Houston Pavilions

Houston Pavilions

Houston Pavilions
Location	Houston, Texas, USA
Opening date	2008
Developer	Texas Real Estate Trust, Inc. & Entertainment Development Group
Management	Unknown
Owner	Unknown, North Houston Bank
Architect	Laguarda.Low Architects
No. of stores and services	Unknown
No. of anchor tenants	3
Total retail floor area	350,000 ft² [1]
No. of floors	12
Website	Houston Pavilions Official Website

Rendering of an intersection

Houston Pavilions is a commercial development in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States.

Construction was scheduled to begin in Spring 2006 ^[2], with the first developments opening in the fourth quarter of 2007. The project possesses an estimated cost of 200 million United States dollars and is expected to contain almost 560,000 square feet (50,000 m²) of space, including 360,000 square feet (33,000 m²) of retail space in the first two levels of the development ^[1]. The project covers three 1.4-acre (5,700 m²) city blocks. As of November 16, 2006, 50% of the retail space had been leased. 200,000 square feet (19,000 m²) of loft office space will be available on the mid-block between Fannin and San Jacinto Streets. Office parking will be provided in the Houston Pavilions' 1,675 garage located on the corner of Main and Polk.^[3]

The project is being developed by Texas Real Estate Trust, Inc. and Entertainment Development Group, who also developed the Denver Pavilions in Denver, Colorado. Geoffrey Jones^[4] and William Denton served as the co-developers of the project. The designers were Laguarda.Low Architects from Dallas.

To finance the development, developers obtained a construction loan from North Houston Bank, an $8,800,000 development grant for infrastructure improvements from the city of Houston, and $5,500,000 from Harris County.

The Houston Chronicle reported that the Pavilions will provide around 1,800 to 2,000 full- and part-time jobs.

The Houston Pavilions office tower, which is 11 stories tall, is named the NRG Tower, after its main tenant.^[5]

History

The construction of Houston Pavilions ended in October 2008. The office building originally had no tenants.^[6] On June 30, 2009, Reliant Energy announced that it will take 10 floors in the Houston Pavilions tower.^[7] NRG Energy, which had acquired the retail operations of Reliant Energy, announced that it would take 234,000 square feet (21,700 m²) of space in a 10 year lease. Houston Pavilions redesigned its space to make room for NRG. Geoffrey Jones, the co-developer of Houston Pavilions, stated that the complex administration planned to convert about 62,000 square feet (5,800 m²) of retail and swing space into office space for NRG, and the Houston Pavilions management office decreased the amount of occupied space to make room for NRG.^[6]

Prior to January 2011 rumors stated that the 23,000-square-foot (2,100 m²) Books-A-Million location was closing. In January 2011 the management of Houston Pavilions finalized an extension of the lease with Books-A-Million.^[8]

David Knox, an NRG spokesperson, said NRG employees and contractors had been moving into the 1201 Fannin St. from other locations since January 2011. Two weeks before March 17, 2011, the employees of NRG finished moved into 1201 Fannin St. Around March 17 the office building was renamed the NRG Tower.^[5]

Signed Tenants

In the office space, as of 2011 1,300 NRG Energy employees work in 263,000 square feet (24,400 m²) of office space. To accommodate additional workers, Houston Pavilions converted some of its empty retail space into office space.^[5]

Kevin Howell, the president of NRG's Texas operations, said that certain characteristics of the Houston Pavilions office space; the high ceilings and the bright, open spaces; reflect the environment of the NRG corporate headquarters facility near Princeton, New Jersey.^[6]

Signed retail tenants of the development include:^[9][10]

• Clique Salon
• House of Blues
• Lucky Strike Lanes
• III Forks Steakhouse
• Andalucia Tapas Restaurant & Bar
• Forever 21
• Books-A-Million
• Pete's Dueling Piano Bar
• Guadalajara del Centro
• McCormick & Schmick's
• Yao’s Restaurant and Bar
• Mia Bella
• Lucho Boutique
• Unity National Bank
• BCBG Max Azria
• Marble Slab Creamery
• Qatar Airways (ticket office)

Gallery

• 

  Qatar Airways office in the Houston Pavilions

• 

  Houston Pavilions Logo as seen from corner of Fannin and Dallas

• 

  House Of Blues under construction

See also

	Houston portal
	Architecture portal

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Houston Pavilions
2. ^ Houston Pavilions
3. ^ Houston Pavilions Groundbreaking Release
4. ^ Bio
5. ^ ^{a b c} Dawson, Jennifer. "Houston Pavilions office tower gets new name." Houston Business Journal. Tuesday March 15, 2011. Retrieved on Thursday March 17, 2011.
6. ^ ^{a b c} Dawson, Jennifer. "Pavilions picks up NRG." Houston Business Journal. Sunday July 5, 2009. Last modified on Friday July 3, 2009. Retrieved on March 20, 2011.
7. ^ Kaplan, David. "Pavilions: Half full or half empty?." Houston Chronicle. July 18, 2009. Retrieved on July 19, 2009.
8. ^ Wollam, Allison. "Books-A-Million retains space, Pavilions grabs more tenants." Houston Business Journal. Friday January 7, 2011.
9. ^ Houston Pavilions Fact sheet
10. ^ http://www.houstonpavilions.com/retail_bigfloor.php

External links

• Houston Pavilions Project Page
• Entertainment Development Group
• White, Tara. "Pavilions developers change residential design," Houston Chronicle. November 16, 2006.
• Sarnoff, Nancy and David Kaplan. "Pavilions aims to give downtown a new dimension." Houston Chronicle. October 11, 2008.
• Sarnoff, Nancy. Posted by Purva Patel. "Pavilions developers get advance from city." Houston Chronicle. May 4, 2011.