Community is invited to participate in the planning of the future of Sharyland
Texas Border Business
Mission, Texas – Killam Development, a private, family-owned business that has been serving South Texas for more than 100 years, announced today that it has acquired approximately 3,400 acres in Mission and McAllen from Hunt Valley Development.
The property will be the site of a large master planned development that will include places for people of all generations to live, work and play. It will include walkable neighborhoods, walking trails and park space, connections to entertainment and commercial districts and education centers.
The public and community stakeholders will be asked what they want to see included in the development beginning with a series of public workshops in January 2020. The purchase also includes opportunity for commercial industrial development near the Anzalduas International Bridge.
“We are deeply rooted in South Texas and at we know and understand the border culture and the importance of community,” said Cliffe Killam, Partner at Killam Development. “We see enormous potential for this area, and we look forward to working closely with the public, stakeholders and city leaders to design places that will enhance the quality of life and economic opportunity in Mission and McAllen.”
Killam Development is part of the Killam Companies, based in Laredo, Texas, which recently celebrated its 100thanniversary.
Killam companies has a long and successful history in the oil and gas industry, real estate development, ranching, and investments. Killam Companies has been working in the Rio Grande Valley area since 2013 when it first acquired a few industrial warehouses.
“This property has belonged to the Ray L. Hunt family for decades, and we believe this transaction is the right opportunity to continue growing and enhancing the quality of life here in the Rio Grande Valley,” said Paul Curtin, Vice President of Hunt Valley Development who steps down. “When we decided to sell, we knew it had to be just the right buyer – someone who would share our commitment to this community and who would be a good neighbor and partner. We certainly found that in Killam.”
Killam Development is working with Able City and Dover Kohl, a group of professional architects, designers, land planners and artists who will use their expertise and the public’s input to help transform the centrally located property into a beloved neighborhood buzzing with an exciting entertainment district, community events, and public art.
Able City will lead a comprehensive and transparent public input process that will include stakeholder meetings and a public workshop to get input and feedback from the community on the various elements they want to see included. Everyone will be encouraged to participate and to stay involved in the project as it moves forward.
Cliffe Killam continued, “We want this to be a special place that people are proud of and excited about because they helped build it. This will be a hands-on design process. We will turn citizen-inspired ideas into a comprehensive vision that becomes reality, resulting in something bigger and better because we did it together.”
Construction could begin early next year, with home sales anticipated by the fall of 2020.
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Killam Development to partner with two award-winning planning and design firms
Mission, Texas — The next phases of Sharyland merit meticulous planning. The Klllam family has partnered with two award-winning planning and design firms, Able City and Dover. Kohl & Partners. to work with the community in developing a master plan for the area.
Able City is a group of professional architects, urbanists, economic developers and designers who hold over 70 years of combined experience across San Antonio and Laredo, Texas. Able City was founded under the belief that contributing to the evolution of cities, towns, and places is best achieved when defining quality of life as policies and built environments that contribute to a livable community and healthy environment.
A Principal of the firm, Viviana Frank, is a recognized Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (NA), and Mario Peña, also a Principal of Able City, is certified under the American institute of Certified Planners. Their team is experienced in activating community engagement and enhancing the quality of life of a community through urban design. advocacy and city making. Their firm is a recent recipient of the 2019 Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) Merit Award for their work in a citywide comprehensive plan in South Texas.
Dover, Kohl & Partners, based in Coral Gables, Florida, holds over thirty years experience in town planning and have received multiple American Planning Association (APA) Awards and CNU awards. Their firm is recognized as a leader in the space of revitalizing historic places and designing new neighborhoods, towns, as well as entire cities and regions. Their experience includes a national and international portfolio of work in a variety of settings. The common thread is the holistic approach to sustainable community building, which includes the formation of complete settlements offering a mix of uses and dwelling types, an interconnected network of walkable streets, and building forms and architecture that reinforce the distinctiveness of the place. The Dover-Kohl team believes that design is the missing element in much of contemporary town planning, and their work centers on re-introducing form and design into master plans, policy and land development regulations.
Together, these two firms will use their expertise and the community’s input to help shape the future of the Sharyland property. Dover-Kohl and Able City have worked together in multiple projects, including their current project to update the City of San Antonio’s Unified Development Code, or set of codes and regulations that regulate how the city is built.
“We believe this large-scale project has the potential to be a game-changer for generations to come. Through the participation of key stakeholders and the citizens of the Rio Grande Valley, we can create something amazing. Having worked with Killam Development for over a decade, we’re happy to continue partnering with them. We know they are dedicated to create a place that everyone recognizes as special and unique because its representative of the public’s vision for what their neighborhood should be like,” says Mario Pena of Able City.
The successes of both planning firms stem from their approach to involve residents in the planning process. Their proven and effective “charrette” workshops are a core component for gathering the community’s input. These workshops are public, multi-day sessions that bring together residents, architects, engineers, nonprofit representatives, advocates and people of all sectors of the area and give them an opportunity to voice what they want and need from their city. These interactive sessions are methodically designed to be engaging and transparent, encouraging the public to share their perspectives on mobility, housing, commercial, parks and public spaces, and other opportunities.
The teams put together for this project are committed to crafting a plan that resonates with the community as a whole and presents a sustainable vision for the future.
