Developer Veers into Memorial Area for High-rise Condo Towers

Houston Business Journal, March 21, 2008
by Jennifer Dawson

A prolific New York developer that was considering a Galleria-area condominium tower has shifted its focus to a site in the Memorial area.

Two condo towers are set to rise near the southwest corner of San Felipe and Voss as the developer's first project in Houston. New York City-based Boymelgreen Developers is developing the project for landowner Azorim, a publicly traded company in Israel of which Boymelgreen owns 64 percent.

Boymelgreen has built more than 5 million square feet of commercial property in New York City alone. One of the developer's high-rises in the Big Apple -- 20 Pine The Collection -- was promoted as being the first condo building to have its décor created by Armani/Casa Interior Design Studio, the interior-design arm of Giorgio Armani Corp.

As for Houston, the firm's change in geographic focus comes after a Boymelgreen/Azorim affiliate purchased 9.4 acres at Post Oak and Richmond from Houston-based Hines last year for $34 million as a development site. But a lucrative proposal convinced the developers to sell the land for $57 million -- which gave them a $23 million profit for a nine-month ownership period.

The sales transaction also paved the way for a Dubai developer to enter the Houston market via that tract (see "Dubai tower looms on horizon," Feb. 15, 2008).

All the while, Boymelgreen had been working on the 5.5-acre Memorial tract, which the company quietly acquired in December 2006 for an undisclosed amount from Ben Ashkenazy of New York.

David Joachim, president of Houston-based International Realty Concepts Inc., says he marketed Ashkenazy's building at 7703 San Felipe a few years ago, but the only interested parties were local developers who wanted to build four- to six-story apartments. When their offers failed to match Ashkenazy's asking price, Joachim says, the owner pitched his property to Shaya Boymelgreen of Boymelgreen and Azorim.

"They cut a deal up there about the building down here," Joachim says. "Azorim looked at it like a New York developer would, which is going up rather than out."

Tower power
Boymelgreen is now finalizing plans for the Memorial-area condo towers, which were designed by Ziegler Cooper Architects of Houston.

The unnamed project will consist of two buildings with 28 residential floors each and an 18,000-square-foot fitness center and spa. The project will have a total of 237 condos starting at $1 million each. Units will be an average size of 2,500 square feet.