“Yellow Cab employed a great deal of people, and provided an important service,” Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia said during a demolition ceremony for the complex in October. “Yellow Cab couldn’t contend with the new market, and they changed their business model. As a consequence, the Near Northside had the potential of another brownfield.”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a brownfield is a “property, the expansion, redevelopment or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.”
With the help of $7.3 million from the American Rescue Plan, the city of Houston, Harris County Housing and Community Development and the Houston Land Bank, the former Yellow Cab property will be transformed into over 100 multifamily units of affordable housing.
“What we thought were going to be 90 affordable multifamily units will go up to 120,” Garcia said. “This will provide affordability for a wide range of working families earning below 120% area median income. We’re going to see a greener, healthier future for the area once this development is completed.”
The entirety of the project includes three neighboring tracts of land. Two were purchased for nearly $5 million by the Houston Land Bank, and the other by Harris County for $7.3 million. The Houston Land Bank will lead the development of approximately 40 single-family homes for families earning up to 120% of the area median income.
The Houston Land Bank, established in 1999 as the Land Assemblage Redevelopment Authority and recertified in its current name in 2018, is the only community development corporation in the city that is both a government agency and a nonprofit, according to Christa Stoneham, its CEO and president.
Caroline Cheong, Kinder Institute of Urban Research associate director of housing and neighborhoods, said land banks address economic, environmental and public health while fostering equitable development in underserved areas.
“Many properties require cleanup, especially brownfields contaminated by industrial activity, railways or dumping near waterways,” Cheong said. “But land banks typically avoid placing for-profit businesses, like a Chipotle, on these properties. Instead, when they repurpose the land, they usually focus on community-oriented projects, because land banks are in the business of doing good for communities.”
Land banks typically acquire properties that are not serving the community, including those that are unproductive, tax-delinquent or environmentally hazardous. These properties are often vacant or deteriorated and located in constrained housing markets. A land bank can transform such parcels into active properties that contribute to the local tax base.
For the former Yellow Cab site at 1406 Hays St., the remediation process took about five years. The EPA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality oversaw the work, as multiple environmental milestones needed to be reached before housing could be built on the property.
Stoneham said the cleanup involved the removal of about 20 feet of soil and underground storage tanks because there was an on-site gas station. Testing was also conducted on the groundwater.
Shortly after Stoneham took the reins of the Houston Land Bank in 2022, she launched a brownfield activation committee, which gave Near Northside residents an opportunity to provide their vision for the Yellow Cab project. Some of their ideas included mixed-use developments, multifamily housing and walkable greenspaces.
Using U.S. Census American Community Survey 5-year estimates and data from the Harris Central Appraisal District, the Kinder Institute’s 2024 State of Housing in Harris County and Houston report indicated that the Near Northside’s median home value in 2022 was $305,856. The neighborhood’s median household income in 2022 was $50,776, and 87.2% of its population was non-White.
The development on the Yellow Cab site is expected to be completed sometime in 2026. The building will have a 99-year ground lease managed by the Harris County Housing Finance Corp. The demolition of the last standing Yellow Cab building began in October, but several steps remain.
“The demolition was an emotional day, and I didn’t really feel that coming,” Stoneham said. “But it was just the excitement of what comes next.”
The developer selected for the multifamily building is AMCAL Multi-Housing Inc.’s Texas branch, AMTEX. But contracts must be approved in Harris County Commissioners Court.
“I’m very much looking forward to celebrating with the community, and having them take pride in this work,” Stoneham said. “The community has informed us throughout the process in engagement meetings. This isn’t my vision, it’s theirs. I’m just here to align the pipeline of projects to make the community’s priorities come to life.”
