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Houston19514

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Everything posted by Houston19514

  1. Houston19514
    Wow that must have been quite a change after being at Greenspoint for 20 years, and seemingly rather sudden. . . I hope it was a promotion.
  2. Houston19514
    I'm pretty sure they are going to "fill in" the back side, so they'll need foundation for that structure. I think the garage is also part of Phase 1, but probably more like Phase 1B. They can start the garage later and have it finished in time for residents.
  3. Houston19514
    If you don't want to be seen as attacking, then quit attacking. I already acknowledged the building was larger than I had realized and was probably too big to be just a Fairfield. My initial positing of the Fairfield flag was just referring to the fact that the structure is inherently limited by ceiling heights etc, so IF it is going to be a Marriott flag, it is not likely to be one of the luxury flags, which is pretty much the only other flags not represented in downtown Houston. By the way, congratulations on your 20 year tenure with the Marriott Greenspoint Hotel.
  4. Houston19514
    Yes, the Savoy will be a Holiday Inn. But when one is presenting the idea that "Holiday Inn" would automatically prefer their old home to a different building, the actual ownership is pretty important... more than a mere technicality. I too am skeptical that the old (St. Joseph's Parkway) building is structurally compromised (Sorry to doubt you Purpledevil, but when one gets the easy-to-check facts, such as actual ownership, wrong, it raises red flags as to one's reliability as to the less-easy-to-check facts.) In the quick research I've done on the building, I found the interesting fact that, when opened, it was the second largest Holiday Inn in the world. The Holiday Inn opened in 1972 so it was not one of the "overbuilt" 1980s properties.
  5. Houston19514
    Parking and some temporary buildings during the north campus construction. They do not yet have long-term plans. They are working on a long-term master plan.
  6. Houston19514
    I have NO idea what, if anything, happening with this building. I have no idea as to the quality of the structure. I merely speculated that IF it is to be a Marriott flag (as rumored), among the Marriott flags not already flying in downtown Houston, Fairfield seemed the most likely. The subject building may be about to fall down on its own accord. I do not know. But I must say, the fact that the Savoy re-developers chose that building over this one tells us pretty much nothing about the relative or absolute quality of this structure. There are countless possible reasons for choosing one building over another... one that readily jumps to mind is "a 30 story Holiday Inn? Are you guys serious? I mean, that'd be bigger than a significant number of full service properties"; seriously, they may not have had any interest or sufficient capital to develop that large of a hotel. And, with respect, the fact that you wrote the above about the Holiday Inn buying their original property back etc etc. suggests you may be overstating your knowledge of the hotel industry and certainly are overstating your knowledge of that transaction. (For starters, Holiday Inn did not buy and does not own the old Savoy.)
  7. Houston19514
    Good point. I had not actually realized just how big the building is. Apparently when it opened as a Holiday Inn, it had 600 rooms. I suspect a remodel would result in fewer total rooms, but still... Perhaps a dual flag situation could be in the works. Fairfield Inn/Towneplace Suites perhaps?
  8. Houston19514
    Very true. Sadly, there are many Houstonians that are equally clueless.
  9. Houston19514
    I think you are correct. Last I saw, they did yet not have specific plans for the newly-acquired land.
  10. Houston19514
    ROFL. And keeping with the theme, Not only was the building not built by a Dallas developer; not only does RTKL not own the building; not only is RTKL not a developer; not only does Emporis not claim RTKL owns the building; RTKL is not based in Dallas. Other than that, nativehoustonian got the story exactly right. ;-)
  11. Houston19514
    I think BG Group Place is 630 ft
  12. Houston19514
    Yes. They certainly should
  13. Houston19514
    Not continuing this to argue. Just find it interesting... It is possible (and not at all unusual) that one has to switch to another elevator on 53 in order to access 54 and 55. And, as you suggested, for the purposes of discussing height of the building compared to others, it does not really matter whether those floors are occupied (FWIW, the building's website suggests they are occupied). Whether occupied or not, they clearly take up the same height as an occupied floor. Yes, there is more than 25 feet of headroom on the ground floor, but the other 54 (or 52) floors of the building are not stacked on top of that headroom. Three of the lower office tower floors are bisected by the archway and connected by pedestrian bridges. So by the time you get to the top of that ground floor "headroom", you are ready for floor 5. The first four floors take up about 100 feet total.
  14. Houston19514
    The building's (Bank of America Center's) website shows 55 occupied floors above ground, which agrees with Emporis and the Hines description of the building... Keep in mind that the 55 floors are not all stacked on top of the exceptionally tall lobby. In any event, the information we've previously had for 609 Main make it pretty easy. If they are indeed adding another 4 stories to the previous 48 stories, the building will almost certainly exceed 800 feet. (The previous information was 756 feet with 48 stories. The four additional stories would only have to average 11 feet tall for the building to achieve the 800 foot mark.) Bank of America Center: 780 feet. 55 stories + very small crown. (14.18 feet per floor) BG Group Place: 630 feet. 46 stories. No crown. (13.7 feet per floor) 609 Main: 800 feet. 52 stories. Significant crown. If we use the BG Group Place average of 13.7 feet per floor, 52 stories would get us to 712.4 feet, requiring a 87.6 foot crown to get to 800. Using BofA Center's average for 52 floors would get us to 737.4 feet, requiring only a 62.6 foot crown to get to 800.
  15. Houston19514
    Nothing wrong at all with having a Fairfield Inn in downtown Houston. We need relatively cheap, modest hotels, as well as all the other levels of hotels. Of the Marriott flags we currently lack, Fairfield looks like the best match for this building. It would be a good plus for downtown Houston. Just for comparison, there are 5 Fairfields in Manhattan. 2 in downtown Chicago. 1 in downtown Atlanta.
  16. Houston19514
    don't get too full of yourself. ;-) it wasn't just your hand-wringing to which I was referring. Regardless, my main point was to correct the record regarding the projected start date.
  17. Houston19514
    Relax everyone! What a bunch of nervous nellies we have around here. ;-) Pretty sure the earlier start date we've been given was 3rd Q 2014. FWIW, the cryptic "by the end of the year" rumor that set off this latest round of hand-wringing is sufficiently vague that it could very well be a 3rd quarter start.
  18. Houston19514
    Silly arche, expecting the Chronicle to have a clue... ;-)
  19. Houston19514
    Rainy weather?
  20. Houston19514
    It will look quite a bit different in 2015!
  21. Houston19514
    In spite of all that, there is almost zero reason to think this will not be built. Remember, Chevron also recently bought an additional block of downtown land.
  22. Houston19514
    We were also told the same thing about Chevron. You remember. . . a very wealthy father of a friend of a friend ... Chevron woke up one day and noticed that Exxon had recently invented the suburban campus, which was already wildly successful months before the first people moved in... In a panic, Chevron shopped their downtown buildings and started plans to move to Conroe. LOL There is nothing to be gained by presuming that a Houston journalist has chosen his/her words carefully. ;-)
  23. Houston19514
    But... wait... weren't we told they were going to build a campus in Conroe? ;-)
  24. Houston19514
    I guess it's just lucky for them that there already happens to be a hole drilled in the catenary pole to run the wiring to the walk sign.
  25. Houston19514
    Agree it seems unlikely as a Marriott. But perhaps JDBaker's source meant something in the Marriott family, not necessarily a "Marriott" hotel. They've been pretty aggressive in recent years about planting their flags in downtown Houston. FWIW, there are a number of their flags still not represented in downtown Houston, not just the full-service Marriott flag (which itself is coming in the form of the Marriott Marquis at the GRB. None of the following Marriott flags are represented in downtown Houston: Ritz-Carlton Bulgari Edition Renassaince AC Hotels Moxy Protea Fairfield Inn Towneplace Suites
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