Houston-based Gulf Coast Commercial Group, which specializes in retail development, management and leasing, has another Heights-area project underway.

The project, called Block 14 at Garden Oaks, is at 3201 N. Shepherd Drive, just north of the 610 Loop and immediately south of West 34th Street. Gulf Coast Commercial acquired the 1.74-acre site last spring and expects to deliver the project to tenants this July, according to a June 1 press release.

Houston-based Cisneros Design Studio Architects designed the 18,000-square-foot, one-story project.

Block 14 at Garden Oaks will offer up to seven retail spaces, ranging from just over 1,000 to more than 3,000 square feet. Gulf Coast Commercial and leasing partner Capital Retail Properties are targeting tenants that serve consumers’ daily needs, per the release.

Southern sandwich chain McAlister’s Deli leased a 3,100-square-foot endcap, and Houston-based salad shop Salata will occupy the other 2,700-square-foot endcap. Danny Miller represented Gulf Coast Commercial in both leases, Clay Graham of Fox & Graham represented McAlister’s, and Emily Durham of Waterman Steele Real Estate Advisors represented Salata.

While Block 14 at Garden Oaks is just outside of the Heights’ northern border, Gulf Coast Commercial is also developing a much larger project just south of the Heights.

The 24-acre mixed-use project, dubbed the Lower Heights District, is just south of Interstate 10 between the Kroger on Studemont Street and the Target off Sawyer Street. The Kroger parking lot connects to the Lower Heights District. The first two retail tenants — Total Wine & More and Ulta — opened in the Lower Heights District in November. A second, larger building on the property is also well underway and will be two stories. Tenants for that building have not been announced yet.

Also currently nearing completion is the development’s first phase of apartments. That 370-unit project, Alexan Lower Heights, is being developed by Dallas-based Trammell Crow Residential and is expected to be complete in mid-2020. Another 370-unit multifamily development is expected to break ground later.

“After many years of quiet growth in the suburbs, we’re excited to raise our visibility in two of central Houston’s most exciting and rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods,” Gulf Coast Commercial President Tom Lile said in the June 1 release.

To read the article published in HBJ, click here.