HOUSTON | Development Thread II

[photoLith]

That new tower is damned sexy. It will really help balance out the skyline.

[chjbolton]

And still SOOOOO many parking lots just begging to be torn down and replaced

[gclass]

Houston-based Hines announced April 4 it broke ground on the towering 46-story apartment high-rise known as The Preston downtown.

The luxury apartments will be where the old Houston Chronicle parking garage was, at the corner of Preston and Milam, and about a block from the newspaper’s old headquarters, where Hines and Ivanhoe Cambridge are developing the 47-story Texas Tower.

The site is located within an Opportunity Zone. The greater Houston area counts 148 zones, with 105 in Harris County alone.

Hines is developing The Preston with the Cresset-Diversified QOZ Fund, a fund started by Cresset Partners and Diversified Real Estate Capital in 2018 to invest in qualified Opportunity Zones around the country.

The Opportunity Zone Act, part of the 2017 tax changes, lets property investors create "Qualified Opportunity Zone Funds" that can be used to reinvest proceeds from the sale of long-held properties back into Opportunity Zones. Landlords are eligible for tax breaks if they reinvest at least 90 percent of the gains from those sales back into the federally approved Opportunity Zones, according to a report by the American City Business Journals, the Houston Business Journal’s parent company. New rules related to Opportunity Zone investments haven't yet been released.

Unlike prior community-investment programs, the new law doesn't require property investors to meet specific job-creation or affordability mandates.

The Preston will be Hines’ most impressive residential community to date, Kevin Batchelor, senior managing director, said in a statement. The 373-unit project will also be the tallest apartment building downtown, the statement read.

Retail and restaurant space will take up about 6,800 square feet of The Preston's ground floor. The project should be complete by the third quarter of 2022.


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The Preston's amenities include:

Event space, catering kitchen and an outdoor patio
24-hour concierge
Valet service
Electric vehicle chargers
Fitness center with on-demand virtual trainer
10th-level amenity deck with a zero-edge pool, shaded cabanas and daybeds, yoga lawn, covered terraces and an outdoor kitchen pavilion with gas grills
Multiple social lounges with complimentary beverage and coffee bars
Guest suites
Wine tasting room
Pet spa
Bike shop and storage facility
Resident coworking and conference spaces

The project team includes Munoz + Albin, design architect; Mayfield and Ragni Studio (MaRS), interior architect; TBG, landscape architect; and Harvey Builders, general contractor. All are either based in or have an office in Houston.

[Urbannizer]

3300 Main



hindesky

[Wattleigh]

http://realtynewsreport.com/2019/04/...-katy-freeway/

Office Tower Planned on Katy Freeway

HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – A 13-story office tower is being planned by the Crown Castle company on the Katy Freeway, according to a document filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

The 420,000-SF tower is being designed by the Kirsksey architecture firm.

The building, which has an estimated construction cost of $55 million, will break ground in August and be completed in early 2021.

The project will be located on a 4.2-acre site on the north side of the Katy Freeway, not far from the Ikea store. The property is east of Chimney Rock and west of Antoine Drive.

Crown Castle, a major cell phone tower company, current has its offices at 1220 Augusta Drive on the western edge of the Galleria area.

The new podium-style building will have office space above a parking garage.

[The Best Forumer]

awesome news!

[The Best Forumer]

speaking of ashby highrise... what's teh status on that?

[Bailey]

Ashby + Regent Square + Bank of Southwest Tower...we will never know what could have been..lol

[Urbannizer]

Originally Posted by Bailey

Ashby + Regent Square + Bank of Southwest Tower...we will never know what could have been..lol

A minor update was given on Regent Square from a recent North Montrose Association meeting:

Working with GID on synergies, GID says starting on apartments later this year

[Urbannizer]

Positive news for Chevron's proposed downtown Tower?

Chevron to acquire major Houston-area upstream energy co. for $33B

California-based Chevron Corp., which already has thousands of employees in Houston, will acquire Anadarko Petroleum Corp., one of the largest energy companies in Houston, in a stock-and-cash deal worth $33 billion.

Additionally, Chevron plans to divest billions of dollars' worth of assets in the near future and increase its share repurchase program.

The deal, which has a total enterprise value of $50 billion, is expected to close in the second half of 2019. Joe Geagea, executive vice president of technology, products and services for Chevron, and Bob Gwin, who was promoted to president of Anadarko late last year, will lead the integration team, according to an FAQ sheet for Chevron employees.

The company still owns the site where the third tower is planned, and two catty corner blocks on Milam.

[llamaorama]

There's a really good discussion taking place on HAIF about that. Most people seem to think such a move would be unlikely in the near future.

[The Best Forumer]

let us hope they are wrong.

[Urbannizer]

Drewery Place at Laneways



Pearl Marketplace (Whole Foods) at Midtown





Montrose at Buffalo Bayou



Museum BLVD



The Driscoll



The Village of Southampton



Blossom Hotel



Photos by hindesky

[Urbannizer]

New Hope Housing Puts Second Ward Affordable Housing Project on Drawing Board

New Hope Housing is planning a multi-story, 100-unit affordable housing project on a one block tract it has under contract in east Houston’s Second Ward.

The project site is roughly two blocks south of the Turkey Bend of the Buffalo Bayou and bounded by Avenues J and I to the north and south, and Engel and Edgewood streets. The project address is 5220 Avenue J and the project name is New Hope Housing Ave J.

The proposed development will come before the Planning Commission Thursday on a request for off-street parking. By city ordinance, 137 spaces are required for a 100-unit development and New Hope wants to reduce that to 127 spaces. The rationale for reduced parking is that the qualifying low income tenants would not be able to afford more than one vehicle per unit.

New Hope claims its tenants generally don’t have the resources to own a vehicle and in the alternative they tend to make more use of biking or public transit. The developer proposed to include 15 bicycle racks (60 bicycle spaces) to replace the 10-vehicle space deficit.

Avenue J is located less than two-tenths of a mile from major METRO bus routes along both Canal Street and Navigation. It is less than a half mile from the METRO light rail.

The proposed structure will have a gross area of 84,300 square feet and stand five stories in height on a city block that has a total area of 1.376 acres. Half of its apartments will be one-bedroom units and the other half will be two-bedroom units. A parking garage will occupy the ground level, sharing space at ground level with a small entryway lobby and lease office.

“Four stories of residential units are planned above the single floor garage, with indoor and outdoor common use areas for the residents on the elevated level one,” New Hope said.

[The Best Forumer]

i wonder how this will affect housing prices there.

[Urbannizer]

Asia
City Plaza:

New mixed-use project proposed for Houston's Chinatown:

[The Best Forumer]

excellent news. thanks for the updates!

[Urbannizer]

Novel River Oaks



Alexan Lynn Park



Reverie at River Hollow



ekdrm2d1

[gclass]

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...e-13808234.php

[Urbannizer]

Originally Posted by gclass

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...e-13808234.php

What Downtown Houston’s next park will look like

Like a lizard whose skin is slowly but surely transforming, downtown continues to go from gray to green. At least in spots.

The Downtown Redevelopment Authority has released design schematics for its next public greenspace project, which is squeezed into an L-shaped acre or so at 1500 Fannin.

Designed by Lauren Griffith Associates — the landscape design talents behind Discovery Green, Market Square Park, Sesquicentennial Park and other high-profile public spaces — the Southern Downtown Park project will help define what has long been a sea of parking lots as a neighborhood with a nice backyard.

A “rotating gateway art installation” is proposed near the corner of Fannin and Bell, where there also will be seating, bike racks and a bike repair station. The dog runs will occupy the park’s southern edge, along with a water feature and a vine-covered trellis with seating.

The park’s most prominent feature will be its 2,400-square foot fast-casual restaurant, which curves gently and organically around a large, central lawn flanked by trees and shade gardens. A lacy “roof monitor” atop the building will help fill the cafe with sunlight and shadow during the day and glow like a lantern at night. Walls around the edges will be raised and lowered for special events or climate control, and the eastern wall will double as a screen for outdoor films.

The authority expects to name a cafe operator by July. Construction of the park is slated for a March start and will take about a year to complete.