HOUSTON – Downtown Houston – preparing to announce a new slogan: “Something Big is Up” — is having a huge construction boom with multiple office, multifamily, hotel and retail projects underway.
“This year, growth is happening at warp speed,” said Ric Campo, chairman of the Central Houston Inc. business organization that promotes growth in downtown. “Houston is seeing growth that is the envy of every city.”
Campo, a civic leader who also heads the Camden Property Trust apartment REIT, said there are 13 residential construction projects in downtown Houston, including a 518-unit midrise by Camden and a 40-story high-rise on Market Square by Woodbranch Development.
At the annual luncheon of Central Houston at the Hilton Americas, Campo said 4,300 units are under development, which will bring 6,000 more residents to downtown.
He said over a billion dollars worth of construction is currently underway and more than $4 billion is in the planning stages.
Eight hotels are under development in downtown, including the 1,000-room Marriott Marquis near the convention center. The Marriott is being built by Rida Development and Houston First Corp., a quasi-governmental agency that is also led by Campo as chairman.
With the addition of the eight hotels and an expansion of the convention center, Houston will be a “top-tier convention market,” Campo told a crowd of 900 at the luncheon.
Hines is developing a 1 million sf spec office project in downtown, which is the largest spec in the nation. Skanka and Crescent also have office projects in the works.
“We will see unprecedented growth and change in downtown over the next three years,” Campo said.