Discovery at Spring Trails, Land Tejas’s gated and solar-panel-badged community north of Spring, is selling well, says Lisa Gray: “. . . only a few weeks after Discovery put itself on the market, and without even a finished house that would-be buyers can tour, most of the lots ready for building have been optioned, and the developer is scrambling to make more available fast. In fact, Discovery is off to the fastest start of any development in the company’s 11-year history, and Land Tejas expects demand to pick up even more this fall. Already, propelled mostly by Google searches, 200 to 300 people a week are touring the neighborhood’s ‘Discovery Center.’” [Houston Chronicle]
Read more about: 77386, Alternative Energy, Discovery at Spring Trails, Green Design, Homebuilders, Homebuying, Land Development, Master-Planned Communities, Montgomery County, New Construction: Residential, Real Estate Marketing, Solar Power, Sprawl, Spring, Utilities
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Read more about Alternative Energy, Development Strategy, Green Design and Development, Homebuilders, Homebuying, Land Development, Master-Planned Communities, Montgomery County, Neighborhoods: Discovery at Spring Trails, Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing, Sprawl, Utilities
August 22, 2007 – 10:00 am
Near the end of a short New York Times feature on Houston’s downtown tunnel system is this historical nugget:
[“Tunnel Lady” Sandra] Lord, a writer and Houston historian, traced the origins of the tunnels to Ross Sterling, an oilman and governor during the Depression, who, inspired by Rockefeller Center, linked two of his downtown buildings underground in the early 1930s. Soon after, an entertainment entrepreneur, Will Horwitz, connected three of his vaudeville and movie theaters to save on air-conditioning.
And they say geothermal cooling is something new for Houston.
Photo: Flickr user The Rocketeer
Read more about: 77002, Air Conditioning, Downtown Tunnel System, Geothermal Cooling, Houston History
Sure, everybody’s excited about biodiesel because it’s new and rare. But just wait until smelly biodiesel production plants start littering the landscape like fast-food franchises.
If you’ve got $1.95 million, you can set one up too. A company out of Florida is selling “prepackaged,” turnkey biodiesel plants from a German factory. Let them come, and they will build it:
As part of its business-in-a-box plan, Xenerga promises long-term, exclusive deals to purchase waste cooking oil from a network of suppliers whose clients include McDonald’s Corp. and Chili’s Grill & Bar. Xenerga’s supply side also focuses on rendered animal fats like beef tallow, chicken grease and pig fat, all of which are plentiful in Texas.
Interest from this region has been strong, the company told the Houston Business Journal: a plant in west Houston is planned already.
Xenerga also promises to deliver customers willing to buy the estimated 5 million gallons of biodiesel per year that the plants produce.
Each Xenerga plant only takes up half an acre, requires two employees at a time, and can be sited almost anywhere from light industrial parks to rural farmland.
Photo: Biodiesel production plant in Carl’s Corner, Texas, by flickr user Nicola Matsukis
Read more about: Alternative Energy, Environmental, Franchises, Green Development, Odors
