Houston-based CJ Development plans $125M mixed-use district in League City
HOUSTON BUSINESS JOURNAL
A Houston-based developer has proposed a $125 million, 44-acre mixed-use development in League City, right across from Clear Creek High School on FM 518.
Johnny Vassallo, general partner at CJ Development, said the firm purchased the first 23 acres a couple of months ago and has another 21 acres under contract.
The Galveston County Daily News first reported on the planned project.
Vassallo has yet to secure all necessary permits for the development, to be called The League, but he told the Houston Business Journal he hopes to break ground in about a year.
Current plans call for a walkable, mixed-use district with five six-story buildings, housing apartments on the second through sixth floors plus first-floor retail and restaurants; a clubhouse with a pool; detention ponds; and duplexes and fourplexes totaling 120 townhome units.
Each six-story building would have about 125 one- to three-bedroom apartments, totaling somewhere between 600 and 650 units, above approximately 60,000 to 70,000 square feet of retail space, including three to four sit-down restaurants as well as coffeeshops and ice cream parlors, Vassallo said.
The development is in between two existing apartment complexes, Huntcliff Apartments and Harbor Walk Apartments, which would provide even more clientele for the planned district.
“What we're finding is people really want walkability,” Vassallo said. “The retail provides you places to go and things that you would like, whether it's entertainment or dining or just the ability to get your retail goods and services, and then also having a larger complex allows you to have more amenities.”
Houston-based Identity Architects is designing the development, and Rockville, Maryland-based Rockville Construction is the general contractor.
CJ Development has been working with League City on different approvals and expects to apply for permits in the “next couple of months,” Vassallo said.
The plan is to build The League in five phases, beginning with two of the apartment/retail buildings and the clubhouse.
League City’s economic director, Scott Livingston, declined to comment on the proposed development, saying all he knows about it is from news reports.
The city’s economic development officials have been focused on attracting more commercial real estate development, including by calling for making more frequent use of Chapter 380 agreements, which offer developers incentives for building in a certain jurisdiction.
No such agreement has been discussed for The League, Vassallo said.
“If there are incentives available to get us to do other things, obviously we would like to be in those discussions,” he said.
Separately, League City has entered into a Chapter 380 incentive agreement for a different development, the 70-acre Riverview at Clear Creek, to be built at Interstate 45 just north of FM 518. That agreement grants $14 million in incentives to developer Clear Creek Point LP, a partnership between New York City-based WB Property Group and Dallas-based Atticus Real Estate, provided that Riverview is completed in 7 ½ years and meets several development benchmarks along the way.