Lockwood South: Buffalo Bayou Multifamily At 733 N. Drennan St.

[CREguy13]

It's a pretty long article:

Houston's Buffalo Bayou Transformation Offers Flood-Plan Lessons to Other Cities

How to Turn a Drainage Ditch Into a Regional Amenity in Era of Climate Change

 

 

The growing climate change challenge facing commercial developers came into sharp focus as Hurricane Harvey dumped 27 trillion gallons of rain onto Houston two years ago, wreaking $125 billion in damage and displacing almost 30,000 people. Floodwaters rose 38 feet, destroying sections of a recently renovated public park.

 

Urban planners and onlookers watched in astonishment as new lawns, picnic tables and shelters in Buffalo Bayou Park were swept into the flood that at one point made staircases, street signs and lamps barely visible. Mountains of sand and debris littered the park's western end. Yet within a week, joggers returned to the trails and the restaurant at the park resumed serving avocado toast to customers to raise money for flood relief funds.

 

While it took a full year for the park to be fully restored, its basic functions were intact thanks to the $58 million revitalization that shored up the bayou’s historical role as a flood control mechanism for the city. Completed in 2015, it transformed what was basically a drainage ditch into a regional outdoor amenity with features that also serve as flood storage, according to an Urban Land Institute study.

 

The relatively fast reopening signals how urban planning mitigated the damage of one of the costliest floods in U.S. history. And planners say it now holds broader lessons as the growing challenge to plan for the effects of climate change becomes a larger part of commercial development.

 

“This is an issue that's facing cities across America in different ways," said Anne-Marie Lubenau, a Boston architect and director of the board behind the Rudy Bruner Award, a national urban planning accolade given to the Buffalo Bayou Partnership for its work along the bayou. "In Boston you've got coastal erosion and big snow storms; we’ve got fires in California; water is a challenge in [Houston] and this project addresses it in a bold way, but also in a way that, while it is unique and distinctive to the bayou, it also incorporates a number of design moves that can be adapted to other cities.”

 

Houston, a city with no zoning codes that's not often held up as a bastion of urban planning, gained national attention from planners by showing how urban systems projects can create green spaces while planning for floods. The work included 2.3 miles of waterfront land along Buffalo Bayou, roughly the length of New York's Central Park, and it added 10 miles of walking and biking trails with four pedestrian bridges.

 

The project spurred significant real estate building in the area. Since 2012, within a 1-mile radius of the project, nearly 6 million square feet of new multifamily and retail space was constructed, according to CoStar’s analysis. In total, about 50 new commercial properties were developed that, if sold today, could be worth about $1.4 billion, according to CoStar’s modeling. That's a significant return on investment for a project sparked by a partnership between the nonprofit Buffalo Bayou Partnership, the city and flood control district. It was kicked off by a $30 million gift from the Kinder Foundation, the nonprofit backed by Houston billionaire and oil baron Rich Kinder.

 

Now, the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, the nonprofit behind that revitalization, is setting its sights on the east end of the bayou, which is much wider and less flood-prone, and it has long been an industrial area. The east end of the bayou turns into the Houston Ship Channel, home to 330 public and private terminals that are owned by more than 150 companies, and it empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Plans for the east end are much larger and more ambitious than what was done successfully on the bayou's west side. Buffalo Bayou East is a 20-year master plan expected to cost $200 million to transform four miles of waterfront land on the bayou and create 263 acres of parks and 40 miles of trails and paths with seven pedestrian bridges.

 

Some land use experts are calling the plan one of the most complex waterfront redevelopment projects in the country. It comes as real estate investors are increasingly concerned about how climate change would affect real estate markets and urban planners from New York to San Francisco are looking for more ways to creatively manage water in growing population centers.

 

“For those of us not from Houston, we don't think of the city as being associated with a strong ethic of planning. This really shifts the paradigm," said Lubenau.

 

Former Industrial Sites

 

In Houston, the bayou is not known for its pristine beauty – the brown, opaque waters of the river are home to bass, catfish, alligator gars, a fish native to Texas with razor sharp teeth, and alligator snapping turtles, as well as the occasional alligator. The bayou often has high levels of bacteria that make it unsafe for swimming and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality recommends not to eat any fish caught in the bayou.

 

Nevertheless, the Buffalo Bayou Partnership aims to transform a patchwork of public and private land, including several abandoned industrial sites, into an area focused on the water with seven boat landings. It aims to connect the African American and Hispanic communities of the Fifth Ward and Great East neighborhoods to one another and give the historically working class neighborhoods new access to nature and 200 acres of open space.

 

“In some ways, what’s different about it is the scale and complexity of it all,” said Cary Hirschstein, a partner at HR&A Advisors, a real estate, economic development and public policy firm. It co-led the master planning process of the proposed east project along with landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburg Associates.

 

The project represents a unique infusion of investment into historically working class communities that typically don’t see investments of this scale, Hirschtein said in an interview. The restored industrial structures harken to other similar projects across the country, from Concrete Plant Park in the Bronx in New York City, Gas Works Park in Seattle or Steel Stacks Park near Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, which all turned industrial properties into nationally recognized community spaces. But this project would affect a much larger area than those parks in terms of acreage.

 

“There are really incredible industrial elements that we want to celebrate. It’s going to be unlike any other place in Houston, if not the country,” Hirschtein said.

 

The revitalization efforts focus first on 70 acres of land, including 50 acres owned by the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, running along a four-mile stretch of the river. But the plan envisions a much wider area of influence and aims to give developers and investors design guidelines and a vision for renovating the eastern side of downtown.

 

The project is expected to be a game changer for commercial real estate in the area.

 

“The Buffalo Bayou East revitalization plans are almost certain to lead to a rise in property values, which could drive a new vision for reimagining best-and-highest-use along the eastern portion of the bayou,” said Justin Boyar, director of market analytics in Houston for CoStar, in an email.

 

Boyar notes two Houston neighborhoods, the Second and Fifth Ward, bordering the Buffalo Bayou East project are located in opportunity zones with tax incentives likely to attract investors. “If done smartly and inclusively, this could also be an opportunity to serve and unite historically neglected working class communities,” he added.

 

Redevelopment Interest

 

On the east side of the bayou, private developers are already making massive changes that could further speed growth and gentrification in the hip, former industrial district called EaDo, short for East Downtown, which is similar to Deep Ellum in Dallas or East Austin, Texas, which were both noted as "Cool Streets" on Cushman & Wakefield's 2019 report on hipness.

 

“It’s definitely growing very quickly, we have quite a few developers looking into the district trying to see which properties are available and how they can start to redevelop,” said Jessica Bacorn, executive of the East Downtown Management District, the local economic development group for the area, in an interview. Bacorn said the district has seen an “influx of development” in recent years from new restaurants to coworking spaces.

 

“The vibe that’s in EaDo, with all the arts and culture that’s already there, I think we’re seeing a lot of developers coming in who aren’t looking to change the culture, which is one thing I love about the district and the area. They’re looking at what’s already there,” Bacorn said.

 

Midway, the developer behind the CityCentre mixed-use project in west Houston, is preparing to break ground on a 150-acre project along the eastern end of the bayou spanning 60 city blocks in Houston’s Fifth Ward neighborhood, which also is located in an opportunity zone.

 

The project, called East River, is being touted as walkable where urban-meets-nature oasis that “celebrates local cultures, cuisines, arts and history” with 8.9 million square feet of office, 1,440 apartments, 500,000 square feet of retail space and 390 hotel rooms, according to Midway's website.

 

Midway’s East River site, which was pitched as a potential location to Amazon during its second headquarters search, is one of the largest contiguous blocks of land in the nation located within a mile of several major employment centers: downtown, the Houston Ship Channel, and the Texas Medical Center, said Boyar, the CoStar analyst.

 

“Given the Buffalo Bayou East and East River plans, combined with its opportunity zone status, the area is solidly located in the path of growth for urban infill development,” Boyar said.

 

The plans are creating some jitters about gentrification and concerns about pushing low-income communities out. At a public panel to reveal the master plan in October, three protesters disrupted the meeting shouting anti-gentrification slogans for 10 tense minutes before an audience member convinced them to leave after police were called. The protesters, who were not arrested but refused to speak to media or provide their names, argued that east end development would raise land values and price out working class communities.

 

Anne Olson, president of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, told CoStar News it was the first time the nonprofit had heard vocal opposition to their plans in more than two years of community engagement discussions.

 

Reclaiming Waterfront

 

Proponents of the plan say it was drawn up in a way that aims to maintain the character and people of the community. A handful of other low-income residents at the meeting expressed support for the proposal.

 

The issue of equity was important to the nonprofit’s master planning as the consultants for Buffalo Bayou Partnership engaged in conversations with more than a 1,000 people, said Hirschtein, the partner with HR&A who has worked on the project for four years.

 

“There’s been a tremendous amount of investment in open space across the city and it’s tended to skew toward affluent places. This allows communities to reclaim their waterfront. These are communities that have been disconnected from their water space,” Hirschtein said in an Oct. 28 panel discussion about the partnership’s master plan.

 

Concern about pricing residents out drove the nonprofit to think more broadly than just planning a beautiful park, he noted.

 

“The plan has a real focus on inclusive economic development. There are elements that you don't see in a normal park master plan like providing affordable housing on-site as part of this project,” Hirschtein said.

 

As part of the proposal, Buffalo Bayou Partnership wants to build a mixed-income residential community called Lockwood South, which would provide a combination of multifamily, single-family homes and workforce housing near Lockwood Drive. It would be next to other mixed-income communities proposed by other nonprofits with the help of disaster relief funding, said Olson, president of Buffalo Bayou Partnership, in an interview.

 

The nonprofit is also redeveloping a 50,000-square-foot former barge terminal, warehouse and wastewater treatment facility along Navigation Boulevard into a community event center and possible incubator space for neighborhood businesses and food service at a site called Turkey Bend. Olson added that the partnership would aim to work with local entrepreneurs and small businesses with ties to the neighborhood in finding any retail tenants or assisting with event programming.

 

“We could sell that property in a minute to some developer who could turn it into a shi-shi bar, but it is something that but we want to make into an community space for the neighborhood,” Olson said.

 

Awaiting 500-Year Floods

 

Beyond economic and cultural resiliency, the proposal also aims to bolster the environmental strength of the eastern side of Buffalo Bayou.

 

Parts of the bayou are still recovering from Hurricane Harvey, when the region was devastated by flooding over four days in August 2017. That’s sparked an effort to this day to determine how to make Houston’s waterfront more resilient. And planners with the Buffalo Bayou Partnership are trying to take lessons from the historic flood.

 

To combat the impact of possible flooding, the nonprofit’s plan calls for stabilizing eroding banks, designing structures that can withstand 500-year floods and creating spaces that are easier to clean after major flooding.

 

Those types of storms are an increasing concern, with executives naming climate change the top risk to organizational growth this year, according to KPMG’s 2019 Global CEO Outlook report. And the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change urges elected leaders to make sweeping changes to combat climate change and sea level rise, such as creating dikes or seawalls, maintaining mangroves or coral reefs and raising buildings along shorelines.

 

Scott McCready, principal of SWA Group, a key planner in the western end of the Buffalo Bayou Park, agrees that preparing for flooding is an increasingly good investment.

 

"While we never anticipated a Hurricane Harvey scale, we did anticipate [flooding]. We had serious discussions about where to place trails, how to design docks, all that kind of thing. So we had an incredibly responsive plan and responsible design to help minimize issues," he said in the panel discussion.

 

But the park also owes its resiliency to the public-private partnerships the Buffalo Bayou has formed with the city, the Downtown Development Authority and the Harris County Flood Control District, he said.

 

“We have this partnership in place and that is how I define resilience,” McCready said.

[Urbannizer]

https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/2021/03/18/giving-buffalo-bayou-back-east-end-affordable-housing

Groundbreaking for the first phase of Lockwood South, the Partnership’s new apartments in the Second Ward, is scheduled for June. Right now, the 18 acres on the southern shore of the bayou are imminently forgettable — filled with untamed brush and excavation dirt. But Ian Rosenberg, project manager, says the area soon will be transformed by 80, one-, two- and three- bedroom units, landscaping, access to parks, hike and bike trails and the bayou itself. The work will be done in partnership with Brinshore, a Chicago-based development company. 

Construction on that first phase is expected to cost $25 million and take 18 months. Housing in future phases will add another 270 mixed-income units, including some single-family homes.

 

[77011transplant]

I, for one, am hyped for this project. Especially if it means they'll clean up the overpass on Lockwood and clear the sidewalks that connect to the trail. 

[thedistrict84]

19 hours ago, 77011transplant said:

I, for one, am hyped for this project. Especially if it means they'll clean up the overpass on Lockwood and clear the sidewalks that connect to the trail. 

I’m also looking forward to this stretch of trail being reworked and transformed. It also seems to have a good mix of housing, which should be the goal for most new developments.

[Montrose1100]

What's the plan for the slope?

[samagon]

2 hours ago, Montrose1100 said:

What's the plan for the slope?

hopefully they hand out cardboard boxes for people to slide down the hill once there is some grass in place.

[Montrose1100]

38 minutes ago, samagon said:

hopefully they hand out cardboard boxes for people to slide down the hill once there is some grass in place.

There was really an opportunity to create an entrance to the bayou and walkway, even minimalistic like this with some simple landscaping.

 

 

[samagon]

1 hour ago, Montrose1100 said:

There was really an opportunity to create an entrance to the bayou and walkway, even minimalistic like this with some simple landscaping.

 

 

what better gateway than this?

[august948]

1 hour ago, samagon said:

what better gateway than this?

 

Would have been awesome last month...

 

[HoustonBoy]

7 hours ago, Montrose1100 said:

There was really an opportunity to create an entrance to the bayou and walkway, even minimalistic like this with some simple landscaping.

 

 

This would be PERFECT. It's the exact slope and everything 

[august948]

21 hours ago, HoustonBoy said:

This would be PERFECT. It's the exact slope and everything 

Think of it as a future opportunity.

[Urbannizer]

https://www.brinshore.com/featured/lockwood-south
 

 

[Urbannizer]

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/c48a167c25b34b91aab2aedd56636624?cover=false

Lockwood South, Lockwood North listed as well.

[H-Town Man]

On 4/22/2021 at 3:06 AM, Urbannizer said:

Anyone have access? 

https://www.costar.com/article/1085605325/new-mixed-income-housing-project-to-kick-off-transformation-of-buffalo-bayou-east

Highlights:

Nonprofit Buffalo Bayou Partnership and Brinshore Development are planning the first phase of what is to be a 350-unit residential community in the city's East End off of Lockwood Drive near Tony Marron Park.

The project, called Lockwood South, would include a mix of multifamily and single-family homes with market-rate and some affordably priced units as well as senior housing. Groundbreaking on the 80-unit first phase is slated for the third quarter, with completion at the end of 2022.

Since revealing its master plan in late 2019, the nonprofit group has been busy planning several projects and raising funds for development, including designing improvements for Japhet Creek, Turkey Bend and Tony Marron Park and starting work on the residential portion of Lockwood South.

Buffalo Bayou Partnership and Brinshore Development received a green light from the city of Houston’s planning commission April 15 on a variance request needed to move forward with the first phase of Lockwood South, which includes building 80 residential units. About 10% to 15% of those units could be market-rate apartments, Rosenberg said, but it depends on funding rules.

Surrounding the residential project, Buffalo Bayou Partnership is adding 9 acres of green space and expanding Tony Marron Park to 43 acres — putting the park just 600 feet away from Lockwood South residences, Rosenberg said. Those expanded parks are expected to be open with phase one of the residential units in December 2022. The second phase of the project, with additional residences and senior living, could open six to 12 months later, he added, so sometime in 2023 or thereafter.

Buffalo Bayou Partnership has also earmarked a section of the project for a small mixed-use commercial site such as a clinic or co-op grocery store, Rosenberg said. The partnership is constructing a new street to connect Lockwood Drive to Drenner Street.

Elsewhere in the East End, the Houston City Council on April 13 approved a 400-unit affordable housing project at 800 Middle St. near the bayou, the Houston Chronicle reported. The project, a partnership between the city and NRP Group, would replace Clayton Homes, a housing complex the Texas Department of Transportation plans to demolish to make way for its expansion of Interstate 45. Eventually the city, in partnership with NRP Group, envisions having market-rate apartments on-site for a total of 900 units, according to media reports.

[Highrise Tower]

On 3/23/2021 at 10:36 PM, Urbannizer said:

https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/2021/03/18/giving-buffalo-bayou-back-east-end-affordable-housing
 

 

Lockwood South Apartments at 733 N. Drennan St.

[hindesky]

Should this have its own topic?

Houston Housing and Development posted some new renders of what Lockwood South would look like.

Edit: their location map is probably off. It shows it about where the Pickle ball place is located.

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/c48a167c25b34b91aab2aedd56636624?cover=false

Edited June 6, 2022 by hindesky

[editor]

Done.  Thanks for the suggestion.

If you see any more items that you think should be split into their own topics, PM a moderator, or e-mail me directly at editor@houstonarchitecture.com.

Thanks again!

[hindesky]

"The Buffalo Bayou expansion also calls for an 80-unit affordable housing project that is expected to break ground this month."

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/new-developments-houston-readers-17485886.php

[hindesky]

[hindesky]

The only public road leading in to the property is on N. Drennan St. unless the city creates a road from Lockwood Dr. through the wooded area east or the old abandoned rail road south of the property. Only other option is to use eminent domain on the corner property on North Eastwood St.

This is the entrance at N. Drennan St. as it is now.

[bobruss]

I'm really excited about all of the activity in the East End, however what really concerns me is what is the industrial history of this land. For instance some of the properties adjacent to the Lockwood site look a little unsafe. The one I'm most concerned about is just southwest of the Lockwood site on Crites road. It looks like some sort of industrial refinery or storage area. It appears to be just north of GCP whatever that stands for. And what kind of operation is the Dan Luc Group just to the west of this site. I see that the Buffalo Bayou conservancy is using the adjacent building for its offices. I hope everything has been tested for hazardous waste and that all my fears have been put to rest. I really don't know what the history of the Lockwood property is or if there was something built on that property at one time. I just don't want to have residents find out after living on that property for years that its a hazardous waste site. I would just hate to see another Love Canal disaster. I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer. I just want to be sure that everyone will be safe.

[hindesky]

@bobruss

https://gcpat.com/en

https://www.danlocgroup.com

 

Edited October 8, 2022 by hindesky

[hindesky]

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

Pick A Part used to be on the lot next door, where the long rows of warehouses are. I wonder how much of a cleanup LKQ did before they left that property...

[wilcal]

6 hours ago, hindesky said:

The only public road leading in to the property is on N. Drennan St. unless the city creates a road from Lockwood Dr. through the wooded area east or the old abandoned rail road south of the property. Only other option is to use eminent domain on the corner property on North Eastwood St.

This is the entrance at N. Drennan St. as it is now.

Their GP received a variance to not extend Drennan. They proposed building a street that runs along the southern edge of the property. Some form of interior road would connect to get to that one to extend to Lockwood.

Other proposed site amenities include 60 units of senior housing, another apartment building between this one and the bayou, 63 rowhouses, 26 single family homes, commercial, and some amenities/parking.

[hindesky]

This rendering from Brinshore shows some of the future additions, the road to Lockwood and another heading south which I assume might be North Eastwood St.

 

[004n063]

14 hours ago, wilcal said:

Other proposed site amenities include 60 units of senior housing, another apartment building between this one and the bayou, 63 rowhouses, 26 single family homes, commercial, and some amenities/parking.

Those aren't "site amenities" - that is a neighborhood. Awesome.

[HoustonMidtown]

Clearing the land

 

[hindesky]

56 minutes ago, HoustonMidtown said:

Clearing the land

 

 

Was this taken from the Lockwood St.  U-turn?

[HoustonMidtown]

11 hours ago, hindesky said:

Was this taken from the Lockwood St.  U-turn?

On the bike trail right near the u-turn