Montrose Apartment Midrise Tops Out, Market briefs

In Houston, Artis Montrose, a seven-story apartment midrise going up on the former “Disco Kroger” site in Montrose, reached a “topping out” construction milestone.

Southeastern, a commercial real estate firm based in Augusta, Ga., broke ground nine months ago on the 330-unit, 528,747-SF project at 3300 Montrose Blvd.

Arch-Con Corp. is the general contractor for project, which was designed by Virginia-based DCS Design. It sits on two acres bordered by Lovett Boulevard, Yoakum, Hawthorne and Montrose Boulevard that previously housed a Kroger for more than 40 years before closing in 2021.

“The topping out of Artis Montrose represents an exciting milestone for everyone involved in bringing this vision to life,” Southeastern Senior Vice President Mary Senn said. “We are incredibly grateful to Arch-Con for their leadership throughout construction.”

The project consists of five stories of wood frame apartments totaling 361,324 sq ft over two floors of cast-in-place concrete parking totaling 167,410 sq ft.

During the wood frame construction, Arch-Con had 112 subcontractors onsite with 46 workers dedicated to framing alone. During the finishing stages of the concrete structure, 105 subcontractors were on the jobsite.

“It’s a remarkable achievement for our team and trade partners to be topped out and completing the roof installation since breaking ground in October,” Arch-Con Senior Vice President Michael Vaughn said. “It has truly been a collective team effort with the owners, design and construction teams for all of this to happen.”

The project team also includes DCS Design, Walter P Moore and Associates, ParkerRodriguez landscape design, Virginia-based Focus Design Interiors, CMTA, and SK&A.

Artis Montrose will have 14,000 sq ft of interior amenity space, a second-floor pet spa and a cyber lounge with work-from-home spaces overlooking the first-floor leasing office. The third floor is the main club room with double height ceilings and the fourth floor includes a fitness suite. On the third floor, a 20,000-SF outdoor center courtyard will offer a pool, event lawn, kitchens, outdoor workspaces, grilling areas, garden and fire pit.

In The Disco Kroger store, located in the heart of the Lgbtq, friendly neighborhood, was operated 24 hours a day at one time. After the Montrose area clubs closed for the night, the grocery store would often have a steady stream of late-night shoppers, including costumed and cross-dressed customers in the early morning hours.