How Fifth Ward CRC Plans To Fit 110 Housing Units into the Shuttered Elizabeth Hospital on Lyons St.

Current and proposed views from high above Lyons Ave. show what the St. Elizabeth Hospital would look like repurposed as a 110-unit housing complex, as the Fifth Ward CRC proposes. The biggest change architect Van Meter Williams Pollack has in store for the place is a teardown of the central wing that runs back behind the 3-story north face — pictured above — to make room for a new parking courtyard.

Behind that lot, a newly-constructed, 3-story building would front Chisum St.:

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It would run along what’s now the back side of the 2.6-acre complex:

That leaves the parking lot entrance off Dan St., to the west, as shown in the site plan below:

A view of that facade, with the far east convent wing fronting Yates St. in the distance.:

Inside the new complex, redubbed St. Elizabeth Place, 98 units would be priced for households earning 60 percent or less of the area median income ($18,570 in 2016) — according to the CRC’s state tax credit application for the property — while 12 would go at market rates.

The complex’s developer, Cloudbreak Communities — an affiliate of California-based Cantwell-Anderson — builds housing for veterans. (It’s done one past Houston project: the 430-unit Travis Street Plaza and Midtown Terrace apartments off Richmond and Main.) In the Fifth Ward CRC’s tax credit application, it agrees that it’ll “specifically market to veterans through direct marketing or contracts with veteran’s organizations.” But, speaking at last week’s city council meeting, CRC head Kathy Payton said veterans aren’t the “target audience” of the project.

The Fifth Ward CRC hopes the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs will approve its application by July. It plans to begin construction in November after closing on the tax credits the month prior.

Photos: Fifth Ward CRC/Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Renderings and site plan: Van Meter Williams Pollack

St. Elizabeth Place

5 Comment

  • How is this multifamily if 86 of the 110 units are 1 bedroom/studio?
    the remaining 24 units are 2 bedrooms? The co-developer is Cloudbreak who only does veterans facilities, how is this for families when they are targeting veterans?

    The 5th ward has become a dumping ground for low income multi units, but there is no resources for all these people.

  • looks like a nice transformation with good greenery.

  • Too many different stories- lies? confusion- is what Kathy Payton and the people $$$she is fronting for -DO- all are telling the 5th Ward community different lies–and its all for personal gain/-getting their pockets lined with tax credits to be sold for profit– the city council is all for this and if you ask or question they get real nasty–

  • Of course the developers & their miuthpieces are lying. They’re politicians and their lips are moving. Making $$$ of our tax $$$. No wonder the city council people are nasty. They’ve sold their souls for the Almighty $$$ for power & their 15 minutes of fame / notoriety … Maybe they’ll move in..

  • So is it for veterans or isn’t it? Why all the double talk?