November 4, 2009 – 2:54 pm
Here they are: More renderings of the Perennial, the mixed-use development the Redstone Companies is hoping to fit onto a block at 2200 Post Oak Blvd. just north of the Galleria — on the former site of the Compass Bank building, which was imploded in a small ceremony earlier this year. Does this thing look familiar? An earlier drawing of the project appeared on the SkyscraperPage forum and was featured on Swamplot in May. Now HAIF poster Urbannizer digs up a leasing brochure for the property from the development’s otherwise password-protected website.
What’s for lease? Two separate buildings: a 20-story office tower incorporating an 8-level parking garage as well as lots of retail space at the base; and a separate hotel tower to the north — combining just under 300 guest rooms and 100 residences. In all, the developers are counting just under 74,000 sq. ft. of retail space, including 3 levels meant to face the action on Post Oak.
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Read more about: 77056, Galleria, Light-Rail, Metro Rail, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Uptown, Uptown Corridor
October 22, 2009 – 10:58 pm
The city’s General Appeals Board today rejected a request by the developers of the Ashby Highrise to gain permit approvals for the 23-story project’s original version — which includes a larger number of residences and more commercial space than the plans that finally received permits from the city. “Matthew Morgan, one of the two principals with Buckhead Investment Partners, said the next step would likely be to appeal to the Houston City Council. . . . Ironically, the prolonged battle that has been played out not only in the city bureaucracy but with yard signs, bumper stickers and vocal, packed protests did not draw any other media or public attention Thursday at this key city hearing.” [West University Examiner; previously on Swamplot]
Read more about: 77005, Ashby Highrise, Boulevard-Oaks, Development Regulations, Highrises, Mixed Use, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Southampton
Waiting patiently on the market since last October: the landmark Old Humble Antiques & Collectibles shop at the corner of E. Main St. and N. Avenue C in downtown Humble — still available for the same ol’ price of just under $600K. Comes with a 3,500-sq.-ft. living space above, plus a 2-car garage with a separate apartment above it tucked around in back.
Listing photos still show a bit of Humble memorabilia inside. Is haggling allowed?
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Read more about: 77338, Buildings for Sale, Humble, Mixed Use, Retail
And suddenly, Houston Pavilions gets some action:
NRG Texas and Reliant, NRG’s retail electric company, have agreed to lease 240,000 square feet of the 11-story Pavilions Tower, which comprises most of the building at 1201 Fannin.
NRG/Reliant will take 10 floors. The law firm Sheehy, Serpe & Ware has the top floor.
The bottom three floors of Pavilions Tower have always been designated as “swing space,” which could have been used for retail or office space, Houston Pavilions co-developer Geoff Jones said. NRG/Reliant will take all of the swing space, as well as some additional space on the second floor that initially had been designated for retail, Jones said.
How much of that lonely and vacant retail “additional space” on the second floor is being turned into office space?
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Read more about: 77002, Downtown, Houston Pavilions, Leasing, Mixed Use, Office Space, Retail
At last: That year-old, right-up-to-the-street, parking-garage-behind The Mix @ Midtown building at 3201 Louisiana gets a ground-floor tenant! Going into the buildout in the space at the southeast corner of Elgin, below 24 Hour Fitness: a new Japanese restaurant.
Want a peek inside?
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Read more about: 77006, Leasing, Midtown, Mixed Use, New Construction, Restaurants
Is this a view of a planned replacement for the Compass Bank building at 2200 Post Oak — a block north of the Galleria — that was imploded back in March? So claims Reverberation, a participant on the SkyscraperPage forum, who posted the image. Reverberation adds that the Redstone Companies is calling the project The Perennial, and that it’s “supposedly coming 2011.”
The 4-acre site is immediately north of the Centre at Post Oak shopping center. The street on the far left of the rendering appears to be Post Oak; that would put Guilford Ct. on the right. The project appears to include office, residential, and hotel components, along with at least one multi-story parking garage.
As a poster on HAIF points out, the domain name theperennial.com redirects to the Redstone Companies website. Records show the domain name has been registered to Redstone Companies since 2004. Redstone has not officially announced its plans for the website — or the site on Post Oak.
Read more about: 77056, Galleria, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Uptown
Okay, everybody out with your Regent Square renderings! HAIF’s lockmat digs up images of additional structures planned for the 15-acre North Montrose mixed-use complex, including two separate projects from the Venezuelan Miami architect Luis Pons.
What’ve we got here?
Pons’s “Regent Square Launch” looks more like a transit station than a boathouse. But who knows? Buffalo Bayou is just across Allen Parkway!
Many more pics:
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Read more about: 77019, Lofts, Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Regent Square, Transportation
Here’s a view of the 28-story condo tower New York’s Handel Architects is designing for Regent Square, the 15-acre mixed-use project GID Urban Development Group is planning for North Montrose. The 450,000-sq.-ft. tower is meant for Regent Square’s westernmost reaches: the corner of West Dallas and Greenwich Place, just east of the College Memorial Park Cemetery.
Each of the 150 condos in the building has a balcony. All the units on the western face, shown above, have indented double-height outdoor spaces. The sleek eastern face, looking toward Downtown, is very different: It has a floor-to-ceiling curtainwall. Handel expects the building to be LEED-certified.
More images:
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Read more about: 77019, Condos, Highrises, Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Regent Square
Work on public improvements connected to the 4-million-sq.-ft. Regent Square project in North Montrose will begin by October, and work on the actual development will begin by a year later, according to an agreement approved by city council yesterday. GID Urban Development Group, the project’s developers, will be reimbursed for $10 million of its work on public streets and sidewalks through the Memorial Heights TIRZ. What’s next? “[Mayor] White said he generally has shied away from such public-private development efforts, but would continue to review opportunities on a case-by-case basis for distressed properties, such as Sharpstown Mall, and for other major projects already in the works that have been delayed or canceled amid the national economic crisis. . . . The mayor made note of a number of properties to which he hopes to attract developers, including in the Leland Woods TIRZ near Homestead Road and East Little York, the Near Northside TIRZ immediately north of downtown Houston, and in the Fifth Ward TIRZ. Other potential incentive packages may not be administered through a TIRZ, he added.” [Houston Chronicle; previously in Swamplot]
Read more about: 77019, City Council, Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Property Taxes, Proposed Developments, Regent Square, TIRZs
What’s inside that special $10 million life-support package for the Regent Square development City Council is considering?
The reimbursements proposed for Regent Square would be administered through the expansion of the Memorial Heights Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone. Under a TIRZ, property tax revenues generated within the boundaries are frozen at a specified level. As development occurs and property values rise, tax revenue above that level, known as the increment, is funneled back into the zone to pay for infrastructure and capital improvements to help attract further development.
Under the plan before council today, part of the increment will be given back to the specific developer rather than the redevelopment authority that operates the TIRZ.
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Read more about: 77019, City Council, Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Property Taxes, Proposed Developments, Regent Square, TIRZs
March 20, 2009 – 12:45 pm
Allegro Builders president and CEO Lambert Arceneaux has no more employees to let go from his company, and has had problems paying his subcontractors, a source tells Swamplot. Starting way back in the olden days of a dozen years ago, Arceneaux pioneered the concept of tearing down tired old Sears catalog homes and single-bathroom working-class bungalows in the Heights and replacing them with high-dollar luxury homes in Victorian dressing. After proving to other builders that land banking and upscaling the Heights could be a lucrative business, Allegro eventually stretched its repertoire to million-dollar-plus whirlpool- and wine-cellar-enshrined fantasies that mimicked a variety of regional historical styles.
Our source says Allegro’s project manager was let go a couple of weeks ago — and that “there’s no money coming in.”
Allegro also developed two small but high-profile mixed-use buildings on Studewood. One is now known as the home of Bedford Restaurant. An earlier effort across 10th St., which houses Lance Fegen’s Glass Wall restaurant and Allegro Builders’ offices upstairs, is shown here in a rare early photo — minus its usual tight single-wythe street wall of valet-parked SUVs:
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Read more about: 77008, Allegro Builders, Economic Conditions, Homebuilders, Houston Heights, Mixed Use, Theming
March 19, 2009 – 12:39 pm
The River Oaks Examiner’s Cynthia Lescalleet says her recent tour of West Ave at the corner of Kirby and Westheimer “felt a bit like a campus visit for a really, really, ritzy college.” But wait, there’s more:
Rising seven-stories, West Ave. is hard to miss. The project by Gables Urban is massive and ambitious, and that’s only the first phase. The two-acre lot behind it, now used as a construction staging area, will be Phase II. Some day. It may spend the interim as overflow parking.
Further details about that Upper Kirby campus:
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Read more about: 77098, Apartments, Mixed Use, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Retail, Upper Kirby, West Ave
Here’s a surprise: a construction permit for a new 23-story Chinatown Asiatown condominium tower was issued yesterday for Park 8 Place. Remember Park8? That’s the freeway feeder megastrip project planned for just across Brays Bayou from Arthur Storey Park, along Beltway 8 south of Bellaire Blvd. The one that called itself “The Land of Oz.”
The entire development was supposed to include three 20-something-story residential towers, a hospital, two 2-story retail-and-office strips, and a couple of parking garages — all in a quaint freeway-and-park-side setting. A foundation was poured for the first condo building last year, but Park 8 CEO David Wu put the project on hold after he was unable to secure financing. So the construction crane came down.
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Read more about Cancellations and Delays, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Hospitals, Medical Buildings, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Chinatown, Proposed Developments, Retail, Strip Centers
Read more about: 77072, Asiatown, Canceled Projects, Chinatown, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Hospitals, Medical Buildings, Mixed Use, Parks, Proposed Developments, Retail, Strip Centers
Comment of the Day: Missing That High-Density High Density
“Houston has a lot of high-density *potential*. Unfortunately it isn’t developing out that way. Instead, high-density developments [are] being put in low-density areas. Which makes them pockets of density without the benefits. West Ave., Regent Square, and the infamous Ashby Highrise are all examples. For urban density to work, it must reach a ‘critial mass’ of proximity, diversity of commerce, employment, and on-the-spot residences all within walking distance. Put the three developements above near each other, and near downtown, and you’d have a true move toward urbanism. Alone, none are big enough to be self-sustaining as a true urban lifestyle. Putting them in lower-density areas and residential neighborhoods dilutes the effect, greatly reduces the benefits of density, and causes a lot more strain on infrastructure this isn’t adequate for the density. If Houston want’s to become a true urban city, it won’t happen in the disjunctive manner we’re currently seeing. Our current path will only lead to those that want traditional neighborhoods upset with large-scale develpers and those that want true urbanism not getting it either.” [Dave McC, commenting on Boyd’s Wilshire Village Prayer, with Photos]