After Daikin’s Job Boost, Waller Officials Await New Rooftops, Developments from Wolff

 

By CARA SMITH

HOUSTON – When Daikin Industries Ltd., a Japanese heating and cooling giant, opened its $417 million facility in Waller last year, the city didn’t immediately see a lot of change around town. Local restaurants are busier at lunchtime, sure, but there hasn’t been a major influx of retail and commercial developments that typically comes with an increase in population.

And that’s precisely the problem. While Daikin’s new facility created more than 4,000 jobs, the city doesn’t yet have the rooftops to support its steep increase in new employees.

“We have many, many more jobs than population, so we definitely needed some single family,” John Isom, director of the city of Waller’s economic development council, told the Houston Business Journal.

So, when Houston-based Wolff Cos. began the process of purchasing more than 500 acres in Waller County – which is around 50 miles away from downtown Houston and around 20 miles northwest of Katy – Isom and the economic development council got to work.

In June, Wolff Cos. closed on 521 acres in Waller, right off U.S. 290 and FM 362. The company’s planning to develop light industrial, office, retail, and possibly hospitality properties. But perhaps the biggest part of Wolff’s development will come from a 270-acre tract it sold to a Houston-based homebuilder, Long Lake Ltd. Over the next five or six years, Long Lake is planning to build 1,000 homes on the land.

The city of Waller will annex the 521-acre tract, Isom said, and has received authorization on establishing a MUD district on the land. The city is also helping with the cost of setting up the land’s city utilities, too, though the exact costs of those utilities isn’t available yet, Isom said.

“We’ve been open to whatever types of incentives would help developers,” he said.

The first phase of Long Lake’s 1,000 rooftops should deliver in early 2020, Wolff Cos. CEO David Wolff told the Houston Business Journal, and perhaps more retail and commercial development will follow. The city of Waller is working on several other projects to make the city more walkable and attractive to potential residents, Isom said. Among those projects is the demolition and relocation of Waller’s city hall building at 1118 Farr St. to the block directly to the north. The city hall is being relocated to make room for a commercial plaza, Isom said, that’ll hopefully contain professional office buildings, locally owned cafes and family-friendly amenities such as splash pads.

Daikin may develop a Japanese garden or a butterfly garden in the plaza, too, Isom said. And last month, one of the city’s parks had its grand re-opening after Daikin spent $150,000 on new equipment to the park. It’s now known as Daikin Park.

In a separate interview with the Houston Business Journal, Wolff said the company’s work in Waller could play out similarly to its work in west Houston in the ’70s. Wolff Cos. acquired more than 500 acres in west Houston around 50 years ago, back when it was commonly thought that Houston had developed as far west as it would go. Wolff’s project, Park 10 Regional Business Center, served as a major catalyst for the area and helped it become the Energy Corridor.

“Six months from now, it’s going to be a different world out there,” Wolff said. “I think it’s going to be a very exciting corridor.”

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https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2018/07/13/after-daikins-job-boost-waller-officials-await-new.html