HOUSTON | Icon M | 283 FT | 22 FLOORS

[Urbannizer]

Developer: Supo Corp.
Architect:
Type: Multifamily (150 units), Retail (24,000 ft)
Location: 1209 Montrose Blvd, Montrose
Construction Timeline: 2019 Start Date - ? Completion

Khun Kay Thai Cafe’s Second-Gen Owner Now Tracing Out 20-Story Highrise in Its Place

THE OUTLINE of a 20-story apartment building called Montrose Gardens made its first public appearance late Friday in the city’s planning commission agenda, where its footprint covers over that of the Khun Kay Thai Cafe on the corner of Montrose Blvd. and W. Clay St. Only 9 of those stories will be for living, so what’s going into the rest? According to the building’s engineer: “A variety of retail stores, restaurants, and coffee shops” — all 24,000 sq.-ft. of which would be buffered from the 150-or-so upstairs apartments by 9 stories of resident-only parking. Underground, a separate 2 floor garage will gobble up retail traffic from an opening on W. Clay.

Also present on the 19,900-sq.-ft. site where the apartment’s staking its claim: the restaurant’s 2 parking lots. The northern one ran over the duplex-turned-psychic-shop directly south of it after the structure — memorialized in the aerial below — was demolished in 2016.

Houston’s planning commission weighs in on the apartment proposal this Thursday. Two variance requests are on the table, asking permission to nudge the building up 5 ft. from the property’s edges along Montrose Blvd. and W. Clay. In return, the developer promises new, bigger sidewalks shaded from the adjacent roads by strips of trees.

[SIGSEGV]

Wait what... 9 floors of parking for 9 floors of apartments?!?

[Urbannizer]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Wait what... 9 floors of parking for 9 floors of apartments?!?

Unfortunately. There's a lot of negative feedback regarding this one, hopefully enough people spoke out at yesterdays meeting to send this one back to the drawing board.

Rendering:

[Busy Bee]

It does look like it's all a big parking deck, I guess for good reason.

[SIGSEGV]

That's more space for cars than for people.... are they expecting each unit to have like 5 cars?

[Urbannizer]

Update on Montrose Gardens:

- 6,000 sq ft (down from 24,000 sq ft), Khun Kai Thai's Cafe will return
- 6 levels of parking (down from nine - one retail; six residential)
- 12 levels of residential (up from 10, 100 condo units)

The owners of Khun Kay Thai Café want to develop a 20-story tower called Montrose Garden, replacing the longtime restaurant along Montrose Boulevard.

Houston-based CE Engineers & Development Consultants Inc. submitted a variance request for the project to the city of Houston’s Planning & Development Department last month, according to the agenda for the Planning Commission's Sept. 13 meeting. Plans for the tower include “everything from a retail shopping center, multifamily condominiums and parking to pedestrian-friendly walkways, green areas and bike rentals,” per the variance request form included in the agenda. “The owners plan to relocate their 37-year-old landmark restaurant inside the Montrose Garden development.”

Now, the Sumriths are planning the tower because they realized “that a revitalization is underway in Montrose” and aim to start construction in 2019, per the form. In fact, the Montrose Garden site is across the Montrose-West Clay intersection from El Tiempo's 1308 Cantina, which will be replaced by an eight-story apartment project. However, the groundbreaking for that project was delayed shortly after plans resurfaced.

The first story of Montrose Garden is expected to include about 6,000 square feet of retail divided into four 1,500-square-foot spaces. One of those is slated for a restaurant, and another potentially will house a Starbucks. The retail portion of the building will have a dedicated level of parking on the second floor, and the “ground floor will have required bike racks and loading berth per City’s requirements,” the form states.

The form notes that the developer is already negotiating with HoustonBcycle to install the bike-share system.

Five stories of residential parking are planned for the third through seventh floors, with 100 multifamily condo units on floors eight through 20. Plans currently call for 59 one-bedroom units, 28 two-bedroom units and 13 three-bedroom units. Because there are six total stories of parking, screens could be installed to cover those floors, the form notes.

The ground floor will feature a walkway for pedestrians, landscaping and fountain area. However, the developer is requesting permission for a 9-foot building line along Montrose instead of the required 25 feet and a 5-foot building line along West Clay instead of 10 feet because the existing requirements would make one-quarter of the land unusable for the building. Reducing the building’s footprint to meet the existing requirements would leave less than 4,000 square feet for retail and less than 50 residential units, which would make the project financially unfeasible, per the form.

“If granted the variance needed to move forward on this project, we will comply with City’s requirement on the walkway and make it convenient and user-friendly for all the residents in the neighboring and visitors to the area,” the form states. “This project is in-line with the City’s trend and intention of creating additional sidewalk space and we are eager to get it approved.”

[Wattleigh]

The proposal changed back in 2021. It is now the "Icon M Tower" at least in planning information.

October 2021 elevations c/o Highrise Tower on HAIF showed a 22-story building.





The proposal has made it's way to the planning commission several times over the past few months - denied to make revisions to setbacks. It is expected to return once again.

From February's meeting - updated renderings c/o j.33 on HAIF





Larger images, also from InTheKnowHouston on HAIF















A March update showed a revised set of heights for the structure based on the current design - c/o InTheKnowHouston on HAIF









Additional renderings c/o InTheKnowHouston on HAIF







The March denial was covered by the Chronicle

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/busines...hun-kay-thai-plans-rejected-20209136.php

The future of a Montrose high-rise condo tower is now uncertain after city panel rejects design

By Marissa Luck,
Staff Writer
March 10, 2025


A proposal to build a mixed-use tower in Montrose has hit a roadblock after the Houston Planning Commission rejected a variance request needed for the project, sending developers back to the drawing board amid neighborhood concerns.

The panel's vote March 5 comes seven years after owners of Khun Kay Thai Café, at 1209 Montrose, pitched plans in 2018 to replace the restaurant with a high-rise, now dubbed the Icon M Tower.

City plans describe a 20-story tower, though the restaurant owners, who have a stake in the group developing the project, said it would have 18. The city documents show it would have 46 condominiums and a 3,200 square-foot ground-floor restaurant.

Developers sought approval to build the tower 16 feet closer to Montrose Boulevard. They argued the reduced setback was needed to build a more walkable development with an enclosed parking garage, instead of a surface parking.

Without the setback, the project’s architect told commissioners, there “was no way to do a vertical development on this property.”

That wasn't the end of it - however.

In September on HAIF, hindesky wrote...

Looks like they plan to present a new revised platting plan to the Planning Commission that will hopefully get passed this time.

The company presenting it is Houston Strategy Group.

It's the only plat that the Planning Commission doesn't have the plans loaded on their web site yet.

https://www.instagram.com/hsg.solutions/

It will likely return to the agenda during a meeting of the Planning Commisison this month.

[Wattleigh]

Revised plat for unrestricted reserve on this week's Planning Commission agenda.

c/o hindesky on HAIF

[Wattleigh]

Variance Request signs are back up per hindesky on HAIF

They add..

Notice of Variance Request sign is up and shows a Nov. 13th meeting date but I'm not seeing it on the agenda. I'm betting it will be heard on the Dec. 4th meeting which is a 3 week cycle schedule due to Thanksgiving.

[Wattleigh]

After a few months, it is back on the agenda again and will be reviewed during the 2/5 meeting.

Updated info via hindesky on HAIF