POST OAK LANE PARK DOLLAR TIMELINE: ALL THE OFFERS AND COUNTERS Following up on the overview of the controversy he and Carolyn Feibel published last week, Bradley Olsen provides this updated summary of all the offers made for James and Jock Collins’s 7,230-sq.-ft. property at the the corner of San Felipe and Post Oak Ln., adjacent to Boulevard Place: “In April 2002, the Uptown Development Authority offers the Collins brothers $289,000 for their property to widen San Felipe and for other purposes (they bought it for $363,750 in 1982). They declined. In February 2004, Uptown offers the Collins brothers $398,035 for their property. They declined. Wulfe & Co. begins negotiations with the brothers to buy the property in 2004. In early 2006 (one side says March, the other says May), Wulfe and Co. offered the Collins brothers $1.985 million, which included a $1.46 million cash offer plus financing of $525,000 over five years. The brothers declined that offer, both sides confirm. The brothers counter-offer by asking for $1.7 million in cash, according to Cary Gray, their attorney. In June 2006, Wulfe and Co. responded with a $1.46 million cash offer, which they withdraw in July, according to both sides. In October 2006, the city notifies the Collins brothers of its intent to seize the land through eminent domain powers. Before filing its eminent domain lawsuit, the city gives the brothers a final offer in May 2007 of $433,800. They declined. In February 2008, a panel of special commissioners appointed in Harris County Civil Court voted to award the Collins brothers $723,000. They declined. The legal proceedings between the city and the brothers are still ongoing and are in the discovery phase.” [Houston Chronicle]
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Tag: Galleria
Swamplot mentioned the cancellation of Randall Davis’s Titan condo project in passing yesterday, announcing at the same time that the project had scored the first-place spot in the hotly contested Most Grandiose Development category of the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. But really, if any 2008 event in Houston real estate deserves its own separate post on Swamplot, this is it.
Davis told the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff that slow sales convinced him to shut down the 25-story highrise project. There’ll be no rearranging of the deck chairs, no putting the project “on hold,” no “My Heart Will Go On.” It’s all over.
But the Titan will be sorely missed.
Today’s as good a day as any to highlight the work of YouTube user hcp051000, aka Senior Airman Pan, who has compiled an impressive array of videos documenting the performance of some of this city’s finer vertical conveyances.
What’s it like to ride in these Houston elevators, really? Now you can find out — and shop for your favorite — from behind the comfort of your own computer screen.
Here’s S.A. Pan’s ride in the colorful cab of a Dover elevator at the Kemah Boardwalk Inn Hotel:
From the Swamplot mailbin, questions about the tower Randall Davis got up:
I would like an update on the Cosmopolitan. I drove by and it looks like barely anyone is living in the building. Roughly 20% of the units are either for sale or lease in the building. Given the problems the Titan is having in sales, can anyone provide insight into the viability of the Cosmopolitan. Does anyone live there? How is it?
The last time Swamplot posted a reader’s questions about the Cosmopolitan, the response was . . . underwhelming. Anybody home?
- The Cosmopolitan: Is It Flipping Time Yet? [Swamplot]
- Head of the Titans: Cosmopolitan Pissoirs on Post Oak [Swamplot]
Photo of Cosmopolitan Tower: HAR
The rumor Swamplot reported late last week has now been confirmed from multiple sources: The 34-story Turnberry Tower luxury condo palace planned for the Galleria area — yeah, the one with the tombstone-shaped silhouette — is officially dead.
- Turnberry Tower: Turning Away? [Swamplot]
- Nine and a Half Bathrooms: The Turnberry Tower Penthouse Evacuation Plan [Swamplot]
- The Turnberry: More Wiping, in More Places, than at Any Other Condo Tower [Swamplot]
- Tune In to the Turnberry Tower [Swamplot]
Rendering of Turnberry Tower Galleria: Robert M. Swedroe Architects and Planners
From Jennifer Dawson in today’s Houston Business Journal comes confirmation of part of Swamplot’s report earlier this week on the two highrises planned for Boulevard Place. The Hanover Company’s planned 37-story apartment tower isn’t moving forward anytime soon:
Construction was supposed to start this month, but that’s not going to happen because it’s too difficult to get a construction loan right now, says Hanover President John Nash.
He says it would be impossible to predict when the credit market would allow the project to move forward, but it could be delayed as much as a year.
- Tight money postpones plans for residential tower [Houston Business Journal]
- Putting Off the Ritz: Boulevard Place Towers Stalled [Swamplot]
- Hanover Apartment Tower at Boulevard Place: 37 Stories [Swamplot]
Tower rendering: Solomon Cordwell Buenz, via the Houston Chronicle
From the Swamplot rumor mill comes an unconfirmed and second-hand report: that the team behind proposed Houston Turnberry Tower — the 34-story luxury highrise planned to rest just behind the Williams Tower — “officially pulled the plug on their galleria deal yesterday.”
Could this be true? A lot of hard work — and a lot of plumbing design — has been poured into that project. It would be sad to see it all go down the toilet.
Late Update: The rumor has been confirmed.
- Nine and a Half Bathrooms: The Turnberry Tower Penthouse Evacuation Plan [Swamplot]
- The Turnberry: More Wiping, in More Places, than at Any Other Condo Tower [Swamplot]
- Tune In to the Turnberry Tower [Swamplot]
Rendering of Turnberry Tower Galleria: Robert M. Swedroe Architects and Planners
Remember the two 30-plus-story towers planned for Boulevard Place on Post Oak — the Ritz Carlton Hotel and the Hanover apartment tower? How have they been surviving the rumbling credit crunch?
A HAIF user last week
got slight confirmation that both the hanover tower and the ritz are going to be delayed at least slightly… they still expected both to happen, but they will be phased in.
Then yesterday came another comment:
i can confirm this in regards to hanover.
dont expect their tower to be built anytime soon.. i would consider it postponed indefinitely rather than slightly.
Followed by this:
As a sub on this project I will also confirm this. We have been told at least 6 months of delays.
But they still look great on paperscreen!
The HBJ’s Allison Wollam reports that the Westgate Houston Preview Gallery, a large timeshare sales center in the JPMorgan Chase bank building on Richmond at Sage, has closed:
The gallery, located at 5177 Richmond Ave., offered a full-size model with a living room and kitchen styled after Central Florida Investments’ timeshare properties.
The Houston location, which opened in 2004, was the first offsite sales center for Orlando-based Central Florida Investments. The company owns Westgate Resorts, which operated the preview gallery.
Almost 3 weeks ago, CFI founder and CEO David Siegel told the Orlando Sentinel that financial troubles had recently begun at the company — with the suddenness of “a heart attack.”
Until that time, Siegel apparently thought he was doing pretty well.
An austere bit of stationery is taped to the door of Bice Ristorante in the Galleria, indicating that mall owner Simon Property Group has changed the locks until Bice comes up with $164,731.37 in rent. The letter is dated from mid-July. And somebody has finally noticed!
“Seriously, how do you fall this far behind on rent?,” asks Tasty Bits author Misha. A few pix below:
The Houston Business Journal‘s Jennifer Dawson is reporting that the Novati Group’s plan to dust off a 15-year-old Ziegler Cooper design for a 20-story office tower and build it on the West Loop
appears to be in limbo. The deal isn’t dead, but it’s not moving forward.
The problems: finding debt financing . . . and that pre-leasing thing.
Meanwhile, Dawson expects Transwestern to announce details soon on a large new addition to Uptown’s Four Oaks Place — to replace the 24-Hour Fitness on Post Oak Blvd. owned by TIAA-CREF:
The proposed building being called Tower Five at Four Oaks Place is now set to be 30 stories tall, with 525,000 square feet of office space on 22 floors atop a parking garage with roughly 1,500 spaces, says Carleton Riser, head of Transwestern’s development group.
He says the building designed by architectural firm Pickard Chilton could break ground in the first quarter of 2009.
The fact that no tenants have committed to the new building won’t delay construction, Riser says.
- Office buildings on and off [Houston Business Journal]
- That Nineties Retro Tower Coming to the West Loop [Swamplot]
- New West Loop Tower: Keeping the Uptown Office Market Up to Date [Swamplot]
Rendering: Ziegler Cooper
Walking from their car to the front door of the Circuit City on San Felipe, Bunny Bungalow resident Annie Sitton and her husband notice a crack in the stucco covering a pilaster at the front of the building. Looking closer, they notice that . . .
Whole Foods Markets’ recently announced plans to scale back some of its planned store openings will not disturb plans for new Houston stores on West Dallas at Waugh and in Boulevard Place — according to a report in the Houston Business Journal:
Scott Simon, executive marketing coordinator for Whole Foods, says this announcement will not impact any of the company’s plans in Houston.
The Austin-based health foods supermarket chain is planning to develop a 78,000-square-foot store at the southwest corner of Post Oak and San Felipe.
“Our Post Oak store would very likely not open until 2010 anyway, so this decision doesn’t affect our Houston plans,†says Simon.
- Whole Foods says Houston store still a go despite plans to cut back [Houston Business Journal]
- Is The Reign Of Whole Foods Over? [Hair Balls]
- The New Whole Foods at West Dallas and Waugh [Swamplot]
- Uptown Whole Foods: Still on Track, Apparently [Swamplot]
Boulevard Place Whole Foods image: DMJM H&N
BOB’S CHOPPED, MO COMING Bob’s Steak & Chop House on Post Oak has officially closed, reports Cleverley Stone. Set to open in its place: another steakhouse called Mo’s . . . A Place for Steaks, from Milwaukee and Indianapolis. The Post Oak location is where Tony’s used to be. [Cleverley’s Blog]
A reader sends photos of some recent construction on the garage podium beneath the Cosmopolitan tower and asks:
What are those three giant urinals affixed to the east exterior wall of Randall Davis’ latest glass-clad erection, the one on Post Oak where James Coney Island used to be? . . .
Where is the Colossal Statue of Constantine when you need him? (Well, he’s in Rome, but that’s no help to Post Oak Boulevard!)
Sure, there’s the vaguely Roman theming going on with the marketing for Davis’s next tower across the street, the Titan. But these new constructions might be something much more contemporary . . . think Marcel Duchamp by way of Claes Oldenburg: The big fountains!
Below: the Colossal Head of Constantine . . . and the Colossal Heads of the Cosmopolitan, on display!
