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The Parks At Boulder Creek: Mixed-Use Development


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I saw today that The Parks at Boulder Creek has started moving a lot of earth and excavating for foundations for the midrises planned. This is the lifestyle center for Beltway 8 and Pearland Parkway and it should be Woodlands Town Center/Market Street-like in its scope. The plan calls for:

Midrise office towers (8-10 stories)

300 acre park

Upscale shopping (Williams-Sonoma, Virgin, Banana Republic, Restoration are a few names that I've heard tossed around)

Townhouses

Lofts

Restaurants

a small waterway (i've heard)

Discreet parking in garages and backs of property.

This is planned for both sides of Pearland Parkway and looks huge in scope. It is not a Big-box power center. Rather, it seems to be a real attempt to make Pearland a destination living, shopping, entertainment area, away from the 518/288 mess, that has gotten a little out of hand. This one looks to be quite well conceived and interesting. Go Pearland!

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I am glad to see development starting to make its way South along 288. I have always wondered when this would happen. Pearland will explode in the next few years. I am glad to see Brazoria county,my home county, pick up in "big city" developement.

Imagine mid rise towers in Pearland.

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  • 8 months later...

The project sounds good but Boulder Creek? It's hard to find a pebble around there, let alone a boulder.

These suburban subdivision-type names are as bland and uncreative as the most of the homes themselves.

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I guess this is good thing for the Houston metro. I like Pearland. But watch out for the suburbs.....when they get strong and want more tax revenue, they'll find a way to lure companies out of the city.

For examples, see Plano in the 80s and more recently Frisco.

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The project sounds good but Boulder Creek? It's hard to find a pebble around there, let alone a boulder.

These suburban subdivision-type names are as bland and uncreative as the most of the homes themselves.

I agree about the name. But, it still will be the same place regardless of the name. It's weird that it's on Clear Creek though...which is definitely not clear. I drove over it and I didn't see a creek. Maybe its too clear.

I guess the waterway will be called Boulder Creek when it's buit and "real" boulders will be installed for the waterfalls. That kind of justifies the name.

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This is Houston, not Dallas. In Houston, we just annex-em. The only burb that even remotely competes with Houston is The Woodlands, but they will be part of the COH soon enough.

Yes, Houston is the Soviet Union of Texas cities. If any suburban area starts to threaten us, we take out their Homeowner's Assoc. and replace it with a puppet HOA. They then begin to address our city council members as 'Comrade'. It is really quite effective.

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The project sounds good but Boulder Creek? It's hard to find a pebble around there, let alone a boulder.

These suburban subdivision-type names are as bland and uncreative as the most of the homes themselves.

Bland, maybe, but uncreative? It seems someone is actually being quite creative to come up with a name like "Boulder Creek" for an area with nothing larger than a pebble... perhaps too creative.

;-)

Now let's just imagine the uproar on this board if they had named it "Pebble Creek"

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yeah remember the same development was planned for League City. Victory Lakes was supposed to have waterways and mid rise office buildings. Today, theyre putting in a Wal-Mart.

This one now has an IBC sign to say they have financing in place. It is NOT a subdivision like Victory Lakes. It looks to be primarily a retail /office environment with some midrise and brownstone-type condos as the only residential component. The name, I'm guessing is coming from the Colorado-style architecture of the lowrise buildings I've seen in the renderings. I guess you have to make your own jugement about this. But, the type of development seems really exciting -- on par with a suburban version of Houston Pavilions, if I read their plans right.

There is no hard info available. I looked on the Jefco site, but all they say is "coming soon". Lots of area neighborhood developments are touting Boulder Creek as a nearby future amenity in their literature, though. Oh, and before you get too weird about the architecture style planned, this Colorado thing seems like it's really toned-down when you consider Jefco is the group that did that big "Italian" shopping center up near The Woodlands.

They do seem credible, though. And I hear one of the big partners is from Pearland and wants this to be like a gift to re-shape the town, which, by the way, is reported to have over 50,000 residents now and just over 100,000 in its ETJ (not sure exactly how this is calculated), according to the Pearland Journal.

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This one now has an IBC sign to say they have financing in place. It is NOT a subdivision like Victory Lakes. It looks to be primarily a retail /office environment with some midrise and brownstone-type condos as the only residential component. The name, I'm guessing is coming from the Colorado-style architecture of the lowrise buildings I've seen in the renderings. I guess you have to make your own jugement about this. But, the type of development seems really exciting -- on par with a suburban version of Houston Pavilions, if I read their plans right.

There is no hard info available. I looked on the Jefco site, but all they say is "coming soon". Lots of area neighborhood developments are touting Boulder Creek as a nearby future amenity in their literature, though. Oh, and before you get too weird about the architecture style planned, this Colorado thing seems like it's really toned-down when you consider Jefco is the group that did that big "Italian" shopping center up near The Woodlands.

They do seem credible, though. And I hear one of the big partners is from Pearland and wants this to be like a gift to re-shape the town, which, by the way, is reported to have over 50,000 residents now and just over 100,000 in its ETJ (not sure exactly how this is calculated), according to the Pearland Journal.

I hope they put in a 24 hour fitness or and LA Fitness in this development

Also this development will loose its attractiveness after the Beltway junction at 288 and the belt is built. It will hinder access and make it more noisy. I think that the fact that the 288 does not have a feeder road is the reason why this area has developed slower then other areas of town.

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Forgive my cynicism -- are there either boulders or a creek in that area?

Nope, but then again it holds the long Houston tradition of misnomers. For example The Heights, River Oaks(there is no river near the river oaks).

I think there is a creek and a ditch and it is on an old cattle land, but there are no boulders.

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There was a chart on SSP about these "creative" suburban community names. You could pretty much choose your neighborhood name.

It would seem that the names are chosen through some software where you just plug in categories and the software spits out a random combination, then out comes Fall Meadow, Summer Falls, Spring Hill, Windy Springs, etc. The combos are endless.

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Also this development will loose its attractiveness after the Beltway junction at 288 and the belt is built. It will hinder access and make it more noisy. I think that the fact that the 288 does not have a feeder road is the reason why this area has developed slower then other areas of town.

I thought The Parks at Boulder Creek was going to be at Beltway 8 and Pearland Parkway (Monroe).

See article here.

http://www.texasrebusiness.com/articles/MAR05/cover3.html

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Yes, as stated several times, this is at Beltway 8 and Pearland Parkway , not 288.

That article provides the best info I've seen yet on this project. It seems it will cover hundreds of acres on both sides of the parkway, with pedestrian bridges spanning it. Very nice.

One problem -- Phase I is set fot Spring 2006 and they haven't even begun foundation work yet. The site is cleared and leveled, though, so maybe they're just running a bit behind....

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Nope, but then again it holds the long Houston tradition of misnomers. For example The Heights, River Oaks(there is no river near the river oaks).

Let's not get too carried away with the cynicism. After all, the definition of bayou includes "small river" and Buffalo Bayou runs by River Oaks. And The Heights is so named because it is at a higher elevation than most of its surroundings (at least compared to central Houston... The Heights' elevation is 23 feet higher than downtown Houston.)

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

i guess that seals the deal on my search for suburbia... if we make a move, it will be pearland... close to the in-laws (but not too close)... close to the city (wrt suburbia)... close to the beaches (galveston or surfside)... decent schools... and a town center (and hopefully a town center affect that is positive.)

that is, if i can't find something in maplewood or the like that fits my criteria and budget...

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i guess that seals the deal on my search for suburbia... if we make a move, it will be pearland... close to the in-laws (but not too close)... close to the city (wrt suburbia)... close to the beaches (galveston or surfside)... decent schools... and a town center (and hopefully a town center affect that is positive.)

that is, if i can't find something in maplewood or the like that fits my criteria and budget...

all the new development going on in pearland at 288 and 518, is really making me think about that area more. Its relatively close compared to clear lake, kingwood, woodlands, etc. 18 miles from the center of downtown.
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Nope, but then again it holds the long Houston tradition of misnomers. For example The Heights, River Oaks(there is no river near the river oaks).

I think there is a creek and a ditch and it is on an old cattle land, but there are no boulders.

Agreed..except for the Heights. Anyone familar with the topography of late 19th century Houston will know why it's called the Heights.

B)

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Just thought I would give a little insight to this development.

My wife and I put a lot hold on one of the "brownstones" in this community for phase I. We handed over our money in March and we were told about 8 months until completion.

We were also told that we would be updated on the status of ALL the unknowns...upgrades and such. The realtor from the broker handling the sales seemed to have no answers for us. EVERYTHING was always "we have to wait and see what the developer decides".

My wife and I were okay with this because we knew we had gotten into this development in the early stages...however, we never heard anything from ANYONE again. That was March, this is July. Four months later we decided to go with a true homebuilder and called to cancel our lot hold. Our realtor had left the brokerage office(for reasons valid), but we were never contacted. WHAT!!! Not a single soul from the real estate team tried to contact us, to let us know that our agent had left.

And if it could get any better...the developer doesn't own the land. Not yet at least. That might answer some of those "why haven't they started ANY construction yet" questions!

Beware of this development!! And real estate team...they seemed to have no idea what was going on!

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Just thought I would give a little insight to this development.

My wife and I put a lot hold on one of the "brownstones" in this community for phase I. We handed over our money in March and we were told about 8 months until completion.

We were also told that we would be updated on the status of ALL the unknowns...upgrades and such. The realtor from the broker handling the sales seemed to have no answers for us. EVERYTHING was always "we have to wait and see what the developer decides".

My wife and I were okay with this because we knew we had gotten into this development in the early stages...however, we never heard anything from ANYONE again. That was March, this is July. Four months later we decided to go with a true homebuilder and called to cancel our lot hold. Our realtor had left the brokerage office(for reasons valid), but we were never contacted. WHAT!!! Not a single soul from the real estate team tried to contact us, to let us know that our agent had left.

And if it could get any better...the developer doesn't own the land. Not yet at least. That might answer some of those "why haven't they started ANY construction yet" questions!

Beware of this development!! And real estate team...they seemed to have no idea what was going on!

wow, thats a real unorganized series of events. glad you got out.

If the project goes to plan, it will undoubtebly look great, but until then.......

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Just thought I would give a little insight to this development.

My wife and I put a lot hold on one of the "brownstones" in this community for phase I. We handed over our money in March and we were told about 8 months until completion.

We were also told that we would be updated on the status of ALL the unknowns...upgrades and such. The realtor from the broker handling the sales seemed to have no answers for us. EVERYTHING was always "we have to wait and see what the developer decides".

My wife and I were okay with this because we knew we had gotten into this development in the early stages...however, we never heard anything from ANYONE again. That was March, this is July. Four months later we decided to go with a true homebuilder and called to cancel our lot hold. Our realtor had left the brokerage office(for reasons valid), but we were never contacted. WHAT!!! Not a single soul from the real estate team tried to contact us, to let us know that our agent had left.

And if it could get any better...the developer doesn't own the land. Not yet at least. That might answer some of those "why haven't they started ANY construction yet" questions!

Beware of this development!! And real estate team...they seemed to have no idea what was going on!

I was thinking about one of the lofts. I got an estimate of about 2 years before they would be ready. I was told last week that they just closed on the financing....who knows. Did you have any trouble getting your money back? I was thinking of doing the same thing and holding a unit, and seeing how the project develops, since I'm not moving back to Houston for another year anyway.

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