Work Begins on Downtown Houston Apartments
Ground has been broken for Catalyst Houston, a high-rise apartment building in the Houston CBD. Altogether, the 28-story property will include 361 units, and is slated for completion in the summer of 2016.
By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor
Houston—Ground has been broken for Catalyst Houston, a high-rise apartment building in the Houston CBD. Altogether, the 28-story property will include 361 units, and is slated for completion in the summer of 2016.
The tower, at 1423 Texas Ave., two blocks west of Minute Maid Park, is a joint venture between Chicago-based Marquette Cos., El Paso-based Hunt Cos., and affiliates of Ares Management. Pepper Lawson will serve as general contractor, while US Bank is providing construction financing.
Designed by Houston-based architect Ziegler Cooper, Catalyst will include one-, two- and three-bedroom units that feature views of downtown Houston and Minute Maid Park. Residences will include such amenities as hardwood flooring, stainless steel appliances, 10- to 13-foot ceilings and balconies or terraces.
Common amenities will include a Wi-Fi lounge, outdoor dog run with a pet wash, club room, meeting room and fitness center. The property will also feature a “sky club” offering panoramic views of the city, and a resort-style outdoor swimming pool with an infinity edge. The ground floor of Catalyst will be home to a 6,000-square-foot restaurant, with details to be announced later.
According to investment specialist Marcus & Millichap, developers will deliver about 12,250 apartments to the Houston metro market this year, which is a sizable increase from 2013 but still well below the metro’s most recent peak in 2009, when 20,000 units came online. Demand for apartments remains healthy enough to absorb most of those new units, and presumably ones developed in upcoming years, if the drop in the price of oil—a major indirect factor in the health of the local economy—isn’t too steep or prolonged (as in the late 1980s).