On the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting of the University of Houston’s board of regents: a who-can-sign-for-it approval for the purchase of a 46-acre property in Katy, about a 10-minute drive from the 10-acre Cinco Ranch property the school is hoping to sell later this year.  The land occupies half of the big round tract at the northeast corner of I-10 and the Grand Pkwy. once slated to become Simon Property’s The Grand. That land was sold in 2014 to Moody-controlled Parkside Capital, which had been marketing it as a mixed-use office development called Verde Parc; if all goes according to the terms laid out in a late-April letter of intent describing the sale terms, the area will be rebranded as University Park (currently the name of the street the Cinco Ranch property sits on, at the intersection with S. Mason Dr.).

The Gensler site plan above appears in the notes that go along with tomorrow’s board vote; another aerial map clarifies that the University is buying the top half of the circle, not the bottom parcels:

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The development would get U of H entrance markers at the start of major entrance roads leading inward from Grand Circle Blvd. from the south, east, and west:

  

Tomorrow’s meeting is also scheduled to touch on the sale of the building in Cinco Ranch, which currently hosts classes from both the main U of H campus and the system’s Victoria branch; the document included with the agenda includes a timeline that ends U of H operations at that property in August.

• Board of Regents Meeting Agenda for May 19th, 2016 [University of Houston]
• University of Houston plans new Katy campus as population booms [CultureMap]
• Verde Parc [Parkside Capital]
• Previously on Swamplot: The Grand Exit