"There are plans to add additional retail as more office and hotels are developed," says Rip Reynolds, vice president with Staubach Co.'s Houston office. The new space at 24 Waterway on Waterway Avenue was just completed while the crew's hard at work to add retail space the front of the project's parking garage. Also under construction is the 216,600-sf 4 Waterway Square, an office building that recently broke ground at the corner of Woodloch Forest Drive and Waterway Square Place.

Reynolds, who has the retail leasing assignment, isn't divulging quoted rates for the retail space. However, developers have been getting about $40 per sf, triple net for shop space in the Woodlands. The corridor's 1.3-million-sf inventory has a single-digit vacancy.

"People want to be in the Woodlands. That's the number one or two trade area in which retailers enter the market," Reynolds tells GlobeSt.com. Even with the current market conditions, he says activity is still good due to residential growth and more recently, corporate growth. "Demos and traffic that's what the retailers like," he stresses.

Woodlands Development Corp. is targeting upscale retailers. "We'd like to see the high-end retailers that currently aren't represented in this area," Reynolds adds. "We'll be going for the national high-end retailers and the unique local and regional credit tenants as well."