Downtown Houston now has more than 8,000 residents, a big leap from 3,800 in 2013 when the Downtown Living Initiative first tackled residential need in the central business district, and that number is increasing monthly.

Plan Downtown, the master plan announced in November, called for 12,000 additional residential units with the goal of reaching 30,000 residents in the next 20 years.

Residential makes a downtown work, Downtown District Executive Director Bob Eury said. He said you can feel the difference as people have moved into the submarket; it has become more vibrant as residents have increased month by month. Eury attributes the population increase to the slew of residential deliveries — six buildings have completed in the last 15 months, bringing Downtown to 10 residential properties total, and interest grows with more offerings, he said.

Downtown’s overall residential market was 71.6% occupied at the end of Q1, according to Central Houston’s Q1 market update. Two residential properties are under construction — Marlowe and Camden Downtown — and a 229-unit luxury apartment project is reportedly breaking ground soon at 100 Crawford. ApartmentData.com named Downtown Houston as the hottest rental submarket in February, with 12.3% annualized growth from November to January.

“This is what we always wanted,” Eury said. “I’m feeling good about the residential world right now.”