While Retail Retrenches, Sugar Land Square Marches Forward

SUGAR LAND, TX—A transformation of Sugar Land Town Square is afoot. The owner of the mixed-use development, Lionstone Investments, is collaborating with Dallas-based Rebees, Sugar Land-based Planned Community Developers and the city of Sugar Land to evolve the Square into a retail destination designed for the next era of retail. The new Square will increase public programming to further activate communal spaces, enrich the walking environment and add new merchants.

“For many years, Sugar Land Town Square has served as a hub for community engagement. We are investing aggressively in its future at a time when many other projects are scaling back,” said Tom Paterson, COO at Lionstone. “This redesign will create dynamic and flexible spaces for a diversity of uses and users to interact safely.”

Scheduled for completion by mid-2021, the first phase includes landscaping, new outdoor spaces accommodating social distancing and increased public seating areas. Branding, signage and new tenant storefronts will enliven the visitor experience. New tenants will include local entrepreneurs with original dining and retail concepts such as the recently opened State Fare Kitchen and Mattison Avenue Salon & Spa.

“The vision guiding the evolution of Sugar Land Town Square is to create a lively, walkable village filled with unique merchants, delightful surprises, outdoor communal areas and authentic expressions of local culture,” said Matt Ragan of Rebees. “Sugar Land Town Square is the cultural and urban center of the city of Sugar Land, and it will soon honor this role by becoming as vibrant and future-leaning as the city itself.”

Sugar Land is one of the fastest growing, most affluent and most ethnically diverse cities in the country, according to Lionstone.

“There are going to be so many new additions to Sugar Land Town Square in the coming months,” Ragan tells GlobeSt.com. “All I can say right now is that the people in Sugar Land who currently travel to Houston will soon have a lot more reasons to shop and seek out their entertainment much closer to home. Not only that but I think you’re going to start seeing a lot more traffic headed from Houston into Sugar Land Town Square as well.”

Local experts point out that even though more customers are shopping online that hasn’t eliminated in-person shopping. Retailers and malls that have closed may have been weak prior to the pandemic, and the stronger ones will continue to evolve as Houstonians continue to shop, according to a report by NAI Partners.

“Certain segments of the retail market have already bounced back more quickly than some may have anticipated, while others continue to struggle with the ever-changing environment,” said Jason Gaines, senior vice president of retail services at NAI Partners.