by Adolfo Pesquera
Stafford (Fort Bend Co.) – StreetLevel Investments obtained approval from the Planning & Zoning Commission to amend its master preliminary plat on the 192-acre former Texas Instruments campus it purchased in January.
Dallas-based StreetLevel entered a joint venture with Provident Realty Advisors to acquire and develop the campus, the largest continuous tract of land in Stafford available for redevelopment. Plans are to create a mixed-use community that will include 350,000 square feet of destination retail space, 2,400 residential units, Class A office space, two hotels, a health club, entertainment and green space in a walkable urban center.
Jennifer Dennis, a Jones|Carter engineer told the commissioners at their Oct. 11 meeting the purposes of the amendment had to do with a prospective tenant change and the need of the city’s public works department for more detail.
The major circulation routes in the original preliminary plat were based on the major users that were thought to be in place, Dennis said.
“At the time, ther was a main user at U.S. (Highway) 59 and Kirkwood Road on the southwest corner that blocked off that whole corner. Since then, there’s been changes for that whole 40-acre tract,” Dennis said.
The major tenant no longer factors into that sector and it is being redesigned to accommodate multiple commercial tenants. A component of this redesign is a “massaging” of the road alignment to provide more flexibility to maximize land use, she said.
The boundaries of the campus and the land use divisions. Image courtesy of Google Maps/Graphics by VBX.
The site has a mix of public and private roads, the difference being whether the city or the developer/owner would be responsible for construction and/or maintenance. Referring to comments by Stafford Public Works Director K.M. “Milton” Rahman, Dennis said alignment of the public road shifts it closer to the U.S. 59/Kirkwood Road intersection, “to allow smooth transition through the whole development.”
In addition, the main private road-a connector to Airport Boulevard that directors traffic north-south and connects traffic to east-west roadways-was “massaged engineering-wise,” she said. Dennis explained that the original alignment was “pretty” on the architect’s drawing board, but did not meet the engineering standards necessary to handle tractor-trailers that would be entering to make deliveries.
Other changes in the master preliminary plat include the addition of four driveways off of U.S. 59, two of which have right-turn deceleration lanes from the Texas Department of Transportation.
The project site extends east to Murphy Road. When StreetLevel first announced the joint venture, it estimated this to be a $500 million project.
After 46 years, Texas Instruments left the site in 2013 when the company relocated its operations to Sugar Land. StreetLevel has already begun some construction–three warehouses that will be complete by the end of the year.
However, development of the entire site will take about 10 years. It will feature a 48-acre arts/entertainment district in a town center concept (area in red), a 64-acre retail zone to the east, and another commercial district by U.S. 59 (I-69) and Kirkwood, and 61 acres of multi-family housing adjacent to the arts/entertainment center that will have up to 1,600 rental units.
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adolfo@virtualbx.com
