​Every year CDS produces a land use and demographic profile for The Energy Corridor District—a business district on Houston’s west side. Each edition includes a thorough land use and demographic profile as well as projections for the future. For the 2017 edition CDS provided multiple future projections, accounting for a new land use trend that is gaining popularity in Houston and other parts of the country: place-oriented and mixed-use development.  

Kent Dussair
CDS Community Development Strategies

The real estate market moves in cycles. When times are good, new projects are easy to justify—whether the land use is residential, commercial, or something else. But when the economic times are uncertain, the best use of a property is not always clear. In the Houston area, where the local economy has been adversely affected by low oil prices, land owners and developers are still moving forward… but cautiously. Projects currently underway are being closely scrutinized while future planned developments are being re-evaluated. Determining the highest and best use for an undeveloped (or under-developed) property is always important, but in a challenging local real estate market, it is absolutely essential.

Link to Article. PDF of Article.

Steve Spillette
CDS Community Development Strategies

​Much has been said recently about the relationship between Houston and the price of oil. While most agree that the local economy is more robust than it once was, many are still wondering just how big an impact low oil prices will have. One way to answer this question is to look at how the region was impacted by high oil prices in the recent past. The synopsis: it added over 100,000 six-figure income households—something future growth is not expected to duplicate any time soon. 

Last Thursday, Walmart ended its Walmart Express concept, shuttering all 102 such stores. Walmart announced earlier in January that they planned to close several underperforming stores across all of their formats, but it was the entirety of Walmart Express that made up the bulk of the planned closures. Despite that fact, the Walmart Express format meets a relatively quiet end, as discussion of Walmart store closures as an economic indicator largely drowned out discussion of the Express format itself. It is a format that deserves some further examination.

​In addition to having more dogs, households are spending more money on them. While the percentage of households owning a dog increased by roughly 6% from 2005 to 2015, total U.S. consumer spending on pets nearly doubled, going from just over 36 billion to a projected 60 billion over the same period. A significant portion of that pet spending is dog related.

Not only are the number of dog owning households increasing, but dog owners have become increasingly vocal. Jurisdictions around the country have been responsive. In the 100 largest cities the number of dog parks have increased from roughly 420 in 2005 to more than 650 in 2015, a 53% rise. 

CDS Community Development Strategies

Link to the video. PDF of the Presentation.

​CDS President Steve Spillette recently spoke to a group of graduate students in the Bauer Graduate Real Estate program at the University of Houston. Mr. Spillette has several years of experience in retail market analysis and multiple degrees related to real estate and planning--including an MBA from Texas A&M University. In addition, he has performed a variety of market studies and financial pro-forma analyses for both private and public clients related to single family and multifamily residential, office, industrial, hotel, meeting facilities, and golf, as well as significant public sector studies related to major investments and strategic initiatives.

In this presentation he details the process and method required to perform a credible retail market analysis. This type of analysis is often performed for commercial developers who want to gauge how successful their planned development will be.

Click on the image below to watch the video on the CDS Youtube channel.