Caldwell Cos. To Buy Bridgeland

[mrfootball]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6437058.html

Caldwell Cos. to buy Bridgeland development northwest of Houston

By NANCY SARNOFF HOUSTON CHRONICLE

May 22, 2009, 11:55AM

Caldwell Cos. is in the process of buying the Bridgeland master-planned community in northwest Harris County for about $90 million.

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A Houston-based real estate firm has been awarded the right to purchase Bridgeland, an 11,400-acre master-planned community in northwest Harris County, according to a source familiar with the deal.

If the transaction closes, Caldwell Cos. will buy the community from General Growth Properties for around $90 million, the source said.

Chicago-based General Growth is a real estate investment trust that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month.

Bridgeland is under development near Fry Road and U.S. 290.

More than 600 homes are occupied in the community, which General Growth, a shopping center developer, inherited when it acquired the Rouse Co. in 2004.

The project still has more than 10,000 acres and 20,000 homes to be developed, according to the plans.

General Growth also owns a 42.5 percent stake in The Woodlands Development Co., which operates the 28,000-acre residential community north of Houston. Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund II owns the rest.

When General Growth went into Chapter 11, it put a number of its properties in bankruptcy as well. Neither Bridgeland nor The Woodlands Development Co. were included in those filings.

nancy.sarnoff@chron.com

[bridgeland guy]

Rumor from the inside is that the only thing that will change will be the General Growth name. The Bridgeland Development team and master plan will remain the same.

[mrfootball]

Rumor from the inside is that the only thing that will change will be the General Growth name. The Bridgeland Development team and master plan will remain the same.

Sounds like a good plan. They've done a terrific job with the plan thus far. No need to deviate.