What the New Commerce St. Old Folks Apartments Will Look Like to the Middle Schoolers Across the Street from Them

Plans for the 3-story Campanile on Commerce apartments slated for the corner of Commerce and Delano streets are still winding their way through the city’s approval process, but a new strip of imagery shows what they’d look like viewed from the magnet school across the street from them. The idea is to put 220 120 units on the vacant 3-acre field extending directly north and east of the Baylor College of Medicine Biotech Academy at Rusk (which recently dropped its pre-K through 5th grade programs to go middle-school-only). A corner porte-cochere depicted above on the right would front Commerce adjacent to the complex’s entrance driveway.

Parking hooks around the back of the apartments, buffering them from the block-long warehouse building directly to their north:

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Just east of center, a courtyard with a pool and pool-fronting cabana would hollow out the middle of the complex.

It’d be the third Campanile-branded senior housing property to land in Houston — though the first inside the Loop — after the Campanile At Justice Park on 43rd St. and the Campanile On Eldridge in Alief.

Images: Houston Planning Commission

Campanile on Commerce

7 Comment

  • I’m glad it will only be three stories. Anything taller would look a bit out of place here.
    .
    But, looking at the first floor layout and doing the math, I’m not sure how you would get to 220 units. 120 units sounds more likely.

  • Ummm…so where’s the campanile?

  • hideous! looks like it belongs in Kingwood

  • No Campanile Yet on Commerce
    There was a Reconsideration Notice posted on the greenfield earlier this month.
    See http://houston-texas-us.blogspot.com/2018/08/delano-street-at-commerce.html

  • @FEEA
    That reconsideration hearing was pushed back to August 30th, same time and place. The sign on the property has been updated. The site plan shown above assumes a 60’ R.O.W. for Delano, but the City is requiring an 80’ total R.O.W. because Delano is now considered a “major collector street.” Losing 10’ makes the plan unworkable (the extra 10’ to reach 80’ total would presumably come from the other side of Delano, which is Olshan Lumber property).
    .
    On a related note, the application completed by the developer, which was included with the notice letter I received regarding this hearing, is rife with grammatical errors and very awkwardly worded. Some examples:
    .
    “Providing a calm atmosphere for this community and not taking away any part of the history known to a few Houstonians.”
    .
    “For the appreciation of the history that began in the east end of downtown, which brought about the diverse cultures and organization to the community.”
    .
    “The existing conditions of the historical aspects presents a difference in appearance of the overall area that history has forgotten which presents an economic hardship case for the applicant to be able to utilize more of the property site.”
    .
    Is this kind of language normal for these applications? It doesn’t seem to be your typical legalese from deeds, easement dedications, etc. It honestly sounds like something poorly translated from another language with a completely different sentence structure than English (like Mandarin Chinese).

  • donald- the statement of facts are prepared by the applicants, who are typically surveyors. not always the brightest bunch

  • When does construction begin for Campanile on Commerce?