News
The Woodlands Is Part of a Thriving Area of College Station
The Woodlands of College Station is located near all the popular hot spots, including Texas A&M, Northgate and Blinn College. The part of town Woodlands is in an emerging area with thriving retail and real estate. New construction on Wellborn Road proves this. See article below for more details.
Wellborn Road: An emerging corridor
By HOLLI L. ESTRIDGE
Special to The Eagle
Traffic is slower and more congested than usual as the expansion of Wellborn Road between F.M. 2818 and Rock Prairie Road continues.
When David Cottrell made his foray into the Bryan-College Station commercial real estate market three years ago, a rural intersection on the western fringes of Brazos County emerged on his radar.
Now the Houston developer of North Park Plaza in Bryan and College Station Plaza is pioneering new development near the Wellborn Road-F.M. 2818 nexus.
Bolstered by new residential development and intersection traffic counts approaching 30,000 cars per day, the southern stretch of Wellborn Road is quickly evolving into a new hot spot for development.
“The area has matured, and it’s vibrant,” Cottrell said. “You have a fair amount of homes that have been there for a while, as well as a number of new homes that are coming online.”
To that end, Cottrell said his Ace Hardware-anchored Navarro West Plaza will fill a great void in the market that currently forces residents on the western end of town to travel a distance for many services.
The 12,000-square-foot Ace Hardware store will be joined by a Fat Burger and a 1,200-square-foot Mac’s Liquor Store, which are slated for a March opening. Cottrell declined to identify four other prospective tenants that could occupy the center’s remaining 3,800 square feet but said they would include a mix of national and regional retailers offering both services and hard goods.
College Station Assistant Director of Planning and Development Services Lance Simms said new development has indeed picked up along the southern stretch of Wellborn Road in recent months.
The city’s Planning and Zoning Commission recently approved Phase 1 development of The Barracks, a 108-lot town-home project on Rock Prairie Road near the intersection with Wellborn Road; the two-building second phase of All Safe Storage south of Rock Prairie; and the 120-acre Capstone Cottages, a student housing development with nearby light commercial uses.
Meanwhile, the Texas Department of Transportation is prepping the road to accommodate growth. In addition to a Wellborn Road widening project that is already under way, TxDOT is working on the F.M. 2818/Wellborn Road interchange project.
The $25.8 million project, which will occur over two years, will separate train and roadway traffic, improving access along the north-south thoroughfare.
In 2008, TxDOT completed work at the intersection of Villa Maria and Wellborn roads — a project that was key to improving travel on Wellborn.
In recent years, shopping centers, restaurants and retail outlets have cropped up along the stretch of Wellborn Road from Harvey Mitchell north to Villa Maria. Simms said interest has spread to areas as far south as William D. Fitch Parkway in the last year or so.
Improving access and making way for development on Wellborn Road has proved a difficult task, said David Gwin, director of economic and community development for the city of College Station.
The Union Pacific rail line that runs along Wellborn Road presents access challenges and serves in some cases as a barrier to development, Gwin said. And as the city has focused economic development dollars in recent years on College Station’s primary commercial corridors — Texas Avenue and University Drive — Wellborn Road has remained a rural-type thoroughfare, he said.
Because of infrastructure issues, residents in new developments rely heavily on the road to gain access to Bryan and College Station, Gwin said. As development continues along the corridor, Gwin said, it will only become more difficult to improve infrastructure.
Still, city leaders view Wellborn Road as a burgeoning secondary commercial corridor, brimming with service retail for residents along the county’s western outskirts.
“As far as our primary corridors go, people are still mainly interested in the triangle that is Texas Avenue, University Drive and Harvey Road leading up to the mall,” Gwin said. “Eventually, we see Wellborn as kind of completing that triangle.”
Tagged: the woodlands of college station, texas a&m, northgate, blinn college, wellborn road, harvey mitchell pkwy
