HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Wolff Companies has acquired 521 acres of land on U.S. 290 in Waller, northwest of Houston, for a mixed-use development that will include light industrial, distribution buildings, office and retail space.
The property, just west of FM 362, and with elevation of 300 feet, the property will be known as Beacon Hill, one of the highest points in the Houston metro area.
Wolff Cos. president David S. 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.
Now, Wolff said, the time may have come for the 290 corridor to emerge as a desirable business district going forward.
“We see much the same opportunity along 290 that we saw years ago along I-10 in The Energy Corridor,” said Wolff, Chairman and President of Houston-based Wolff Companies. “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. And in January, we sold our 70-acre Liendo Park property on 290 at Liendo Parkway, which will soon become the Prairie View Cricket Complex. The pace of development will increase rapidly when 290 is completed early next year and as we bring sites in Beacon Hill to market.”
With almost 4,200 feet of frontage on 290, Wolff Companies will develop the Beacon Hill business park on the 251 acres abutting the freeway with uses ranging from light industrial and distribution to office and retail. The northernmost 270 acres of the tract have been sold to Long Lake Ltd. to develop a master-planned residential community featuring 1,000 homes.
Beacon Hill continues a strategy that Wolff Companies has executed for over 50 years of creating master-planned, mixed used developments along emerging freeway corridors. David S. Wolff and Wolff Companies have consistently led such trends, beginning in 1966 with Brookhollow, a 160-acre project on the then yet-to-be completed West Loop at U.S. 290. The company followed that success with projects such as Park 10, Ten Oaks and Central Park on Interstate 10, and Beltway and Westway Park, on the Sam Houston Tollway. Wolff Companies now sees completion of the Texas Department of Transportation’s eight-year, 38-mile, $1.8 billion reconstruction of U.S. 290 as the bellwether of a new phase of growth for that corridor.
According to TxDOT officials, most major construction – including all widened lanes and new bridges – along the main lanes of U.S. 290 will be completed by the first quarter of 2019. When complete, U.S. 290 will have 11 lanes, including a reversible HOV lane, from Loop 610 to Texas State Highway 6/FM 1960, and nine lanes from there to Waller County. TxDOT has indicated that it will soon begin feasibility and design work on the next phase of U.S. 290, a 10-mile widening from FM 362 to the State Highway 6 turn-off in Hempstead.
Wolff Companies and Long Lake have worked closely with the City of Waller to bring utilities and city services to the property, which will soon be annexed into the City of Waller. “We believe that Wolff Companies and Long Lake will be great long-term partners for our community,” said Waller Mayor Danny Marburger.
The seller of the 521 acres was the Schild family of Waller, owners of the land for generations, represented by Alex Makris and Jeff Pittman of CBRE and Candy Schild of Yellow Rose Realty. Long Lake Ltd. was represented by Kirk Laguarta and Duane Heckmann of Land Advisors, Inc.
