Houston Business Journal Week of August 30,. 1993

---

Obscure builder gets big break with Kingwood retail project

An upscale shopping center with authentic Texas style
by Kathy Allen

Ty Eckley has surprised the Houston retail market by pulling off a coup in Kingwood. The relatively obscure artist-cum-general contractor was picked by Friendswood Development Co. to construct the first upscale shopping project in the firm's master-planned community. The 2.5-acre project, dubbed Main Street, will be developed within Kingwood's existing Town Center at Lake Houston Parkway and Kingwood Drive.

Eckley got the nod over other bidders by quickly producing designs that meshed with Friendswood's goals for the area, says David Reitz, the company's marketing specialist for Kingwood.

Main Street will provide high-end shopping in a pedestrian environment, with canopy-covered walkways, transom lighting, head-in parking and other historical elements of Texas architecture.

Eckley, at 41, is virtually unknown in local development circles. The self-described "quality junkie" has a diverse background that includes a degree in sculpture, stints in retail and cable television, plus work with a local inventor.

He started his own general contracting firm, Black Mesa Construction Co., in 1977 and survived the development slumps of the 1980s by focusing primarily on high-end residential and subcontracting work on retail centers.

"A lot of people that are still here are veterans of adaptation," Eckley says. "We learned the critical path lesson - the ability to survive was directly related to the ability to get small and efficient."

Eckley, a Kingwood resident, noticed the empty block in Town Center earlier this year. He contacted Reitz about a week before any signs appeared. When he learned that Friendswood wanted an upscale concept, he heard the sound of opportunity knocking and immediately borrowed money to develop plans.

"There are too many high-dollar houses here being served by too little retail space," Eckley says. "I finally lived long enough to get one of those projects that you see fly by only every now and then."

Within a couple of months after his initial discussion with Reitz, Eckley secured funding for the $5 million to $6 million project. He found his investors right up the street. Residential clients of his construction company decided to fund the project after hearing Eckley's idea.

He also took off on a tour of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona in search of interesting Main Street architecture. Armed with two albums filled with photos of his travels, Eckley approached the architects at Palmer Brook Schooley Architecture and Design. Eckley, who had worked with the firm on residential projects, pored over the albums with the architects, selecting the various details from different periods and influences.

"We were trying to draw from Texas vernacular architecture to evoke the feeling of a main street in any Texas town," says architect Lynn Fitzpatrick. "Rather than doing a building that looks continuous, we have different structures that may have been built 10 to 30 years apart."

This careful attention to authentic details was enough to convince Friendswood.
"We really didn't work seriously with anyone but Ty," says Reitz. "He was the first one who approached us with his ideas, and they seemed to mesh will our vision for what we wanted to happen there."

Eckley realized that a conventional retail center wouldn't fly in Kingwood.
"People just didn't get the point," he says. "It really surprised me that the other bidders wanted to pour a pad and slap up tilt walls and be done with it. Nobody wanted to worry about the detail for the planter boxes, the mix of the tenants or the effect the project may have on the surrounding neighborhoods."

About 157,000 residents will live within a 10-mile radius for Kingwood's Town Center by 1997, according to the most recent census. And the annual median income of new home owners moving into Kingwood in 1992 was $92,500, according to statistics kept by Friendswood.

With only limited retail shopping in Kingwood, residents must drive 30 to 45 minutes to Humble's Deerwood Mall for many of their shopping needs.

Eckley's Main Street project will consist of 54 units. About 25 to 30 will serve as retail shops, while the remaining will include second-story professional offices.

Space will be at a premium. Eckley estimates build-out costs of almost $24 per square foot, compared to the standard $10 to $14 per square foot in standard shopping centers.

Construction of the first side of Main Street is slated to be complete in time for Christmas shopping.

Ground has not yet been broken, but Eckley claims retailers are already scrambling to buy Main Street shops or offices. To date, only three units are left on the first side, and Eckley says he has received letter of intent for about 40 percent of the other side.

The developer is choosing a tenant mix with the same attention to detail he followed in designing the center.

"I am selecting only the best, and only one of every type of shop or business," he says. "I've had to turn away six restaurants because I only wanted one on each corner facing the park with sidewalk cafes."

On the other hand, Eckley is still looking for a computer store that teaches lessons to computer illiterate like himself.

And he's not concerned about the lack of a big-name anchor.
"The anchor in this instance is the lack of space compared to demand," Eckley says.