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March 1, 2010
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“DISCOVER”ING DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT (PART III)
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We toured the park, we went up in Hess Tower, now we lead you through One Park Place, luxury apartments by The Finger Companies. It started accepting tenants last March and is 65% occupied, two months ahead of its absorption schedule.
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George Mallory allegedly climbed Everest “Because it’s there” and prez Marvy Finger tells us he built One Park Place because “It was just time to do a downtown tall building.” At first, he didn’t know anything about the area east of Main, but he heard whisperings of a city park and wanted to be near it. When he finally found a plot, he did a two-day in-house due diligence (he admits he didn’t quite get the geotechnical stuff done), and signed a contract four weeks after. He says he figured that with so many people around, he “could get 347 people to live there for one year.”
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Marvy built a 63.5k SF high-rise and had 18k SF of remaining space, so he built this resort-style pool. (This is maybe half of it.) We toured models on the 35th floor with views of the convention center, Toyota Center, and Discovery Green. Apartments go for $2500 and up with a minimum lease of one year. The pool and other amenities (fitness center, theatre room, party room) are on the 8th floor, and once a tenant is secured, there will be a grocery store on the first floor. Marvy tells us the last 90 days have been great for One Park Place, despite historically being the worst time frame. In tomorrow’s issue: last but not least, Embassy Suites!
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| BIG RETAIL DEVELOPMENT |
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Griffin Partners broke ground earlier this month on 25k SF of retail space in Nassau Bay Town Square. Prez Edward Griffin tells us he’s either the ultimate fool or the ultimate contrarian in beginning the mixed-use project across from the entrance to the Johnson Space Center. Retail’s terrible market and the current uncertainty around NASA look bad, but he believes the location is still good long-term. The new NASA Parkway bypass terminates less than 500 yards away, and it’s still the main east/west connector of I-45 to the bay. Tenants recognize the benefit of this traffic flow, too: Edward says Phase I of retail is 80% pre-leased.
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He hopes to finish the shell of Phase I in May and immediately start building Phase II. Another 25k SF mirroring Phase I, it already has two tenants and is 35% preleased. A remaining 23k SF of retail space will be built early next year. Rounding out the project is a 313-room apartment complex, three office buildings totaling 600k SF, a 176-room Marriott, a 27k SF conference center, and the Nassau Bay City Hall. There were 11 office buildings on the original site, and Griffin Partners tore down all but the most modern facility, which is 100% occupied. Those tenants will move into the new buildings once completed (and the old one will be torn down), but they aren’t yet pre-leased enough to get financing.
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Phase I of the Voyages at the Space Center, a Martin Fein Interests complex, is complete, and Edward was told 20 of the current 40 units are leased and the facility has the longest pre-opening prospect list of any Fein property. The Nassau Bay Town Square project is headed by GC Harvey and Hermes Architects. When respite is needed, Edward loves skiing and has gone twice already this year, once with each teenage son.
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REDUCE, RE-USE, RECYCLE
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| WorleyParsons’ Tom Hunter, Gensler’s Amanda Thomas, and BNIM’s Catherine Callaway picked a beautiful day for the AIA Committee On The Environment (COTE) bi-annual recycling drive. The program collects gently used material samples from architecture firms (fabric, carpet, flooring, etc) and lets local art teachers pick through them. Its seventh to date, this weekend brought in 5800 lbs (upping the program’s total to 18k lbs) from 24 firms. The next drive will be in September. Amanda is COTE’s 2010 chair (she and Catherine previously co-chaired), but she tells us the recycling drive is really Tom’s baby. |
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The drive was held at Re-Use Warehouse, a city-run program that accepts donations from individuals and companies, diverting waste from landfills, and distributes them free to non-profits. With a 501(c)(3) letter filed with Re-Use, they can take as much as they want. Project director Keith Koski tells us 85 have registered so far. Re-Use opened April 29 and has a 200 ton goal for its first year. The AIA donations brought it to 180 tons, so he thinks it’ll break that this month. He says most donations come from homeowners cleaning out their garages, but one notable donation was KIAH Ch. 39’s donation of its old TV studio set. The carpeted flooring piece went to a theater group: Keith and his wife went to the play Saturday night.
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| UPCOMING EVENTS |
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March 04 - CCIM 2010 Annual CRE Forecast Competition - See competitors face off in five markets. Keynote Mark Dotzour and capital markets speaker John Fenoglio. Westchase Marriott. 7:30am-noon. Info
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| Send story ideas to Catie Brubaker, catie@bisnow.com |
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This newsletter is a journalistic news source which accepts no payment for featured interviews. It is supported by conventional advertisers clearly identified in the right hand column. You have been selected to receive it either through prior contact or professional association. If you have received it in error, please accept our apologies and unsubscribe at bottom of the newsletter. © 2009, Bisnow on Business, Inc., 1323 Connecticut Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036. All rights reserved.
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