Originally Posted by HBJ

New midrise apartment project underway near CityCentre

A longtime Houston commercial developer is making its first foray into the multifamily sector with a midrise luxury apartment project near CityCentre.

PRD Inc. has been developing office and retail properties in Houston since the 1970’s. The company also manages multifamily properties.

In 2012, PRD purchased 4.2 acres at 150 Sam Houston Parkway for its first multifamily development. The property is one mile south of CityCentre and sits across from the east side of Terry Hershey Park.

“We’ve never developed a multifamily project from the ground up,” said David Park, PRD’s vice president. “It’s a big jump for us, but we’re excited.”

PRD has begun construction on Ascension on the Bayou, a Class A apartment building that features five stories of living over two levels of parking, one underground. The LEED Silver-certified building will be energy efficient and use brick, stone and metal materials in its construction.

Originally Posted by Chron

HSPVA to get $80 million makeover with roof terrace, outdoor dining

During HISD’s 2012 bond campaign, the $80.2 million price tag for a new High School for the Performing and Visual Arts drew some concerns, with the cost estimated at $107,000 per student.

The design plans are in for the five-story, 168,000-square-foot campus for our city’s “Fame” high school. The new downtown site, closer to the city’s theater district than its current Montrose spot, will include an 800-seat theater, dance and music studios, art galleries, an outdoor dining area on the first level, and an outdoor roof terrace near the library.

Construction is expected to be complete in mid to late 2017, according to the district.

Originally Posted by Bidclerk

Hanover Upper Kirby

Site work and new construction for a mixed-use development in Houston. Preliminary design plans call for the construction of a 30-story, 300-unit upscale apartment tower with restaurants on the ground floor. Plans will include parking and associated site improvements.

The developer will close on the property early 2015. An architect has been selected. Information on how a general contractor will be selected has not yet been released. Construction is scheduled to begin summer 2015.

Originally Posted by Urbannizer (Post 6770183)

The design plans are in for the five-story, 168,000-square-foot campus for our city’s “Fame” high school.

Originally Posted by Chron

Tall buildings to arise near River Oaks District

With most of the Westcreek apartments now gone and the River Oaks District well under way on a portion of the property, residential developers are staking their claims on the remaining parcels of land behind it.

Their plans include a cluster of tall buildings to house well-to-do Houstonians who can pay the steep prices that come with living next to one of the city's newest and flashiest mixed-use developments.

"People will be able to walk to restaurants, high-end retail and theaters. It's something that hasn't been offered in Houston," said Robert Bland of Pelican Builders, which is planning a 17-story residential tower on Westcreek Lane just north of River Oaks District, which is being built just inside the 610 Loop along Westheimer.

***

An office building, a hotel and two additional high-rise apartment building are planned on the remaining Westcreek property, Brand said.

The surge of development has led to concerns over increased traffic congestion in the area.

High-density development will increasingly take the place of low-rise buildings in desirable, close-in areas, Bland said, as more people want to live in the city center and land become more expensive.

Additional traffic, he said, is the price of progress. But he also points out that the number of new residential units proposed on the old Westcreek site won't be a whole lot higher that what was there originally.

"Surprisingly, if you take all the apartments that were demolished, the total number of (new) residential units is not going to be much more," Bland said.

Originally Posted by Chron

Gables to build luxury high-rise near River Oaks District

Gables Residential is planning to break ground in the second quarter of next year on a 15-story apartment building north of River Oaks District.

The yet-to-be-named building will have 300 units, averaging 1,400 square feet and priced in the range of $2.60 per square foot.

Ziegler Cooper designed the building, which will go up on a 2.5-acre site along Westcreek Lane between Westheimer and San Felipe.

Joshua Landry, area vice president of investments for Gables Residential, said the building will target “a sophisticated renter with a higher disposable income.”

“We are doing a higher level of service, concierge service and amenities we will offer will be different from other projects,” Landry said.

This is the company’s first high-rise in Houston, though it has built tall towers in other markets. the building should open about 20 months after construction starts.

Originally Posted by toxteth o'grady (Post 6772542)

If there are any concerns about a bubble, they may be dispelled in part by the latest figures from the Texas Workforce Commission's LMCI database, which shows Houston has added 119,000 jobs in a year (after 83,000 last year and 106,000 the year before). Undoubtedly, construction hiring has helped those numbers, but it's still over 300,000 additional jobs in 3 years.

Originally Posted by toxteth o'grady (Post 6772542)

If there are any concerns about a bubble, they may be dispelled in part by the latest figures from the Texas Workforce Commission's LMCI database, which shows Houston has added 119,000 jobs in a year (after 83,000 last year and 106,000 the year before). Undoubtedly, construction hiring has helped those numbers, but it's still over 300,000 additional jobs in 3 years.

Originally Posted by pacarlson (Post 6773306)

Any idea on what this latest add brings the current total Houston metro employed number to? A Google search didn't help me. I'd think the figure should be well over 1 million employed.

Originally Posted by NYC2ATX (Post 6761899)

Sometimes I wonder if Houston has been without zoning for so long that implementing such a system at this point would be nearly impossible. I mean, in much of the city's core there's almost no districts that have only one or a select few building types. There's odd, random building scales and uses all over the place, so much that every zoning code would instantaneously have multiple illegalities on every block. How does one even zone a city like Houston? :shrug:

Originally Posted by llamaorama (Post 6773934)

Hilly by southeast Texas standards maybe. You clearly haven't visited Texas State then. The entire campus is either up or down a flight of stairs, and "ground level" is a very arbitrary concept in many of the buildings.

But that's cool about the med campus... shame about Camp Strake though. I think the scouts also go to the Sam Houston state forest more often than not though.

Originally Posted by HBJ

Exclusive: First look at the Baylor College of Medicine McNair Campus

One of Houston's most interesting health care stories over the past year has been the relationship between Colorado-based Catholic Health Initiatives, St. Luke's Health System and the Baylor College of Medicine.

A by-product of that relationship is the new Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center McNair Campus. The 1.2 million-square-foot facility is in various stages of completion, renovation and construction, with the next wave of openings slated for January.

In addition to the current construction plans, there are also plans for a second patient tower as well as a medical office building. Construction of the second patient tower is estimated to start in November 2015, and the office building could begin within the year, said Charles Gianfagna, commissioning officer for the master facility plan.

Architects, engineers and builders have not been selected for the second tower, he said. RFPs for those projects will be released in the coming months.

Full Article: http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/b...ollege-of.html

Originally Posted by toxteth o'grady (Post 6775769)

Is this one still planned to start next summer?

Originally Posted by Urbannizer (Post 6774795)

Randall Davis Downtown: 20+ story condo tower near Discovery Green. It's said to have a "white and black facade"; unlike anything the developer has done before.

http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/h...own-20-floors/

Originally Posted by HBJ

Houston developer aims to build condominium tower downtown

Randall Davis Co. is looking to build a high-rise condominium project in downtown Houston.

The Houston real estate developer plans to partner with local entrepreneur Roberto Contreras on the Class A project, called Marlowe. Randall Davis and Contreras have worked previously on the $70-million Astoria, a 28-story, 74-unit condominium project in the Galleria area.

Davis told the Houston Business Journal he has a piece of land downtown — less than half an acre — under contract. He declined to disclose the exact location of the property, except to say it is near Discovery Green located on Avenida de las Americas across from the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Davis said he expects to close on the land in the first quarter of 2015. Price negotiations were not disclosed.

Davis said he has applied for the City of Houston's Downtown Living Initiative, which awards tax breaks to residential developers building in downtown Houston. Launched in August 2012, the Downtown Living Initiative offers developers $15,000 for each unit built in a multifamily complex of at least 10 units.

Other details about the project, such as size and amenities, are forthcoming after the land deal closes, Davis said. He plans to have a sales center open on the property in early 2015.

Originally Posted by toxteth o'grady (Post 6777239)

That's a nifty rendering, but if I'm not mistaken, I see the Old City Hall in one of those shots. I'm just concerned this might be what the IT geeks call "vaporware". The news article this was taken from seemed more focused on the EB-5 program than on the projects it will build - usually a sign of speculation.

Originally Posted by toxteth o'grady (Post 6777958)

Eva Air begins flights from Houston to Taiwan starting next July 1, according to a posting at A.net, signaling the boom will continue.

BR Announces IAH! To Fly To ORD 2016

Originally Posted by N90 (Post 6778270)

We knew about this one. They announced in March that they were going to expand into Houston and Chicago. Transaero made a similar announcement earlier this year, don't know about now since Russia is a different political climate now after the sanctions.

Thanks for the info Tox

Originally Posted by HBJ

Houston named No. 1 real estate market to watch in 2015

Houston's real estate market has caught the eye of investors worldwide, prompting one to call the Bayou City the "perfect storm for commercial real estate," according to a new report from the Urban Land Institute and PwC.
The "Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2015" report ranked Houston the country's No. 1 market to watch next year. That's up from No. 2 in 2014 and No. 5 in 2013.

Houston ranked No. 1 in both investment and development prospects, and it came in second to Austin for homebuilding prospects.

When looking at specific property types, the Bayou City also took the top spot in the industrial and retail sectors, and it ranked No. 2 for office and multifamily. Its hotel sector ranked No. 4 nationwide.

Not surprisingly, investors cite the energy industry as a major driver of Houston's growth in 2015. Houston was also highlighted in many of the emerging trends found in the report.