- 6906 Spring Run Ln. [HAR]
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Tag: 77494
- 22615 Crescent Cove Ct. [HAR]
- 28102 Sugarside Glen Dr. [HAR]
From the self-described “guy with a quadcopter” behind Skyhawk Videos, here’s new aerial footage from high above the brand-spanking-new intersection of I-10 and Houston’s latest orbiting ringroad, the Grand Parkway. The view is primarily to the southeast, with a few tilts and glances in either direction; the new section of State Hwy. 99, aka the Grand Pkwy.’s Segment E, begins in the upper right of the initial image and extends to the lower left, across the Katy Prairie to the outlet mall in Cypress, running over an ancient burial ground in the process. The highway is carrying the last of its free traffic; tolls kicked in on Friday, about a month and a half after the segment opened and just a few days after Skyhawk’s drone shot.
In the lower right of the image is the new 151,600-sq.-ft. Katy Costco and gas station, scheduled to open to the public this Thursday. Its 14-acre site is the focus of its own separate video as well, filmed on January 25th:
Grand Parkway, Costco, Cars!
- 23515 Peacock Gap Ln. [HAR]
IT’S BEEN COLDER THAN USUAL IN KATY 
“Subdivision Waterfalls” may have been frozen out of the winners’ circle in the Favorite Design Cliché category of the just-concluded Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate, but the florid fountain-turned-ice sculpture fronting the Avalon at Seven Meadows development off Fry Rd. west of the Grand Parkway in Katy has been thrilling and chilling onlookers since early this morning. Photo: Andrea Musetti-Camacho, via Bill Bishop/KHOU
Here’s a look at Houston’s next Trader Joe’s, set to open in Cinco Ranch sometime next year. It’ll be at 2643 Commercial Center Blvd., right in the center of all that commerce just west of the Grand Pkwy. This new 12,500-sq.-ft. store will be the 4th in the area. The last to open was the one on San Felipe and Voss in January, across the street from the Randall’s that has since been torn down to make way for a new Whole Foods.
- Trader Joe’s to open 4th Houston-area store [Houston Business Journal]
- Previously on Swamplot: Whole Foods Building New Store at Former Flagship Randall’s S. Voss Spot, Yes, the Voss Rd. Randall’s Is Closing, Pix of Trader Joe’s Lonely Voss and San Felipe Landing Site, The 3 Trader Joe’s Grocery Stores Coming to the Houston Area, Sure Looks Like a Trader Joe’s Is Headed for Voss and San Felipe
Rendering: Trader Joe’s
On a patch of prairie in Katy with large lots that keep their distance from the ever-closer, ever-denser development nearby, a re-relisted 1984 property is making another run at the market. The “close-in country retreat,” as the listing pegs it, comes with a main house, pool house, and guest quarters, plus a pool, pond, barn — and a gazebo (top) out back for taking it all in. No garage, though. The asking price for the 1-acre compound, $565,000, is down from a previous listing’s $599,000 back in March and $580,000 in May. The home et al., located just west of the Grand Parkway amid all the Falcon-named subdivisions, first hit the market in January 2011, asking $625,000.
FEEDING NEW APARTMENTS TO THE GRAND PKWY. FEEDER 
Austin developers Oden Hughes say that they have been eager to build in Houston, but the company’s first project here has come only as far east as Katy: A 354-unit apartment complex is going up a few miles east of Katy Mills Mall on 14 acres at the southwest corner of Kingsland Blvd. and the southbound Grand Pkwy. feeder. The Rancher reports that rent here at the so-called Parkside Grand Parkway will range between $850 and $1,655 a month for the complex planned to include 2 pools, a fitness center, and “an air-conditioned dog washing station.” [The Rancher] Rendering: Oden Hughes
SPROUTS FAR OUT 
The Sprouts Farmers Market grocery chain’s long-awaited Houston-area landing will begin with 3 outside the Beltway locations next year. Sprouts scout Ed Page of UCR MoodyRambin Page says leases have already been signed for a 25,300-sq.-ft. spot at the southwest corner of Cinco Ranch Blvd. and Peek Rd.; for a 29,000-sq.-ft. store at FM 529 and Hwy. 6 in the Copperfield Village Shopping Center; and for a 28,000-sq.-ft. location off the Tomball Pkwy. at Spring Cypress Rd. in the Spring Cypress Village shopping center. Page tells reporter Shaina Zucker leases are being negotiated for several other sites. The southwest organic-friendly chain swallowed up competitor Sunflower Farmers Markets earlier this year. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Colorado store: Sprouts
POSSIBLE SCAM TARGETED KATY-AREA HOAS 
Complaints from 3 suburban homeowners’ associations — including the one for the Estates of Avalon at Seven Meadows gated community west of the Grand Parkway near Fry Rd. in Katy — have been filed against Arrow Community Management, alleging the Cinco Ranch management company misappropriated HOA funds. Arrow’s owner, Taggert Mayfield, received a sentence of 3 years’ deferred adjudication earlier this month after he pled guilty to mishandling $20,000 in HOA funds. Sgt. David Schultz of the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office tells reporter Deborah Wrigley that one new report he’s investigating claims an Arrow-managed HOA is missing about $120,000. The company, which appears to have shut down its operations, had contracts with more than a dozen HOAs in Harris and Fort Bend Counties. [abc13] Photo of Estates of Avalon at Seven Meadows: Keller Williams Premier Realty
A few pix from around town, in our occasional photo feature: First, a reader sends in this view of the curious paint job now in progress on the original Ruggles Grill on Lower Westheimer.
Next, we discover the just-opened new home of I-10 refugee Las Alamedas, on the simulated Main Street of Katy’s LaCenterra shopping center in Cinco Ranch:
Speaking of Katy schools: The power lines in the photo on the left, a couple miles southwest of Katy Mills mall, flag the dividing line between Jefferson Development’s Firethorne subdivision, zoned to Katy ISD, and the just-announced Firethorne West addition in Fulshear the company just announced — which will be served by the Lamar Consolidated ISD. The new Katy ISD elementary school site waiting for November’s bond vote and proudly featured in the center of Firethorne’s master plan will not be serving the 1,400 planned homes in Firethorne West, even though they’ll be only 2 blocks away. The kids in Firethorne West will likely be attending Huggins Elementary, which is more than five miles to the southwest. And until new roads are built they’d actually get to drive past that “Future Katy ISD†elementary school every school day to get there:
SCHOOL-DISTRICT MANIFEST DESTINY Cinco Ranch — recently named the fastest-growing residential community in the country by a real-estate consulting firm — will keep expanding west. Newland Communities just purchased 492 acres west of neighboring Pine Mill Ranch, way out near Firethorne between FM 1463 and Katy-Flewellen Road; the company plans to have new Cinco Ranch-branded homesites available there within a couple of years. Further west, there’s even more land available for cheap: the 742-acre Tamarron Lakes subdivision was foreclosed on in April. Kirk Laguarta of Land Advisors Organization, who’s marketing that property for $19K an acre, tells the Houston Business Journal that the property that Newland just bought is considered more valuable that that, in part because it’s zoned to Katy ISD. But Newland may not be interested in expanding Cinco Ranch into Tamarron Lakes — that development belongs to the Lamar Consolidated ISD. [Houston Business Journal]