scrres

http://www.historicrealestateinc.org/ Any news on this ? Is the waterlight district coming? or the project died ?

http://www.ultimatep...-new-elementary Shadow Creek growth sparked plans for new elementary October 16, 2009 4:21 pmRobert Stanton wrote:Shadow Creek Ranch will be home to the Alvin Independent School District’s 14th elementary school now that trustees have OK’d a contract to purchase the 15-acre tract. The school board on Tuesday approved the $1.7 million contract to purchase the land on Kingsley Drive at Trinity Bay Drive. It will be the district’s third elementary campus in Shadow Creek Ranch. The others are Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary and Mary Marek Elementary. The land purchase and infrastructure arrangements for the new elementary school will be funded by Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone No. 2, which serves Shadow Creek Ranch, said Tommy King, the district’s deputy superintendent for business and support services. “This is the latest school site inside the TIRZ,” King said. The TIRZ pays “for all the land and the development necessary to make that land a site for the school. The money’s paid back through taxes coming in. Twenty-five percent of taxes from the growth in the increase in (property) value go to pay for that," he said. “That way, it keeps the growth in that area from having a negative impact upon the taxpayers of the district.” Fueling the decision to build the new school is the phenomenal growth of Shadow Creek Ranch, King said. Alvin ISD currently has 8,636 students in grades K-5. “We have a 17 percent growth rate at Wilder Elementary, and the (other elementaries) in the area are growing at 12 percent,” King said. With the new school, he added, “We’re trying to accommodate that growth.” King said the district plans to complete the land acquisition by early spring, and construction bids should go out by February. Construction is slated to begin in March, with a projected completion of June 2011.

http://www.ultimatepearland.com/2009/10/some-aisd-bond-money-would-go-pearland-schools

At first I thought you were kidding . I did not find banghead emoticon ..................

It looks like http://www.coming2009.com/ is no more website for the presidential park even though the sign board at the land site still has it. Now this website has info about its founder.

www.coming2009.com not working (under construction ) Here is a blog from chron http://blogs.chron.com/pearland/2009/06/wh...aterlights.html What's up with the Waterlights District? As I wrote in my last blog entry, I put a call in to David Goswick of Historic Real Estate, the developer of Waterlights District to ask him for a status update on the project. Yesterday I met with Goswick as well as Richard Browne, the urban planner for the project. I drive by the six president sculptures that were installed in February 2008, and Anna-Megan and I get a lot of comments asking when exactly the project will be "coming soon," as the signs promise. I have to say I've wondered when exactly soon is, too. According to Goswick and Browne, what will be coming soon, as in this fall, is a "soft opening" of the Presidential Park with a total of 12 presidential sculptures spread out over the property that the public will be allowed to view. (Last year Goswick told Robert Stanton the other presidents would be in by March of this year, so you're not imagining things, the project is taking a little longer expected.) Currently, the city is working to put in utilities along what was once South Spectrum Boulevard but has been renamed Waterlights Parkway. When that's finished, the Waterlights District developer will begin construction on the first building -- a 96,000-square-foot structure that will have about four restaurants and a wine bar, Goswick said. The timeline? It will be about another 14 to 18 months before the building is completed and businesses opened. The economy has set the project back when it comes to securing business for the development, Goswick said. "Developments of this size and scope take a long time to create, and then you throw in the economy on top of it. ... We've been hesitant to accept contracts because of the past six months' economic situation. We're worried about people being able to get financing," he said. He was hesitant to say what businesses would open. Contracts are being looked at, but nothing signed yet. They would like to have a restaurant such as Killen's Steakhouse to anchor it, he said. "It's gone a little bit slow because of the recession, but we've been doing the planning things you don't see from the car driving by," Browne added. Browne pointed out some of the design elements organizers have added and modified since the project was conceived. For example, instead of isolated ponds, they are planning on one continuous waterway with connecting canals. (It will be like the "Venice of Texas," by the time it's done, he added.) Also planned for the 50 acres are 1,400 residential units, 300,000 square feet of office space, 100,000 square feet of retail space, 115,000 square feet of restaurant space and 500 hotel rooms. All of it situated within walking distance of the Presidential Park, a place to roam and learn about the country's history. I'm not sure exactly how long a project of this scale is supposed to take, but Browne, who also helped develop The Woodlands, said it will take time. Rome wasn't built in a day, nor The Woodlands, and I guess Waterlights (the "Venice of Texas") won't be either. What do you think?

Are there any plans for them to move out of pearland? The first question in this voting is Would you like The Presidential Park & Gardens to be located within The WaterLights District in Pearland? I did not get this question.

is this ever coming? coming2009.com or coming2010.com or comingnever.com I dont see anything happening on the site (on the 288 side)

<H1 class=storyHeadline> http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=...=6735158 Local student heads to National Spelling Bee</H1>PEARLAND, TX (KTRK) -- A seventh grader from Pearland will represent Houston in the National Spelling Bee. Area school kids competed in a spelling bee over the weekend. Aditya Chemudupaty from Nolan Ryan Junior High in Alvin ISD won by spelling the word, decastich, which means a poem or stanza having ten lines. The Scripps National Spelling Bee will be held at the end of May.

http://blogs.chron.com/pearland/ More presidents coming to Pearland! And maybe some high-end restaurants Many folks who traverse Texas 288 to and from work each day have become good acquaintances with Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, George Herbert Walker Bush, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. The U.S. presidents, whose busts guard the entrance to the WaterLight District's Presidential Park & Gardens south of Beltway 8, have become familiar sights. But where are the rest of the presidents coming? When will construction on the project start? What restaurants and hotels are coming in? Over the past few weeks, I've gotten more than a few e-mails from readers asking just these questions, as well as wondering whether the souring economy is giving prospective retailers pause. I jumped on the horn to talk to David Goswick, executive director of Historic Real Estate, the developers of the project, to get the latest scoop on the project. Here's what he told me on Monday: Within three weeks, people will start to see movement of dirt on our site. We'll be under construction by July 28. We'll start construction of the Grand Canal and bring in all the infrastructure for Phase 1 of WaterLights.The first phase of the project includes 150,000 square feet of Class A office space; 100,000 square feet of retail; 50,000 square feet of medical office space; 300 luxury apartments; 32 condos overlooking a canal; a hotel; four restaurants; and a wine bar, Goswick said. Phase II will bring in more two hotels, retail outlets, condominiums and more restaurants - 14 in all. The restaurants on the first floor will have outdoor terraces, and above them will be offices and residential condos and lofts. Phase III will bring a mix of brownstones, condos and flats overlooking the water, Goswick said, noting that the total project should be completed within five years, by 2013. I shifted to some more pointed questions in my telephone interview with Goswick, like whether retailers are getting skittish about moving there. Here's what he told me: We have had no reluctance at all. The Presidential Park & Gardens is proceeding as fast as we possibly can with planning and construction. The planning and approval process is taking a little longer, but it's due to refining the plan. When you create a very special place, it takes time. What about the other U.S. presidents planned for the site? Here's what Goswick said: The statues have all been completed and are expected to be moved to the site (between November 2008 and March 2009). We can only move two statues per 18-wheeler, and it will require 20 trucks to move all of the busts to the site. We don't want to move the statues more than once because they weigh 7,000 pounds each.I asked Goswick how much weight his company is putting on the results of a restaurant poll that Historic Homes conducted in January, in which 8,600 residents voted regarding what eateries they would like to see. Here's what he said: What we keep hearing over and over is that consumers want a unique experience along The Restaurant Row. They do not want the same chains of restaurants that they can go to at any Houston freeway and experience. Goswick declined to reveal the names of the restaurants that have signed agreements so far, pointing to a mutual nondisclosure agreement with each of the development partners. Sherry Stockwell, new board chairwoman of the Pearland Area Chamber of Commerce, said that just about everyone she has talked to about WaterLights wants to see 'high-end' restaurants there. She elaborated: What we'd like to see, and I think they're hoping to accomplish, are some restaurants that are high end and that have their own chefs, and not necessarily the typical restaurants you would think of.

thats a great news for pearland. thanks for posting this

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/pea...ws/5438347.html