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Fidelis Snags 411 Acres in Growing Houston Suburb
Tonie Auer
Commercial Property News

Houston-based Fidelis Realty Partners has acquired about 411 acres in a former oil field in southeastern Harris County, Texas, for an undisclosed amount from Kinder Morgan.

Confidentiality clauses prevented much information from being released. CBRE has been marketing the old Kinder Morgan oil fields that had previously been part of Kinder Morgan/Exxon, sources who asked not to be named told CPN today. Exxon had not signed off on the properties as of earlier this year.

Houston-based Fidelis Partners has been one of the players in a large land grab in the area, the source said. Owned by broker and developer Alan Hassenflu, along with Lynn Davis, “Fidelis is a heavyweight in the retail markets here. He's buying land and investments like there's no tomorrow. He just bought several shopping centers including two corners of vacant land in League City at FM 646 and South Shore Boulevard. He also bought about a dozen shopping centers. He’s been buying up shopping centers and vacant land in the area,” the source said.

Hassenflu was part of the former Trammell Crow Co. team and started his own firm about three years ago.

No use for the former oil field has been announced as of yet, but a 93-acre $150 million mixed use development, dubbed Clearpoint Crossing (pictured), is in the works directly across Space Center Blvd. from the recently acquired land.

“The nearest retail in the area is Baybrook Mall, 6.5 miles away from the most affluent part of Clear Lake and that person would probably (rather) go into Houston than go that far to shop,” Patrick Dando, director of real property for Space Center Blvd. Land Development L.P., which is developing Clearpoint Crossing, told CPN. “Space Center Boulevard only opened three years, so this is not going into an area and oversaturating it. We’re going into an area that hadn’t had an opportunity for growth.”

Dando said his Clearpoint Crossing project will have restaurants, apartments, medical office and specialty boutiques. He added that he did not know the planned use for the Fidelis acquisition.

“I’ll be interested to see what Fidelis has planned for this large tract,” Barbara Cutsinger, marketing manager for the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, told CPN. “Space Center Boulevard is a major artery traveled by specialty chemical and port workers as well as NASA workers. This road joins Clear Lake, and Pasadena is adjacent to Ellington Field, which is the target of an amendment by U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson of a study to explore using the site as a national aviation training center.”

Cutsinger also said Boeing has facilities across the street next to an astronaut training facility.

On July 10, CPN reported Houston-based Griffin Partners Inc. purchased a 27-acre site to develop a $150 to $175 million mixed-use project across from Johnson Space Center in the suburban Houston community of Nassau Bay.

Aaron Howes of CB Richard Ellis Inc. and Kirk Laguarta of Land Advisors Organization--Houston represented Kinder Morgan in the sale of the 411-acre tract. Fidelis Realty Partners was represented by Marvin Stapper of M. M. Stapper Commercial Real Estate. Efforts to reach Fidelis were unsuccessful.

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