Clay & Company » A Texas Commercial Real Estate Blog

We are starting a new “Weekly Wrap Up” segment each week that will review the stories we’ve published and offer up a few ideas of things going on around our great city.

So, in case you missed it:

Hwy 290 and Grand Parkway updates
Deal In Works Over Heights-Area Wal-Mart Development
MUDs and the Houston Annexation System

And, some ideas for your weekend:

Houston Restaurant Week
This is a wonderful opportunity for diners to try new restaurants or re-visit old favorites while helping to fight hunger in Houston. HRW is planned by volunteers so that 100% of funds raised are donated to the Houston Food Bank. Originally slated to end, August 21, select restaurants are extending their menus through September 6th.

Market Square Park Grand Re-opening
Saturday, August 28 from 2:00 Pm to 6:00 PM
The newly re-designed park “officially” opens August 28 with Niko Niko’s Greek Cafe, art installations, gardens, lots of shade and the great dog runs. The grand opening includes dog activities, music, tours, and a ribbon cutting with Mayor Annise Parker.

Houston Texans v. Dallas Cowboys Pre-season game
Saturday, August 28 at 7:05 PM

Life After Katrina, Part 2: The Katrina Ballads
Saturday, August 28 at 8:00pm
The Katrina Ballads is a powerful new piece of music by Ted Hearne, performed by 5 singers and an ensemble of 11 musicians, drawn entirely from primary source-texts from the week following Hurricane Katrina; Katrina Ballads creates a vivid look into one of America’s darkest hours. A fundraising concert presented by The Foundation for Modern Music.

Breakfast On The Bayou
Saturday August 28 and ongoing
This trip through the heart of the Nature Center presents an uncommon opportunity to observe wildlife and learn about bayou life. Enjoy pastries, juice and coffee while drifting down the bayou on the pontoon boat, the “Bayou Ranger”. Reservations required.

In recent years, limited purpose annexations have become more popular in Houston and are now the integral part of the city’s annexation plan. This article in Impact News explains many of the details associated with the annexation system.

The city is negotiating a deal with the developer of Washington Heights — a proposed Wal-Mart-anchored shopping center near Interstate 10 and Yale – that would reimburse the local builder for as much as $6 million in public infrastructure improvements.

If the agreement is approved, developer Ainbinder Co. would widen and repave streets surrounding the project, refurbish bridges near the site, develop a bike and pedestrian trail along a stretch of Heights Boulevard south of I-10 and improve underground drainage, among other upgrades.

The improvements are expected to ease traffic congestion as well as prime the area for other future developments, the developer said.

Many Heights residents have opposed the plan since they learned of it in early July. On Wednesday night, they continued to voice their concerns about a development they feel is incompatible with their neighborhood.

About 500 people attended a public hearing called by Mayor Annise Parker at the George R. Brown Convention Center. About a quarter of those in attendance wore red, as a sign of opposition.

More at chron.com

The Texas Department of Transportation and Harris County officials have been working on a plan to complete Segment E of the Grand Parkway. Segment E will run for 15.2 miles through Northwest Houston between Highway 290 and Interstate 10.

In June, Charles Dean, the Harris County Public Infrastructure Department program manager, sent a memorandum to the County Budget Officer recommending Harris County move forward with the engineering design of the Grand Parkway and hold off on construction plans for a toll road on Highway 290.

“It has become apparent that not every needed mobility improvement can be addressed by developing a toll road,” Dean said in the memorandum.

The US 290 Toll Lanes project consists of four toll lanes that stretch over 23 miles adjacent to and within the Hempstead Highway right-of-way between IH 610 West and the proposed Grand Parkway.

According to Dean, the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) had concerns about the toll road segment of the Highway 290 project after viewing the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) Final Environmental Impact Statement.

The HCTRA website says that TxDOT is currently addressing comments from the Federal Highway Authority on the environmental impact statement and that the Highway 290 project is dependent upon a formalized agreement with TxDOT.

Dean recommended the county continue with the engineering design, right-of-way acquisitions and a Comprehensive Traffic and Revenue study for the Grand Parkway.

At the Commissioners Court meetings on July 13 and July 27, the court approved more than $250,000 in contract extensions with engineering firms that are designing plans for Segment E of the Grand Parkway between Hwy. 290 and I-10.

Although engineering contracts are moving forward, Dean’s memorandum estimates that construction would not start on the Grand Parkway for at least one year.

Segment E has been at the center of some controversial construction issues. Many environmentalists have spoken out against construction since a segment of the parkway will stretch over the Katy Prairie, a wetlands area and a wildlife habitat. In May, a U.S. District judge ruled in favor of TxDOT and FHWA, and dismissed the case.

Resources: Community Impact Newspaper; Harris County Toll Road Authority Website; and www.my290.com

Harris County Municipal Utility District 179 has purchased three acres at Easton Commons Drive and West Road in northwest Houston. The three acres are adjacent to seven acres purchased by MUD 179 in December of 2008. Harris County MUD 179 purchased the ten acres out of a 14-acre tract owned by Clay Venture Fund, #3, LP. Clay Venture Fund retains the four acres on the corner of Easton Commons Drive and West Road. Clay & Company represented Clay Venture Fund, #3 in both transactions.

See more recent Houston real estate transactions here.