Sugar Land Town Center
Sugar Land, Texas
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When Planned Community Developers were ready to develop a “lifestyle center” in the heart of First Colony, they turned to Costello for the necessary engineering and surveying services. Having been the engineer for First Colony for decades, Costello was primed to assist the developer on this new venture. Sugar Land City Hall is the “anchor” of the 32-acre center located at the southeast corner of US 59 & State Highway 6 in the heart of First Colony. The project also includes a 300-room full-service Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, mid-rise residential units, 450,000 square feet of office space, with 235,000 square feet of upscale retail and restaurants and a 1.4-acre pedestrian plaza in a walkable downtown setting.
In the original master plan for First Colony, this area was zoned B-2, a Business Reserve. Therefore, for the developers to go forward with their plans for a Planned Development, re-zoning was required. Costello assisted the developer in having the property re-zoned by providing necessary exhibits, infrastructure cost estimates and, ultimately, platting the proposed changes. The overall re-zoning effort included close coordination with the City of Sugar Land Planning & Zoning Commission as well as with the City Council.
Costello’s responsibilities included site grading, platting, design and construction surveys, the design of water, sewer, and drainage facilities, and paving for the entire development, including City Hall. Costello was also responsible for providing construction phase services. The project required close coordination with the architect and regulatory authorities, as well as mechanical, electrical and plumbing sub-consultants.
Relevant Project Services
- Commercial Development
- Surveying
- Construction Phase Services
Project Size and Cost
- 32 acres
Unique Project Attributes
- Mixed use development
- Includes multi-family residential, office, restaurants, commercial, retail, hotel and the City of Sugar Land City Hall
- High density development with structured parking
- Downtown atmosphere
Challenges Faced
- ADA paths throughout the development in accordance with state and federal requirements
- Limited space between the roads and buildings. This restricts drainage capacity and the ability to pond water during short duration, intense rainfall that is common to the area.
- All underground dry utilities within or adjacent to the road right of ways makes it difficult for utility connections and extensions without adjustments to the existing dry utilities.
- Vertical construction occurred at the same time and adjacent to public infrastructure construction.
Resolutions & Results
- Established dedicated paths between buildings and parking garages to satisfy ADA requirements. It was not possible to make the entire sidewalk from the buildings to the roads compliant.
- Larger storm sewer lines and additional storm sewer inlets are installed to limit ponding during short duration, high intensity rainfall events.
- Early coordination with the MEP for adjacent buildings was necessary during design of the public infrastructure to allow for the crossing of or ties to dry and wet utilities near the road. This virtually eliminated the need for utility locations for the project.
- Field staff of Costello, Inc. worked with the building construction superintendents and the public utility foremen to coordinate construction to avoid conflict and down time for the each of the projects.