Excavators are now moving dirt around on the corner of Kirby and oak-lined Steel St. where a 39-story apartment tower dubbed Hanover River Oaks is planned. Hanover bought a 1.6-acre portion of the former Kirby Court Apartments along Steel St. in 2016; funding issues had left the project in limbo for most of the prior year. The photo above, taken from the highrise at 2727 Kirby, looks southwest past the corner tower of the Gables West Ave apartments to show a portion of the crater where the new apartment tower is now under construction.

Although the project has a Kirby Dr. address, the building won’t actually front the street. Instead, it will sit behind Becks Prime at the corner of Kirby and Kipling (partly visible in the bottom left of the image above). Earlier renderings showed a new standalone restaurant building fronting Kirby just south of Becks Prime. West of the drive-thru restaurant zone, an entrance driveway for the apartment will run between Kipling and Steel.

A recent rendering from architecture firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz views the tower from southeast of 2727 Kirby:

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• Houston developer’s long-awaited apartment tower in Upper Kirby underway [HBJ]
• Previously on Swamplot: Demolition Work Is Beginning Now on the Kirby Court Apartments; Almost the Very End of the Kirby Court Apartments; The Kirby Court Apartments Have Been Emptied Out, but Hanover Says Purchase of Site for Tower Has Stalled; A Guided Tour Through 8 Renderings of Hanover’s New Kirby Dr. Highrise and Drive-Thru Restaurant Plaza; Hanover Tower Planned Across from Kirby Whole Foods Wants To Keep Oaks, Add Restaurants; New Hanover Apartment Complex Will Eat a Chunk of the Kirby Court Apartments Across From Whole Foods

Photo: Loves Swamplot. Rendering: Hanover/Solomon Cordwell Buenz