Camden Plaza: Multifamily At 3833 Cummins St.

[largeTEXAS]

Right now on the norteast corner od Richmond and Edloe there's a building being torn down. It was a pretty nondescript late modern office building. I've hear the site will become residential. Anyone know anything? This would be a phenomenal site for high-density, non-townhome housing.

[largeTEXAS]

Never mind...

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/b...sarnoff/2962741

Living in Greenway

With more than 12 million square feet of office space, Greenway Plaza is one of Houston's busiest commercial districts.

So it's surprising that apartment developers have leapfrogged the area in their recent building boom.

But that's soon to change.

Morgan Group is tearing down a small office building at the corner of Edloe and Richmond to develop a high-end apartment complex.

When completed in 2006, the project will have 295 units with rents averaging $1.40 per square foot, about $1,400 a month for a 1,000-foot unit.

Camden Property Trust is also planning an apartment complex on vacant land adjacent to the former Compaq Center (aka Lakewood Church).

And farther down the road, Morgan Group will build even more apartments in the area at the site of HISD's administrative headquarters.

Morgan and Trammell Crow Co. are paying more than

$38 million to buy the 24-acre tract on Richmond from the school district.

"We'll have a major stake in Greenway," said Stan Levy, chief operating officer of Morgan Group.

The company has had success in the area before.

In 1989, it built a complex called the Inverness, which is 95 percent leased.

That's quite a feat in a market where apartment occupancies have plummeted as renters have opted to buy homes while mortgage rates are low.

In the third quarter, the vacancy rate for apartments in Houston was about 12 percent, according to O'Connor & Associates. The real estate research firm said more than 14,000 new apartments will be completed this year and 15,000 more are under construction.

nancy.sarnoff@chron.com

[KinkaidAlum]

if all of these turn out to be the garden-style variety, then Houston will lose out again.

My bet is that all of these new projects will be security accessed, gated, residential enclaves with plenty of surface parking and maybe a token garage or two. Maybe we'll even see a sidewalk.

In the end, they will all end up being class B projects over time as something new and better with more granite countertops will be built just down the street.

This is a big YAWNer.

[TxDave]

These sites show great promise. But I fear that KinkaidAlum's prediction may be right -- although, hopefully not.

If done right, these properties could be the start to turning Greenway Plaza into a truly urban, mixed use center. Maybe it will happen...

[Gaeshun]

This pisses me off! BizJournal

Why can't they develop a similar mixed use here!

[bkjones98]

This pisses me off! BizJournal

Why can't they develop a similar mixed use here!

"Camden Plaza in Houston will feature 271 luxury-apartment homes in a four-story building with six levels of attached parking. Total expected cost for the development, which is scheduled for completion in early to mid-2007, is roughly $43 million." (emphasis added).

[UrbaNerd]

And the garage has more levels than the building itself. Sheesh.

[Watch4Snakes]

Where is this going to be?

[KinkaidAlum]

Just West of the Summit (Arena of Love).

The empty parcel that has looked like a park for as long as I can remember will have a strip center fronting the feeder (oooh, a strip center) and the Camden Plaza will be behind it (is that first street Norfolk?)

A rendering is on-site of the building. I was hoping for ground level retail (you'd think between these units and the two condo towers there might be a need for something walkable...) because there appear to be awnings and such above the ground floor but I guess they are just for show. Sorta like most of Houston.

[TheNiche]

This pisses me off! BizJournal

Why can't they develop a similar mixed use here!

If the shops fail to maximize their visibility to freeway traffic and are not accomodative to that traffic by having readily-accessible parking, then the shops will likely underperform. Residents of the area don't have much in the way of a choice except for non-new-urban retail, so this site stands to lose nothing from being like the others, but to gain everything from staying accessible to the highest traffic sources. The developers, in a nutshell, are trying to maximize rents by accomodating as many people as possible, which is what makes business viable and keeps our economy from enduring socialistic stagnation, like in France.

[Guest danax]

Let's not get too bent out of shape about a luxury mid-rise. The 6-story garage sounds horrible and it one would imagine that some units will get parking garage views . Not sure why they're not building retail below but it might be too risky at this point over there as the residential density is still fairly meager.

One step at a time. It wasn't too long ago that area was tract homes.