Tag: Commercial Real Estate

01/23/13 10:00am

A Third of Former Shell Tech Center Eyed for Southside Place Homes

Proposed Developments, Signage, Southside Place

6 Comments

Shell Oil moved out the last of its things from the 3-building Bellaire Technology Center in 2012, consolidating R&D operations about 15 miles west of Southside Place in a spruced-up campus near Texas 6 and Richmond. Now, it appears that theseÂ 3.2 acres (shown in the map) of the 9.7 that the Center vacated are being eyed for residential development.

77025, Commercial Real Estate, Proposed Developments, Southside Place, Zoning

01/22/13 3:00pm

Fisk Electric Leaves Washington Corridor Corner

Openings and Closings, Washington Corridor

5 Comments

A few doors down from Wabash Antiques & Feed Store and El Tiempo Cantina on Washington Ave., this building at 111 T.C. Jester had been home for many years to Fisk, one of the largest electrical contractors in the U.S. But a Swamplot reader has noticed that the building seems to be vacated. Fisk, acquired in 2011 by California-based general contractor Tutor Perini, wouldn’t tell Swamplot when or why or where it moved, though its website indicates that headquarters have been relocated out near Beltway 8 at 10855 Westview.

News and Current Events [Fisk Corp.]

Photos: Swamplot inbox

77007, Commercial Real Estate, Openings and Closings, Washington Corridor

01/18/13 1:00pm

The Woodlands To Get 7th Village Center, 4th H-E-B

Land Development, Master-Planned Communities, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers, The Woodlands

4 Comments

One more of each, thank you: Creekside Park Village Center, rendered above, will be the Woodlands’ 7th and will be anchored by its 4th H-E-B, the master-planned community says. The shopping center will serve Creekside Park, a 100-acre community planned to go in up there west of Lake Paloma. It appears that the center will herd its shoppers inward toward a 4,300-sq.-ft. glass-walled restaurant, which you can see in the rendering. And there’s gonna be a fire pit in that park-like median-thing. (And a water feature on the other end. You know. Just in case.) In all, 80,000 sq. ft. of retail and office space are proposed for the site on Kuykendahl.

Commercial Real Estate, Grocery Stores, Parks, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping, Shopping Center, The Woodlands

01/16/13 2:34pm

Skanska Says First Tenant Signed for Post Oak Highrise

Galleria, Highrises, Office Buildings, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Renting, Uptown

1 Comment

Back in 2010, Skanska said it was going to build and finance an office building in the Galleria all on its own. Swamplot showed you the first and second Kirksey-designed renderings. This one’s the third. And there’s another detail to add to the story: Skanska announced today that Datacert will be theÂ first tenant. Though the plannedÂ 20-story, 300,000-sq.-ft. building at 3009 Post Oak is still under construction, Skanska says that Datacert should be able to move in on the 10th and 11th floors later this summer. Right now, the 15-year-old “enterprise legal management solutions” company is headquartered in a building a few doors down at 3040 Post Oak.

Previously on Swamplot: First Sign of Skanska: Where the New Spec Office Tower Near the Galleria Will Go, Skanska Post Oak Tower: We Donâ€™t Need a Bank To Build This

Rendering: Swamplot inbox

77056, Commercial Real Estate, Galleria, Highrises, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Renting, Uptown

Buying and Selling

12/14/12 9:47am

Rodeo Buys Half of AstroWorld To Use as 48-Acre Parking Lot

Commercial Real Estate, Land Sales, Reliant Park

28 Comments

Longtime speculation that the entire vacant 104-acre site formerly occupied by the AstroWorld amusement park might someday be turned into some sort of singular mixed-use development took a hit yesterday as the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo announced it is buying the entire western half of the property, which sits across the 610 Loop from Reliant Park. The charitable organization hopes to close on the 48-acre tract by the end of the year. The purchase price is listed on its website as approximately $42.8 million, or $20.50 per sq. ft., “after charitable considerations by the seller.” That’s a Dallas investment firm known as the Mallick Group, which has owned the vacant property since 2010.

What will it rodeo do on all that land?

77054, AstroWorld, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Land Sales, Parking-Lots, Reliant Park, Rodeo

11/30/12 10:57am

Owner of 3400 Montrose Says It’s in Deep Financial Trouble

Country Club Place, Mixed Use, Montrose, Office Buildings, Real Estate Investing

8 Comments

Those of you waiting with bated breath for the renovation, redevelopment, or removal of the 1950s-era office building at 3400 Montrose Blvd. (across Hawthorne St. from the Montrose Kroger): keep on bating. The company that bought the vacant 10-story building last September has told its 500 Israeli investors that its operations in Israel and Houston are both “in dire financial straits,” according to a report in Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

77006, 77023, Commercial Real Estate, Country Club Place, Mixed Use, Montrose, Office Buildings, Real Estate Investing, Vacant Buildings

Comments

10/09/12 3:12pm

Comment of the Day: How the Other Half Will Earn a Living

Commercial Real Estate, Quicklink, Retail

23 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW THE OTHER HALF WILL EARN A LIVING “I really donâ€™t care for any of the businesses coming in or their business models, but Iâ€™m really happy about the hundreds of jobs that will be created once theyâ€™re here. If these are the only companies with the capital to expand these days, well, thatâ€™s unfortunate, but at least someoneâ€˜s growing. Thatâ€™s where most of the peopleâ€”the ones that canâ€™t afford the Rice Military townhouses, anywayâ€”on this side of I-10â€”you know, the non-Heights sideâ€”work to feed their families and pay bills, etc., or where all the kids being raised over here will get their first job. Not everyone can work at Wabash or the comic book store.” [Jason C., commenting on Where the Walmart Golden Arches Will Rise]

Comments, Commercial Real Estate, Retail

Comments

08/07/12 2:34pm

Comment of the Day: What’s the Thought Process?

Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategies, Quicklink, Real Estate Investing, Redevelopment

23 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT’S THE THOUGHT PROCESS? “. . . There is one other thing that troubles me that maybe some of the developers on this thread might clear up. How much does humanity and civic duty factor into these decisions? I could quickly assume that the dollar and cent logistics is enough for anything like this to get green-lit, but I would rest a little more easily knowing that someone along the line questioned the implications of suddenly forcing so many people to find new places to live. Especially considering that, for students like me and my room mate, springing this change so close to the beginning of the coming semester only makes finding a new place that much more impossible to find. It might sound petty, but I hope someone somewhere feels at least a little guilty for the amount of hardship that has been dumped onto my lap.” [thisboy, commenting on Report: Castle Court Midrise Planned for Andover Richmond Apartments Site]

Apartments, Buying and Selling, Comments, Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Development Strategies, Moving, Real Estate Investing, Redevelopment

Braeburn Gardens

07/18/12 3:20pm

Braeburn Gardens Kennel Ready To Roll Over

by CALwords

Commercial Real Estate, Homes for Sale, Mixed Use

1 Comment

Leaping canines on a custom gate further boost the through-the-crate view of a property in Braeburn Gardens that has been home for 35 years to The Courtyard Kennel. The compound, once a show dog facility, sits on more than an acre. The assemblage of structures includes 800 sq. ft. of indoor-outdoor kennels and pet care facilities, dog runs, covered patios, and enough outdoor spaces and landscaping to keep 4-legged pets and their 2-legged friends amused. There’s also a 1955 house, a portion of which appears to have been a business office, and a driveway that, fittingly, doglegs across the corner lot.

77031, Braeburn Gardens, Commercial Real Estate, Homes for Sale, Kennels, Mixed Use

07/11/12 3:40pm

Filling Commercial Space by the Square Foot

Online Resources, Quicklink

5 Comments

FILLING COMMERCIAL SPACE BY THE SQUARE FOOT A new website launched by a Houston startup aims to simplify the complicated process of leasing and setting up shop in a new office, warehouse, restaurant, or retail space. Kicked off this month with about 1,500 Houston property listings from about a dozen local and national brokers, The Square Foot is targeted at small and medium businesses that have never leased commercial property before. After steering customers to properties that match their criteria, the site intends to smooth out the process of finding helping tenants find furniture, IT services, movers, and related services as well. Co-founder Justin Lee tells Swamplot the site is focusing on Houston for now, but hopes to expand coverage to Texas’s other major cities by the end of the year.

Commercial Real Estate, Leasing, Online Resources

06/22/12 12:10pm

A Just-Opened Source for Houston Building Data

Housing Data, Online Resources, Quicklink

6 Comments

A JUST-OPENED SOURCE FOR HOUSTON BUILDING DATA A 3-month-old website that aims to collect and broadcast detailed information about existing buildings — including photos, square footage counts, ownership and management contacts, projects and renovations, and LEED certification levels — opened its catalog of Austin, Dallas, and Houston commercial and mixed-use structures this week. HonestBuildings.com claims to have detailed online profiles already available on a total of 95,000 buildings in those 3 Texas cities, and on a total of 475,000 nationwide. Many of the Houston listings contain only cursory info so far, but the company is hoping local building managers will provide details to fill out the extensive list of data categories. The New York and Seattle-based startup appears to focus on issues of energy efficiency, allowing companies that provide related services to showcase and target their work — and users to compare building data.

Commercial Real Estate, Houston Data, Online Resources

Buying and Selling

06/19/12 2:24pm

Strip Center at the Corner of Westheimer and Montrose: Sold

Commercial Real Estate, Houston Architects, Houston Landmarks, Lower Westheimer, Montrose, Strip Centers

20 Comments

The half-empty strip center left over from a series of unfortunate redos of City Hall architect Joseph Finger’s 1937 Tower Community Center (which once served as an art-deco companion piece to the former Tower Theater across the street) is now under contract to a new owner, along with the entire 2.86-acre block at the southwest corner of Westheimer and Montrose. That’s the word from a posting on the property’s listing site noted by Going Up! City, but the listing brokers at HFF aren’t providing any additional information.

Unless someone wants to spill the beans on the purchaser’s identity or any plans for the current home of Half Price Books, Spec’s, Papa John’s, and 3-6-9 China Bistro (along with the standalone Jack-in-the-Box at Montrose and Lovett) before then, you’ll have to wait until the seller issues a press release — which will happen sometime next week, a source tells Swamplot — for additional details. The property went on the market in early March.

77006, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Houston Architects, Houston Landmarks, Lower Westheimer, Montrose, Strip Centers

Art

06/13/12 5:44pm

West Gray Gallery Home a Montrose Mixed-Use Mashup

by CALwords

Buildings for Sale, Commercial Real Estate, Interiors, Mixed Use, Montrose

No Comments

In 2009, the now-10-year-old Betz Art Gallery housed in a 1947 cottage-scale venue on West Gray gained a 3-story appendage to expand its exhibition space. Now the gallery towers over itself. Listed in January at $599,000, the property’s asking price dropped to $549,000 at the end of March. That’s around the time artist Lori Betz opened the Betz Art Foundry at the Summer Street Studios, up in the artsy warehouse district off Houston Ave. Although the Montrose-area gallery remains open, it’s moving later this year, a gallery staff member says.

A mashup of modern and vintage structures, the bi-level gallery-home is listed as ADA compliant and reported to be “very energy efficient.” Maybe it’s the dearth of windows. Glass panes that remain post-redo have light-diffusing panels.

77019, Buildings for Sale, Commercial Real Estate, Galleries, Interiors, Mixed Use, Montrose, Rosemont Heights

Adaptive Reuse

05/31/12 2:13pm

New Art House at West Oaks Mall Opens This Weekend with Vacant JCPenney Dancers

Alief, Art, Commercial Real Estate, Interiors, Malls, Openings and Closings, Retail

1 Comment

The very first event at the brand-new West Oaks Art House takes place this Friday night, when the Suchu Dance company performs its first work in the eerie fluorescent-lit cavern left behind by JCPenney when it gave up on its freestanding building at the West Oaks Mall in 2003. The performance kicks off the appropriately named Big Range Dance Festival. It’s not just the repositioning dance of the vacant mall department store: 16 Suchu dancers will range around the enormous space in a piece called “Afternono.” To counter claims that this event is a bit too “way-out” for Suchu’s usual East Downtown audiences, the company is commandeering a trolley-style bus to bring audience members from the Spring Street Studios north of Downtown to the West Houston mall at Westheimer and Hwy. 6.

LA artist Sharsten Plenge, who’s been working to transform the abandoned 100,000-sq.-ft. store into some sort of arts center — in part by offering free rent to artist groups willing to venture so far from their usual haunts and set up shop or exhibits there — tells Swamplot she hopes the inaugural Suchu performance (as well as additional ones on subsequent Saturday afternoons) “marks the beginning of what we hope to be many more unique projects” in the building, which now bears the acronym WOAH.