Local Developer Airs Plan for $82M Mixed-Use Project

(To read more on the multifamily market, click here.)

HOUSTON-A local developer has begun work on Clearpoint Crossing, an $82-million, 92.3-acre lifestyle center for the Pasadena and Clear Lake submarkets. The 395,000-sf project will be a mix of residential, retail and office space.

Clearpoint Crossing is rising at the crossroads of Space Center Boulevard and Genoa Bluff Road. And, it represents the first major mixed-use undertaking by Space Center Boulevard Land Development LP of Houston, a single-asset entity for a local developer and owner of small retail centers in the Greater Houston area. With the site work done, ground has broken on 15,000 sf of retail space, of which 75% has been preleased.

Additional construction will ramp up in early 2006, with build-out anticipated to take two years, Patrick Dando, director of real property for the local developer, tells GlobeSt.com.

“We’re starting on another retail center after the first of the year and we’ll begin seeing construction of pad sites from individuals who have bought them,” Dando says. In January and February, construction will begin on about 45,000 sf of medical and office space. Dando says more than 30,000 sf has been preleased to date.

“There’s nothing speculative about what we’re doing at this point,” Dando stresses. “We want to make sure space will be filled before we’re breaking ground.”

By midyear 2006, a class A, 275-unit multifamily project will break ground. That, Dando says, is the cornerstone of Clearpoint Crossing. “Our big push is getting the multifamily and professional space in place so we have the critical mass in place to support the businesses and retail,” he says. All development activities–construction, design and leasing–are being done in-house.

“We located this in an area to capture both the Clear Lake and Pasadena submarkets,” Dando says, “Now these businesses will have an opportunity to sit in between and capture both markets.”

According to Dando, household incomes are strong in the area, with 32,000 households having an income of more than $75,000 within a five-mile radius of the development site. Additionally, the traffic count on Space Center Boulevard is increasing. “This is new road, a newly constructed portion of Space Center Boulevard and the main connection between Clear Lake and Pasadena,” he says. “Within three months of the road’s opening, there were already 19,000 [vehicles] a day on that road.”