The new downtown boom?

Remember the 37-story apartment tower announced last May for a block overlooking Discovery Green? KHOU reports that foundation work began this weekend, when about 800 cement trucks dumped their contents into the big hole at the corner of Austin at Lamar. And downtown observers are all atwitter:

"I think that Houston will see a lot more residential development downtown. I think this is a lead project for many to come," said architect Jeffrey Ryan of Jackson and Ryan Architects.

And:

"In that regard it's kind of turning the corner because it's kind of like saying we're really committed to this, to this vision of being this multi dimensional type place," said Robert Eury the president of Central Houston, a downtown business organization.

Helping fuel the excitement is a New York Times article from Wednesday that talks about corporate headquarters moving to Houston, climbing real estate prices and speculative construction projects — in short, as the Times declared, "The good times are back." And it could be a pretty exciting time for downtown, what with the unfortunately named Discovery Green park, Houston Pavilions and the apartment tower (officially called One Park Place) under construction. And, according to the Houston Business Journal, there are at least five projects under consideration downtown: a skyscraper at 1500 Smith St., an office tower near Discovery Green, a new building at Houston Center and a mixed-use development on the south side of Market Square. "There's no question that there's a lot of planning going on," Sanford Criner of CB Richard Ellis told the Journal. "There are a number of people talking about building buildings right now."

Even with all that talk, though, there are still the questions about what kind of neighborhood downtown will be — and there's the lingering memory of what happened after the last big downtown real estate boom in the '80s (hint: bust). Should be interesting to see what shapes up in the next few months.

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Photo: flickr user bilbao58