Medistar Corporation (“Medistar”) announces June 24, 2021 closing and funding with partner Healthcare Trust of America (“HTA”) and lender CIM Group (“CIM”) for construction of the 19-story, 714-bed Life Tower student housing high-rise and a 13-level parking garage for 2,700 vehicles. Already under construction and on schedule to deliver mid-2022, these projects are being developed by Medistar in the recently announced strategic partnership with HTA to complement Texas A&M’s Discovery Tower, home to Texas A&M’s groundbreaking Engineering-Medicine (“EnMed”) program at the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world.
To ensure Summer 2022 delivery of safe, secure, convenient and affordable student housing — the highest priority for Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp and the Board of Regents at this first-ever Texas A&M campus in Houston — Medistar’s CEO Monzer Hourani directed general contractor Harvey Builders to break ground for Life Tower on Sept. 16, 2020. At the time of yesterday’s closing and funding, construction on Life Tower was on the 19th floor and on track to top out by July 2, 2021.
On June 1, construction began on the parking garage — which will be the largest serving the TMC market — with the demolition of the existing three-story parking structure. Vertical construction of the new garage, which will include retail activation at grade, will serve as the podium and foundation for the Horizon Tower, pursuant to the strategic partnership forged earlier this quarter between HTA and Medistar in order to finance and co-develop this 17-story, 485,000-square-foot medical office and life sciences tower that is expected to commence construction in 2022.
Located at the TMC’s gateway intersection of Main, Holcombe and Fannin, Horizon Tower is the first transit-connected Class A high-rise tower with “across the street” walkability available to “for-profit” uses and occupiers, with 150,000 square feet of research space (including wet labs and vivaria) and 334,000 square feet of office space for medical, clinical, surgical and customer-facing functions. Visit HorizonTowerTMC.com and contact Tim Relyea, Bill Hartman, Morgan Colt and James Gale at Cushman & Wakefield for leasing information.
“At $550 million total investment, this 2.2 million-square-foot public-private partnership development is one of the largest ever undertaken at the Texas Medical Center and is the largest of the Texas A&M University System outside its flagship campus in College Station. Medistar is honored to have this special opportunity and fortunate to have such a strong and agile strategic partner in HTA,” said Medistar’s founder and CEO Monzer Hourani.
Added Craig Laher, Medistar’s Senior Vice President for Development and development officer for the P3 program, “Together with Texas A&M’s leadership, our strategic partnership with HTA, and our lender, CIM Group, this completes the formation of an accomplished, world-class project team of industry titans that already included the talented design and construction firms led by Kirksey Architects and Harvey Builders and explains why we’re on-budget and actually ahead of schedule despite the numerous headwinds of COVID-19, labor shortages, inflating prices, two hurricanes, and the worst winter storm of our generation. This project team is truly special.”
