Meristem Communities, a Houston-based real estate development company, has broken ground on Indigo Commons, a vibrant mixed-use town center located within Fort Bend County's expansive Indigo neighborhood.
With a focus on pedestrian-friendly environments and vibrant public spaces, Indigo aims to offer residents a refreshing alternative to car-centric suburbia. Meristem Communities’ founding partners Scott Snodgrass and Clayton Garrett designed Indigo to create a unique living experience that places people at the heart of the community through walkability and social interaction.
Redefining suburban living
The developers aim to showcase alternative living options that prioritize human connections and reduce dependence on automobiles, providing an opportunity for residents to experience a more community-oriented lifestyle.“The vision for Indigo is walkability. In order to have great walkability, you have to have something interesting to walk to, otherwise people won't go,” Snodgrass said. “It doesn't matter how easy it is if there's nothing to walk to. As we did our research, we found out that people want to walk to coffee shops, restaurants and small craft businesses, as well as interesting retail opportunities. 85% of our homes are within a five-minute walk of [Indigo Commons] and that was really important for us.”
Strategically placing parking lots at the center of the block will create a pedestrian-friendly environment at Indigo Commons, allowing buildings to have green spaces for leisurely activities.
A vibrant destination was the goal of this development, according to Snodgrass, where people could park once and leisurely explore a variety of attractions.
“People can actually walk and look in your windows and see what you do and if they like it or not. We create that opportunity here that we have a variety of retail offerings, whether it's incremental retail for sale or if it's just traditional leasing,” Snodgrass said. “The community will have a lot of people walking by your space looking at it and that should also help those businesses take off."
Snodgrass also expressed excitement about the ongoing revival of Morton Street, which represents a remaining bastion of traditional urbanism in Richmond. With Indigo Commons located just an eight-minute drive away, the objective is to replicate the positive changes and vibrant small business scene in the Fort Bend neighborhood. This entails city investments in infrastructure and resources to foster growth and create a thriving community.
“In order to attract people to visit our businesses, we designed these as green spaces, or as sidewalk experiences where the businesses can spill out onto the sidewalk and have displays outside of their businesses,” he said.
Empowering small businesses
Indigo Commons aims to create an environment where various stakeholders can contribute to shaping the space. By inviting diverse voices, including residents, small business owners and consultants from different backgroundsIndigo Commons seeks to establish a collaborative framework, Snodgrass said."Our diverse team of consultants from different disciplines brings valuable perspectives to the table, ensuring a well-rounded approach to development," Snodgrass said. “To accomplish that we set up this framework that allows people to come in, build their own building or buy a building from us and then put their fingerprints on it.”
Snodgrass emphasized the importance of catering to businesses requiring smaller square footage, such as a popsicle cart, by providing affordable opportunities like a $10 per day space on the plaza. The goal is to establish an ecosystem that allows businesses to start with a low barrier to entry and gradually progress to owning their own real estate, ensuring stability and freedom from concerns about rent increases or property changes.
By observing small businesses during lease renewals, the Meristem Communities team noticed landlords raise rent rates based on business performance tracked through web platforms. To combat this issue, they sought to create a model that would enable small businesses to capitalize on their own achievements and avoid disproportionate rent increases.
“We want to have opportunities for all types of businesses within the commons and the incremental retail was a big one,” Snodgrass said. “We want people to be able to own their own space.”
Snodgrass explained that the 700-square-foot retail and 1,400-square-foot townhome option is expected to be a popular choice at Indigo Commons. With a monthly cost of approximately $4,800, individuals can simultaneously live and operate a business from the same space. By building equity through mortgage payments, there is increased financial resilience, providing a safety net in the case of unforeseen events.
The decision to focus on retail space for sale instead of rent within Indigo Commons was influenced by pioneers in the field, including Monte Anderson, founding member of the Incremental Development Alliance and Jim Heid, author of “Building Small” and founder of the Small Scale Developers Forum.
The priority registration list to join Indigo Commons is currently open. For more information and updates on Indigo and Indigo Commons, visit IndigoCommunity.com and IndigoCommons.com.
The above story was produced by Holly Galvan with Community Impact's Storytelling team with information solely provided by the local business as part of their "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team. Our integrity promise to our readers is to clearly identify all CI Storytelling posts so they are separate from the content decided upon, researched and written by our journalism department.
