Greenspoint, Houston

History

The Friendswood Development Company (owned by Exxon at the time) developed Greenspoint during the early 90s. The commercial buildings were still under development in 1989.

In 1998 Goldman Sachs spent over $130 million to purchase what Ralph Bivins of the Houston Chronicle described as a "tough zone of low end apartments" in Greenspoint and convert it into CityView, a multi-family "village." Goldman Sachs planned for CityView to appeal to young professionals and draw higher rent as a result.

After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Louisiana in 2005, groups of evacuees settled into apartment complexes on West Greens Road, near Interstate 45.

As of 2013 the Pinto Business Park, with over 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m²) of space, was under development in an area inside Beltway 8.

Geography

Greenspoint has direct access to Interstate 45 and Beltway 8. Greenspoint is located 6 miles (9.7 km) away from George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Jennifer Duell Popovec of Globst.com (ALM) said that Greenspoint is thirty minutes away from the Port of Houston.

As stated in a 2005 Houston Chronicle article, the Houston-Galveston Area Council identified Greenspoint as one of several Houston area communities that are considered to be among the most hazardous to pedestrians.

Local government

The Greenspoint district is headquartered in Suite 1900 at 16945 Northchase Drive. The district includes the Greater Greenspoint Redevelopment Authority, which oversees the Greenspoint Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ), City of Houston Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone #11.

The portion in Houston is within Houston City Council District B. The Houston Police Department's North Patrol Division serves the Houston portions of Greenspoint. The city operates the Aldine Storefront at 10966 North Freeway (Interstate 45). In addition the city operates the Greenspoint Storefront on the grounds of Greenspoint Mall.

The Houston Fire Department operates Station 74 Greenspoint, located in Fire District 64, at 460 Aldine Bender. The station at Airline and Goodson was built in 1979; the location was shared with the Little York Volunteer Fire Department. The current Station 74, located at Aldine Bender at Lillja, was built in 1983.

Federal and state representation

The United States Postal Service operates the Greens North Post Office at 1530 Greensmark Drive.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Houston Field Office and the Houston office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are in Greenspoint and in Houston.

Crime

From 1991 to 2007, serious crime in Greenspoint decreased by 42 percent, while the area's population increased by 45 percent. The area had about 13 homicides in 2008.

In the early years, Lieutenant Greg Femin, the acting supervisor of the Fondren Patrol Station of the Houston Police Department in 2002, said that he remembered "how bad" Greenspoint, which had many apartments, was when Femin patrolled the beat in the early 1980s.

Crime decreased after the Houston Police Department installed a storefront in Greenspoint.

In 2002 Femin said that when he went back to Greenspoint and, as stated by Craig Mallislow of the Houston Press, could "barely recognize" the area, since apartment complex owners had invested millions of dollars in cleaning up apartment complexes and hiring new, reputable managers. Malislow said that Greenspoint "had pulled a 180."

Due to its history of crime, the area has been colloquially referred to by Houstonians as "Gunspoint."

Economy

Greenspoint has over 18,000,000 square feet (1,700,000 m²) of industrial, office, and retail operations. As of 2010, 70,000 employees work in Greenspoint. By that year Expansion Solutions Magazine described Greenspoint as among the top five locations in the United States for operations of logistics companies.

The business occupancy rate of the 9,600,000 square feet (890,000 m²) of office space around the northern part of Beltway 8, including Greenspoint's space, increased from 60.4 percent at the end of 1987 to 67.5 percent at the end of 1988. Due to efforts from the North Houston Greenspoint Chamber of Commerce, in May 2003 the Aldine Independent School District (AISD) ratified approval of the freeport tax exemptions, which waive ad valorem property taxes on types of business inventory. 150 of the 5,000 companies operating in the Greenspoint area began to qualify for freeport tax exemptions. The chamber asked the school district to exempt the taxes because neighboring school districts had adopted the exemption and put the territory in AISD in a competitive disadvantage. As of 2003 the portions of Greenspoint covered by the City of Houston are under a freeport tax exemption from the city government, while the areas of Greenspoint in unincorporated areas do not have that exemption.

Corporate headquarters

Noble Energy and Canrig Drilling Technologies are headquartered at the Northborough Tower in Greenspoint and in Houston. Smith International has its world headquarters in Greenspoint and in an unincorporated area of Harris County. Friendswood Development Company is headquartered at 550 Greens Parkway, a building in Greenspoint. Around December 1992 there were plans to move Friendswood Development Company's offices from Three Greenspoint to the Anadarko Tower, a facility in Greenspoint built in a two-year period prior to December 1992.

In 2012 Noble announced that it was consolidating its headquarters and two other Greater Houston offices into a 10 story building on the former Compaq headquarters property in unincorporated Harris County, Texas.

ASP Westward, a community newspaper company, and its division "Houston Community Newspapers" are headquartered in Greenspoint.

Corporate operations

ExxonMobil leases a large amount of office space in Greenspoint. In 1989 Exxon Company USA considered moving its computer operations from an unspecified complex in Downtown Houston to Greenspoint; if it followed through with the plan, it would purchase a 50-acre (200,000 m²) Greenspoint site. Ralph Bivins of the Houston Chronicle stated that the number of employees affected would not be "a large number," but the move would indicate "a sizeable investment" in Greenspoint. On Wednesday December 16, 1992 the groundbreaking for Greenspoint Eight, an eight story, 209,000-square-foot (19,400 m²) Exxon Exploration building in Greenspoint, occurred; it was scheduled to open on July 1, 1994. In December 1992 Exxon already had offices in the Greenspoint Three building. The plans called for a bridge connecting Greenspoint Three and Greenspoint Eight, across Benmar Street. With offices in the two building Exxon had a grand total of 450,000 square feet (42,000 m²) of office space in Greenspoint. Exxon chose to build a facility in Greenspoint partly because it had existing office space in Greenspoint and partly to support Exxon's investment in Greenspoint.

By 2002 Exxon agreed to occupy 400,000 square feet (37,000 m²) of space in the 17001 Northchase building after Anadarko's scheduled move out of the building. Nancy Sarnoff of the Houston Business Journal said during that year that a source told her that ExxonMobil "entrenched themselves in Greenspoint" and that the company is spending millions of dollars in improvements to the business district. In January 2010 the Houston Business Journal reported that real estate officials said that ExxonMobil planned to build a corporate campus in unincorporated Harris County along Interstate 45, adjacent to the Spring CDP. The article states that ExxonMobil plans to consolidate employees from several Houston locations, including offices in Greenspoint. As of January 2010 ExxonMobil leases 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m²) of space in the Greenspoint area and has 6,000 working in that space. Sanford Criner, an executive vice president of CB Richard Ellis, said that the move would negatively affect Greenspoint area. Jennifer Dawson, the author of the Houston Business Journal article, said that Jack Drake, president of the Greater Greenspoint Management District, "wryly replied that George Bush Intercontinental Airport is not leaving Greenspoint, and neither are Beltway 8 and Interstate 45." Drake added that Greenspoint's prime office space is virtually occupied, so if Exxon leaves, it would be replaced by expansion from existing companies and additions of new companies.

On Friday, May 30, 2014, Eight Greenspoint Plaza (GP8) was sold. A long-term lease back agreement was signed between ExxonMobil and the new owners, a joint venture of Stream Realty Partners and AllianceBernstein U.S. Real Estate Partners L.P.

Nabors Industries has its Houston office in Greenspoint.

Continental Airlines previously operated the North Houston Center in Greenspoint. Saudi Arabian Airlines operates an office at 12555 Northborough Drive in Greenspoint and in Houston. Servisair has its USA offices in Greenspoint.

In 1989 Aetna leased 75,000 square feet (7,000 m²) in Two Greenspoint Place, a building of Townsend Company. The building was renamed as Aetna Place.

Former operations

ExpressJet Airlines was headquartered in Greenspoint and in Houston.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation was headquartered in the Anadarko Tower since it was built in the 1990s. Around 2002 Anadarko moved into its new headquarters in The Woodlands, Montgomery County.

At one time the headquarters of Atofina (now Total Petrochemicals USA) were in an area in Houston in proximity to George Bush Intercontinental Airport and in proximity to the Greenspoint district. The lease to the former space was scheduled to expire in 2010, but the company had the right to cancel its lease in 2007. The firm, which occupied a similar amount of square footage in the previous office that it has in its current office, planned to sublease the space from 2005 to 2007.

Community colleges

A satellite campus of the Lone Star College–North Harris of the Lone Star College System (previously the North Harris Montgomery Community College District (NHMCCD)), LSC-Greenspoint Center, is located along Beltway 8; it is on the south side of Beltway 8 while Greenspoint Mall is on the north side. The center was previously the administrative headquarters of the NHMCCD. Previously the Parkway Center in Greenspoint and in Houston was within the North Harris College.

Primary and secondary schools

Most students living in Greenspoint are zoned to the Aldine Independent School District, however some are zoned to the Spring Independent School District.

Aldine Independent School District

Stovall Middle School, Aldine High School, and the Aldine 9th Grade Center are located in the Greenspoint district.

PreK schools serving sections of Greenspoint, all in unincorporated areas and outside of Greenspoint, include deSantiago EC/PK School, Hinojosa EC/PK School in Aldine, Jones EC/PK School, Keeble EC/PK & Head Start Center, and Kujawa EC/PK School.

Two elementary schools in Greenspoint, Bussey Elementary School in Houston and Gray Elementary School in an unincorporated area, serve portions of Greenspoint. In addition, schools outside of Greenspoint serving sections of Greenspoint include Black Elementary School in Houston, Calvert Elementary School in an unincorporated area, Conley Elementary School in an unincorporated area, Dunn Elementary School in an unincorporated area, Magrill Elementary School in an unincorporated area, Odom Elementary School in unincorporated Aldine, Spence Elementary School in an unincorporated area, and Thompson Elementary School in Houston.

Two intermediate schools in Greenspoint, Marcella and Stehlik, both in Houston, serve portions of Greenspoint. Other portions of Greenspoint are served by Parker Intermediate School, in an unincorporated area and outside of Greenspoint. Stovall Middle School, in Greenspoint and in Houston, serves a portion of Greenspoint. Middle schools that are outside of Greenspoint and serving sections of it, both of which are located in unincorporated areas, include Lewis Middle School and Plummer Middle School.

Aldine 9th Grade School is located in Greenspoint and Houston and serves a portion of the district. Nimitz Ninth Grade School, located outside of Greenspoint and in an unincorporated area, serves a portion of Greenspoint. Aldine High School is located in Greenspoint and Houston and serves a portion of the district. Nimitz High School, located outside of Greenspoint and in an unincorporated area, serves a portion of Greenspoint. When Benjamin O. Davis High School opened in 2012, a portion of Greenspoint was rezoned to that school.

Spring Independent School District

None of the Spring ISD schools serving Greenspoint are in Greenspoint. Clark Primary and Clark Intermediate School, in an unincorporated area, serve one portion of Greenspoint for elementary school. Heritage Elementary School, in an unincorporated area, serves another. The SISD portion is also zoned to Wells Middle School and Dekaney High School, both in unincorporated areas.

Public libraries

The Harris County Public Library Aldine Branch, located at 11331 Airline Drive in Greenspoint and in Houston, serves the community. The 13,268-square-foot (1,232.6 m²) branch opened in 1976. The renovated Aldine Branch reopened on September 6, 2001. The expansion and renovation was originally scheduled to be completed in January 2001. Due to the expansion, the library gained 6,000 square feet (560 m²), which led to increases in meeting spaces and a 100% increase in the number of computers. Students from Aldine High School, Aldine 9th Grade School, Stovall Middle School, and Black Elementary School use the branch.

Parks and recreation

The management district destroyed two abandoned apartment complexes and replaced them with parks operated by the management district. The 2.5 acres (1.0 ha) CityView Park includes benches, a garden, a 30-foot (9.1 m) by 30-foot (9.1 m) pavilion, a trellis, a seat wall used for resting and providing shade, and tables. The 11 acres (4.5 ha) Thomas R. Wussow Park has baseball/soccer (football) fields, hike and bicycle trails, a playground, a public pavilion, a spray ground, and sand volleyball courts. The park was named after Thomas R. Wussow, the founder of the district and a member of the district's board.

In 2009, a densely wooded area on West Greens Road was cleared for Redemption Park. The park provides a safe play area for the children in the neighboring Royal Coach Mobile Home community as well as the Columbia Green apartments. The amenities include a basketball court, playground and small amphitheater.Template:RCDC,December 2009

In 2010 the management district announced that a 10 acres (4.0 ha) skate park would be established by 2010 in an area at Kuykendahl Road at Rankin Road, near Interstate 45.