NewsTalk Texas

HOUSTON - Texas Medical Center harnesses the collective energy of 54 hospitals, medical schools, research institutes and other member institutions.

TMC has created a program targeted at helping veterans interested in continuing their careers in the health care industry.

This program, called “Hiring Red, White and You!” will help veterans transfer the skills, knowledge and abilities developed in the armed forces to jobs in the TMC health care community.

Texas Medical Center employers are seeking qualified candidates in a variety of fields including administrative support, allied health, education, maintenance, finance, food service, information technology, laboratory technology, nursing, research, security, logistics and transportation.

Every American owes an immeasurable debt of gratitude to our veterans and their families. We hope that we can begin to repay this debt through our Texas-made “Hiring Red White and You!” program.

Register at TMC Veterans Initiative: “Hiring Red, White, and You!”

Listen to Podcast 173 for this story...and more!

HOUSTON - After a $10 million capital infusion, the remodeled 42,500-sf Viva Cinema, complete with adjacent cantina and an entertainment center, will open May 31, 2013.

The theater is located at the PlazAmericas Shopping Center and will have eight screens with auditoriums that have between 150 and 450 seats. Connected to the theater will be the 4,500-sf Viva Sports Cantina.

An adjacent 4,500-square-foot party area can be rented for children's or teenagers' parties. It includes a piñata arena and is modeled after a successful party space in Mexico.

The theater will show a mix of first-run movies in English with Spanish subtitles, as well as popular films from Mexico, Spain, Brazil and Argentina in Spanish with English subtitles.

The theater has hired 65 employees so far. The mall was previously Sharpstown Mall.

Read more at the Houston Chronicle.

SUGAR LAND - Texas-based Sitterle Homes will break ground in May 2013 on its first Houston development with Riverstone; a spacious master-planned community.

With exclusive shopping within Towne Center, established cultural art centers, and high-end restaurants found in Sugar Land, Sitterle anticipates a strong buying interest in its communities that carry competitive pricing starting at $280,000 with floor plans ranging from 1,900 to 2,700 sf.

Riverstone will have a total of 3,700 acres with 6,000 homes planned.

Read more at PRWEB and at the Houston Business Journal.

PEARLAND - Three hospitals have been announced since October 2012, according to the Pearland Economic Development Corp.

Memorial Hermann Health System is the latest agency to announce plans to build a local medical campus. The $80 million project will include an acute care hospital and an outpatient convenient care center. The project will be built on 40 acres on the southbound side of Texas 288 near FM 518.

The campus' 64-bed hospital will include an intensive care unit, operating rooms, cardiac catheterization labs, medical/surgical units, women's care and neonatology services. The hospital will have the capacity to be expanded to a 128-bed facility.

The other hospital projects include a $71 million 30-bed, 144,000-sf acute care HCA hospital at Texas 288 and Shadow Creek Pkwy. The facility is expected to open in January 2015.

University General Hospital has announced plans to construct a 50-bed acute care hospital on Pearland Pkwy. This hospital will be part of a multipurpose medical complex development that also will include a 50,000-sf medical office building and a 42-unit memory care facility to complement University General's 80-unit Trinity Oaks senior living community on Pearland Pkwy.

In addition to the hospitals coming to the area, Pearland has been gaining a number of other medical facilities.

Kelsey-Seybold is currently building a four-story, $36 million administrative headquarters on an 18-acre site at Kirby Dr. and Shadow Creek Pkwy.

Additionally, Pearland Surgery Center recently completed a three-story medical office building at 15015 Kirby Dr., and Texas Children's Hospital has located pediatrics and OB/GYN facilities next door to each other on Broadway.

Read more at the Houston Chronicle.

HOUSTON - Connection at Buffalo Pointe, a 352-unit luxury Class A multifamily property located adjacent to Houston’s Texas Medical Center has been purchased by CBRE Global Investors. The sellers were Embrey Partners and Walton Street Capital.

Connection at Buffalo Pointe is a 2012 development of Embrey Partners.

Multifamily housing has been one of the hottest sectors for Houston, according to a CBRE market report. Occupancy moved above 90 percent for the first time in first quarter 2013 and rental rates are near all-time highs.

Read more at GlobeSt.com.

HOUSTON - Boxer Property has purchased the 75,289-sf Northwest Central Plaza, a two-story office building at 5500 NW Central Dr. The building, located off the US 290 corridor in northwest Houston, complements Boxer's next-door property at 5600 NW Central Dr.

Though the seller of the 1980s property was not indicated, the Harris County Central Appraisal District lists it as MLCV NWC LP, an offshoot of ML Realty Partners of Itasca, IL. HCAD also indicates that the seller owned the property since 2001, and that it's valued at $3.8 million.

Read more at GlobeSt.com.

HOUSTON - The JW Marriott Houston Downtown Hotel is undergoing an $80.8 million renovation, with an expected completion date for spring 2014.

The project, at 806 Main St., is a renovation of the Samuel F. Carter building, which was acquired by Pearl Hospitality.

The funding includes several sources, $31 million in owner equity, $42.5 million in senior financing and $7.35 million in financing from the city.

The new luxury hotel will feature 323 guest rooms, a restaurant and full-service bar, a spa, health club, an executive lounge, swimming pool and 10,000 sf of meeting space. The project will create 177 new jobs, 150 of them permanent.

This project will be the first Houston project for Fort Worth-based Pearl Hospitality. The company owns and operates hotels in Fort Worth and Lubbock.

Read more at the Houston Business Journal.

HOUSTON - Texas Children’s Hospital announced that it will open $10 million state-of-the-art sports medicine clinic at its campus near Katy.

Slated to open in August 2013, the 28,500-sf facility will focus completely on young athletes. It will include a 3,000-sf gym, two radiology rooms, three casting rooms, 16 exam rooms and advanced technologies.

Read more at the Houston Chronicle.

HOUSTON - The Houston-based Tennis Express recently renovated the former Syms store at 10770 Westheimer.

With 41,000 sf, the building contains twice as much shopping space as its previous location, a warehouse that stocks some 5,000 products for shipment worldwide, and a full-size tennis court for trying out racquets.

Read more at the Houston Chronicle.

RICHWOOD, BRAZORIA COUNTY - Development in Richwood continues at a bristling pace, with the focal point of growth at the intersection of FM 2004 and Hwy. 288-B.

Single-family housing is the major area of development, and the city is working on tax abatements for apartment homes.

• Audubon Woods Three will add more than 60 new houses in the subdivision.
• Brazos Crossing has three building permits for new houses to go in, with two others under construction.
• Oakwood Shores, a 900-acre, 338-lot subdivision, has six houses under construction.
• A 400-unit apartment complex also is in the design stage for FM 2004 and Highway 288-B.

The city’s population has reached about 5,100 people, a milestone that allowed a change in city government status from general law to home rule. The charter lets city officials control what goes on the newly annexed land and how structures are built via building codes and subdivision regulations.

The new city hall is expected to help to attract people. The building, under construction along Hwy. 288-B, will house city administrative offices, the police department and municipal court. The building is 12,000 sf compared to the current city hall, which is 3,400 sf.

Read more at The Brazosport Facts.

HOUSTON - The Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) has released home sales data for April 2013.

Select cities are represented below along with statistics from the HAR MLS area as a whole.

*Data includes single-family only and represents ten select cities sorted by number of units sold.

More data is available at Houston Association of Realtors.

PASADENA - Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP is investing $106 million to purchase additional land, construct a dock and expand its capacity on the Houston Ship Channel.

The purchase includes about 20 acres adjacent to its terminal in Pasadena, with plans to build nine new tanks with storage capacity of 1.2 million barrels at its Galena Park terminal, and build a new barge dock to relieve barge congestion in the Houston Ship Channel.

The acreage will support a future crude condensate and refined products terminal. The new barge dock will enhance existing infrastructure at the Pasadena terminal and will provide capacity to handle up to 50 barges each month.

Read more at the Houston Business Journal.

HOUSTON - Following a close to three-year hold, Harbor Group International LLC has disposed of the 696-unit Fairfield Creek apartments for $34 million. The buyer was RB Associates.

Harbor Group acquired the Class B complex at 12510 S. Green Dr. in July 2010 for $27 million from a lender that had foreclosed on the asset. During its hold, Harbor Group invested approximately $1.52 million in property improvements.

Fairfield Creek was built in 1984 and consists of one-, two- and three-bedroom units averaging 781 sf per unit. The property is situated on 24.82 acres and is comprised of 52 buildings; 34 two-story buildings and 18 three-story buildings.

Read more at GlobeSt.com.

HOUSTON - The Class A Retreat at Vintage Park Apartments is under construction in northwest Houston.

The 323-unit apartment community will be located in the Vintage development near Hwy. 249 on Louetta Rd., adjacent to the Vintage Park Lifestyle Center. The three-story project will include attached and detached garages.

The site was chosen in part because of its proximity to Vintage Park’s 420,000 sf of retail and commercial space.

Georgia-based Pegasus Residential LLC will manage leasing, which is scheduled to begin first quarter next year. Construction on the apartments is expected to conclude summer 2014.

Read more at the Houston Business Journal.

RICHMOND, FORT BEND COUNTY - The 190,000-sf Santikos Palladium AVX & Entertainment Complex, at 7301 Grand Pkwy., is set to open May 16, 2013. Construction costs are estimated at $35 million, according to state filings.

Altogether, the facility will include 22 screens, four of which will be dedicated solely to independent and art films. Eight auditoriums will offer a VIP section, where guests will be able to order food and drinks during the movie.

The facility includes five bars, five cafés, a sports lounge, a 16-lane bowling alley and an arcade.

Instead of the standard box office, the Palladium will have 27 self-service kiosks.

Read more at the Houston Business Journal.

HOUSTON - Midtown today reveals an area exploding with potential. Developers who have held on to land for years are now starting to develop. Here’s a sampling of projects underway in Midtown.

Pearl Midtown by The Morgan Group will sit on 1.14 acres at 3101 Smith St. The urban, 154-unit, Class A apartment community will stand five stories and is set for a January 2014 completion. It will include a mix of one- and two-bedroom units that average about 850 sf. Construction costs are estimated at $13 million, according to state filings.

Midtown Broadstone by Alliance Residential Co. is located at the corner of 3800 Main St. The six-story, 203-unit project broke ground in January 2013 with plans to include four floors of apartments above a two-story, 284-space parking garage. Construction costs are estimated at $18 million, according to state filings.

In first quarter 2012, both Class A and Class B office asking rents averaged $25.16 per sf. In the same period this year, the average asking rents for both classes inched up to $25.79, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.’s Houston office statistics.

Read more at the Houston Business Journal.

HOUSTON - Ground has broken on Rice University’s George R. Brown Tennis Complex. The $8 million facility, to be located near Rice Stadium, is scheduled for completion in time for the 2014 season.

At 126,000 sf, the facility will feature 14 tennis courts, coaches' offices, locker rooms, training and equipment rooms, and covered spectator seating. Competition-quality lights will offer the ability to play night matches.

One of the biggest changes will be a reconfigured court setup that includes two rows of six courts, along with two practice courts.

Read more at the Houston Chronicle.

HOUSTON - Griffin Capital Corp. has acquired the five-story, 149,683-sf office building at 1200 Enclave Pkwy. from Piedmont Office Realty Trust for $48.75 million, or about $325 per sf.

Built in 1999 in the Enclave Business Park, the building is fully-leased with the majority of space (97 percent) leased to Schlumberger Technology Corp., a subsidiary of Schlumberger Ltd.

The building serves as Schlumberger's financial operations center and is located near the company's corporate headquarters in the Galleria submarket and a global R&D facility in Sugar Land, Texas. It is one of only two financial hub sites the company has worldwide.

With the acquisition, Griffin Capital's Essential Asset REIT has a portfolio of 17 office and industrial/distribution properties totaling 3.8 million sf.

Read more at CoStar Group.

HOUSTON - Oiltanking Partners LP recently subleased 48,560 sf on two floors in Three Allen Center from BNP Paribas.

The new space at 333 Clay will allow Oiltanking to relocate and consolidate its Houston operations, and will become the refining and storage company’s North American corporate offices.

Three offices will be consolidated in the move, bringing 130 employees downtown immediately, though the company is looking to fill open positions, which could boost that number to 150 by the end of the year.

During the first quarter, Three Allen Center had 288,126 sf of vacancy in the 1.1 million-sf building, according to Jones Lang LaSalle’s Houston office.

In March 2013, Oiltanking said it would spend $44 million on its terminal on the Houston Ship Channel to meet demand to export liquefied petroleum gas. Worldwide, it owns and operates 75 terminals in 23 different countries.

Read more at the Houston Business Journal.

FORT BLISS - Texas Roadhouse is set to open its first restaurant on a United States military installation. The company's restaurant will be at Freedom Crossing on Fort Bliss.

The 8,000-sf restaurant is scheduled to open May 27, and will have 240 full- and part-time positions.

"We're encouraging applicants from across the region to check out our great wages," said Shawn Hayes, managing partner. "These are government positions with competitive pay — our cooks start off making $9.62 an hour."

This will be the third Texas Roadhouse in El Paso.

Read more at the El Paso Times.