Swamplot Archives by Tag:
Highrises

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

New West Loop Tower: Keeping the Uptown Office Market Up to Date

February 26, 2008 – 4:31 pm

According to a report by Jennifer Dawson in the Houston Business Journal,, the first new spec office building built in the Galleria area in more than 25 years will be . . . a 20-story tower that was designed 15 years ago!

In the early 1990s, [Novati Group CEO Ken] Moczulski ran Transworld Properties, a developer of office, industrial and multifamily properties. Transworld owned the land at 1600 West Loop South at that time, and commissioned Ziegler Cooper Architects to design an office for the site.

“We had planned a building,” recalls Moczulski. “It was all designed.”

The economy turned south, he says, so the facility did not get built. . . .

Last year, Novati co-founders Moczulski and Fernando De León start looking in the Galleria area for an office development site. Moczulski approached Landry’s about buying the West Loop land because, as in the 1990s, he still thinks the location and high visibility make it a good site for an office building.

To top it off, Novati is saving months of development time by dusting off the original plans from Ziegler Cooper. The only design changes needed are those to make the 475,000-square-foot structure eligible for certification as a green building.

Hey, maybe it’s one of those towers that kinda looks like a tall glass cylinder is bulging out from the center? That was a hot nineties look, wasn’t it?

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4:31 pm | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Green Design and Development, Highrises, Houston Architects, Neighborhoods: Galleria, New Construction, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments

Whole Foods, Fast Foods, and the Titan

February 26, 2008 – 8:36 am

Still from Video of The Titan, Randall Davis’s Proposed Condo Tower on Post Oak Blvd., Uptown, Houston

If you’re looking for clues to help you figure out what the McDonald’s on Post Oak is gonna look like when it gets rebuilt, the flashy new website for the Titan doesn’t help much. There’s a video that shows Randall Davis’s latest theme-heavy condo tower from all sorts of dramatic angles, but it never answers the question most of us have been asking since the project was announced last fall: How, exactly, is the drive-thru gonna fit next door?

Davis told the Houston Business Journal last September that the new McDonald’s would be a “long, skinny building” facing Post Oak, between the Titan and the new Alexan Post Oak apartments directly to the north. In the new video, though, there are no Golden Arches, and camera angles artfully block the most direct views of that portion of the building site.

There’s no mention of the McDonald’s on the Titan website. There is, however, a welcome second confirmation that another fine food establishment will be built down the street at Boulevard Place:

A newly planned Whole Foods Market, only half a block away, places hard to find gourmet items at your fingertips.

Okay, so it’s just advertising copy. But it’s recent!

After the jump, more views of the Titan — none of which show where the real Big Macs are gonna live.

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8:36 am | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Development Strategy, Highrises, Neighborhoods: Galleria, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail
Thursday, February 21, 2008

The Titan: Uptown Theme Blender

February 21, 2008 – 4:48 pm

Penthouse View, Randall Davis’s Proposed Titan Condo Highrise, Post Oak Blvd., Uptown Houston

All the condos in Randall Davis’s new Titan condo tower on Post Oak will be named after . . . industry titans! Get it? On the 18th floor, for example, you’ll have units named after J. Paul Getty, Coco Chanel, Pablo Picasso, and . . . Bill Gates! Now that’s a party. Floor 14? More people of brilliance, though a few of them might not actually get along so well with each other: Frank Sinatra, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Rudolph Valentino, Steven Spielberg. Isn’t that clever?

It gets better: The Brin/Page is . . . a two-bedroom! Strangely, the Buffet has a Kitchen and Dining Room that are separated from the rest of the unit’s living space. And the three-bedroom penthouse named after Mies van der Rohe — whose neighbors are of course Rupert Murdoch and Neil Armstrong — has a Great Room with a curved wall in it, and is connected to the Entry Foyer by a long hallway.

One unit on floors 23 and 24 is simply named The Titan. But there’s no reason for Randall Davis to be so bashful — he really ought to go ahead and name it after himself. Is there anyone else in Houston who even comes close to his stature in the themed-condo market?

The Titan is a break from Davis’s earlier projects, though — because it seems to have so many different themes! Put all those architects, movie stars, musicians, Silicon Valley insiders, oilmen, and suicidal novelists together in a tower styled vaguely like a comic-book rocketship, add in Michelangelo’s sculpture of David as the naked brochure-and-website coverboy, and you’ve got the Titan’s winning marketing formula! A bit confused? Sure. But if anyone can mix all this stuff up and make it work, it’s Randall Davis.

After the jump, floorplans that prove what we all know already: Designing a great building is just like planning a great dinner party that includes a few famous dead people!

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4:48 pm | Read more about Condos, Highrises, Neighborhoods: Galleria, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing
Monday, February 18, 2008

Ashby Highrise Developers: How To Build Smaller While Keeping Profits Big

February 18, 2008 – 5:05 pm

Townhouses at Ashby, 1717 Bissonnet, Ashby Highrise, Houston

How do you reduce development in . . . uh, sensitive Houston neighborhoods — without imposing new regulations?

It can be done! A free market provides its own land-use controls.

Matthew Morgan and Kevin Kirton of Buckhead Investment Partners, developers of the proposed 23-story residential highrise at the corner of Ashby and Bissonnet, show how it can work:

In the Feb. 5 meeting, Morgan and Kirton offered to reduce the size of their building to 19 stories or to build a six-story project while accepting a $2.65 million payment to recoup their investment.

Street-level view of proposed Ashby Townhomes, 1717 Bissonnet: Buckhead Investment Partners

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5:05 pm | Read more about Development Restrictions, Highrises, Neighborhood Disputes, Neighborhoods: Boulevard Oaks, Neighborhoods: Southampton, Proposed Developments

Eldridge Oaks: Turn on the Lights!

February 18, 2008 – 3:45 pm

Eldridge Oaks, Proposed Office Building in Houston Energy CorridorA reader who works in the Energy Corridor reports that a sign has just appeared at the Northwest corner of Enclave Parkway and Eldridge Parkway announcing Eldridge Oaks, a 350,000-sq.-ft. 14-story office tower being developed by Transwestern.

Transwestern is apparently taking energy issues in this Energy Corridor building seriously: It will pursue an unspecified LEED rating, and has signed the project up as a sponsor of this spring’s Gulf Coast Green conference. Plus, this drawing from the project website shows what the building will look like when the lights go on . . . then off . . . then on!

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3:45 pm | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Green Design and Development, Highrises, Neighborhoods: Energy Corridor, New Construction, Office Buildings
Friday, February 15, 2008

Uptown Hot Potato: Four Quick Flips in a Few Short Months

February 15, 2008 – 8:35 am

That parking lot at the corner of Richmond and Post Oak, where the Steak & Ale and Mason Jar used to be? Very popular:

In 2007, Houston-based Hines Interests LP sold 9.4 acres to Rich Oak Properties LLC, an affiliate of Boymelgreen Developers LLC of New York. Sources put the purchase price at $86 per square foot, or roughly $33 million . . .

Rich Oak ultimately opted out of building on the site and chose to sell the entire 9.4 acres.

On Dec. 21, 2007, the land was acquired by Lasco/Hicks Ventures Ltd. Sources estimate the purchase price was $140 per square foot, or roughly $57 million.

A $24 million profit? Not bad for a few months’ work. And they said the days of the Houston land flip were over!

On the same day, Lasco/Hicks flipped six acres to Elegant Development Group Inc. The buyer is affiliated with Elegant Development and Investment Inc., a Houston-based construction services company that does commercial and residential work . . .

Less than two weeks later, Elegant Development flipped the six acres to Deyaar Development.

Deyaar Development is based in Dubai, and likes tall towers.

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8:35 am | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Highrises, Land Prices, Land Sales, Neighborhoods: Galleria
Thursday, February 7, 2008

Discovery Tower: Ready to Climb

February 7, 2008 – 4:54 pm

Drawing of Discovery Tower, Downtown HoustonHere’s a small discovery from today’s permit report: Work on the site and foundation of Discovery Tower — a 30-story office tower developed by Trammell Crow and designed by Gensler — has been approved by the city. The tower is planned for a block next to Discovery Green downtown, at 1501 McKinney St.

The tower will have retail space at street level and will reportedly tie into the tunnel system . . . by skybridge. A new parking garage will go up one block north.

The tiny image above shows the view from Discovery Green. Discovery Tower is at the far right. (The hazy image in the background to the left is the Finger Companies’ One Park Place, which is now under construction.)

Got any better images of Discovery Tower you’d like to share? Send them in!

Photo: CBRE, via HAIF user lockmat

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4:54 pm | Read more about Highrises, Neighborhoods: Downtown, New Construction, Office Buildings
Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Manhattan Penthouse: Still Falling

February 5, 2008 – 8:09 am

Living Room of Manhattan Lofts Unit 808, Houston

Here’s as dramatic a perch as any from which to enjoy a high-price-condo meltdown: the empty cupola atop the 8th-floor penthouse of the Manhattan Lofts building in Uptown. And hey, it looks like quite a fall to the floor below. Maybe stepping down slowly would make some sense?

Almost exactly a month after our original report on this over-the-top, oversized, and overpriced Manhattan penthouse, the price was cut a sixth time, to $1.65 million. How long before it breaks into six figures?

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8:09 am | Read more about Buying and Selling, Condos, Homes for Sale, Lofts, Neighborhoods: Galleria
Monday, February 4, 2008

How High Will Little Bunny Fly?

February 4, 2008 – 5:35 pm

Fly High Little Bunny, 3120 S. Shepherd, Houston

A short item in the Houston Business Journal is encouraging rumors of a new highrise on Shepherd, one block south of the Alabama Theater Bookstop.

That’s the current location of jewelry store Fly High Little Bunny, along with the Jamail Real Estate office shown in this photo sent in by a Swamplot reader. The property includes two houses in back.

But the new development could stretch all the way to W. Alabama. A poster on HAIF claims the same buyer is also purchasing the shopping center on the north side of the block, which contains Ruchi’s Taqueria and Roeders Pub, and is planning highrise apartments and a parking garage, with retail space on the ground floor.

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5:35 pm | Read more about Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Highrises, Neighborhoods: Westlawn Terrace, Proposed Developments, Shopping Centers
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

New Studemont Apartment Tower: Out of Styles

January 30, 2008 – 3:14 pm

Legacy at Memorial 25-Story Apartment Tower in HoustonThis is the best image we’ve been able to find online of the 25-story apartment tower about to go up at the site of the former Ed Sacks Waste Paper Co. at 440 Studemont, just north of Memorial Dr.

And it makes you wonder: Do these out-of-town developers really know what they’re doing here? First they give the project a name — “Legacy at Memorial” — that makes it sound like a funeral home, in a town where death is already a major industry. Then . . . they think Houston residents will stand for 15 percent of the units in the combination highrise-lowrise development being marketed as “affordable housing.” But weirdest of all . . . it looks like they forgot to give their building a theme!

Memo to Legacy Partners and your California retiree funders: Your tower is going up against some aggressively themed competition. When renters can go next door and feel like they’re in Italy, or go down the street to get a little stucco taste of New Orleans, or cross Allen Parkway for a full-fledged Beaux-Arts Alamo resort revival, just who do you expect is going to want to want to live in an apartment that looks like . . . a building in Houston, Texas?

More on the tower that forgot to put on its clothes and makeup . . . after the jump.

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3:14 pm | Read more about Apartments, Development Strategy, Highrises, Neighborhoods: Memorial Heights, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing
Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Nine and a Half Bathrooms: The Turnberry Tower Penthouse Evacuation Plan

January 23, 2008 – 11:52 am

Plan of Top Floor Gramercy Tower Suite Penthouse of Turnberry Houston Tower Showing 9 and a Half Bathrooms

Do you experience the urge to urinate frequently? Do you suffer from recurring bladder infections? An enlarged prostate? And one more question: Do you have $8.5 million burning a hole in your (probably moist) pocket?

Well then, you’re certainly going to pee in your pants when you see the exciting floor plans for the two “Gramercy Tower Suite” penthouses on the top floors of Houston’s 34-story Turnberry Tower! Yes, this will be the height of luxury: 11,860 sq. ft. of living space on three separate levels of an Uptown highrise; an additional 3,535 sq. ft. of terraces; 4 bedrooms plus a Den, a Guest Suite, and a Staff Room for live-in help; a Media Room, two Lounges, and a 2-story Great Room; a private elevator entry; your own private pool and cabana; and so much more.

But forget all that. What makes this little pied-à-terre special is that even if all that space perched high in the sky (and the at-least-jaw-dropping panoramic views) gives you an unmistakable urge to evacuate, you’ll only be a few shuffling paces away from a toilet: Each unit comes with nine-and-a-half bathrooms. And if that’s not enough, there’s plenty of room to add more!

Read on for more of the scoop on where to poop: floor plans for the top two floors, with more porcelain palaces clearly marked. Plus: a closeup of Swamplot’s favorite Turnberry penthouse pit stop!

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11:52 am | Read more about Condos, Highrises, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Neighborhoods: Galleria, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments
Thursday, January 17, 2008

River Oaks District Development Reaches Advanced Watercolor Stage

January 17, 2008 – 5:52 pm

Watercolor of Proposed River Oaks District Mixed Use Development Planned for Westheimer by OliverMcMillan

With new bold, rich watercolor renderings now posted to its website, OliverMcMillan shows its mixed-use proposal for Westheimer is serious. The River Oaks District won’t be in River Oaks exactly, but it would mark a serious upgrade for this portion of Westheimer just inside the Loop, on a portion of the site of the Westcreek Apartments.

What’s planned here: 300,000 square feet of retail space, 300 fancy apartments, 250,000 square feet of office space, plus two hotels — rumored to be a W and a Le Meridien. The W Hotel will house 150 condos on its top floors.

After the jump: those shiny watercolors, plus plans and an aerial view!

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5:52 pm | Read more about Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: River Oaks, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers
Wednesday, January 16, 2008

A First Look at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Tower at Boulevard Place

January 16, 2008 – 9:39 am

Rendering of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Tower Proposed for Blvd Place, Uptown, Houston, by SOMA tipster sends Swamplot this sneak peek at the hotel tower planned for Uptown’s Boulevard Place development. That’s somewhere around 180 highrise condo units perched on top of a 225-room hotel, which the Chronicle reported this weekend would likely be a Ritz-Carlton.

A tower that’s tall, thin, sleek, and half-dressed would seem about right for the Galleria, no? We count about 31 stories in the hotel-tower drawings before our eyes get all buggy, but plans might call for a building even taller than that. Our source reports that the hotel tower might end up taller than the 55-story apartment tower the Houston Business Journal reported that the Hanover Company was also planning for the site.

After the jump: The view from above!

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9:39 am | Read more about Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Galleria, Proposed Developments
Friday, December 28, 2007

Sterling Senior Condo Sales Staff Retires

December 28, 2007 – 10:19 am

Sales Sign for Sterling at Memorial VillagesRemember that fancy 27-story condo tower planned for Voss between San Felipe and Woodway? The one that was “for seniors only” and featured three floors of assisted living? Where you could buy a spacious 950-square-foot unit for just a tad under $500K?

Well, neither did we.

But if you were too busy pursuing an active lifestyle to notice that the sales center had shut down and the website disappeared, today’s Houston Business Journal makes the official announcement: The Sterling at Memorial Villages is dead, for lack of interest.

The project site holds a shuttered retail facility where a Chipotle formerly operated. The western-most part of the site, which is not owned by [Sterling developer] Sunrise Senior Living, is being marketed for sale by McDade Smith Gould Johnston Mason + Co. The eastern portion of the property — where the condo was to be built — is now being marketed by Wheless Properties.

The public company will see what offers it gets for the land, but [Sunrise Senior Living rep Jamison] Gosselin says it also is considering developing a rental property at the site.

Not mentioned in the article: Links to The Sterling of The Woodlands on the company website no longer work either.

Photo: HAIF user BuilderGeek

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10:19 am | Read more about Condos, Highrises, Neighborhoods: Memorial Villages, Proposed Developments, Senior Living
Thursday, December 20, 2007

Younan Building Empire: Buy Low, Stack High?

December 20, 2007 – 11:25 pm

Younan Tower, the former Northbelt Corporate Center, Houston

He boasted back in July that he would build the world’s tallest building — a 200- to 300-story tower in either Houston or Chicago. Meanwhile, Zaya Younan has been continuing his Houston-area office-building buying spree. Back in May, Younan told the Houston Business Journal’s Jennifer Dawson that he’d own 5 million square feet of office space in this city by the end of this year.

So how much has he been able to buy?

Just 2.2 million square feet, according to a company press release dated December 18th — which ain’t bad. Even better: by confusing his Houston and statewide numbers, he’s been able to convince Globe St. that he’s bought much more — and actually exceeded his goals for the year. Plus, Younan tells that publication’s Amy Wolff Sorter, he plans to buy an additional 5 million square feet in Houston next year, which will help his company achieve the goal of being the largest office landlord in both the city and the state:

“Since the subprime and credit crunch happened in August, building contracts fell through,” he says. “We were suddenly inundated with calls from owners and brokers, so we bought a significant amount of assets.”

After the jump, some of the properties Younan’s snapped up lately, plus Younan Tower, revealed!

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11:25 pm | Read more about Buying and Selling, Highrises, Office Buildings, Real Estate Investing
Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Who’ll Take Manhattan?

December 19, 2007 – 1:57 pm

Living Room of Manhattan Lofts Unit 808, Houston

This delightful unit has lingered on the market for a mere 22 months. That’s a long wait for a condo bubble that never happened. And hey, it ’s a fun ride down the price ladder!

The grossly oversized two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath corner unit on the top floor of the misplaced Manhattan building in the Galleria was originally priced at $2.1 million, back in the swelled-heady days of February 2006. Five methodical price drops later, we’ve reached $1,695,000. That’s a lot of cuts, but we’re still not even down 20 percent: how low will the program-trading-style reductions go?

After the jump, more pics of the . . . uh, eclectic interior.

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1:57 pm | Read more about Buying and Selling, Condos, Highrises, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Lofts, Neighborhoods: Galleria