LEADER LISTING The Leader • Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020 • Page 1B
New M-K-T development comes to life
Shiny New Toy
By Adam Zuvanich azuvanich@theleadernews.com
It’s after 6 p.m. on a Tuesday, and only one business at a 12-acre retail and office complex is open. Most of the other spaces are vacant, and many are just a shell with furniture, decorations, products – and people – to come later. Still, members of the Heights community venture onto the spacious property every few minutes. A couple rides through on their bikes, and young mothers pushing their babies in strollers turn off the adjacent trail, walk through an inviting archway and check out the modern-looking buildings separated by a mix of concrete paths and colorful, creative landscaping. And Steve Radom smiles, because what he’s witnessing is exactly what he and Scott Arnoldy envisioned when they came up with the idea for M-K-T two years ago. Their massive mixed-use development, which is a repurposed industrial warehouse complex at the northeast corner of North Shepherd Drive and 6th Street, was designed with cyclists and pedestrians in mind and meant to draw them in from the M-K-T/Heights Hike and Bike Trail immediately north of the property. “It’s so fun because, right now, there’s still no real reason to come,” Radom said. “But there are people on bikes, people who are exploring, pushing strollers. Seeing that is what gets me so excited.” The joint venture between Radom of Heights-based Radom Capital and Arnoldy of Triten Real Estate Partners started to come to life about
Photo by Adam Zuvanich Steve Radom of Heights-based Radom Capital, one of the developers of the M-K-T project at 600 N. Shepherd Dr., takes a photo of the property on Tuesday while standing on the adjacent M-K-T/Heights Hike and Bike Trail.
a month ago, when core-and-shell construction was completed on the 200,000 square foot development, with half of that space reserved for offices and the other half earmarked for restaurants and retail. The first two tenants, women’s clothing store June & Co. and photography studio Flower Vault, opened about two weeks ago. Many more businesses will open at M-K-T in the coming weeks and months as Radom said the development is about 60 percent leased, with the potential for it to be at least 80 percent leased by the end of the year. Arnoldy said the development will include seven restaurants and a wide range of retail and health-oriented businesses, from boutiques to fitness
studios to juice bars to a dental office. Among the businesses slated to open later this fall, according to Arnoldy, are boutiques Burdlife and Common Assembly, Union Studio Yoga and Pedego Electric Bikes. Annie Patten, owner of June & Co., said she’s already gotten some foot traffic and is looking forward to having more neighbors. “It’s going to be nice for some people just to walk over here and try different things,” she said. “You don’t have a lot of that in the Heights.” Boston-based Long Wharf Capital is an investment partner for Arnoldy and Radom, who enlisted the Michael Hsu Office of Architecture to design the project, Harvey Builders as the contractor and SWA Group
Houston as the landscape architect. Along with being accessible to pedestrians, cyclists and those with mobility challenges, the development also is colorful, eclectic and striking in appearance. Radom said works by Houstonbased artists Franchesca Fuchs, Michael Rodriguez and Sebastien “Mr. D” Boileau will be featured on or near the property, with Rodriguez and Mr. D painting murals on the undersides of oblong archways near the front of the development. Arnoldy said his favorite aspect of the project is its multi-colored lighting at night. The property’s signature feature is a 42-foot tall, 120-foot long gold archway called the “spine,” which serves as the entry point from
the trail and will connect five upcoming restaurants. There also is an Airstream with adjacent wooden deck parked near the southeast corner of the property, which Radom said can serve as a unique conference room for nearby office tenants. He said it’s stocked with a full bar, record player and television. While cycling through the property, Heights resident Brittney Rhude said it’s “really beautiful.” “A lot of times, renderings almost look better than the reality,” Arnoldy said. “This is one project where the reality might outmatch the renderings.” The reality of the time is not lost on M-K-T, which Arnoldy said is “almost COVID-friendly.” The developers did not envision going through a pandemic when they hatched the idea for the property, but they created a space conducive to fresh air and social distancing by incorporating open green spaces and patios. Radom called it a “happy accident” that originated from a desire to give Houstonians what they want in a commercial environment of the 21st century. He visited M-K-T on Tuesday by riding an electric scooter along the hike-and-bike trail from his office at the Heights Mercantile at 714 Yale St. “With no intention of COVID, because we planned this two years before, we wanted this to be a great destination,” he said. “We really planned a lot of great green space and great patios and walkways. They’re uncovered and they’re open, full of light. “To see this now and hear people appreciate it even more in the current environment, it just feels awesome. You wouldn’t necessarily change anything today knowing what you know. It’s not like you’d say, ‘Man, if I would have thought about COVID, I would have done something completely different.’ We would have done the exact same project.”
City’s preservation ordinance faces legal challenge By Adam Zuvanich azuvanich@theleadernews.com
Houston is well-known as a city without zoning laws, which allows real estate developers and property owners to build almost anything they want wherever they want. But some see zoning mechanisms within the city’s existing laws, one of which is being challenged in Texas’ highest court by a pair of Heights homeowners. The outcome could have significant ramifications throughout the neighborhood and many others around Houston. The Texas Supreme Court will hear arguments Jan. 5 regarding a lawsuit filed by Paul Luccia and Kathleen Powell,
who have sued the City of Houston over the Historic Preservation Ordinance it first passed in 1995 and amended in 2010. The suit claims the ordinance constitutes zoning and violates the city charter, which stipulates that zoning can only be approved by a citywide referendum. If Luccia and Powell win their case, the building requirements in the city’s ordinance could no longer be enforced in 19 Houston neighborhoods that have been designated as historic. Nine of those subdivisions are in the area covered by The Leader, including Heights East, Heights South, Heights West, Norhill and Woodland Heights. “If the Supreme Court rules
against the city, Houston will go back to having historic districts in name only,” Preservation Houston executive director David Bush said. “They could be called historic districts, but there wouldn’t be any protections from demolition or guidelines for alterations and new construction.” Luccia and Powell first sued the city over its Historic Preservation Ordinance after it was strengthened with enforcement protocols in 2010. A Harris County court sided with the city in 2017, and a state appellate court did the same in 2019. Matthew Festa, a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston who is representing Luccia and Powell pro
bono, said the case before the Texas Supreme Court is different in that it argues whether or not the preservation ordinance is de facto zoning and therefore illegal. He said it should be considered zoning because it applies land-use regulations to an area defined by drawing lines on a map. Festa said the city’s Special Minimum Lot Size Area ordinances, in which property owners petition the city to ensure that undeveloped land is used for the same purpose and features similar characteristics within a designated geographical area, also constitutes as zoning. “They feel that this is an individual rights issue,” Festa said of his clients. “The fact
this is really zoning without using the ‘Z’ word completely violates that state law.” Festa said his clients are not against the concept of historic
preservation but take issue with the manner in which city leaders at the time enacted See Ordinance P. 8B
Real Estate Roundup
Traffic study pending for apartment complex the only U.S. state with three markets ranked among top global investment markets for multifamily products. According to CBRE data, DFW ranked fifth in the U.S. with $2.8 billion in global capital investments. Austin ranked ninth with $2.1 billion and Houston ranked 10th with $2 billion.
By Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com
Marquette, a Chicago-based real estate company with more than 11,000 apartment units under management, had purchased land from W2 Development Partners, who own White Oak Music Hall, to build a five-story apartment complex in Houston. This week, one of the variances requested by Marquette was deferred for additional study. Dipti Mathur, division manager for the development services division of the city’s Planning and Development Department, said that during the review process Marquette had been deferred once before but that this week was the first the company had submitted this project. “The project ultimately got approved with conditions to provide right-of-way widening on Keene street,” Mathur said. “The developer got denied for the variance along Keene Street. They may come back with this variance request after the Transportation Impact Analysis is reviewed by Houston Public Works traffic.” Mathur said the Traffic Impact Analysis will also consider neighbor questions about the project. Some nearby residents wonder how an accurate traffic count will take place during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Based on the information provided by the applicant, they use data prior to COVID,” Mathur said.
Contributed artist’s rendering Chicago-based developer Marquette plans to construct a five-story apartment complex near White Oak Music Hall.
The Park at Highland Pines The Park at Highland Pines is a private, gated 32-acre townhome development in Acres Homes built by Calidad Builders. Daniela Antelo with Keller Williams Houston Broker Team said the development also features a dog park, multiple guest parking spaces for friends and family, and large two-story homes with private yards. Home prices are in the $300,000 range. “All of our kitchens come with induction cook tops which can boil water quickly yet are cool to the touch,” Antelo said. “All floor plans have either a private yard or views to a communal green space to help create a sense of security and relaxation. There are four different floor plans you can choose from and we are currently pre-selling.” For more information, visit https://www.parkhtx.com/ or contact Antelo at antelodani@ gmail.com.
Hines establishes multifamily management firm Connect Media reported that Hines has launched Willowick Residential, a multifamily property management firm, named after founder Gerald D. Hines’ first multifamily residential building in Houston’s River Oaks area. In his firm’s early days, Hines managed The Willowick himself, believing an owner had greater insight and desire to manage a building properly. Willowick Residential will work in partnership with Hines’ multifamily portfolio of 63 projects across 38 U.S. cities. Houston top multifamily market for global capital Houston, along with other major Texas markets in Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin, ranks in the top 10 U.S. multifamily markets for inbound global capital (ranked by investment volume from 2015 to the first half of 2020), according to CBRE’s H1 2020 U.S. Multifamily Inbound Investment Trends report. Texas is
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