Postby RodB » 22 Sep 2022 16:33
Developers at Alamo Manhattan are willing to demolish their own offices to make way for their next big project — a really, really high-rise Uptown apartment tower across the street from the Marriott Hotel they built earlier this year.
A rezoning request was recently approved to make way for Fairmount Tower, and architects with WDG Dallas are in full design mode on the site at Fairmount and Carlisle streets.
Alamo Manhattan president Matt Segrest said his team, which includes builder Andres Construction Services, plans to break ground early in the second quarter of 2023. The project will take about 27 months to complete.
There’s been a ton of neighborhood outreach. “We developed the Marriott across the street, which has been a huge hit for the neighborhood, particularly the pedestrian experience. We’re going to have a restaurant and retail component, and people are really excited about that. We like to think we are setting a standard for pedestrians, something people find attractive and want to replicate.”
The high-rise building is in City Council District 14, less than a block away from the Katy Trail, the city’s most active biking and pedestrian trail. More than 60 restaurants and bars and 5 million square feet of office space surround the site.
While building height has been a point of contention with developers building apartments in residential areas, the 320-foot Fairmount Tower hasn’t had any organized opposition.
“We’ve had pushback in previous rezonings,” he said. “But people aren’t as concerned with height in this area.”
Alamo Manhattan representatives worked with the city to determine a 9.4 Floor Area Ratio to build 319 units on 29 stories over a below-ground parking garage.
Skyrocketing construction costs affected Alamo Manhattan along with the rest of the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, but lumber prices are beginning to stabilize, and experts say the housing market is predicted to stay strong through the end of the year, albeit with a nationwide housing shortage.
“The huge challenge in the industry is material cost increases,” Segrest said. “We’re having to pull every lever to build cost-effectively. It’s a really challenging environment.”
In addition to building Fairmount Tower, the team at Alamo Manhattan will have to find a new place to work. The company was founded in 2010 and has been at its Fairmount Street location for about six years.