09/12/13 4:45pm

It appears that Hines and Ziegler Cooper have changed their plans a bit for that 33-story mixed-use tower to go catty-corner from Market Square Park. The new drawing at the top was submitted earlier today to the Historical Commission; the drawing at the bottom, you’ll remember, was the original.

Additionally, the application for a Certificate of Appropriateness to build here in the historic Main Street Market Square District also includes 2 full elevations of the building — described as a 25-story, 289-unit apartment tower perched atop an 8-story podium, with 7 levels of parking and ground-floor retail:

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09/06/13 10:00am

Remember that unusable and really vague tip sent to Swamplot back in January? The one promising that a “major (non-residential) Houston property is about to make a significant change”? And it wasn’t Macy’s? Well, the in-the-know tipster now reports, we can let that cat out of the bag, since the Houston Business Journal and Houston Chronicle already have: The “Houston landmark” the tipster couldn’t tip us off about is the Galleria — which, it was announced yesterday by developer Simon Property Group, will be undergoing extensive renovations and partial demolition to create about 100,000 new sq. ft. of retail and restaurant space.

The plan calls for the Galleria III portion where Saks Fifth Avenue is currently located to be demolished — though the tipster says the Philip Johnson façade will be maintained — to make room for a bumped-out food court (shown in the rendering above). That freed-up Saks space will provide room for 35 new retailers and restaurants. Meanwhile, Saks will be moving into the Macy’s spot on Sage, and that Macy’s will be merging with the other Macy’s on Hidalgo. (Makes sense.) Also, a standalone box will be built in the parking lot for a few tenants who can afford to be more conspicuous to the stop-and-go crowd on Westheimer.

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09/05/13 11:00am

HINES NOT STOPPING SAN FELIPE SKYSCRAPER Speeches? Yard signs? Websites? Alarming maps portraying the inevitability of equally tall Petco and Red Lion Pub towers popping up nearby? Apparently, Hines has been unmoved by the various media deployed by concerned neighbors, telling the Houston Chronicle that it will start construction before Thanksgiving on that 17-story office building at the corner of Spann and San Felipe, just outside the boundaries of River Oaks. Erin Mulvaney reports that John Mooz, senior managing director, says that Hines plans to get going on the 167,000-sq.-ft. tower “in the next 60 days.” [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Hines

08/30/13 10:00am

Provident Realty closed yesterday on the former Texaco Building at 1111 Rusk, catty-corner from BG Group Place, and says it will begin renovations and new construction on this Hnedak Bobo Group-designed residential highrise just as soon as it can get the permits.

Yesterday’s announcement doesn’t specify how high the new highrise will rise, but info that Swamplot published in May suggest that it could stand as tall as 38 stories. Houston Business Journal reports that the project, on the block bound by Fannin, San Jacinto, Capitol, and Rusk, will tap into the tunnels, and there will be 309 units in all, with a 550-car parking garage and 8,000-sq.-ft. of ground-floor retail.

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08/23/13 12:00pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: DOWNTOWN ORTHODONTIA “I think it looks like the goal is to create a cluster, rather than a monolith. That makes sense in that part of town. As is, to me Houston’s skyline seems to suffer from a ‘gap tooth’ effect created by all of the standalone buildings. I think more blocks with multiple height buildings on them would make our skyline look more interesting. If everything stands out, nothing stands out . . . they can’t all be masterpieces like Pennzoil or Transco (Williams).” [DBG, commenting on A First Look at Some of the 33-Story Apartment Tower Hines Wants To Build in Market Square] Illustration: Lulu

08/22/13 4:30pm

Hines and Ziegler Cooper have presented this drawing (and several maps and site plans) to the Historical Commission in their bid to build a 33-story residential tower on the Downtown block bound by Preston, Prairie, Main, and Travis, catty-corner from Market Square Park. Unfortunately, there’s no image available of the whole thing. (You’ll have to extrapolate upward, as they say.) But the application materials for a Certificate of Appropriateness to build in the Main Street Market Square historic district show that the once-rumored tower would comprise 25 stories and 289 residential units atop a 7-level podium parking garage atop 1 level of retail on the street.

That parking garage would be accessed from Travis St., right next to Frank’s Pizza and the former Cabo spot. (Which will become El Big Bad soon enough.) The tower, as drawn, appears to inch toward this block’s other buildings: There’s Georgia’s Market in the old Byrd’s Department Store on the corner, the 1924 Alfred C. Finn-designed State National Bank Building and the 1925 Public National Bank Building, all of which face Main St.

After the jump, you can see a site plan:

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08/21/13 1:00pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE WORD FROM SOMEWHERE WAY ABOVE WESLAYAN “Yes [it] is an awesome building. You just see a mock up pic. I’m working here. And I see no back yards. Only empty concrete back patios, lol. Anyways, you people in this area drive nuts. That’s the reason for the congestion! Stop slowing us down. 30 weeks of heavy noise to go.” [Rudy, commenting on The Numbers on That 35-Story Tower Planned for Weslayan and West Alabama] Illustration: Lulu

08/20/13 3:15pm

ANOTHER HIGHRISE SQUEEZING INTO THE MED CENTER? Real Estate Bisnow’s Catie Dixon reports that this 2-acre parcel on the edge of the Med Center, overlooking Brays Bayou and being overlooked by the 40-story condo tower The Spires right next door, might become the site of another highrise. ARA, which is marketing the property here on the corner of Cambridge and Holcombe Blvd., tells Dixon that though the site is not yet on the market, there has already been interest in it both from an apartment builder and a hotel developer. [Real Estate Bisnow] Image: ARA

08/16/13 12:15pm

Seems the concerned neighbors around that 17-story office building that Hines is considering building on San Felipe aren’t worried only about traffic. This map, created by a member of the recently formed nonprofit East San Felipe Association — which says it is committed to supporting “reasonable development” in this area around S. Shepherd, Kirby, and San Felipe — suggests another threat to the ’hood: copycatting.

Clearly speculative, the map takes pains to show those sites where other unreasonable highrises could pop up in response to the precedent that Hines is setting with 2229 San Felipe. On S. Shepherd, for ex., you might see the Red Lion Pub forgo its street-level scale, or Petco abandon the confines of its big box. (But wouldn’t that long elevator ride down give you some quality time to bond with your recently adopted pup?) If this map is to be trusted, it seems like it would be only a matter of time before the bug spreads north and Chipotle throws up a tower of burritos. The last thing the neighbors want, says just one of the messages on that oppositional website that they set up, is for this residential area to become “the next Greenway Plaza.”

Image: Swamplot inbox

08/15/13 11:30am

Yesterday, a HAIF user posted this rendering of what appears to be that twisty 42-story apartment tower Tema Development is considering building right next to its Parklane condos on Hermann Dr. This rendering of the “Helix Tower” sure matches the description provided by the Swamplot reader who saw the plans for the Corgan-designed highrise last week at a Museum Park neighborhood association meeting.

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08/09/13 10:00am

Tema Development is planning to build a 42-story residential tower on that recently surveyed fenced-in lot right beside its Parklane condos on Hermann Dr., according to a couple of Swamplot readers who saw the Corgan-designed building presented at a Museum Park neighborhood association meeting this week. One reader describes the highrise:

The building has a unique design that will twist as [i]t goes up, changing the viewpoint of the higher levels (towards downtown, I believe). They’re planning a 5-story parking garage with one level below grade. On top of the garage will be an amenities level, including a pool and clubhouse among other things. It’ll be connected to the tower via a skybridge. The tower will be bordered by Jackson St. (west), Hermann Dr. (south), and Ewing St. (north). A private drive will be built on the east side as the grand entrance of the building, which will include valet parking. Entrances to the parking garage will be off this private street with a secondary entrance off Jackson St. . . . I believe they’re working with the same landscape architects who worked on the Asia Society building. . . . Lastly, the units will be for lease and not for sale. They expect it to hold 550 residents. I don’t remember the exacty breakdown of units, but it’s something like this: 20-30 studios, 140 one-bedroom, 30 two-bedroom, and 10 three-bedroom.”

Photo: Allyn West

07/31/13 5:00pm

A HAIF user posted this rendering of what appears to be the 12-story apartment complex that Hanover is busy making room for near the Rice Village. The demolition of the creaky Village Apartments and Garden Gate that used to stand here on the eastern half of the block bound by Kelvin, Morningside, Dunstan, and Tangley is nearly done (save for a lone tree in the middle of the site under the shade of which sits a picnic table). Hanover has said that this second building, unlike the first 6-story one, won’t have any ground-floor retail.

Rendering: The Hanover Company

07/31/13 12:00pm

HINES DEVELOPS WEBSITE TO EXPLAIN 17-STORY SAN FELIPE DEVELOPMENT Much of the information you might want about that shiny office building Hines says it plans to start building this year on San Felipe has been organized — by Hines, of course — on a new website. Like the recently launched ‘Stop San Felipe Skyscraper’ site supported on the ground by that neighborhood campaign of knee-high yard signs, the Hines site presents its side of things in a handy Q-and-A format:Are there other tall buildings in the area? Yes. . . . Will the building reduce the privacy of nearby properties? No. . . . Does Hines care about the potential impact on the neighborhood? Absolutely.” [2229 San Felipe; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Hines

07/24/13 5:00pm

Here’s a photo of the little rubble pile forming outside the former Houston Club Building at 811 Rusk, a presage of the bigger rubble to come. Skanska, which bought the 18-story building standing on the block bound by Rusk, Capitol, Travis, and Milam, has said it plans to replace it with a 34-story, 700,000-sq.-ft. office tower that’s being designed by Gensler.

Photos: HAIF user Nate99

07/24/13 11:00am

A reader sends this photo of the construction progress of that Regent Square-ish residential tower the Sovereign. The 21-story, 290-unit building designed by Ziegler Cooper is going up on West Dallas between Rosine and Rochow, where some of the old Allen House Apartments used to stand.

The North Montrose site is just around the corner from Dunlavy, where other dirt is being pushed around to make way for Regent Square. The Sovereign, contrary to its name, was originally planned by Boston developer GID to become one of the uses in that mixed-use spread, but the 2 projects are listed separately on the company website. After the jump, you can see the renderings of the Sovereign that Swamplot published last summer.

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