Sunny retail outlook in Sunshine State

  Houston isn’t the only place with a thriving retail sector (thank you, CBRE for these stats.) South Florida has 2 million s.f. of retail under construction and a 3.8% vacancy rate. Houston architecture firm Levinson Alcoser Associates actively works in both markets and is completing a new retail center in the Miami submarket of Miramar, working with Master Development Partners of Dania Beach. The 50,000 s.f. greenfield development, tentatively named Miramar Park Place, is geared toward high-profile retail, restaurant, banking, and freestanding quick-serve food tenants. PRISM worked with Levinson Alcoser to develop early phase renderings to market to tenants. Leasing will be handled by Salzman Real Estate Advisors.

Prime spot opens in Houston Galleria

 Developing multiple renderings for a retail project of less than 8,600 s.f. may seem a bit excessive. But when that space is nestled between some of the biggest names in luxury retail and high-end dining, it’s bound to pay off. Transwestern tasked PRISM with developing exterior and interior views of an 8,559 s.f. parcel on the first level of the Houston Galleria, across from the Westin hotel entrance. The renderings are part of Transwestern’s marketing package for prospective tenants, which promotes the upscale shopping experience the Galleria is known for. Modeled after the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, the Houston Galleria is the largest mall in Texas and the seventh-largest in the United States.

All still Grand in western Harris County

 Development around the Grand Parkway continues to sizzle. More than 3.1 million SF of retail, restaurants, and entertainment will be completed by 2021 along the Grand Parkway, according to Bisnow. Houston real estate finance and development firm Criss Cross Commercial Group is fanning the flames with their new retail development, Morton Park Plaza. The center is at the southwest corner of the Grand Parkway and Morton Ranch Road. The first phase will wrap up in January 2019, totaling roughly 20,000 SF. Kolache Factory and a national dental operator have already signed leases, and Starbucks will occupy a freestanding building on a prominent corner. Phase II is tentatively set to start construction in late 2019 and include 16,000 SF. PRISM’s aerial rendering of the center emphasizes the highly-trafficked building frontage to entice prospective tenants. Criss Cross Dir. of Leasing and Development Peter Strauss stated, “Access and traffic flow is critical to our tenant customers. Many of their businesses depend heavily on visibility and convenience. We focus on delivering that through our development design, but it can be difficult to illustrate well in two dimensions. PRISM's renderings bring to life the traffic and pedestrian flow in and around our development, and they do so in an attractive way. The renderings make it much easier to explain the development to brokers and tenants, and therefore easier to originate and close deals.”  In addition to Morton Park Plaza, Criss Cross Commerical Group is currently developing projects in east Montgomery County, Texas (New Caney), and in central Texas.

PRISM team expands

Please help us welcome a new team member. Talia Zhao recently joined PRISM as an assistant project manager. She will support the rendering development process and assist the internal team with quality control. Before she moved to the U.S. four years ago, Talia earned a bachelor of architecture degree and worked for five years in Beijing, first doing residential design for the Beijing Institute of Housing Construction, then switching to multifamily high-rise residential development for a private developer. In these differing roles, she had the opportunity to fulfill many aspects of project delivery – from land evaluation and permitting, to design, construction administration, and site inspection. Through it all, she maintained a love of hand drawing. She still does sketching and has taught workshops on the topic. Her first priority is her 15-month-old son and her husband. In any spare time she has, Talia loves to cook. She even studied at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Boston!

Let's get social!

Have you checked out our Instagram page yet? And if you're posting about our work together, please use the tags #prismrenderings and #yourvisionrealized so we can be sure and share! We're also on Facebook and LinkedIn too and would love to connect with you there. Happy Summer!