Life Essentials at New Cypress Park & Ride
Thursday, May 31, 2007 5:11 PM
This summer residents of Cypress who park and ride METRO will be able to leave their car in a four-story garage - and soon, be able to also run errands and grab breakfast and dinner within walking distance of their car.
Our new Cypress Park & Ride features our first joint transit-oriented development. Rather than building a 23-acre asphalt parking lot, we decided to look into an integrated transit-oriented project.
Todd Mason, vice president of real estate services, knew Jay Sears, founder/partner of NewQuest Properties, and the two men began talking about this possibility about a year and a half ago, recalls Sears.
"We had never even thought about this. It wasn't on our radar screen," says Sears. "I traveled across the country to Washington, Maryland...to find out what worked and what didn't work. I have not found one yet that is integrated with a bus Park & Ride system. It's usually on the rail. This is easily the first of its kind in Texas."
Once completed, commuters will find a mixed-use development called Cypress Village Station, billed as a place where you can live, shop and ride METRO. You'll find what Sears dubs "life essential shops" - shops that cater to what people need in their lives.
Designed in an "eclectic urban" style, the project will include a popular breakfast spot with gourmet coffee; specialty retailers similar to Chico's and Talbot's; and three restaurants that are quick, casual and family-friendly. It will also include a dry cleaner's and possibly a dental office, physician's office and day-care center.
"This area demographically is a lot like Town & Country Village," says Sears. "We're very picky."
The parking garage - which will be operated and maintained by METRO - will have 1,500 spaces. Nearby will be the 273-unit GreyStar apartments, leased from NewQuest Properties. The retail section will total 79,550 square feet and be located as first-floor retail beneath the apartments.
About 8,000 square feet of that retail space will be reserved for small, incubator type businesses - such as boutiques - that only need to rent 750 square feet.
"It's impossible to find space that small in a conventional shopping center," says Sears. 
As a transit-oriented development, Cypress Village Station's goal is to capture pedestrians and entice them to shop and eat right where they park their cars. Sears estimates 2,800 people will go through the station twice a day.
"You're really getting them at those two ends where they are most likely to transact. They can drop off their dry cleaning as they get prepared for the day. When they come back home, they can pick up their dry cleaning and get something to eat," explains Sears, adding that he hopes the layout will lure commuters to walk through the project before they get in their cars.
As a partner, METRO will get 25 percent of the net revenue of the commercial project, says Sears.
"If you can reduce the number of trips in your car to where it's all compressed to one location, then we've done our job as retail developers," says Sears. "This is all about getting cars off the road - that's the goal of transit-oriented development. Then we - together with METRO - have done a good job."