February 14, 2008 – 2:19 pm
It looks like our earlier report about the Fairmont at San Felipe — the strip-center-apartment combo planned for the southeast corner of San Felipe and Winrock — was wrong. Judging from this new rendering of the complex, it sure looks like those apartments will actually be stacked directly on top of the retail spaces, forming a lovely parking-lot-courtyard tableau!
Permits for construction of the apartments were just approved by the city. After the jump: closeups, plus the plan that led us astray.
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Read more about: 77057, Apartments, Briargrove, Commercial Real Estate, Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Retail, Strip Centers
February 7, 2008 – 4:54 pm
Here’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
Read more about: 77010, Downtown, Downtown Tunnel System, Highrises, New Construction, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments
January 28, 2008 – 1:45 pm
The Magnolia Lofts, planned for the site of the former Ashland Tea House, has a new sales trailer at 1801 W. 18th St. in the Heights and a new, less ironic name. The project is now called Heights Esplanade I — though the development’s website throws in an odd extra apostrophe for good measure. Best news: The same website declares that “At the Esplanade, urban loft living will take on a new meaning.” The building will be four stories high, contain forty condos, and sit on a two-story “partially submerged” garage.
A HAIF reader who stopped by the sales office reports that Conroe-area builders Garrett Austen are planning two additional phases, with 80 and 120 more condos respectively.
After the jump: floor plans for Unit 403, on sale now for $261,118.
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Read more about: 77008, Condos, Historic Districts, Houston Heights, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments
January 24, 2008 – 8:11 am
A reader writes in with a question about the movie theater that appeared in Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report earlier this week:
Do we happen to know the reason for the demolition of the Tinseltown Westchase location? If I can remember right, this theater has only been here for not even 10 years yet.
Actually, the Cinemark Tinseltown USA Westchase movie theater had reached the ripe old age of 12. According to the Houston Business Journal, Simmons Vedder Partners is tearing it down to build twin 6-story spec office buildings with a parking garage between them and a “signature water feature” fronting the Beltway — all designed by Ambrose, McEnany and House Architects. It’ll be called Westchase Park.
After the jump, a few fond memories of the theater in its “Hey!” day.
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Read more about: 77042, Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Movie-Theaters, New Construction, Office Space, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Westchase
January 17, 2008 – 5:52 pm
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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Read more about: 77027, Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Mixed Use, New Construction, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Retail, River Oaks, Shopping Centers, Westheimer
January 10, 2008 – 2:42 pm
That house built out of shipping containers on Cordell St. in Brookesmith looks like it’ll be ready for delivery soon. Yes, this was a spec house — and yes, there already is a buyer.
Last year, Numen Development owners Katie Nichols and John Walker used shipping containers to construct the Apama Mackey Gallery on 11th St. in the Heights — because the gallery owner wanted a structure she can move when the property owner kicks her off the land. But the house Numen is building on Cordell looks like it’s going to be around for a while. It comes with its own, uh . . . doublewide lot, and it’s right across the street from a meat-processing plant.
After the jump: drawings, models, and an earlier construction photo of this neat little three-bedroom, three-bath, 1,851-square-foot package!
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Read more about: 77009, Brookesmith, Construction Materials, Green Design, Green Development, Home Design, Homebuilders, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Shipping-Containers, Transportation
December 21, 2007 – 4:15 pm
Uptown renters: Were you planning on staying in your apartment for a while?
A sharp-eyed reader notes that ZOM — the developer of the Bel Air on Allen Parkway and the new Katrina Memorial apartments planned for Revere St. near Kirby and Westheimer (pictured above) — is also planning a 250-unit apartment complex somewhere near the Galleria. The company’s going to stick with its strategy of buying existing apartment complexes, demolishing them, building newer apartments in their place, and then selling them off, ZOM’s Trip Stevens tells Globe St.’s Amy Wolff Sorter:
“It’s the only way to go in that submarket,” Stevens says. But then he adds real news:
Stephens says ZOM will do the same thing to get its third Houston project into the Galleria submarket. He says the closing for the existing apartment complex should occur late in the first quarter. The plan is to start scraping the three-acre site around midyear.
That’s information a few Galleria-area renters who live in three-acre apartment complexes will probably want to know.
Read more about: Apartments, Demolitions, Development Strategy, Galleria, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments
December 13, 2007 – 3:01 pm
Looks like a lot of pedestrian action going on in these marketing drawings for Orr Commercial’s new Heights Village, a five-acre restaurant, retail, office, and “upscale housing” development slated for the current site of the Sons of Hermann hall just south of I-10, between Heights Blvd. and Yale St. and an adjacent parcel abutting railroad tracks to the south.
Why, with all those people in the drawings walking to and fro, it looks like this development will have all the charm of a small old-town Main Street . . . or at the very least all the charm of an old small town that decided to build a multi-level parking garage, but still turned its Main Street into a parking lot anyway, just to hedge its bets.
After the jump: more parking-lot pedestrians!
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Read more about: 77007, Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Houston Heights, Mixed Use, New Construction, Office Space, Parking, Parking-Garages, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers, Washington Corridor
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Read more about Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Houston Heights, Neighborhoods: Washington Corridor, New Construction, Parking, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers
December 11, 2007 – 1:22 pm
Houston is such an international city! If you’ve been here a while, you’ve probably already found Tuscany in Houston and Hong Kong in Houston, and perhaps also Charlottesville, New Delhi, Versailles, New York, Mexico City, Cairo, Dubai, Atlanta, and maybe even some Lubbock in Houston as well.
Well, here’s a new one: Now you can discover Barcelona in Houston too. And it’s in Spring Branch!
Fortunately, for those of you tired at the thought of all that around-the-world-in-eighty-themed-apartments travel, this little bit of the Spanish Mediterranean comes in the familiar form of a Houston townhome six-pack: two rows of bright yellow tightly fit stucco-coated boxes facing a bare concrete driveway.
So really, it shouldn’t seem so foreign after all.
After the jump, more pics!
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Read more about: 77055, Development Strategy, Home Design, Homes for Sale, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Real Estate Marketing, Spring-Branch, Theming, Townhomes
December 5, 2007 – 3:52 pm
Landed back in town, only to realize you’d forgotten to buy something for the kids on your trip? Well, if you’re headed north to I-45 from Hobby Airport, you’re in luck . . . or at least you will be once the new 99 Cents Only Store about to go up on Broadway (just south of Bellfort) is finished. Hey, most of those doodads are made in China anyway, and they’ll be even cheaper here!
A reader sends in this photo, and says it’s on the site of an old office building that had been demo’ed about a year ago.
Guess we’ll have to wait even longer for a 99 Cents Only store inside the terminal.
Read more about: 77061, Glenbrook Valley, New Construction, Retail
December 5, 2007 – 12:23 pm
Sure, there’s Post Properties, the Sonoma in the Rice Village and all those tired old buildings downtown, but most Houston developers won’t put apartments on top of retail unless they’re dragged kicking and screaming. And really, the idea of living next to a strip center evokes a much warmer, more folksy feeling. Isn’t that what Houston is all about?
The latest: The Fairmont on San Felipe, on the southeast corner of San Felipe and Winrock. A couple of apartment courtyards, connected by a central garage, behind two strips ready for 41,500 square feet of retail. It’s now under construction, on the site of the old Regency Arms apartments, which burned last year after it had already been vacated for demolition.
Update, 2/14/08: Looks like they have been dragged!
Read more about: 77057, Apartments, Briargrove, Commercial Real Estate, Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Retail, Strip Centers
November 29, 2007 – 8:56 am
A reader who frequents Midtown sends photos showing the progress of the new building at 3201 Louisiana, along with comments.
Took this from near the corner of Elgin and Milam. Steel’s all up, and then some. 24 Hour Fitness is supposed to be moving into the top floor. The parking garage [in the foreground] was already there but was shuttered for a long time, has been painted and dressed up. Will be great to have an actual new three-story building with retail in midtown, instead of the usual strip centers and drug stores.
After the jump, plans and fancy renderings of the finished building, plus: our correspondent gets snarky!
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Read more about: 77006, Apartments, Midtown, New Construction, Retail, Shopping Centers
November 15, 2007 – 11:36 am
The Lenny’s Sub Shops continue their Houston conquest. The franchise is now up to seventeen stores, with eleven opening soon, including one in this new shopping center about to begin construction on the Gulf Freeway feeder just north of Wayside. That’s almost a third of the way to the company’s goal!
The I-45 (northbound) and Wayside property developer is Bobby Orr, who complained to the Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff about the glut of suburban strip centers back in June: “We’re going urban,” he said. And really, the Orr Commercial properties are all over the map. But don’t be fooled by the side-of-the-freeway location and strip-center layout on this one: Luring hungry drivers out of inner-loop freeway traffic jams is an important part of Houston’s urban spirit.
Read more about: 77023, Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, East End, Fast Food, Franchises, New Construction, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers, Traffic
November 13, 2007 – 12:34 pm
Here it comes: A 87,000-square-foot sports behemoth. On more than 12 acres. A gym, aquatic and athletic center, kiddie playground, and spa, all wrapped into one . . . membership fee. The Wal-Mart of health clubs — without the low prices, of course.
Construction of the VillaSport Athletic Club and Spa will begin early next year and open in early 2009 on Technology Forest Dr., across from the Fox Network Center in The Woodlands. The VillaSport website features an interactive tour of the first facility — in Colorado Springs — which is slated to open later this month.
With indoor and outdoor spaces including an indoor soccer field, indoor and outdoor zero-entry kiddie pools, hot tubs, saunas, a Pilates studio, water slides, and a pro shop, VillaSport appears to merge features of an athletic club, spa retreat, sports lounge, country club, resort, water park, and summer camp. All in a gigantic compound you’ll easily be able to lose your family in.
Read more about: 77381, Health Clubs, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Resorts, The Woodlands
November 9, 2007 – 1:27 pm
How do you pack so many condos into an old warehouse building in Houston’s First Ward? Easy! You knock the warehouse down, build a gate around the block, and pack ’em in!
Permit in hand, Terramark Homes begins construction on the Sawyer Brownstones at 2110 Shearn St. The forty-two units will take up the block surrounded by Shearn, Hemphill, Spring, and Henderson Streets, just south of I-10.
No images of the outside yet, so it’s hard to say if these brownstones will indeed have brown stone or just be brownstone-like. But continue after the jump and we’ll show you the secret to shoehorning so many townhome-style condos into a single block!
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Read more about: 77007, Construction Materials, Demolitions, Development Strategy, First Ward, Garages, Homebuilders, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Parking, Proposed Developments, Townhomes
November 9, 2007 – 11:33 am
Houstonist reports that performance, concert, art, party, and . . . uh, barbecue venue Super Happy Fun Land is being kicked out of its brightly painted Heights bungalow:
Their current building (2610 Ashland St.) has been sold in order to make room for more condominiums, which some apparently delusional real estate-type creature has decided our fair city is lacking.
The last concert in that location will be at the end of January. Sure, it’s the end of an era, but it’s not as though the place is shutting down. Surely the club’s owners will be able to find a nice spot in a new strip center somewhere nearby.
Photo: Flickr user Shitface1000
Read more about: 77008, Attractions, Clubs, Condos, Houston Heights, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Strip Centers
