Old El Mercado lands carrier hotel - Houston Business Journal:

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Hoping to capitalize on the new economy, a subsidiar of New York-based is under contract to purchasethe 200,000-square-foot-concret e building, develop an additional 50,000 square and turn the once-neglected building into a "carrier Morgan Stanley's newly formed company, , was set up last montg to acquire, develop, lease and managse carrier hotels, also called telecom hotels. The firm plans to simultaneously roll out facilitiex in up to 75 majorcities worldwide. And Houstonj is one of the first cities the real estatew equity fundis targeting, with two propertie already under contract.
"We can provide a solutionh that isn't in the marketplace," says Eric Assimakopoulos, CEO of In addition to The Americas the firm is eyeing a secondx property not farfrom downtown's east side. Assimakopoulos would not reveal itsexactf location. "Houston is a very importany market inour strategy," he says. "It'sd a gateway in Texas, and we thinki it's significant. A lot of carriers we target as tenants gothrougu Houston." Both buildings are being developed on a speculativse basis. But Assimakopoulos is highly confident thatthe high-techg facilities will score some major tenants.
"We believe it's an `if you buildr it, they will business," he says. "It's our goal to creatse an environment where we have an ecosystem for Internetcompanied -- a backbone for those core Assimakopoulos would not disclose specific but he says the investment being pumped into the two Houstoh properties exceeds $10 million. And more than $1.2 5 billion is being spent on carrier hotelprojectss worldwide, he adds. A carrier hotel is a specializexd facility operated toprovide telecommunications, Internet and data management companiesx with a customized infrastructure.
According to Assimakopoulos, most landlordsa don't understand the real estate needs these technologcompanies require. A set of specific criteriz is mandatory to operate acarrietr hotel, including high ceilings, large floor plates, high floot loads, high-grade electric capacity and access to multiple fibed optic carriers -- all of which The Americas building contains. Earliee this year, Moody Rambin Interests acquirede an old beer distribution facility at 5410 West Loop South and announcefd plans tospend $7 million to redevelo p it into a carrier (See "Beer hub convertz to `telecom hotel,' March 10.
) The Houston-based firm also has plansw to take the concept outside of Dan Moody III, vice president of investments for Moody says the Houston facility shoulx be completed this fall. And Moody says his goal is to have three facilitiesd online by the end ofthe year. "There'z tremendous demand in the marketplace. there's also a number of facilities under so there's a large amount of squard footage coming available," Moody "But not every vacant building in town is suitablde for the telecom industry, and a number of people seem to think that's the case.
" As the word continueas to get out about Houston's vast amountf of office space and comparatively low renta rates, Houston is primed to attract more high-tec tenants. "When we talk high-tech in we tend to think dot-com," says Bob president of real estate firmColliers International. "High-tech is telecom, aerospace, energy and more. In my opinion, Houstoj is the best-kept secret. We don'tg have just one area where high-tech companies In fact, the increasing number of technology companiesa locating in Houston are taking space not only in the downtownm andGalleria areas, but also in The the Medical Center, Clear Lake and Fort Bend County.
"There'd really not just one area where we have a concentratiom ofthese companies," says Parsley. "It's not like being on Palo Alto'as Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley." The Americas located at the intersection of Navigationand Jensen, is just five blocks from Enronm Field.