The Langley: Residential High-Rise At 1717 Bissonnet St.

[BeerNut]

Any updates?

[Ross]

1 hour ago, BeerNut said:

Any updates?

The lot is still vacant and the grass gets cut occasionally.

[KirbyDriveKid]

Chronicle has updates!

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Exclusive-Six-years-after-Ashby-high-rise-17139055.php#photo-22424407

Exclusive: Six Years After Ashby High-rise Controversy, a New Luxury Apartment Tower Planned for the Site

Since a judge sided with developers of the so-called Ashby high-rise in 2016, the grassy lot at the center of one of the most closely watched land-use battles in Houston’s history has sat untouched, surrounded by chain-link fencing.

Now, the owners of the property are resurrecting efforts to build a high-rise residential tower at the corner of Bissonnet and Ashby Street near Rice University. They have brought in a new development team and a scaled-down version of the original plans they hope will win over neighbors who fiercely opposed the earlier iteration.

Hunt Companies of El Paso is partnering with Dallas-based StreetLights Residential to build a 20-story luxury apartment community called The Langley. They plan to break ground in November and complete construction by 2025. The tower is one story lower with 94 fewer units than a 2016 version of the project. The new proposal also features a smaller parking garage at three levels instead of five.

Fewer units mean fewer residents, which the developers hope will ease concerns over traffic on the two-lane streets surrounding the site — a key point of contention for the prior proposal.

 

The Langley is expected to feature a classic design style taking cues from the nearby Rice Univeristy with brick colors and columns.

The proposed 134-unit building features unusually large two- and three-bedroom apartments, mimicking the spaciousness of a single-family home. The Langley’s average unit size is 2,850 square feet, more than double the size of the average 888-square-foot apartment in Houston, according to RentCafe, an apartment search website.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Eye-popping rent growth in Austin, Dallas makes Houston rent spikes seem almost moderate in comparison

StreetLights Residential intends to reproduce the success of a popular luxury high-rise in Dallas called The McKenzie. There, wealthy empty nesters can pay between $3,000 to $20,000 a month for luxury rentals at the 22-story tower overlooking Highland Park, according to data from Houston Association of Realtors. While The McKenzie is not senior housing, the average renter is 57 years old. Tenants can’t be under 25.

“The resident who lives at The McKenzie, as they will at the Langley, they can live anywhere. They can afford anywhere, and we have to meet the expectations they have,” said Stephen Meek, senior vice president with StreetLights Residential. “They have fine taste, and they know what elegance is that we have to provide.”

When Hunt Companies saw The McKenzie, they liked it so much they brought StreetLights on to the Bissonnet project, Meek said. StreetLights replaces Buckhead Investments as the lead developer, although Buckhead remains a passive investor.

Buckhead’s earlier proposals were also meant to appeal to affluent seniors who wanted to downsize from larger homes in the neighborhood. The proposal never had a formal name, but residents dubbed it The Ashby. Across the street from the site, a yellow-and-black sign with the “Stop Ashby Highrise” slogan is pinned to a fence - a reminder of the contentious crusade to halt the project years ago.

 

A “Stop Ashby Highrise” sign hangs on a fence across the street from the vacant property at 1717 Bissonnet Street at Ashby Street in the Boulevard Oaks neighborhood, Friday, April 29, 2022, in Houston.

Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Memorial Hermann’s 30-story medical office tower is visible from the site, but Texas Medical Center’s skyscrapers still feel far away from the neighborhood where live oak trees tower over colonial-style mansions and Georgian homes with flickering lanterns illuminating manicured boxwood bushes.

When Buckhead Investment first announced a project in 2007, it quickly drew the ire of residents who argued a high-rise was out of character for the neighborhood. They worried about traffic congestion and plummeting property values.

The opposition sparked a yearlong battle to squash the project through protests and lawsuits in what became a symbol for fighting Houston’s lax zoning. Ultimately a judge sided with Buckhead in clearing the way for the developers to build.

But the legal win for developers came near the bottom of the 2014-to-2016 oil bust, which made it difficult to attract investors to Houston, and the property instead sat undeveloped.

 

A chain link fence surrounds the vacant property at 1717 Bissonnet Street at Ashby Street in the Boulevard Oaks neighborhood, Friday, April 29, 2022, in Houston.

Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

On HoustonChronicle.com: Investment kicks off major growth plans for Texas build-to-rent developer

Hunt Companies, however, didn’t shelve the project. The owners kept their original permits up-to-date with routine inspections and permit renewals every few months, said a spokeswoman for Houston Public Works Department. In a statement, the department said the city's legal team would review an earlier agreement with the project owners to determine how the new proposal might be affected.

The developers have scheduled meetings with the city to determine next steps in the approval process, Meek said.

The prior project was “another developer, from another time. We’re the right developer for this and we’re excited to see The Langley come forth,” Meek said.

marissa.luck@chron.com

[nate]

Excellent news.

Very smart to drop the vicious teeth and menacing arms of the prior design. 

[samagon]

for this to still be a lucrative business model I think is astounding.

I know I've said it before, but the thought flashes in my mind every time, if it were me, I would have already built an apartment building that had exactly the same number of units as the previous, and made it 100% low income housing. the amount of money they lost from the litigation of this space can't be much different from the amount they'd lose by just doing a project to spite the neighbors.

but then, I suppose continuing to go ahead with the tower design is going to spite the neighbors just as much, and may recoup some of the loses better than the low income housing would.

Edited May 2, 2022 by samagon

[BEES?!]

I like the render, it looks really good. Very classic-looking building. It’d be neat if we could get some more of these!

[wilcal]

[Avossos]

It is a beautiful building and I think a nice addition to the area. I am 100% behind preserving our single family home communities... but this doesn't really harm anything. Some neighbors will see it in their peripheral sights, but I almost think it would improve the area overall.

build baby build!

[dbigtex56]

2 hours ago, KirbyDriveKid said:

The opposition sparked a yearlong battle to squash the project

Squash it with what - a monster truck? A steam roller?
I think the developer would quash any efforts to do such an unlikely thing.

[MidCenturyMoldy]

52 minutes ago, dbigtex56 said:

Squash it with what - a monster truck? A steam roller?
I think the developer would quash any efforts to do such an unlikely thing.

[Paco Jones]

https://thelangleyhouston.com/

[MidCenturyMoldy]

I just saw this on my Twitter feed. Google is evil.  

[hindesky]

[HoustonMidtown]

https://houston.culturemap.com/news/real-estate/05-02-22-the-langley-ashby-high-rise-1717-bissonnet-for-rent-luxury-streetlights-residential-hunt-companies/?utm_source=hot-headlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=website#slide=0

[hindesky]

Realty News Report article with Streetlights Residential's Stephen Meek.

https://realtynewsreport.com/upscale-residential-tower-rising-in-affluent-neighborhood/

[MarathonMan]

Nice looking rendering.  What are the odds it gets value-engineered into a Randal Davis monstrosity?

[hindesky]

[hindesky]

[Subdude]

I wonder if the neighbors will complain again. It does seem out of scale for the neighborhood. 

[shasta]

Serious question...why did the Karens scream over this project? There are many examples of mid rises in the Rice University area, and surrounding area. Many over looking residential. This is not out of character for this district.

 

The do need a stop light at Dunlay @ Bissonnet, with or without this building.

[Montrose1100]

20 minutes ago, shasta said:

Serious question...why did the Karens scream over this project? There are many examples of mid rises in the Rice University area, and surrounding area. Many over looking residential. This is not out of character for this district.

 

The do need a stop light at Dunlay @ Bissonnet, with or without this building.

I get why they went up in arms, but this is Houston, and it's getting increasingly dense by the day. It's a beautiful neighborhood (personally I think the most beautiful in the whole city). 

[Twinsanity02]

48 minutes ago, shasta said:

Serious question...why did the Karens scream over this project? There are many examples of mid rises in the Rice University area, and surrounding area. Many over looking residential. This is not out of character for this district.

 

The do need a stop light at Dunlay @ Bissonnet, with or without this building.

I have not spoken to anyone who lives in the area. I suspect they feel an invasion of privacy and a dislike in standing on ones land and staring up at a highrise.  I believe the neighborhood is called Broadacres. It is quiet, leafy, peaceful,and very beautiful. I do not live anywhere to it,  I do not have a dog in this fight and do not care either way, but I do understand their annoyance.

Fortunately, it is quite an elegant highrise, so they could have done much worse.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Twinsanity02
addtion

[astrohip]

1 hour ago, shasta said:

Serious question...why did the Karens scream over this project? There are many examples of mid rises in the Rice University area, and surrounding area. Many over looking residential. This is not out of character for this district.

This is a high-rise, not a mid-rise. Twenty plus floors. And there is not anything like this in the area. That's what they were complaining about. Plus the added traffic.

[iah77]

I never imagined HAIF would ever be NIMBY central lol.

It's totally normal to have highrises with homes in most places in the world. Traffic is not bad on Bissonnet/Sunset Blvd. It's transit rich and will be a great addition. My parents live around the corner so I frequent the area. People here want the benefits of density without any actual density lol. 

[samagon]

9 minutes ago, iah77 said:

I never imagined HAIF would ever be NIMBY central lol.

It's totally normal to have highrises with homes in most places in the world. Traffic is not bad on Bissonnet/Sunset Blvd. It's transit rich and will be a great addition. My parents live around the corner so I frequent the area. People here want the benefits of density without any actual density lol. 

never mind that the site had apartments on it before. I'm not sure how many units there were, or will be, but the difference cannot be so great as to have warranted the backlash.

[iah77]

1 hour ago, samagon said:

never mind that the site had apartments on it before. I'm not sure how many units there were, or will be, but the difference cannot be so great as to have warranted the backlash.

It has always been apartments and god knows this tower is better than an ugly garage "wrap" apartment complex like they build in most places. If it was purely about the money building that would have been much less headache for them and probably been pretty profitable. 

[X.R.]

3 hours ago, Montrose1100 said:

I get why they went up in arms, but this is Houston, and it's getting increasingly dense by the day. It's a beautiful neighborhood (personally I think the most beautiful in the whole city). 

I agree, I kind of think its the most beautiful within the loop. If I ever made enough money I think this is where I'd want to live first, as opposed to west U or memorial or bellaire or whatever compared neighborhood. I think its cuz the location is so nice.

This is larger than most of the items in the area, but in terms of comparable areas [in terms of home prices] is this mostly about expectations and location of the neighbors when compared to something like the tower going up in Tanglewood? 

[hindesky]

All but 2 houses had the "Tower of Traffic" signs in their front yards on the Wroxton Ct. which is directly south of the build. But they need to update the sign to say Langley and not Ashby.

 

 

[asubrt]

This is so disingenuous. There will be ZERO added traffic on Wroxton Court, and I really have a hard time believing that the traffic on Bissonnet will be significantly worse, especially considering there were apartments here before (as has been frequently noted in this thread). I don't know if it's a property value issue, or that they just don't want a high rise in their backyard because of privacy or views or whatever... but this is almost right in the center of Houston, there's going to be density whether they like it or not. I can see several high rises from my backyard (in a significantly less dense area of town), and you don't see me crying about it.

[aachor]

On 6/20/2022 at 1:37 PM, Twinsanity02 said:

I suspect they feel an invasion of privacy and a dislike in standing on ones land and staring up at a highrise. 

I get the sentiment. The solution is quite simple, really: don't live in the dead-center of the nation's fourth-largest city.

If you can afford to live near Bissonnet and Ashby, you can afford to live just about anywhere else. People have a right to control their own property. But they don't also have a right to control everything else within their eyesight. Especially when they are surrounded by seven million other people who also have their own interests.