Tag: Hotels

Demolitions
01/12/16 3:45pm

Those 2 Century-Old Louisiana St. Buildings Being Demolished Now for Lancaster Hotel Parking

by
Downtown, Houston History, Houston Landmarks, Land Development, Parking, Theater District
8 Comments

Demolition of 517 Louisiana St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

Time to bid adieu to 2 more of downtown’s oldest buildings: readers sent both sky-high and excavator-side photos of yesterday’s teardown work at 517 Louisiana St., and 509 is permitted to follow). According to the building’s owners, the next-door Lancaster Hotel’s parking crunch is the reason the 2 1906 Theater District neighbors will meet their flattened fates, along with a long-hidden pecan tree that shades a once-secret courtyard at 509. Taking their place: a surface lot for 50 cars — and, maybe, one day, an expansion to the hotel.

517’s transformation to empty space was complete by the end of the day yesterday:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Coming Down in Downtown
, , , , , , , , ,
East Downtown
01/08/16 11:00am

Houston’s Own ‘East Village’ Planned Next to 8th Wonder Brewery in East Downtown

by
10 Comments

Proposed East Village Development, Polk and Lamar at St. Emmanuel and Hutchins Sts., East Downtown, Houston, 77002

From the folks currently in the process of bringing you Heights Mercantile: plans for East Village, a 2-block mixed-use complex planned along St. Emanuel and Hutchins Sts. between Polk and Lamar in East Downtown — a few blocks south of the Dynamo’s BBVA Compass Stadium, and across 59 from the George R. Brown Convention Center and Discovery Green. New real estate investment and development firm Ancorian (founded by Finial co-founders Neil Martin and Michael Sperandio with Matthew Donowho) is behind the development; as of two months ago, land for the project (across the street from the Yen Huong Bakery and the now-closed Kim Hung Supermarket) was still being acquired.

A few renderings are up on the Ancorian website — the view above is of a Lamar-facing courtyard and a renovated version of the warehouse currently housing Kitchen Depot. But a presentation dated late November shows many additional angles, siteplans, and renderings of the planned development, one block of which is credited to the design firm of Austin-based Michael Hsu, and the other to Māk Studio Architecture:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Beer Before Liquor on Hutchins
, , , , , , , ,
Featured Posts
01/07/16 4:15pm

Embassy Suites To Send Envoy to Baylor’s Old Dryden Haunt in the Medical Center

by
Proposed Developments, Texas Medical Center
9 Comments

Rendering of Medical Center Crossing, 1709 Dryden Rd., TMC, 77030

Just north of the hypodermic peaks of the St. Luke’s Medical Tower on Main St., the tower at 1709 Dryden Rd. is slated for redevelopment as the Medical Center Crossing complex — the office space, leased by Baylor as recently as 2013, will be converted into an Embassy Suites hotel (shown from the northeast corner in the rendering above). The tower was sold at the end of 2014 to an entity connected to Pritesh Patel — the Fort Worth developer who previously purchased the Samuel F. Carter building at 806 Main St. and turned it into a JW Marriott after peeling off the building’s extra glass-and-marble skin.

Ground-level retail will remain and expand — a siteplan released by Transwestern shows most of the building’s remaining restaurant tenants still in place, with an existing parking garage ramp exiting onto Fannin seemingly replaced by a 1,670-sq.-ft. storefront spot (Retail E in the plan below):

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Crossing the Med Center
, , , , , ,
77551
12/08/15 11:30am

Peeling Panels on the Downtown Melrose Building Hint at the Le Meridien To Come

by
Adaptive Reuse, Dickinson, Downtown, Hospitals, Hotels, Redevelopment, Religious Facilities
7 Comments

Melrose Building, 1121 Walker St., Houston, 77002

After more than 2 decades of abandonment, the Melrose Building at 1121 Walker is getting some TLC: a total makeover as part of conversion of the building to a Le Meridien hotel. Permits were issued the week of Thanksgiving to begin a complete overhaul of the interior; the exterior will receive an update as well.

The remodel will attempt to restore the youthful good looks of Houston’s oldest Modern skyscraper — as shown in the rendering below, the renovation will bring back the building’s original color scheme:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Going Retro
, , , ,
Energy Corridor
07/09/15 2:15pm

A Park Row Hotel’s Long Burnout

by
Fires, Hotels
4 Comments

Fire at Courtyard By Marriott Hotel, 18010 Park Row Dr., Ten Oaks, Park Row, Energy Corridor, Houston

12 hours after the Courtyard by Marriott under construction at the corner of Park Row and Barker Cypress burst into flames, fire crews are still dumping water on the building, a reader reports. Here’s a post-conflagration view of the soaking going on at Texas Western Hospitality’s hotel project. The 135-room, 4-story hotel on a 5.2-acre site at 18010 Park Row Dr., next door to the West Campus of Texas Children’s Hospital, had been scheduled to open in October. No injuries have been reported.

Photo: Brian Walz

Courtyard by Marriott
, , ,
Demolitions
06/22/15 1:45pm

The Casa Grande Takedown Has Begun

by
Glen Park, Redevelopment, Restaurants
9 Comments

Casa Grande Mexican Restaurant, 3401 N. Main St., Glen Park, Houston

Demolition of the Casa Grande Mexican Restaurant at 3401 N. Main St. at the corner of Norma began last Friday. A reader reports hearing from residents of the nearby Glen Park neighborhood that a new Holiday Inn Express is planned for the site. The property backs up to the freeway just south of the N. Main—I-45 intersection.

Above: The watered fall, in progress. Below: A few photos of the restaurant’s final scene, from just a few days earlier.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Glen Park
, , , , ,
Featured Posts
04/29/15 4:15pm

The Shocking Reason Why Superman, Batman, and the Flash Were Washing Windows at the Hotel Derek Today

by
Galleria, Highrises, Hotels, Quicklink
1 Comment

THE SHOCKING REASON WHY SUPERMAN, BATMAN, AND THE FLASH WERE WASHING WINDOWS AT THE HOTEL DEREK TODAY No movie to promote. No pay squabble to publicize. No pediatric cancer patients to visit. Just: ’cuz. After a SkyEye HD copter spotted superheroes on the roof around lunchtime today, abc13 investigators called the Hotel Derek on Westheimer at the West Loop to get the marketing message. But none was available: “A hotel spokesperson says a standard window cleaning was scheduled, and guests and passersby just got a little something extra, courtesy of the window washers, who apparently took it upon themselves to show up for work in costume.” [abc13]

, , , ,
Apartments
04/23/15 12:00pm

Tilman Fertitta Shows Off the Quadruple-Diamond Tower Up His Galleria Sleeve

by
Galleria, Hotels, Mixed Use, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Restaurants
17 Comments

Landry's Proposed Post Oak Hotel Complex, 1600 West Loop South, Galleria, Houston

“Remember, I’m the guy that took the old fire station and made it an aquarium,” Tilman Fertitta explains to Nancy Sarnoff. “I took the old Flagship and made it the Pleasure Pier. I took an old fishing village and made it the Kemah Boardwalk.” All of which might help explain the simple concept behind the Landry’s CEO’s latest venture: taking a surface parking lot next to the Landry’s corporate headquarters near the Galleria and turning it into a 35-story hotel-apartment-office-tower with a 2-story auto showroom in front, then filling out the rest of the 10-acre site with a parking garage and couple of pad-site restaurants facing the West Loop southbound feeder.

A row of 4 large lit-up diamonds facing east across the freeway will festoon the forehead of the Gensler-designed tower at 1600 West Loop South. Fertitta calls the not-really-a-sign a “subtle message.” It’s meant to stand in for the 4 diamond shapes in the Landry’s logo — dining, hospitality, entertainment, and gaming — though until a few pesky laws can be changed not all can be offered on site.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Landry’s Post Oak
, , , , , , , , ,
Downtown
01/22/15 3:15pm

Hotel Alessandra Tower Redesign Loses the Swoops and Curves

by
Highrises, Hotels, Proposed Developments
36 Comments

Second Proposed Design for Hotel Alessandra, GreenStreet, Downtown Houston

The company that’s adding a new hotel to GreenStreet, the renamed and reconfigured Houston Pavilions mall downtown appears to have made some dramatic changes to the design of the tower. Midway Companies first showed off the sleek design by Gensler for the Hotel Alessandra (shown at left) last March, describing a design that featured a top-floor lobby, with a bar on the same floor and a pool under a retractable roof. Renderings of the design are still featured in marketing materials for GreenStreet’s retail redo.

But HAIF user Urbannizer, who’s had a pretty solid track record of discovering renderings of proposed projects if they’re available anywhere, posted a revised rendering to the online architecture forum late last night. The image, shown at right, shows what appears to be the latest design for the Alessandra, which will be operated by the Valencia Group. The Valencia Group already operates Midway’s Hotel Sorella at CityCentre.

Here’s a slightly larger view of the newer, far more rectilinear design:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Straightening Up GreenStreet
, , , , ,
Demolitions
01/16/15 11:00am

Demolition Work on GreenStreet for the Swoopy New Hotel Alessandra Begins Next Week

by
Downtown, Hotels, Malls, Proposed Developments
6 Comments

Proposed Hotel Alessandra, Dallas and Fannin Streets, GreenStreet, Downtown Houston

If the giant 25-story-tall question mark built into the profile of the Hotel Alessandra — the Modern tower pictured above, planned for a spot directly behind the XXI Forever store along Fannin — spurred any of you to wonder when or whether construction of the promised residential expansion of GreenStreet (formerly Houston Pavilions) might begin, here’s an answer: Next Monday, MLK Day, workers will begin blocking access to the urban mall’s center court at 1201 Fannin St. and other areas to begin demolition work. Their target: The much shorter structure that once housed the Houston Pavilions’ Yao’s restaurant, owned by family members of Houston Rockets star Yao Ming, which stands in the way.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Clearing Yao’s Away
, , , , , ,
College Station
11/12/14 1:00pm

Here Comes College Station’s Answer to CityCentre, Right Across the Street from Texas A&M

by
Development Patterns, Mixed Use, Uncategorized
30 Comments

century-square-rendering

Amid much local hullabaloo  in Aggieland today, Houston’s Midway Cos. unveiled its plans for a new campus-adjacent mixed-use complex. By fall 2016, Midway hopes that Century Square will feature an outdoor concert space, a midrise office building and conference center, an apartment building, shopping and dining outlets, and, at least judging from the site plan below, ample space for a pad site or six along busy University Dr.  Not one but 2 new boutique hotels are also slated to go up at the corner of College Ave. and University Dr. across the street from Texas A&M’s polo fields and Emerging Technologies Building and the local IHOP.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

neo-urbanizing aggieland
, , , , ,
Hotels
09/26/14 10:00am

Houston’s Hotel Building Boom

by
Houston Data, Quicklink
5 Comments

HOUSTON’S HOTEL BUILDING BOOM Proposed Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites, Crawford St. Between Capitol and Rusk, Downtown HoustonIf you’ve been adding up the new Embassy Suites planned for Hughes Landing in The Woodlands, the 14-story combo Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites now beginning construction on Crawford St. between Capitol and Rusk downtown (illustrated at right, directly behind the Marriott Marquis going up one block to the south), and other recent reports of new hotels coming to town, keep counting: Arch-Con’s Michael Vaughn tells Real Estate Bisnow’s Catie Dixon that 66 new hotels will be built in the greater Houston area over the next 2 years, and “that’s mostly just the major brands” that he knows about. [Houston Business Journal; Real Estate Bisnow] Photo: American Liberty Hospitality

, ,
Featured Posts
09/11/14 12:00pm

Landry’s Is Cooking Up a 30-Story Hotel and Conference Center for the West Loop

by
Galleria, Hotels, Proposed Developments
3 Comments

Proposed Development at 1600 West Loop, Galleria, Houston

Proposed Development at 1600 West Loop, Galleria, HoustonLandry’s is planning a multi-use development including a 30-story hotel, a parking garage, and a conference center for a site adjacent to the restaurant and entertainment company’s headquarters on the Loop 610 feeder road in the Galleria area. The proposed address for the new structures is 1600 West Loop, but the tower, conference center, and garage would be tucked back from the freeway toward Hollyhurst St., according to a site plan (above, tilted clockwise 90 degrees) submitted to the city. Along with it, the developers have submitted a variance application asking for a reduced setback for the development along Hollyhurst.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

1600 West Loop
, , , , , ,
Downtown
09/03/14 11:30am

What’s Getting Thrown Out the Window at the Abandoned Days Inn Downtown?

by
Highrises, Hotels
24 Comments

Former Heaven on Earth Plaza Inn, 801 St. Joseph Pkwy., Downtown Houston

Former Heaven on Earth Plaza Inn, 801 St. Joseph Pkwy., Downtown HoustonWill all the gawkable dark mystery disappear from Downtown once the last few long-abandoned towers standing get cleaned up or knocked down? Maybe, but in the meantime we have these latest events to consider, around and about the former Heaven on Earth Plaza Inn at 801 St. Joseph Pkwy. (at Travis), which was operated by an organization affiliated with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for most of the nineties (before the city shut it down, in 1998).

A couple of readers have reported seeing some recent activity in and around the 31-story building, which was built as a Holiday Inn in 1971 and later converted to a Days Inn — before taking a different spiritual path:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Falling to Earth from Heaven on Earth
, , , ,
Discovery Green
08/13/14 12:30pm

Houston First Showing Off Pics of Downtown Hop-on-Top Hotel for Greater Houston Partnership Building

by
Downtown, Highrises, Hotels, Mixed Use, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments
5 Comments

Proposed Office Building and Parking Garage for Greater Houston Partnership, Avenida de las Americas at Capitol St., Downtown Houston

Proposed Office Building, Hotel, and Parking Garage for Greater Houston Partnership, Avenida de las Americas at Capitol St., Downtown Houston

Earlier this month, Houston First showed off renderings of the office building it’s planning to build for itself and 3 other Houston-boosting organizations (top), headlined by the Greater Houston Partnership, one block north of and linking to the George R. Brown Convention Center. (A massive attached 1,900-car parking garage would share the skybridge to the George R. Brown and fit between the building and the Hwy. 59 overpass.) Yesterday, the operator of the city’s performing arts and convention facilities pulled out an additional pic (above), highlighting another aspect of its plan, and showing how the same building would look with a 15-story add-on perched on top of it. The rendering of the tower portion by WHR Architects, the same firm that’s designing the office building and parking garage, is meant to be “conceptual”; Houston First announced it will begin taking proposals for the hotel from developers, who might choose a different design team.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Launch Pad
, , , , , , , , ,
« Previous Page Next Page »