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I-10 will be may favorite freeway completed in 2009. Big opening space between the freeway of SH 288 they should plan on planting palm trees and a small mini creek down along that middle section of the freeway with sand and rocks.

Architect - https://goree.com

Surprised to see this didn't already have a topic as it's been in development for a good while. https://www.weitzmangroup.com/properties/manveltownctrretail https://www.manveltownctr.com/WCMM/ Latest word from the city is the remaining permitting issues have been sorted out and HEB's building should start going up soon. The development has just been doing earthwork and underground up to this point.

Noticed a renovation registered with the state this week.

I noticed there was a Notice of Public Hearing sign posted a long Highway 288 near Fuqua St. Now there is a Urban Meridian Group sign posted. What's the scoop? UMG also has another parcel of land down the freeway a bit, on the opposite side.

I think this was mentioned before, but the development on 288/FM2234(S.C. Parkway) that is being anchored by Kroger will have a Starbuck's, Luby's, and a Cracker Barrel. Do folks like Cracker Barrel? It sounds so "country" to me. See link for site plan: http://www.gulfcoastcg.com/gulfcoastcg/doc...Marketplace.pdf

Asking for a friend who is in the market . . . Does anyone have any insight on the City Gate DR Horton development around 288 and Beltway 8? It seems relatively new--are there any other similar communities in the metro area developed by DR Horton that are more mature for comparison?

Noticed a demolition permit months ago. Been watching the area since. Today I finally see the demo has started.

Per Carroll Robinson's website at the link below, on November 5th, HCC closed on 9.177 acres of land on N. MacGregor at 288 for the new Coleman College of Health Sciences’ Medical Science & Technology Early College Charter High School (what a long name!). http://tinyurl.com/ld5l5md That parcel has been vacant for over 20 years. I think the last thing to be there was an old nightclub, and before that, there were apartments. Old N. MacGregor Way borders the property to the south and was closed and fenced off about 3-5 years ago. It's also one of the few places where you can see Brays Bayou's original path before it was straightened for the first time in the 1920s.

fire up the grill! things are looking mighty fine here in the lone star state. Texas' Growth Continues By Connie Gore Last updated: March 21, 2005 DALLAS-Retail developers and the shops that support them are circling wagons all across Texas, where economic growth and population projections have created a dense and intense marketplace. "We are seeing activity the strongest that we've ever seen," Herbert D. Weitzman, president and CEO of the locally based Weitzman Group and Cencor Realty Services, confirms to GSR. "The Texas economy and the growth is so exciting that many companies are coming in. The guys coming to Texas are looking at the growth. Many other states are stagnant." Texas' Big Four--Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio--are seeing new names and familiar ones unroll formats to cash in on a fashion-conscious consumer market that helped lead the way for making shopping a national pastime. Several restaurant chains, both fast food and high end, have staked claims in Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston. Cabela's Inc., building its first store in Dallas/Fort Worth, also has staked out a spot in Austin in a no-fear move to take a corner at an Interstate 35 intersection that will pit it against a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Meanwhile, Sears Grand, a freestanding format ready to due battle with Kohl's and J.C. Penney, has roped off an I-35 spot in another part of the state capital while Ikea, with one store in Houston and one rising in Dallas/Fort Worth, is shopping sites in Austin. And San Antonio, long considered the red-haired stepchild of Texas metros, has gotten its blessing as a high-end destination with the planned arrivals of Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Bass Pro Shops. "Texas is cruising," Weitzman says. "Consumers are spending...It's a young market because so many people come here for the corporate growth. And, it's fashion oriented." For the first time in years, DFW's occupancy has crossed the 90% threshold, hitting 90.5% in a 153.1-million-sf inventory, of which 4.4 million delivered last year. There isn't a week that goes by without another retail groundbreaking, mostly unanchored specialty venues instead of the grocery-anchored mainstays that once dominated the news. Meanwhile, mall and lifestyle center proposals are cropping up all across North Texas, with three alone seeking municipal abatements for the Interstate 35W and US Highway 287 intersection in Tarrant County. But, Weitzman says, don't put too much stock in all the mall planning because Texas history shows they all aren't likely to make it out of the ground. And if they do, it's not likely that deliveries will come anytime soon or the plan will stay the same. The one-million-sf Firewheel Town Center in Garland, was conceived 12 years ago as an enclosed mall and is delivering in the fall as an open-air product of the Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group. Weitzman says the only sure bet on Tarrant County's dance card is the Shops at Circle T, a 1.6-million-sf lifestyle resort planned by the locally based Hillwood and the Chicago-headquartered General Growth Properties Inc. The groundbreaking has been pushed a couple times, but planners say it will happen this year. Houston's 130-million-sf inventory might be second in size, but it's dead last in occupancy, according to Weitzman's research group. The 86.9% occupancy, though, certainly isn't a deterrent for construction. Last year, 3.4 million sf delivered, including the first phase of the 493,000-sf Market Street in the Woodlands, with the balance coming this spring. The city and its suburban spokes are building grounds for a plethora of projects like the 350,000-sf first phase for the 625,000-sf Crossing at 518; 1.3-million-sf Katy Town Center, a mix of office, retail and entertainment space; and a number of power center projects pushing the size of yesteryear's malls. The state's third largest market, San Antonio, has a 89.9% occupancy. The 32-million-sf inventory picked up 900,000 sf last year and will get far more than that just with the opening of the Shops at La Cantera, a 1.2-million-sf Simon project that took a decade to bring to fruition, according to Weitzman. The project, with its high-end retail concept and names, is San Antonio's mark of maturity as a retail marketplace. The San Antonio project docket has several large developments on the horizon: the 400,000-sf Legacy, set to open by year's end; 500,000-sf North Rim Market, now in the design stages; 327,000-sf Dellview Marketplace, a big-box play; and scores of others, including freestanding stores from a trio of furniture stars. Ashley Furniture Store, opening its first store in the city last year, has bought two more tracts while Haverty's has grabbed a location for a second store at the Forum at Olympia Parkway, and Basset Furniture Direct has marked its first spot at the Village at Forum Parkway. In Austin, its 95.5% occupancy and 28.5-million-sf inventory are magnets for development. The 750,000-sf Wolf Ranch, another Simon project, delivers this year as will the 500,000-sf Shops at the Galleria and the Triangle, a mixed-use, "New Urbanism: project with 700 apartments and 125,000 sf of specialty retail in the city's central core. The pipeline holds the 780,000-sf Domain, which has local firm, Endeavor Real Estate Group, teaming with Simon for a late 2005 groundbreaking, and the 1.5-million-sf Hill Country Galleria in the preleasing stage. "The envelope is always being pushed in Texas," Weitzman says. "I've never seen it that it's not being pushed." But the amount of development isn't cause for alarm because the bulk of the rising space is preleased. And, he adds, the occupancies of each metro are clear signals that there's no reason for a red flag to rise. Whether it's Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Austin or San Antonio, Weitzman says "the new blood of the market" is keeping all markets dynamic. "When you see really good restaurants from New York come here, you've got to take notice," he stresses. "They are nice touches. It says you're arriving."

I have a theory about the vast prairies that lie south of the Loop, north of the Beltway, and along both sides of 288, extending from about Scott Street back towards Highway 90A. Am I right, or is this just some fluke that we have countryside so close to such a burgeoning urban area? The theory goes like this: Development in the area has historically been slow; the reason for this is likely that State Highway 288 was completed as a freeway in 1984, just prior to a major regional downturn that was particularly hard-felt in the housing market. As the region began to emerge from the downturn, much of the prairie land through which the freeway had been built remained undisturbed, but the few neighborhoods that had been built in the area prior to the freeway

Anyone know what's going up on Ardmore between Yellowstone and Holly Hall? A big 3-story parking garage has been under construction for a little while now (it's VERY visible from 288 just inside the Loop). Foundation slabs have been poured next to the parking garage. I drove by on Ardmore last week, and there's a sign spray-painted on plywood, indicating that this will be an apartment complex. Anyone know any more details? I live directly across 288 from there (I can see the garage from my house)...just curious about what's going in. Just down the street, at Ardmore and Yellowstone, there's been an Urban Lofts sign up for months. No construction started there, though. Interesting stuff going on in the neighborhood. That area of Ardmore is a mix of industrial and office buildings. I thought it interesting that an apartment complex would go in there, and even more interesting that they would build a parking garage for it. I wouldn't have thought that land was valuable enough to merit a parking garage. If it is, that's good news...