Lovett Commercial signs several retailers for Sawyer Yards conversion
Ax throwing, barbecue, craft beer and cider are coming together in the newest phase of Sawyer Yards, an urban enclave spanning several city blocks northwest of downtown.
Developer Lovett Commercial said several new tenants have signed leases for space in a 65,000-square-foot warehouse at 1201 Oliver St. that’s being converted to house retailers and creative office space.
The tenants include: Urban Axes, an indoor recreational ax-throwing facility, which will be the company’s eighth outpost and will occupy 10,300 square feet; City Orchard, Mat Smith and Patrick Kwiatkowski’s cidery that will produce hard ciders from apples from the Great Lakes region; Fainmous BBQ, a Tennessee-style barbecue restaurant with an eatery in southwest Houston; and Urban South, a New Orleans craft brewery, which will occupy 12,500 square feet.
The project was founded by a group of local developers and investors including Jon Deal, Steve Gibson, Paul Hobby and Lovett Commercial’s Frank Liu.
Erin Dyer and Clay Mealy of Lovett Commercial oversaw leasing negotiations on behalf of the landlord.
More young adults are living with mom, census says
While Houston’s unemployment rate has fallen by more than a third since 2005, the percentage of young adults living with their mothers has almost doubled.
More than one in every five young adults in Houston live with their mothers, according to a Zillow analysis of census data. Twentyone percent of Houstonians ages 23 to 37 live either with their mom or both their parents. That figure is in line with national numbers.
At the same time, Houston’s unemployment rate has fallen to 3.7 percent from 5.9 percent in 2005, suggesting that many more people with jobs are choosing to live at home.
Distributor to energy industry merges facilities
AIV, a global distributor of valves and actuators, and sister company Gulf Coast Modification have opened a new headquarters near Telge Road and U.S. 290 in northwest Houston.
The companies consolidated three separate Houston properties to the new 320,000square-foot warehouse, manufacturing and office headquarters at 22806 Northwest Lake Drive. Houston-based KDW designed and built the facility, which houses two stories of office space, a dedicated warehouse space operated by AIV and a separate manufacturing space for Gulf Coast Modification.
“It’s good to be in our new home,” AIV President Trey Cook said in an announcement. “Besides increasing our square footage to accommodate our growing inventory and modification capabilities, the new facility allows us to consolidate all of our operations under one roof.”
Founded in Houston in 1991, AIV is a global wholesale distributor of valves and actuators for the oil and gas, power generation, chemical, petrochemical, refining, pulp and paper and water treatment industries.
LGI, Weekley top Houston firms on Builder rankings
Houston’s LGI Homes and David Weekley Homes are among nine local companies to make Builder magazine’s 2019 Builder 100 list.
Publicly traded LGI Homes moved up one position to No. 10 with 6,512 closings in 2018 for sales of $1.5 billion.
David Weekley Homes again ranked as the nation’s largest privately held for-profit home builder. David Weekley moved up one position on the list to No. 16 with 4,687 closings and nearly $2.2 billion in sales.
The nation’s top builders overall are also among the most active in the Houston market. They are D.R. Horton, with 52,569 closings nationally in 2018, Lennar Corp. with 48,856 closings, and PulteGroup, with 23,107 closings.
Other Houston-based builders on the list are Perry Homes, MHIMcGuyer Homebuilders, Chesmar Homes, Long Lake Ltd., Castlerock Communities, Westin Homes and Anglia Homes.
Aliana opens sections as buildout nears
Aliana, a masterplanned community by Airia Development Co. in Richmond, has opened seven new sections as the community closes in on filling the remaining 1,000 lots with homes.
Houses in the new section are priced from about $270,000 to more than $900,000, according to the developer. The builders are Ashton Woods, Coventry Homes, Highland Homes, J. Patrick Homes, Lennar, Meritage Homes, Partners in Building, Perry Homes, Plantation Homes and Village Builders.
To date, nearly 3,200 homes have been sold in Aliana, a 2,000-acre community off the Grand Parkway at West Airport Boulevard, between U.S. 59 and Interstate 10.
Aliana reported 430 new homes in 2018, making it the fifth most active community in Texas for new home sales last year, according ranking by consulting firms RCLCO and John Burns Real Estate Consulting.