Snowballing
towers a busy endeavor for high-rise developer
Jennifer Dawson
Houston Business Journal
A single endeavor has quickly
developed into multiple undertakings for a Houston company.
Endeavour Holdings Inc. broke
ground last month on the firm's first high-rise residential
building -- which also happens to be the first high-rise
condominium tower on Clear Lake.
Things now are going so well that
two more waterfront residential towers are already in the works.
And Endeavour has gotten into the marina business with a specialty
partner to boot.
Two recent deals center around
Clear Lake, a favorite spot for the developer. A third deal is
planned near the Gulf of Mexico off Galveston Island. (See box.)
Endeavour and equity partners
plan to start construction in December on a second Clear Lake
structure 20 stories tall with 125 units initially for lease and
later to be converted into condos for sale.
Also on the Endeavour drawing
board is a $100 million development on the beach in Galveston at
10th Street and Seawall Boulevard. The first of two possible
towers would have 300 residential units in a 400,000-square-foot
building.
An Endeavor partnership also
purchased the Marker 1 Marina in Seabrook two weeks ago. The
maritime acquisition sits within a mile of Endeavour Clear Lake,
the original high rise that is under construction.
Robin Parsley, president of
Endeavour Holdings, has decided to expand the brand, hoping to
make the name synonymous with luxury waterfront living.
The 45-year-old developer who
grew up in Houston and lives in a lakefront property in League
City plans to announce additional residential projects within the
coming months.
Parsley is particularly excited
about changing the skyline along Clear Lake.
"It's going to be a very high-end
part of the Houston community," he says.
Marina recruits
A month after groundbreaking,
Parsley reports 60 percent of the units in Endeavour Clear Lake
already have sold.
The upscale 30-story structure on
Nasa Parkway in Pasadena will have 80 units ranging in size from
1,300 square feet to 6,000 square feet and costing $425,000 to
$2.5 million. Completion is scheduled for April 2007.
Carlo Marzano is Parsley's equity
partner on Endeavour Clear Lake. The lender is Jud Martin of
Regions Bank.
Parsley recently entered into a
partnership with Dallas-based Sun Resorts International Inc.,
which is involved in two other Clear Lake projects with Endeavour.
Endeavour and an investors group
led by Sun Resorts bought the Marker 1 Marina from Nick Geeslin
and the estate of Scott Keller, and have renamed it Endeavour
Marina.
The four-year-old marina includes
a 98,000-square-foot facility with an indoor marina with storage
for 400 powerboats.
The six-acre marina complex also
includes two banquet rooms and 25,000 square feet of office and
retail space.
Bryan Redmond, director of
acquisitions for Sun Resorts, says the partnership is working on
adding two brand-name restaurants to the retail space soon.
Redmond says the firm has a dozen
marinas in places such as Lake Travis near Austin, Canyon Lake
near New Braunfels and in the Caribbean.
"We like the Clear Lake area.
It's a growing area," Redmond says.
In sort of a departure for Sun
Resorts, the firm transferred ownership of the older Parkside
Marina to a newly created partnership for redevelopment into
residential. Partners are Sun Resorts, Parsley's family
partnership and Endeavour. Constructed 25 years ago, Parkside
Marina is located 250 yards away from the site of Endeavour Clear
Lake.
The owners will spend the next
two months relocating boats from Parkside Marina to Endeavour
Marina. The old marina will then be torn down to make way for a
20-story, $35 million residential tower. Parsley expects to break
ground by Dec. 1 on that 125-unit complex called Endeavour
Parkside.
The tower is being billed as
condos for lease, but units will eventually be offered to
individuals for sale.
James Guthrie, a Pasadena city
councilman, says the area can likely absorb the second tower's
units, particularly since retirees and empty-nesters are drawn to
the convenience of condo and apartment living.
Busy Endeavour also is forming a
partnership with members of a Galveston family to create a
high-rise residential condo/hotel on the beach. Endeavour's
partners are real estate developer Jerry Argovitz and Sonya
Poretto-Nelson, who will co-develop Poretto Beach.
Before development can begin on
the four-acre site at 10th Street and the Seawall, legal issues
concerning ownership of the sand must be resolved.
May 22, 2006
Endeavour cleared for liftoff after Pasadena allows height
variance
By Jennifer Dawson
Houston Business Journal
Updated: 8:00 p.m. ET June 12, 2005
Developers have received the green light to
build the first high-rise condominium tower on Clear Lake.
Up to now, municipalities along Clear Lake limited waterfront buildings
to 35 feet, or roughly three stories tall. The only exceptions are two
hotels -- the 14-story Hilton Houston NASA Clear Lake and the South
Shore Harbour Resort and Conference Center.
The proposed 29-story Endeavour condo project
will climb nearly 400 feet into the air on the north side of the lake
about a quarter-mile east of Clear Lake Park.
Construction could begin as early as October on
the luxury tower, where 88 units will range in price from the high
$300,000s to $2 million for penthouses.
A variance on multifamily height restrictions
granted by the City of Pasadena last week allows Endeavour to lift off
and soar above neighboring development.
Pasadena City Councilman James Guthrie
considers the project a coup, noting that most people aren't even aware
the incorporated city has 1.6 miles of frontage on Clear Lake.
"I'm excited that Pasadena is going to have the
first high-rise condominium on the shores of Clear Lake," says Guthrie.
Endeavour co-developer Steve Hartstein says his
group worked with city officials for six months to secure the nine
variances needed to move ahead with the inaugural residential high-rise.
He says a handful of other development teams previously tried and failed
to reach this point.
"We're the first ones to get approval,"
Hartstein says. "We spent a lot of time with our neighbors."
Developers worked with residents in the El Cary
subdivision and Mariners Village townhome complex, Hartstein says, and
made some changes based on their suggestions.
Pasadena officials say the condo construction
coupled with a boom in retail development will help reshape the city's
image as an industrial hub. The longtime refinery town gained national
attention following the movie "Urban Cowboy" set in the Gilley's
nightclub.
Combined sales of roughly $50 million for units
in the condo tower will also give a boost to local tax rolls.
"It will really put us on the map," Guthrie
says. "We're in the middle of a huge image change. The whole area down
in there is starting to attract sophisticated developers."
Dana Philibert, a Pasadena city councilwoman,
says that in addition to the lakeside scenery, the view of Pasadena at
night from the condos will be beautiful.
"When you're at the water's edge, those
industrial lights are beautiful to see," she says. "It's a project
that's really going to change the face of the lake."
Dreams of ownership
The Endeavour is being developed by N Sky
Living, also known as Endeavour Partners. The group consists of
Hartstein, Roy Hockenberry, Carlo Marzano and Robin Parsley.
Marzano has condo projects in the works in
Florida and St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Hartstein says. But
this is the first condo construction venture for the other partners.
Hartstein cut his condo teeth on the sales and
marketing side. He handled pre-sales at the Mark, a residential
high-rise at 3505 Sage Road in the Galleria area. He also was in sales
at the first 30-story condo tower of the Mercer at Richmond and Sage.
And while Hartstein was getting Endeavour off the ground, he did sales
consulting for a short time for the Royalton at River Oaks, formerly
known as 3333 Allen Parkway.
All the while, Hartstein was making plans for
his own project.
"My dream has always been to build my own
building," Hartstein says. "I'm finally to that point."
Hockenberry was also involved in sales and
marketing on the Mark and Mercer with Hartstein.
Parsley has done some land development, been
involved in mini-storage facility projects and bought and sold some
office buildings, Hartstein says.
The developers have hired EDI Architecture Inc.
to design the Endeavour, which will be located on 2.8 acres of vacant
land purchased a month ago at 4821 Nasa Parkway (formerly Nasa Road
One). The all-concrete building construction will be more resistant to
Mother Nature, eliminate noise from between units, and allow the tower
to be built in a third less time, Hartstein says.
Amenities will include an outdoor pool with
three cabanas, an indoor resistance pool, a fitness center, movie
theater, 24-hour concierge, boat dock and five TV screens stacked on top
of each other to create a virtual aquarium in the two-story lobby.
Interior finishes will include top-of-the-line
appliances and 12-foot ceilings. To show off the features, developers
are spending $1 million to build a sales center at 3901 Nasa Parkway
that will be finished by the end of June. The model is being constructed
a mile away from the actual site because there is not room for it there.
Developers want to pre-sell half of the 88
units before beginning construction, which would then take 12 to 14
months.
