Cornelius store on Dairy Ashford closing ... site to be redeveloped

Cornelius Nursery - Dairy Ashford

1200 North Dairy Ashford Road

Houston, TX 77079

Cornelius Store Closing signs posted end of year 2014

Cornelius Nursery Store - Energy Corridor location on
Dairy Ashford closing for good. Parcel to be redeveloped.

Enclave Place - New Office Development coming to Enclave Parkway in prime Energy Corridor location

A newly planted project sign by Colvill Office Properties (which will lease the space) announces the forthcoming start of construction of a 300,000 SF Office Building on Enclave Parkway on open land just North of 1430 Enclave Pkwy Building currently occupied by Technip and Nationstar Mortgage.

The land is located to the West of Enclave Parkway South of Olive Hill Drive. Rusty farming equipment sitting on the corner of the field provides an apt reminder of the area's not so distant agricultural past.

THE PAST AND THE PRESENT

Enclave Emblem

Eldridge at Katy Freeway Prime Office Space Development - Ground broken (construction pics)

Construction work (earth-moving and utilities installation work, to be more specific) has commenced on Energy Corridor office building development project that will bring to the West-Houston sub-market more than half a million rentable square feet of premium office space at the SW corner of North Eldridge Parkway and Katy Freeway. <-- Follow link to prior blog post with on-location pics of project site. 

This stretch of Eldridge Pkwy just North of Memorial Drive recently saw completion of a road widening road project (additional lanes added), and further road improvements are being implemented on the North side of Interstate 10 on the stretch that runs through the Addicks Reservoir wilderness and connects to Patterson Road, War Memorial Drive (Bear Creek Pioneers Park), and Clay Road, which has proven to be extremely dangerous and accident-prone, especially in wet conditions at night.  

CBRE Leasing Agent sign and rendition (computer-generated image)
of new office building being erected
at N. Eldridge Pkwy South of  I-10 Katy Fwy inbound feeder road

Energy Crossing II Construction under way on Katy Freeway Houston-bound feeder road

Energy Crossing II project site with crane - View from Barker Dam
(Feb 10, 2013 photo)

A Lincoln Property Company 8-floor office building project at Highway 6 and Katy Freeway/Grisby Rd.

scheduled to be completed Aug 2013

LPC Energy Crossing Two FOR LEASE sign on Katy Freeway project site

Also see earlier post on Energy Crossing I (existing office building)

New Crescent Circle Apartments now sport brand name - Domain

New apartment development on Crescent Circle @ Eldridge Parkway gets domained 

The recently completed high-end multifamily apartment complex on East side of Crescent Plaza Drive, located next to Eclipse Apartments and opposite Ray Miller Park, finally has a name: Domain. Alas the signage at the leasing office entrance does not provide for strong contrast against the dark-shaded parts of the building’s exterior, making the name-sign almost unintelligible from afar. 

But the variegated coloring scheme of the buildings themselves easily makes up for the initial namelessness and the less than stellar visibility of the signage, especially when the grass is green, and the sky blue: a quite appealing sub-urban vista indeed.

As long as the apartment front row is not obscured, that is. There is currently a huge field with a tree, but that property is posted for sale, and will no doubt eventually see construction too.  

Speaking of construction activity along this stretch of Eldridge Parkway just South of Briar Forest, a daycare (The Goddard School) has already been built at the north end of the circle, and an Alzheimer’s memory care facility (pleasingly named Autumn Leaves) is underway.

In anticipation of the influx of additional residents and their discretionary spending dollars, the retail sector is seeing renewed activity too. A new pub has opened in the ground-level corner space (with patio) at The Parkway Village Plaza retail center, which already features two cafes (Kim Son Café and Pastelitos Cafe), and a dessert place, along with  a tea house and other businesses. 

There is still retail space posted for lease The Parkway Village Plaza property, but it will no doubt soon find eager takers too, given the incipient boom in the Energy Corridor and adjacent neighborhoods.  

Eldridge Oaks Phase II Project sign posted on property - Completion of Transwestern's 2nd office tower projected for 2014

Eldridge Oaks I (shown below) was completed in 2009 and is occupied by KBR and WIPRO.

View of existing Eldridge Oaks Class A Office Building from the
intersection of Enclave Parkway and Eldridge Parkway  

Current tenants at 1080 Eldridge: Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) and WIPRO

Eldridge Oaks Office Complex with KBR lettering at the top (back-lit photo taken with tele-lens at the beginning of this year)

900-1000 North Eldridge Parkway at Katy Fwy - New Office Tower site status - still a greenfield, but looking for tenants

2/20/13 UPDATE: Ground broken on the Eldridge-Katy corner parcel office development project in January 2013. Click hyperlink for images from construction site in early stage of earth-moving work.

Construction has yet to begin on brand-new Class A office tower on the SW corner parcel at Katy Freeway and Eldridge Parkway.

  

As of a October 2012, a pile of gravel and a leasing sign were already in place. 

About half a million square feet of prime Energy Corridor office space are to follow in a couple of years.  
In the meantime, cranes are up and running elsewhere along this stretch of the interstate, which is in the midst of a fresh construction boom following the recent recession.

 

The tractor's mission is limited to mowing

Road widening work is still under way on this section of Eldridge Parkway between Memorial Drive and East-bound Katy Feeder Road. 

Road widening work ongoing on Eldridge northbound as of 10/23/2012

Neighbors to the North of Katy Freeway: OMNI Hotel and Foster-Wheeler Office Complex

Highway 6 at Briar Forest

Shell gas station on SH-6 at Briar Forest

Minimart

Highway 6 at Briar Forest - View from Top of the Barker Dam
The parking lot - which was recently resurfaced - facilitates access to the part of George Bush Park right behind the Dam, which offers lakes and trails, and also to the bike trail that runs parallel to the earthen dam on the East side facing the city

More luxury living options in the works? So far only a green lot with a Sunrise Company sign

Thybach commercial property on the North side of Briar Forest Drive vacant)

The Marquis on Briar  Forest Apartments at 14515 Biar Forest Houston TX 77077

Eclipse Apartments

1600 Block of South Eldridge Parkway Street Sign - Eclipse Apartment Living
Houston TX 77077

More construction underway on land between Eclipse apartments and Eldridge Parkway near Briar Forest

Eclipse Apartments - First Phase - seen from across the greenspace from Eldridge Parkway
near Ray Miller Park

Eclipse Apartments at the Curve late in the afternoon

Eclipse Apartment Homes on Eldridge Parkway South of Briar Forest
 shown on the Google Map (satellite view with Panoramio image of front of building
Ray Miller Park in left-bottom corner

Children's Playground Equipment at Ray Miller Park, Picnic tables and benches and BBQ grill

Now about the real eclipse thing, as opposed appropriation of the term by brand-consultants and marketers, it does not happen very often, but this year we got lucky. From Barker Dam the view was pretty good, although it was only a partial eclipse.

There are other scenic sunset photos on this blog; - with only the bottom of the disk missing, or images of the setting sun with a not quite intact fiery circle behind the trees whose limbs make for silhouettes on the horizon that partially obscure the fire ball. 

Another crane on the horizon in the Energy Corridor (at BP's Westlake Campus)

BP Westlake 4 Construction site pics 

Update: Status of construction on BP campus at Katy Feeder Road (11/23/12 photo)

bp Westlake campus with crane seen from across the Freeway looking South

BP's Westlake Campus in Houston's Energy Corridor 

South of Katy Freeway between North Eldridge Parkway and Highway 6

BP's Corporate Campus at Westlake on the Map 

See more construction crane pics on other project sites in the Energy Corridor by clicking this link. (Feb 2013 update)