From our email comes a message from a reader who has heard from someone involved in the project that the white poles shown at the top of the new Discovery Tower drawing are . . . indeed, wind turbines.
So . . . if they do end up being put in, how much energy will they bring to the building? And . . . how many tenants?
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.
More details about Crosspoint Properties‘s expanding developments at the corner of Elgin and Louisiana in Midtown: Catty-corner across Elgin from the building that’s already under construction is this new fence advertising the “Mix @ Midtown.” The Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff writes that Crosspoint — whose owners also rule the High Fashion Home/Fabric empire down the street — is planning an additional 50,000 square feet of retail space in the recently fenced block, though construction won’t start until 2009 at the earliest.
A commenter on HAIF suggests announcing the Mix might be a good way to drum up more interest in 3201 Louisiana — the building that’s already going up. A 24 Hour Fitness “Super Sport” — which will include a basketball court and swimming pool and occupy the entire second and third stories of that building — is the only tenant Crosspoint’s George Levan is mentioning. Still available, apparently: retail space on the entire 25,000-sq.-ft. ground floor.
Photo: HAIF user ricco67
It may not count as confirmation exactly, but we now at least have repetition — from two separate sources — that the new Whole Foods Market our readers have been worrying about will in fact be coming to the Galleria area.
The first source is the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff, who — after interviewing Boulevard Place developer Ed Wulfe — states that a new Whole Foods will be the anchor of Wulfe & Co.’s new mixed-use development on Post Oak Blvd. . . . though it won’t open until 2010.
The second source is . . . a little unusual. We’ll tell you about it in our next an upcoming post.
Update, 2/26/08: That second source.
Boulevard Place Whole Foods image: DMJM H&N
Wielding a copy of Stephen Fox’s Houston Architectural Guide, transit buff Christof Spieler writes in to report that the vacant and graffiti-laden Hoa Binh Center in Midtown — targeted by Camden Property Trust for a new apartment complex — has an important story behind it. He quotes from Fox’s writeup of the shopping center, which was built in 1923:
What distinguishes this building is that it was the prototype of the 20th century American suburban shopping center: it introduced the concept of off-street parking, toward which the grocery store itself was oriented.
Spieler adds:
In other words, Camden may be about to tear down the world’s first strip mall. Now that’s a historic building.
And it’s certainly worth at least a nice plaque somewhere on those new apartments going up on the site!
But before all you preservationist types get up in arms about the impending demolition of the mother of all strip malls, keep in mind that an equally important part of this structure’s history and legacy will almost certainly be preserved, cherished, and celebrated. Sure, the building will probably end up in a pile of rubble off Loop 610. But all those historic off-street parking spaces? They’ll be moved into a nice new garage at the Camden Travis, where residents of the new apartments and their guests will be able to enjoy them for generations to come.
After the jump: Spieler spills more Hoa Binh history!
A 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!
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.
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.
Uptown residents have had a lot of fun speculating about just how enormous and feature-filled the new Galleria Whole Foods flagship store on Post Oak Blvd. will be. The Whole Foods website lists it at a massive 78,000 sq. ft. — though the page it’s on hasn’t been updated since last October.
But now from our mailbox comes this gushing report:
Rumors have been circulating for the last week that Whole Foods has pulled out of Ed Wulfe’s BLVD Place development on Post Oak Blvd. The owners of a prominent jewelry store across Post Oak Blvd. have been telling people that the deal fell through.
Is this just shopping-center trash talk? Or has something changed? Our informant provides more Boulevard Place and Whole Foods FUD:
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.
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.
Gone to subdivisions, everyone!
Riviana Foods chief Bastiaan de Zeeuw gives more details about the company’s decision to close the Mahatma and Success Rice processing plant at 1702 Taylor St.:
De Zeeuw points out that the acreage devoted to rice-growing in Texas decreased by 75 percent from 1980 to 2006. In the 1980s, he says, Texas represented about 20 percent of total rice acreage in the United States. Now, it represents only 5 percent.
So what will happen to the 9.4-acre site in the increasingly less industrial area just south of I-10 once a new facility is built in Memphis? Read on, after the jump.
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!
Say a long goodbye to those silos that hover over the Winter St. Studios in the industrial area just east of Sawyer St. Mahatma Rice owner Riviana Foods says it is closing its Houston plant and building a new facility in Tennessee:
Over the two-year time period, production and packaging at the Houston plant will be phased out and transferred to the new Memphis facility. At the end of this transition period, the Houston plant, which includes the Instant and Packaging Plants, Warehouse and Technical Center located at 1702 Taylor Street, will then be closed and operations will cease. Currently, approximately 250 employees work at the Houston facility. Riviana’s headquarters will remain in Houston at its Allen Parkway location.
Photo of Rice Silos at 2200 Summer St.: Flickr user emilyj82
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!
