Partners Plan Houston Infill Apartments

Behringer Harvard and Trammell Crow Residential have acquired a multifamily development site of more than 2.5 acres in the West University submarket of Houston's Inner Loop. The partners are planning a new apartment development on the site.

By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor

Houston—Behringer Harvard and Trammell Crow Residential have acquired a multifamily development site of more than 2.5 acres in the West University submarket of Houston’s Inner Loop. The partners are planning a new apartment development on the site.

Development plans call for razing of existing 1970s-vintage housing at 3810 Law Street to make way for the new complex. The property, which will be called Allusion West University, will comprise a four-story residential building constructed over a two-story parking garage, and include a total of 231 units.

The apartments will average 877 square feet and be built to “condominium-quality specifications,” according to the developers, and offer as many as two bedrooms and two baths. Common-area amenities will include a cyber cafe, business center, fitness center, resort-style pool and dog park.

Behringer Harvard Multifamily REIT I Inc. COO Mark T. Alfieri calls the site a “prime infill location” with high barriers to entry. “We expect this development to attract business professionals,” he notes.

Compared with most other metro areas, Houston is growing rapidly, with a net addition of 95,000 jobs forecast for 2012. Investment specialist Marcus & Millichap predicts that Houston metro’s apartment vacancy rate will end the year down a full percentage point to 7.5 percent, and that asking and effective rents will have risen 3.1 percent and 4.1 percent by year’s end.