Page 65 - Michigan City, IN US Highway 421 Corridor Plan

3.4 Redevelopment Case Studies: CityCentre, Houston, Texas

Overview: Mall in Decline

The CityCentre project, which opened in spring 2010, was Old Mall — Town & Country Mall Redeveloped Mall — CityCentre
built on the site of an obsolete mall in the suburbs of Houston,
Texas. The project’s developer, Midway, has transformed the Location — Houston, Texas Mall Redevelopment — Mixed-Use Town Center or Urban District Access — Located at the intersection of Beltway 8 and I-10

site into a thriving destination, with office, residential, and Model Parking — Three parking structures with 4,000 spaces

entertainment offerings. CityCentre’s appealing retail, fitness, City Population — 2 million

entertainment, and restaurant offerings as powerful drivers of Catchment Area — 2 million people live within a Year opened — 2010 Neighbors — South of CityCentre is Town & Country Village, a

office and residential rents; CityCentre brings in some of the Population 20-minute drive of the property Scale — 47 acres 400,000 sf open air retail center
highest office and residential rents in the city, and its hotel has Year Built — early 1980s Retail and Entertainment — 400,000 sf

the third-highest revenue per available room in Houston. Midway Size — A three story mall with four anchors — Movie Theater

purchased the site because of its location at the demographic Office — 425,000 sf (three office buildings)

center of Houston. CityCentre is located at the intersection of Occupancy Rate at time — mostly abandoned

Beltway 8 and I-10. Beltway 8 is the middle of three beltways of Redevelopment Fitness — 149,000 sf

that will eventually ring the city. Because the city of Houston Proximity to City Center — 14 miles west of downtown Residential — 700 units range from single family for
is so vast (with a total land area of 579 square miles), much sale to multifamily for rent
1
suburban-style development is located within city boundaries. — 225 room luxury hotel topped with six
condos
The development has proven quite successful winning Civic Space — One acre central plaza

several design awards and has become a true restaurant
and entertainment hub for the immediately surrounding
neighborhoods and beyond. Within one year of officially opening,
residential rental capacity hovered around 100 percent and
office capacity reached 100 percent, well ahead of schedule in
early 2011. An eclectic combination of premier locally-owned,
regional and national brands fills retail and restaurant space. 2
The Urban Land Institute (ULI) used CityCentre as a case study
for redeveloping suburbs and drew the following ‘lessons
learned’. First, employers care about where their employees
will shop, eat, and live. Office tenants can be enticed by retail
and restaurant offerings and residential opportunities. Second,
effectively programmed and managed spaces are powerful
attractors of people—and dollars. And finally, retention of existing
structured parking facilities saved tens of millions of dollars in
development costs. 3

1 January 2015. “ULI Case Studies: CityCentre”. Urban Land Institute.
2 Spring 2012. “CITYCENTRE: From Mall to Mixed-Use”. NAIOP Development
Magazine (http://midwaycompanies.com/press/citycentre-from-mall-to-
mixed-use)
3 2012. “Shifting Suburbs Reinventing Infrastructure for Compact Develop-
ment”. Urban Land Institute (http://uli.org/wp-content/uploads/ULI-Docu-
ments/Shifting-Suburbs.pdf)
Source: “Bayou City History”. Houston Chronicle blog.chron.com Source: Urban Land Institute Case Studies Source: Urban Land Institute Case Studies

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Adopted: August 16, 20165 Envision 421 Gateway District 3.0