Key council vote set for development near Bush

Key council vote set for development near Bush: "A Houston developer plans to lease 10 acres near the George Bush Intercontinental Airport from the Houston Airport System to build a mixed-use project. It would be the first of its kind for the airport system.

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San Antonio apartment community to make way for major mixed-use project

San Antonio Business Journal - by Tricia Lynn Silva

A local developer's purchase of an apartment community in North Central San Antonio could hold the key to jump-starting new development along a major artery feeding into the expanding Fort Sam Houston.

Philip Bakke, president of Bakke Development Corp., has purchased the El Chaparral Apartments. The community is located on approximately 10 acres of land at 3819 Harry Wurzbach.

His plan for the property: Redevelop the site into a mixed-use community known as the Village at Oakwell Farms.

The current design for the Village calls for roughly 300,000 square feet of new development. The bulk of that space, some 234,000 square feet, will be earmarked for 218 apartment units.

Austin To Get A 30-story Pelli-designed Tower

(AUSTIN, TX) -- The Austin Museum of Art (AMOA) unveiled a rendering for the new downtown Museum facility and multi-purpose co-development that will be built on the block it owns at Fourth and Guadalupe Streets today. Additionally, a lead gift of $3 million from Bettye H. and William C. Nowlin for this phase of the institution’s capital campaign was announced. The new Museum building will be developed in partnership with international developer Hines and acclaimed architectural firm Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects.

“We’ve chosen to make this additional gift to AMOA, the largest gift we’ve made to any capital campaign, because this project is affordable, achievable, and what’s right for Austin right now,” said Bettye Nowlin, whose decade of philanthropic support for Austin civic and cultural organizations include service as the current president of the AMOA Board of Trustees. “This truly will be Austin’s Museum of Art, featuring the work of local, regional, and national artists and reflecting the diversity and vitality of the area presented in a way that’s uniquely Austin.”

AMOA anticipates a campaign of approximately $23 million to cover hard and soft construction costs, transition expenses, and an increase of $2 million to the operating endowment. Funds already committed for the new project total 60 percent of the goal, and are comprised of donations remaining from the previous campaigns, the sale of the land, the Nowlin’s lead gift, and several anonymous gifts, leaving just over $9 million for AMOA to reach their goal.

“We’ve spent the past five years strengthening our organization, building our audiences, and broadening our base of support in order to strategically position ourselves to succeed with this carefully-planned step forward,” explained Dana Friis-Hansen, AMOA’s Executive Director. “We’re proud of what we’ve achieved downtown in our current facility—great exhibitions with established and emerging artists, the permanent FamilyLab, and innovative education programs for schoolchildren, families and adults—but a larger purpose-built facility will allow us to do so much more.”

The new downtown facility will feature a three-story 40,000-square foot space at Fourth and Guadalupe Streets more than doubling the exhibition and education spaces from the Museum’s present location. This will enable the Museum to increase the size, frequency, and variety of art on view, and expand educational programs.

The currently undeveloped block just south of Republic Square will also be home to Museum Tower, a 30-story, 425,000-square-foot office building that will be the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified office project in downtown Austin. Both the museum and the tower will be designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects of New Haven, CT, and developed by Hines, the international real estate firm. The Museum’s owner’s representative will be David Stauch, President and Founder of Herndon, Stauch & Associates, an Austin firm specializing in project and construction management. Bart Matheney of Aquila Commercial will be the exclusive leasing agent for Museum Tower.
The lead architect at Pelli Clarke Pelli echoed Nowlin’s assessment. “Austin is a city very close to our hearts,” said senior principal Fred Clarke, a graduate of the UT-Austin School of Architecture. “We have seen it become one of the most vibrant and successful communities in the country. Designing the museum, one of the most progressive programs in the country, as well as designing a new tower for the premier developer in Texas makes this one of the most significant commissions in the city.”

Hines has operated in Austin since the mid-1970s, when it developed one of the city’s first modern office buildings, the Bank of America Tower located at Fifth and Congress. The firm owns and manages 301 Congress, which is four blocks from the new museum site, and has developed office and civic projects around the globe, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Audrey Jones Beck Building designed by Rafael Moneo. Hines recently announced plans to develop a Jean Nouvel-designed mixed-use tower in midtown Manhattan adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) that will include a 50,000-square-foot expansion of the museum’s galleries. The Hines and Pelli Clarke Pelli team was recently selected to develop the Transbay Transit Center and Tower in San Francisco. In addition, the two firms are working together on a major mixed-use project at Boston’s historic South Station.

“Environmental sensitivity and energy efficiency have been distinguishing features of our projects for decades, and we are looking forward to developing the first LEED-certified office building in downtown Austin,” said Hines Vice President Travis Overall. “We are very pleased to partner with AMOA in bringing two important projects to the last undeveloped block in this area of the CBD.”

The new development will add to the strength of the civic and cultural district emerging around Republic Square, including Austin’s City Hall, Ballet Austin Dance Education Center, renovated Austin Music Hall, the growing retail and residential activity along Second Street, and planned Austin City Limits Studio, and future federal courthouse.
“Strong cultural institutions like the Austin Museum of Art provide the backbone for vibrant urban centers,” said Austin Mayor Will Wynn. “The permanent downtown location for AMOA will be one of downtown’s cultural jewels, transforming a surface parking lot into a 21st century museum and a LEED-certified office tower while continuing to build the city’s tax base and bring life to our urban core.”

Pearland Town Center to add 20 new shops

Houston Business Journal

Twenty more retailers and restaurants are being added to the 1.2 million-square-foot Pearland Town Center mixed-use development set to open on July 30.

Those set to open include: Ann Taylor Loft, Coach, Icing, Journey's, Yankee Candle, Select Comfort, Jos. A. Bank, James Avery, Kay Jewelers, Gymboree, New York & Co., Children's Place, Zumiez, A'gaci, Fossil, Learning Express, Express, Cork Wine Bar, Marble Slab Creamery, Gamestop, Vans and Paciugo Gelato, according to development owner CBL & Associates Properties Inc. (NYSE: CBL).

The retailers join anchors Dillard's, Macy's and Barnes & Noble, as well as fashion retailers including Chico's, Brooks Brothers Country Club, Hollister Co., The Buckle and Forever 21.

Pearland Town Center will also have a 110-room, four-story Courtyard by Marriott hotel, office and multifamily residential space above the retail, a 25-acre lake and miles of walking paths and parks.

Mixed-Use Condo in Galveston, Laffite's Cove

Houston Business Journal - by Jennifer Dawson Houston Business Journal

A major league investor group has assembled 35 acres in Galveston with plans to develop high-end condominiums and a new marina and dry-stack boat storage, as well as to refurbish the old Stewart Mansion.

The majority investors are Todd Edwards and Robert Schwartz, who own Houston-based Stonehenge Real Estate Investment Co.

Other players in the deal include Roy Oswalt, pitcher for the Houston Astros; former Astros pitcher Woody Williams; Steve Sparks, former pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks; and Houston real estate broker Jimmy Pappas. The all-star investor lineup originated in Houston's Memorial area, where Edwards, Pappas and cousins Schwartz and Williams grew up. Edwards met Sparks at Texas A&M University, where both played baseball. And the men met Oswalt through his former teammate, Williams.

The group is teaming up to develop Laffite's Harbor -- a 35-unit condo project and 104-boat covered sling slip marina on Galveston's west end by Pirate's Cove and Laffite's Cove. Homes in the waterfront community will range from $760,000 for a 1,900-square-foot unit to $1.6 million for a 4,000-square-foot penthouse.

CLICK HERE to read an article in from the Galveston, TX newspaper.

CLICK HERE to read an article in from the Houston, TX newspaper.

14-acre mixed-use development around Lake Conroe

By BROOKE HATCHETT
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

A new development on Lake Conroe is bringing shops, restaurants and resort-style condominiums to the waterside.

Waterpoint is a 14-acre mixed-use development at the intersection of Texas 105 and Tejas Boulevard between Conroe and Montgomery. It's slated to have 63 condominiums and 100,000 square feet of retail space, said Scott Gordon, principal of Gordon Partners, the Houston-based commercial real estate company heading up the retail aspect of the project.

Several retailers have already opened their doors to the public and construction crews broke ground on the condominiums in early April. The combination of lakeside property and steady traffic made the property the ideal locale for the project, Gordon said.

"(With) 14 acres total on the lake mixed with 40,000 cars driving by on (Texas) 105 everyday makes this the right piece of land to build a mixed-use development on," he said.

Gordon has been... Continue Reading