HOUSTON – The 102-year-old Texaco building in downtown Houston has been redeveloped into a 286-unit residential rental tower called The Star.
The 410,000-SF high-rise apartment tower, developed by Dallas-based Provident Realty Advisors, offers starting rents at $2,150.
The Star, originally designed in Renaissance Revival style with Beaux-Arts accents, is located at 1111 Rusk on a block bounded by San Jacinto, Fannin and Capitol streets. The Star incorporates an initial, 13-story structure that opened in 1915, with an addition added in 1938 and a 16-story addition completed in 1958.
Martin Fein Interests, a Houston multifamily firm, is handling leasing for the property. “We are proud to be associated with one of the most beautiful and unique new apartment developments in downtown Houston and congratulate Provident for recognizing this important historic building’s potential,” Fein said.
The Star will also have 21,000-SF of retail space and negotiations are underway with several tenants that are expected to include a specialty grocer and a restaurant. Two light rail Metro lines run near the tower, which will have 207 one-bedroom units and 79 two-bedroom units.
Well into construction, the nine-story parking garage, incorporating retail will have 685 parking spaces, bike storage and parking for restaurants.
The original wing of the Texaco building was designed by the New York firm of Warren & Wetmore, also responsible for Manhattan’s 1913 Grand Central Terminal.
The façade of brick, terra cotta and Bedford limestone, as well as the signature, grand limestone arcades with Tuscan columns along Rusk, were replicated with the 1958 addition by noted architect Kenneth Franzheim, who began his career in Chicago, Boston and New York before relocating to Houston in the 1930s.
Texaco occupied the building through 1989, when it remained vacant and shuttered until Provident Realty Advisors commenced its multi-family conversion in 2013 with Memphis and San Diego based architectural firm HBG Design.
“We were fortunate to have found an iconic, pre-war building of this scale where a thoroughly modern makeover meshes so seamlessly with its timeless architecture,” said Provident Realty Advisor’s Kip Platt.
Provident Realty Advisors, which is owned by Leon J. Backes, is currently active in Dallas, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, New Orleans, Denver, Nashville and Little Rock with land investments, master-planned residential communities, multi-family acquisition & development, retail, infill mixed-use development, and self-storage.
Feb. 20, 2017 Realty News Report Copyright 2017