Here Comes College Station’s Answer to CityCentre, Right Across the Street from Texas A&M

century-square-rendering

Amid much local hullabaloo  in Aggieland today, Houston’s Midway Cos. unveiled its plans for a new campus-adjacent mixed-use complex. By fall 2016, Midway hopes that Century Square will feature an outdoor concert space, a midrise office building and conference center, an apartment building, shopping and dining outlets, and, at least judging from the site plan below, ample space for a pad site or six along busy University Dr.  Not one but 2 new boutique hotels are also slated to go up at the corner of College Ave. and University Dr. across the street from Texas A&M’s polo fields and Emerging Technologies Building and the local IHOP.

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Century-square-site-Plan[1]

Century Square is a joint venture between CityCentre developers Midway and Texas A&M, with which Midway signed a 75-year ground lease on the 60-acre site. A portion of the site was formerly home to some of A&M’s married couples and grad students.

That concert venue will host not just shows but also Aggie tailgates. Out-of-towners will have two choices of where to lay their heads; as befits a development so near a certain presidential library, the larger of the hostelries (at 160 rooms) will be known as The George, while Cavalry Court, the slightly smaller 140-roomer, apparently offers a stiff salute to the Aggie Corps of Cadets. Houston’s Valencia Group –  of Hotel Sorella fame — is partnering with Midway on both hotels, and Midway claims that the inns will feature “a mixture of outdoor elements and high-end accommodations not traditionally seen in the area.” 

Rendering & site map: Midway Cos.

neo-urbanizing aggieland

30 Comment

  • Looks about as urban as you can go while still being basically car-centric. Most foot traffic will be coming from the left (west) side of those photos, and the development is not really oriented in that direction but more for maximum visibility and ingress/egress from University Dr. I wonder if there is any discussion of making the University/S. College intersection a little more pedestrian friendly, which would help this.
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    I’ve always thought the town’s best hope of a real urban neighborhood is expansion of Northgate to the north and east, but the churches pose a barrier.

  • I think you need a geography lesson, last time I looked College Station was not in Houston, not even in its Metro Area. I get that it’s a slow day and maybe you’re just shilling for this developer, but stick to Houston and don’t lose your integrity, because this item seems odd to have on a Houston Real Estate blog. In addition, I’m Longhorn so if you’re going to report on College Station, you should just throw out the Houston all together and report on Houston developers building in Austin, SA, Dallas, Atlanta et.al, so we don’t all feel that you’re somehow advertising for this certain developer. It’s not cool when it looks like you have an agenda.

  • Where will they house the sheep?

  • This news is so Trill.

  • I wonder if TAMU is spending any of its PUF on this project? Or even HEAF? You could set up a master’s program in hotel & restaurant management in one of the boutiques and call the whole thing educational. Gotta do something with all that oil revenue.

  • @Shannon,

    If you actually read the article you would know that this project is by Midway, developers of the CityCenter. However, I’m sure the writers and owners of this site are totally going to bend over just to appeal to some anonymous internet commenter.

    Go ahead and just ignore those of us who find this project interesting. We forgot that it’s all about you and what you want.

  • In addition, I’m Longhorn….
    _____________________________

    And how proud your alma matter must be!

    I seriously doubt swamplot is shilling for Midway.

  • Well that marks the first time in history Swamplot has been accused of being in the bag for developers. Thanks for the giggles, Shannon.

  • Aggies are notorious for two things, circle jerking about how great A&M is and their penis envy for everything not them.

  • Lol, give me a fucking break. Hines is a Houston developer that builds all over the world, do you see Swamplot doing a story on their new developement in Abu Dubai or even Dallas? What, silence? Whatever, and Swamplot has many agendas, get fucking real.

  • Not sure how this post has turned to bash Swamplot and TAMU; seems like some bad apples. Anyway, looks like a nice project. Ironically, I was born and lived in those married student housing apartments until I was 2 :) Thanks for sharing about this.

  • The article is relevant because Midway is very prominent in Houston, and College Station is in the Houston region, if not its metro. It’s a big development in the Houston region by a major Houston development player. Modern rail may connect Houston and College Station in the future, as well. It looks good and it’s an excellent business move.

  • After just driving from Fort Worth to Houston down Hwy 6 to 290, College Station seems to be separated by the Houston metro area by 30 some odd miles. Seems like a logical inclusion to me. Perhaps on a slow day, a caption could read “on the lighter side of the real estate news today, Shannon considered re-tiling his bathroom”.

  • There are some confused people commenting on this post.

    Looks cool! Thanks and gig em!

  • When I saw the article headline, I actually rolled my eyes knowing that there will be a nasty comment from… well there it is….

    I, for one, appreciated the article.

  • I could have written all the responses, they were so predictable. What Bullshit. Gig em’ indeed. I don’t read a blog about Houstonnnnn real estate to read about College Station. Who cares if this is built by a Houston developer, Houston developers build all over the world. Next up, Sheraton in New Delhi developed by ….of Houston@…,Post Oak Blvd

  • While no doubt the boutique hotels will be a nicer alternative to what is currently available, I am disappointed that a full-service first class hotel with meeting facilities is not included that would bring some competition to the underwhelming Hilton. Past market research indicates that such a property could be justified there…

  • we would all be broken up if you took your shtick elsewhere .

  • Shannon really escalated that quickly, I mean that really got out of hand fast….

  • Shannon, honest question. Why do you let this stuff get to you to the point where you make such angry replies?

  • “In addition, I’m Longhorn”

    LOL. Can’t have an article about A&M without a Longhorn complaining about something. And they say we have little brother syndrome…

  • College Station is in Houston’s furthest orbit, even if it’s the equivalent of Pluto. Madisonville, Brenham, Columbus, Eagle Lake, or Bay City should also qualify if hey had anything major happening out there — which they don’t, but that’s not the point; those areas are basically the Oort Cloud.

  • Shannon, did someone touch you in a naughty place before they grabbed your finger and made you click on the link?

    I’ve never been to College Station, but I still clicked on it. You know why? Because I was curious.

    No likey? No clicky! Move on.

  • When I see a headline that I don’t find interesting, I skip to the next one and continue reading there…you might try doing that sometime.

  • The only logical conclusion is that some idiot pays Shannon to bitch about every single thing on God’s green earth. There’s no other explanation for the incessant whining and vapid free-form-grammar ranting that Shannon sharts onto every comment section, every day.

  • The writer is a UT grad and Swamplot has plenty of articles about Galveston and other outlying areas of Houston. They also have articles about Austin. So, why the hate?

  • I hate Austin, mainly because of their liberal music, liberal food, liberal alcohol and liberal education scene and the presence of the LBJ library (Liberal!). Their parties are the WORST. College Station on the other hand has, limited bar and music scene, strong ROTC presence, disproportionate Male/Female Ratio, and the presence of the George H.W. Bush Library! —My kind of party!

  • @ Shannon: If you can dish it, you better be able to take it.

  • to be fair, for many houstonians what goes on in college station probably plays a bigger role in their lives than all the incessant reporting on every nook and cranny of the inner loop. i know lots of folks that have probably seen more games in college station this year than times they’ve stepped foot in the heights or montrose in the past 5 years.
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    it’s as much a part of houston as galveston is at least.