Hakeem Olajuwon’s Dream Court is one step closer to development.

Olajuwon’s representative, Noble Enloe, spoke to Missouri City City Council on Aug. 5 about the project, which is going into the former Tang City Plaza development off of Hwy. 90 near Cravens Road.

“We are ready to get started whenever we get a permit,” Enloe said. “We already have several businesses lined up to rent space.”

Olajuwon, the property owner, wanted to amend an ordinance to allow for office and warehouse uses as well as commercial uses. A previous ordinance planned for a community center would have included a mosque, a private school, a library and gardens.

The new ordinance also adopts the site plan, so if the development does not occur in five years from the filing date, the property owner would have to come back through the ordinance process to redo the site plan, Missouri City Planning Manager Jennifer Thomas Gomez said.

Enloe said he and Olajuwon, the former Houston Rocket turned real estate developer, spent many months looking at other facilities as well as planning and strategizing how to build Dream Court.

Olajuwon purchased the land in 2000. His plans call for 19,800 square feet of retail and six buildings for office or warehouse uses among the 9.4-acre development. The office and warehouse compartments will be about 15,000 square feet each, Enloe said.

“We are going to start off constructing the two buildings in the back of the property,” Enloe said. “The front we will be using for retail. We are ready to start this, and we will represent the community well.”

City Council approved the ordinance Aug. 5, the first of two readings for the project.