A local firm got preliminary rezoning approval for The Orchard at Lower Kirby, a 122-acre development in Pearland, with plans for residential, retail, office, hotel and conference facilities.

Sugar Land-based Planned Community Developers is the third developer to have the site at the southwest corner of State Highway 288 and Beltway 8 under contract, and it plans to close in the next three months, the Houston Business Journal reported.

PCD plans to split The Orchard at Lower Kirby into three districts: high-density, single-family residential, mixed-use commercial and waterfront entertainment, Community Impact reported.

Pearland officials approved a planned unit development zoning for the project last month, and a final reading is slated for a Monday city council meeting. Pearland Mayor Kevin Cole said he hoped the development would become a cornerstone of the community, according to Community Impact.

NewQuest had considered a $350M mixed-use development with restaurants, retail, apartments, a hotel, and sports and entertainment at the same site. Discussions went on for nearly four years, but NewQuest President Austin Alvis said it was no longer in the works early last year. Alvis said the economics didn’t work, citing the cost of public infrastructure as a factor.

Decades earlier, Poag & McEwen Lifestyle Centers bought 127 acres and planned to build a $150M outdoor shopping center at the site. Ultimately, only a 150K SF Bass Pro Shops, which opened in 2007, was built. Poag & McEwen gave up on the project around the time of the Global Financial Crisis.

“The reason the other two developers failed has nothing to do with their capabilities, because they are both very good developers,” PCD CEO Don Janssen said, according to Community Impact. “It had to do with uncontrollable market conditions. Unfortunately, we’re going to experience those same ones in this.”

But he pointed to the area’s employment growth and changes since 2007 as factors supporting the project. The hotel and conference center are critical parts of the development plans, as they could help boost sales tax revenue and attract corporate office users, similar to PCD’s Sugar Land Town Square, Janssen said.

The Orchard's preliminary plans include a 150K SF, six-story office building, Janssen told the HBJ, adding that more could be built if the market demands it.

The early plans also include 250K SF of retail and entertainment space, split between a 150K SF traditional shopping center and 100K SF of “village-style” retail with entertainment, restaurants and a central park along the water near Bass Pro Shops.

PCD plans to build up to 1,400 apartments, brownstone townhomes and condos in the development.

Janssen said groundbreaking could occur within six to nine months, followed by the first phase of townhome and shopping center development within three to five years. The entire project could be completed within a decade.