First details emerge on Transwestern's long-awaited mixed-use project in Upper Kirby

Nearly seven years after first announcing plans to build a massive mixed-use development in the Greenway-Upper Kirby area, Transwestern Development Co. is finally preparing to break ground.

Next month, Transwestern will begin construction work on The RO, a 17-acre development at 3120 Buffalo Speedway, near the corner of West Alabama Street and Buffalo Speedway.

That intersection is one of the most prominent and well-trafficked in the area. When it is completed in 2027, The RO, pronounced “row,” will include Houston’s first luxury Auberge Resorts Collection hotel with attached condo units, a sprawling retail village with up to eight restaurants, more than 700 multifamily units and creative office space.

To design the site, Transwestern assembled a "who's who" of prominent firms, with Connecticut-based architecture firm Pickard Chilton overseeing the master plan. For the multifamily and office design, Transwestern again hired Pickard Chilton as design architect.

“From the very beginning, the vision for the site was to create a mixed-use environment that doesn’t feel like it was all built at one time, with a sense of variety in the architecture and a shared palette of building textures inspired by River Oaks legacies,” said Anthony Markese, a principal at Pickard Chilton.