(Commentary by Ralph Bivins)
The obvious plays have already been made in Houston’s commercial real estate. Everybody knows Uptown, Midtown and Downtown. RealtyNewsReport editor Ralph Bivins has named five Houston corridors that could become hot in the not-so-distant future:
- South Main Street. A stretch of Main Street north of Loop 610, could be a lot more as old motels and low-end retail could be torn down to make way for new projects. Some new things are starting to sprout up, including an apartment complex by long-time Houston multifamily developer Dinerstein Cos. Savvy players like David Weekley and Frank Liu of Lovett Homes have made acquisitions. The hookers are gone and South Main is about to rise to its potential as a neighbor to the Texas Medical Center.
- Richmond Avenue. Around Montrose Boulevard, there are plenty of rundown properties that could be the site of new development. The six-story Campanile South office building is a new Class A office building, is an extension of the Campanile development. The U.S. Post Office at 1319 Richmond will be sold and redeveloped. Midway Cos. is making a big Richmond play at Levy Park, near Kirby Drive. The Revival of Richmond will continue all the way down to the site of the old Delman theater.
- Old Katy Road. Located just north of Memorial Park and just east of Loop 610, this area carries the endorsement of master developer Gerald D. Hines, who knows a thing or two about Houston real estate. The Hines company recently bought 46 acres on Old Katy Road for a high-end residential community, Somerset Green, which will have 500 townhomes priced as high as $1 million. Hines bought the site from John Beeson, who always seems to be in position to ride the next wave.
- South Beltway 8. There’s vacant land galore within a 10-minute drive from the Texas Medical Center. Beijing-based Modern Green Development has 48 acres tied up at Beltway 8 and Highway 288 in Pearland for a $300 million mixed-use project. But mostly we’re talking about acres and acres of future light industrial and warehouses all the way from the Southwest Freeway to the Gulf Freeway. A lot has been built in last three or four years, but there’s a lot more to come. Northwest Houston, which has been the warehouse zone of choice forever, is about built out, so a rotation is coming. Rumors have been circulating that Hines has been kicking tires on the south side.
- Grand Parkway. Look at the new stretch of the Grand Parkway a.k.a Highway 99 that connects the Katy Freeway with Highway 290. This 15-mile portion of the Grand Parkway opened last Christmas. Everybody knows that new roads cutting through the prairie open up a lot of opportunities for creating new master planned communities. But what’s amazing is the new commercial real estate plays on the Grand Parkway. Earlier this month plans were announced for Grandway West, a 780,000-square-foot office park, located just north the Katy Freeway. Grandway West seems to be expanding the boundaries of the Energy Corridor.
For more, see Bivins’ column on CultureMap. http://houston.culturemap.com/news/real-estate/08-25-14-houstons-next-real-estate-hotspots-off-the-radar-locales-former-hooker-haven-included-that-will-take-off/