Dallas Skyline(WOW)Yes another Dallas to Houston comparison thread! (Austin: moving to, estate)
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I lived in Houston for 27 years before moving to Plano. In that time, I rarely recall Dallas ever coming up in discussions. The global oil and gas business employees and west houston neighbors jsut didnt think about or care about Dallas. I've found Dallas to focus on Houston more with a funny attitude about it...
I lived in Houston for 27 years before moving to Plano. In that time, I rarely recall Dallas ever coming up in discussions. The global oil and gas business employees and west houston neighbors jsut didnt think about or care about Dallas. I've found Dallas to focus on Houston more with a funny attitude about it...
I lived in Houston for 27 years before moving to Plano. In that time, I rarely recall Dallas ever coming up in discussions. The global oil and gas business employees and west houston neighbors jsut didnt think about or care about Dallas. I've found Dallas to focus on Houston more with a funny attitude about it...
Thats funny you say that it was the same way for me when i lived in SA for two years. SA was only mentioned in Houston in school when learning about the Alamo. But there if Houston comes up in conversation everyone has a million of opinions to throw out. I can only imagine how bad it would be in Dallas
Because that nice looking building should have never been built in the first place. They wanted it up so fast, they didn't think about what was already in place around it, and how it there all glass surface would affect it (Nasher Sculpture Garden).
That building was in planning stages for over a decade. That doesn't seem fast to me.
This is a re-post. I guess a lot of you failed to read it.
Quote:
For more than three years, Uptown’s Stoneleigh condo tower was a daily reminder of the real estate downturn.
The partially built luxury high-rise sat abandoned after its development partnership ran out of money in late 2008.
It was idled until about six weeks ago, when work crews returned to the stalled project and the long-gone construction crane came back.
The exterior of the 22-story tower off Maple Avenue “should be finished in 12 months,” said Kay Zafar of Centurion American Development Group, which is spending more than $30 million to complete the project.
Zafar said the exterior of the 75-unit condominium tower “will be exactly as was planned before” the original builders stopped work on the project.
The construction crane at the Stoneleigh Residences tower is just one of a flock of building cranes that will soon be popping up across Uptown.
The high-density urban district just north of downtown Dallas is seeing a quicker rebound in both construction and leasing than most other North Texas neighborhoods.
Land costs and building rents are basically back to where they were before the recession.
“Uptown continues to be the top market in Dallas for obvious reasons,” said Joseph Pitchford, chairman of Uptown Dallas Inc. “We are at almost $3 billion in [private property] value today, compared with downtown’s $4 billion.
“There will be a time that Uptown is more valuable than downtown,” Pitchford said.
Along with private-sector developments — which have added millions of square feet of homes and commercial space to the area — construction of public improvements such as the McKinney Avenue trolley line expansion and the new Klyde Warren Park above Woodall Rodgers Freeway are adding to Uptown’s appeal, Pitchford said.
“Everything that people have been saying about the park is true — it will link Uptown and downtown,” he said. “But I think it’s going to be better than even what people expect.”
The $110 million park stretching between Pearl and St. Paul streets is scheduled to open later this year.
By then, developers hope to have construction under way on at least one of the major office projects planned for Uptown.
The area was Dallas’ top office leasing market in 2011, and strong demand for business space has continued in 2012.
“If you looked at this market a year ago, it’s changed dramatically since then,” said Phil Puckett, executive vice president with CBRE Group. “It’s getting down to just a few good office spaces left.”
Despite the high building occupancy levels, Puckett said it’s still going to be tough for developers to kick off new office deals because of high lending standards imposed by banks.
“The big question is, will anybody build a new building?” he said.
Developers are ready — all they need are the tenants and financing.
Saint Ann Court
Harwood International’s newest office tower, the 26-story Saint Ann Court on Harry Hines Boulevard, is more than 96 percent leased. So the developer is finishing plans for its next office tower, to be built near Wolf and McKinnon streets.
Office space in the entire Harwood development is almost 96 percent leased, said Jihane Boury, Harwood vice president of leasing.
“We are ready to build our next building,” she said.
Downtown law firm Winstead PC will move into the project this summer.
Only about 15,000 square feet of the Harwood office space remains to be leased after Centex Corp. moved out.
Victory Park tower
Commercial real estate firm KDC has begun marketing a 23-story office tower to be built in the Victory Park project northwest of downtown.
“We’ve had a great response about the new Victory tower and its location,” said John Brownlee, executive vice president of KDC. “Attracting and retaining the best employees is so important today, and tenants want a vibrant location with great amenities.”
The 400,000-square-foot office tower would be built in partnership with Victory investor Estein & Associates.
“It is an exciting time to be part of Victory Park as we continue to announce more tenants and activities,” said Lance Fair, chief operating officer of Estein & Associates and vice president of Victory Park. “KDC is actively marketing its 23-story office tower, which has resulted in an increase of requests for tours of available space at Victory.”
Crescent plans
Crescent Real Estate Holdings LLC has yet to take the wraps off its planned office, retail and residential complex set for a vacant Uptown block at McKinney Avenue and Olive Street.
The strategically located development is being designed by renowned international architect Pelli Clarke Pelli.
The project will contain an office tower with up to 23 stories, 60,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, and 50 luxury residential units.
“We are in full swing” with planning the development, said Crescent senior vice president Pitchford. “We’re not ready to show design images until we get it right.
“But the tenants in the market are very well aware of the project and have had, in some cases, sneak previews of what we are planning and thinking.”
‘Space is scarce’
Commercial property brokers say businesses shopping the current supply of Uptown office space are running out of options and getting sticker shock from rising prices.
“The Uptown market is rapidly accelerating,” said Jon Altschuler, founding partner of Altschuler and Co. “Rents are spiking and space is scarce.
“If you are looking for 30,000 square feet or more, you don’t have many high-quality options. We are talking to a number of tenants in that exact situation.”
The biggest block of new office space is in Granite Properties’ 17Seventeen McKinney office tower on Akard Street north of Woodall Rodgers Freeway.
International business consulting firm Bain & Co. recently leased about 40,000 square feet in the tower and is moving its office from Las Colinas to Uptown.
“We have another 55,000 square feet of leasing proposals out,” said Granite COO Greg Fuller. “We are about 52 percent leased.”
Granite expects to have the market almost to itself until new buildings can get going.
Fuller doubts all the office projects being talked about in the area will start.
“Given the size of the buildings planned, you need to justify the land prices and cost of construction,” he said.
“And you are going to need to probably be 50 percent leased to make that happen.”
Earlier this year, Granite added to its Uptown holdings with the purchase of the three-building Cedar Maple Plaza office complex across from the Crescent.
The buildings contain about 120,000 square feet and are 90 percent leased.
Uptown’s landmark Crescent complex has recently scored major leases with some of its existing tenants that had considered moving.
Law firm McKool Smith, financial services firm Stephens Inc. and Deutsche Bank Securities have all extended their leases in the Crescent. The office buildings are about 90 percent leased.
Investor Caddo Holdings is upgrading the three Uptown office buildings it purchased in late 2011.
The seven-story Crosstex Energy building at 2501 Cedar Springs Road, the five-story 3400 Carlisle Street building on Lemmon Avenue and the three-story building at 2811 McKinney Avenue are more than 90 percent leased.
“We’ve been in the process of renovations of those properties,” said Dustin Schilling, chief executive officer of Caddo. “Uptown is a strong market.
“And there is a limited supply of land for new developments.”
Dwindling options
Broker Newt Walker, who’s handled some of Uptown’s biggest land sales, said the options for developers are dwindling.
“We’ve recently seen a lot change hands,” Walker said. “The availability of good land is all but exhausted.”
The big Cityplace development at the north end of Uptown has less than a handful of building sites left.
“Now that we are down to just 12 acres, we wish we had more,” said Cityplace president Neal Sleeper. “Things in general here are picking up.
“Our apartment occupancies are high and rental rates are at the top of the market.”
Cityplace is selling one of its last prime development sites on McKinney Avenue to developer Forest City, which plans to build a 20-story residential tower.
The building will have almost 400,000 square feet of residential space and 37,000 square feet of retail and will be across the street from the popular West Village complex.
“The deal we are doing with Forest City is on track to kick off this fall,” Sleeper said.
Uptown is arguably Dallas’ best market for rental communities.
“Occupancy in Uptown is very strong, 96.6 percent, and year-over-year rent growth is significant at 6.5 percent,” said Jay Parsons of apartment analyst MPF Research. “Obviously, Uptown has added a large number of new apartments over the past few years, but if you looked only at the Uptown apartment data, you’d have no idea there was ever a recession.
“Rents are well above pre-recession levels, and newly built units typically get leased up quickly, given that it’s become Dallas’ mecca for young adults coming out of college,” Parsons said.
Cityplace apartments
Apartment builder JLB Partners has two Uptown projects.
JLB is building a 294-unit apartment building in Cityplace at Blackburn Street and U.S. Highway 75. The Allure building will open in September, said JLB’s Scott Sherwood.
And JLB has teamed up with CWS Capital Partners to start work on a 321-unit, five-story apartment building at Lemmon and Oak Grove avenues.
That building will be ready in first-quarter 2013, Sherwood said.
The biggest Uptown residential building under construction is StreetLights Residential’s 17-story Taylor apartment high-rise at Carlisle and Bowen streets.
The 308-unit rental project is just a block from the Katy Trail and is set to open in 2014.
StreetLights Residential CEO Doug Chesnut said the builder has gotten positive feedback about its first development since the company was started last year.
“We think we have a great site between McKinney Avenue and Turtle Creek,” Chesnut said.
I like that Houston building just a half of a hairs better,but it does not put it to shame in no form or fashion.
I don't think buildings are in the business of putting other buildings to shame. One might be nicer than the other but putting another to shame is odd when describing look of buildings.
Maybe if height was being discussed, I dunno.
BTW the Austonian is the tallest of the three but my least favorite. Proof that size isn't everything lol.
The Austonian is 620 feet
The Chevron Tower is 600 feet (twice as tall as the 'official' Chevron tower in San Fran) and
The Museum Tower is 560 feet
Quick facts. The Austonian at 622 ft is the tallest building in Austin but would rank at number 11 in Dallas behind the 47 year old Elm Place and would rank at number 17 in Houston (where the 49 year old Exxon building now ranks).
Odd that Austin is only now reaching heights that Houston and Dallas reached 50 years ago. I wonder if Austin will ever get a Chase Tower tall building. I dunno the Chase Tower is 400 feet taller than Austin's tallest. That is an additional skyscraper taller and the building is 30 years old this year. The Austonian would get lost in Downtown Houston
Actually the official height of The Austonian is 683' ft. It would rank 7th tallest in Dallas and 13th tallest in Houston.
I count to the the roof of the building. Wikipedia says the roof is at 622
Shell Plaza for example is 715 feet, but with the antennae it gets to 1000 feet and becomes the second tallest building in Texas so I prefer to just stick to the roof for counts
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