Greets, all .. been watchin' for a long time, big downtown nut as John well knows .. finally had time to sign up and toss out a post so here goes! ..

Anyway, I did attend the lil' Neil P. party last week and if you will, here are my unabated impressions:

First things first, I don't know why, but I really dislike how these announcement events are often held at the FWC.. It's such an oldschool place, to announce something as cool as the NPA becoming high-end residences seemed out of place *there* .. Although there was a pretty golden view of the building in its entirety out the 12th floor ballroom windows.. But I digress, wouldn't the lobby of the NPA itself be the place to do this? Or maybe the Cotton Showroom Penthouse (if the landing gear company has indeed been fully evicted?) .. Eh, I just don't like the FWC .. call me biased.

Onward.. I met Matt Herring the moment I walked into the ballroom.. He's a cool guy, though he reminded me somewhat of our own lil' local version of Richard Branson -- beard and all -- take that for what you will .. We chatted up a bit and he's exciting about the building's possibilities, which is good to see.. The wierd thing was, it seemed the people he was with (all wearing Amicus badges) almost outnumbered the guests! In that way, it felt almost like a Scientology meeting.

Open semi-bar, cheese trays and beef puffs were decent.. (ok, ok, two points for FWC.. but that's all!) .. Presentation begins.. A Canadian gentleman hosts the evening and after a few minutes of rather interesting building history (I did not know the NPA was built in Anderson's HONOR) he explains that for only $10,000 you can reserve your place in line when they start their waiting list in January or so. Ok, here's my problem with that. The Tower tried the same thing in the beginning but it proved unnecessary because even several weeks after they opened up the sales office, units were still available. Of course, the Tower has six times the number of units, but still.. There is no need to throw down $10k even if it's just an "in-line refundable deposit" this far in advance.. (and if anyone remembers the "buy your unfinished space now!" stunt they tried to pull with Landmark Tower in 1998, you'll know that sometimes it's good to wait to see a finished product ) ..

They handed out a most impressive piece of printed material.. This is no Kinko's job.. pretty professional 28 page full-color spiral-bound book on ALL the individual floorplans as well as the whole floor plans 1 through 10 (penthouse level left out, even though they say it will be one huge unit.. would be awesome -- would also be like $1.5 million I'm guessing), but all the jargon (Boutique Condominium, Inside: Your Sanctuary, etc) did come off a *little* pretentious.. But hey, sometimes good projects warrant that kind of attitude. We'll see..

You know, it is fun to go to these little announcement parties (I always try to attend as many as I hear about) because there is such excitement and energy in the air by the people doing these projects.. (and there's free snacks) .. but at this one, with all the constant "we will be better than the Tower" talk circulating, this one kinda left me with a wierd aftertaste.. Don't get me wrong.. this project will be AWESOME .. and it's one of my favorite buildings down here.. but rival the Tower? Show me the hot tub and we'll talk..

I give the announcement party a C+ but the concept (if they stick to it) an A. Can't wait. I did a little non-biased write up on ol' downtownfortworth.com about it with some pics (by permission of coz) but I don't dive in-depth like I did just now..

Cheers!
lobs

Greets again ..

John, as i have been back from my honeymoon for months now, I will keep with my promise I made to you on the corner of Throck & 3rd and post some Tower pics.. (I'll find an appropriate relevant post to do that at) But first! Great shots you have of the RS construction .. to complement those, I have some great (approved) shots of the interior of the new RS campus since its opening incase y'all fine folks were interested:

dining hall:


seventh floor of the "East Fork" building (what's under those funky overhangs you see from the outside)


EF 3rd floor coffee lounge


not meaning to have a shameless plug, but to not flood your posts with huge pictures, the rest can be seen at downtownfortworth.com/story-movingin.asp

cheers!
lobsta

Boy, did I arrive at just the right time or what?

A rather reliable source has been saying that a "Cheesecake Factory" is slated .. I'm not necessarily sworn to secrecy on this, but in my ongoing quest for fun (but factual) rumors and such, I must respect the source and stop at that ..

Of course, there'll be room for lots of stuff at the base of that bldg.. I'm REAAALLY pulling for an EatZi's but that won't happen until they believe in Fort Worth

My new bride n' I are getting a unit on 8 so when we move in (us low floor folk are of the first group to get in) perhaps we can have a little Forum suareé .. how rowdy are you guys anyway?

Here's some shots from the tour Tony Landrum himself gave us (I optimized 'em here for the cause of space.. if you want to see more and in hi-res, I'll toss 'em up at downtownfortworth.com/tower.asp ) ..


Tony Landrum and.. (ack.. don't recall his name but he was on the original design team in the 1970s.. twas a treat hearing him reminisce about his building memoirs)


..plus Wendy Davis.. all standing on the newly cemented ground floor (amazing how they cemented over the old open-aired area that the bridge level crossed over..we were standing on what used to be a drop to the lower level)


view out of our unifinished 8th floor pad .. (yay, blackstone! boo, 600 Houston garage!)


an exclusive peek inside our condo .. (all other prospective tenants only get to see the model.. was pretty cool to get a walk-through with the owner ) .. somewhat small but I think we'll dig it


esteemed councilwoman Wendy Davis on a 23rd floor balcony.. notice the set up in SSQ below for some ESPN2 fight that evening


as a bonus, we were taken to the very unfinished double-heighted 36th floor ..


three units total on the 36th floor.. you get a 21 foot ceiling, and it's only $1,600,000 .. let's get two!



there you have it... ok, i just put up larger ones and others at downtownfortworth.com/tower.asp just for you fine folk... the size of the pics mess with my site's headers but if you can see beyond that, they're good times..

cheers
lob

All I ask of Schaumburg is -- make all the fun european-styled 2 and 3 story buildings you want .. paint their exteriors with faux cracked bricks and faded vaudeville posters in foreign languages much like the inside of a Don Pablos, even -- just please please please don't F up the skyline with a 23 story hollywood archaeology prop.............. (pretty please?)

lobs

I don't suppose neon is in the cards, aye? And I don't mean neon in the sporadic ho-hum Dallas style -- and I don't mean neon in the in-your-face Las Vegas style.. But you know, I've always thought the FW Medical District with the blue neon roof outlines is kinda classy and subtle.. perhaps if all the bldgs downtown just outlined their rooftops in neon like Harris does it'd give downtown a new nighttime dimension .. it'd almost look 3d flying overhead

(...and then they could update that FW Omni heilcopter intro for once and for all!.. zoom! zooooom!)

cheers
lobs

Greets!

Our lil pup, Garrett has been trained to poop in a box! Purina actually has a setup (box/litter) similar to cat litter but for dogs.. the "litter" is actually little compressed pieces of paper in the shape of little breakable crayons.. it's wierd but he uses it! And lemme tell you -- when it's 2am and it's raining outside, there is nothing more rewarding than to hear him piddling around in "the box" while we remain in bed half-asleep! .. (And I'm sure the fine folks at Burnett Plaza are relieved there's one less dog to go poopy on their lawn) ..



The Tower says they'll have a poop patch on the 5th floor deck, which will be cool for ol' Garrett but not all that necessary .. maybe he can go on the grass for old time's sake though....

To the original poster, though, if you're still watching.. when I lived in Sanger Lofts, they allow dogs of all sizes .. (my old neighbor used to have a golden retriever.. and one of my good pals up there now has a lab) .. and so does Sundance West I believe.. they even have a lil poop patch between the two bldgs (right behind the Tower's sales trailer) .. I've also seen large dogs at Hillside.. And as a matter of fact, ol' Arnie Velez of Clearchannel fame has a well-known St. Bernard named Mustafa in the Houston Place Bldg.. So, apparently there are a few places that don't mind the big dogs..

Cheers
lobster

YES! I hope more developers have this "better than the Tower" attitude-and act on it. Competition and demand could lead us to even bigger and better condo towers, and that's a win-win situation for downtown.

Weeeelll, although fresh competition makes all the projects strive to be something better, striving to become "more luxurious and pretentious than the Tower" wouldn't necessarily make for a better residential building. I think we should just be happy that the NPA will be spared by turning into apartments in general, as opposed to having this whole "we have Corinthian Leather yes we do! We have platinum doorknobs, how bout you?!"

I completely understand what they're trying to do and what their demographic is (that elusive youthful Fort Worth urbanite with $400,000 to throw down, apparently) but, really, you don't have to start comparing yourself to a 37 story tower in order to get attention... The NPA is a beautiful and classic building on its own -- they don't have to spend so much energy trying to steal the Tower's spotlight.. there's plenty of attention left for them all

Do you think when Cravens finally puts his stethoscopes down and gets the Flatiron open, he'll have to start making comparisons to the Tower in order to get recognition ? Great buildings should generate greatness on their own.. (and downtown FW has plenty more of 'em!)

LOb

Heh.. I even tried to censor myself and I still end up offending..
..and to think, the word FUDGE is actually offensive to someone!

Anyway, my apologies.. I guess I'm just passionate about the skyline

Personally, I'd take a condo facing the greenspace of Burnett Park over a condo in the Tower facing asphalt rooftops any day.

Eh, I dunno, call me a Manhattanite but there is something quite majestic about a 30th floor view of the great city of Fort Worth... It really is a stunning sight.. And if I have to face west I'd at least like to see the sunset as opposed to that dopey briefcase guy sillouhette out my window .. (And at $250/foot it turns out the price comparison of an NPA unit vs. a 30th floor place in the Tower is about the same).. I'll take the higher view.. --- from which you can see the greenspaces of Heritage Park, Trinity Park, Forest Park, Rockwood Park, Saunders Park, Riverside Park, Gateway Park

But I wasn't trying to indicate any rivalry between park views vs. city views.. The can both be equally as great in this town, it just comes down to personal taste.. My point was, NPA shouldn't have to try so hard with the super-fancy amenities to be an appealling property.

Jonnyrules -- I just noticed the shot you took from TCU ..
man, that really puts the darkness into perspective.. in that shot FW almost looks like it's the downtown of one of those lil' dinky cities.. (Abiline, Lubbock, Waco)

The Prentiss folks [Burnett Plaza] should understand their lightbulb legacy and keep 'em going -- there has to be a solution to their worries.. I'm not a light engineer by any means but wouldn't the problem of maintenance and storm damage be eliminated by having the lights linked in a continual string in clear tubes almost like those Christmas lights you see in tubes -- only more of an industrial size? :]

Hmm... found this on a British site... (£3 = $5.56 .... how many bulbs you think BP has? 500? )

-------------

Unbreakable

A new shatterproof light bulb is on the way


Light bulbs which have been sealed in a special coating could put an end to clearing up tiny shards of glass. British company Fotolec has discovered that if bulbs are covered in a small amount of a strong fluoropolymer they become unbreakable. It's claimed that the coated bulbs could even survive being hurled at the wall. The shatterproof bulbs will set you back about £3 a piece.

Pup, maybe when the Trinity River Vision is completed, there will be a condo building called The Cats at LaGrave.

Yes, Schaumburg ( ) already has it on the drawing board.. It calls for a 55 story monstrosity on NW 6th Street and will be in the shape of twenty oversized manx cats all piled on top of each other... Dedicated down to the very detail, these boutique cat-dominiums will feature doorbells for each unit and will emit a "reeeoww!" when rung.

..i noticed last night they already have 3rd/main to 4th/main roped off for the cause..

alas -- how does a tree that sits in the street for a month possibly cost $100,000... $3300 per day?? Do they bring in Pat Morita and have it go through some sort of hourly bonzai clipping ritual?

Anyone ever notice that big ol' colorful sign nailed to the fence every year that mentions all those corporate sponsors .. Haltom's, KXAS, SSq, DWFI, etc etc..
So many companies want to be a part of it, that tree ain't goin anywhere anytime soon..

I doubt you will ever see a new Eatzis anywhere in texas.

Why's that? They done with expandin'?

I have never seen the numbers for EatZis but everytime I've been, it's always full of people.. And although Brinker may own it, you don't really get that dopey suburban standardized feel -- After all, there's only four locations.. (Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Rockville MD) .. And if you've ever been, it's actually a really cool place.. they have an awesome selection and I've always loved the food I've had there... It doubles as both a restaurant for random people just hanging out in the area and a market for those who live near it .. It really would be just what downtown needs.

One thing we have to consider also is the space constraints on the street level of that bldg... the skeleton of the original angled base is still somewhat "in the way" of creating a full open-market feel... I'm not sure how much of a pain those will be to work around... (although it's neat they left 'em in)

LOb

Dec 11? That's just lazy

I’m kind of torn between high rise views and low rise people watching. To be honest I would have preferred a larger unit in the Tower closer to where everything happens. When I signed at the Tower, think I had the first available appointment, I didn’t have the option of lower levels so I opted for the view in exchange for additional space I wasn’t sure I’d need. 

We were #13 on the list in the very beginning when they had the lil' tent set up outside the trailer.. back then we were signed on to buy a west-facing 24th floor "C" unit (I think.. or was it "A1"? .. the smallest 2 bed/2bth, whichever that is) but after thinking about it, it was a little too much at the time.. When they cracked open the bottom half of the building, we went back and were able to get ourselves an 8th floor spot facing east -- and although I've always wanted to live on a high floor since I was a kid -- having the Blackstone out my window is a good compromise ... So in that regard, I'm hoping we have the best of both worlds..

And, Dave, if you're just too high up and need to get your fix of peoplewatching, you're welcome to hang out on our balcony .. perhaps we can do a trade when they set the Jul 4 fireworks off..

What floor will you be on anyway?


LObs

Lobster…. Who’d you have to bribe to tour outside the 23rd floor?

well .. Believe it or not, Wendy was our flower girl at our wedding in July.. and as a late birthday present, she arranged for us to join her and Mr. Landrum on a special tour he was giving to a guy who was on the original design team in the 70s (I'll get his name if anyone's interested).. On our way from the top floor to the 2nd floor mezzanine, I said "Would you be opposed if we took a detour and stopped at 8 to check on our place?" .. So they hit 8 and we all went to peep in .. So, in this situation, I'd have to use that ol' "it's who you know" cliché .. That was a few months ago .. I'd love to see it now that the walls are up, etc .. but it won't be long now until it's done so we're trying to be patient

This is merely just an observation (disguised as a rant, if you will) but I'd be interested to see if I'm off track on this...

For the past ten years or so, we've seen tons of small businesses come and go in the downtown area.. and to the ones that quickly died out, a LOT of the blame lies on the fact that these people have just had zero clue about marketing to a demographic that works and lives just yards away from them!

Let's put aside Sundance tenants for a minute because they, to a degree, automatically get marketed by SSq as a package, and they're where the most parking is, where the most things going on are, etc, etc.. I'm talking about the folks south of Fifth that have the uphill battle of trying to appeal to the downtown masses all on their own -- a trade off for paying 1/3rd the rent of SSq.

A prime example, Stein's Deli.. 2nd floor of the 600 Houston St. "Mall" (Garage) whose various incarnations ran from about 1999 to about 2002. As a Sanger resident at the time AND employee whose workspace was in City Center, I was never exposed in any fashion to their existence (with the exception that I walk around a lot).. but both my coworkers and neighbors were mostly unaware of Stein's Deli when brought up in conversation. There was just no effort. Opening your doors and turning on a neon "OPEN" sign cannot possibly bring in enough foot-traffic without extraneous attempts to reach out beyond the void of that garage!

(After that place closed, last year Brooke -- the girl who ran it -- opened a much smaller version called "Ca·fé" in the lil bubble space of the old Bank One garage (she loves garages?) .. I walk by and did a double-take to see that something was going on in there -- I go in, and there she is, making an egg salad sandwich! I said "Wow, I had no idea you were back! How long have you been here? " ... "EIGHT MONTHS" she replies. Ugh!! I lived TWO BLOCKS from that dopey joint and I had NO IDEA. I always say IF I -- a RESIDENT who lives BLOCKS AWAY, OF ALL PEOPLE -- don't know you're in business, WHO WILL!? No marketing vision whatsoever.. I didn't understand it.

Of course, I understand it must be difficult to stand out in a crowd of 80+ restaurants and bars, all vying for our attention, but to not make any direct attempt at all towards the 1000 or so residents and 55,000 or so workers down here is silly....

Another example is that "liquor store" called Shamrock Liquors on Calhoun next to Rodeo Steakhouse. (Incidentally, my parents were silent partners with 50% holding in the company since they used to occupy the current Chili's spot, but they had no hand in the operations or decision-making) -- That place was indeed a dump, but they were in fact the only liquor store downtown... yet the ONLY people who seemed to know this were the people who walked that 9th Street underpass from Chambers St, etc. to get malt liquor. For YEARS people downtown have always believed they had to drive to 121/Beach to grab a bottle of wine or gin. I would guess if residents knew of its existence, it might have been handy to know you can go a few blocks away and grab some Cuervo for that spur-of-the-moment party.. Alas, the owners (Who I knew fairly well) did NOT see the vision at all in marketing themselves. Instead, apparently the off-white lettering (on a white background) that said "SHA R CK L QUO S" was sufficient enough for them.. That place finally shut down in early 2003.

So! I think that any newcomers to downtown wanting to try their hand at getting attention from the locals should seriously take a look at the case studies we've had in the recent past. I'm still waiting for the new owners of that "Downtown Market Deli" (Barber's Bookstore spot, 8th / Throck) to spread the word to us residents .. If they don't get on that soon, I fear they'll be the next new south-downtown victim.

LObs

At least we get the lighted top.  The architects could have just put a new cooling tower enclosure up on the roof and not illuminated anything.

True enough -- although I'm reaaaly disappointed there won't be any common observation-type decks or rooms since they had the chance to create one.. a 38th floor room would make for a killer party venue..

Oops, perhaps I should have specified that by "better than The Tower" I meant bigger (i.e. number of floors, number of units) and more competitive (maybe lower priced units even...).

yes, indeed.. I love highrises and I would love it if there were more of them down here.. but (barring the proposed ruins ) it seems the only way we're going to get more highrise residential projects on that scale is if we refurbish existing tall buildings .. Transport Life, T&P, Tandy Center seem to be all we have on the plate on that level, none of which are taller than the Tower... Now, as far as number of units, perhaps if the T&P warehouse were to get goin', that place could realistically hold 500+ units... And that bldg would probably be our only hope of a project that was actually "reasonably priced".. Once all the developers come back to earth and realize that Fort Worth isn't full of millionaires willing to relocate downtown and pay $300/ft, we'll hopefully start to see some projects that are approachable by your average downtown worker

Yeah, that ol' "Bottom Line" has to come into play, and fun stuff like community rooms are sacrificed for more sellable space --- And because the Tower doesn't have any direct competition (for what it is) at the moment, they don't *have* to throw in any frills like that --

John, have you been to the Miami area lately? I go about 2x a year, and I swear everytime I go there are about 8 new 40+ story oceanview buildings under construction .. (Even Trump has a couple of 'em under construction) .. There must be about 500 of 'em dotted along a 25 mile strip of the ocean and intra-coastal from downtown Miami to Fort Lauderdale. It is incredible touring those new buildings, seeing all the crazy amenities they promise trying to outdo each other.. If the Tower was out there with its current plans, it would be kid's stuff compared to what's out there.. Almost every new project has insane top-floor community rooms with sweeping ocean views, rooftop pools, etc.. The absolute coolest (for the moment) has to be the Portofino Tower in South Beach..

Just check out that bad boy..



Can you believe that top set of windows is solely dedicated as a common area for the residents? They could've certainly made an extra $4m or $5m on selling ait as a 45th floor but instead, perhaps they felt it was necessary to make the building more saleable as a whole..

http://www.markzilbe...i_portofino.asp

$600/sqft.. woof.. Where are all these millionaires coming from? :]

took a lil tour of some Houston St 900 Block stuff not too long ago.. very strange properties but they do have some interesting potential...

Shelton Bldg:

I love the matrix of hanging lightbulbs..




Elevator shaft:




913 Houston (forgot the bldg name)
Another victim of the 60s/70s stylings.. smelled moldy .. much like a Wilmer-Hutchins school library perhaps ..





Could make for an interesting restaurant if they did it up nicely.. I was told that someone was eyeing this for a Salsa-themed club.. *yawn*

Strangely enough I just found this last week.. I stayed at the WTC Marriott back in the summer of 2001..



Any y'all know what's planned for the space that the hotel occupied?

So what are they to do?
There are the papers...  but the S-T is boring, the Weekly is over-run with ads (good for them, but easy to get lost in the clutter), and the Business Press: hardly where I'd turn to find a place to eat.
So hand out flyers on street corners? Place coupons in the high-rise lobbies? Run a special for all Carter & Burgess employees?

Yeah, city-wide newspapers are certainly not the answer.. Before "Roscoe" took over Rio Mambos, the owner of the Brick House (forgot his name) told me he spent $900 for a one-run business-card-sized ad in the Weekly (!) .. insane.. and said it yielded zero results.. (Makes me wonder how many blackbean burgers the kids over at Spiral Diner have to sell to cover one of their quarter-page ads)

"Run a special for all Carter & Burgess employees?" -- You seem to pose that in somewhat of a mocking context but I don't see why that is a bad tactic.. After all, downtown office workers ARE 90% of your customer base! (The other 10% would be residents, if you're opened for dinner.. most of the non-bar food joints south of fifth are not, so let's assume that MOST of your business would rely on the occupants of the surrounding office buildings..) You ask "how else can you stand out?" .. I ask "How come it takes most people three months to realize a place even EXISTS?" .. So, indeed, a NEW restaurant owner must employ clever marketing tactics to get noticed, and a lot of times I've seen places come and go and not even TRY.

I've worked in several different buildings downtown over the years, and have lived in three separate places, and it's very rare that I'm ever exposed to any advertising effots set forth by any of the many places that have come and go downtown in the past ten years that I can name.. And I can probably name close to 40.. (could be an interesting game amongst the forum crowd ) As a resident and worker of downtown, am I not their ultimate demographic that they should be pitching to?

I'll tell you, the only vendor I've seen recently that really goes through the effort of direct promotion downtown is GIOVANNI's --- and they're not even downtown! They're in the freakin' STOCKYARDS! (They do make very very good pizza, on the side) ..

LOb