2727 Kirby Towers Nears Completion

Houston Chronicle July 11, 2009
By Nancy Sarnoff

The new 30-story condominium building that towers over Kirby Drive just south of Westheimer will be completed in the next two months and all but 18 units in the building have been sold, according to Jerry Brown, president of developer MDA Holdings.

While sales have been a little slow, Brown said, an affluent segment of the population wants to live in high-rises. And the competition isn't as fierce as it could have been.

Since the $100 million, 78-unit building broke ground in 2007, other developers have canceled high-end condo projects as the economy worsened.

Brown said just a few units have fallen out of contract. Eight have closed, and the others are under contract.

The buyers include a mix of couples and empty nesters from silk-stocking neighborhoods like River Oaks and Tanglewood. Brown said almost every buyer is from this area, and most of them will use the units as their primary residences.

“We never went after the investor crowd,” he said.

Units in the ultramodern building made of glass and steel range in size from 1,250 to 6,100 square feet, according to Ziegler Cooper Architects, which designed the building.

The building is known by its address, 2727 Kirby. Condo prices range from $500 to $900 per square foot.

Michael Atlas, who founded the development firm that built 2727 Kirby, died just a few months after the building broke ground. The native Houstonian helped take the Atlas Air Conditioning Co. his father started in 1947 public. He was 52 when he died.