HOUSTON - An affiliate of Spear Street Capital has acquired the former Exxon Mobil campus on Buffalo Speedway where it will develop a major, mixed-use project.
The property, almost 17 acres, is one of the finest urban infill sites in Houston, with a prime location between Richmond Avenue and West Alabama near Greenway Plaza.
The new development is expected include office, retail and urban residential buildings. Spear Street expects to define the size of the development's components as the planning progresses.
Spear Street is starting demolition and site preparation work, which will take a year to complete. Covered with oaks and acres of St. Augustine lawn, the low-density campus has several low-rise office buildings constructed in the early 1960s and several industrial buildings.
When California-based Spear Street Capital, a commercial real estate investment and development firm, came into the Houston market in 2017, it set off a flurry of office investment activity in the Bayou City. The company has since bought office towers in downtown, Uptown and west Houston, as well as a joint venture with Houston-based Transwestern Development Co. at the site of an old Exxon campus on Buffalo Speedway.
The project with Transwestern will be a mixed-use development known as The Ro, which will break ground in 2019, according to marketing materials from Transwestern and Spear Street. Transwestern confirmed the information but declined to comment further. The Ro will be built on 16.88 acres at 3120 Buffalo Speedway, just half a block away from Greenway Plaza and a few blocks away from River Oaks.
Exclusive: Greenway Plaza mixed-use to include office tower, high-end residential
By Cara Smith – Reporter, Houston Business Journal
Jun 12, 2018, 8:33am CDT
The Ro, a mixed-use project that's being developed by Transwestern Development Co. and Spear Street Capital, will likely contain a mid-rise residential development, an office building and retail, Spear Street's CEO John Grassi told the Houston Business Journal.
The Ro will be built on 16.88 acres at 3120 Buffalo Speedway – the site of a former Exxon Mobil campus on Buffalo Speedway – just half a block away from Greenway Plaza and a few blocks away from River Oaks. Though details are still being worked out, The Ro will likely contain an office building that'll offer roughly between 250,000 and 300,000 square feet. The bulk of the project will be residential, Grassi said. The multifamily component might be anywhere from eight to 12 stories tall, Grassi said, though specifics are still being hammered out.
Regarding the office building, Grassi said Spear Street and Transwestern received a phone call from an office tenant looking for around 125,000 square feet in the River Oaks area.
"The office stock in that part of Houston ... is fairly old," Grassi said. "It's just older real estate. People will respond to something brand new (and) creative."
The office building in The Ro will likely offer signage rights, he said. The project will break ground in 2019. A delivery date hasn't been announced.
Project Type :Mixed-Use Multifamily
Development Type:
Total Units/SF: 340 apartments in a high rise tower
Completion :Start construction in early 2019
Management & Leasing:
The RO, a 17 acre mixed use master plan in the River Oaks neighborhood of Houston that will consist at ultimate buildout of over 1,000 residential units, 500,000 sf of Class A Office, 100,000 f of retail and 200 hotel rooms.
It's very lush here and more so the further north you get. North Houston is heavily forested.
West and lots of South Houston is mostly all former amazing bird habitat grasslands, now covered by endless tracts of banal suburban houses for as far as the eye can see with few trees. Much much different than Kingwood or The Woodlands, etc.
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There’s no greater abomination to mankind and nature than Ryan Home developments.
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The suburbs are second-rate. Cookie-cutter houses, treeless yards, mediocre schools, and more crime than you think. Do your family a favor and move closer to the city.
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