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Today’s Chronicle has details on that apartment tower the Hanover Company has been planning for Boulevard Place, Ed Wulfe’s Post Oak redevelopment just north of the Galleria. Doing the math, your average 1,650-sq.-ft. apartment in the glass tower will rent for more than $4,000 a month.
That’s before it goes condo, of course.
At 37 stories, the 236-unit Hanover tower may end up even taller than the slender Ritz-Carlton planned directly to the south.
More info from Nancy Sarnoff:
Solomon Cordwell Buenz of Chicago is designing the building, which will have “boutique hotel style” amenities, including a concierge and bellman, as well as a lounge and catering kitchen.
A 19,000-square-foot rooftop pool terrace will be atop an attached parking garage.
The units will be similar to those in 7 Riverway, another Hanover project in the area. They will include stainless steel appliances, granite slab countertops, crown molding, hardwood floors and travertine tile, but will be larger and have additional features and amenities.
Hanover chose to design the building with larger units because it said there was considerable demand at 7 Riverway for oversized kitchens and living spaces.
After the jump: Where it’s going to land!
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Read more about: 77056, BLVD Place, Condos, Development Strategy, Galleria, Highrises, Parks, Proposed Developments, Uptown
Whole Foods Market has just signed a 25-year lease with the Finger Companies for land at the northeast corner of West Dallas and Waugh in North Montrose. The company plans to build a new 50,000-sq.-ft. store there, reports the Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff. That’s the same size as the new Whole Foods that recently opened in Sugar Land, but the new Uptown store the company is planning as part of Boulevard Place will be 50 percent larger.
The North Montrose location is only a few blocks east of the site planned for Regent Square. And Finger has more ideas for the full 11 acres fronting West Dallas it bought from Knickerbocker Corp. earlier this year:
Plans for the site also call for 60,000 square feet of additional retail space and hundreds of apartments. The Finger Cos. will build a six-story, 445-unit multifamily complex on the property. Construction will start early next year.
A ring road will be created in the center of the development to tie into the AIG complex, located to the north of the site.
A future phase includes a high-rise apartment tower for the land closer to Montrose. Developer Marvy Finger said the building could be similar to his company’s 20-story Museum Tower on Montrose near the Museum District.
Photo of the corner of West Dallas and Montrose, proposed site of Finger highrise: Charles Kuffner
Read more about: 77019, Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Highrises, Land Development, Montrose, North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Retail, Whole Foods
The L-shaped glass building at the center of this drawing is apparently a new 742,000-square-foot office tower planned by Hines for the northeast corner of Main and Capitol Downtown. But Hines hasn’t officially announced it yet. Houston Architecture Info Forum user ChannelTwoNews found the drawing earlier this week — only a few days after it had been posted on the website of an engineering firm working on the project. Fellow forum user lockmat later spotted it again . . . in a Hines presentation from February posted on the Texas A&M Real Estate Center website. By the end of the day yesterday, the engineering firm’s site had been scrubbed of all information about the building.
The tower is planned for a corner most recently occupied by a languishing sales trailer for the appropriately named Shamrock Tower, and a full-size McDonald’s before that. At the far end of the block is the vacant Texas Tower, which the new Hines building appears to wrap around.
The drawing shows a view looking northwest. The tower looks like 28 or so office stories perched atop a parking garage of . . . maybe 10 levels? After the jump, a closeup . . . and an even closer-up, so you can count the floors for yourself.
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Read more about: 77002, Commercial Real Estate, Downtown, Highrises, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments
From Ziegler Cooper Architects’ website: Renderings of a 20-story office tower the firm designed back in the early 1990s.
As we reported in February, the Novati Group plans to build the 500,000-square-foot spec tower, along with an 8-level parking garage, at 1600 West Loop South — next to Post Oak Motor Cars, on land purchased from Landry’s. The only changes from the original design will be adjustments so the building can qualify for LEED Silver certification.
So what if the design is old? Worrying that your brand new building already looks dated is so . . . last decade!
After the jump: the marble in the lobby will be old, too!
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Read more about: 77027, Development Strategy, Galleria, Green Design, Highrises, Houston Architects, New Construction, Office Buildings, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Uptown
Expect to see a lot more, uh . . . interesting advertising for the Mosaic towers on Almeda. Nancy Sarnoff reported in the Chronicle this past weekend that “about 65 units have closed” out of a total 790 in the two towers. The second glass tower is currently under construction at the eastern edge of Hermann Park.
That’s a long way to go, but the path sounds a whole lot steeper when you compare Sarnoff’s report to what Jennifer Dawson reported in the Houston Business Journal last August:
As of last week, 218 condos had sold in the first tower. Units in the second phase won’t go on sale until early next year. Ken Manfredi of Miami-based Developer Sales Group is handling Mosaic’s condo sales.
After the jump: More evocative ad imagery! Plus: the view from above.
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Read more about: 77004, Condos, Hermann Park, Highrises, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Real Estate Marketing
The State Grille, the restaurant at the corner of Weslayan and W. Alabama, will be shutting down a little earlier than expected. Cleverley’s Blog and Jennifer Dawson of the Houston Business Journal report that the restaurant will serve its last meal on May 31st.
Restaurant owners Frankie Mandola and Joe Butera sold the property to Giorgio Borlenghi’s Interfin Cos. in October 2006. The HBJ reported at the time that the restaurant had a lease agreement lasting until the end of 2008. Whatever happened to those last 6 months, Mandola doesn’t sound too happy about it now:
Mandola says he asked “a bunch of times,” but Interfin would not extend the State Grille lease scheduled to expire in July.
Interfin won’t say what the company’s plans for the property are, but . . .
According to Mandola, Interfin plans to tear down the building as soon as the restaurant clears out and construct a 27-story building of an undetermined type.
After the jump: There’s more to the property!
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Read more about: 77027, Highland Village, Highrises, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants
March 31, 2008 – 11:52 am
If you’re curious what the upper reaches of Montrose Blvd. look like from the viewpoint of an actual pedestrian, you’ll want to see blogger Charles Kuffner’s recent annotated photo walking tour of the area. Kuffner, who lived on Van Buren St. in the nineties, describes more recent developments on and around Montrose and Studemont — from West Gray north to Washington:
I did this partly to document what it looks like now - if you used to live there but haven’t seen it in awhile, you’ll be amazed - and partly to point out what I think can be done to make the eventual finished product better. . . .
My thesis is simple. This is already an incredibly densely developed corridor, and it’s going to get more so as the new high rise is built [see Swamplot’s story here] and several parcels of now-empty land get sold and turned into something else. It’s already fairly pedestrian-friendly, but that needs to be improved. And for all the housing in that mile-long stretch of road, there’s not enough to do.
Kuffner’s guide is a Flickr photo set. You’ll get the most out of it if you view it as a slideshow with the captions turned on (on the link, click on Options in the lower right corner, then make sure Always Show Title and Description is checked).
After the jump: A few more photos from Kuffner’s tour, plus an ID on those new condos behind Pronto!
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Read more about: 77006, Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Development Strategy, Highrises, Land Sales, Memorial Heights, Montrose, Pedestrians, Redevelopment, Streets, Tours
This landscape plan from the Boymelgreen website is our first glimpse of the two condo towers the company is planning for 5.5 acres on the southwest corner of the intersection of San Felipe and a short segment of Woodway — just west of Voss, on the Right Bank of Buffalo Bayou. And this morning the Houston Business Journal has more to report:
New York City-based Boymelgreen Developers is developing the project for landowner Azorim, a publicly traded company in Israel of which Boymelgreen owns 64 percent. . . . The unnamed project will consist of two buildings with 28 residential floors each and an 18,000-square-foot fitness center and spa. The project will have a total of 237 condos starting at $1 million each. Units will be an average size of 2,500 square feet.
The architect is Ziegler Cooper. Boymelgreen’s website refers to the project as the San Felipe Condominiums. (And it reports a building that’s 14 condos smaller.)
Jennifer Dawson’s report in the HBJ says that sales won’t start until the fall, after a sales center — which will later “be converted into a spa, restaurant or office building” — is built on the site of the former Dolce & Freddo next door.
Below the fold: That 1960s office-and-shopping center on the site won’t go quietly!
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Read more about: 77063, Condos, Construction Materials, Demolitions, Green Development, Highrises, Houston Architects, Landscape, Luxury Highrises, Memorial, Piney-Point-Village, Proposed Developments, Recycling, Shopping Centers
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Read more about Condos, Construction Materials, Demolitions, Green Design and Development, Highrises, Houston Architects, Landscape, Neighborhoods: Memorial, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing, Shopping Centers
Today comes news that the developers of the Ashby Highrise won’t wait any longer to strike a deal with the city — and are proceeding with permit applications for their original 23-story apartment and condo tower next to Southampton. Writing in the Chronicle, Mike Snyder reports that Buckhead Investment Partners had submitted a proposal for a slightly smaller tower to the city three weeks ago but had received no response.
The proposed smaller 22-story tower, which didn’t get much support from neighborhood groups, would have featured a narrower tower with 130 condo units and four detached townhouses along Ashby, two floors of underground parking and two more above grade, plus a small park on one corner. Buckhead principals Matthew Morgan and Kevin Kirton told Snyder the reduced number of units would “eliminate any possibility the project would cause unacceptable traffic congestion.”
A document outlining the proposal, however, shows the offer is contingent on significant financial concessions by the city: An immediate refund of about $500,000 for new sewer lines the developers installed to serve the project, along with a payment to the developers of up to $2.15 million, over as long as 10 years, from revenue generated by increased tax values on the site.
Meanwhile, Buckhead’s fancy new website now features a far more complete collection of presentation drawings of what appears to be the original 23-story tower. There doesn’t seem to be any mention on the site of the 22-story all-condo tower proposal.
After the jump, lots of tower drawings from the new website — including . . . kids hugging puppies!
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Read more about: 77005, Apartments, Boulevard-Oaks, Condos, Highrises, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Retail, Southampton, Townhomes
Newspaper and radio technology answer guy Jay Lee snaps this photo of the new 30-story Memorial Hermann tower going up along I-10 next to the Memorial City Mall . . . then posts it to the “Look Like a Robot” photo pool on Flickr.
Does he realize offices in that robot-head are available for rent? From a January report in the Houston Business Journal:
Marshall Heins, Memorial Hermann’s real estate guru, says he gets asked about the cone at least four or five times a day by inquiring citizens.
The top three floors of the cylinder will house mechanical systems, but the bottom three floors will house small offices. . . .
The cone’s footprint is 2,500 to 3,000 square feet, while the office floors below in the main building have a 25,000-square-foot floor plate.
Building developer MetroNational Corp. will lease the three small floors to tenants, but Memorial Hermann will not be one of them. No word yet from MetroNational on who might occupy the special space.
After the jump: what the whole thing’s supposed to look like when it’s finished!
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Read more about: 77024, Commercial Real Estate, Highrises, Medical Buildings, Memorial City, New Construction, Office Buildings, Office Space, Real Estate Marketing
March 14, 2008 – 10:10 am
Nope, no condos in the planned Houstonian Medical Center hotel — but there will be 100 apartments. Medistar consultant Doug Williams gave a few more details about the planned 40-story Main St. tower at the edge of Southgate in yesterday’s Planning Commission hearing:
- Parking-structure base will be 12 stories, with a green space on top, and contain 14,000 sq. ft. of meeting and ballroom space.
- Building will have 303 guest rooms, plus 100 apartments for longer-term stays, 70 of them furnished.
- This is a Redstone project.
- The developers are also buying the Baylor Clinic building next door, which Baylor rents from St. Luke’s.
- The plans include a new skybridge that will connect the new tower to the Baylor Clinic next door, so hotel guests can use the existing Baylor Clinic skybridge to cross Main St. Representatives of Rice have expressed interest in connecting the university’s new Collaborative Research Center one block to the north to the new building by skybridge as well.
The commission approved a revised version of the variance request but attached several conditions having to do with landscaping and parking spaces.
After the jump, the view from Southgate!
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Read more about: 77030, Highrises, Hotels, Neighborhood Disputes, Planning Commission, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center, Variances
March 13, 2008 – 10:23 am
From fuzzy video stills to washed-out photocopies: In the agenda handout for today’s Planning Commission hearing are hazy images that provide even more details about the new 40-story hotel and condo tower Medistar wants to build on Main St. in the Medical Center, at the eastern boundary of Southgate.
The drawing labels identify the hotel as the Houstonian Texas Medical Center, or Houstonian TMC for short. The architect is the Hill Glazier Studio of HKS, out of California. And a section drawing gives an actual height for the tower.
After the jump: It’s very tall!
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Read more about: 77030, Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Neighborhood Associations, Neighborhood Disputes, Planning Commission, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center, Variances
February 29, 2008 – 3:50 pm
From our email comes a message from a reader who has heard from someone involved in the project that the white poles shown at the top of the new Discovery Tower drawing are . . . indeed, wind turbines.
So . . . if they do end up being put in, how much energy will they bring to the building? And . . . how many tenants?
Read more about: 77010, Commercial Real Estate, Downtown, Green Design, Highrises, New Construction, Office Buildings, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing
February 29, 2008 – 3:30 pm
Thanks to some intrepid reporting lazy online-video scanning over here at Swamplot, we now have more information about Medistar’s 40-story hotel and condominium tower planned for the corner of Dryden and Main St. in the Medical Center.
Yesterday, the Planning Commission voted to defer any consideration of Medistar’s request for a lot-line variance along Main St. But the president of the Southgate Civic Club voiced his objections to the variance — and other aspects of the project — anyway.
After the jump, more stills from the civic-club president’s presentation to the Planning Commission, plus a few bits of armchair analysis from our crack crew of expert TV watchers.
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Read more about: 77030, Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Neighborhood Associations, Neighborhood Disputes, Planning Commission, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center, Variances
February 28, 2008 – 5:13 pm
Thanks to an alert poster on HAIF, we now have a more up-to-date and better view of Discovery Tower, Trammel Crow’s 30-story office building — designed by Gensler and planned for a perch on the north side of Discovery Green Downtown.
Other HAIF participants have been speculating whether the shorter white poles at the top of the image are supposed to be . . . wind turbines!
Well, are they? Scrutinize a larger version of the rendering and judge for yourself . . . below the fold.
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Read more about: 77010, Downtown, Green Design, Highrises, Houston Architects, New Construction, Office Buildings, Office Space, Proposed Developments
February 28, 2008 – 10:26 am
Here’s what we know so far about the new 40-story hotel-and-condo tower Medistar Corporation is planning for the corner of Main St. and Dryden, between Rice’s new Collaborative Research Center and the Baylor Clinic on the west side of Main: not a whole lot.
But at 40 stories, the new building would likely be the tallest tower in the Texas Medical Center. (The new Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza is only 31.) That’s taller than those twin hypodermics, too.
A lot-line variance for the project is item number 111 before the Planning Commission this afternoon. And the request provides a few clues. Medistar wants the same 10-foot setback along Main St. that the Baylor Clinic has, so the new building can have a similar passenger dropoff and a “pedestrian friendly” entry on that side. The building’s longer axis will be perpendicular to Main. The arguments imply Medistar intends to have “ornamental decorations and balconies” on the Main St. side, and that the tower will be linked by skybridge to the Medical Center main campus across the street.
According to the Southgate Neighborhood Newsletter, the tower will include a 1200-car parking facility.
This isn’t the only new building type Medistar is planning to stir into the Medical Center mix. A block down the street, just south of the company’s Best Western Hotel at 6700 Main St., Medistar is planning a 600,000-sq.-ft. medical mall. The Houston Business Journal reported on that project late last month:
The high-rise would house offices and showrooms for companies that sell equipment, supplies and pharmaceuticals to Texas Medical Center institutions. Tenants could also include organizations working to develop new medical technologies and treatments.
Read more about: 77030, Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Malls, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center
