A developer plans to reuse a medical building in the Bishop Arts area as part of a 135-unit residential complex.
Houston-based Urban Genesis, whose two Bishop Highline apartment buildings are under construction on Melba, expects to begin apartment construction on the former Trinity Rehabilitation Center in late spring or early summer.
The five-story former hospital is on the east side of Madison between Ninth and Tenth. It consists of two buildings, which are connected by a skybridge, and the developer plans to construct an additional building on the north side of the hospital. A zoning variance is required for the developers to reuse the existing skybridge, zoned for medical use over the alley between Ninth and Tenth, for residential purposes.
Matt Shafiezadeh of Urban Genesis says the building’s facade reminded them of a theater. The main building has a 5,000-square-foot basement, which they’re planning to turn into an actual theater, to be leased to a theater company for live plays.
“We want to make it look old-world as much as we can. The project is a unique opportunity,” he says. “We’re designing it to look like an old theater that was converted to apartments.”
A rendering of the complex viewed from Madison.
The new building (pictured at top as viewed from Madison and Ninth) will contain about 40 mostly one-bedroom apartments priced under $1,000, Shafiezadeh says.
The first apartments could be delivered in late spring or early summer 2019.
