By   –  Reporter, Houston Business Journal

SOURCE

A joint venture created by two local developers plans to build a 75,000-square-foot shopping center on State Highway 96 near Southshore Boulevard in League City.

MDDS Plaza 96 LLC is a developing partnership between cousins Danny Sheena of Bellaire-based SLS Properties and Moshe Allon, owner of Kemah-based Mada Properties.

Plaza 96, located next to an H-E-B and behind a Chick-Fil-A and a Sonic Drive-In, will have retail, restaurants, medical office space and office warehouses, Sheena told the Houston Business Journal.

The development is pending permitting from the city of League City, which Sheena expects to receive within the next six months.

“Shortly thereafter, we expect to break ground,” Sheena said.

The developers have letters of intent from multiple prospective tenants, he said, adding that he is excited about the tenant base, including the ones that are next to the development.

“Chick-Fil-A obviously generates — and Sonic — lots and lots of traffic,” Sheena said. “The traffic flows through our shopping center. And obviously H-E-B is just a massive development, lots of traffic as well. I’m very excited about this development and can’t wait to break ground on it.”

Houston-based Diamond Development and Construction Group designed the retail center. The construction will be done in-house by SLS.

Sheena and Allon are also improving and adding on to another League City retail center, League City Plaza, a former Weingarten property they closed on last year after Houston-based Weingarten Realty Investors was acquired by Kimco Realty Corp. (NYSE: KIM).

The 130,000-square-foot shopping center at FM 518 and Interstate 45 is over 95% leased, Sheena said, and current tenants include Specs Wines, Sprits & Finer Foods; Crunch Fitness; and Northern Tool and Equipment.

MDDS League City has added new landscaping, paint and LED lighting, Sheena said.

“At night sometimes, before, it used to be pretty dark at some spots,” he said. “And now it’s very safe, very secure, well lit. Landscape is much better than it was before, tenants are extremely happy, and we’re doing really well on leasing that property.”

The developers plan to add about 30,000 square feet of additional retail, restaurants and a drive-thru on pads facing the Gulf Freeway frontage road.

They are taking tenant input before finalizing the design and applying for a permit from League City. Sheena expects that process to take about another year before construction can start.

Sheena and Allon started working together on projects in Houston’s southeastern suburbs nearly a decade ago and focus on acquiring and developing retail centers from Kemah to Pearland.

Another planned MDDS development is a 36,000-square-foot mixed-use retail center on Egret Bay Boulevard, just south of NASA Parkway in Webster. It will be an extension to the existing Marina Gate Shopping Center and include retail, restaurants and offices.