Hines will oversee planning, infrastructure and marketing of the development. It already has renamed the project from its original working title, Town Centre Katy, to the Village at Katy. Hermes Architects of Houston has provided the early architectural planning services. Because the project is in still in the design phase, there are no estimates as to what the actual square footage of the project will total.

"Katy and its surrounding area have a rapidly growing affluent population whose needs are currently underserved. We believe that the Village of Katy will fill this void," says Charles Elder, a Hines vice president who was most recently responsible for the development of the Hilton Americas-Houston. He will now manage the development of the project for Hines.

The 93-acre development will include a mix of office, retail, hotel, residential and medical buildings. Infrastructure construction on the vacant project site will begin by the end of 2004. Components of the master plan are expected to be completed between 2005 and 2008. Hines would not give an estimated eventual value to the project or what the economic impact would be for the Village of Katy.

"A lifestyle center's development plan must be flexible in order to meet the current demands of the local market," Elder says. "A lifestyle center developer must make sure that the products developed are complementary. At the Village at Katy, our goal is to have people to able to walk from their hotel to a meeting in an office building, then walk to a restaurant at lunch and then be able to walk to shopping or other entertainment venues after their workday."

Masoud Baaba, president of the Houston-based Tristar, says "envisioning the proper use of this land has been a collaborative effort," citing the cooperation among city and county officials, their economic development councils and PrimeTex Realty Group of Katy. Hines will likely develop some of the vertical components of the lifestyle center and represent the owner in selling or contributing parcels to developers in various real estate product categories. Hines envisions itself eventually developing at least an office component to the project.

Tristar Holdings Inc. is a privately owned investment holding company that has interests in a variety of markets. The firm owns undeveloped land in Texas and Florida.