Transwestern Development Co. has started work on a 17-acre project that will bring hundreds of apartments, retail and two high-rises to Upper Kirby. The first phase of the development features a 36-story luxury multifamily high-rise comprising 317 rental units atop a four-story podium and a 300,000-square-foot office tower. Pickard Chilton is in charge of the project’s master plan, which has been in the planning stages since 2018.

The RO, which stands for the city’s River Oaks neighborhood, will be built on the site of a former Exxon research facility at 3120 Buffalo Speedway. The retail village includes up to eight restaurants and 400 more apartment units. A condo-hotel, the Birdsall, will have 44 condominiums above a 105-room hotel operated by Auberge Resorts, the company’s first Houston location. By completion in 2027, The RO will have 740,000 square feet of the project under the roof.