Katy Stewart, Houston Business Journal
In last week’s edition of the Houston Business Journal, we ranked the top real estate law firms in Houston. We talked to lawyers at some of the top firms on the list — they made predictions for 2014, gave analysis of 2013 and outlined the major Houston projects they’ve helped bring about.
Photography by Carl Mayfield
A recent study showed Sugar Land’s Constellation Field has exceeded attendance expectations by 55 percent.
by Ralph Bivins
Houston home builders are hammering as fast as they can to keep up with a 13 percent increase in sales this year.
“Everybody is upbeat and expecting new home sales to continue to grow,” says Cernus Development’s Harry Masterson, president of the Greater Houston Builders Association. “Everybody feels we have the capacity for more home sales.”
By Lise Olsen and Will Tucker
Both as a candidate and as a congressman, Rep. Steve Stockman of Clear Lake has failed to make federally required disclosures about business affiliations that stretch from Texas to the British Virgin Islands, and has provided no details about the business he claims as his sole source of income.
by Howard Gleckman
The Obama Administration is trying to untangle the controversy over the growing role of 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations in politics by creating a new category of banned candidate-related activity. I wish it all the luck in the world.
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By Zach Haverkamp
The citizen-led Traffic Safety Task Force formally issued its report on Sugar Land’s Red Light Camera Program to city council last week, recommending the continuation of the program, while giving consideration to modifying yellow light times, signage, fines and ticket verbiage. Opponents of the cameras disagreed with the report’s conclusion that the RLCP improves driver behavior, as well as one of the task force’s members.
RHS Interests Inc
Katy Stewart, Houston Business Journal
When the Mid-Main mixed-use development breaks ground in Spring 2014, it won’t look or feel like typical Houston developments, said architect Rob Rogers of New York-based Rogers Partners Architects + Urban Designers, an architect for the project.
By Jonathan Garris
The latest financial report from The Woodlands Township shows that the area is continuing to see high revenues and low expenditures as businesses and hotels collect higher sales tax revenue due to increased occupancy rates.
Smiley N. Poole photo
By Craig Hlavaty
Four recognizable pieces of the beleaguered Reliant Astrodome will be demolished in the coming weeks, Reliant Park officials said Monday.
“This has been mismanaged from the get-go,” Metropolitan Transit Authority board chair Gilbert Garcia said recently about Central Station, the light-rail hub planned for Main Street, between Capitol and Rusk. He continued, “This is precisely why we get criticism.”
Photo By Derek Salyer/Freelance
By Mark A. Quick
Pearland officials believe the recent merger of their fire and emergency medical services departments will improve response time, result in greater administrative coordination and better use of human resources.
Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune
By CORRIE MACLAGGAN
SUGAR LAND — Nikhil Sabharwal of Toronto stood outside a hotel, next to a cart piled with luggage, holding a tall stick decorated with gold garland, a bhangra dance prop from an Indian wedding he had attended here. Steps away, at a coffee shop, a woman wearing a hijab sat near the spot where, minutes earlier, Lynne Gabriel, a fashion blogger of Filipino descent, had posed for photos for her website.
by Shaina Zucker, Houston Business Journal
Houston-based Johnson Development Corp. this week inked the deal to acquire the Camp Strake property near Conroe for future development.
The master-planned community developer purchased the 2,046-acre site from Sam Houston Area Council Boy Scouts of America for an undisclosed price.
Photo courtesy of The Revival Chronicles
By Claire St. Amant
Texans pride themselves on, well, a lot of things. But according to a new survey, we don’t have much to brag about in the political arena.
At the November 20, 2013 Houston City Council Committee on Ethics, Elections, and Council Governance, Councilman Larry Green withdrew his nominee, Jasmine Quinerly, from consideration for appointment to the Harris County Appraisal District, Position 4. Councilman Oliver Pennington submitted Ray Holtzapple’s name for consideration, and there was unanimous support for Ray’s reappointment for another two-year term.
Committee Chairman C. O. “Brad” Bradford invited Ray to give an update to the Council Members assembled at the meeting held in the Council Chambers (photo attached). After Ray’s update, Chairman Bradford recognized me in the audience and commented about receiving the HAR Board of Directors letter of support for Ray’s reappointment. HAR’s Dana Kervin joined Ray at the microphone and thanked the Council Members for their support.
The matter will now go to the Houston City Council for their consideration in December. The HAR Governmental Affairs Team will monitor the weekly agenda for this item and provide you with an update. The HAR Governmental Affairs Team wants to thank all the Executive Committee and Directors for your quick response to the letter of support for Ray’s reappointment to HCAD.
WONDERING WHATEVER HAPPENED to the competition entries from architects competing for the new Main St. light rail station planned for the block between Capitol and Rusk streets downtown, where the new East End and Southeast Lines cross the existing rail line? After a long silence about the project, Metro board members voted yesterday to scrap the plan for a signature station at that location, and to spend $1.05 million to build a standard canopy there instead.
photo by Ron Chapple
Shaina Zucker – Houston Business Journal
Millennials have spoken with their moving patterns and selected Houston as a top destination between 2009 to 2012, according to migration data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Brookings Institution
HARtbeat 