High end for seniors
A Buffalo Speedway community is planned near the Texas Medical Center.
Dallas-based Tradition Senior Living is bringing its brand of high-end rental communities for seniors to Houston with a big project near the Texas Medical Center and is scouting a second site in the Memorial/Tanglewood area.
A long-vacant tract along Buffalo Speedway inside Loop 610 is being transformed into the Tradition-Buffalo Speedway, consisting of 316 units with landscaped courtyards, underground parking and a dog park.
The residences, opening in late 2018, will come with such amenities as housekeeping, transportation to doctor appointments and grocery stores, exercise classes and a variety of on-site restaurants.
“We think we’ve put together a culture that people like,” company founder Jonathan Perlman Sr. said.
“We’ve had people from Houston move to Dallas to be near their adult children. They encouraged us. They thought it would be successful in Houston.”
The project on nearly 8 acres at 9339 Buffalo Speedway will consist of a 222-unit independent living building with four and five stories. It will connect with a threestory, 94-unit assisted-living/ memory-care building next door, with amenities such as an indoor pool, fitness center, salon and movie theater between.
Apartments on the upper floors, as well as dining at The Tradition Club, will offer views of downtown and the Texas Medical Center, Perlman said. An on-site sales office will open in September.
Tradition Senior Living designs, builds and manages its properties. Its two campuses in Dallas contain a combined 639 units.
The Houston project could draw residents in their 50s and up from nearby neighborhoods such as Braes Heights, Knollwood Village, Meyerland and West University.
“We feel that Buffalo Speedway is very comparable to our Dallas locations with comparable neighborhoods around it,” Perlman said, “plus the huge amenity of the Medical Center, Rice University just up the street and the Museum District.”
Tradition Senior Living, which purchased the 12-acre tract last year, is selling more than 4 acres along Main Street to an apartment developer, Perlman said.
Rents are projected to start at $3,500 and include breakfast at the cafe plus $400 in credits at various dining facilities on campus. It also covers water and electricity.
The project is among a growing number of developments that cater to an aging population. Currently, 15 percent of the nation’s population is 65 or older, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That share is projected to grow to nearly a quarter of the population by 2060.
In other area developments, Bridgewood Property Co. purchased a 1-acre tract at Kelvin and Robinhood as the future site of the 17-story Village of Southampton independentliving, assisted-living and memory-care facility. Brazos Presbyterian Homes recently added the 14-story Brazos Towers at Bayou Manor to its 7-acre campus at 4141 S. Braeswood.