A developer has hit the pause button on a co-living apartment tower in Houston’s Museum District.
Chicago-based X Company has stopped construction on X Houston, a 33-story building that was expected to open in late 2024, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Now, the 750,000-square-foot development, at 5501 La Branch Street, is partially completed, and it’s not clear when it will resume. Nearby residents noticed that construction activity stopped several weeks ago.
With an estimated cost of $107 million, Houston X was set to become one of the city’s first co-living projects, where renters would lease space by the bed and share common areas, offering greater affordability with flexible lease terms. Plans call for 646 beds in 475 units, with a mix of studios, one-, two- and three-bedrooms.
The pause in construction evokes a similar situation in Phoenix, where X Company temporarily halted work on another co-living project. X Company CEO Noah Gottlieb expressed optimism about the project’s resumption in Phoenix but did not elaborate on the status of Houston X.
Hoar, the general contractor for the project, is “working closely with the X Co. to get the project restarted,” a spokesperson told the outlet.
X Company has completed co-living projects in Chicago and Denver, and earlier this year, it had 5,300 co-living units in the pipeline.
While reasons for the halted development are unknown, increased construction costs have caused other companies to put projects on the back burner. In Dallas-Fort Worth, for instance, new construction starts were down 45 percent year-over-year last quarter due to hiked construction costs, softening rents and higher interest rates.
—Quinn Donoghue
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