HP Land For Sale Is Precious

[pineda]

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Hewlett Packard puts 462 acres on the market

By Kent Demaret , Managing Editor, HCN, 12/22/04

Deep, deep in the sonorous, brushy forest - one of the last such untouched patches of land in the northwest area of the county - the sounds and sights of the march of developments now break up nature's solitude.

The musty aroma of decaying leaves that carpet the spongy wooded area is the primary backdrop of the more than 500 acres located 20 miles northwest of downtown Houston. It is laced with evergreen, then a slight whiff of startled skunk who let loose the protective shield several nights before, perhaps at a coyote who slithered through the brush too closely. The muffled, surflike sound of traffic from nearby Highway 249 can be detected, sometimes with a whiff of exhaust from the engines that managed to remain intact in a slight breeze.

Brush burns somewhere.

The grumble of bulldozers, a mile or more away toward the East, comes and goes as they claw and rip through the rich loam, making the land flat for expansions of apartment projects in the Cutten Road, Cypresswood region.

Deer have been reported in a vigilant freeze as they pick up unaccustomed noises while they drink from the murky waters of Cypress Creek, the borderline to the south. A possum scuttles through the natural ground debris, making only a hushed whisper in passing.

Slender loblolly pines wave; oaks, with some branches serving as a platform for glistening mistletoe, hold a sturdy stance against the decades of their lives. Dappled sycamores can be spotted even from the northern boundary of the forest, Louetta. Holly grows in all directions, branches drooping with their loads of bright red berries.

Though the land has yet to be sold, the brokerage agency handling the pending megabuck sale expects a "feeding frenzy" of possible buyers soon, and the main pipes for supplying water to the area have been delivered and await their trenches alongside Louetta. They are so hefty that a large child could walk through them without stooping.

The land was bought many years ago, under the rapidly expanding old Compaq regime, when the computer business seemed to never stop an astonishing growth. The "old" Compaq, second only to the inventor of the PC computer, IBM, had located its facilities nearby, on the Western edge of Highway 249, and the business was then so unstoppable that officials gobbled up additional land on the other side of the highway, planning for future expansion.

But as all are reminded now and then, times change.

The giant IBM is no longer in the PC business. It sold out for $1.75 billion. To a Chinese firm.

Compaq tumbled from the top spot as computer ownership became saturated, and vigorous competitors ate into sales.

Dell, begun only shortly before as a one-man, from-the-dormitory operation, selling made-to-order computers from parts available as off-the-shelf items from a variety of manufacturers of the individual portions of computers, exploded into first place.

And Compaq and all its holdings were sold out to Hewlett-Packard, which made big money from printers, but wanted to expand computer operations.

When the high-tech bubble burst at the turn of the millennium, computer firms took another hit.

And as Hewlett-Packard examined all its holdings, it found some of the land originally bought by Compaq for torpedoed expansion was proving to be more of a drain on the company treasury than an asset. The only thing produced by empty land is a yearly tax bill.

Hewlett-Packard had discovered a no-brainer drain: trim as much as possible from such company holdings, relieving the money flyaway and adding the sales prices to the bottom line.

A few weeks ago HP sold 168 acres to Kickerillo homes, where up-scale homebuilding is beginning. That project is more-or-less across Louetta, near Highway 249, from another packet of land - a bit more than 462 acres. Hewlett-Packard also owns another 79 acres of land in the vicinity, but is holding onto ownership for possible company expansion in the future.

The 462 acres is now for sale through the firm of Cushman and Wakefield at $2.18 per square foot. (No, they won't just sell a few feet.)

Doing the math, with 43,560 square feet in an acre, the jolting price is $94,960 per acre - or $43,890,881 for the package, which also includes a small fraction of an acre. A bountiful addition to the bottom-line, indeed. (Before Compaq, land could be had in the area for around $5,000 an acre.)

Kickerillo is "interested," but has made no decision pending a study of assorted business aspects (how much they have, could borrow, and what they would build, and where - since a portion is under federally protected mandates for environmental reasons, and after the total cost is calculated, how long it would take to get it all done, pay all costs, and make a profit, comparing the profit with the risk-free profit that can be made with investments in no-risk federal notes, bonds and bills.)

The brokerage spokesman who predicted a "feeding frenzy" now that the land has been listed for sale, says it will all be a "boon to the community," with high end housing and retail establishments, perhaps even a large new mall operation.

The demographic projections indicate that by the year 2008, only a few ticks away as such matters are measured, almost 85,000 people will live within a three-mile radius of the land - with a median household income of $84,000 (half the population will have a higher income, half will be lower). South of Louetta, Highway 249 will carry 119,000 cars per day.

HP, expecting no problem finding a buyer for the property, is unwilling to make specific promises to those who now live in the area, but hopes they find some comfort and assurance in a promise that they will not be engaging in a grab-the-money-and-run sales engagement.

"We are going through a very careful selection process," says an HP spokesperson. "It has been well though out, and will be very mindful of our corporate responsibility to the community."

Nevertheless, some residents have become alarmed at their vision of a clear-cut.

"I know we can't stop development," says Lisa Marshall, a young mother who lives in the area, "but I hope that we can get the buyers to agree to a more natural result that preserves at least some of the look and feel of this nature preserve. We have a lot of wildlife in there, and they'll have no place to go if it all becomes homes and such. And it could look terrible. I'd like to see them do something like the 'campus' that Compaq did with their buildings, where they preserved a lot of the woodsy feel. That, or maybe like The Woodlands. It will be awful if it ends up as all jammed-together homes and retail outlets and signs."

Jennifer Lorenz, executive director of Legacy Land Trust, says she has also been working hard to get a similar decision out of the sellers, who can be empowered to make such demands of any eventual buyers by terms of the sales contract. Lorenz says the non-profit Legacy organization already oversees about 3,000 acres in Texas that have been guaranteed to remain environmentally safe for perpetuity in such "land preservation" agreements.

"This is a whole, functioning ecosystem," says Lorenz, and we must be able to guarantee some sort of buffer zone for the future. There are also flood problems along Cypress Creek to consider. More rooftops and concrete means runoff will be speeded up, and others areas that are now safe may flood as a result if it isn't done exactly right."

Lorenz says about 200 area homeowners have been in contact with her with such concerns. She says that ideally the developers would set aside about 900 acres out of the total for land preservation. But so far, she adds, she has been unable to get a positive result from either the real estate brokers or Hewlett-Packard.

[MidtownCoog]

We used to walk those woods during lunch when I was at Compaq.

That is one major flood zone. It already has paved streets. Too bad they can't turn it into a park.