Tag: Proposed Developments

Avondale
04/10/13 4:10pm

A Change Afoot at Old Tejas Boots Home on Westheimer

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Demolitions, Land Development, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers
2 Comments

Why did Tejas Boots leave 208 Westheimer? Owner Mike Kuykendahl says that the family that owns the li’l strip center (above) that Tejas Boots shared with Hollywood Food & Cigars asked them to: The family gave the tenants 2 months to move, explaining that they’re considering upgrading the 4,100-sq.-ft. building, says Kuykendahl, or tearing it down and redeveloping that corner of Helen and Westheimer. Tejas Boots had been here since 1984; they’ve relocated just a few blocks west into the browner, newer retail strip stack shown at right at 415 Westheimer. It’s not much as signs go, but that faint horizontal smudge beneath the Green Park Pilates logo marks the spot where the bootmakers can now be found.

Photos: Allyn West

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Comments
04/10/13 1:10pm

Comment of the Day Runner-Up: What To Expect from the Deck of the Second Convention Center Hotel

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Downtown, Hotels, Proposed Developments, Quicklink
7 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE DECK OF THE SECOND CONVENTION CENTER HOTEL “I am dumbstruck at the sheer genius (or is it audacity?) of a Texas-shaped lazy river. The turns around El Paso and Brownsville might be a little hazardous, but that’s a great analogy of the current state of affairs along the Rio. I’d also expect to encounter armed poachers along the Sabine, and flag-waving tea partiers along the Red, but I’m still pretty sure that by downing 3 beers from a floating cooler, I could not only survive, but conquer that bitch. The hardest part would be commemorating the accomplishment with (another) barbed wire arm tattoo and slapping one more bumper sticker on my pickup about guns, secession or liberals (pick one).” [Superdave, commenting on New Convention Center Hotel Seems a Done Deal] Rendering of proposed Marriott Marquis amenity deck: Morris Architects

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Development Strategies
04/10/13 10:10am

City Council To Decide Whether Downtown Hotel Redo Will Receive Federal Dough

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Downtown, Financing, Hotels, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Real Estate Investing, Renovations
6 Comments

CITY COUNCIL TO DECIDE WHETHER DOWNTOWN HOTEL REDO WILL RECEIVE FEDERAL DOUGH Houston Politics’ Mike Morris is reporting that city council will vote today to decide whether it will loan Pearl Real Estate up to $7.4 million toward the $81 million renovation and redevelopment of the 22-story slipcovered 1910 Samuel F. Carter building at Rusk and 806 Main St. What does Pearl have in sight? A JW Marriott. (It’d be across the street from BG Group Place.) Last summer, explains Morris, the city applied for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development money that would be passed on to Pearl and ultimately paid back with interest — or that’s the idea, anyway. This kind of deal went off without a hitch in 1998, when the Rice Hotel paid back their $4.8 million right on time. But the city’s been kept waiting before: “In early 2005, it came to light that the Magnolia Hotel (which had gotten $9.5 million in 2002) and the Crowne Plaza (which had gotten $5 million in 2000) had never made a full payment to the city on their loans.” Though by 2012, Morris adds, those loans had been repaid. [Houston Politics; previously on Swamplot] Photo of 806 Main St.: Swamplot inbox

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Proposed Developments
04/09/13 3:45pm

New Convention Center Hotel Seems a Done Deal

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Quicklink
13 Comments

NEW CONVENTION CENTER HOTEL SEEMS A DONE DEAL Today, reports Prime Property’s Nancy Sarnoff, the city and developer Rida announced that an agreement has been reached and construction will begin soon on the 1000-room Downtown Marriott Marquis — the one with that Texas-shaped lazy river on the roof. A batch of renderings that Morris Architects released last year suggest that the hotel will replace what’s now a surface parking lot at Walker St. and Avenida de las Americas near Minute Maid Park, Discovery Green, and the George R. Brown Convention Center. Additionally, the Houston Business Journal’s Olivia Pusinelli Pulsinelli reports that much of the initial funding oomph for the development will come from Houston First, which will pay to acquire the property and to add a parking garage before transferring the holding to Rida. [Prime Property; Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Morris Architects

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Fort Bend County
04/09/13 10:00am

No Lumps: A Look at Master-Planned Imperial Sugar Land

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Land Development, Master-Planned Communities, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail, Sugar Land
25 Comments

First things first: A sign off Hwy. 6 welcoming you to Imperial Sugar Land is so far the only part of the 716-acre master-planned community that’s under construction, touts a press release from the end of March. Up next? Starting this summer, adds the press release, something like the spout-centered roundabout shown here and a 254-unit apartment complex will begin going up around the minor-league Skeeters’ Constellation Field in the so-called Ball Park District. Plans show that that district will be flanked by a mix of uses:

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Buildings for Lease
04/08/13 2:00pm

Owners of Houston Studios Seeking Tenants: Will Tear Down To Suit

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Commercial Real Estate, Downtown, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing, Warehouse District, Warehouse Space
3 Comments

This relatively gritty Warehouse District warehouse appears to be the subject of some real estate speculation, reports Hair Balls’ Richard Connelly: A website for the Houston Studios building — home to a 10,000-sq.-ft. soundstage with a 30-ft. ceiling for video shoots, rehearsals, and other creative expressions — features renderings that show it as a cleaned-up commercial complex:

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Attractions
04/08/13 10:45am

Grand Texas Theme Park: Filling the Astroworld Void

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Land Development, Montgomery County, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Tourism
20 Comments

GRAND TEXAS THEME PARK: FILLING THE ASTROWORLD VOID And this overgrown crossroads in the middle of somewhere near U.S. 59 and FM 242 is expected to be part of the Grand Texas Theme Park. Investors are in place, and the land between New Caney and Splendora in Montgomery County should be closed on this May, developer Monty Galland tells Click2Houston, when construction on the $200 million project — advertised to feature high-noon cowboy shootouts and tractor rides — will begin. And why all the fuss? “If there was an Astroworld,” says Galland, “we probably wouldn’t have even pursued this development. . . . The great thing about it is that we have enough land that we can create a lot of the elements Astroworld had, and it doesn’t detract from the other areas of the park. We’re not going to compete with Disneyland. We want to create an entertainment value that’s similar to going to the movies or going bowling.” [Click2Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Grand Texas Theme Park, via Facebook

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Bayous and Waterways
04/05/13 2:00pm

That Naked Spot on White Oak Bayou

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Condos, Houston Heights, Landscape
17 Comments

A reader sends this stitched-together panorama of the Heights bike trail spanning White Oak Bayou and wonders what’s going on with all the denuding: “This is kitty corner from where the proposed Emes Place condos will go. Mother nature swamped their work in the bayou with the recent rains. They appear to be taking revenge by bulldozing the nearby clump of forest. This is a larger piece of bird/homeless person sanctuary than the tract Emes Place is to be on, so I wonder what the story is. Harris County Flood Control comes by the site all the time, but I can’t find any mention of it on their website, or anywhere.”

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Downtown
04/05/13 9:56am

GreenStreet, Frame by Frame: Previewing the Upcoming Houston Pavilions Remake

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Malls, Proposed Developments, Renovations
48 Comments

Houston Pavilions is to be renamed in honor of 2 urban features the troubled 5-year-old Downtown outdoor mall had so far shunned, its new owners announced yesterday: greenery and streets. The newly dubbed GreenStreet appears to be taking a few cues also from Discovery Green, the younger but far more successful urban attraction a few blocks to the east. Midway, which with Magic Johnson’s Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds bought the 3-block-long mixed-use center out of bankruptcy last August (and the adjacent parking garage on Clay St. between Main and Fannin a few months later), plans 6 to 9 months’ worth of renovations to the property as well, to turn it into a CityCentre-style event hub.

The new design, by Houston architects Muñoz + Albin and the Office of James Burnett, a local landscape firm, will try to soften and connect the 3 separated interior courtyards and make them come across as more park-like. Additional changes won’t exactly make the famously inward-looking mall turn itself inside-out, but they do appear to make a few stabs at poking through to Dallas St., adding signage, storefront windows in some places, and a few outdoor seating areas along its northern edge.

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Briargrove
04/04/13 3:00pm

Fountain Drinks on Fountain View: McDonald’s Moving In on Magnolia Grill Corner

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Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Proposed Developments, Restaurants
10 Comments

A reader sends this photo of what went down today at 6000 Richmond and Fountain View: The Magnolia Bar & Grill, cleared for demo last month, has been reduced to rubble and that sideways sign. And what’s in store for this Briargrove corner southwest of the Galleria? Kenneth Lewis, a rep from the partnership that owns the property, says you’ll soon see a McDonald’s.

Photo: Pat McCarley

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Highrises
04/01/13 5:00pm

New Houston Saudi Consulate Should Be Even Better Than This

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Institutional Buildings, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Public Buildings
22 Comments

Kirksey submitted the rendering above in a 4-firm competition to design a general office with some temporary housing for the Saudi Consulate, now occupying a suite in the 22-story Westheimer highrise shown here, which dates to 1982 and sits across the street from an IHOP. But Kirksey lost that competition — to Studio RED.

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Commercial Real Estate
04/01/13 11:50am

Demolished Yoakum Blvd. Apartments Make Way for 6-Story Office Building

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Demolitions, Land Development, Montrose, New Construction, Office Buildings, Office Space
15 Comments

Spring’s a time of renewal: And the Yoakum St. apartments — and palm trees, too — pictured here came down this winter so something very like this office building could begin going up. Campanile South, it’s called, is being described by developers Hansen Partners as a 6-story, 82,000-sq.-ft. “boutique” space with retail and restaurants facing Richmond Ave. Setting up on a lot between Yoakum and Graustark, Campanile South will be be the 7th member of the Campanile family that’s clustered around St. Thomas University the University of St. Thomas and Montrose Blvd.; it’s expected to be ready for tenants in 2014.

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Commercial Real Estate
03/28/13 2:45pm

Some Curvaceous Space To Office with a Fountain View in Spring

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Office Buildings, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Spring
3 Comments

And something like this 3-story, 2-building office complex should start going up this spring in Spring, reports the Houston Business Journal’s Shaina Zucker. Planned to sit on 7 and a half acres at 460 Wildwood Forest Dr., the 127,794-sq.-ft. Wildwood Corporate Center will be across the street from apartments and about 3 miles north of the ExxonMobil campus being built among comparatively tame woods where 385 acres have been clear-cut around the intersection of I-45, the Hardy Toll Rd., and the likely path of the Grand Pkwy.

Rendering: Houston Business Journal

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Adaptive Reuse
03/28/13 10:30am

Here, Now, a Few More Ideas for the Astrodome

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Houston Landmarks, Office Space, Parks, Quicklink, Redevelopment, Reliant Park, Renovations, Restaurants, Stadiums
35 Comments

HERE, NOW, A FEW MORE IDEAS FOR THE ASTRODOME Making the rounds this week are a couple more long shots for the Astrodome from people who don’t seem very keen on the 2,500 parking spaces the Texans and Rodeo proposed last week. First, you’ve got Ed Seale and his wife of “Keep the Astrodome,” who say they want to see the ol’ thing renovated into an global bazaar, reports KUHF’s Jack Williams, “a space filled with international, ethnic, cultural and business organizations . . . and ethnic restaurants.” And then there’s the UH graduate student Ryan Slattery, whose friend leaked online parts of his architecture master’s thesis that calls for the big baby to be stripped to a skeleton and used as greenspace: “If you don’t need it,” Slattery tells KHOU’s Jeremy Desel, “it does not need to be there. It is never going to be a stadium again. So you don’t need the seats. You need to take those seats out. Concrete on the facade? You don’t need that.” Adds Slattery: “If and when the Astrodome does come down you will see a grown man cry.” [KUHF; KHOU; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Apartments
03/26/13 1:00pm

Coming Soon: Rice Military Luxury Storage Sheds for Humans

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Demolitions, Proposed Developments
20 Comments

And here are the apartments designed to replace those mini storage sheds being torn down on the north side of Memorial Dr. at 159 Birdsall St. The demo, says a rep from developer Sunrise Luxury Living, is about 75 percent complete — only 20 sheds remain — and construction on the 5-story Birdsall Memorial Apartments is expected to begin in the next four months. Plans show the new complex squeezing 180 1- and 2-bedroom units onto the property where the 300 storage sheds stood.

Here’s a nifty aerial view of the area:

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