City Invests $3.4M in Avenue Launch Near Northside Development
Rendering of Avenue Center. Architecture: Page
HOUSTON – Avenue, a nonprofit organization dedicated to affordable housing and community strengthening, will soon begin construction on Avenue Center, a new mixed-use community resource center in the Near Northside neighborhood.
The project moves forward after the City of Houston approved $3.4 million in funding for the center.
Located across from Moody Park at 3527 Irvington Blvd., the facility will house community services including a health clinic and an early childhood education center.
“We are delighted to begin building Avenue Center, which will increase access to essential resources for local residents, particularly low-income families,” said Mary Lawler, executive director of Avenue. “The City of Houston’s generous support, together with our public and private partners, advances our shared mission to strengthen neighborhoods and improve quality of life. Co-locating critical services—healthcare, childcare and homebuyer education—makes the neighborhood more resilient.”
Lawler said Avenue expects to break ground in the second quarter of 2019, with the development projected to open in early 2020.
This funding milestone follows an announcement that Avenue will receive roughly $2.6 million from the Greater Houston Community Foundation toward Avenue Center’s construction. Those funds are part of a $6.5 million pledge from the United Arab Emirates supporting Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts focused on community revitalization, homelessness, library services and public health.
Avenue is also conducting a capital campaign that has already raised more than $2.1 million in additional support for Avenue Center from foundations and partners including Houston Endowment, The Fondren Foundation, J.E. & L.E. Mabee Foundation, Green Mountain Energy Sun Club, The Brown Foundation, The Hearst Foundation, NeighborWorks America, Local Initiatives Support Corp (LISC), Amegy Bank, Marek Family Foundation, East West Bank and the Conley Foundation.
The three-story Avenue Center will contain about 30,500 square feet of community program space, featuring a homeownership center, a health clinic, an early childhood education center, and Avenue’s headquarters and realty office. The early childhood education component is intended to help relieve capacity shortages in Near Northside.
Avenue selected Page, a multidisciplinary architecture and engineering firm, to design Avenue Center. The design draws on the vibrant cultural character of Near Northside and Avenue’s existing portfolio. Page Senior Designer Marcus Martinez, who has family roots in the neighborhood and an understanding of its cultural history, aimed to blend form and function so the building serves as a hub for community life and activity.
“Our goal was to create a distinctive beacon for the community’s future that connects to the generations who shaped the area through color, materials and space,” Martinez said. “For people working to overcome challenges and pursue homeownership, the Center visually conveys both aspiration and attainability.”
In recent years Avenue has developed roughly 900 affordable homes and apartments in Houston, particularly in the greater Northside area. In 2017, Near Northside became one of five pilot neighborhoods in Mayor Sylvester Turner’s Complete Communities initiative, which aims to ensure neighborhoods have the quality-of-life elements residents need to thrive—access to healthcare, education, healthy food, parks and green space, reliable public transit and economic opportunity. The initiative also emphasizes sufficient, quality affordable housing, an increasing concern across Houston and within Near Northside.
