Two separate luxury high-rises once delayed are kicking off construction, the latest sign of Houston's emergence from a nearly four-year oil downturn. Hanover has begun work on the 39-story Hanover River Oaks in Upper Kirby while Camden broke ground on its own 21-story project in Downtown.

Hanover River Oaks

Situated on a 1.6-acre site at 2930 Kirby Drive, Hanover River Oaks will consist of 370 luxury residential units atop nearly 10K SF of ground-floor retail. The Solomon Cordwell Buenz-designed project is a block south of the West Ave mixed-use development.

After a nearly two-year ordeal, Hanover purchased the site in November 2016 with plans to begin construction almost immediately, but Hanover's capital partners pulled back and the developer struggled to find another partner. With the help of HFF Managing Director Cortney Cole, Executive Managing Director Scott Galloway and Director Dusten Selzer, financing for the project has been secured and ground has been broken.

The first units are expected to be available in the first quarter of 2020, according to HFF.

Camden Conte

With permits in hand, excavation has begun on Camden's latest Houston project, a 21-story Ziegler Cooper-designed tower in Southeast Downtown Houston at 1515 Austin. The new luxury residential tower was slated to break ground in 2015 but it too was put on ice when oil prices crashed. Now with $57M worth of new building permits, work has officially begun.

The first phase of the project originally called Camden Conte but renamed to Camden Downtown will bring 271 units to the often-overlooked southeast portion of Downtown Houston. Though the Downtown Living Initiative has spawned thousands of new units in the area, much of the development has been focused on the north side of Downtown, like Skyhouse Houston and Market Square.

Camden has plans for the second phase of construction at the site but on a corporate earnings call, the company said those plans are several years down the road.