Awards

Most Fattening Real Estate Development: The Official Nominees

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Note: Voting for the Swampies has ended. See the bottom of this post (above the comments) for a link to the results!

Here we go with the official nominees for the 8th category in the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate: Most Fattening Real Estate Development of 2008.

After you read about all the candidates below, please enter your vote for this category in the comment section, or more privately through email. Swamplot’s voting guidelines encourage campaigning for your favorite candidate. Voting ends on December 28th.

Are you ready for this one? The nominees for Most Fattening Real Estate Development are . . .

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. . . below. But first, a brief explanation of this award category, from Swamplot’s original call for nominations:

Houston is big, but clearly it’s nowhere near big enough yet. Which is why fattening real estate developments are so important to our local economy. A fattened Houston might refer to the city’s geographical spread . . . or to some other variety of enlargement. Make your choice, and make your case!

Okay then. The nominees are:

1. Woodforest. “A new master-planned 3,000-acre development north of the Woodlands and west of Conroe, by Johnson Development, the same people behind Sienna Plantation and Fall Creek. It will now lend suburban credibility to close-in Montgomery, Texas.”

2. Bridgeland. “It’s the newest large development in Houston: 11,400 acres of lakes and homes. The town center is under way out on US 290, past Fry Road.” What would you expect from a developer called General Growth?

3. Silverlake and Shadow Creek Ranch, Pearland. “In terms of sprawl and being a magnet for national chain retail interspersed with storage warehouses, it’s hard to beat these fast growing areas.”

4. 6249-6285 Bissonnet St., Houston. “The newly built, nondescript little strip center in the southeast corner of Hillcroft and Bissonnet. It’s tiny and shoehorned on a little pie-shaped tract, but contains Hoagies and More, something called Bongos Cafe, Moo Hive Honey Ice Cream, Panaderia La Mexicana, Taqueria La Reyna, and Tortilleria La Reyna. I drive by it most evenings on the way home and I think my arteries begin to clog just thinking about yummy fresh tortillas and taqueria tacos and honey ice cream . . .”

5. West Ave and 2727 Kirby, Kirby and Westheimer. “It will be interesting to see what these new developments along Kirby do to traffic patterns on an already congested street. By going to the sky with their volume, they have been able to compact the number of people in the footprint. If the area doesn’t end up being that walkable, it could be a very interesting change. If it’s too trafficky, will people stay away?”

6. Cross Creek Ranch. “Cross Creek Ranch is a 3,200-acre master-planned community in Fulshear — which had a population of 716 as of the 2000 census. Fulshear is 33 miles from downtown Houston. The Chron’s Nancy Sarnoff says, ‘In [Kickerillo’s] new project, Lakes of Cross Creek, the houses will all sit on waterfront lots and start at 6,000 square feet in size. Prices will be as high as $3 million.’ That sounds pretty fat to me.”

Which one of these hosses deserves the blue ribbon?

Update: The winners have been announced!

Images: Johnson Development (Woodforest master plan); Swamplot inbox (Bissonnet and Kirby); Trendmaker Development (Cross Creek Ranch)
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