OHT plans huge apartment project in Houston

OHT Partners is bringing another multifamily project to Greater Houston. 

The Austin-based firm is bringing a 5-story complex to 2825 West 11th Street, just west of Houston Heights and north of the Washington Avenue corridor in the Lazybrook/Timbergove area. 

The project, tentatively titled 11th Street Apartments, will span about 248,000 square feet and cost an estimated $39 million, according to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The number of units wasn’t disclosed in the filing.

OHT Partners’ longtime collaborators, the Austin-based architecture firm Davies Collaborative, will spearhead design. Construction is expected to start in November, with full buildout scheduled for 2025. 

This project is not the first for OHT Partners, formerly known as Oden Hughes, in the northwest corner of the Inner Loop. The company began construction on Lennox Heights, a five-story, 359-uniit luxury complex in Houston Heights, just three miles from the planned 11th Street Apartments site, in December. 

The company’s Houston development portfolio includes three completed apartment complexes and two that are under construction in the Katy and Upper Kirby areas. The firm also plans to build the $60 million multifamily project in Dallas, on the site of the former Ambassador Hotel, which was destroyed by a fire in 2019. 

The West 11th Street location is currently the home of Forrest Manufacturing, which is also listed as the tenant in the filing. A representative for the company said the location remains its headquarters. An LP attached to the company, OHT Timbergrove, bought the property in November, public records show. OHT Partners did not immediately return a request for comment. 

Houston Heights is one of the city’s liveliest locations. Known for yuppies, artisans, hipsters and trendy urban dwellers, the Heights is one of the metro’s most robust markets. Homes in the Heights sold for a median price of $643,000, according to Redfin. Meanwhile, rents remain stable in the neighborhood’s multifamily market with an average rent price of $1,655 for a one-bedroom in March, a 3 percent increase year-over-year according to Zumper.

There are 913 new units under construction across the Houston Heights and Washington Avenue corridor, according to a first-quarter report from Transwestern.