Houston19514

The Mercantile Block is nothing like HP. The Mercantile Block is a residential development with a smattering of retail (30,000 square feet of retail). HP is a retail and office project (360,000 square feet of retail plus roughly 200,000 square feet of office space). The Mercantile Block (375 apartments - 30,000 square feet of retail) is really fairly comparable to One Park Place (346 apartments - 22,000 square feet of retail). (And btw, the renderings indeed show the entire project. They are renovating the main clock tower building, and have already demolished three smaller complex buildings which will be replaced by one new 15-story apartment building)

I read his site regularly. He has a lot of good stuff. If you want to balance his anti-zoning, pro-market views, just keep spending time here at HAIF, you'll get plenty of the pro-zoning point of view ;-)

While I think the "All-Stars" theme is a bit lame, I'm thinking that might be primarily a marketing scheme to raise funds for the project. The proposed project itself looks great. There is no sports theme whatsoever, which makes me wonder if some of you critics even looked at their website.

The Discovery Green website now has some nice construction photos posted. Discovery Green construction photos

Hopefully, they will at least build an attractive garage that can later have an office and/or residential tower added on top. What is the actual status of this proposed garage anyway? Does anyone know? Perhaps with the tightening office market they will build a garage and tower... (could they build enough garage there to handle the parking needs of Heritage Plaza and a new tower, I wonder?)

The First City Tower Garage and the Howell Building, both directly across Dallas Street, are hooked in to the tunnel system. Those would seem to be the closest connections.

Yea, I think you got it. The proportions don't look quite right on that particular map. You can get a better idea of the size if you use live search, yahoomaps or mapquest and look at the satellite view. And the building marked "Allen Center Garage" is the parking building that can have an office building built on top of it.

And it was very interesting indeed. I wish they had a little more info about it on their website. Like, when it was proposed, by whom, etc. Roche Dinkeloo has done some great work, including the Conoco HQ. I just read an article from Cite magazine about the Conoco HQ. Very interesting and I had really not previously been aware of how great the architecture was out there. The article is included in the RDA book "Ephemeral City" (I think that's the name)

I would describe it as I-45, Clay, and Dallas (directly across Dallas from the Allen Center Parking garage and the Metropolitan Racquet Club parking garage, and directly across Clay from the Goddard/Heritage site you speak of, and man, what a waste of property it would be to build just a parking garage on that site... but I digress.)

See post #2093. In summary, it looks like nearly half of the total space is still available. LOTS of room for many small and versatile shops.

What parking garage are you talking about?

I TOTALLY agree. I'm pleased to see St. Thomas prospering and growing, but MAN, that black lab complex with the library adjoining, is one of the nicest spots on Montrose. I hope St. Thomas can be encouraged to leave the retail there permanently. The presence of that retail (and particularly the Black Lab itself) also adds to the campus life and ambience. Perhaps they could just add to the parking structure in behind...

Two of your three sites are in the wrong locations. Your blue marking should be on the parking garage just to the north (the one that is attached to 1400 Smith via skywalk). Your orange marking should be even further north and a little west, just to the north of the parking garage that has the racquet club on top (the black-ish rectangle at the upper left area of your image. I would mark an image for you, but I don't know how to do that. :-( Judging from the descriptive language on the Roche Dinkeloo website, that design appears to be a for a past project that is not happening. ("The design was for two buildings on a single block, with the entrances to the central atrium lobby marked by monumental columns. The buildings, of varying heights, would have produced a strong identity on the Houston skyline. The exterior was to have been a graphically delineated skin of glass and smooth stone with the structure tapering upward to the stepped pyramidal tops.

Interesting! Would love to see the original development plans. Your post got me interested in the owner of 1600 Smith (Continental Center 1). I discovered it is owned by Trizec Hahn / Brookfield Properties. Found some very interesting stuff on the "Development" page of the Brookfield Properties website: -- "1500 Smith Street, 800,000 square feet. The last prime developable site on Smith Street in Houston's CBD core, 1500 Smith Street is strategically located between two premier Brookfield properties, Continental Center 1 and 4 Allen Center (1400 Smith). The site could accommodate a 800,000 - one million square foot office tower with 25,000-30,000 square foot floor plates; sky bridges would link 1500 Smith to both adjoining centers. In-place infrastructure exists, including parking and loading dock." -- "Gateway Site, 700,000 square feet. A 2.5 acre parcel, the Gateway site would have a sky bridge connection to the Allen Center and unobstructed views to the west. The Gateway site is surrounded by historical parkland to the north, low-rise residential to the west and the Metropolitan Racquet Club garage to the south." -- "Allen Center Garage, 700,000 square feet. Located in the heart of the Allen Center/Cullen Center complex, the Allen Center Garage could accommodate an office building above it. The site fronts on historic Antioch Park and would have unobstructed views to the west."

That's the only parcel of land between the Continental Building and Chevron, so that's what I'm presuming...

Wow, that seems like a small piece of land. . . and unfortunately, it's currently green space :-(

Sounds awesome! Thanks for the info Ricco. I'm curious about the site. There isn't really much land available near the Continental Building. I hope wherever it is it will replace a surface parking lot rather than replacing another building.

Where are our on-the-spot reporters today? (I am referring to you HAIFers who have been doing such a good job with the up-to-the-minute reports of activities on the site). What's going on today? Are they still parking cars on two blocks?

I don't think I saw anything about 4 blocks of new construction, but you are correct: Whatever "they" intended by that four block reference (and I don't even know who said it), the project is as you say. And yes, they have a long-term master lease on the parking garage and it will be attached by skywalk.

No, they are counting the parking garage.

The reference to 4 blocks apparently includes the Pavilions parking garage across Polk to the south. I was wondering the same thing, since Puma doesn't even seem to know how many screens they have at Angelika.

Consider the source... ;-)

Yes, west across Main Street is the Marriott Courtyard, Marriott Residence Inn and Humble Tower apartments (note, RESIDENTIAL). This building also has retail on its first floor, some filled, some slated to be filled soon I believe. Diagonally across Main to the northwest is Macy's. Hopefully, the construction of HP will get them off their duff to bring us a remodeled and enlarged flagship Macy's. Across Dallas to the north, we have the Sakowitz Building, the first floor of which facing Dallas will be all retail. Next is the Howell Building (office building). I don't know what they have on the first floor there, but in photos of the building it looks like it would be amenable to retail facing Dallas St. Next is the First City Garage. Perhaps the structure would allow for retail to be built on the south end of the first floor, I don't know. Diagonally to the northeast across Caroline is the back of the Four Seasons Hotel. To the east across Caroline is Josphine's Italian restaurant and a great-looking little japanese restaurant or something like that, and I'm not sure what else is in that block. But whatever it is, the buildings would be great for more retail. Diagonally to the southeast, across Caroline and Polk, is a surface parking lot :-( To the south across Polk, is the South Texas College of Law. Then the 1301 Fannin Building (office tower). I think there might be some retail space on the ground floor of this building. If not, it appears that it might be amenable to retail space. The next block is the parking garage that is part of HP (now officially named the Pavilions Garage, I believe). Again, perhaps the north end of the ground floor could be made into retail space? I don't know. But it will be connected to the Pavilions via a skywalk, I believe. The last stop on our tour is to the southwest across Main and Polk. Here stands the Travis Tower. I'm not sure if there's much opportunity for ground floor retail on that one. Bottom line, there appears to be significant space for street level retail surrounding HP.

I think you are exactly right, Hizzy. And who really cares if the Pavilions developers build residential or if someone else does? (and BTW, someone else is, right around the corner at One Park Place, and we hear there is a lot more coming along soon). Downtown is a giant "mixed-use project." Some people need to get over the idea that every project must contain every mixed-use element in order to be successful. The urban elements not contained in HP are very nearby (department store, residential, hotels, other retail, etc etc etc., with more to come)