First Sign of the 35-Story Apartment Tower Coming to Weslayan and West Alabama

Here’s the sign that’s gone up on the northeast corner of Weslayan and West Alabama, where PM Realty plans to start construction later this year on the 35-story apartment tower it announced last year. The tower, PM Realty’s first in Houston, will have 12,500 sq. ft. of retail space on the first or second floor, 250 apartments, and a 3,000-sq.-ft. fitness center, according to a Houston Business Journal report last year. On the 2.6-acre site, which the company bought from Interfin last August: the remains of the State Grille restaurant. New on-the-scene blog Going Up! City has these pix of the site:

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The sign identifies the new project as 2900 Weslayan, which also happens to be the address of the Chase Bank office building across the street, which PM Realty manages.

Photos: Going Up! City

34 Comment

  • Great. Just what we need. Again. A high rise plunked down in a “low rise” area.

  • Awesome. Build it

  • Are they going to call it Confederate House?

  • we have “low rise ” areas?

  • And traffic is already horrible on Weslayan.

  • Weslayan and Alabama is pretty much Greenway. Not sure I see this as a bad location.

  • ‘Low rise’ area??? Bwahahahahah!!! Yes, Colleen, this is just what we need. If you don’t like it then move out to the suburbs where your level of thinking belongs, please. Where do you think you live??? How can you claim a high rise ‘plunked’ down? Do you really think that the day the story is released is the same day that the build site is chosen and the tower is designed…..Seems you know so much about urban planning, let’s hear your proposal to solve Houston’s urban sprawl all while keeping your sacred yard all for yourself. FYI, what makes Houston such a great city is its no zoning codes, so if you don’t like that then maybe you should forgo the suburbs and just move to Dallas.

  • CG, bwahahahahah, following the Houston mantra of “if you don’t like it, buy it”, unless you bought Colleen’s opinion, why are you expressing an opinion about it?

  • Even downtown was a low-rise area once. And before that, it was greenfield.

    The intersection of W. Alabama and Weslayan is solidly, absolutely, within the urban core of one of this nation’s largest and fastest growing cities. There are three highrises within an eighth of a mile of that intersection. It is also within walking distance to two grocery stores and Highland Village. The site should be densely developed. It’s good public policy.

  • Nobody likes to go all NIMBY up on a developer like I do, but this development makes sense. The area is majority commercial and multifamily residential. Any single family homeowners have certainly been on notice that the non-single family neighborhood was closing in around them. Also, this is an apartment complex with ground floor retail–exactly what the area needs. Traffic burden will not be that bad. Plus, it is a block from two grocery stores and down the street from the Richmond light rail line. So, in theory, residents could avoid a lot of driving.

  • Love the idea and the concept…”On a Clear day You can see forever”the older highrises maitainence is way too high so people are looking for new…..”Chic” sells in Houston…lots of money ….unfortunately no taste..old expression..big hat no cattle….

  • That whole area south of Westheimer, north of Bissonet and from Shepherd to Weslayan is prime territory for high rise apartments and condos. It’s already dense, it will just become more so in the future.
    I’ve always wondered why there was never a string of high rise condos built along Buffalo Bayou along Memorial and Allen Parkways, similar to the forest of them that exists just north of downtown Dallas along Turtle Creek. Both connect downtown business districts to some of the swankiest homes in each city.

  • Great to see a new high rise proposal! ! ! I really hope this gets built. We need more high rise proposals and developments ! ! !

  • Its not the most imaginative design in the world, but it is kind of nice to see some mixed use that isn’t bricks and stucco and faux this and fake that.
    That part of West Alabama/Weslayan is almost all mid or high rise, mostly office park and not really residential. I think it makes perfect sense. Traffic is getting worse all over, so that’s not really an issue, IMO.
    Houston may turn into a high rise living city after all. I like my backyard though…

  • Why cant we get more high rise developments like this ? Just think if half the mid-rise apartments planned or being developed inside the loop were high rises that would be alot of new buildings added to the Houston skyline. It would look great.

  • Sooooo glad I moved out of there before all the crazy construction began. I watched the old HISD administration building go down, and the traffic and congestion have multiplied every year since.

    Oh yeah, and to those of us oldtimers, that area is called “Greenway Plaza,” not the “Galleria” (as Costco so proudly dubs their nearby store). The latter refers to the high rises OUTSIDE of 610. And that other nearby street is pronounced San Phillip-ee.

  • Old School, don’t forget Afton Oaks is pushing the light rail line to Westpark at Cummins or Timmons.

  • Traffic already sucks around there… where’s that plan?

  • The ANgUS Tower… cuz someone is going to steal the “g.”

  • The AT&T building just across the street is hardly a “low-rise.”

  • Pick me up off the floor.

    I totally agree w/TheNiche on an issue.
    It’s called “infill” and it attacks sprawl head-on.
    This area is almost ideal for further infill.

    That said, I’m so glad I moved from six blocks away…

  • Traffic is already horrible in this area. just what we need…another high rise. this will make traffic to Central Market, Highland Village, and ROBS near impossible.

  • Would love to know about any plans the city has to mitigate traffic from this development. I live near Weslayan and Richmond and the traffic is terrible. Drivers careening through our small single-family residential neighborhood at all hours to avoid waiting an extra minute or two at the stoplight. Prepare for that to get even worse with several hundred residents of this new tower racing up and down Weslayan to get to the 59.

    That said, I am generally in favor of developing the inner core in Houston. The city needs to manage it better, though.

  • @Chad #22,

    Bwahahaha! Like traffic around Central Market and Highland Village isn’t already impossible! I avoid that area like the plague and I live only a couple miles down WAla.

    @doofus #19 FTW.

    @SuperDave #16, no kidding, and that’s why it’s the Greenway b-dubs, not the Galleria.

  • I need some opinions. A friend of mine owns a patio home on W Alabama next to this site. Will this help or hurt her property value? There’s a one acre tract between this development and hers, and we don’t know what it’s going to be. I figure it might help her value because it will be near retail and probably a restaurant or two, but who knows.

  • As long as someone pays to widen Alabama at that intersection and some dim bulb in Public Works actually recommends a DEDICATED left turn lane (if one can be squeezed in on Weslayan to the property) instead of another break in the esplanade which does nothing but tie up traffic, then throw down the gauntlet!

  • It looks like the perfect location to me, as long as the builders do something to help with the traffic flow.

    I don’t understand why these types of buildings are not going up in Mid-town.

  • Bill
    That’s what I was referring too as “low-rise” There are homes and townhomes and patio homes in the area. Yeah, the whole area is turning into a more commercial area, but people do still have homes there.

    And CG WHOA! Too much caffeine? And btw, I DO live inside the loop. On an increasingly busy street in an area where higher-rised apartments are being built, overshadowing the long-existing 1950’s neighborhood and homes. And I DO have issues with high rises!!

  • FYI, its not the 50’s anymore, and if Ive done my long division correctly, its been nearly 60 years that your home has been able to bask, un-obstructed by overshadowing highrises. I never claimed you didnt live inside the loop, in fact, I said you should LEAVE, which implies that you do live there. And, like I said previously, if you dont like high-rise, dense living, then move out to the suburbs where your way of thinking is accepted AND expected.

    ‘He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.’ ~Harold Wilson

  • @ Dragor: They don’t build this stuff in Midtown because the target demographic for highrises, as expensive as they are, won’t accept Midtown as readily as it will accept Uptown/River Oaks/Greenway Plaza. They have more money to spend and want their neighborhood to be safe and clean with *immediate* accessibility to high-end grocery and shopping venues. Midtown can’t offer that yet. (This is also a 2.6-acre site, but block sizes in Midtown are 1.4 acres each.)

  • Recap: Some nimble NIMBYs applaud this towering thing, SOMBYs (Sold Off My BackYard) are thrilled they won’t have to live under it.

  • Again, CG, stay away from the caffeine. Jeez.

  • Colleen, I’m sure CG will Do the Right Thing. If he thinks you should leave, obviously he’s prepared to BUY YOUR HOUSE. :)

  • The dome would have been a great home to the Houston Dynamo soccer team also the Houston Cougar stadium is getting old and it would also be a great host to them. The dome just needs some taking care of and maintenance and it’ll be back to sports like it should.