Well, it still is pretty bad, except for a few new condos, but overall, the area on the other side of GRB Convention Center is pretty craptastic. Its mostly vacant land, abandoned buildings, and ghetto. But, with the Dynamo stadium coming, and the light rail, things should start to pick up pretty good. Although, Minute Maid Park didnt really liven up that side of town when it went in. I mean, you still have an abandoned hotel right across from MMP and no new development near the ball field, save Discovery Green but that had nothing to do with MMP I dont believe, nor the light rail.

METRO's new intermodal terminal is supposed to go in on the east side isn't it? That should REALLY help out development on the east side. I wonder what ever happened to the Hardy Yards?

No that's going in near university of Houston downtown on the north side.

Apple Store coming to Highland Village will be Houston's 1st non-mall Apple Store.

http://swamplot.com/the-new-apple-st...ge/2011-02-14/

http://swamplot.com/wp-content/uploa...lage-const.jpg

Good news about METRO rail, Texas Medical Center, and Buffalo Bayou "greenbelt" west of the Downtown.

METRO rail
"Houston Metro's expansion is getting a $200 million boost in Obama's budget request to Congress. The money for the North Corridor and the Southeast Corridor projects is $50 million more than the $150 million set aside by Obama in his last two budget proposals.
The Metro project is part of a wider bid by the administration to upgrade transportation infrastructure nationwide so that 80 percent of Americans have "convenient access" to a high-speed passenger rail system within 25 years. "
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/7427505.html

TMC
"The Texas Medical Center and other research facilities in the state could benefit from the 3.4 percent increase proposed for the National Institutes for Health. The NIH was a rare winner in a budget that left discretionary spending on health and welfare programs almost flat."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/7427505.html

Buffalo Bayou
"Construction is expected to start in mid-2012 and take three years. The effort will be funded almost entirely by private donors, save $5 million from the Harris County Flood Control District. The Kinder Foundation has given $30 million, believed to be the largest gift ever given to a park project in Houston. That leaves the partnership with $20 million to scrape together.

"That area of the bayou is so used," said Nancy Kinder. "The trails are in such dire shape. That was really what caught our focus — that this could be a world-class park if you did just some basic work."

The Kinders hope their gift will spur not only physical improvements, but also a shift in attitudes. Viewed as little more than "big open sewers" a generation ago, perceptions of the city's bayous have begun to change, said partnership consultant Guy Hagstette...Between Shepherd and Sabine, the partnership proposes adding a path closer to the bayou so walkers and joggers won't compete with cyclists on the main hike-and-bike trail.

Two dry ravines would become ponds, one of them the focal point of a fenced-in dog park in an area that pet owners unofficially use for that purpose now.

The distinctive blue lighting along the trails at Sabine Promenade would be expanded along the entire hike-and-bike trail. A five-acre plot next to Jamail Skatepark, currently fenced off, would be incorporated into the park. A raised concrete reservoir there would provide views of downtown, function as an event space and host bike and canoe rentals and, possibly, a restaurant.

The plan also proposes adding two pedestrian bridges, one across Memorial Drive near Jackson Hill Street and one spanning the bayou at the Houston Police Officer Memorial. A pedestrian bridge near Rosemont Street is nearing completion; another running parallel to Shepherd Drive is expected to start construction this fall. Both are parts of separate projects."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/7425998.html

Didn't they build a few lofts and things? Besides, remember what was in Downtown ten years ago? Look at it now. No, MMP may not have brought more highrises, but so much has been put together over the eastern sides of Downtown in the past ten years. The Dynamo Stadium has already led to that six block "Sister-City" gardens development, that also seems to tie into the new convention center hotel being built.

February Night in Houston

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/w...4/IMAG1037.jpg

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/w...4/IMAG1033.jpg

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/w...4/SAM_0237.jpg

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/w...4/IMAG1039.jpg

There were two new loft buildings across the highway from MMP, but once you get past those lofts, its pretty terrible that side of town is. That six block development hasnt started construction yet and I wont believe it til I see it because Houston has so many projects that they say are going to happen, but rarely do any of them come to fruition.

Rarely? I guess you have a different perspective on the city than I do.

The east side of downtown is so dead, it needs more infill. Hopefully the light rail will spur some stuff. There is plenty of room out there. Houston needs some projects to start. I am waiting.

Not since Discovery Green has been there...

Gigapan from the roof of Chase Tower. You can scroll and zoom in on buildings way off in the distance.

http://gigapan.org/gigapans/34909/

I know that. I meant on the other side of 59. There are a few things but there is room for so much more. Hopefully the new dynamo stadium will open things up.

I do admit that area is fascinating, such a stark contrast to west side of downtown. It has a very industrious feel to it, and the views of downtown are awesome. I like it...

:yes:

I wish the eastside (refuse to call it Eado) would continue to maintain an industrious feel while it gentrifies but that's wishful thinking.

Culture Map:Skyscrapers buck the recession: Hines plans another new office tower for downtown Houston

"The Hines real estate organization, which has built 23 skyscrapers in downtown Houston, is planning another one. The project, if it comes together as planned, would result in a major office building on Main Street, catty-cornered from the historic Rice Hotel building.

Hines would not proceed unless a major office tenant has been signed, but the developer has been in serious discussions with significant corporations looking for downtown space. Some people in the real estate community say this could be the real deal — a big tenant ready to make a commitment and kick off another Hines downtown project — and soon.

The development site is bounded by Main, Texas, Fannin and Capitol..."

"...Hines has just completed the 46-story BG Group Place tower at 811 Main Street, just two blocks south of the site of the proposed new building. The BG Group Place, on top of other prior improvements, validated Main Street as a prime corporate address. A few weeks ago, Hines President and CEO Jeff Hines told CultureMap that Main Street is the preferred location for new office projects today.

“If we do the next building, that’s where we would go,” Hines said."

Fantastic news if this pans out. This location is the parking lot a block north of Flying Saucer. Sweet.

That would be an AWESOME thing indeed! Of course, it would be even more awesome if the only thing alive in the evenings and weekends in downtown Houston WAS the Flying Saucer! :yes:

Aaron (Glowrock)

:previous:

Oh I hope they release something soon, and i hope its at least 700 feet. The taller the better. So Kewl. Woo Hoo...

:yes:

So, I guess this tower will be taking up the space of that terrible surface parking lot that has the one remnant art deco tower left in the northeastern section of that block right? I hope if something big goes up there they leave the art deco tower and restore it, thats probably wishful thinking though. But, it might be too tall to implode so maybe theres hope yet for that building.

Good to hear. Hopefully it'll be something big and tall. A 7 percent vacancy rate is pretty good. That's better than Austin's right now.

glad there is something in the works...........although I wish that condo tower would have been built there to get more people downtown 24 hours a day, but nonetheless...............I do hope its a building that can be seen from outside downtown (i.e. - TALL!!)

^^^^ Just read that in Culture Map Houston.... i am excited, and i hope it is mixed use (residential and commercial) and yes something 700+ feet, sleek and photovoltaic glass. Please, GOD, nothing tan/ beige boring...please, please, please.

m.:haha:

I believe Hines destroyed a similar type building when it built its newest tower on Main St a few blocks down.

They tore down a 10 story 1920s hotel, the art deco tower on this block is about 25 stories or so.

Gotta love Houston's economy, still kickin'.

Besides Shell and Devon leaving downtown. Won't we see Exxon move out in the next 3 years or so with to their Woodlands Compound? Or is that not confirmed?

Downtown has so much potential that's just about to be realized I think. Critical mass is close I think and after that, you will see it really fill up with residents and a more urban feel.

I'm very excited about Exxon-Mobile. It truly will be a compound and a massive one at that. It's going to be a huge boost for The Woodlands/Spring and all of north Harris and South Montgomery Counties. From what I've read, it is going to be 3 million sq. ft. of offices---some 20 buildings.

As far as downtown goes, it's not like we're shuffling a stagnant population around. Houston is growing by hundreds of people a week. People are constantly moving here and in need of jobs. I don't see downtown emptying out...not with all the planned development around DG and Dynamo. Fingers has mentioned another highrise condo project and hines is talking about a new scraper as well. I think we're just getting started. Not to mention, the high oil prices is making Houston a gold mine.

Not mentioned in CultureMap's article is that Continental Airlines is in the process of shrinking its downtown footprint as well. Hopefully the job losses will be kept to a minimum but of the 3,000 Continental employees in downtown Houston there has been an announcement already that 500 are being eliminated. That also means office space will not be needed by Continental either.

Last Friday the former CEO of Continental wouldn't talk to the Houston press to answer questions about the next steps with the merger and its direct impact on Houston - he just slipped out of the building to avoid press entirely. I'm not sure what that says but if it were super positive it would seem he would have hung around to spread the good news.


United Continental CEO gets camera shy at CERA week:

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/b...cera-week.html

----------------------------------------

CultureMap appears to have jumped the gun on their announcement two days ago for the new Hines tower. Here is the article from today's Houston Business Journal that basically does a 180 degree turn around from what CultureMap was trying to do:


New skyscraper for downtown? Not just yet

Houston Business Journal - by Jennifer Dawson
Date: Thursday, March 17, 2011, 3:03pm CDT - Last Modified: Thursday,
March 17, 2011, 3:15pm CDT.

Some real estate watchers may have been surprised to see a report this week that Hines was planning a new downtown skyscraper — and that it could happen soon.

I certainly was.

It seemed odd that Hines would plan a new tower two blocks away from BG Group Place, which recently celebrated its grand opening at 811 Main and is still lining up tenants.

So I checked in with the developer to get an update.

The subject of speculation is a surface parking lot on nearly a full city block Hines has owned for years. The site bounded by Main, Texas, Fannin and Capitol has long been considered a future development site for the Houston-based developer. The 21-story Texas Tower at 608 Fannin sits on part of the block.

Mark Cover, executive vice president with Hines, said via e-mail that an office tower is envisioned for the site, but development is not imminent.

An unnamed architecture firm has completed a schematic design for an office building to be used for marketing purposes. Creating a design is commonplace when a new building is being shopped to potential tenants, Cover said.

Cover would not share the design with the Houston Business Journal.

The Hines executive also would not say how many potential tenants have been approached, but said the firm is talking to energy, law and service firms.

The ultimate size of the building could vary since “it requires substantial pre-leasing,” Cover said in e-mail.

There’s a possibility that construction could begin later this year, but not without a large tenant, he said.

Still, it would take two years to construct a new tower, so it would not be in competition with the 46-story BG Group Place.

“We will not compete with ourselves, but there is strong interest for the remaining space at BG Group Place,” .....

Full article here:

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/b...-just-yet.html

I would imagine with only a 7 percent vacancy rate there's probably not enough space for a large company to come in, especially if they're looking for enough space that would require them to be on several floors. It's unlikely they could have 3 floors of a building that were close to each other. Companies hate having to send employees up and down a building to another office in their company on another floor say 10 floors up. They'd rather have them close together. So Hines should be looking for major tenants that need say 50K or more of space. That's how they could end up with a larger building. Then the rest could be somewhat spec space and maybe residential on top.

not entirely true. There's a reason why Continental for example has offices in both their Smith street headquarters and at their other building on Jeffereson. It all has to do with money. The cost for office space is way lower in the Jeffereson building.



On another note, yes, the Continental Airlines office space is going to be dwindled to probably about 5 floors in the combined buildings. Basically everyone is going to be out.

Lolz thank you for coming into a Houston post to rain on Houston's parade, but it's what you like to do. But Houston's DT will still be nowhere near the vacancy rates of DT Dallas, even with these tenants leaving.

And these large companies prefer LEED certified buildings, which are at a premium in DT Houston.

there's about to be huge blocks of space available in One Allen Center as Hess moves in to their new joint on the other end of DT.

I know of one company whose IT dept is packed in to their signature building like sardines, and would LOVE to have more space... perhaps the Hines dudes should go a callin'

Word on the street is the Hines building is a go but someone leaked before they were ready to announce. I've been hearing a late 2012 groundbreaking with an early 2014 opening date set. It's the worst kept secret in town.

Also, while everyone is lamenting the potential loss of some jobs at Continental and Devon, people aren't mentioning that the Houston job market performed WAY better than predicted last year. Additionally, the big oil/energy companies are starting to hire. With the Gulf opening back up to drilling and the price of oil remaining around $100 a barrel, things should really start to pick up here in town.

And, I hate to rain on the Dallasite's parade, but our three brand new towers are starting off pretty damn well. The Hess Tower is 100% leased out. The building in the Pavilions is also 100% leased out to NRG (Reliant Energy). And, while the Hines tower isn't 100% leased, they did land two stellar tenants in KPMG (top floors) and BG Group (naming rights).

The time is right to start something now to take advantage of the future. The class A market in downtown is way too tight right now for someone to not make a play.

Lastly, word in Pine Shadows, where the head of Continental lives, is that the wife is flat out refusing to move to Chicago. Their house, which is just down the street from my parents' place is fully occupied and there's been no attempt to sell... Just sayin'

Thats great news.. but any word of 5 Allen starting soon?

Brookfield wants a major tenant in 5 Allen Center before starting construction. It's still in their proposals list on their website

BG Group Place is a company that is moving into Downtown. Also, I don't believe Exxon is vacating Downtown. In the articles I've read (and HAIF rumors), they have said the Downtown jobs are staying. Other Exxon employees scattered in random places in the metro area will consolidate in Spring.

Rice U Ready To Build Giant Ceremonial Mound in Center of Campus

http://swamplot.com/wp-content/uploa...e-skyspace.jpg

http://swamplot.com/rice-u-ready-to-...us/2011-03-25/

HanOver at Rice Village

http://swamplot.com/wp-content/uploa...in-dunstan.jpg

http://swamplot.com/hanover-at-rice-...er/2011-03-29/

Parc Binz One

http://images.loopnet.com/xnet/mains...631&Height=421

http://www.loopnet.com/xNet/MainSite...x?LID=17069399

Found this project off the Houston Architecture Info Forum and got the link from loopnet, and I credit Channeltwonews who had this posted on there. It looks like a interesting project it said it will have ground floor retail I guess we'll wait and see.

Vita Nuota Houston "Studewood Place"

This project will be a 6 or 8 story mixed use project on Studewood at 10th ½ St. in the Heights.

Here a link to a construction picture as you can tell they already dug a big hole in the ground.
http://www.richmartinhomes.com/houst...tudewood-place

Anoter link to the projects website
http://vitanuovallc.com/index.html#

Disney to start sailing out of Galveston in 2012

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...e/7506462.html

I see the "magic" in Galveston growing with this and Landry's Theme Park.:cool:

Are there any renderings for this? Can't find it anywhere.

I tried, no luck of finding any renderings. On there website I think it says renderings will be posted soon or something like that.

Hey check this link out

http://blogs.chron.com/believeitorno...easter_fl.html

Discovery Green has done such a great job for downtown. I thought the flash mob was kewl. Now if only there was 2000 club kids dancing to a trance song. Hmm something by Amrin Van Buuren or Paul Van Dyk.

Now that would be kewl...

:tup:

YES!! :D

Trance is awesome.

Hopefully Disney sailing out of Galveston will help out its redevelopment.

Yesterday I was in downtown Houston and was amazed of how massive it is, btw this was my first vist to downtown Houston since 1999. Went by Discovery Green as well as One Park Place & Hess Tower I can say traveling from Downtown and looking over at One Park Place I thought I was in Chicago the way it looked. BTW nobody can deny that there is no life in downtown Houston as I saw the whole place was full of people walking, running, taking pitures, ect... thanks Houston will be seeing u again:tup:.

Going back through the previous 10 or so pages of developement it's impressive to see all the projects going on throughout the city. The new projects make fantastic use of landscaping elements and water fountains/pools. All this is welcome change from a city that has historically ignored streetscaping and the human experience in their surroundings.

Streetscaping certainly has more momentum recently and is found in many more districts than it was. I wish more people would notice and give Houston credit in that arena. Landscaped medians in certain districts have been impressive for many years, but every time I drive around Houston, I see more. I don't know where the money comes from unless a lot of it is donated by companies.

BBVA to consolidate offices in new building on Post Oak

http://blogs.chron.com/primeproperty/bbva.jpg

http://blogs.chron.com/primeproperty...Prime+Property)

Can't wait for it to breakground next month.

Disney sailing out of Galveston will only help parking lot owners and those three guys who have service stations on Harborside at I-45... The GPD directs cars west onto Harborside, straight out of town.