People who think Houston is all about urban sprawl haven’t been to Houston lately. Houston’s 610 Loop has been a hotbed for infill development. A stretch of land just south of Buffalo Bayou — roughly 1.5 miles long and 0.5 miles deep — is attracting infill development at a rapid pace. The latest projects, a 600-unit mid-rise with 50K SF of retail from GID and a separate $500M mixed-use development from DC Partners, are a sure sign the city’s real estate perception is changing.
“It has been amazing to see the transformation of Houston in the decades since GID first acquired this property, and we feel patience has truly been a virtue in determining how best to knit this site into the area’s ongoing evolution,” GID Development Group President James Linsley said. The area is expected to add 1,700 new units on West Dallas between Dunlavy and Shepherd, according to ApartmentData.com. Most will be in mid-rise or high-rise projects. GID Development Group broke ground on the second phase of Regent Square, an 8-acre tract at West Dallas and Dunlavy Street, just south of Houston’s prominent Buffalo Bayou Park. Announced in spring 2019 and designed by acclaimed Boston-based architectural placemaking firm CBT, Phase 2 aims to be game-changing urban infill development, bringing an Old World-style town square into the thriving heart of Houston’s most rapidly densifying neighborhood.
Tomorrow DC Partners will break ground on its $500M project known as The Allen, set to be anchored by a 34-story hotel and condo tower. DC Partners’ The Allen will rise on a 6-acre tract, featuring 250K SF of Class-A office, a 170-room Thompson Hotel, and 95 condos. Once completed, five towers will occupy the site. Blocks away, Weingarten Realty is planning The Driscoll, a 30-story luxury high-rise with 300 residential units. The Montrose at Buffalo Bayou, under construction, will add another 224 units in an eight-story mid-rise. Hanover is planning Hanover Buffalo Bayou, which looks to be the company’s biggest project in Houston yet, with early documents showing plans for a 23-story residential tower and 21-story office building. All of this new density coming to Houston is happening in roughly one square mile. “It’s very clear one could see four or five additional towers there over a long period of time,” Weingarten Realty Investors CEO Drew Alexander said during a third-quarter conference call with analysts. Weingarten hasn’t announced formal plans for additional towers at the site near the historic River Oaks Theater, but with the rapid densification, it may be in the future. “I think it will become denser over the next 10, 20 years certainly,” Weingarten Senior Vice President Gerald Crump told the Houston Chronicle when the project was announced more than two years ago. “It is possible you could end up with the office, hotel or further residential units.”
Master-planned communities and suburban sprawl are still common in the outlying Houston areas. With few land constraints, historically Houston has had few reasons to pursue density. As renter demographics shift and the city grapples with increasingly frequent flooding issues, density and height have become favorites in Houston’s urban core. While the city has a long way to go, areas like Downtown, Uptown, Greenway Plaza and now the Buffalo Bayou southern bank show promise for Houston’s dense, walkable future.
