HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Two land sales announced last week point to what may be a growing trend: Highway 290 could become the hot suburban corridor of 2021.
Two Land Deals:
ONE: HOUSTON —Reed Vestal and Taylor Schmidt of Lee & Associates – Houston represented 290 Betka, LLC, which acquired 265.63 acres at 26103 Betka Road in Hockley. Jeffrey Pittman and Alex Makris of CBRE represented the seller, McAlister Opportunity Fund 2012, LP. The site is on the south side of highway 290, about halfway between the Grand Parkway and Waller.
TWO: Wolff Cos. acquired 43 acres on Highway 290 at James R. Muse Parkway to expand its Beacon Hill development to 564 acres. Wolff’s Beacon Hill master planned project, which is under construction, will have light industrial and distribution to office and retail. The northernmost 270 acres of the tract have been sold to Long Lake Ltd. for a residential community with 870 homes. Beacon Hill is located in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the city of Waller.
Wolff Cos. Chairman and President David S. Wolff, who developed his first Houston project in 1966, says Highway 290 is loaded with potential.
Mr. Wolff was a driving force in developing Houston’s Energy Corridor and making the Energy Corridor brand into one of the most recognizable submarket identities in the nation.
“We see much the same opportunity along 290 that we saw years ago along I-10 in The Energy Corridor,” said Wolff, a couple of years ago when Beacon Hill was announced. Wolff has been developing property in Houston since 1966. “With the connectivity created by Grand Parkway, the growth in Northwest Houston, as well as in Bryan-College Station and Austin, is raising the strategic profile of 290 for corporations and for Houston. We’ve already seen major investment in the region by (HVAC manufacturer) Daikin, Johnson Development and Buc-ee’s.”
The land market has been hot in the Houston suburbs, said Vestal in a recent interview.
Home builders and residential land developers have been busy setting up future housing deals.
Mortgage rates have been below 3 percent and homebuyers are eager to get into homes. Houston just finished its best year ever for home sales and more than 9,000 houses were sold in December, according to the Houston Association of Realtors.
Willis, Conroe, Brookshire, Cypress, Rosenberg and Richmond and other outlying suburbs have been strong locations for residential sales, Vestal said.
The work-from-home trend during the coronavirus pandemic has encouraged home buyers to venture to more distant suburbs. Even after Covid subsides, many companies are expected to reduce time in the office and will not require a 5 days-a-week commute to downtown or other corporate locations. Homebuyers who have to commute only three days a week will be more willing to move farther from the city.
Another thing driving the land market, Vestal said, is warehouse construction. The need for distribution space is growing due to an expansion of e-commerce. Some 19 million SF of industrial space is under construction in the Greater Houston area with Northwest Houston being a leading construction site.
Jan. 17, 2021 Realty News Report Copyright 2021
File: The Next Houston Growth Corridor
File: (2) Highway 290.David Wolff. The Next Houston Growth Corridor. Waller. Lee & Asscociates Houston