Orr says the suburbs are overridden with unanchored strip centers, so his company is developing projects closer to the center of town . . .
Orr believes there are “only so many nail salons and dry cleaners” that can fill up suburban centers and that there’s pent-up demand in urban areas where housing density is increasing.
- As if on cue, two former Subway franchise owners tell the Houston Business Journal that they’re going to flood the Houston market with more than a hundred new Submarina sandwich shops. The first store opens the beginning of August, at I-45 and Airline.
- And speaking of anchors, the HBJ also reports that Staples will soon be rescuing shopping centers all around Houston from that nail-biting anonymity:
Staples officials are tight-lipped about the company’s plans for Houston, but local retail sources say they’ve seen Staples stores on as many as 11 different site plans for future retail developments ranging from Katy, to League City to Spring, as well as a close-in site at Post Oak and San Felipe.
Staples has already signed a lease for a new store at I-45 South and Almeda Genoa.
- Retail developer looks closer to downtown [Houston Chronicle]
- Staples lets ink dry on Houston deal [Houston Business Journal (subscription only)]
- News from the food and drink front [Houston Business Journal (subscription only)]
A Heights institution falls. That and more in our daily list of demolition permits—after the jump.
For a flat, flood-prone, and low-lying town, Houston sure has given itself a lot of highfalutin placenames. Latest exhibit: Highland Tower, a luxury resort-style building Pelican Builders is planning to tuck between the Target on San Felipe and the Highland Village shopping center (oh, that’s where they got the name) on Westheimer. The sales center isn’t quite open yet, but the website is.
The site says it’ll be fifteen stories, with 99 residences. It was designed by Ziegler Cooper Architects, who also did the Briarglen next door: brick, with slick metal panels on the de rigueur semi-curved front, which’ll face west. Maybe they’re hoping that’ll give a blinding reflection to highrise Galleria workers in the late afternoon.
It’d be a good bet the Highlands name is also meant to refer to the green (and also blue, if they chlorinate the pool) roof on the parking garage. It’s the highrise’s fifth-floor Terrace level, which will feature
- an infinity edge pool with Galleria area views
- a covered outdoor pool-side pavilion
- tranquil green space with fountains and paved courtyards
- state of the art fitness center overlooking pool
- dining room with catering kitchen
- private party lounge for entertaining friends and family
- private massage therapy room
After the jump, views of the Highland Tower’s never-gonna-flood party deck.
A teensy item appears in the middle of a long list of projects on the revised agenda of an obscure public agency. The list is voted on, and presto! Nine months years later The Westpark Tollway gets extended all the way to Kirby Drive!
Christof Spieler spots this exciting news—sure to make a lot of West U-area residents take notice—and complains:
Once a project is on a list that gets approved by the TPC, it’s a lot closer to happening. Months or years from now, a neighborhood might object. And they’ll be shown the list and told, “it’s in the plan. It got approved. There’s nothing you can do.†Pieces of paper can have a lot of power.
And this piece of paper came out of nowhere. There was no public announcement, let alone hearings. It was a last minute addition to the agenda. David Crossley of the Gulf Coast institute spotted it only because he was looking through the TPC web site. [emphasis added]
- Writing a blank check [Intermodality]
Photo: Flickr user Danburg Murmur
