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The Herons Kingwood Marina: 300-Acre Master Planned Mixed-Use Development


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http://www.altusfirenze.com/#openModal2

 

http://www.civiltecheng.com/projects-3/kingwood-marina

 

Kingwood Marina is a uniquely planned community, adjacent to the San Jacinto River, comprised of multiple sections including a Commercial District, Marina District, and a Residential District developed around a marina concept. The project consisted of surveying and engineering design for excavation, paving and grading, water mains, storm sewers, sanitary sewers, Marina excavation and amenity features, and street paving for a 308-acre development which includes 2,500 equivalent single family units comprised of multi-family, commercial, retail, hotel, and residential lots.

 

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Ummm...... WAT.

 

I'm sorry, but there is absolutely no way. Let me be clear, that this project is fascinating and I'd love to see it come to fruition.

 

 First of all, most people don't want to boat on the San Jacinto River, much less on Lake Houston. There's debris everywhere and the lake sucks. There is a boat launch in River Grove Park right next to this, but still.

 

This would require radical changes to the streets in the area. It's in a really awkward spot to get in and out of the area for a major development. Even extending Woodland Hills over the river wouldn't help that much. 

 

If the Kingwood area can't even attract a single luxury car manufacturer, how would they be able to uphold a crazy luxury home and commercial district like this? This looks like The Woodlands and I don't think Kingwood is up for this. 

 

I'm sitting here just stunned this is even being presented. 

 

 

 

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13 hours ago, intencity77 said:

It’s wonderful but massive projects on this grand of a scale just never pan out here in the Houston area. It’ll either get cancelled or scaled back considerably. Hope they can prove me wrong, please do!...but I highly doubt it. 

 

Kingwood's version of NYC's Hundson Yards :P

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I live along Lake Houston south of Kingwood.  There are many problems which need clearing up after Harvey including dredging and silting from upriver operations. A previous high end proposal ( though not of this scale) south of LSC Kingwood College was cancelled.  I hope it comes about, it is beautiful, but I share the skepticism of many of the previous posts.

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I don't live in Kingwood. Have only been up there a few times to visit relatives. My question would be. How are they going to control flooding on the San Jacinto River?

It seems that every time they get a strong rainstorm in that region the San Jacinto is out of its banks and homes are under water for a period. Isn't flooding a big issue for a waterfront development along the San Jacinto River? Just curious. Love the renderings and would love to see this happen, but Kingwood?

 

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1 hour ago, jmancuso said:

I live in Kingwood...there's no way this is happening. I hope I'm wrong but Kingwood and the people that live there are boring and would never support this. 

Exactly my thoughts. This would do better in the woodlands (a marina to nowhere) or Clear lake, Kemah or Galveston.

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1 hour ago, bobruss said:

I don't live in Kingwood. Have only been up there a few times to visit relatives. My question would be. How are they going to control flooding on the San Jacinto River?

It seems that every time they get a strong rainstorm in that region the San Jacinto is out of its banks and homes are under water for a period. Isn't flooding a big issue for a waterfront development along the San Jacinto River? Just curious. Love the renderings and would love to see this happen, but Kingwood?

 

Lake Houston is 65 years old and has not been dredged. I do not know the estimates on lost capacity due to sedimentation but they must be high. It has been reported that silting has further been exasperated by operations running adjacent to the river some of them illegal.  This is not a problem that is going to go away magically.

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Impressive...skeptical, but pretty impressed. Looks like a lot of Marketing Design Image fluff, however, the point has definitely gotten across that the developer and those on this project have a vision that is alternative to typical Houston solutions to river/bayou development. The images as a whole remind me of a lot looks that are coming out from Southeast Asia regarding exterior skyscrapers mixed in with some European Contemporary architecture. What I'm interested more is the landscaping. More than the actual development itself, landscaping will be the bulk of this project (especially initial phases of this project. I can't image the early site work one does for something of this scale). Comparing the marketing video fly thru and available google maps imaging, we are looking a massive earth moving operation to even create the lake and canals necessary. Anyone that doesn't know how much it is to move dirt...its a lot (and we have crappy mud clay to deal with too). What annoys me most about the project however isn't the stunning architecture or scale of the idea, but the miss handling of the context around the development. It will be near impossible to get people to these two sites that will satisfy the program. Right now that's a death nail for the project unless they secure some deal with COH to help with infrastructure.

 

Some thoughts on previous comments:

 

17 hours ago, intencity77 said:

It’s wonderful but massive projects on this grand of a scale just never pan out here in the Houston area. It’ll either get cancelled or scaled back considerably. Hope they can prove me wrong, please do!...but I highly doubt it. 

 

 

Your first sentence is actually why we see massive projects like this of this scale out in Suburbia instead of inside the loop. Lots and Lots of cheap expansive land. So much land in fact most of these developers have no clue how to manage them. I think many of there first thoughts these days is to turn them into city centre's without thinking about the overall context. But we get areas like The Woodlands thanks to no urban planning...and we get areas like Kingwood with no urban planning (two very radical ends of the spectrum)

 

4 hours ago, Twinsanity02 said:

I live along Lake Houston south of Kingwood.  There are many problems which need clearing up after Harvey including dredging and silting from upriver operations. A previous high end proposal ( though not of this scale) south of LSC Kingwood College was cancelled.  I hope it comes about, it is beautiful, but I share the skepticism of many of the previous posts.

 

Since Kingwood is within Houston City Limits, and new initiatives to put new regulations in place for areas within the 500 year flood plain, it will be interesting to see what projects like this and others deal with this situation in an intelligent way. From the renderings it seems this design firm has some good ideas up its sleeves.

 

3 hours ago, jmancuso said:

I live in Kingwood...there's no way this is happening. I hope I'm wrong but Kingwood and the people that live there are boring and would never support this. 

 

Remember that people in the Woodlands were not that receptive to Skyscrapers and mid-rises not very long ago. I think many in the area thought it a sin to even go beyond two stories for anything. I do subscribe to the Steve Jobs notion about people and what they think they want...which is most the time they have no clue what they want until presented with an alternative.

 

1 hour ago, CrockpotandGravel said:

I like the design but I'm skeptical. Kingwood Harbor, Midway's waterfront development was severely damaged from hurricane Harvey. Most of the businesses reopened this year and some are working to reopen.

After Harvey, I don't see a floating restaurant, floating pool, floating cinema here. The rest of the development is neat and gives residents another choice to unwind besides driving far to The Woodlands Waterway and Hughes Landing. But I'm skeptical if this will move forward.

 

And some of us in the forum aren't alone:   

https://www.kingwood.com/msg/skyscrapers-coming-kingwood.php?p=1853322


 

 

Seems they are taking some design cues from actions taken in the Netherlands, and Southeast Asia. Areas which are very prone to flooding and are exploring some different ideas on how to build out urban environments that essentially work with floods instead of against them. The landscaping, wood exterior materials on the buildings, and float-able docks and marina architecture all point some that will work better for an unstable riverfront.

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ABOUT
Here is the companies mission.
Romerica Group was founded in 2007. Based in Houston TX. and created by Italian and Mexican entrepreneurs, is dedicated to offering social and urban development in the U.S. and Mexico.  The essence of the brand is  dynamism  at all times, we are innovative, proactive and our attitude is visionary, we always look strategically towards the future. Romerica Group currently has 8 areas of interest with more than 12 projects running in Mexico and the U.S.
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I have an Italian Greyhound / Chihuahua mix that has better chance at becoming Vice President than this project's chance of breaking ground, as we've see it...Even though I think both my dog and this development are superior to the status quo. 

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Throwing in more thoughts into the growing pile... Looking through the other projects from the designer it appears they may really be focused on the aesthetic and design of the amenity elements, and less so on the development overall.  Said another way, what if you threw away the towers and replaced it with a resort (a la Gaylord in Dallas/Denver or Travaasa in Austin)?  That might make more sense for the area, and still be relevant for the real focus of the waterfront stuff presented in the videos.  

 

Other things:  1. the connectivity to this site is hot, burning hot garbage.  Until/unless woodland hills is extended across the San Jo, this is a complete nonstarter.  2. what is the draw for this?  Kingwood isn't enough.  Getting here from the woodlands would be tough.  Galleria / memorial very tough.  Maybe Generation Park... but that's 10 years from now.  Can't imagine they intended to pull from the colonias out northeast.

Edited by SkylineView
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This is certainly ambitious, and as another Kingwood resident, I mostly concur with the skepticism. 

 

That area was completely underwater during Harvey, so there's that. If you look on Google Maps, the entire (I think) Barrington subdivision at Costwold/Woodland Hills had water in the homes. When they pre-drained the lake before the last rain event a month or two back, the silting of the area that would be the marina was pretty astonishing. 

 

So, if they have the momentum to fix the huge access issues (I'm thinking triple the size of Woodland Hills Drive and build another bridge over the San Jac, which would fire up the pearl clutchers), and dredge the river/lake around the area, more power to them, but building something of this scope and scale seems difficult in the best of circumstances.  I guess the appeal of building a development along a waterway might outweigh these issues, and I hope it does, but I'll file this one in the same drawer with the big development job that was supposed to go down just South of Lone Star College and North of the river west of 59. 

 

Stepping in to normal development concerns, there is pent up demand in Kingwood.  The new/flooded/reopened Torchy's tacos could double their prices and they would still have a line out the door, so I think there would be some initial tailwinds that could help spur some stuff along, but we're talking a whole new universe of demand out on an island separated from the big money non-industrial real estate by Humble/Aldine, Porter, and NE Houston.

 

If it was built, I would not want to own property in the Deerbrook Mall area. 

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As an alternative location, perhaps they could develop the new island that would be created where they propose to rechannel White Oak Bayou into Buffalo Bayou just north of downtown.

That would be exciting and they could use the new water features in their development. I just don't feel the energy in Kingwood. 

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15 hours ago, cspwal said:

Pardon the stupid question, but where is the site?  I apparently don't know Kingwood well enough to figure out where this is going to be built

 

15 hours ago, Twinsanity02 said:

I believe the site is  south of Kingwood Dr on Woodlands Hills  Dr. I suppose it is near River Grove Park. 

 

Twinsanity has it. There is a park owned by the Kingwood neighborhood association and a soccer field complex that I believe is privately owned down there.  I always figured that it was too low to be developed.  Cotswold Boulevard was the cross street mentioned in the article, that's really just an entrance road into a subdivision, not a proper boulevard by the usual understanding. 

 

They could possibly expand Hamblen road and extend it into the development. 

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