Houston developer finally closes on Upper Kirby land for luxe apartment tower

The Hanover Co. never gave up on its plans to build a new luxury apartment tower in Upper Kirby.

The Houston multifamily developer didn’t give up when a former capital partner pulled its support amid plunging oil prices in early 2015. It didn’t give up when it struggled to find another capital partner willing to finance a luxury apartment tower amid the oil slump. And it didn’t give up when market conditions forced several costly delays to the closing date.

But on Nov. 17 — about two-and-a-half years since the deal was initially set to close— Hanover finally purchased a nearly 1.7-acre site off Kirby Drive near Kipling Street, near the West Ave mixed-use project. The longtime developer plans to build a 40-story, 300-plus-unit apartment tower and a standalone restaurant on the property, where the 1940s-era Kirby Court apartments used to stand.

Hanover hopes to start construction on the $150 million project, designed by Chicago-based architecture firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz, within the next 12 months.

“We are excited about owning this spectacular River Oaks/Upper Kirby real estate,” David Ott, a development partner with The Hanover Co., said in an email. “We have a shovel-ready project designed that we look forward to starting when the time is right.”

ARA Newmark Houston — led by Tim Dosch, Tom Dosch and David Marshall — represented the seller: the Dickey-Lippincott family, which owns several parcels of land along Kirby Drive.

The price of the land deal was not disclosed, but to ARA Newmark Houston’s knowledge, the deal fetched the highest price in the Houston area outside of Downtown Houston and the Galleria area.

“It was the highest land price along Kirby that we know of,” said Tim Dosch, principal at ARA Newmark Houston.

ARA Newmark brought the site to market in early 2015, and fielded more than 20 offers and bids for the land. The Dickey-Lippincott family decided to sell to Hanover, because of its successful track record building luxury apartment towers across the country.