Category: Southeast Texas

Groundbreaking Takes Place for Massive H-E-B-Anchored Manvel Town Center

Posted on by Sarah

MANVEL—On June 22, Weitzman and H-E-B held groundbreaking ceremonies for the first phase of Manvel Town Center, which upon completion will be one of the largest open-area retail-focused projects in history for Houston’s metro area, the country’s fifth-largest MSA.

With a market-defining signature retail component with the first phase anchored by leading grocer H-E-B, Manvel Town Center is designed to incorporate more than 1 million square feet of retail, entertainment, hospitality, medical and office space. The project is located at the major intersection of SH-288 and SH-6 in the booming Houston suburban market of Manvel.

“Manvel Town Center’s groundbreaking represents the beginning of not only one of the largest retail-focused projects in Houston’s history, it will be the largest project ever for Weitzman in our 31-year history,” said Herb Weitzman, executive chairman and founder of Weitzman. “Alongside this world-class H-E-B, we envision a well-balanced collection of leading retail anchors, shops, restaurants, fitness, health, beauty and entertainment uses that will attract shoppers and visitors for decades to come. We look forward to serving Manvel and its surrounding communities with retail tenants to complement the high caliber of H-E-B, and create a shopping destination anchored by not only the best grocer in Texas, but in the entire country.”

The groundbreaking ceremony represents the beginning infrastructure improvements at the 273-acre site of the mixed-use development. The ceremony included remarks from key players, including Mayor of Manvel, Debra Davison, and representatives from H-E-B and Weitzman.

Weitzman is managing the development of Manvel Town Center under the direction of Steve Chandler, City Partner, Weitzman Houston; and JoBeth Prochaska,

Senior Vice President of Development and Asset Management, Weitzman Houston. Weitzman’s James Namken, Kyle Knight and Cole Mueller handle leasing at Manvel Town Center. In addition to H-E-B, the Weitzman team is targeting a balanced retail tenant mix including strong presence for destination retails offering best-in-class offerings, along with retail, restaurant, fitness, home furnishings and other local, regional and national concepts.

The new H-E-B is designed to total more than 100,000 square feet of retail space and will include a fuel station and car wash. The first phase of Manvel Town Center is scheduled to come online in late summer of 2022.

Manvel Town Center, surrounded by vibrant housing growth, is positioned for visibility and access for the heavy vehicular traffic at the intersection of Highway 288 and Highway 6, offering extensive frontage along both thoroughfares at the major intersection.

Most importantly for visibility and access, Manvel Town Center benefits from the newly constructed toll road that will increase already strong residential growth by improving traffic flow and access from SH-288, from US 59 to the (from the SH 288/U.S. Route 59 interchange to County Road 58 in Manvel, just north of the Manvel Town Center site, allowing users to easily access the shopping center. ) (NOTE * this only represents the Harris County portion. The Brazoria County portion extends the road to CR 58) .

The toll road completion has increased the already strong benefits for retailers at this location since the completion of the toll road has Manvel Town Center positioned at what is on track to be the most heavily trafficked intersection for the regional trade area as it creates ease of access for the key employment centers like the Medical District.

“Manvel Town Center will be the centerpiece of the commercial market and the community of Manvel, which is why Weitzman is putting extensive planning into the

project,” Chandler said. “We’re especially pleased that H-E-B, recently ranked as the nation’s top grocery retailer, will be the lead retailer for our first phase.”

Retailers at Manvel also will benefit from the No. 1 retail location in the trade area. This trade area, which encompasses fifteen-minute drivetime reports average household incomes over $110,000 and close to 291,000 residents. Additionally, the daytime population within this trade area is approximately242,735. Daytime population is an important consideration for retailers and restaurants because it indicates steady traffic throughout the day.

Strong residential growth surrounding Manvel Town Center is one reason that population within the trade area is on track to jump almost 16 percent by 2025. Major residential communities in the immediate trade area include Lakes of Savannah, Meridiana, Del Bello Lakes, Rodeo Palms, Lakeland, Sterling Lakes, Seirra Vista, Pomona, Sedona Lakes and more. All told, Manvel Town Center is surrounded by 28 active home communities that report approximately 25,000 future lots for a total of approximately 72,000total units.

Manvel Town Center represents the most recent project for H-E-B and Weitzman, which has a long history dating back decades with the grocer through projects in metro Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth with H-E-B and Central Market.

Like H-E-B, Weitzman works hard to tailor its projects and tenant mix through reliance on market research, market knowledge and location-intelligence technology. Weitzman’s adaption and success with this tailored approach is one reason that international commercial real estate publication Bisnow in June 2021 named Weitzman as an “Innovator” – meaning one of the companies that is leading the real estate industry forward through innovative programs and technology that are improving real estate and the shopping experience.

In the planning for the massive Manvel Town Center project, Weitzman has directed the development of a wastewater treatment plant, a water plant, detention

facilities, feeder road modifications and the construction of Kirby Drive at one boundary of Manvel Town Center.

Manvel, which is experiencing notable residential growth and is on track to see its population boom over the next two decades, is the first major growth market past Pearland. The area currently reports nearly 182,000 residents within a seven-mile radius of Manvel Town Center, and the households in the radius report an average household income of $119,567.

Manvel Town Center further benefits from more than 6,600 feet of frontage and direct access from Highway 288 following Weitzman’s construction of a feeder road modification and curb cut into the site.

Partners Real Estate Company Announces New Director-Level Hire

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Partners Real Estate Company—the holding company of NAI Partners, Partners Capital, and Partners Development—has announced that Brett Chiles, a veteran private equity professional, has joined Partners Development as a Director. Mr. Chiles will be responsible for growing capital and sourcing debt for Partners Development’s ground-up retail and other development and investment opportunities. In addition, he will be responsible for other aspects of development projects including legal, entity organization, project management and other activities. Mr. Chiles has over two decades of experience in the investment space, and comes to Partners Real Estate Company from KA Investments, a Houston-based private equity firm where he was a Principal. Prior to that, he spent time at Equus Total Return, Inc., and Murphree Venture Partners. Mr. Chiles has an MBA from Rice University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business from Texas Christian University.

Transwestern Real Estate Managing Director Receives Landlord Broker Award

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Transwestern Real Estate Services (TRS) announces the Houston Office Leasing Brokers Association (HOLBA) has recognized Managing Director Doug Little as the Landlord Broker of the Year for his office leasing efforts in 2020. Little was a finalist for the broker of the year award in 2018 and on the team that received the HOLBA Deal of the Year award in 2019 on behalf of Brookfield for Direct Energy’s 105,578-square-foot lease at 2 Houston Center. This honor is voted on by the tenant representation community in Houston and was presented to Little at the HOLBA Awards ceremony on May 13, 2021. In 2020, Little’s team completed approximately 748,200 square feet of lease transactions with an aggregate value exceeding $132 million. Notable leases include TGS-Nopec Geophysical Company at 10451 Clay Rd. (97,295 square feet), Cadence Bank at Park Towers South (82,215 square feet), Ryan LLC at Park Towers North (66,750 square feet) and Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson at Loop Central III (43,113 square feet).

Who’s Next: Amazon Selects La Marque for Delivery Station

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During a year that was a struggle for so many Texas communities, La Marque saw the light at the end of the tunnel earlier than most. “We had quite a bit of behind-the-scenes work that happened, as you can imagine before we could finally make the announcement,” says Alex Getty, Executive Director of the La Marque Economic Development Corporation. That announcement? Amazon chose La Marque as the site of a 180,000-square-foot delivery station, which will power the company’s last-mile capabilities to speed up deliveries for people in and around Galveston County. “We know location is a very important factor when sites are selected for projects like this. Since La Marque is the hub of the mainland, I think it helped Amazon ultimately choose us,” Getty says. The facility is expected to directly contribute about 400 jobs, which pay a minimum of $15 per hour — everything from drivers to primary management positions, to team leads. But projects show it will also contribute to 150 more, such as janitorial suppliers or employees in restaurants built to accommodate the expanded workforce. Another 230 construction workers are needed just to get the building off the ground. “We are excited to continue to invest in Texas with a new delivery station in La Marque that will create hundreds of new job opportunities and provide faster and more efficient delivery for customers,” said Daniel Martin, a spokesman for Amazon. “We look forward to continuing our growth in Texas and want to thank local and state leaders for their support in making this project possible.” Click to read more at www.rednews.com.

One Bright Spot in the Houston Office Market? Medical Leasing

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The Houston metro area has a long way to go until its office market fully recovers. Houston led the nation in overall office vacancies at the new year at a staggering rate of 24%, but there is one bright spot in the market: medical leasing. It’s perhaps no surprise that there’s increased demand and growth in the healthcare and medical field across the nation during the pandemic, and the trend is likely to continue in the coming years. While traditional corporate offices sent their workers home throughout the worst months of the pandemic, medical businesses maintained a presence in the workplace as an essential service.

According to recent numbers from brokerage NAI Partners, a number of key metrics in the medical market in Houston reveal some optimistic signs. First, and perhaps most important, is the overall vacancy level of 16.8% from this past February was slightly lower than 17% from the same period a year prior. Additionally, gross average asking rent has increased slightly from $25.02 per square foot in February 2020 to $25.86 this last February.

However, there’s still a lot of space to fill and even more on the way. Overall medical office available increased from 18.5% to 21.1% year-over-year, and net absorption is way down, from nearly 157,000 square feet to -65,278 over the last year. There were no new deliveries to the market in February, but there remains nearly 864,000 square feet of office space currently under construction.


Leases of note mentioned in the report include a deal for a 35,000-square-foot space in the Bissonnet Medical Plaza in suburban Bellaire, a 20,000-square-foot lease at the Texas Medical Center near downtown Houston, and a 14,000-square-foot deal at the River Oaks Medical Center in Greenway Plaza.

Houston Office Market Vacancies Still Among Highest in Nation

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Like most major metro markets, Houston’s workforce was hit hard by the abrupt business shutdowns and ensuing economic downturn that followed last spring as the pandemic took hold. Sectors such as hospitality, construction and manufacturing took big hits. In total, the Houston metro area saw a loss of 350,000 jobs during the pandemic, a Cushman & Wakefield report shows, however, the city was able to recover just over 200,000 of those losses by the end of 2020. At its worst, office vacancies in Houston last year reached a staggering 25.5%. And ending 2020 with a vacancy rate of 24.1% meant that Houston continued to lead the nation in vacant office space into the new year. And despite the turmoil, the city’s economic outlook remains positive as forecasts see upwards of 70,000 jobs being added to the Houston economy in 2021. But how is the office market faring in 2021? It’s not looking as cheery. New numbers for this February from brokerage NAI Partners show that the needle has barely moved. As of last month, Houston’s total office vacancy rate was 23.9%. During the same period a year prior, the vacancy rate was 21.8%. Some other fast stats show leasing activity down by nearly half year-over-year between February 2020 and February 2021, going from 2 million square feet leased to 1.225 million leased respectively. Absorption is also in the red while over 4.277 million square feet of new office space remains under construction. Click to read more at www.rednews.com.