NewQuest Properties Cancels Pearland Development Plans

NewQuest Properties has canceled plans for a $350 million mixed-use project south of downtown Houston.

The local developer had hoped to transform a 93-acre site in Pearland’s Lower Kirby District into apartments, retail and entertainment venues, but escalating costs and the project’s overall viability led the firm to pull back, the Houston Business Journal reported.

“The cost of public infrastructure and the cost of doing deals became a challenge that the deal couldn’t support,” NewQuest President Austin Alvis said. “The economics don’t work on it, and so we’ve decided to focus on projects that have a more imminent timeline.”

Despite the setback, Pearland officials are hopeful about the site’s future, citing the region’s rapid growth and its prime location at the intersection of Highway 288 and Beltway 8.

“We want to see something there that’s not your typical box development that you see at every corner of the freeway,” Pearland EDC President Matt Buchanan said. “We are trying to get something there that’s maybe a little bit more mixed-use, a little more entertainment-focused, that’s probably not typical of a lot of our development around the region.”

The development was expected to feature three apartment complexes, a hotel with a conference center, several retail pads and an entertainment complex with a boardwalk alongside an existing detention pond.

NewQuest had been working on the plans for the site since 2019, initially meeting with the Pearland Economic Development Corporation in March 2022 and submitting plans to the Pearland City Council later that year. However, the developer’s efforts were not enough to overcome the significant financial hurdles that emerged.

The cancellation follows a long history of challenges for this site. In 2005, Memphis-based Poag & McEwen Lifestyle Centers had planned a $150 million outdoor shopping center, The Promenade Shops at The Spectrum, but the project was abandoned after the economy took a downturn.

— Andrew Terrell