Yesterday, The Groves, a 1,000-acre master-planned community in Northeast Houston, broke ground. (You break it, you buy it; luckily they already had.) We were on hand to chat with owner/developer Crescent Communities VP Jim Zimmerman (here showing off the beautiful weather), who tells us the project will include a 10-acre commercial Village Center. It'll be in the center of the project and will be part of The Groves' third or fourth phase. Jim says Crescent will likely sell sites to a retail developer but will be very hands-on to ensure its design guidelines are met. (For example, it doesn't want any big box product.)

Here are Crescent SVP of Texas Steve Yetts and president of residential Andy Carmody with Texas State Rep Dan Huberty. The Groves will include 2,200 single-family homes, 100 acres of open space, 90 acres of parks and natural reserves, over five miles of trails, and two schools. (Which one will have a better football team?) It is designed around the beautiful forest on the site, which sits between Sam Houston Tollway and Will Clayton Parkway in the Humble ISD. h+uo architects is handling design of amenity buildings, TBG Partners is landscape architect (a major role in this project because of its focus on "life in the woods" and the outdoors component), Brown & Gay is civil engineer, and IBC Bank is lender.