Hmmm . . . What’s going on in Houston real estate today? How about . . . the continuing construction of MainPlace! It’s the day before Christmas, and it’s still going on!
Scope out the scene yourself with the D.E. Harvey MainPlace webcam! Five-minute camera takeovers accepted.
From the Swamplot mailbin, questions about the tower Randall Davis got up:
I would like an update on the Cosmopolitan. I drove by and it looks like barely anyone is living in the building. Roughly 20% of the units are either for sale or lease in the building. Given the problems the Titan is having in sales, can anyone provide insight into the viability of the Cosmopolitan. Does anyone live there? How is it?
The last time Swamplot posted a reader’s questions about the Cosmopolitan, the response was . . . underwhelming. Anybody home?
Photo of Cosmopolitan Tower: HAR
The soon-to-be-complete second Mosaic tower on Almeda across from Hermann Park will have a different name, reports Nancy Sarnoff in the Chronicle. It’ll be called the Montage, and all 394 units will be rentals, as predicted.
“The market is not supporting sales in two towers,†said Thomas Cervone of Camelot Realty Group, which was hired over the summer to sell units in the building.
Leasing on the second building will start in January, with the units renting for an average of $2.25 per square foot.
The new name will help distinguish the southern tower from the first one, which apparently also features a large number of rentals, even though it remains officially a condo building.
Photo: Aerial photo of Mosaic from July: Aero Photo
The rumor Swamplot reported late last week has now been confirmed from multiple sources: The 34-story Turnberry Tower luxury condo palace planned for the Galleria area — yeah, the one with the tombstone-shaped silhouette — is officially dead.
Rendering of Turnberry Tower Galleria: Robert M. Swedroe Architects and Planners
From the Swamplot rumor mill comes an unconfirmed and second-hand report: that the team behind proposed Houston Turnberry Tower — the 34-story luxury highrise planned to rest just behind the Williams Tower — “officially pulled the plug on their galleria deal yesterday.”
Could this be true? A lot of hard work — and a lot of plumbing design — has been poured into that project. It would be sad to see it all go down the toilet.
Late Update: The rumor has been confirmed.
Rendering of Turnberry Tower Galleria: Robert M. Swedroe Architects and Planners
ASHBY HIGHRISE: STRIKE SEVEN! “The developers of the Ashby high-rise sent their plans back to the city of Houston just days before Hurricane Ike hit, and not long after the Public Works Department resumed operations, Buckhead Investment Partners were rejected for a seventh time. Records show the plans were filed again Sept. 11, seven days after being returned. They were denied a remaining permit again Sept. 29. In his comments, city engineer Mark Loethen said plans for a driveway permit contained no revisions and there was ‘no current justification’ for restriping plans on Bissonnet Boulevard at Ashby Drive.” [West University Examiner; previously]
ASHBY HIGHRISE: STUCK ON THE DOCK That last city permit is proving difficult for developers of the Ashby Highrise, as the city denied the variance request for a loading dock last week: “In comments for the Public Works and Engineering Department, city engineer Mark Loethen said the at-grade loading dock from Bissonnet Street will not be allowed because its use would obstruct lanes of traffic. In his Sept. 4 comments, Loethen said the variance was rejected for the same reason, citing Sec. 40-86 of the code of ordinances. ‘Such a driveway, as proposed, would excessively interfere with the normal use of the Bissonnet Street right of way,’ he said.” [West University Examiner; previously]
ASHBY HIGHRISE: DOWN TO A LOADING DOCK? Buckhead Investments has resubmitted plans for the proposed Ashby Highrise for the single permit standing in the way of construction. “[Developer Matthew] Morgan said the developers have asked for a variance concerning the design’s loading dock, adding that ‘plenty of examples’ of similar configurations ‘can be found on thoroughfares and collector streets’ in the area. One example he cited is the new high-end, 236-unit apartment complex called Fairmont Museum District at 4310 Dunlavy St. ‘It seems to have loading docks that you can’t pull through,’ Morgan said. ‘Dunlavy is a collector street. We don’t feel like the same criteria was used.’ [West University Examiner; previously]
The Houston Business Journal‘s Jennifer Dawson is reporting that the Novati Group’s plan to dust off a 15-year-old Ziegler Cooper design for a 20-story office tower and build it on the West Loop
appears to be in limbo. The deal isn’t dead, but it’s not moving forward.
The problems: finding debt financing . . . and that pre-leasing thing.
Meanwhile, Dawson expects Transwestern to announce details soon on a large new addition to Uptown’s Four Oaks Place — to replace the 24-Hour Fitness on Post Oak Blvd. owned by TIAA-CREF:
The proposed building being called Tower Five at Four Oaks Place is now set to be 30 stories tall, with 525,000 square feet of office space on 22 floors atop a parking garage with roughly 1,500 spaces, says Carleton Riser, head of Transwestern’s development group.
He says the building designed by architectural firm Pickard Chilton could break ground in the first quarter of 2009.
The fact that no tenants have committed to the new building won’t delay construction, Riser says.
Rendering: Ziegler Cooper
The crane at 2727 Kirby is coming down today and tomorrow, reports a reader who’s been watching the construction.
A larger version of this up-to-date photo showing the incredible shrinking construction crane — and a rendering of the completed condo tower — are waiting for you after the jump.
Tower? What 27-story tower? A spokesperson for Interfin tells the Memorial Examiner the company has “no plans and no timing as of now” for anything on the site of the State Grille.
What do they mean, no plans? The site plan above, for the northeast corner of Weslayan and W. Alabama, is shown in a document on the Interfin website, labeled “Future Development.” And it clearly shows what the demolition crews were busy . . . uh, building on the site last week.
Site Plan: Interfin
A reader asks:
Has anyone else heard the rumor that Mosaic Hermann Park’s South Tower (already under construction) is going all rental once complete?
It would be kinda cute if the second condo tower did end up switching to apartments, since the first tower went in the opposite direction:
[Phillips Development managing director Donald] Phillips says the company financed the first Mosaic tower as a rental property because that was the only way to secure funding.
“We did whatever we had to do to get the thing built,” he says.
Photo: Aerial photo of Mosaic from June: Aero Photo
All hail MainPlace! All hail mighty MainPlace! Your towerishness is so . . . smooth and strong!
Videos of Hines’s new office tower at Main and Walker Downtown and its 10 lower molar-and-bicuspid trees are out. If you can’t hear the John-Williams-for-Real-Estate soundtrack, you’re missing half the fun.
When you’re done munching on popcorn and watching the movie above, be sure to catch the slightly more sober second feature, which includes actual information about the building.
The new MainPlace website features a bunch of snazzy new and revised rendered views of Hines’s 46-story Downtown office tower. Also included: plans of the building showing 2 street-level retail spaces — big enough maybe for a sushi restaurant plus a small postcard shop for tourists.
Promised to come soon on that website: videos. We hope they’ll play up some of the 1950s-era Japanese horror movie theming going on in a few of the new images.
After the jump: Plans! Sky Gardens! Shiny Glass! Run for your lives!
Lou Minatti notes that the construction crane parked on the site of the Park 8 condo tower project on the west side of Beltway 8 between Bellaire and Beechnut has at long last been dismantled and removed. Is it time to say goodbye to the Land of Oz?
More bad news for fans of the 3-tower (plus hospital and strip center) project: The video originally embedded in our story about the project from last year is down too. But don’t worry . . . YouTube has a copy! See it again — and relive some of that Oz highrise magic — after the jump.
