The 378-unit development, still unnamed, will carry the developer's Alexan brand, says Brian Austin, a managing director in Trammell Crow Residential's Houston office. The acreage was sold by a local partnership made up of MLGL Partners Ltd., SSRRS Partners Ltd. & GDEL Partners Ltd.
The developer plans to have the four-story buildings ready for occupancy in December 2006. "We view this project as purely a demand play," Austin tells GlobeSt.com. "The amount of land available in the Medical Center is pretty limited and the only way it can grow is south. So, we see this project as being in the path of the growth."
The project is designed with 257 one-bedroom units, 109 two-bedroom apartments and 12 three-bedroom layouts. The average unit is 959 sf. Rents have been set at $1.16 per sf, Austin says.
The new project is almost identical to Alexan Heights at 404 Oxford St. in the Houston Heights neighborhood west of the downtown. Like Alexan Heights, it has been designed by Wallace Garcia & Associates Inc.
Doug Lockwood, Gus Lagos and Sam Sheff with Grubb & Ellis Co. in Houston brokered the land sale. "The land was priced very reasonably since land in the Medical Center has reached as much as $100 per sf," Lockwood points out. He adds a variety of uses were considered for the acreage, which is just three minutes from the heart of the Medical Center. The parcel also offers a high visibility because it has 600 feet of frontage on US Highway 288.
"We thought residential would be the highest and best use, but we had interest from people wanting to do medical offices buildings, townhomes and hotels," Lockwood says. The land was on the market 15 months, falling out of escrow one time before Trammell Crow Residential put in a bid. "If they hadn't closed on the land, the sellers had planned to bring it back to market at $20 per sf," he says.
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