Sugar Land City Council approved during a Dec. 18 regular meeting the rezoning of 50.3 acres of land for the Fluor Corporation at University and Lexington boulevards south of the Texas Instruments campus and the Smart Financial Centre.

Fluor Corporation—a global engineering and construction company—houses its Fluor Enterprises campus in Sugar Land in a leased space at 1 Fluor Daniel Drive.

The site is slated to include 28 acres of corporate campus space, 16 acres of future development reserve space, a new public street connecting Lexington Boulevard to University Boulevard, and a buffer space reserved for landscaping, Sugar Land Principal Planner Lauren Fehr said during the meeting.

Plans for the development that will house four multistory office buildings, two multistory parking garages, four small buildings for retail areas and a child care facility consider the proximity to the Avalon at Telfair neighborhood, Fehr said.

“In this final development plan a lot of consideration was taken for the homes located across the open drainage channel,” she said.

Aside from natural buffering from the drainage channel and additional large tree planting along the perimeter of the channel, the plan also includes a specialized bulk plane measurement that determines how tall a commercial building can be when it is adjacent to residential property, Fehr said.

Typical measurements would allow for a 24-foot-tall building with 20 feet between the back of a residence and the building. However, for this particular development measurements begin on the Fluor property line, so residents will have space from the back of their homes, plus the drainage channel, plus another 20 feet to the point where a 24-foor building could be constructed, Fehr said.

St. Louis-headquartered HOK, a design, architecture, engineering and planning firm, is overseeing the design of the new campus. Requirements for the site include office space to accommodate 3,000 seats, about 150,000 square feet of employee amenity space, and surface parking for the retail areas and child care facility.

 

“I think this will be an absolutely beautiful development,” said Carol McCutcheon, council member of District 4, which encompasses the Telfair area. “I particularly like the open spaces, the pedestrian plaza, the tree plantings, the seating and even the bike parking that’s going to be available. We look forward to having Fluor in my district.”

Rick Conley, Fluor director of real estate and office services, said the company is aiming for a March groundbreaking.