Real Estate Bisnow reporter Catie Dixon shows off this helicopter shot taken last week over Hughes Landing, the new mega-development overlooking Lake Woodlands where a whirlwind of construction is taking out a little more of those woods and putting in a whole lot more of those  . . . uh, concretes. And she’s been thoughtful enough to stick some big red numbers on it, so we can make out what’s what and where, and how it’s coming along:
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(1) is the One Lake’s Edge apartment complex, which is set to start leasing in 3 months. (2) identifies the parking garage that’s already up for the new Whole Foods Market, where construction just began. (3) shows the start of Hughes Landing’s Restaurant Row, featuring (so far, says Dixon) an Escalante’s and a Local Pour. Under the (4) are the One and Two Hughes Landing office buildings. (5) identifies the construction site of ExxonMobil’s 2 new off-campus office buildings. For the vacant site marked (6), Dixon reports, Howard Hughes Corp. is “close to announcing” a new hotel that the company would own and manage.
- The Woodlands Bird’s-Eye Update [Real Estate Bisnow]
- Hughes Landing coverage [Swamplot]
Photo: via Real Estate Bisnow
It’s hard to believe Exxon/Mobil needs even more office space after that massive campus comes on line. I wonder how long it’s going to be before Exxon/Mobil officially announces it’s moving its headquarters from Las Colinas. Companies are abandoning Las Colinas in waves, could be a cautionary tale for The Woodlands. Las Colinas at its inception was considered much like The Woodlands is today; a satillite downtown. No Doubt, The Woodlands has greater promise than Las Colinas could ever have dreamed, but still, Houston has a vibrant Downtown and already has a satillite downtown (Galleria Area, Post Oak, Uptown, whatever you want to call it). The Woodlands is truly an impressive developement and an massive success, however it will never challenge Downtown nor Houston’s Galleria Area in terms of Fortune 500 Companies nor Prestige. It’s a prettier, better laid out, better planned.. Suger Land, and that’s ok.
Sad that the “woods” of The Woodlands continue to disappear. Even the newer residential areas look no different from any other subdivision. More traffic, taxes, concrete…… Not what many families thought they were buying a few short years ago.
you have that right, vwgto!
It’s The Woodless, TX.
Does anyone remember the mural in the now-closed restaurant 8.0, on Shepherd?
The way it has been explained to me is that new subdivisions in The Woodlands (and everywhere else) are subject to greater on-site stormwater detention requirements than had been the case in the past. What tends to happen, then, is a combination of digging out detention ponds and then taking the fill dirt and using it to elevate lots further above-grade and out of any potential flood hazard. However, once you put more than six inches of dirt on top of tree roots, the trees die. There’s no point in preserving dead trees, so they go ahead and scrape them.
Although it is possible to dig deeper detention ponds and excavate the street rights-of-way in order to preserve the trees on each developable lot, doing so only generates even more fill, and that means that the cost of hauling off the fill dirt can become extraordinary and fairly well prohibitive.
Commercial sites are subject to the same drainage requirements but tend to be easier to work around when it comes to providing landscape buffers. I can see that they were able to keep some of those intact…but yeah, I also feel that there’s a reasonable gripe about this particular case. They could be doing a better job at that.
Screw the Woodlands
(Feeling grumpy) Tired of all the coverage of the Woodlands on here. Would Mannhattanites give a shit about what’s going on in Newark?
Superdave: lol. I’ve thought the same before. But also about Katy and other BFE locations. I just didn’t want to comment and be vilified as an el innerlooper :-)
If this site is about Houston metro real estate and infrastructure, there is lots of competition and collaboration that involves the growing outer layers.
I read it and find it interesting. This place is huge and interesting. The squabbles and fads of a ten mile radius can get boring all on their own.
I personally find all the inner loop coverage exhausting, Houston is the 3rd largest city, real estate does not revolve around 3 hoods. I find the Heights undeservedly pretentious, Montrose simply nauseating, and EaDo filthy and crime ridden.
@commonsense – I, too, am sick of the Heights hype. But the thing is, I live inside the loop and not in any of the three areas you mentioned. There are many more areas within the city that can still be explored. Same is true for areas inside BW8 but outside 610 – that’s a much wider swath of territory than the inner loop, but still much closer to Houston than the Woodlands (and in the same city limits, and county for that matter).
The Woodlands is 33 miles from my house near downtown. When I draw a circle with that radius, it includes Crosby, Baytown, Alvin and Rosenberg. And I actually find those places more interesting than a “master-planned,” carbon-copied suburban enclave, but see little coverage of those areas in comparison.
just because it’s halfway to Dallas and they pay the city of Houston large sums of money to remain independent just to be able to market themselves as Not-Houston, TX, we all know it’s simply part of the larger Houston economic mix. whether we like it or not, what happens in the clear lakes affects the woodlands and what happens in sugarlands affects the clear lakes and woodlands as well.
meh…screw the Woodlands and the lame springwoods village even the name sounds lame…what a joke..
Don’t worry Eeeeenerluupers, the rate at which they’re screwing this place up is staggering. It’ll look just as pristinely urban and terrible as beloved H Town soon enough. As a guy that moved up here 4years ago straight outta Oak Forest Locash, the changes are noticeable and worrying. They nuke a city block swath of woods weekly, it seems. And I didn’t think it possible to outstrip infrastructure in 18 months, but oh, is it possible, baby!