West U city officials are keeping an eye on the proposed five-story apartment complex that may be built just outside the city.
All West U City Council members with the exception of Mayor Pro Tem Susan Sample attended a public meeting on Tuesday at the West University Church of Christ to learn more about Trammell Crow Residential’s proposed development, Alexan West University.
The proposed apartment complex would replace the Courts at West University, which are located in the City of Houston on the other side of Bissonnet from West U at 3810 Law Street.
The plan includes a 2.5 acre site with 231 one bedroom and two bedroom rental apartment units. Of those units, 196 apartments would be one bedroom and 35 would be two bedrooms.
The Courts at West University were built in 1973 and have 146 apartment rentals, according to the Harris County Appraisal district. TCR Senior Managing Director M. Scot Davis said there are 106 rental units.
The proposed apartment building will have four floors of dwelling units over a parking garage that will be integrated to match the building, which will have masonry exteriors of brick, stucco and cast stone.
The apartments will be built with a “luxury hotel feel” with 9 ½ ft. ceilings and real hardwood and stone flooring, Davis said.
One bedroom apartments will cost $1,511 per month with two bedrooms costing $2,140 per month and each apartment will be leased for 12 months, Davis said.
TCR’s target market for the Alexan West University are sophisticated, established professionals and renters by choice and will be attractive to people who work in the galleria and medical center, he said.
TCR has not purchased the property and has not completed their financing, but Davis said they hope to close the deal in February.
Once they close the deal, residents will receive a notice to vacate and will have 60 days to move out, he said.
TCR plans to demolish the apartments in April with construction starting in September 2012. The entire project should be complete by April 2014, Davis said.
Numerous residents from the apartment complex and nearby property owners said they felt like they weren’t given proper notice about the plans for the development.
“It’s like here it is, we’ll see you in September,” one resident said.
A public hearing will be held with the City of Houston Planning Commission on Dec. 15 to replat the land from multi-family to another multi-family residential use.
Houston City Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck told the group that TCR was not required to hold a public meeting and the law only requires residents within 250 feet to be sent a letter.
“A lot of developers don’t take the time to reach out to community groups,” Davis said. “We knew everybody wouldn’t be in support of it, but we wanted the community to be aware of what’s going on.”
Several of the residents who attended the meeting had concerns about parking and said that an additional 150 cars would be a detriment to the area.
Davis said they completed the traffic study requirement and the City of Houston determined that further traffic studies would not be required.
Clutterbuck said the traffic on Weslayan is already bad and additional traffic from the new apartment complex is not enough to trigger a change.
I’m sure the developer will get funding for the project, so they will be able to start by September, 2012. If someone now living in the Courts of West University has a one-year lease and because the current residents also know that in all probability, the project will move forward, can they break their lease and move out instead of waiting for an Order to Vacate within 60 days? One bedroom apartments are small, that is why renters prefer two bedrooms or one bedroom with a huge study for their stuff and definitely two bathrooms.
Anybody thinking that city governments run Houston or any of the cities within it believes in fary tales. Developers run these cities no matter what residents think and no matter how much the protest to their “representatives” .
The decisions in our greater Houston area cities – without exceptions – are made behind closed doors. That is why Bolsover was closed and that is why if TCR really wants this project built, it WILL be built.
Resident is correct. The developers know that the city wants a tax base as large as the amount of concrete that will be poured. In addition to the bumper-to-bumper traffic on Bissonnet already, we can look forward to more traffic on Weslayan, and after some rain, the flooding. Ann Clutterbuck said “traffic on Weslayan is already bad . . . .” mmm. mmm. mmm. The logic of a politician.