Swamplot Archives by Tag: Hotels

Friday, April 12, 2013

Hotel Galvez Bar and Grill To Be Renovated, Renamed

April 12, 2013 – 3:00 pm
   

A new look, new menu, and new name are coming to Bernardo’s at Hotel Galvez on Seawall Blvd., says hotel owner Mitchell Historic Properties: To be adventurously rechristened Galvez Bar & Grill, the space will become twice as big after the renovations. The hotel’s lobby will also be redone: Though the wicker furniture isn’t going away, a new floor made out of a tile mosaic will be installed where sandy-footed guests enter. Though Bernardo’s will be shuttered for 2 months for the upgrades, hotel owners are hoping the space will be ready for Memorial Day, when the island’s tourist season begins. [Mitchell Historic Properties] Photo: Flickr user Equina27

3:00 pm | 1 Comment | Read more about Galveston, Quicklink, Renovations, Restaurants, Tourism
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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Comment of the Day Runner-Up: What To Expect from the Deck of the Second Convention Center Hotel

April 10, 2013 – 1:10 pm
   

“I am dumbstruck at the sheer genius (or is it audacity?) of a Texas-shaped lazy river. The turns around El Paso and Brownsville might be a little hazardous, but that’s a great analogy of the current state of affairs along the Rio. I’d also expect to encounter armed poachers along the Sabine, and flag-waving tea partiers along the Red, but I’m still pretty sure that by downing 3 beers from a floating cooler, I could not only survive, but conquer that bitch. The hardest part would be commemorating the accomplishment with (another) barbed wire arm tattoo and slapping one more bumper sticker on my pickup about guns, secession or liberals (pick one).” [Superdave, commenting on New Convention Center Hotel Seems a Done Deal] Rendering of proposed Marriott Marquis amenity deck: Morris Architects

1:10 pm | 7 Comments | Read more about Comments, Hotels, Neighborhoods: Downtown, Proposed Developments, Quicklink
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City Council To Decide Whether Downtown Hotel Redo Will Receive Federal Dough

April 10, 2013 – 10:10 am
   

Houston Politics’ Mike Morris is reporting that city council will vote today to decide whether it will loan Pearl Real Estate up to $7.4 million toward the $81 million renovation and redevelopment of the 22-story slipcovered 1910 Samuel F. Carter building at Rusk and 806 Main St. What does Pearl have in sight? A JW Marriott. (It’d be across the street from BG Group Place.) Last summer, explains Morris, the city applied for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development money that would be passed on to Pearl and ultimately paid back with interest — or that’s the idea, anyway. This kind of deal went off without a hitch in 1998, when the Rice Hotel paid back their $4.8 million right on time. But the city’s been kept waiting before: “In early 2005, it came to light that the Magnolia Hotel (which had gotten $9.5 million in 2002) and the Crowne Plaza (which had gotten $5 million in 2000) had never made a full payment to the city on their loans.” Though by 2012, Morris adds, those loans had been repaid. [Houston Politics; previously on Swamplot] Photo of 806 Main St.: Swamplot inbox

10:10 am | 6 Comments | Read more about Development Strategies, Financing, Hotels, Neighborhoods: Downtown, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Real Estate Investing, Renovations
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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

New Convention Center Hotel Seems a Done Deal

April 9, 2013 – 3:45 pm
   

Today, reports Prime Property’s Nancy Sarnoff, the city and developer Rida announced that an agreement has been reached and construction will begin soon on the 1000-room Downtown Marriott Marquis — the one with that Texas-shaped lazy river on the roof. A batch of renderings that Morris Architects released last year suggest that the hotel will replace what’s now a surface parking lot at Walker St. and Avenida de las Americas near Minute Maid Park, Discovery Green, and the George R. Brown Convention Center. Additionally, the Houston Business Journal’s Olivia Pusinelli Pulsinelli reports that much of the initial funding oomph for the development will come from Houston First, which will pay to acquire the property and to add a parking garage before transferring the holding to Rida. [Prime Property; Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Morris Architects

3:45 pm | 12 Comments | Read more about Proposed Developments, Quicklink
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Friday, April 5, 2013

Comment of the Day: Looking for the Hotel Montrose

April 5, 2013 – 1:00 pm
   

“Hotel Hotel Hotel. A hotel is long overdue for Montrose. Kimpton, Aloft, W or some other modern brand would be great. I am no developer, so I have no idea if it is doable but it would be welcome. It has the bones and imagine a hip hotel pool bar on that roof! I bring people into Houston who are considering moving here from the West Coast and Northeast. They want to live in an inner city hip walking area; Montrose generally. I don’t want them staying downtown where the streets are dead at night. The ZaZa is great but it is too far to walk to Westheimer. The Galleria has too much traffic. In the end though, I generally recommend the Derek or the ZaZa. If not here then a new build at the corner of Montrose and Westheimer. And what is the story about that lot on Westheimer near Dunlavy where it looks like construction started at one time? Hotel possibility? I am really really convinced that Montrose needs a hotel!” [charlie, commenting on What 3400 Montrose Looks Like Inside]

1:00 pm | 23 Comments | Read more about Comments, Hotels, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Quicklink
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Downtown Landmark Lancaster Hotel To Be Upgraded with ‘Prestigious Plumbing Accouterments’

March 27, 2013 – 10:30 am
   

The Joseph Finger designed Lancaster Hotel at 701 Texas that dates to 1926 will receive about $10 million in “aesthetic and technological upgrades” designed by Gensler, reports Nancy Sarnoff. She cites a hotel press release that claims the Lancaster will introduce Wi-Fi and “intuitive” keycards that you don’t have to insert into the door, as well as new interiors featuring “premier bedding and bathroom fixtures and fittings by WaterWorks, making The Lancaster the first and only Houston hotel to offer this prestigious brand of plumbing accouterments.” To kick up the Lancaster’s ambience a notch, the new decor will feature “men’s suiting fabrics.” The hotel will remain open during the renovations, which are expected to be completed by this summer. [Prime Property] Photo: The Lancaster

10:30 am | 8 Comments | Read more about Hotels, Interiors, Neighborhoods: Downtown, Quicklink, Renovations
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Apartments in Old Humble Oil Building Downtown To Go the Way of Its Hotel Neighbors

March 20, 2013 – 12:34 pm
   

Back in 2003, 2 of the 3 Humble Oil buildings at 1212 Main and Dallas St. were turned into hotels. The oil-to-hospitality transformation will soon be complete, reports the Houston Business Journal’s Shaina Zucker: A Maryland company has acquired the 3 buildings for about $80 million and says it will convert the last of them into another hotel. Presently, that tower at 914 Dallas St. holds 82 apartments. By 2015, reports Zucker, it will become a 166-room SpringHill Suites, joining the 191-room Courtyard and the 171-room Residence Inn — each of which is now dubbed a “Houston Downtown Convention Center” hotel. [Houston Business Journal] Photo: Wikimedia Commons

12:34 pm | 9 Comments | Read more about Buying and Selling, Hotels, Neighborhoods: Downtown, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Renovations
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Friday, February 22, 2013

No, Says Hotel ZaZa, Room 322 Isn’t an Expensive Bondage Dungeon for Creeps, It’s Just Different

February 22, 2013 – 12:00 pm

The old Warwick — now Hotel ZaZa — provided one of the most beautiful views in the world, as far as Bob Hope was concerned, but that was long before photos of the Main St. hotel’s Room 322 showed up on Reddit. User joelikesmusic started a thread on Monday in which the room — booked for a colleague by mistake, apparently — is described as a “goth dungeon closet.” And the photos do reveal the room’s peculiar decor:

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12:00 pm | 23 Comments | Read more about Interiors, Neighborhoods: Museum District, Photography
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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Grand Texas Theme Park: Riding a Cartoon Horse to New Caney

February 19, 2013 – 10:00 am

Meet Lasso, your mascot for the new Grand Texas Theme Park! The armed-and-friendly blond stud has been revealed as the long face of the Texas-themed theme park’s second-go-around in Texas. Back in July 2009, developer Monty Galland announced that he had a spot in Tomball for the park’s first phase to open by April 2010. Well, that was then. Now, Galland’s back — with Lasso in tow — and presenting a revised proposal to Montgomery Country leaders, reports the Tomball Potpourri: The developer’s eyeing property near New Caney, where Grand Texas might better hitch its wagon to dinosaur-friendly EarthQuest.

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10:00 am | 27 Comments | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Hotels, Land Development, Montgomery County, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Stadiums
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Thursday, January 24, 2013

Mayor Parker Finishes Off “Dirty Half-Dozen” with Demo of Sunnyside’s Aries Motel

January 24, 2013 – 12:00 pm

And this one seems almost preordained by the stars: Aries Motel, the last of the City of Houston’s “dirty half-dozen,” those multi-family/commercial buildings so blighted not even Mayor Parker can love them, has been tagged to go down today. The Gladstone St. motel sits on 10,000-sq.-ft. lot in Sunnyside, just west of Scott and north of Bellfort.

Photo: abc13

12:00 pm | 6 Comments | Read more about Demolitions, Neighborhoods: Sunnyside Place
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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Comment of the Day: Who Wants To Stay Downtown?

December 18, 2012 – 2:50 pm
   

“. . . I ride my bike around downtown for pleasure on some evenings (unthinkable 15 years ago) and am always impressed by the level of activity after dark. Restaurants, bars, music venues and Discovery Green are always hopping. Another hotel can substantially increase this level of activity and hopefully sustain it by attracting business travelers, not just convention goers.

I am a business traveler, and work for a multi-national based here in Houston. When we have out-of-town guests, they never stay downtown — EVER. Actually, they prefer to stay where they can easily walk to entertainment, dinner, and bars, and quickly catch a cab to anywhere else they need to go. Usually, they go to CityCentre, the Woodlands, and Town Center in Sugar Land. When I ask around the office about this, most of my coworkers (suburbanites who have not been downtown in years, except for an errant Astros game) immediately wrinkle their noses at the idea of sending someone to stay there after dark. Word has not gotten out about the amenities downtown, and this hotel will help.” [Superdave, commenting on A Texas Island on the Next Convention Center Hotel]

2:50 pm | 23 Comments | Read more about Comments, Hotels, Neighborhoods: Downtown, Nightlife, Quicklink, Tourism
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Monday, December 17, 2012

A Texas Island on the Next Convention Center Hotel

December 17, 2012 – 5:04 pm

These renderings of the Marriott Marquis show the shapes of things coming — by 2016, according to current plans — to Downtown. Planned for the corner of Walker St. and Avenidas de las Americas, the hotel will stand facade-to-facade across Discovery Green with its older brother, the Hilton-Americas, doubling the number of rooms that serve the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Morris Architects, teamed up with Rida Development, is responsible for the design of this 30-story tower, which will have more than 1,000 guest rooms and exactly one 40,000-sq.-ft. grand ballroom. On the deck atop that ballroom appears to be some fully realized Texas mythology: the state as an island, surrounded by a chlorinated “lazy river.” Guests will tube around it, enjoying what’s more typically considered a Hill Country pastime.

And this is what the hotel is supposed to look like around dusk:

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5:04 pm | 23 Comments | Read more about Highrises, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Discovery Green, New Construction, Proposed Developments
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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Plans for Richmond and Buffalo Speedway Corner Include Hotel, Apartments, Restaurants, Demolition

November 29, 2012 – 12:43 pm

More details are out on the plans to pile taller buildings onto the southeast corner of Richmond and Buffalo Speedway that Swamplot reported on last week: PM Realty, which earlier this month bought the 5-acre site and the 5-story Solvay America office building that sits on the southern portion of it, plans to build the 18-story office tower pictured above on the park-like portion at the north end of the property — leaving in place a bank of oaks facing Richmond, as shown in this view, from the northwest:

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12:43 pm | 10 Comments | Read more about Apartments, Highrises, Hotels, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Greenway Plaza, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Tall Hotel and Company Will Park by Greenway Plaza

November 21, 2012 – 11:43 am

A 20-story hotel with apartments perched on the top few floors is planned for the southeast corner of Richmond and Buffalo Speedway, just east of Greenway Plaza, Real Estate Bisnow‘s Catie Dixon reports. Engineering firm Bury + Partners is about to start work on construction drawings for the mixed-use project, a redevelopment of the block at 3333 Richmond. The plans also include 400,000 sq. ft. of new office space. The 22-year-old 8-story Solvay America office building sits at the southern end of the site.

Photo: Cushman & Wakefield (pdf)

11:43 am | 4 Comments | Read more about Highrises, Hotels, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Greenway Plaza, Proposed Developments
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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Heaven on Earth Fire Drill

November 20, 2012 – 12:10 pm
   

A reader figures all the Houston Fire Department units and ambulances gathered downtown around the long-vacant former Holiday Inn at 801 St. Joseph Pkwy. at Travis St. on Sunday morning were there for some training exercises: “There was no incident active on the HFD Active Incidents web site, which is just a dump from their dispatch system. I monitored their radio traffic related to it as well. . . . I assume they had permission from the owner. Interesting to see this building getting some attention. I don’t think they were setting it on fire, though.” The 31-story 1971 building was also, for a time, a Days Inn; it was last known as the Heaven on Earth Plaza Hotel, operated through most of the nineties by an organization affiliated with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, though many residents and neighbors referred to it more affectionately as the Beirut Hilton. [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot] Photo: arch-ive.org

12:10 pm | 10 Comments | Read more about Hotels, Neighborhoods: Downtown, Quicklink
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