Apartment tower to go up near downtown park

Well, it didn't take long for the rumored apartment buildings to start popping up around the new downtown park — there was news this weekend of one of them, a 37-story tower under development by The Finger Companies. The building, called the Park Tower, will be built on the block bounded by McKinney, Austin, Lamar and La Branch, with the park site on its east side and Houston Center on the west.

The $100 million rose masonry and limestone building will include 347 apartments, a private putting green, a roof garden, outdoor kitchens and 22,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space for a food market, a cafe and a wine shop. Rents are expected to range from about $1,800 to $3,500 for most units. According to the Houston Business Journal, the apartments will have granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, balconies and 10-foot ceilings. None of that exposed ductwork and brick wall crap here!

People who get excited about this kind of thing are excited because the Park Tower will be the first all-new, all-residential skyscraper built downtown since the Houston House and 2016 Main went up in the mid-1960s. Groundbreaking is expected late this year or early next year, with a target completion date in late 2007.