What’s Planned for the Block Just West of the Highland Village Shopping Center

What’s slated for the block just west of the Highland Village Shopping Center, tucked between the railroad tracks and the shopping area on Mid Lane where construction — on a rumored highrise — will reportedly “begin in a few weeks“? An affiliate of Stonelake Capital Partners owns an entire block at 4200 Westheimer, which it assembled in a series of 3 purchases completed in July of 2012. It’s currently the site of the Westheimer Oaks office complex and a still life of demolished modern apartment buildings behind it, accessed from Bettis St. Mid Ln. forms the western border.

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Stonelake announced last year that it had hired Gensler to design a dense mixed-use development including shops, offices, apartments, and a hotel on the 12-acre site. It’s made no big announcements since, but the drawings shown here of a complex meeting that description are featured on the company’s website.

Images: Stonelake Capital Partners

23 Comment

  • Looks very good, almost too good to be true. Seems like a better location would be Post Oak Blvd., maybe the northeast corner of Post Oak and Westheimer. The east side of Post Oak languishes while the west side reaches to the sky.

  • Looks great, however I think traffic will be insane. With Highlands Village growing, the River Oaks District, Stonelake’s development and the train; people may be spending a lot of time sitting admiring architecture in this part of town. peace

  • After this and River Oaks District are complete, Westheimer and the railroad tracks will be a traffic cataclysm.

  • Well, at least developers in Austin believe in Houston.

  • Sorry to see that buildings are such an uncoordinated pile.

  • Traffic schmaffrick. Show me any major city worth living it that doesn’t have traffic issues.

  • And yet Regent Square can’t seem figure out a workable / financable / profitable plan.

  • I bet all of the high density/first floor retail folks are in the bathroom jerking off to this news as we speak!

  • The plot thickens for the comprehensive district between Highland and the Galleria.
    I can only see one particular way that this can happen. TIRZ incorporation.
    Whether it be an expanded Uptown , Upper Kirby, or maybe a brand new TIRZ, I think a concentrated amount of infrastructure work that would be required in the area can only be accomplished w/ TIRZ $.
    Now would also be the time to create one and lock in the base tax rate.

  • Love it. It will complement the 4400 blk development to the west. Hopefully these two can create a TIRZ with the city to improve the traffic grid and railroad crossing.

  • With the two major high-density residential projects happening at Wesleyan and W. Alabama, the Westheimer – Wesleyan corridor will be an exciting, activity-filled link between Uptown and Greenway Plaza.

    To build off Bernard’s comment, traffic is to be expected in great cities and places; we should embrace it.

  • I know it will never happen but TXDot needs to assist in trenching the freight rail line.

  • Nice, I like the uncoordinated look. Remember, this is the heart of the city, not a master-planned suburb. Reminds me of the mid-rise development around Preston Center in Dallas.

  • An absolute must to build an over or under at the railroad track. This is one of the most prestigious corridors in Houston. The traffic is bad enough. No exuse for having to wait for a train of which there seem to be many.

  • I too except heavy traffic in the center of town, but I expect traffic in ‘great cities’ limited to vehicle length less than a freight train.

  • Why do we need to add another taxed layer of government that we will never get rid of in the form of a TIRZ/Management District to do the work the City of Houston cannot or will do? In 25 years of living here and 25 years of using Westheimer almost daily, I have yet to see upgraded or synchronized traffic signals, substantial road improvements, any serious talk to depress the railroad under the major streets in the West Loop corridor or virtually anything to improve the quality of life. This area has been hot all along and it is a travesty that
    Public Works, the Mayor/Council and Metro haven’t a clue as to how to improve anything. And yes Annise, I am referring to you as well as your recent predecessors. We as citizens need to irritate the hell out of these career oafs in Public Works and our gutless elected officials to actually DO SOMETHING.

  • Time for a map with all the current and proposed development for the uptown – river oaks area, like the one that was done for Downtown. Everything between Sage and Montrose.

  • no way would you be able to bury the line, TXDOT will never have that kind of funding. it’d have to be an overpass with feeder access, but good luck getting anything like that pushed through. you’ll never get the retailers and residents to agree to it, much less actually locate the funding for that even.

    regardless, traffic has to happen like others say. as bad as that area is, it has to get much worse for people to start wanting alternatives and then raise the funding.

  • Garage facing Westheimer?

  • Terrible location….you have river oaks district/Highland village/boulevard place/galleria/west ave….all in the vicinity…traffic will be terrible plus they’ll have stiff competition from the aforementioned areas…developers should just sell this plot of land and build this exact development in EaDo or Midtown or possibly the warehouse district…the hipsters and yuppies will like it…

  • I DO NOT do the Highland Village/ Galleria/Uptown Post Oak cluster PHUCK. It’s so shallow and vapid. And traffic is NOTHING to whine about here. Try: gridlock in Midtown Manhattan /or Sat., 9am, stopped on a parking lot aka the Hollywood Freeway in LA / or the best one in North America – Mexico City: 5 rush hours/ 20 million plus vehicles and crazy drivers that make Houston traffic /drivers seem polite and tame. And the COH will NEVER fix any roads/infrastructure .The plan is let all of the roads decay..

  • If Houston wants to become the next “Gateway City” we need to bury the power lines not only for the obvious beatification reasons (as you don’t see power lines running down the major streets in NYC, London, or Paris) but to also enable the City of Houston to become Hurricane category 5 sustainable.

  • Dense development, clusters connecting in crammed cacaphonous conglomerations, the shear shakti of the shops…it’s soo exciting! But seriously….it is interesting watching a city take shape during a building boom.