CLASSY DEVELOPMENT
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Residential project wil be carved out of Saint Nicholas school tract.
Alliance Residential Co. purchased 13 acres along South Main Street from Taeken Ltd. for the development of a garden-style apartment complex about five miles south of the Texas Medical Center.
The site, at 12115 Main, is part of a 47-acre tract Taeken acquired a few years ago for the relocation and expansion of Saint Nicholas School.
Phoenix-based Alliance will develop a three-story complex with 336 one- and two-bedroom units across multiple buildings. It will be part of the Saint Nicholas Place development, which will include the future Saint Nicholas School and commercial properties along Main.
Margot Heard, head of Saint Nicholas School, said the land sale is part of a vision to create a village around the new academic campus.
No time frame has been set for construction of the private, nonprofit school, which will contain classrooms for infants through eighth grade, a gym, a chapel and playing fields. The school is leasing an interim campus at Bethany Methodist Church.
The land was the best opportunity Taeken could find for the school’s relocation from 1920 N. Braeswood near the Texas Medical Center, but was more than the school needed for its own campus, Heard said.
Approximately 25 percent of the parents at Saint Nicholas live in apartments, so the new residences would provide an option within walking distance to the school and close to jobs in the Med Center, Heard said.
The property is next to the Menninger Clinic, south of Loop 610, and additional sections along Main are being offered for sale for commercial development. JLL is marketing the parcels on behalf Taeken.
Taeken will soon begin infrastructure work for the Saint Nicholas Place development, including bringing in utilities, detention, drainage and landscaping.
Chris Bergmann Jr. of JLL represented Taeken in the sale to Alliance.
“The Med Center is a vital part of the Houston economy, and we look forward to providing a great new multifamily community within close proximity to nearby workplaces, schools, retail and restaurants,” David Adame, development associate at Alliance Residential, said in an announcement.
The project will add to the nearly 21,000 units under construction across the Houston region, according to ApartmentData.com, a Houston-based apartment research firm.
Alliance’s project is one of several proposed apartments in the Houston area under its Prose brand, which offers more affordable rents, according to ApartmentData.
Developers have delivered 22,000 apartment units in the Houston area over the last 12 months, according to ApartmentData, well above the longterm average of 16,000 units per year.
Even with Houston’s job losses and slowdown in the economy with the coronavirus pandemic, there will always be a need for more housing as the population grows.
By the time the new Prose project is planned and built, Houston will be in a new cycle, said Bruce McClenny, president of ApartmentData.
“Things are going to come back,” McClenny said. “Right now, people are kind of locked in place.”