Randall Davis plans apartments on single-family home site

Will redevelop residence of deceased real estate investor John Frederick Welling

Randall Davis Company Plans Luxury Apartments on Buffalo Bayou
Randall Davis Company CEO Randall Davis and 8 Asbury Place Lane (Randall Davis Company, Google Maps)

Randall Davis Company is set to bring luxury multifamily to the site of a single-family home in Houston’s swanky Rice Military neighborhood. 

The complex, called River View, is planned for 8 Asbury Place Lane. The project is expected to cost $65 million and span 426,000 square feet. The number of units wasn’t listed in a document filed with the state of Texas, but Davis was planning 225 units when The Real Deal spoke to him in February. That would make the estimated cost almost $289,000 per unit.

Construction on the seven-story project is expected to begin in January with a full buildout planned for 2026. Local firm Goree Architects is attached to the project. 

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The development has been in the works for a while, but it stalled due to market uncertainty, Davis said in February. Houston’s commercial property market slumped 74 percent in the first quarter compared to the first quarter of 2022. The decline was part of a trend in major metros due to interest-rate hikes and tighter lending standards squeezing financing options. 

The 100,000-square-foot property at 8 Asbury contains an 8,700-square-foot single-family residence. It was valued in January at $4.8 million by the Harris County Appraisal District. 

Randall Davis Company, doing business as Asbury VP, bought the tract in March 2022 from the estate of John Frederick Welling, according to public records. Welling was a local real estate investor known for his nature resort Rainbow Lodge, at 1 Birdsall Street, which is now the home of Brenner’s on the Bayou. 

Davis is known for developing luxury condominiums like the London House which started contruction earlier this year, the 22-story Cosmopolitan on Post Oak Boulevard, and the Empire Lofts off Hidalgo Street.  

The area west of Memorial Park off Buffalo Bayou is becoming a hub of multifamily development. 

A joint venture between local developers Hanover Company and Lionstone Investments, Autry Park, is set to build 617 units just north of the River Oaks Shopping Center, near the intersection of Kirby Drive and Shepherd Drive. They opened two other complexes, Hanover Autry Park and Hanover Parkview, in the area just last year. 

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