Swamplot Archives by Tag: Developers

Monday, July 6, 2009

Comment of the Day: High-Power Developers

   

“I bet if you look at many of the biggest boondogles in Houston history, they will have the fingerprints of ambitious energy players attached. That said, the city would have been a more boring place if, say, Glenn McCarthy hadn’t built the late, lamented Shamrock Hotel.” [RWB, commenting on La Maison in Midtown: The Power of a Good Night’s Sleep]

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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Trammell Crow, 1914-2009

   

Real estate developer Trammell Crow, the founder of Trammell Crow Company (now a part of CB Richard Ellis), died yesterday in Tyler at the age of 94. “He relied on hundreds of young leasing agents to fill the buildings, and those who proved themselves talented and hardworking became partners. This approach marked the evolution of Crow’s then-unusual methods of working in the real estate industry. As he brought in new people to work on residential and commercial projects, he gave them an equity stake in the business. Crow explained that he believed the projects would thrive if the people managing them were partners rather than employees. He said people worked harder when they had a stake in the company. Biographer Robert Sobel said Crow had another reason for using the partnership strategy: By offering equity instead of pay, he conserved his capital for putting up buildings.” [Associated Press]

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Tuesday, May 8, 2007

The Google Townhouses Are Coming!

Missouri Street Lofts by Catera Development

Just last year, the Wall Street Journal warned homeowners about the dangerous consequences of taking new easy-to-use consumer software design tools into their own hands. Now Houston gets to see what happens when developers commandeer these same computer programs.

Coming soon: The Missouri Street Lofts, a six-pack of townhouses now under construction in the heart of Montrose. You can see them online now, though, modeled in cartoon-worthy earth tones using Google Sketchup—free 3D drawing software anyone can download and learn in just a few minutes.

After the jump, townhouse developers demonstrate their mastery of Sketchup’s ultra-wide camera angles, giving us bird’s-eye views of tight interiors and more!

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