69 Percent Pre-Sold Ritz-Carlton Breaks Ground

THE WOODLANDS – (Realty News Report) – – Howard Hughes Holdings celebrated groundbreaking ceremony for its The Ritz-Carlton Residences, The Woodlands, where the project has already pre-sold over $300 million worth of condominiums in upscale planned residential tower.

The residential tower, which will have 111 homes, has been closing sales at record-high prices for the Houston market, said David O’Reilly, Chief Executive Officer of Howard Hughes.

“The Ritz-Carlton Residences, The Woodlands is a first-of-its-kind, ultra-luxury condo development on the shores of Lake Woodlands, and the demand we have seen has been nothing short of incredible as it continues to surpass expectations,” said O’Reilly. “The project commenced its long-awaited pre-sales in late March and closed that first quarter with more than half of its residences pre-sold at prices per square foot never seen in the Houston market. Since that time, sales have continued at a solid pace and set all-time highs for the region.”

At the end of July, Howard Hughes reported 72 units had been pre-sold for $313 million. At that time, O’Reilly told stock market analysts that the condo prices were being raised. The sales pace was so brisk that the company decided to take condos off the market until construction was near completion. “We’ve increased prices pretty dramatically in an effort to – honestly – slow sales until we finish the building and can show off the quality of what we’ve built. We think that the pricing will go higher at that point in time,” O’Reilly told the analysts.

The Ritz-Carlton Residences in The Woodlands, which will not have a hotel, was designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects. The New York-based RAMSA firm was founded by Mr. Robert A.M. Stern, the former dean of the Yale School of Architecture.

Rendering of The Ritz-Carlton Residences, The Woodlands. Architecture: RAMSA

An extraordinarily wide variety of units are available The Ritz-Carlton Residences in The Woodlands, said architect Johnny Cruz of RAMSA.

“In this project we have 111 units and 36-unit types. That’s quite a bit. Any typical condominium project is essentially a box going straight up, and may offer of two or three unit-types. We (at the Ritz-Carlton) have quite a variety. Think of a neighborhood, a beautiful neighborhood in America with a variety of homes – small, large, mansions. We have it all. The Ritz-Carlton a vertical neighborhood, if you will. This variety is definitely appealing to buyers,” Cruz said in The Ralph Bivins Project podcast earlier this year.

The Woodlands condominium development will have 15-story and 10-story tower connected by structure of varying heights to display an undulation in the Ritz-Carlton neighborhood skyline, said Cruz, who was a featured design speaker at the NAREE real estate editors conference last year

The Ritz-Carlton will be situated on eight acres, one of the last available large-scale residential sites on Lake Woodlands.

RAMSA architects took care to maximize the views of the 200-acre lake.

“They were saving this parcel for something special – this project, actually,” Cruz said. “The site features a lakefront view — to the south, to Lake Woodlands. The north is bordered by Lake Woodlands Drive. The eight acres are sprawled out a bit. One of the goals from the beginning was to make sure every unit had a lakefront view. All of the corridors – all the corridors and circulation — happens to the north. All of the units are arranged to the south, following the land forms of that parcel.”

The Woodlands, a 28,500-acre master planned community about 27 miles north of downtown Houston, is celebrating its 50^th anniversary this month. Thirty-five percent of its acreage is permanently dedicated to open green space.

The Woodlands was developed and planned by a team led by George P. Mitchell, a Galveston native, an oilman and an ecologist. As the ecology movement arose in the 1960s, Mitchell imagined a grand and green scheme for develop the timberland he owned in Montgomery County , which was not considered Houston suburbia at that time.

‘At the core of it, George had a vision — as he looked around the world and the country in the ‘60s and early ‘70s – that he could build a community that was more thoughtful, more thoughtfully designed, a community that created a symbiotic relationship between nature and residents,” Jim Carman, president of Howard Hughes Houston region, told The Ralph Bivins Project last month. “Now, 50 years later, we note that The Woodlands has been named “Best Place to Live in America” several times.”

The Woodlands went on to be ranked by the Robert Charles Lesser & Co (RCLCO) at the top of the nation’s best-selling new-home communities for decades.

Images: Courtesy Howard Hughes

Mark Your Calendar

Downtown Houston + will present its State of Downtown Annual Meeting on Oct. 16 at 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Hilton Americas, Downtown 1600 Lamar St. Keynote speaker: General Stan McChrystal. Information:

THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT PODCAST

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Kris Larson of Downtown Houston +

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Jim Carman of Howard Hughes Holdings

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Jeff Havsy of Moody’s Analytics

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Sam Scott of CommGate

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with John S. Moody, Jr. of Moody Law Group

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Scott Martin of Granite Properties

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Robert Clay of Clay Development

LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Alma Zavala of CommGate

LISTEN: The RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Adam Lair of Partners Capital

LISTEN: The RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Jake Donaldson of Method Architecture

LISTEN: The RALPH BIVINS PROJECT podcast with Bill Baldwin of BLVD Realty