OUT IN DISCOUNT LAND Former Halliburton unit PathFinder Energy Services, now a part of Smith International, is building a new $20-million, 225,000-sq.-ft. tilt-up campus on 25 acres in Katy. “The center will be located near the northwest corner of Colonial Parkway and the Grand Parkway, next to the highly visible, 800,000-square-foot 99 Cents Only warehouse along Interstate 10. PathFinder’s site is across I-10 from where Houston-based KBR Inc. planned to build 900,000 square feet of office space to house most of its 4,500 local employees. The KBR project, which would have extended the Energy Corridor farther west, has been put on hold for economic reasons. PathFinder intends to consolidate hundreds of employees from four buildings it leases in Northwest Houston into the Katy-area site, which was acquired in December 2007 from an Interfin Cos. partnership.” [Houston Business Journal]
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Tag: Katy
GRAND PARKWAY SEGMENT E: MALL SHOPPER EXPRESS LANES Approvals by the Harris County Commissioners Court this week — along with the timely arrival of $181 million of the state’s stimulus money — means nothing but a new Sierra Club lawsuit now stands in the way of building Segment E of the Grand Parkway toll road. The segment, which will cut through the Katy Prairie between I-10 and 290, will allow shoppers a convenient and direct link from the Katy Mills Mall to the new Houston Premium Outlets mall in Cypress, just west of Fairfield. “Peter Haughton with General Growth Properties said, ‘We need this road to continue the build out of Bridgeland, which we hope will be one of America’s best master planned communities.’” [abc13]
The Katy real-estate rush spreads to the insect world:
Neighbors say bees are nothing new to the Settlers Village subdivision.
One homeowner just down the block had a similar infestation about a year ago and had to remove the siding from his home to get the hive out, said Rowhan Cummings . . .
“They’re traveling,†Cummings says. “Once they got rid of those, they came back here.â€
The 12-year-old subdivision is surrounded by open fields, and Cummings says the bees simply appear when the flowers bloom, then look for a place to settle down.
“Those bees were probably here before we were,†he says.
“What I see on my bike rides,” writes 2-wheeled real-estate observer Lou Minatti, “is that construction has ground to a halt in Katy.” A few more louminating observations on the cycles of West Houston real estate:
The main upscale neighborhoods in the Houston metro area lie between downtown Houston and Katy, in the corridor south of I-10 and north of Westheimer/FM1093. Houston residents know what I am talking about. That narrow 30 mile x 8 mile corridor contains the trendy new “lofts” near downtown, expensive new condo towers in the Galleria area, River Oaks, Memorial, the Villages and Cinco Ranch. . . .
Me? I live north of I-10, the crappy side. It was a nice quiet place when we moved out here in 1995. It’s still an OK place, no real problems. But property values have been flat since 2000. The houses on this side of the freeway are between $100k-$150k. Here’s the thing: Long-time readers here have seen my videos and have seen the inventory and foreclosures from my bike tours. The new houses in these videos [both featured in this Swamplot post from last fall] have all been sold, and this is AFTER the shady lending was stopped. I did a video update three weeks ago [above] and didn’t post it on YouTube because there’s almost nothing on the market! In my subdivision of 900 houses there are two houses for sale and one foreclosure. That’s it.
KATY AND THOSE NEW HOME GROWTHS “Houston is the largest home-building market in the nation, according to the Greater Houston Partnership and Builder and Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, with 42,697 building permits. Population trends, job growth, home prices and the rate of building permits all factored in to rank the top 75 markets in 2008. Assisting the numbers, no doubt, was Katy. Business Week magazine ranked Katy as the second-fastest residential community in the U.S. in a study published this month titled ‘America’s Biggest Boomtowns.’ The study was based on new home growth from 2000 to 2008.” And what will next year’s numbers say? [Houston Business Journal]
Ready to see some fun pix from around town? Here’s the guardhouse for the loading dock at the Igloo plant in Katy, as captured a while back by blogger Donna B.
A few more:
Azzarelli’s Restaurant has fled the Tuscan-styled Villagio Town Center in Cinco Ranch, reports InsideKaty blogger Helen Eriksen — leaving behind a delinquent-rent notice on the front door . . . and some sort of lawsuit:
Inside the spacious eatery, napkins, bread plates and wine glasses are neatly arranged on the tables. Christmas decorations are also still in place but it’s unclear if the closing is permanent.
Efforts to reach [owner Frank] Triola were unsuccessful as of this blog posting. The person who answered the phone for the leasing agent, Villagio Partners, said she would have to check to see if someone could call me back because there is ongoing litigation in the matter.
Meanwhile, commenters have sighted a new Azzarelli’s just off the Katy Freeway:
However, driving down 1-10 heading west from Houston, the Barker Cypress exit has a new strip center and what do you know… Azzerelli’s is opening up a new restaurant! I think that the rent was very high at the Villagio Town Center and they are moving to a lower cost building. ??
Tuscan theming doesn’t come cheap. Another giveaway: the flashing “I-10 Location Coming soon!” notice on the Azzarelli’s website.
- Katy restaurant shut down [InsideKaty]
- Azzarelli’s Restaurant
- Developer To Take “Tuscany in a Parking Lot†Concept Nationwide [Swamplot]
- Know Your Tuscan-Themed Shopping Centers, Part One: Villagio Vs. Villaggio [Swamplot]
Photo: Azzarelli’s
Just line that short central driveway through your new power-center parking lot with a small number of stores and head-in parking. Fortify the freeway frontage with an FM-1960-worthy strip of more than the usual number of pad sites, and build the whole thing next to a mall! Next problem?
Introducing the new Katy Main Street, a just-announced 86-acre shopping center named for the short strip of 4 retail buildings meant to line its gullet.
The mixed-use development is designed to include 485,000 square feet of retail space, 500,000 square feet of office space and a full-service hotel and convention center at the southwest corner of Interstate 10 and Pin Oak Road in Katy.
All this . . . just across the street from the Katy Mills Mall!
NOT GOING WEST The Energy Corridor won’t be extending to Katy just yet. KBR’s big move to a new 8-building campus a mile east of the Katy Mills Mall has been scrapped — “for now”: “‘We hope it is a delay, not a change in plans,’ said Will Holder, president of Trendmaker Homes. The development division of the company is building Cross Creek Ranch, a 3,200-acre master-planned community in Fulshear. KBR announced its project in May, saying it wanted to be closer to its growing employee- and customer-base in west Houston, where it would be joining the likes of BP and ConocoPhillips. The campus was designed to include more than 910,000 square feet of space in a series of low-rise buildings at the southwest corner of Interstate 10 and Grand Parkway. Construction was expected to start by year’s end, with estimated completion in 2010. The company was going to lease the facility from developer Trammell Crow Co., which was going to build it on a 123-acre parcel along with shopping centers, restaurants, additional office buildings and hotels.” [Houston Chronicle]
Readers obsessed with the Katy house designed by Wylie W. Vale that was featured in last week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game will be interested to see these additional views of the 1952 home — in all its original “little bit country, little bit Mod” glory. They were taken by architectural photographer (and yes, game winner) Ben Hill on a quick visit early last year.
Just what was it that made this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game the most popular ever? Carol tries to explain:
It’s not just the cool mod furniture and decorations, or the funky taxidermy room. Maybe it’s that the house looks like the family was so much fun. Maybe it represents the family we all want to go home to on holidays, when Grandma pulls out the Betty Crocker cookbook and makes the greatest stuffing ever and Grandpa tells his hunting stories for the thousandth time. Maybe this was the real American middle class dream of the 1950s. Cue the violins and the teardrop. I second the call for a field trip. Realtor: Please schedule an open house!
Here were your guesses: Garden Oaks, Garden Oaks near Shepherd, Spring Branch (3 votes), Sharpstown (2 votes), Meyerland (2), off Braeswood near the Braeburn Country Club, Bellaire, Garden Villas (2), Braeswood, Glenbrook Valley (2), Spring Valley, Willowbend, Linkwood (2), Memorial Bend, South Braeswood near Stella Link, Tanglewood, Memorial (3), Hunters Creek, Pasadena (3), Meadowcreek, Allendale, Mount Vernon, Ayrshire, Piney Point, Katy, Braeswood (2), South Houston, East Harris County, Deer Park, Baytown, Memorial Villages (3), Marilyn Estates, “Briargrove, or one of those Briar places,” off Briar Forest inside the Beltway, Willow Meadows, Riverside Terrace, between Spring Valley and Hedwig Village, Lake Jackson (2), Texas City, Mt. Pleasant, Creekside, Tynewood, Westbury, and Park Place.
How far are you willing to travel for that open house?
The winner was BenH, who in accordance with rule 3 “guessed” Katy. He’s visited the house, but deserves credit for reporting about it on HAIF last week (shortly before another reader wrote to Swamplot with the suggestion). He says the photos don’t do it justice.
Many fine and original comments this week! Honorable mentions go to JT, for some never-mind-the-carbon dating (but what if the home truly was ahead of its time?):
The house is definitely in the 1954-1958 era with the pale yellow kitchen tile counters and the MCM signature pink adobe brick being the telltale. Mrs. Matron loved her draperies but, Lord, can anyone open them up? It looks like some prime windows are hidden.
and Jessica, for expressing the spirit of many in the group, before outing herself as one of those crazed, antler-worthy fans:
You might not want to post the address of this place – I fear the homeowner might be fighting hopeful furniture buyers off with a stick! (Or a pair of antlers – plenty of those handy.) I am totally obsessed with this house, and would also like to see what’s inside the kitchen cabinets!
Eager to have a better look at this house yourself? Here’s some more detail:
This place is huge! 6000 sq. ft. of living space, reads the listing:
Includes 4 Big Bedrooms, 2 full baths, Large Formal Dining, Huge kitchen w/gas cooking, Granite Counters, Porcelain sink, walk-in pantry, breakfast bar, serving bar and tile floor. Living/Family area w/gas fireplace, wood laminate floors. large inviting entry. Study or 5th bedroom.
That’s a lot of home! How could anyone furnish it all?
Not a problem!
MOVING THE KATY PRAIRIE, ONE CLUMP AT A TIME Threatened patch of prairie? Shovels to the rescue! “The 90-acre patch at Saums and Greenhouse roads north of I-10 is a subtly spectacular example of what the dwindling Katy Prairie looked like before development spread west out of Harris County. Sometime later this fall, construction on the extension of Greenhouse Road, plus a detention pond, will start there. Folks in straw hats, with shovels, buckets and bug spray, spent several mornings digging up clumps of this mature prairie for transplanting to other sites. . . . Digging up clumps of little blue stem, rattlesnake master and bee blossom gives prairie gardens a jump start they couldn’t get from seeds – and seeds are hard to come by.” [Inside Fort Bend]
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pf-c5jVm1g 400 330]
Pay no attention to that dying possum by the side of the road! Lou Minatti takes a bike ride through a neighborhood of new Royce and Centex homes in Katy and finds lots of building going on — and plenty of “sold” signs!!! But . . . is anybody actually living here? And uh, some of those signs look awfully familiar — from a ride through this same area back in May.
After the jump: some of the same scenes, 4 months ago!
PLENTY OF ROOFING WORK IN KATY! “There are thousands of homes built by companies like Pulte in this part of town circa 1994-1997. Their margins were very thin because houses were so cheap. These companies used the lousiest of building materials they could get away with. Lots of these houses now need new roofs, and their owners may not even know it. Houses with rotted decking.” [Lou Minatti]