Tag: Hotels

06/04/08 3:08pm

The Sleek Strip, the Ritz Tower, and the Path to Whole Foods: A Closer Look at Boulevard Place

Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Galleria, Hotels, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers

7 Comments

Post Oak Blvd. Parking, Blvd Place, Uptown, Houston

Sure, the super-Mod architecture, elevated sidewalks, artistically moistened streets, and glistening rotunda in the new Boulevard Place renderings make the place look pretty swank, but what’s with the token strip of parking spots out front? Is this gonna be pay-to-display valet? Some kind of shopping-center twist on a velvet rope line? Or just a stab at maintaining Houston street cred: Sure, Post Oak Blvd. might be going urban upscale, but this is one development that won’t be forgetting its strip-center roots!

Updated views of Blvd Place, including the new Ritz-Carlton and Hanover towers — plus a site plan and a Whole Foods puzzle! It’s all below:

77056, Apartments, BLVD Place, Condos, Galleria, Hotels, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Uptown, Whole Foods

Commercial Real Estate

05/29/08 1:06pm

Highland Village: Work Above Waterworks, Filling the Gap Gap

Highland Village, Hotels, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers

Construction on Top of Waterworks, Highland Village Shopping Center, Houston

A reader who lives near the Highland Village Shopping Center reports that work on “the structure being built (so slowly) on top of Waterworks” at the corner of Drexel and Westheimer appears to have started up again, after a long period of nothing-going-on. Plus: he hears it’s going to be a French restaurant. Wasn’t last year’s rumor that it was going to be a wine bar?

And speaking of rumors, the same reader wants to know what’s going to happen on the opposite corner of the same intersection, where the Gap used to be:

I have hear that it will be either a 5 story boutique hotel or 2 story retail, and, as of a few weeks ago, that they would be deciding between retail vs hotel by mid May.

77027, Commercial Real Estate, Highland Village, Highland Village Shopping Center, Hotels, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers

Galleria

04/02/08 8:17am

Rove Through Houston, Appreciating Europe

Hotels, Restaurants

Karl Rove(?) in the Lobby of the Hotel Granduca, Houston

So a lot of Houstonians don’t really get the Hotel Granduca. Who does? During a recent visit, the proprietor of Houston restaurant blog Tasty Bits came up with one answer:

I was always curious about the people who pay $1,300 a night for a hotel suite in Houston. Who are they? What do they eat? I got my answer as soon as I arrived and saw Karl Rove waiting to get picked up in the lobby (sulfur, smoke, instant drop in temperature, and all). For a split second I thought about inviting him to join us for lunch. Itâ€™s not often you are in the presence of one of the more diabolical political minds of our generation.

Tasty Bits has more juicy commentary on the hotel:

Entering Hotel Granduca is a little like following the rabbit hole – just beyond the iron gates and right past the horse mounted statue of Adalberto Malatesta Granduca of Monfallito (?) is a different world than one might find in otherwise sensible Houston.

After the jump: What’s down that rabbit hole! Plus: tasteful commentary on lunch at the hotel’s Ristorante Cavour.

77056, Galleria, Hotels, Restaurants, Theming, Uptown, Uptown Park

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

03/14/08 10:10am

Med Center Houstonian: No Condo

Highrises, Hotels, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center

Screen Shot from Planning Commission Meeting Showing Proposed Houstonian Hotel in Texas Medical Center from Main St.

Nope, no condos in the planned Houstonian Medical Center hotel — but there will be 100 apartments. Medistar consultant Doug Williams gave a few more details about the planned 40-story Main St. tower at the edge of Southgate in yesterday’s Planning Commission hearing:

Parking-structure base will be 12 stories, with a green space on top, and contain 14,000 sq. ft. of meeting and ballroom space.
Building will have 303 guest rooms, plus 100 apartments for longer-term stays, 70 of them furnished.
This is a Redstone project.
The developers are also buying the Baylor Clinic building next door, which Baylor rents from St. Luke’s.
The plans include a new skybridge that will connect the new tower to the Baylor Clinic next door, so hotel guests can use the existing Baylor Clinic skybridge to cross Main St. Representatives of Rice have expressed interest in connecting the university’s new Collaborative Research Center one block to the north to the new building by skybridge as well.

The commission approved a revised version of the variance request but attached several conditions having to do with landscaping and parking spaces.

After the jump, the view from Southgate!

77030, Highrises, Hotels, Neighborhood Disputes, Planning Commission, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center, Variances

Commercial Real Estate

03/13/08 10:23am

Houstonian Texas Medical Center: Slow Multimedia Reveal

Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Neighborhood Associations, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center

View from Main St. of New Houstonian Hotel and Condominiums, Texas Medical Center, Houston

From fuzzy video stills to washed-out photocopies: In the agenda handout for today’s Planning Commission hearing are hazy images that provide even more details about the new 40-story hotel and condo tower Medistar wants to build on Main St. in the Medical Center, at the eastern boundary of Southgate.

The drawing labels identify the hotel as the Houstonian Texas Medical Center, or Houstonian TMC for short. The architect is the Hill Glazier Studio of HKS, out of California. And a section drawing gives an actual height for the tower.

After the jump: It’s very tall!

77030, Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Neighborhood Associations, Neighborhood Disputes, Planning Commission, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center, Variances

Condos

02/29/08 3:30pm

Live on TV: New Med Center Hotel-Condo Tower

Highrises, Hotels, Neighborhood Associations, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center

Screen Capture of Planning Commission Discussion of New Medistar 40-Story Condo and Hotel Tower at Dryden and Main St., near Southgate, Texas Medical Center, Houston

Thanks to some ~~intrepid reporting~~ lazy online-video scanning over here at Swamplot, we now have more information about Medistar’s 40-story hotel and condominium tower planned for the corner of Dryden and Main St. in the Medical Center.

Yesterday, the Planning Commission voted to defer any consideration of Medistar’s request for a lot-line variance along Main St. But the president of the Southgate Civic Club voiced his objections to the variance — and other aspects of the project — anyway.

After the jump, more stills from the civic-club president’s presentation to the Planning Commission, plus a few bits of armchair analysis from our crack crew of expert TV watchers.

77030, Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Neighborhood Associations, Neighborhood Disputes, Planning Commission, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center, Variances

Commercial Real Estate

02/28/08 10:26am

Newest and Tallest: The Texas Medical Center Goes Condo

Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Malls, Medical Buildings, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center

Here’s what we know so far about the new 40-story hotel-and-condo tower Medistar Corporation is planning for the corner of Main St. and Dryden, between Rice’s new Collaborative Research Center and the Baylor Clinic on the west side of Main: not a whole lot.

But at 40 stories, the new building would likely be the tallest tower in the Texas Medical Center. (The new Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza is only 31.) That’s taller than those twin hypodermics, too.

A lot-line variance for the project is item number 111 before the Planning Commission this afternoon. And the request provides a few clues. Medistar wants the same 10-foot setback along Main St. that the Baylor Clinic has, so the new building can have a similar passenger dropoff and a “pedestrian friendly” entry on that side. The building’s longer axis will be perpendicular to Main. The arguments imply Medistar intends to have “ornamental decorations and balconies” on the Main St. side, and that the tower will be linked by skybridge to the Medical Center main campus across the street.

According to the Southgate Neighborhood Newsletter, the tower will include a 1200-car parking facility.

This isn’t the only new building type Medistar is planning to stir into the Medical Center mix. A block down the street, just south of the company’s Best Western Hotel at 6700 Main St., Medistar is planning a 600,000-sq.-ft. medical mall. The Houston Business Journal reported on that project late last month:

The high-rise would house offices and showrooms for companies that sell equipment, supplies and pharmaceuticals to Texas Medical Center institutions. Tenants could also include organizations working to develop new medical technologies and treatments.

Six Thousand Six Hundred Main replat No 1 (more information available today only from pps. 76-78 of the agenda linked at the bottom of this page) [Houston Planning & Development Department]
Southgate News (PDF) [Southgate Civic Club]
Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza [Texas Architect]
Medistar tests medical mall market [Houston Business Journal]
Medistar Corporation
St. Lukeâ€™s: Weâ€™re Selling So We Can Renovate and Demolish [Swamplot]

77030, Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Malls, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center

Attractions

01/21/08 10:21am

The Downtown Boom: Reader Photos and Videos from the Montagu Hotel Implosion

Demolitions, Downtown, Hotels

Implosion of the Montagu Hotel, Downtown Houston

Updated with more videos below.

If you didn’t hear about the implosion of that 11-story building Downtown last weekend until after it happened, you weren’t the only one. It’s just that battle-scarred Cherry Demolition was a little gun-shy about publicizing another hotel demo in advance. Fewer spectators means less chance a blurry video or two will turn the company from rubble removers to crime-scene investigators.

Fortunately for readers, nobody informed Swamplot about the media blackout. After the jump, reports, photos, and videos of Sunday’s big bang!

77002, Attractions, Demolitions, Downtown, Hotels

01/17/08 5:52pm

River Oaks District Development Reaches Advanced Watercolor Stage

Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Mixed Use, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Retail, River Oaks, Shopping Centers

Watercolor of Proposed River Oaks District Mixed Use Development Planned for Westheimer by OliverMcMillan

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!

77027, Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Mixed Use, New Construction, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Retail, River Oaks, River Oaks District, Shopping Centers, Westheimer

Attractions

01/17/08 8:34am

Downtown Demo Party: Montagu Hotel Implosion This Weekend

Demolitions, Downtown, Hotels

The Former Hotel Montagu, Downtown Houston

Update: Photos and videos of the implosion are here.

Another Houston hotel implosion? So soon?

This one will be downtown, and everyone’s hoping it doesn’t make national news. But that doesn’t mean this weekend’s big bang won’t be another early-morning citywide block party. And so much to talk about since the last one!

Cherry Demolition crews have been chipping away at buildings on the block bounded by Main, Fannin, Rusk, and Walker since October, to make room for a 46-story pipe wrench. And everything is set for Dykon’s implosion of the 11-story Montagu Hotel (originally the Hotel Cotton, built in 1913) at the corner of Main and Rusk at 7 a.m. on Sunday, January 20th.

Streets will be shut down at least a block in each direction. But with the Crowne Plaza final-mystery-guest hullabaloo fresh in everyone’s memory, maybe this time there won’t be so much jockeying for the same “best” camera and video angles. Everyone spread out in a big circle, and send us your unique photos and videos. First person to spot anything fishy on the scene wins a special report on Inside Edition!

MainPlace to be completed in 2010 [HAIF]
Daily Demolition Report: Three Buildings That Will Go Down in History [Swamplot]
Why It Might Be a While Before Houston Implodes Another Building [Swamplot]
Crowne Plaza Demolition Party Report: All Your Pics and Videos [Swamplot]
Remaking Blow-Up, or Was Everybody Out When the Crowne Went Down? [Swamplot]
MainPlace: Hinesâ€™s 46-Story Green Pipe-Wrench Dream [Swamplot]

Photo of Hotel Montagu: Jeremey Barrett

77002, Attractions, Demolitions, Downtown, Hotels, MainPlace

Condos

01/16/08 9:39am

A First Look at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Tower at Boulevard Place

Galleria, Highrises, Hotels, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments

Rendering of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Tower Proposed for Blvd Place, Uptown, Houston, by SOM A tipster sends Swamplot this sneak peek at the hotel tower planned for Uptown’s Boulevard Place development. That’s somewhere around 180 highrise condo units perched on top of a 225-room hotel, which the Chronicle reported this weekend would likely be a Ritz-Carlton.

A tower that’s tall, thin, sleek, and half-dressed would seem about right for the Galleria, no? We count about 31 stories in the hotel-tower drawings before our eyes get all buggy, but plans might call for a building even taller than that. Our source reports that the hotel tower might end up taller than the 55-story apartment tower the Houston Business Journal reported that the Hanover Company was also planning for the site.

After the jump: The view from above!

77056, Condos, Galleria, Highrises, Hotels, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Uptown

Attractions

11/15/07 12:05am

Remaking Blow-Up, or Was Everybody Out When the Crowne Went Down?

Crime, Demolitions, Hazards, Hotels, Texas Medical Center

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=3dkfv0e2GCk 400 330]

Watch this video very closely. Do you see someone entering the building before the demolition begins? Maybe on the left side of the screen?

No? Well, keep looking. How about enlarging the video — or breaking it down frame by frame — so you can examine it more carefully?

Apparently someone who shot a video of the same event from the same angle saw something in it so disturbing that he brought the footage to the attention of the Houston Police Department. And officers found the evidence credible enough that they spent the greater part of Wednesday searching through rubble to see if maybe someone got into the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the Texas Medical Center shortly before it was imploded Sunday morning.

KHOU-TV reports that police are focusing their search on the Fannin side of the building, which would be the street on the left. The station also says that the video used as evidence was in fact taken from the St. Luke’s Medical Tower — the same vantage point as the YouTube video above.

So is the video above the same one the police are studying?

77030, Attractions, Crime, Crowne Plaza Demolition, Demolitions, Hazards, Hotels, Implosions, Texas Medical Center

Demolitions

11/14/07 4:24pm

Why It Might Be a While Before Houston Implodes Another Building

Hotels, Texas Medical Center