NewQuest Properties’ proposed mixed-use development with restaurants, retail, apartments, a hotel, sports and entertainment in Pearland is no longer on the table, the victim of economics the company said no longer work.
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NewQuest had been in talks with Pearland officials to put the $350M project on 93 acres at the intersection of State Highway 288 and Beltway 8 in Pearland's Lower Kirby District.
But NewQuest President Austin Alvis said the site, which is owned by asset management company PGIM, is no longer under contract and NewQuest has no plans for its development, according to the Houston Business Journal.
“The cost of public infrastructure and the cost of doing deals became a challenge that the deal couldn't support,” Alvis told the HBJ. “Ultimately, just the economics don't work on it, and so we've decided to focus on projects that have a more imminent timeline.”
The proposed plans were first reported in late 2022, and NewQuest said it had been planning the project since 2019, according to the HBJ. Pearland Economic Development Corp. said that talks about the project ended in summer 2023.
The NewQuest project was slotted to rise next to a $53.7M, 181K SF indoor amateur sports facility proposed by the City of Pearland. The facility, with volleyball courts, basketball courts, a fitness center, multipurpose fields and other activities, was pitched as a way to add to city-sponsored recreation activities while relieving programming space pressure from local school districts, the Houston Chronicle reported.
But the city abandoned the plans for that sports facility a few months before NewQuest’s project was canceled. City officials cited cost as a contributing factor, according to the HBJ.
Pearland EDC still hopes to see something developed on that site that is different from the “typical box development that you see at every corner of the freeway,” President Matt Buchanan told the outlet.
NewQuest abandoning its plans is not the first time a development proposal for the site has been canceled.
Poag & McEwen Lifestyle Centers bought 127 acres there in 2005 and planned to build a $150M outdoor shopping center, the Houston Business Journal reported. Ultimately, only a 150K SF Bass Pro Shops was built before Poag & McEwen gave up on the project around the time of the Global Financial Crisis.
HBJ reported that Alvis did not rule out the possibility of developing the site in the future.
Buchanan noted that the Highway 288 corridor is getting denser, and NewQuest is known to wait close to a decade for the right time to develop a site.
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