DEVELOPMENT
Partners promise to double their investments in Sugar Land Town Square over next decade
Meristem Communities breaks ground on 235-acre community outside Sugar Land
INCREASING INVESTMENT
Since Lionstone Investments, Planned Community Developers and Rebees took over Sugar Land Town Square in 2013, the companies have invested $46.9 million into the retail center.
BY JACK DOWLING
an interview that one of the core intentions behind the community is to create an environment where residents “can accomplish much of their normal daily business by foot or bike within a quarter-mile distance.” Unlike traditional phased devel- opments, the new community will feature varying homes in a mixed environment. Of the 750 homes in the community, 100 will be multi- family structures situated right next to single-family homes of varying sizes, Snodgrass said. “We want to avoid the ‘us versus them’ mentality that you see in some developments,” he said. “If we’re going to build a true community, then we need to mix in the multifamily residential with the single family.” The development is reported to include commercial businesses and an arti cial 25-acre lake, which Snodgrass said is intended to have a “natural ecosystem” for swimming,
BY JACK DOWLING
Square include GR Energy, Insperity and Westin Homes. But keeping those tenants has been di cult, Patterson said. “We nd ourselves competing with other submarkets, other o ce markets that even do worse than what we have here,” Patterson said. Patterson said the coming year will be big for investments, as Rebees pledged $21.6 million for 2023 alone. With that funding, the company intends to continue storefront renovations, expand its marketing and event strategy, and establish a community clubhouse to be a business incubator and elevate the square’s o ce environment. This year aside, Rebees announced that it intends to spend $21.3 million from 2024 to 2027 for improvements that would nalize the vision of Sugar Land Town Square, including common space attractions.
A new community is coming to Richmond and Sugar Land, and Meristem Communities developers Clayton Garrett and Scott Snodgrass are promising to do things di erently. Located directly o the Grant Park- way, just north of Hwy. 90, Indigo is a new 235-acre, 750-home community by Meristem Communities. The entire development is located within the Richmond extraterritorial jurisdiction. Indigo will feature a 25-acre lake and 42 acres of agriculture while o ering a holistic living space for everyone from single-family renters living in “micro-apartments” to single-family homes, Snodgrass said. “We started from a position of, ‘How do we create a complete community?’ and ran with it,” said Snodgrass, managing partner at Meristem Communities. Snodgrass and Garrett, the co-managing partner, explained in
half of the $46.9 million that has been allocated to date. Investments so far include business facade improvements, signage and way nding, streetscaping, enhanced public spaces and branding, as well as event planning, Patterson said. “The vast majority of people that are coming [to Sugar Land Town Square] are coming from outside of the metro- plex. It is a draw,” said Matt Ragan, Rebees director of retail programming and operations. Under Lionstone’s ownership, the town square has seen retail occupancy as low as 50% and as high as 90%, according to Patterson. The cornerstone of Rebees’ leasing strategy over the past decade has been o ce leasing. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Patter- son said Rebees has had to re-evaluate its strategy. O ce tenants in Sugar Land Town
The owners of Sugar Land Town Square plan to double their invest- ments in the retail and restaurant district by 2027. At a joint Sugar Land 4B Corporation and Sugar Land Development Corpo- ration meeting March 7, development and investment rms Lionstone Investments, Planned Community Developers and Rebees pledged to double the $46.9 million in invest- ments Lionstone had made since it acquired the shopping center in 2013. Sugar Land Town Square is owned by Lionstone and managed by Rebees, a Dallas-based real estate company. A signi cant portion of investment into the district came during what Rebees Managing Partner Tom Patter- son dubbed the “COVID[-19] era,” or 2019 through 2022. Over those three years, investors poured $27.3 million into the center, which is more than
Investment pledged for 2023
O ce development: $14 million Retail development: $6.7 million Parking improvements: $900,000
Total $21.6M
Indigo, a 235-acre development by Meristem Communities, broke ground in February. (Rendering courtesy CultivateLAND)
shing and kayaking, and a working 42-acre farm will be used for produc- tivity as well as teaching experiences. In total, the project represents around $65 million in investment for Meristem Communities and $350 million in assessed value for Fort Bend County, Snodgrass said. The development’s rst phase will nish later this year. A groundbreaking for the rst phase was held in February, while the second phase is projected to break ground in early 2024, and the third and nal phase will break ground in 2025.
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PAST INVESTMENTS
INDIGO
90
Business facade improvements
Signage and way nding
N
400-3,100 sq. ft. home size
750 homes
Event planning
Enhanced public spaces and branding
$65 million development
40-50 retail businesses
SOURCE: MERISTEM COMMUNITIES COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCE: TOM PATTERSON COMMUNITY IMPACT
Streetscaping
SUGAR LAND 3335 HWY 6 S (281) 313-4446 MISSOURI CITY 5418 HWY 6 (281) 403-0400
SUGAR CREEK 13827 Southwest Fwy (281) 491-8628 SIENNA PLANTATION 9034 Sienna Crossing Dr (281) 778-9959
NEW TERRITORY 5720 New Territory Blvd (281) 491-0811
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SUGAR LAND MISSOURI CITY EDITION • APRIL 2023
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