The site of the historic Imperial Sugar Company in Sugar Land, Texas, will be transformed from an abandoned mill into one of the country's best examples of sustainable redevelopment.

The Imperial Sugar project will be a 650-acre mixed-use community that blends commercial, retail and single-family homes into a walkable, livable, green community. The project is being designed and managed by Nashville-based developer Southern Land Company with the help of Graphisoft ArchiCAD.

Cherokee Investment Partners LLC, a Raleigh, N.C.-based private equity firm specializing in brownfield cleanup and sustainable redevelopment, highlights redevelopment of the former Imperial Sugar refinery property in its annual Sustainability Report (www.cherokeefund.com).

The main activity now is environmental remediation — primarily asbestos removal — which will likely last through the remainder of the year, according to Tom Darden, CEO of Cherokee.

“Sustainability is our business,” he says. “For more than two decades, Cherokee has used private equity, coupled with creativity and expertise, to purchase, clean up and reuse property.”

Nashville-based Southern Land Co. has entered the world of corporate blogging in a different way.

The company has hired a reporter to write about the real estate market and housing trends on a separate Web site from its own. The site address is www.whatsforreal.com.

Housing design for Imperial tract goes down unique alley
Houston Business Journal - by Jennifer Dawson Houston Business Journal 

The neighborhood design for an area that includes the old Imperial Sugar Co. refinery site in Sugar Land includes some housing features that are unique to the Houston market.

Cherokee Investment Partners LLC, Southern Land Co. and the Texas General Land Office plan to develop hundreds of homes and a commercial district on 650 acres at the intersection of State Highway 90 and Main Street.

A City partnership with Southern Land Company, Cherokee Investment Partners and Newland Communities resulted in two Houston Business Journal (HBJ) Landmark awards. 

The Imperial Sugar Refinery Site project won an award in the category of “2008 Land Deal,” with judges citing the numerous partners in the deal and resolution of multiple challenges through cooperation among public and private entities.

Property once owned by the Imperial Sugar Company in Sugar Land, Texas—a town west of Houston that has been the company’s home base since operations began in 1843—is being developed into a 650-acre mixed-use community that incorporates commercial and retail space, as well as single-family homes. Environmental remediation began in March, and construction of the first phase of the project is expected to begin early next year.

The Southern Land Co., which is developing the former Imperial Sugar refinery in conjunction with Cherokee Investment Partners, held another public meeting Wednesday night to gather public comment on the commercial portion of the project.

The meeting focused on the historic buildings located on the property such as the Char House and water towers. Previous public meetings have centered on an estimated 800 to 1,000 new homes the developer plans to put on the more than 650 acres. The Imperial Sugar Co., one of Texas' first companies, closed in 2003. By 2009, the developer expects to begin the transformation of the property into an old-fashioned walkable neighborhood with a regional commercial attraction.

The Southern Land Co. and Cherokee developers have again asked Sugar Land residents how they want the Imperial Sugar Refinery property to be developed.

"You can have suburbs that function as urban cores," Cheney said. "That creates community pride and when people leave for college they want to come back."

Shay Shafie has been named vice president of development for the Houston operations of Southern Land Co. The company, in conjunction with Cherokee Investment Partners, is developing 650 acres previously owned by Imperial Sugar Co. in Sugar Land.