Tag: Commercial Real Estate

05/08/08 9:30am

The Secret New Downtown Tower Hidden on the Web

Downtown, Highrises, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments

3 Comments

Rendering of New Hines North Tower, Downtown Houston

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.

77002, Commercial Real Estate, Downtown, Highrises, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments

04/28/08 7:18pm

Building Smaller, Building Green, Adapting, and Reusing: The Home Depot Way

Green Design and Development, Industrial Properties, New Construction, Northwest Houston, Real Estate Marketing, Renovations

77064, Commercial Real Estate, Distribution Centers, Green Development, Industrial Properties, New Construction, Real Estate Marketing, Renovations

Site of Fallbrook Distribution Center, 8103 Fallbrook Dr., Houston

Just add punchline: If all goes as planned, Home Depot will soon be operating a LEED-certified distribution center just south of the Sam Houston Race Park in Northwest Houston.

Pennsylvania REIT Liberty Property Trust began constructing the enormous 535,000-square-foot Fallbrook Distribution Center at the southwest corner of Fallbrook Dr. and Fairbanks-North Houston on spec, and plans to submit it to the U.S. Green Building Council for core & shell certification. Home Depot will be leasing the entire facility.

But Home Depot wanted a few changes made . . .

Liberty Property . . . switched gears in the middle of construction to make the facility — originally planned as 615,000 square feet — smaller to suit the long-term tenant. “We disassembled the east side of the building and relocated tiltwall concrete panels to create a larger employee parking area,” [Liberty Property’s Joe] Trinkle says. “We had to take apart the building to accommodate their need.”

The west side of the building was also disassembled and reconstructed in order to add a third loading dock, he says.

Gary Mabray, an industrial broker with Colliers International, says it is unusual for a construction project to undergo as many changes as this one did.

“That building was basically finished,” Mabray says. “They had to go back in and demolish slab and everything.”

Liberty Trust, a real estate investment trust, offered the tenant a build-to-suit option at another site so the building would not have to be converted, but Trinkle says the timing was off.

Home Depot hammers out deal for new distribution center [Houston Business Journal]
Liberty Property goes for the green with industrial buildings [Houston Business Journal]
8103 Fallbrook Dr [Liberty Property Trust]

Photo of Fallbrook Distribution Center under construction: Liberty Property Trust

04/17/08 11:19pm

Corner of Hazard: The Fall of Martha Turner Properties

Demolitions, Hazards, Proposed Developments, Streets, Winlow Place

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Demolition of Former Martha Turner Properties Building, 1902 Westheimer Rd., Houston, April 17, 2008

Swamplot reader Buildergeek sends pictures from the demolition of the former Martha Turner Properties building at the corner of Westheimer and Hazard.

Whatever’s happening to the site, it sure doesn’t sound like what Nancy Sarnoff reported a year and a half ago in the Chronicle:

The old headquarters of Martha Turner Properties near River Oaks has been sold for the third time in as many years to a florist who plans to gut the property, add a floral showroom and lease out space to other businesses.

The owners of Plants â€™n’ Petals, a 25-year-old flower shop located near Highland Village, purchased the former real estate office at 1902 Westheimer for an undisclosed amount. . . .

The renovations will include installing windows on the Westheimer-facing facade, gutting the interior and adding a mezzanine for offices.

The building will have about 12,000 square feet of space when it’s finished by the end of 2008.

After the jump: Clearly, the building was too close to the street!

77098, Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Hazards, Proposed Developments, Streets, Westheimer, Winlow Place

03/31/08 5:46pm

Logos and Lines: Cypress Outlet Mall Reader Reports

Malls, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Parking, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers

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Houston Premium Outlets, Cypress, TX

Reader photos and reports from the Houston Premium Outlets opening on 290 last weekend:

I had heard somewhere that the mall was supposed to have a Southwest theme, but with all the logos plastered over the entrance towers, it looks like they might have been aiming for Early NASCAR. Aside from that, though, it’s a surprisingly nice place. Yeah, there were lots of people there, but once you get out of your car, the mall handles crowds well. It’s much nicer than a lot of Houston non-outlet malls, and a whole lot less cheesy or pretentious.

After the jump: those logo-festooned towers and more on-the-spot pix! Plus: Chicken Now: Here. Now!

77433, Commercial Real Estate, Cypress, Fairfield, Fast Food, Malls, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Outlet Malls, Parking, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers

03/31/08 11:52am

North Montrose and Memorial Heights: Look at Us Now

Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Development Strategy, Memorial Heights, Montrose, New Construction: Residential, Redevelopment

Alley Behind Townhomes Between Clay and W. Dallas, Houston

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!

77006, Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Development Strategy, Highrises, Land Sales, Memorial Heights, Montrose, Pedestrians, Redevelopment, Streets, Tours

03/28/08 11:34am

Borlenghi: Houstonians Unclear on the European Concept

Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Galleria, Hotels, Mixed Use, Parking, Real Estate Marketing, Retail, Shopping Centers

Arturoâ€™s Uptown Italiano Restaurant in Uptown Park, Houston

Interfin Companies president Giorgio Borlenghi, who developed Uptown Park and the Hotel Granduca, explains how it’s done:

. . . developers must not forget the principles we Houstonians like so much such as ease of access to the various components of the building and plentiful and readily available parking. As an example, when we planned Uptown Park, we decided to keep it exclusively retail to allow our patrons to park directly in front of the shops and restaurants without having to deal with multistory parking structures.

Keeping Uptown Park “exclusively retail,” of course, meant that his luxury hotel had to go across the street:

I created Hotel Granduca as a unique, elegant and extremely exclusive boutique hotel for the Uptown/Galleria area. I wanted it to be very different from all the other hotels: It had to feel very Italian, of course, and to have a true residential setting, so that it could be someone’s home away from home. What surprises me is that a number of people in Houston are still not understanding this very European concept and somehow think that Granduca is not a regular hotel, but some type of apartment building.

Face to Face with… [Houston Business Journal]
Hotel Granduca

Photo of Arturo’s Uptown Italiano restaurant in Uptown Park: Flickr user heyjebbo

77056, Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Galleria, Hotels, Mixed Use, Parking, Parking-Garages, Real Estate Marketing, Retail, Shopping Centers, Uptown, Uptown Park

03/27/08 6:38pm

Outlet Mall Grand Opening: Cypress Will Never Be the Same

Cypress, Malls, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers

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Drawing of Houston Premium Outlets in Cypress, Texas If the popularity of our story earlier this week about the Houston Premium Outlets is any guide, the new outlet mall off 290 in Cypress ought to be absolutely swamped this weekend. And hey — we didn’t have much to say about it, other than to report that the mall opens today. (And no, Swamplot isn’t offering any discounts, either.)

Evidently, a lot of people want to find out about this place.

So if you do decide to brave the crowds this weekend and have a look around yourself, feel free to send us your reports, videos, or photos — so we can share them with the Googling hordes online.

Houston Premium Outlets: The New Outlet Mall in Cypress [Swamplot]

Drawing of Houston Premium Outlets: Chelsea Premium Outlets

77433, Commercial Real Estate, Cypress, Malls, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Outlet Malls, Retail, Shopping Centers

03/25/08 7:12pm

Houston Premium Outlets: The New Outlet Mall in Cypress

Cypress, Fairfield, Malls, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers

4 Comments

Houston Premium Outlets, Cypress, Texas

Update: On-the-spot reader reports!

Fairfield residents: You picked the right location! Just outside your neighborhood’s front gates, a huge new outlet mall is scheduled to open . . . in just two days!

What’s going to be there? The Ecko Unltd. outlet store! The Juicy Couture outlet store! The Under Armour outlet store! Jody Maroni’s Sausage Kingdom! And Chicken Now! They’re all opening this Thursday, March 27th!

Well . . . almost. As a commenter on HAIF points out, you’ll apparently have to wait for Chicken Now, which on the Houston Premium Outlets website is listed only as “opening soon.” The site indicates 100 stores in the 427,000-square-foot outdoorish highwayside complex will be ready for this weekend’s grand opening. 13 more are slated to open later.

After the jump: you’ll look askance at the plans!

77433, Commercial Real Estate, Cypress, Fairfield, Fast Food, Malls, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Outlet Malls, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers

Bayou Woods

03/24/08 11:25pm

Sanctioned by the Congregation: The Office Building Next to First Baptist

Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Houston Architects, Memorial, Office Buildings, Parking, Proposed Developments

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Rendering of Proposed Hines Office Building Adjacent to First Baptist Church, Houston

A reader directs our attention to this proposed 16-story office building facing the south side of the Katy Freeway, just outside the Loop — on the current site of a Houston’s First Baptist Church parking lot.

Hines plans to build the office building and an 11-level, 1,500-car parking garage on the lot, which the developer would lease from the church. The congregation has already voted to authorize church representatives to finalize and sign a 99-year ground lease for the property.

The garage would help solve the church’s chronic parking problems: According to the HFBC website, 300 cars currently park off-site on weekends. With the Hines development, the church would lose the 480 spaces in the lot now available during the week, but gain 1,500 spaces for church use on weekends and after office hours.

Below the fold, lots more images of the proposed office building and garage on HFBC property.

77024, Bayou Woods, Churches, Commercial Real Estate, Ground Leases, Houston Architects, Katy Freeway, Memorial, Office Buildings, Parking, Parking-Garages, Proposed Developments

03/17/08 9:54am

New Memorial Hermann Tower: Great Location for a Head Office

Highrises, Medical Buildings, Memorial City, New Construction, Real Estate Marketing

6 Comments

Memorial Hermann Tower at I-10 and Gessner Under Construction 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!

77024, Commercial Real Estate, Highrises, Medical Buildings, Memorial City, New Construction, Office Buildings, Office Space, Real Estate Marketing

Buying and Selling

03/14/08 8:44am

More Surface Deals Surface

Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Public Buildings, Real Estate Investing

From Abc13’s Wayne Dolcefino:

To get the winning hand, it helps to have the luck of the draw. Maybe that’s what Michael Surface has.

In January of 2005, one of his corporations buys an old H-E-B store on Antoine. The appraised value — $1. 2 million.

Two months later, Harris County announces it’s looking for a big building to replace Commissioner Lee’s Annex A in the same neighborhood that Michael Surface now owned his old H-E-B.

Maybe it was just a lucky hand for Mr. Surface. But years earlier, he was the guy in charge of Harris County’s building department.

(Hey, isn’t this the same guy who brought in the proposal to redevelop the Astrodome into a hotel? Good thing he’s outta there, so that deal can go forward!)

. . . tax records show [Surface] sold the [H-E-B] building and land to a corporation called HC5815 for $2.2 million. That corporation, in turn, got the winning hand months later. The head of that corporation was David Blumhardt from Dallas, who we’ve learned got the winning hand in at least nine Harris County real estate deals. His local representative on the Antoine project was the guy whose name we found on a worn out real estate sign — Jason G. Hall, Weston Partners, Ltd.

Where have I heard that name before?

Jason Hall used to work for Michael Surface at Harris County. Now, his real estate operation is located in Michael Surface’s offices.

When Jason Hall worked for the county, one of the projects he evaluated was 2525 Murworth. It’s now the home of Children’s Protective Services, part of a $35 million county real estate deal developed by Michael Surface just months after he left county government.

After the jump: a longer view!

77091, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Harris County Government, Public Buildings, Real Estate Investing

03/11/08 11:21am

High Street: Under Way

Commercial Real Estate, Financing, Highland Village, Mixed Use, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers

Rendering of Building in Trademark Propertiesâ€™ Proposed High Street Development

The square footages appear to have adjusted a bit since our last report, but Trademark Properties says it has its financing, and that High Street is a go. From a report in Globe St.:

The Fort Worth-based Trademark Property Co. and Coventry [Real Estate Advisors Ltd. of New York City] are redeveloping a seven-acre site of the former Central Ford dealership at 4410 Westheimer Rd. In turn, the JV signed a partnership pact with Indianapolis-based Kosene & Kosene Development Co. for the residential component of High Street. The redevelopment will have 233 apartments atop 100,000 sf of retail and 80,000 sf of office in a separate structure. The foundation’s been poured for the office building, with residential and retail to go vertical in 60 to 90 days.

After the jump, another pretty picture!

77027, Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Financing, Highland Village, Mixed Use, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, Westheimer

03/05/08 11:42pm

Greenway Commons: Gas Station Too!

Commercial Real Estate, Greenway Plaza, New Construction, Parking, Proposed Developments, Retail, Sprawl, Strip Centers

Greenway Commons Costco at Richmond and Weslayan, Houston

Didja know that the new Costco going up on the former site of the HISD headquarters building at the corner of Richmond and Weslayan . . . is gonna have its very own gas station right out front?

Costco liked the idea of coming inside the Loop so much . . . it decided to bring all its friends! The city just issued a building permit for the new Costco Fuel station. But that’s just the latest addition to Greenway Commons, which is turning out to be quite a mix: A 45,420-sq.-ft. LA Fitness is going above the Costco, next to a 4-story parking garage which is connected to a 2-story retail strip center. It’ll all be protected from the busy surrounding streets by more than 500 surface parking spaces and 2 corner pad sites slated for “banks.” In back: a 550-unit Morgan Group luxury apartment complex . . . with two more separate garages!

After the jump, more drawings and plans of this surprising development.

77027, Apartments, Big Box Stores, Commercial Real Estate, Greenway Commons, Greenway Plaza, Mixed Use, New Construction, Parking, Parking-Garages, Proposed Developments, Retail, Richmond-Avenue, Shopping Centers, Sprawl, Strip Centers

Art

03/05/08 11:12am

Storefront Ad: Midtown Full Frontal Oddity

Commercial Real Estate, Midtown, Real Estate Investing, Retail, Shopping Centers

Storefront Ad for Red Bull Art of Can Competition and Exhibition on Elgin St., Midtown, Houston

Here’s one advantage if you’re one of the not-so-large number of retail centers in Houston that doesn’t have a parking lot in front: If business ain’t so hot, you can always sell the highly visible adspace on your facade!

A reader sends in this photo of an ad for Red Bull’s Art of Can competition on the streetfront of a retail center on Elgin, across from the Calais apartments in Midtown. The Maple Leaf Pub is two doors down.

Is this the future of retail real estate? Sure, we’ve all seen ads painted onto the sides of old buildings and the giant window stickers on David’s Bridal storefronts, but doesn’t this go a bit . . . beyond that? Think of the possibilities: Stores . . . with ads covering their entire fronts, advertising . . . other stores. Or anything.

Forget billboards, graffiti, and wheatpaste posters. When this new market really kicks in, we’ll see Houston for its revenue-generating possibilities: We’ve got acres and acres of exploitable advertising space.

Tyvek Housewrap was only the beginning.

What comes after Tuscan-themed shopping centers? Billboard-themed shopping centers!

After the jump: a second photo, so you can get your Red Bull straight.