NEW MYSTERY OWNER OF 136 ACRES IN THE FIFTH WARD 
Missing from today’s announcement by KBR that the company has completed the sale of its Ship-Channel-front 136-acre former headquarters campus at 4100 Clinton Dr. in the Fifth Ward: any mention of the buyer — or the sales price. Both details were available earlier in the week on a different sale the engineering, construction, and military contracting company was involved in — of the 40-story Downtown office tower that KBR leases and partially owned. (The tower at 601 Jefferson went to an affiliate of New York’s W.P. Carey, for $174.6 million.) [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Image: HFF
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Anyone know the scoop on this?
Not to be pessimistic, but it will probably come out that the land was purchased to hold for the short-term, not develop. Or perhaps to sell in smaller parcels to developers who can’t pay the high price of admission that land this size, intact, would require.
I see nothing recorded with Harris County as of this morning. It can commonly take a few days before the county will reflect a transfer of a deed.
JD is right. my infant son will be in 6th grade before anything comes out of the ground here. Or better, they flip in 10 years with cheap 10 year debt horizon, and make a spread on the accelerated inflation of the next decade. Then I can teach him how to realize value without doing much.
To fund this deal, does it have…
-access to thoroughfares, freeways?
-historic track record of like development?
-surrounding selling points?
NOPE NOPE AND NOPE. Before y’all throw hipster mud on me, take the position of the lender, who is green-lighting a HUGE construction loan here, and trying to justify the decision.
You want to see heights-like houses built 5 to an acre? ok. there’s zero track record of that south of 10, and let’s ignore north of 10 here (save the St Arnold’s brewery people, kudos to y’all)
You want loft style apartments with cool restaurants on bottom floor (always a bad idea for apartment developer) and walkable street-scape? now you’re even deeper, and there’s ZERO apartments over there.
ORRR…you can buy the dirt and flip it. maybe the guys from Conroe that bought the Astroworld site have a new taste for deals?!? That worked, and is clearly working…and better dirt.
@HTX REZ – Don’t Waco and Lockwood have entry ramps to I-10? It’s half a mile to the freeway.
HTX REZ may want to go take a look at that area again. It’s not River Oaks, but it’s not the frontier land you make it out to be. There are already hundreds of new high-density townhouses and apartment units just across Clinton Drive from this site, and like Jessie M says, very closeby access to I-10 (also from Gregg and Jensen as well as Waco).
There’s also Section 8 housing directly across I-10 from this site (near Gregg).
@HTX Rez surrounding selling point . . . Bayou frontage, could be a nice selling point.
The buyer is Cathexis Holdings who invest in real estate.
http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2012/11/buyer-idd-in-east-end-kbr-sale/
The mystery buyer has been buying other landmark real estate sites in the city. I think he knows what he is doing and has deep pockets, a great combonation! Rumors I hear are this is going to be an office/resi mix…just like city center.
That is my old neighborhood…lived off Gillespie, walking distance to KBR. The area and that lot in particular has alot of potential, but there is some very bad elements there…gangs, Sec 8, etc. But midtown was just as bad – this one big development could change that, but there are other big empty parcels with nothing happening over there…so I wouldn’t say the area is guaranteed to be redeveloped soon. There is a superfund site that has been in planning for 8 years. The paper and aluminum and Standco sites were all just demolished in the last few years and nothing has happened on those sites…I’m thinking it sits empty for a long time.
@bocephes Deep pockets and he’s not a household name in Houston? Is he an out of towner or new to the game?