THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING, ONCE YOU DRIVE ALL THE WAY OUT THERE 
The latest event in the growing trend of establishments far from the center of the city adopting names that convey an aura of centrality comes from the firm turning the former Camp Strake Boy Scout facility just south of Conroe into a large suburban residential development. Henceforth, Johnson Development announced today, the 2,046-acre property just west of I-45 and south of Loop 336 — north of The Woodlands — shall be known as Grand Central Park. [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Jones Lang LaSalle
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Conroe
- 2190 Pine Dr. [HAR]
- 11969 White Oak Run [HAR]
- 742 Forest Ln. [HAR]
- 16454 Kyle Reid Ct. [HAR]
- 9201 Narcille St. [HAR]
- 11951 White Oak Crossing [HAR]
- 13235 Sonali Springs Dr. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HUNTING FOR BURIED TREASURE AT CAMP STRAKE 
“I was once on a campout there and some guy in my troop, in the process of digging a hole for something, found an early 1940′s Walking Liberty half dollar, the most beautiful coin the U.S. mint ever produced. Suddenly we were all seized with hysteria. Old silver coins! In the ground! Right beneath us! And it just so happened that one of the scout masters had a metal detector. So at the behest of a dozen crazed boys in their early teens, he led us off on an afternoon mission seeking treasure. Each boy took turns claiming whatever was unearthed in the next metal strike. The beeping sounded, the digging commenced, up came an old rusty nail. Ten minutes later beeping again, excitement, digging, rusty nail. On and on, crisscrossing Camp Strake, through the woods, down the dirt roads, along the lake: rusty nail, rusty nail, rusty nail. Our numbers dwindled; soon it was just me and one other guy, dreaming of coins, digging up nails. And then it was evening and we gave up. All those little holes. A bucket full of rusty nails.” [Mike, commenting on Boy Scouts Sell Camp Strake in Conroe To Master-Planned Community Master Planners] Illustration: Lulu
Camp Strake, owned by the Houston arm of the Boy Scouts of America since the 1940s, is now under contract to Johnson Development, responsible for communities like Sienna Plantation in Missouri City and Imperial Sugar Land, to name just a couple. Nevertheless, Johnson Development declined to reveal any plans for the 2,083-acre lake-dotted property along the San Jacinto River and not quite 10 miles north of the new ExxonMobil headquarters. For what it’s worth, Jones Lang LaSalle did market the property to buyers as a master-planned community called Grand Lake Park, a plan for which you can see after the jump.
PLEASE BRING YOUR FINAL PURCHASES TO CONROE FORÂ CHECKOUT 
Any plans to rebuild the Garden Ridge store at the northern border of The Woodlands on I-45 near Hwy. 242 — destroyed by fire today — will likely get careful scrutiny: “As one of the city’s ‘big box’ stores, Garden Ridge straddles the city limits between Conroe and The Woodlands Township. The cash registers are located in Conroe, the result of an annexation agreement reached between the neighboring communities in 2006.” [Montgomery County Courier] Photo: KHOU
Sorry, all the furnishings shown here don’t come with. Which is sad, really, because if this is just the kind of place you’d like to live in, you’ll have to find each of these items on your own. This 5-bedroom, 3,075-sq.-ft. 10-year-old fully tiled house in Crighton Ridge — on the not-The-Woodlands side of I-45 — went on the market last week for $359,500.
YOUR INTERNET GUIDE TO BUYING PROPERTY AND SAILING WITH CATS — IN CONROE! An auto-translated splog spotted by the Houston Press‘s John Nova Lomax — and paid for, it appears, by the internet-savvy folks behind a Magnolia master-planned community called Magnolia Ridge — makes the international case for investing in Conroe real estate. A sample of the pitch: “If you’re a nature-loving backyard human being, Conroe happens when to suit your needs. Nestling within the pine hardwoods of Japanese Texas, Conroe has got the appropriate mixture of characteristics, background disciplines to help regale your sensory faculties. Solely 45 min’s via Houston, the lake town provides quite a few Conroe texas homes to select from. Devote your current breaks backpacking by the lake, as well as go for a walking. Unwind in the high end of your respective magnolia property with the family. Trekking, riding a bike, reef fishing, sailing along with cats will be the ways you can spend your holiday seasons with Conroe. Ask your broker . . . A Conroe real estate is definitely coveted by quite a few, possessed by simply several.” [Stock Markets Review, via Hair Balls]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVIDE “So what’s the deal with the ‘Conroe’ vs. ‘The Woodlands’ location name ambiguity? Seems to me that a lot of people living up that way have a Conroe mailing address but claim the name “The Woodlands†when saying where they live. The address of this listing is 0 Darby Loop Conroe, TX 77385, and in the first sentence of the listing description, the realtor claims it is ‘…in The Woodlands!’ (emphasis unaltered). Recently I tried to mail something to my uncle who lives in the ‘The Woodlands,’ but I had his mailing address listed as ‘Conroe.’ So I called him to verify, and he gave me a really long explanation that explained nothing and only confused me more. In the end, he instructed me to write ‘The Woodlands’ on the envelope, even though he mentioned that the name ‘Conroe’ is actually on the sign at his local Post Office.” [Superdave, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: House Chopper]