Nearly 300 new apartments are headed to the edge of Texas A&M's fast-growing RELLIS campus, as developers bet big on the wave of tech, biotech, and research jobs reshaping Bryan-College Station. McGrath Real Estate Partners is building The James, a planned 279-unit apartment community going up near State Highway 47 and Health Science Center Parkway, just steps from the FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies campus.
The James is part of CamWest Crossing, a 47-acre mixed-use development situated in the Bryan-College Station BioCorridor, according to Chron. The residential portion alone will sit on roughly 10 acres and is designed to draw young professionals, tech employees, healthcare workers, researchers, and graduate students flocking to the area's expanding innovation corridor. Chron's reporting notes the complex will include one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 591 to 1,416 square feet, with some first-floor units featuring front porch-style entries.
A Resort-Style Package Aimed at the Innovation Workforce
Planned amenities include a resort-style swimming pool, a fitness center, an outdoor amphitheater with a dedicated stage and jumbotron TV, and green spaces built for community events and outdoor gatherings, per the same account. The James is expected to open in early 2027. Barrett Kirk, chief investment officer at McGrath Real Estate Partners, told Realty News Report that the project reflects the firm's strategy of developing high-quality communities where job creation and economic growth support sustained housing demand.
The James actually marks the start of Phase II for CamWest Crossing, following a Phase I that delivered a four-story office building back in 2019, according to Realty News Report. That second phase also includes infrastructure meant to support planned commercial and retail space. Realty News Report also specifies that the residential buildings total 302,865 square feet of space across three-story, wood-frame structures on about 9.73 acres.
FUJIFILM and the RELLIS Campus Anchor the Corridor
FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, whose facility is on a street renamed FUJIFILM Way, is described as the second-largest employer in the Bryan-College Station region behind Texas A&M University, per Realty News Report. The company broke ground in October 2022 on a $300 million, 138,000-square-foot expansion meant to double its U.S. vaccine and gene therapy manufacturing capacity, a project that WTAW reported would create 150 jobs and bring the site's workforce to 1,000 employees.
Nearby, Texas A&M is investing $150 million to build a research campus including an education center, according to Chron's reporting. That investment builds on RELLIS, an innovation and technology campus.
Megaprojects and Metro Rankings Fuel Regional Growth
Housing pressure near RELLIS is spilling well beyond Texas A&M's main campus, driven in part by momentum from major industrial projects in the surrounding region. SpaceX and Tesla have planned a $16.8 billion initial investment in Terafab, a 100-million-square-foot AI semiconductor complex in neighboring Grimes County that could eventually expand to as much as $119 billion across multiple phases, according to GV Wire.
The broader metro's trajectory shows up in the numbers too. The Bryan-College Station metro area ranked No. 28 nationally and No. 3 in Texas on the Milken Institute's 2026 Best-Performing Cities index for large metros, climbing from No. 37 in 2025 and No. 45 in 2024, the City of Bryan announced. Hoodline previously covered a sixth West Bryan Whataburger.
Infrastructure Races to Keep Pace
Local and state agencies are racing to keep utilities and roads ahead of the growth. The City of Bryan is working to double the capacity of its Thompsons Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant from 2 million to 4 million gallons per day. On the transportation side, TxDOT awarded a $671 million contract for a State Highway 6 project, with active construction underway since December 2025.
Texas A&M is also exploring other housing models to absorb regional demand. The university announced plans in May 2025 with developer Varcity for a 14-acre university-affiliated residential community featuring villas, townhomes, apartments, and classroom facilities for alumni and lifelong learners, a project Hoodline reported is intended for alumni and lifelong learners. Between that effort, the Thompsons Creek expansion, and now The James rising along FUJIFILM Way, the BioCorridor's transformation from university town fringe to full-fledged innovation district continues to accelerate.
