Public-Private Partners Debut 320-Acre, Mixed-Use Plan

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PEARLAND, TX-Today, local economic development leaders and private partners will unveil plans for the Spectrum at Clear Creek, a business, technology and retail park. The first phase, 320 acres, will feature a 700,000-sf lifestyle retail center and 200 acres devoted to both build-to-suit and speculative office and technology projects. The lifestyle portion has been dubbed the Promenade Shops at Shadow Creek.

The Pearland Economic Development Corp. (PEDC) is partnering with BioHouston Inc. in Houston, LNR Property Corp. of Dallas, Colliers International’s Houston office and Memphis-based Poag & McEwen Lifestyle Centers LLC. The site at the intersection of Beltway 8 and US Highway 288 is close to 1,000 acres, but the initial phase of development will focus on 320 acres, of which 120 are earmarked for the lifestyle center. According to Fred Welch, the PEDC’s executive director, the first phase’s build-out should take about seven years.

“What the city has done right now is made about an $8.5-million commitment to bring infrastructure onto the site,” Welch tells GlobeSt.com. He says infrastructure construction is scheduled to be complete in March 2006.

When the infrastructure is done, Poag & McEwen will be ready to break ground on its massive lifestyle center, with its completion scheduled between spring and fall 2007. At this time, Welch says preleasing is strong. And, he adds, “they’re planning to open the center 80% leased.”

Welch acknowledges that, while the hope is to obtain first vertical construction on the technology side, retail is being developed first to help make the site more enticing to potential business/technology tenants. In the meantime, LNR Properties’ Dallas office, which is overseeing office/technology development “has done a great deal of concept design and development scenario,” he says, “and they’re looking at projects in which they might do vertical construction.”

Welch says there isn’t any plan to break ground soon on office/technology projects in Spectrum at Clear Lake, but there is a significant amount of medical product under construction nearby so that could lead to future development in the park. “Land prices in this area are still relatively inexpensive, compared to downtown Houston and the Medical Center,” Welch adds. “This will hopefully allow for a better environment for manufacturing and medical companies.”