Slamming breaks on 550-unit Houston apartment tower

​​HOUSTON – Camden Property Trust will not be breaking ground on its proposed downtown apartment project in 2016.

Ric Campo, Camden’s chairman and CEO, remains bullish on the city’s urban core. 

However, with crude oil prices hovering around $30 a barrel, he said it’s unlikely that Camden will start any new projects in Houston this year, including its highly-anticipated project in downtown Houston.

“We’re committed to downtown,” Campo said. “But we’re not immune to job losses.”

For more than a year, Camden has been planning to build a massive luxury apartment project on two city blocks, which total about three acres and is bounded by La Branch, Bell, Austin and Pease St. near the Toyota Center.

The first phase of the project—a 20-story, 550-unit apartment tower—was expected at one point to start construction in late 2015 with an estimated completion date in late 2017.

However, as oil prices plummeted to 12-year lows, Camden officials began putting the brakes on its plans for the Houston market.

Last year, Campo mulled a 2016 start, depending on whether the timing is right. That no longer seems to be the case.

There are 18 residential projects planned or under construction in downtown Houston, according to Central Houston Inc. Many downtown apartment projects are expected to open in late 2016 or early 2017.

Camden currently has one apartment project under construction in Houston. The developer began work in 2014 on Camden McGowen Station, an eight-story, 315-unit apartment project near Main and McGowen St. The $90 million project is part of the “Midtown Superblock," a major mixed-use development in Midtown.