Once again Houston is bucking the national trend,
reports Peter Jacob, principal of Weaver Davis & Jacob, a progressive
commercial real estate company in Fort Bend County. As the rest of the
nation watches their housing markets cool, the Houston market is still
going strong, translating into a strong retail market for the region. Last month, Jacob said, the National Association of Realtors(R) ranked
Houston as having the third "strongest" investment retail market in
the nation in its quarterly "Commercial Real Estate Market Forecast."
"We are seeing such tremendous housing growth in Houston's suburbs
and that's the crux of what is driving the growth of the retail market
-- especially with neighborhood centers and strip centers," said
Jacob. "We have nine neighborhood centers in either the development or
final leasing stages in Sugar Land, Richmond and Missouri City alone."
For the second quarter of 2006, NAR expected to see Houston's
retail vacancy rate to stay at 9.5 percent -- less than two points
above the national average. According to Jacob, another key area being affected by Houston's
suburban growth is mixed-use projects. The Woodlands Town Center
development, the Promenade Shops at the Spectrum in Pearland and The
Crossing at Telfair will benefit their communities by providing easy
access to important local services and facilities. "Mixed-use projects are very attractive to investors and tenants,"
Jacob said. "Our most recent development, The Crossing at Telfair, is
casting a new lifestyle center mold for future retail development in
the Houston area. Telfair will offer investors, tenants and residents
more than 700,000 square feet of office, medical, retail, restaurant
and hospitality at the southwest corner of Highway 6 and Highway 90."
CNN/Money recently ranked Sugar Land third of the "Best Places to
Live" in the United Sates. For more information on the Houston retail
market and Weaver Davis & Jacob Realty Group projects, visit
www.wdjrealty.com/press. Weaver Davis & Jacob Realty Group is a full-service commercial
real estate company specializing in mixed-use retail property
development. The company helps its clients achieve their goals with
forward-thinking strategies and by offering a full cycle of services
including development, redevelopment of existing shopping centers,
tenant and landlord representation, property management, investment
acquisitions, raw land sales as well as improved site sales. Visit
www.wdjrealty.com/press for more information. |