LOCAL Houston | The City Guide JANUARY 2015 | Page 36

Local January 2015_FINAL_002houston 12/18/14 4:12 PM Page 36

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...IS FOR
ENERGY
CORRIDOR

So what’s driving this enviable growth? It’s a combination of factors:
affordability, accessibility and a diversity of choices. No longer just a
place to go to work, the Energy Corridor is really more of a masterplanned urban community designed to attract people who want to work,
play and live in the same general area. Throw in easy transportation,
plenty of green space, loads of restaurants and the shiny, state-of-the-art
Texas Medical Center-West Campus, and you have a place that more
and more people are eager to call home. Nearly 22,000 people currently call the Energy Corridor home; that number is slated to jump 24% to

36 L O C A L | january 15

The seat of Houston’s political power may be downtown, but
West Houston is where things are moving and shaking.
Once dismissed as the outer reaches of beyond, the stretch
of land located west of Beltway 8 and east of Grand
Parkway is known as the Energy Corridor, and it’s enjoying
unprecedented boom times as the hot place to be in
Houston. Home to more than 300 companies, including
some of the largest multinational energy concerns in the
world – ConocoPhillips, Shell Oil Company, Citgo Petroleum
Corp. and ExxonMobil Chemical, among others – the
Energy Corridor is now the region’s second-biggest employment center. In 2014, the area boasted 28.4 million square
feet of office and mixed-use space; 19 million square feet of
that is office space, 75% of which is designated as Class A.
If that sounds like a ton of space, it is. But a 2014 land use
and demographics study by CDS Market Research predicts
an even more impressive jump in square footage. By 2030,
the Energy Corridor is predicted to enjoy a 59% increase in
office, warehouse and mixed-used space to more than 45
million square feet. And the 91,000 people who currently
work in the Energy Corridor will grow by 64%, to nearly
150,000.

about 27,000 by 2030. That’s happy news for real estate developers,
who are building apartment buildings and townhouses as fast as they
can. “Over the last 20 years, we have seen the area flourish,” says Kelli
Kickerillo, chief marketing officer of Kickerillo Companies, a Houstonbased residential, commercial and retail developer. “There has been a
boom in multi-family projects, redevelopment of business parks, and new
single-family developments popping up. Our buyers have embraced the
live, work and play mentality to make the Energy Corridor a more urban
environment.”
by Cristina Adams

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