33-Story Museum District Mixed-Use Tower Opens: The Houston Deal Sheet
A long-awaited, 33-story multifamily project in Houston’s Museum District has debuted under a new name.
Forme, which includes 475 apartments, 55 boutique hotel suites and 20K SF of coworking space, opened at 5501 La Branch St. last month and is now leasing.
The project was originally slated to be a coliving tower called X Houston. That development stalled for more than a year after financing fell apart midconstruction, but a 2024 financial rescue backed by New York firms Raven Capital and Mavik Capital helped bring the project to completion, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Forme was designed by Lamar Johnson Collaborative and is operated by Sentral. The hotel suites are available through Sentral Stay. The building has more than 60K SF of amenity and experience space, including a 20K SF fitness and recovery center, a 9K SF pool deck and 20K SF of flexible coworking and workspace environments operated by Regus.
The 12th floor has a boutique hotel-style cocktail lounge and raw bar called The Branch on La Branch.
Residences range from 500 SF studios and junior one-bedroom units to 1,400 SF three-bedroom homes. Studio residences begin at $1,750 per month after incentives.
PEOPLE
Houston-based investment and development firm Griffin Partners made two C-suite moves. Kelly Agent, who has led property services across the firm's portfolio since 2022, has been promoted to chief operating officer. Lee Moreland, a Griffin principal since 2006 and a 38-year industry veteran, will assume the newly created role of chief portfolio officer.
The new roles are effective June 1 and will support the firm’s growth.
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Titan Commercial hired Marti Grizzle as vice president. Coming from Avison Young, she will focus on industrial and landlord representation at Titan.
Grizzle brings seven years of commercial real estate experience, with a track record that includes more than $325M in closed transactions and management of a portfolio exceeding 2M SF. Originally joining the industry through the Madison Marquette leasing division before it was acquired by Avison Young in 2022, she focused on landlord representation throughout her tenure there.
SALES
Atlas Real Estate Partners acquired The Maddox, a 326-unit multifamily community at 1330 Park West Green Drive in Katy. This is Atlas’ first investment in the Houston metro. The seller, Quarterra, was represented by Newmark.
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Phillips Edison & Co. bought Firethrone Plaza, a 30K SF strip retail center at 2731 FM 1463 in Katy. The center at the entrance to the Firethorne master-planned community is 100% leased to 14 tenants. JLL Capital Markets' Investment and Sales Advisory team representing the seller was led by Ryan West and John Indelli.
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Chris Bodnar, Brannan Knott, Zack Holderman, Anthony Sardo, Cole Reethof and Jesse Greshin of CBRE U.S. Healthcare Capital Markets partnered with Brandy Bellow Spinks and Max Lozmack of CBRE’s Houston healthcare leasing team, along with Scott Carter, to advise the seller of Bellaire Medical Plaza, a 58K SF medical outpatient building bought by Edloe Realty.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
Stream Realty Partners broke ground on Northfield Logistics Center, a 300K SF industrial development at 4330 Northfield Lane in Northwest Houston.
The development team includes Justin Robinson, Craig McKenna, Tyler Wellborn, Kristina Gibson and Camryn Wisenbaker. Stream’s Investment Management team includes Adam Jackson, Mustafa Ali, Scott Thetford and Meagan Oefelein. Garret Geaccone oversees leasing for the project.
Rosenberger Construction is serving as general contractor, Seeberger Architecture is the project architect, Kimley-Horn is the civil engineer, and Associated Bank provided financing for the development. The project is expected to deliver in the first quarter of 2027.
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Palladium USA had a grand opening for Palladium Park Row Katy Living, a $33M mixed-income multifamily community in the Katy area.
The three-story community includes 93 apartments, with 58 affordable units for households earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income and 35 market-rate units. The property reached full occupancy in less than three months.
Palladium Park Row Katy Living is a public-private partnership with the Harris County Housing Finance Corporation and is supported by funding from Harris County, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, and PNC Bank. It was designed by HEDK Architects and built by The Brownstone Group.
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Angler Construction, a full-service general contractor, broke ground on Core5 Airtex Drive. The 47-acre site will be developed into a two-building, 858K SF industrial park off West Hardy Road. The development is scheduled to be completed in Q1 2027. The developer is Core5 Industrial Partners, and the designer is Macgregor Associates Architects.
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Market Square Cos. broke ground on Ashford Yard, a 13-acre mixed-use development at the northeast corner of South Dairy Ashford Road and Briar Forest Drive in the Energy Corridor.
Ashford Yard is the redevelopment of the former Schlumberger office campus into a community-driven environment, with more than 85K SF of experiential retail, restaurant and wellness space and a planned 350-plus-unit luxury multifamily community.
Leasing is being led by the Houston office of Henry S. Miller Brokerage, with Shawn Ackerman and Jason Du representing the project.
The project team includes Market Square Cos.’ Matthew Kelley as the developer, Jason Ford of Tenon Property Co. as property manager, Cactus Commercial as general contractor, Nelsen Partners as architect, ALJ Lindsey as civil engineer, DWG as landscape architect, Dunaway as structural engineer, DBR Associates as MEP engineer and Huntington Bank as lender. Spencer Hough and George Giannukos are capital partners.
FINANCING
Rockstar Capital secured a $54M Department of Housing and Urban Development refinancing for Lakeview at Westpark, a 298-unit multifamily complex in Richmond. Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp.’s Capital Markets team, led by Brandon Brown, arranged the financing through KeyBank at a fixed rate of 5.3% with 35 years of amortization.
