Fertitta breaks ground on mixed-use project with 35-story tower near Galleria

Apr 23, 2015, 7:54am CDT Updated: Apr 23, 2015, 12:39pm CDT

Olivia Pulsinelli | Web producer- Houston Business Journal

Billionaire Tilman Fertitta announced April 23 he has broken ground on a mixed-use project near the Galleria.

News of the project first broke in September, but he would not comment at the time.

Now, Fertitta has revealed the project, dubbed The Post Oak, will combine hotel, office, residential, retail and restaurant offerings. San Francisco-based Gensler, which has a significant Houston presence, is providing master planning, architecture and interior architecture for the project. Houston-based Tellepsen is the general contractor.

The 10-acre project will feature a 35-story, 650,000-square-foot tower, which will include 240 luxury hotel rooms, more than 120,000 square feet of boutique office space and 22 residential apartment units. Other notable amenities include a two-story spa and salon. There will be more than 1,000 parking spaces.

The hotel rooms and suite will range from 500 to 2,000 square feet. There will also be a presidential suite and a 4,000-square-foot, two-bedroom chairman suites with private elevator access, a media room, an exercise room and a private terrace.

The residential units will range from 1,000 to 2,000 square feet. The low-density, Class A office space will feature a separate secure entrance.

In addition to the eateries in the tower, two restaurants will be featured with their own locations on the property. Mastro’s Steakhouse will open its first Texas location in a 10,000-square-foot space on the property. Willie G’s Seafood & Steaks, located in the Uptown-Galleria area, will relocate to a 10,000-square-foot space in the development.

Elsewhere on the property, a ballroom and conference center will be adjacent to the tower. It will include main ballroom of more than 16,000 square feet, the largest in the area, according to Fertitta. It will also feature a two-story auto showroom for Post Oak Motor Cars, which is also at the development.

The Post Oak development also will feature an open plaza, with outdoor dining patios, and landscaped pedestrian areas. Fertitta will preserve existing oak trees on the property and spend more than $1 million to transplant additional large oak trees.

The development will be along West Loop South with access from Loop 610, Holly Hurst Street and Hallmark Drive. Landry’s Inc. headquarters building is already at 1510 W. Loop S.

Houston-based Landry’s, wholly owned by Chairman, President and CEO Tilman Fertitta, owns and operates more than 450 dining, entertainment, gaming and hospitality properties. It is the second-largest private employer in the Houston area, according to Houston Business Journal research.