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Developers Have Ideas For Imperial Sugar Factory


UrbaNerd

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No way - I live in League City and while development here is good it is nowhere near the pace of Sugar Land.

Telfair is a massive development and Riverstone will have a large section within Sugar Land.

No to mention the UH campus coming to SL and the Brazos river park. My father works for Bechtel and they are opening a large office in Sugar Land.

I enjoy League City but would move to SL in a second if I could afford a house there.

SL is one of the fastest growing cities in Texas, and the future is bright.

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No way - I live in League City and while development here is good it is nowhere near the pace of Sugar Land.

Telfair is a massive development and Riverstone will have a large section within Sugar Land.

No to mention the UH campus coming to SL and the Brazos river park. My father works for Bechtel and they are opening a large office in Sugar Land.

I enjoy League City but would move to SL in a second if I could afford a house there.

SL is one of the fastest growing cities in Texas, and the future is bright.

The UH campus is serving a very large area, most of which is beyond the Sugar Land city limits. It is an asset, sure, but it sits on land that will not be populated, so in some ways it is more of a hinderance to Sugar Land's residential expansion than a boon. Bechtel's large office is not relevant to long term growth in any part of the region.

Are you familiar by any chance with the large development that'll be just west of Bay Colony Town Center? Big stuff, and its far from the only land in currently in play, but the land that it takes is only a fraction of what is available in LC. Do you realize that the LC city limits stretch from SH 146 to Alvin city limits (within about 3/4 mile of SH 35)? Lots of land. Texas City is pretty well positioned in terms of land, as well.

And just to be clear, I'm talking about municipalities, not general market areas that encompass huge parts of counties or entire school districts the way that Musicmen usually label "cities". And by the way, I'm not saying that the future for any city is not bright or remarking on the quality of life of these areas. I'm just talking about population counts, vacant developable land, and city limits. It is assumed, I think properly so, that these areas will continue to grow.

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Actually - I live in Bay Colony. I have seen all the development here since I purchased this house in 2003. Yes, there are major new shops going up here. This is a small area of League City, however, and is well positioned close to the freeway.

Bay Colony is technically in League City, but most would consider it closer to Dickinson. Many of us have Dickinson postal addresses.

There certainly room for growth here, and I do not mind living here right now. But, Sugar Land is so much better in every way. The homes are nicer, the people living there are wealthier, the area is better developed and booming, and it is closer to Houston. SL also has a lot of land, especially along the Brazos river for development.

I would say a lot of the development here in Bay Colony is being driven by people who work in Galveston but do not want to live there, and commute everyday. I know very few people who live here who work in downtown Houston.

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Actually - I live in Bay Colony. I have seen all the development here since I purchased this house in 2003. Yes, there are major new shops going up here. This is a small area of League City, however, and is well positioned close to the freeway.

Bay Colony is technically in League City, but most would consider it closer to Dickinson. Many of us have Dickinson postal addresses.

There certainly room for growth here, and I do not mind living here right now. But, Sugar Land is so much better in every way. The homes are nicer, the people living there are wealthier, the area is better developed and booming, and it is closer to Houston. SL also has a lot of land, especially along the Brazos river for development.

I would say a lot of the development here in Bay Colony is being driven by people who work in Galveston but do not want to live there, and commute everyday. I know very few people who live here who work in downtown Houston.

I've got family that lives up the road from you, in Bacliff, and my uncle has officed downtown for as long as I can remember. ...but I'll gladly grant you that he isn't typical, especially in his little nook of the world. On the other hand, while there is a pattern in effect for Galveston's workforce moving onto the mainland, that is only one employment center of many that influence demand for housing in League City. If you remind me, I'll run the Census commuter stats on Monday when I get to work and can tell you what percentage of folks in your area commute to Galveston or any other part of the Houston area. I expect there to be a lot of employees of NASA/Clear Lake, Texas City, central Houston, parts of the Ship Channel area, and even of the League City area itself, but we'll see.

As for quality of life, I wasn't talking about that. Me personally, I'd pay a premium to live in La Porte, Seabrook, Bayview, San Leon, Dickinson, Hitchcock, or Galveston, but would have to be given a discount to live in Sugar Land or most of League City. Just not my style. ...to each his own.

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If you remind me, I'll run the Census commuter stats on Monday when I get to work and can tell you what percentage of folks in your area commute to Galveston or any other part of the Houston area.

Ran the stats using the Census data. This thematic map uses bubbles to indicate the spatial distribution of jobs to which residents of League City commute.

leaguecitycommuterdestiwv0.png

Galveston has some big dots, especially over UTMB, but the island still only accounts for 6.0% of all jobs, as indicated by the report below. For comparison's sake, 9.3% of all jobs are in the 77058 zip code, which encompasses a little bit more than the Johnson Space Center, and is mostly within the City of Houston. Downtown Houston accounts for 2.8% of all jobs. The City of Houston as a whole accounts for 35.4% of all jobs. Texas City accounts for 6.0% of all jobs. League City itself accounts for 11.3% of all jobs.

leaguecitytogalvestoncoil3.png

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I think Sugar Land has Aliana, along with Village of Oak Lake, Summerfield, Orchard Lakes, and all the other developments south of West Airport in its eventual annexation sights.

Just stumbled onto this conversation. I live in Orchard Lakes, which has a Sugar Land address, but is located within Houston's ETJ (if you need proof, check out our green street signs and "City of Houston" manhole covers). Same goes for Chelsea Harbor and all the other neighborhoods north of U.S. 90A (on the east side of FM 1464). Those on the west side, including Old Orchard and Aliana, are in Richmond. The only way any of these neighborhoods will be annexed by Sugar Land would be through some sort of ETJ swap. I wouldn't complain if that happened, but I'm not holding my breath.

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Just stumbled onto this conversation. I live in Orchard Lakes, which has a Sugar Land address, but is located within Houston's ETJ (if you need proof, check out our green street signs and "City of Houston" manhole covers). Same goes for Chelsea Harbor and all the other neighborhoods north of U.S. 90A (on the east side of FM 1464). Those on the west side, including Old Orchard and Aliana, are in Richmond. The only way any of these neighborhoods will be annexed by Sugar Land would be through some sort of ETJ swap. I wouldn't complain if that happened, but I'm not holding my breath.

Wow... after some digging, you are absolutely right. I misread this map when I had posted this originally.

I guess it was just wishful thinking. Looking at the map though, nothing on the Westside of FM1464 is in Richmond's ETJ - It's 100% Houston.

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Guess I should have said they have Richmond addresses. Technically, I think Orchard Lakes and Chelsea Harbor should have Richmond addresses, but I'm sure the developers pulled some strings with the Post Office when they first started building. Even the Chevron station located between the two subdivisions

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http://www.fortbendherald.com/articles/200...ry/topstory.txt

Old Imperial site plans have history's touch

By Stephen Palkot Thursday, April 10, 2008 2:15 PM CDT

Not even a slowing housing market and ongoing economic woes have stopped developers from speaking in the most glowing terms about plans to transform Sugar Land's Imperial Sugar refinery into a billion-dollar attraction on par with some of the most successful districts in the country.

For the CEO of Southern Land Corp., Tim Downey, that means going beyond the well-worn model of strip malls with national chain restaurants, homes built according to a handful of generic layouts and patches of "green" space squeezed in at the last minute.

Downey said he wants to see a multi-hundred acre community that could be a regional attraction and with a

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Hard to believe they would invest to much while Nalco remains there. Wouldn't want to live right next to a chemical plant. Wasn't it just a couple of years ago that they had to evacuate the area because of a hazardous vapor cloud released from there?

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  • 1 year later...
4146196066_209ba2e757.jpg
Imperial Sugar Plant , originally uploaded by Secret5468.
Secret5468 shot this great picture of the Imperial Sugar Plant. Very Max Headroom-looking.
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Now that the minor-league stadium is up and running - things seem to finally be moving again on this project. All the ancillary buildings are gone - but they did leave quite a few of the older sugar factory buildings and cleaned them up. Which is really nice to see. The developer is talking of a boutique hotel, brew pub, trying to get a branch of the Children's Museum. We'll see what actually happens.

Couple of cool pics here at CultureMap:

http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/06-09-12-sugar-land-big-transformation-is-only-beginning-imperial-sugar-land-developers-reveal-more/

Right now the biggest news is still the hissy fit being thrown about the apartments that have been approved. Which is pretty freakin' hilarious considering that this is all right next to the Quarters. Which is where my wife's parents would drive her through back in the 70's when she was complaining about not getting something that all the other kids had. You know the drive to see how good you really have it.

And these goobers that bought new houses around there are complaining about how a few apartments will ruin their property values.

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Not really. Sugar Land propper is only so large and all but a few infill tracts have already been developed or are being developed. Once this and Telfair are built out, there's just not all that much room for Sugar Land to grow, except up...but for the most part, I'd think that Richmond/Rosenberg/Pleak will just become the next in line.

Might be a few years late replying to this one, but since things are waking back up from the dead - maybe not.

Guy I used to work for about 15-20 years ago was a Sugar Land council member. Back then the projection was that Sugar Land was going to top out around 200-250,000. It was already hemmed in by Richmond, Rosenberg, Houston and Missouri City. And since it's a low-density city - they had a pretty good estimate even back then how many people they could squeeze in and what land they could use (i.e. - prison lands being sold off, etc).

He always said the big one was going to be Rosenberg. It went ape$4!t with it's ETJ annexation. It's annexed completely around Beasely down 59 and Pleak down 36. It will reach to Needville and Kendleton eventually. Down Highway 90 - there is nothing till you hit East Bernard. I think Richmond will run into Katy on the north end - and Fulshear out west - so it won't get as big. Pleak will be just a pimple on Rosenberg's butt - like a Southside Place or West U to Houston. And pretty much it's all developable land - just a bunch of cotton/corn fields - no wetlands, etc. Nothing to stop it.

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Looks like the Fort Bend Children's Discovery Center - the Children's Museum's satellite location - will be located here. For some reason, I thought it was going to be near the HMNS branch museum in Telfair.

 

Article on fundraising: http://www.fbherald.com/arts_and_entertainment/article_8d43516c-41a0-11e3-9390-001a4bcf887a.html

 

Discovery Center website: http://www.fortbendchildrensdc.org/

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  • 1 year later...

Imperial Development to Sugar Site to HIghlight Sugar Land's History

 

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Imperial-development-to-highlight-Sugar-Land-s-6376339.php

 

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In a broad sense, the new Imperial master-planned development in Sugar Land mimics the subdivisions around it. Luxury homes under construction line clean, wide streets. Fountains shoot water from otherwise placid ponds. The city's ubiquitous crown logo, a symbol of locally based Imperial Sugar, is a familiar sight around the development, too. This is, after all, the former home of the company's refinery, the one-time lifeblood of the community that put this town on the map.

 

But among the suburban sameness, a new commercial development there is poised to embrace the city's past and offer a uniqueness developers say will set it apart from the "town centers" and "mixed-use developments" in other Houston suburbs.

 

"Anyone can build a shopping center on a number of sites in Houston," said Geoffrey Jones, one of the developers of the project, Imperial Market. "This is not just a shopping center site."

 

The historic structures of the now-shuttered refinery will be restored and reused as signature features of the development, which will include upscale shopping and dining, along with a hotel, high-end office space and apartments. The Fort Bend Discovery Center and Sugar Land Heritage Foundation Museum will also be part of the project.

 

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The eight-story char house, built in 1925, will become a 120-room Aloft Hotel, part of a Starwood-owned chain of boutique hotels. An adjacent building with 10,000 square feet of conference space with a fitness center will also be developed

I really like that the new aloft hotels in the Houston area are incorporated in historical buildings!!

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