Sugar Land, Texas Redevelopment of the Imperial Sugar Site ike many communities, the city of Sugar Land uses available COMMUNITY DATA Lmunicipal financing tools to enable successful development. But SUGAR LAND POPULATION 83,000 Sugar Land has expanded its concept of successful planned devel- HOUSTON METRO AREA opment beyond just the revenue stream and the typical public/ POPULATION 6,200,000 private partnership. Its planned development efforts also incorporate CHALLENGE the city’s broader quality-of-life objectives, including the importance Vacant historic factory of cultural arts and preservation of the community’s story. STRATEGIC ELEMENTS City Hall Lessons Learned Hotel Historic building restorations ■■ Serving as a facilitator allows the city to be effective in its partnerships Interpretive trail system with developers while continuously educating the community. This ap- Sugar Land Heritage Museum proach consistently enhances local opportunities for successful planned Performing arts center developments. Corporate headquarters Condominiums Parking Redeveloping the sweetest place in America. JOHNSON DEVELOPMENT CORP. 36 Reaching for the Future: Creative Finance for Smaller Communities Sugar Land’s master planning efforts. JOHNSON DEVELOPMENT CORP. A city hall and town square for a new community. JOHNSON DEVELOPMENT CORP. ■■ Incorporating historic and cultural resources into new development expands the opportuni- ties for including new partners in the typical public/private partnership. ■■ Maintaining a focus on the city’s mix of uses in planned development illustrates how those uses enhance the city as the best place to locate, whatever the reason. The Setting Sugar Land, Texas, is located just 20 miles south- west of Houston. As home of the Imperial Sugar Company for nearly 150 years, Sugar Land’s name, heritage, and economy reflect its origins as a sugar plantation and company town. Imperial Sugar employed many residents, and company leaders supported Sugar Land and its institutions. Sugar Land was incorporated as a municipality ment processes are ongoing; all three exhibit the in 1959 with a population of about 2,300. During city’s willingness to think creatively about devel- the past three decades, the city has experienced opment finance. rapid population growth, from slightly more than 8,800 residents in 1980 to about 83,000 Sugar Land Town Square in 2013. Sugar Land also increased in afflu- Sugar Land’s most notable and successful ence and diversity and welcomed a large Asian mixed-use planned development is Sugar Land population. Sugar Land has also grown through Town Square. The first phase of that 32-acre, 1.4 annexations and the development of a series of million-square-foot mixed-use development was master-planned communities. The city’s master completed in 2003, with two subsequent phases. plans and master-planning processes have been Completed in 2009, Sugar Land Town Square the framework for three significant developments includes the town’s City Hall with a 1.4-acre pub- over the past decade. Each development has lic plaza and event space, a 300-room Marriott unique financing attributes. Two of those develop- hotel complex, three parking decks, 566,000 Reaching for the Future: Creative Finance for Smaller Communities 37 square feet of office space, 252,000 square feet under Texas’s 1979 Development Corporation of retail and restaurant space, and 167 condo- Act, Sugar Land Development Corporation levies miniums. Sugar Land Town Square is located a 0.25 percent sales tax to fund incentives and in- at U.S. Route 59 (I-69) and Texas Highway 6 in frastructure improvements that support economic Sugar Land. development throughout the city. As of 2014, this This development, originally conceived by the fund had provided $68.1 million in capital im- city in 1996, was designed to be Sugar Land’s provements and $7.9 million in incentives specific downtown, or central business district. The city to business recruitment and retention. passed the original planned development zoning Town Square’s second phase of development specific to Town Square in 1998, with five subse- was initiated in 2005. The construction of the first quent modifications. Master developer Planned Class A office building (with ground-level retail) Community Developers Ltd. was engaged at in Sugar Land was key to this phase. With a $2.4 that time. The project’s financial challenge was million incentive from Sugar Land Development to provide attractive lease rates for a project Corporation, Planned Community Developers with high-end amenities and infrastructure. The secured Minute Maid as its primary tenant, occu- city proposed Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone pying 115,000 square feet. Minute Maid agreed (TIRZ) No. 1 to enable reimbursement through to move its corporate headquarters to this Sugar public financing. This TIRZ process was pro- Land location. As part of this incentive, Minute tracted and took nearly three years to complete. Maid, like all Town Square office tenants, was Other taxing bodies participating in the TIRZ in- granted a seven-and-a-half-year 100 percent cluded Fort Bend County and Fort Bend County tax abatement for property improvements. This Levee District No. 2. The project ultimately re- abatement is granted from the city and its TIRZ quired the city of Sugar Land to replace the local No. 1 partners, Fort Bend County and Fort Bend school district’s participation in the TIRZ with the County Levee District No. 2. city’s percentage of sales tax revenue generated Sugar Land Town Square has received by Town Square. multiple awards for innovative development During this early phase of development, Sugar over the years. Among them, Houston Business Land’s city council had authorized the creation Journal recognized the development as its 2005 of the Sugar Land Town Square Development Best Community Impact award winner, and Authority to assist both the city and the developer ULI Houston named Town Square as a 2011 with the Sugar Land Town Square development. Development of Distinction. TIRZ No. 1 property Texas law allowed this authority to assist the city values have also grown exponentially. As of year- in its planning and finance functions. The city and end 2014, the total appraised value of TIRZ No. developer had started discussions with Marriott 1 properties was nearly $96 million, up from a tax to build a new hotel and conference center. The increment base of $5.6 million. conference center required the city to finance its construction and the hotel’s parking garage. Imperial Refinery The authority’s focus became the development of Sugar Land’s former Imperial Sugar refinery site, the Marriott hotel and conference center with an at U.S. Route 90 and Texas Highway 6, is another accompanying parking facility in TIRZ No. 1. The ongoing example of creative funding for rede- development authority entered into a conference velopment. In 2003, Imperial Sugar announced center and parking lease agreement with a pri- plans to vacate its 715-acre site in Sugar Land. vate entity to lease and operate the conference The city approved a general plan for the site in center and to allocate parking garage spaces in 2007. An initial planned development application Town Square. was submitted and withdrawn in 2008 because One important city incentive tool that was ap- of the economic downturn. plied during the development of Sugar Land Town The development structure for the Imperial Square predates its development. Sugar Land Sugar site is complex. Cherokee Sugar Land LP voters approved the creation of the Sugar Land and the Texas General Land Office own the real Development Corporation in 1993. Organized estate as tenants in common. Cherokee Sugar 38 Reaching for the Future: Creative Finance for Smaller Communities Land Management LLC serves as manager of the toric locally, and for creating a Sugar Land The community Imperial Sugar redevelopment project. Johnson Heritage Museum within one of those build- is designed with plentiful green space. Development Corporation is the project’s man- ings. The city extended this TIRZ for an ad- JOHNSON DEVELOPMENT ager. The city has the following role within this ditional five years in 2013. The total estimated CORP. structure: project costs to the TIRZ are approximately ■■ The city annexed what is known as Tract 3 $147.8 million, including $4.7 million estimated within the overall Imperial Sugar redevelop- for historic structures. ment site. This tract, originally a state prison ■■ The city contributed 0.5 percent of the incre- located outside Sugar Land’s city limits, was mental sales tax attributable to the Imperial formally annexed in 2005. Tract 3 and the Sugar development. former Imperial Sugar refinery form the 736- The original redevelopment agreement for acre site included in the city’s general devel- the Imperial Sugar/Tract 3 planned development opment plan. between the city and Cherokee Sugar Land LP ■■ Through the creation of the Imperial Re- was executed in 2007. One aspect of that agree- development District in 2007, the district and ment called for Cherokee to preserve the site’s its board implemented project plans for the artifacts as public art and serve as the anchor for TIRZ, considered a bond issuance, and estab- an interpretive trail system through the site. Plans lished property tax rates for the district. were also made to preserve the char house and ■■ TIRZ No. 3 was intended to fund infrastructure other significant Imperial Sugar structures, as improvements for the Imperial Sugar site. The “the historic focal point of the redevelopment.” city and Fort Bend County are the participat- This redevelopment plan was amended in ing taxing bodies. This TIRZ has an appointed 2010 to include parking and infrastructure for the board to review improvement requests. The construction of Constellation Field, Sugar Land’s plan for TIRZ No. 3 also includes funding for minor-league ballpark, and nearby commercial the preservation and reuse of former Imperial and residential development.