One of Houston’s most dynamic submarkets is the “Energy Corridor”, home to many of Houston’s major energy firms and a magnet for employment and real estate development.  The Energy Corridor is located along West Houston’s Katy Freeway Corridor.  The larger submarket flaks the freeway as it runs west from the ne Houston City Centre at Beltway 8 all the way west to the City of Katy and the Katy Mills Mall development.

On Thursday April 29th some of Houston’s Commercial Real Estate community gathered for a program on the Katy Freeway and Energy Corridor markets. The goal being that each would walk away with increased knowledge of those west Houston areas and some of the major projects shaping their landscape. In all there were 9 office buildings, 4 retail/retail development sites, and 5 raw land presentations, most of which had the listing brokers presenting the details of each project.

Here was the final presentation list with the name of the listing broker:

• Three Eldridge Place - Jessica Ochoa, CB Richard Ellis
• Energy Crossing I & II - Stewart Lyman & Adam Jackson, Stream Realty Partners
• 1200 Enclave - Ronnie Martin, Colvill Office Properties
• 1330 Enclave - Tommy Alexander, CB Richard Ellis
• Eldridge Oaks - David Baker, Transwestern
• Westgate Service Center - Raquel Benitez, Whitestone REIT
• Briar Forest & Eldridge Retail - David Wise, Page Partners
• The Grand - Ed Page, Page Partners
• Millenium Tower & Energy Center II - Steve Rocher, CB Richard Ellis
• The Reserve at Park Ten - Doug Little, PM REalty Group
• Interstate 10 Land sites - Ron Dagley, The Betz Companies
• Katy Green - Eric Johnson, Transwestern & Randolph Wile, Wile Interests
• Highway 6 at Interstate 10 Land sites - Richard Perwein, Bernstein Perwein Properties
• Katy Ranch Crossing - Mike Baker, Freeway Properties

The program opened with a welcome greeting from David Hightower, Wolff Companies, and kicked into full gear with market overviews from Clark Martinson with the Energy Corridor and Lance LaCour with the Katy Area Economic Development Council. Both men discussed the latest happenings in their respective areas and what makes them desirable places to do business. For instance the close proximity to Terry Hershey Park of many of the office buildings in the Energy Corridor make it a great place to set up company headquarters. And did you know that the Katy Area Economic Development Council offers incentives for commercial real estate investments starting at $30 million, far lower than any other area in Greater Houston.

In all, it was a well received event with many attendees and presenters glad to have taken part. Ronnie Martin, Colvill Office Properties, had this to say of the event, “I think the way you guys do this for the different markets is about the best way it could be handled. You don’t have so many [properties] that it becomes a chore and you time them in such a way that it does not disrupt even half of a business day. Plus, I aslways end up seeing somebody I haven’t seen in awhile as well as meeting a couple of [new] people.”

Commercial Gateway will be hosting two more development overviews this year focusing on the Northwest Houston area (Highway 290 & 249) and also The Woodlands. Dates and other details for these programs can be found on the Commercial Gateway events calendar at: www.commercialgateway.com.