About Harris County, TX

Caldwell Companies announced new ground-breaking real estate opportunities in the award-winning Towne Lake community's residential and commercial sections.

Available for sale in the master-planned Towne Lake community in northwest Houston are seven prime land sites ranging in size from one to 25 acres.

Caldwell Companies' Keith P. Grothaus, CCIM, SIOR, said the timing was right to put these commercial oriented properties on the market. He said Towne Lake has the infrastructure and utilities in place to support new commercial development. "We believe Towne Lake has grown to a size where we think it is a good time to expand the offerings we have for our residents and the surrounding community," Grothaus said.

He said there are five (pad) sites in the one- to two-acre range that are ideal for retail, restaurant, hotel, and/or professional businesses. All five pad sites front Barker-Cypress Road and are located south of Tuckerton Road - the community's "Main Street."

A 12-acre site for sale on the corner of Barker Cypress and Tuckerton Road would be a prime spot for a community church, Grothaus said, and a 25-acre site at the corner of West and Greenhouse roads would be ideal for many uses. The developers are willing to subdivide the 25 acre tract for a use that "fits" the overall community character. We are looking for uses that will fill the needs of our community.

Starting in May, 40 residential lots - 20 on Towne Lake's centerpiece lake - will be available for custom homes in a new section of the Heritage Towne Lake's active adult community, said Peter Barnhart, Caldwell Companies' Vice President of Development. Homes in the gated enclave will start in the high 300,000's and will have access to a private marina.

In the larger Towne Lake community a new gated section of 35 custom lots - 15 water front properties included - will be available in October. This new section will also feature a private marina and will be located adjacent to the Heritage's gated community off Hamilton Hills Drive.

Also in the fall, a third section of new homes will break ground near Cy-Fair ISD's Rennell Elementary School, which is under construction on Tuckerton Road. Homes will start in the low $200,000s and will be constructed on 60-foot lots. Builders will be selected from a list of Houston's best and will be announced soon, Barnhart said.

"In an effort to help Towne Lake grow quickly, we continue to add new and exciting products to our housing mix," Barnhart said. The company is scheduled to open the new main entrance of Tuckerton Road in the later part of 2010. This new entry at Barker Cypress will be a major milestone for Towne Lake by providing much quicker access to Hwy 290 and area amenities. Rennell Elementary School will open in August.

For more information about Towne lake or any other Cypress community please e-mail Homes@GinnyTheRealtor.com www.GinnyTheRealtor.com

Come visit the Chick-fil-A this February 13th, 2010 for a special valentines breakfast.

The Chick-fil-A has always done such a marvelous job of having parties just about every Friday night for families (clowns, pirates, battle of the bands and other things). Now they are having a Sweetheart Breakfast on Saturday February 13th from 8am to 10am. As you can see from the poster, they will be serving people at tables and giving a flower to each lady. A valentine gift will be given for each registration. They decorated the tables with lots of balloons, flowers and curling ribbon. It should be very nice. Hope you can attend.

This is the front of the Tomball Chick-fil-A at FM 2920 near FM 249. For more information click

www.chick-fil-a.com

14314 FM 2920 Road
Tomball, TX 77377
(281) 516-7373

On Friday, February 19th, Keller Williams Realty Northeast will be hosting a free Let's Rodeo concert at Kings Harbor in Kingwood. To help kick off rodeo season, Kingwood-based country music band 8 Seconds will be performing from 7-10pm. If you're interested in kicking your own heels up, instructors from the Dance Arts Country Ballroom will be on hand at Harbor Plaza to teach line dancing and other country dances at 8pm and 9pm. You can even enjoy some fantastic Texas BBQ from local award-winning Pitts & Spitts, manufacturers of high end smokers. They will be offering up chopped beef sandwiches, chips and drinks for sale beginning at 6pm. They accept cash only, so make sure you visit your bank before coming. You don't want to miss the mouth-watering goodness!

The Society of Stephen, a local community outreach program, will be raffling off two tickets to see Brooks & Dunn at one of their last performances ever at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in Houston, TX on March 20, 2010. Proceeds from the raffle help to fund the Society of Stephen's program to help feed and clothe families in the Humble, New Caney and Splendora communities.

Come to Kings Harbor for a free Let's Rodeo concert in Kingwood on Friday, February 19, 2010. Bring a lawn chair, a blanket and your dancing boots. You're gonna have a hollerin' good time.

Cliff Collins, 3C Realty - A Keller Williams Realty Team, your Kingwood real estate specialists

Yesterday my broker paid for everyone in the office to go to a HUGE giant seminar called GET MOTIVATED. It was in the Toyota Center, (where the Houston Rockets play). They also had this event going on in Reliant Center, (next to the Astrodome, where the Houston Texans play football), and at Grace Community Church, (which sits 7000). The event was so over sold that many people from my office did not get in and others never found a seat. That was disappointing. That, however, is a completely different story for a different audience, (get ready Houston Chronicle!)

There were great speakers there, including Sarah Palin, (whom spoke first and we missed because we weretrying to park), Rick Belluzzo (the main guy from microsoft), Colin Powell, Zig Ziglar, Rudolph Giuliani, Tamara Lowe, and 2 great speakers about investing. I don't remember either of their names, but they were the best speakers of all.

One note-They really need to put the names of the speakers as a footer at the bottom of the screens, because if you missed the speaker's introduction, you had no other chance to catch their names, and they were not all listed in the workbook.

What did I learn from this event? That the speakers all travel a lot. All of the time. This makes everyone of the speakers proud to be an American, because America is so great in so many ways and people all over the world are lined up to get in. I agree.

I learned that I can make money in the stock market if I sign up for Wealth Magazine. I didn't sign up for this, but others in my group did. Maybe they will share. You can make money buying real estate at tax auctions and deed auctions, and with self directed IRAs to be able to retire rich--I did sign up for this one, it didn't sound like a "canned thing" that only I could use--but something I could teach my real estate clients.

I learned that all of those speakers are great sales people, and it was very interesting to see and hear them work on such a very huge scale. They had great graphics/power points that did not match their words but supported their words. (I hate it when people read their PowerPoint presentation to you. None of these speakers did this). I have done quite a bit of public speaking, and it was fun to study their technique.

One thing I noticed about people there is attitude: I studied the bookFISH a couple of years ago about picking your attitude. I have always had an attitude that fascinates people for my professionalism and my love of sitting in meetings and working with others on teams and committees. I try to keep my chin up no matter what is thrown at me, (and I have had way more than my share of $%& thrown at me lately!) But, the book FISH really changed my life, as I realized how FRAGILE a positive attitude can be, and if I am not very careful I can shatter other people's positive attitude.

Once I discovered how fragile a positive attitude is, I became much more aware of not letting others yank my happiness out from under me. It almost happened to me yesterday because the sitting situation was so horrible in the venue. I had to be very careful of my reaction to the events as they occurred yesterday. (We had a terrible time finding seats.) But, I was aware. I did not give anyone else the power to ruin my time there, and it saved me. I had a great time, and I learned lots.

So, I learned so much yesterday from the GET MOTIVATED event, but mostly what I learned wasn't from the great speakers, (don't get me wrong if you were one of those great speakers--I learned lots from you!!!), but it was from the situation:

• GET TO WHERE YOU NEED TO BE EXTRA EARLY (or you'll miss Sarah Palin!)
• STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHT (to sit down!),
• DON"T GET DISCOURAGED EASILY OR YOUR DAY WILL BE RUINED!,
• PLAY ALONG AND YOU WILL HAVE MORE FUN
• EAT LUNCH BEFORE EVERYONE ELSE by SKIPPING THE SPEAKER RIGHT BEFORE LUNCH, (then take someones seat that wasn't as clever)
• Be careful and aware of if you are ripping someones rug of happiness out from under them. If you see it starting---STOP!! And, if you're the one standing on the rug of happiness, don't let anyone take it out from under you and knock your happiness down. Do not give them that power. It just takes awareness to keep your happiness balanced on that magic rug.
• Have a happy day! (And get rich doing it!)

The Katy Independent School District will vote on a measure to rezone several neighborhoods from one high school area to another and the vote is expected on February 22, 2010. The bottom line is that Seven Lakes High School is predicted to have too many students and James Taylor is expected to not have enough. This was explained to a very small group of parents at a workshop held on Febraury 4, 2010. Elementary schools should have no effect as these schools are local to the various neighborhoods. Junior High Schools, however, will have to be affected as a Junior High School in KISD typically feeds one specific Katy High School and some neighborhoods will be changing which High School students will be attending.

People attending the workshop complained bitterly that there was a lack of information spread through the community. I hunt for local Katy news to write about and I just learned of this late last week and wanted to get more data before I wrote a blog and made people upset. Marcy Canady, assistant superintendent for school and community engagement stated that a response to everyone's voiced concerns would be posted on the dostricts web site as soon as possible.

Per the current recommendation all current students would be grandfathered to stay where they are through graduation. If this actually happens that is good news for the children and parents. Katy District enrollment is expected to exceed 60,000 students!!!

Here are the changes by what is termed "land use zones" with the corresponding neighborhhood's shown:

Moving from Cinco Ranch to Taylor are:

Luz 66 - Highland Trails, Kelliwood Enclave, Kelliwood Gardens, Kelliwood Lakes, Kelliwood Place, Kelliwood Trails, Lake Forest and Lakes of Buckingham.

Luz 71A - Alexan Downs Apart, Kelliwood Pointe, Kelliwood Terrace, Willow Park Greens

Luz 71B - Meadow Ridge

Luz 71C - Park Hollow, Park View

Moving from Seven Lakes to Cinco Ranch are:

Luz 76 C - Bayou Crossing

Luz 77A - Fairways at Kelliwood, Greens at Willowfork,, Kelliwood Greens

Luz 77B - Arbor at Willlow Fork

Luz 79B - Canterbury Village, Meadow Glen, Residences at Cinco Ranch,South Park,Summer Point

Luz 79 C - Canyon Gate

luz 79 D - Estates at Willowfork Greens, Kelliwood Greens, Kelliwood Park

Luz 79 F - Saddlebrook Crossing

Luz 79G - Park Trace

If any of you out there think politics will not be part of the final vote/decision you are probably INCORRECT!!!! Don't hold your breath regarding passing of the Grandfathering in of existing students proposal.

If you want to see in person one of the main reasons the rezoning is becoming necessary just drive out Fry Road to Spring Green and take a right and go past the model home park on the left for Cinco Ranch and you find new homes being built at a rapid rate in all directions and all of those homes are zoned for Seven Lakes... GOOD LUCK if this affects you and your student(s)...