Hines Prepares to Open WaterWall Place in Houston

Hines, the owner and developer of WaterWall Place in Uptown Houston, has started pre-leasing the property.

By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor

Houston—Hines, the owner and developer of WaterWall Place in Uptown Houston, has started pre-leasing the property. The 322-unit apartment development, which will open for move-ins next month, is the first multifamily project in the city for Hines, and is named for the nearby Gerald D. Hines Waterwall (formerly the Williams Waterwall and the Transco Waterwall), a well-known sculptural fountain dating from the 1980s.

The seven-story community will offer one- and two-bedroom units ranging from 700 square feet to 1,740 square feet. Most floor plans will incorporate kitchens with gas ranges, wine refrigerators, 10-foot ceilings, garden tubs and walk-in closets. The property’s common amenities will include an Internet cafe, a hotel-style lobby with lounge and social spaces, a conference room, a 2,000-square-foot fitness facility and a grand courtyard with a swimming pool and outdoor kitchen facilities.

WaterWall Place is being built to meet LEED Silver standards by general contractor Urban Oaks Builders. Construction of the property has employed various sustainable methods, according to Hines, and incorporates green features such as low-VOC paints, dual pane windows, and programmable thermostats. It will also provide bicycle storage, priority parking for fuel-efficient vehicles, and an on-site recycling program. The property is one of about 200 Hines projects, either certified, pre-certified or registered under the various LEED rating systems.

Designed by Wallace Garcia Wilson with Jackson Ryan as design architect, the steel-framed WaterWall Place will form a “U” shape surrounding a grand courtyard space. The residential units and club amenities located on the ground floor podium level will feature 11-foot ceilings, as will the penthouse level.

Hines also recently tapped Charleston, SC-based Greystar to lease and manage the project. The company currently manages about 200,000 units in more than 100 markets nationwide. Final completion of WaterWall Place will be in the summer of 2014.