The Columbia, MD-based retail giant acquired the land from a single private entity doing business as West Houston Land Development Co. Ltd. and Rose Hill Meadows Ltd. Yesterday, Rouse reported in an SEC 8-K filing that the $82.9 million included about $19.6 million in initial cash payments to or on behalf of the seller, the assumption of $28.3 million of long-term, non-recourse debt and $35 million to be paid in $7-million installments, beginning in May 2005.

Nathan Tyrrell, Rouse's manager of investor relations, won't discuss the selling price nor provide any information about the seller. The property is located in the far northwest submarket off US Highway 290, which is a direct connect to Austin and Houston's Galleria and about 25 miles from the CBD. The land is in the path of the Grand Parkway, a 170-mile, under-construction loop for Greater Houston.

Rouse has started working on the master plan for the as-yet unnamed community and intends to jumpstart infrastructure work as soon as possible. Land sales could begin as early as 2005.

Tyrrell tells GlobeSt.com that most of the land will be sold to developers, but it's possible Rouse will develop some of the acreage. He didn't rule out a regional mall, a market segment that provides about 60% of Rouse's annual income. As for the build-out plan, it's still too early in the planning to make the call, he says.

"The Houston market perfectly fits our criteria," Anthony W. Deering, Rouse's chairman and CEO, said in a prepared statement. "It's the fourth-largest city in the United States, having added approximately one million new residents in the 1990s and having averaged 60,000 new jobs per year since 1994. We think this is an outstanding opportunity to develop a high-quality community and to produce significant value for the company's shareholders."

According to Tyrrell, Rouse is perfectly poised for such an undertaking based on the success of its other master-planned communities in Columbia, MD, a 14,100-acre development between Baltimore and Washington, DC, and Summerlin, NV, a 22,000-acre project.