Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Rice University President David Leebron announced plans April 12 to repurpose the landmark Sears building in Midtown as a hub for tech startups, part of a larger proposal to develop an innovation district along Main Street between downtown and the Texas Medical Center in collaboration with a variety of educational and research institutions and businesses.
Historic Heights waterworks available for redevelopment
The City of Houston has placed the historic Heights waterworks on the market. The two-acre site between West 19th and West 20th streets at Nicholson contains a 750,000-gallon brick reservoir building from 1928 that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a 1939 Art Deco pumping station built by the Works Progress Administration and a 1949 pumping station. The property anchors the west end of the shopping district along West 19th Street, the main commercial street in Houston Heights, which is experiencing significant retail redevelopment.