mrfootball

Okay the article was in the Chron today.

Most of the time when a prototype is built, the developers use that as a model and then build others that are bigger.

I know it's going to bigger than the one in The Woodlands. What does it matter? Why do you bash anything that has to do with The Woodlands?

Not true, Mom. I really do like The Woodlands.

Just don't care for Woodlands people who feel the need to speak in superlatives all the time. It gets old. It's a bit played out and usually not exactly true. (As in this case)

The two new hybrid stores will be the first "new generation" H-E-B hybrids, McClelland noted. The first area hybrid, H-E-B Woodlands Market, is smaller at 78,000 square feet. (Vintage Market & Cypress Market are 110,000 square feet).

I do like The Woodlands though. I like a lot of areas in Greater Houston.

Not that it matters, but these are bigger and better than The Woodlands Market store.

Heck the Cafe on the Run at the existing Klein HEB is better than the Woodlands Market location.

Just got the flyer for the "Cypress Market" store:

Opens Oct. 24th

7,000 sq ft meat market

400 varieties of cheeses

17 varieties of apples

42 feet of Seafood arriving daily

2,000 wines

Sushiya Sushi bar

Artisan Bakery

Thousands of Organics

European-style deli

CM Cafe on the Run

Grill & Outdoors dept

Chef & Cooking classes "The Cooking Connection"

*Hoping the expanded wine selection means they'll have an expanded beer selection

From Klein ISD:

"The PASA demographic study shows student growth trends for Klein ISD. By studying the census data, the demographers found a steep increase in births in recent years. This corresponds to a rise in the kindergarten population beginning in 2007. This trend is expected to continue over the next few years.

Half of the current elementary attendance zones have more kindergarten students than 12th graders, suggesting a growing student population. These elementary attendance zones include Benignus, Eiland, Epps Island, Hassler, Kaiser, Kohrville, Krahn, Kreinhop, McDougle, Metzler, Nitsch, and Schultz. The other half of the elementary attendance zones has more 12th graders than kindergarten students. This comparison points to an aging student population in those zones. These elementary attendance zones include Benfer, Brill, Ehrhardt, Greenwood Forest, Haude, Klenk, Kuehnle, Lemm, Mittelstadt, Northampton, Roth, and Theiss.

There is a trend toward growth of elementary students in the north and north central areas of the district. There is also higher growth of high school students in the northern portion of the district. The overall population of the district is stable compared to surrounding districts."

Here's what interesting to me about this piece of information from this very expensive report that Klein paid for. Benignus, Metzler and Schultz (from the supposedly "growing" part of the district) are right next to Northampton and Roth (from the supposedly "aging" part of the district). Doesn't exactly predict any "trends", does it?

Aging? Seems like that whole area around Northampton is exploding with new development, with room to grow further.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/cyf...ws/5164748.html

Trail project could link northwest parks

Extension would add Kickerillo area

By KIM JACKSON

Chronicle Correspondent

A group of Champion Forest-area water district officials and residents are looking into launching a green-trail project that could link Harris County's Elizabeth Kaiser Meyer Park with the proposed Kickerillo Mischer Preserve park at Texas 249 and Cypresswood Drive.

Harris County Precinct 4 is working on a trail project between Collins and Meyer parks, so the extension of that trail is a logical and desirable project, the group said.

The Cypress Forest Public Utility District board voted last month to create a committee made up of district officials, residents and property owners to consider a trail project, including how much it would cost and how it would be financed; what path the trail would take; and how best to work with property owners along the project path.

"This could be an amenity for our neighborhood, and it could serve as a buffer between our community and future development," said Tom Petrick, a Cypress Forest PUD board member and committee member. "We need to get this into play. We need to link our parks, and tie into the exciting development that is happening around us."

Petrick said the committee would bring a final report and recommendation to the board in February. If the project is to be wholly or partially financed with bonds sold by the Cypress Forest PUD, an election could be called as early as May 2008.

The committee will utilize a nature trail feasibility study conducted for the water district by local landscape consultant Michael Murr.

Murr 's study results mapped out one possibility for the two-mile asphalt trail path. It would start at Meyer Park and run southwest along Cypress Creek over Dry Gulley. At that point the trail breaks away from the creek to run along the back of two properties that border Cypresswood Drive east of Champion Forest Drive. One property houses the Houston Conservatory Senior Living Apartments and the other is owned by Greenwood Properties.

The proposed trail then follows an existing path under Champion Forest Drive, runs behind property owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and then follows a path along Cypresswood Drive in front of the Raveneaux Country Club and Golf Course, which is owned by JP Raveneaux Partners, Ltd.

The trail joins up again with Cypress Creek at a point where the creek runs under Cypresswood Drive, follows an existing path under Cypresswood, and then crosses a gulley and ends at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad tracks adjacent to the 460-acre master-planned "The Vintage" development. The Vintage is being developed by V&W Partners, a joint venture between the Kickerillo Cos. and Mischer Investments. V&W Partners is in the process of donating about 100 acres at the southern end of the property, bordering Cypress Creek, to Harris County for a public park.

"We are very fortunate to have a palette to work with," Murr said. "We can take what God gave us and put a trail through it for everyone to enjoy. The beautiful greenbelt is already there for us. We would just put a bow on it."

Murr said the proposed trail is just a proposal and it would be altered to follow the parcels of land the district is able to acquire for the project. He said a strip of land about 20-feet wide would be ideal in which to build a 10-foot-wide trail with landscaping along the edges.

Petrick said the committee would focus on bringing property owners to the table to talk about those right-of-way donations and/or acquisitions. He said the majority of the path runs through the Raveneaux property, which will be redeveloped.

Champions Forest resident and Raveneaux property owner Tony Kindred has joined forces with developer JP Realty Co. to develop 42 acres of the 288-acre site that now houses Raveneaux Country Club and two 18-hole golf courses. Preliminary plans call for brownstone-style townhomes, and a new six-story clubhouse facility with condominium units on the upper three floors.

Neither Kindred nor Mark Jordan with JP Realty returned calls for comment about the trail project.

"The present owner does have knowledge of the plan and agrees with the concept, but we have no agreement in place," Petrick said.

Murr said the committee could also talk with Harris County officials about future maintenance of the trail, as well as the possibility of obtaining park bond money if a Harris County bond election gets voter approval in November.

Dennis Johnston, Harris County Precinct 4's parks director, said the project sounds like a good one, but Harris County bond funds could be hard to come because of all of the demands there will be for Precinct 4's estimated $23 million slice of the park bond fund pie.

"We don't know how it will be distributed. It is a big precinct and there is a lot going on," Johnston said. "We need funds to develop the Kickerillo Mischer Preserve, and money will be needed to expand the Cypress Creek Greenway. A lot of things are up in the air."

Champion Forest resident Rozann Janek, who is vice president of the Champion Forest Fund Inc. and a committee member, said the homeowners association has a strong interest in the trail project.

"We realize that change is inevitable, so it is our responsibility to communicate our community's need for respectful consideration in the process," Janek said.

Seriously, I can think of worse things than a Class A multi-use corpoate development.

I'm an alum of both UT-Austin '95 and Texas Tech '97

UT was very liberal

Texas Tech was center-right.

In my experience, UT professors liked to push their ideology down your throat. Tech profs tended to take a more libertarian bent, giving you both sides of the story for you to make up your own mind.

If a homebuyer iis dumb enough to sign a piece of paper work with out knowng the full intent of what they are signing or what it says, then it is thir own fault, nobody elses.

In addition, this fee is present in many othher developments around Houston (Summerwood, Telfair) and thhe country.

So, the homeowner can simply opt-out --- or Bridgeland loses a buyer?

Methinks that (given enough daylight) this will not be very well-received. People get dicked around enough today with hidden fees, licences, charges, taxes etc.

Booooh!

They are expanding fast, but they need to. The whole area's expanding fast.

Too many damned apartments.

I drove up that way yesterday and noticed the two "Coming Soon" signs for the HEB Fairfield Market to be located in between Fairfield Place and Bauer Rd (most likely on future Grand Pkwy frontage).

I disagree. Why did they NOT put it in plain language on the proposal?

I'm asking because after that thing went up I've heard so many people wondering how it got through who weren't aware or the plans for it. Even while construction was just beginning, and i had made calls to the district they claimed the didn't have plans, and calls at that time to the developer even were answered with claims that they did not have plans for it.

I really don't think, just as the district also thought, that it would have passed if they had spelled out just what it was in plain language. Because they didn't.

CyKat

Just so that we're keeping everything factual and correct. Let's put the actual wording of the proposed bond issue up. I don't see the point of complaining about it now, a year after its been built. If you're proposing more "truth in advertising" for government I'm all for it.

The way school districts hold bond referendums? Yes. I recall it was part of a larger bond package. With 12 High Schools on the near horizon, the district needed another stadium, an arena, a conference center and auditorium. They could've built these all separately, but they wouldn't be as nice and they'd likely cost more per unit. We may need another one if we continue to grow at this rate, though I think it'll be a long time before anyone takes on anything as big and as nice as the Berry considering the stir it has created.

Sept. 19, 2007, 12:48PM

'Bright spot' in land deal

Master-planned site northwest of Houston now more than 11,000 acres

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/cyf...ws/5146875.html

By NANCY SARNOFF

Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Bridgeland, a master-planned community in Cypress being developed on an expanse of land northwest of Houston, just got bigger.

Developer General Growth Properties has purchased an additional 1,234 acres adjoining the original site, bringing the project's total acreage to 11,401. By comparison, Kingwood is more than 14,000 acres, and The Woodlands is 28,000 acres.

The purchase comes at a time when tightening credit markets, high foreclosure rates and a collapse of the subprime mortgage industry have put a dent in home sales and forced some builders to scale back.

"It's a bit of a bright spot that someone wants to buy land in Houston, Texas, when they already have so much of it," said Peter Houghton, vice president of sales for Bridgeland, which is near Fry Road and U.S. 290. "It's just an indication of how strongly they believe in Bridgeland

I wouldn't be surprised, but I think much of that growth I believe is growth. These areas are exlpoding with new homes.

Better use that mulch before the daylaborers start hauling that stuff away.

For 4.3 million you could get a real Miami Vice house.

They're offering Fision in certain parts of Cypress. I spoke to the marketing director and they expect to be in my neighborhood (Longwood) by December.

New broadcast facility built to withstand extreme weather - 8/31/2007

(The Woodlands) - The new Fox Sports Broadcast Center in The Woodlands was designed to comply with the stringent hurricane-resistant standards set forth in the building code of Florida's Miami-Dade County. The 184,000-square-foot two-story, precast concrete building is located on a 30-acre greenfield site, of which 16 acres are currently developed, 27 miles north of downtown Houston. The remainder of the site is available for future expansion. Substantial completion of the Fox Sports Broadcast Center is expected in October, and the building's broadcast operations will be complete and on-air by early 2008. The facility will serve as the cable sports operations center for Fox Networks Group. The facility's major components are its broadcast rooms, broadcast equipment and transmission rooms, network control rooms, tape vaults and media management center. An adjacent "antennae yard" features seven, nine-meter transmit dishes and 21 receive dishes. A "mission-critical" central plant with robust power and HVAC systems will allow the facility to operate uninterrupted in the event of a power failure. The new facility in The Woodlands will replace Houston's operations, which are located in a leased metal building built in 1967. The new facility will have a 24-hour attended gated entrance and other on-site security personnel. The facility will employ approximately 500 people. Many of the current 300-plus employees already have made tentative plans to move into the local area, and Fox estimates hiring another 100 to 200 people from the surrounding area rather than going out-of-state. Designers have integrated enough generator capacity and onsite fuel to carry the building for six days without utility power. Three 2,000-kilowatt generators and two 30,000-gallon underground fuel tanks are part of this beefed-up emergency power system.

[McGraw Hill Construction]

That commute is hell. I live in Longwood which is about equidistant b/w 290 and 249 so if I'm going downtown I'll check the TranStar site and choose which way I want to go in.

Without traffic, I've gotten into Downtown Houston in as little 21 minutes (of course, I'm sure I may have surpassed the posted speed limit).

That's the one. I believe that plot has been 'cleared' for a long time. There was once a lot of broken up concrete or rocks on it. It sits aside the Faulkey Gully Hike & Bike trail. I wonder what they've got planned?

I use these guys:

http://www.turfplusmgt.com

New village. Lakeland Heights. I don't believe they've begun construction there yet. First homes ready in late 2008 (according to the website). It'll go in further down Fry about a mile past the current main entrance.

Looking at the map, it's the section just past that bend in Fry Rd. (the one with the lakes in it).

Also, I believe that section of land directly between Lakeland Heights and the section containing the visitors center is slated to become a village-style shopping center.

http://bl.vismark.us/DTS/lots/eplats/index_base.asp

That should be really neat. They're currently building a similar concept community in Lubbock called "Vintage Township"

http://vintagetownship.com/

Virtual Tour:

http://vintagetownship.com/media/virtual-full.page

The developers even setup a 'Builder's Guild' of custom-home builders who were to build homes in the community. Here's a video builder tour of a similar model community in Orlando:

http://vintagetownship.com/media/buildertrip.page