Month: January 2019

Photos: Heights Mercantile, downtown apartment tower, more win ULI Houston’s 2019 annual awards

The Houston District Council of the Urban Land Institute announced the winners of its 2019 Development of Distinction Awards on Jan. 29.

Nearly 200 guests attended the awards event at The Astorian, according to a press release. The awards recognize developments and open spaces that demonstrate best practices in design, construction, economic viability, healthy places, marketing and management.

Click through the slideshow above to see the winners of the 2019 awards and read more about them.

The Star, a historic building redeveloped into a residential tower, beat out a brand-new office tower to win the “For-Profit – Large” category. Heights Mercantile, which was recently sold to an out-of-state investor, beat out another mixed-use redevelopment in East Downtown to win the “For-Profit – Small” category. The large category is for projects over 100,000 square feet, and the small category is for those under 100,000 square feet, per the release.

In the “Not-for-Profit” category, the newly built, sustainability-focused headquarters for a local organization called HARC beat the redevelopment of a well-known aquarium.

The restoration of Houston’s Emancipation Park won the “Open Space” category, beating a waterway project in The Woodlands and a flood-mitigation project in Clear Lake, the latter of which took home the “People’s Choice” award.

“Houston-area developers are creating places for people of all ages to convene, whether for work, entertainment or healthy activity,” Houston District Council Board Chair Abbey Roberson said in a November press release announcing the finalists. “These projects show that Houston is on the leading edge of national building trends.”

Finalists were selected by a nomination panel of Houston real estate leaders that included Acho Azuike, DC Partners; Scott Saenger, Jones|Carter; Sherry Weesner, Scenic Houston; Roger Soto, HOK; and Anissa Sabawala, O’Donnell/Snider.

The following three national real estate experts toured all of the projects in November to select the winners:

  • Kim Kacani, president of HHHunt Communities in Virginia;
  • Amanda Rhein, executive director of nonprofit Atlanta Land Trust in Georgia;
  • Bob Springer, senior vice president of commercial real estate banking for the commercial real estate banking team of Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Colorado.

Texas Capital Bank to relocate Galleria-area office amid growth

Dallas-based Texas Capital Bank NA (Nasdaq: TCBI) is relocating its Galleria-area office to accommodate its strong growth in the Houston market.

Texas Capital Bank leased 65,000 square feet at Four Oaks Place in the Uptown submarket, according to a spokesperson from Texas Capital Bank. The Dallas bank is building out space on floors 1, 15, 16 and 17, according to building permits filed with the City of Houston. The cost of the build out for the first floor is valued at $1 million, while floors 15, 16 and 17 each cost $1.5 million, per the building permits. In total, Texas Capital Bank is spending some $5.5 million on the office remodel.

Houston-based O’Donnell/Snider Construction LLC is the contractor handling the office build out, while Dallas-based Benson Hlavaty Architects Inc. designed the space, according to a Texas Capital Bank spokesperson. Mike Boehler at JLL and Lucian Bukowski at CBRE jointly represented the tenant in the office lease and Transwestern represented the landlord, according to Transwestern.

“As a result of our impressive growth in Houston over the past five years, where we’ve essentially tripled our loan and deposit base in the market, we are moving to accommodate our expanding business,” said John Sarvadi, Houston executive managing director for Texas Capital Bank, in a statement to the HBJ. “We look forward to continuing to serve our premier commercial banking and wealth management clients in our new space at Four Oaks Place.”

The bank’s current Galleria-area executive office is 48,000 square feet at 1 Riverway — less than a mile away from Four Oaks Place. Texas Capital Bank’s banking center on the first floor of 1 Riverway will close, but it will reopen on the first floor space of Four Oaks Place, according to a Texas Capital Bank spokesperson. The project is expected to be completed by March 1, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.

Texas Capital Bank closed its 1 Riverway location for nearly two months starting in August 2017 after its space flooded during Hurricane Harvey’s devastation.

Texas Capital Bank also has an executive office located at 2930 W. Sam Houston Parkway N. in the Kempwood Building, according to the bank’s website. In October 2018, Houston-based MetroNational sold the 45,125-square-foot Kempwood Building to Amerix Capital.

Texas Capital Bank is the 13th-largest bank in the Houston market, according to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. As of June 30, 2018, Texas Capital Bank had over $2.41 billion in local deposits, per the FDIC. The bank does not operate any retail branches in Houston. Texas Capital Bank is a subsidiary of Dallas-based Texas Capital Bancshares Inc.

On Jan. 23, Texas Capital Bank released its fourth-quarter earnings. The bank recorded a net income of $71.9 million during the fourth quarter — a 61 percent increase from the fourth quarter a year before. But, the bank’s earnings per share of $1.38 fell behind market estimates of $1.60, according to Zacks Equity Research.