New Apartment Towers area: Downtown Work start for Park

In Houston, With the empty Exxon Mobil skyscraper in the background, and new residential towers in the foreground, a green sprout emerged Friday in downtown Houston, a work start for a new neighborhood park.

It shall be called Trebly Park.

The park, with the official address of at 1515 Fannin Street, will cover about three quarters of a city block bounded by San Jacinto, Bell, Leeland and Fannin streets. (The portion of the block that won’t be included in the Trebly green park is a parking lot often used by the faculty of the South Texas College of Law, the owner of the paved parking parcel.)

Trebly Park will be an important component to improve the lifestyle for residents in adjacent multifamily buildings, which include the two Skyhouse towers, the Block 334 apartments, and the 31-story Houston House.

“We envision the park as a third place,” said work start host Bob Eury, president of the Downtown Redevelopment Authority and the Downtown District. “It’s becoming the living room of the neighborhood.”

Eury was instrumental in the creation of the Downtown Living Initiative program to stimulate downtown multifamily development with $15,000 per unit in tax benefits. It result in the construction of a number of new apartment towers.

Mayor: City Should Increase Downtown Living

“We have 10,000 people living in downtown and our goal is to go even more,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said to the masked work start audience seating in spaced-out rows of white chairs.