a sweet makeover

Major Houston suburb's bustling town square set for fab facelift

Sugar Land Town square is getting a major makeover.

Rendering courtesy of Lionstone Investment

The bustling urban center of one of Houston’s most ethnically diverse suburbs is set for a major facelift. Sugar Land Town Square — aka The Square — will undergo a major transformation with more communal spaces, enriched walking environments, and new merchants.

A first phase of redevelopment, scheduled for completion by mid-2021, includes lush landscaping, new outdoor spaces accommodating social distancing, and increased public seating areas, according to a press release.

Updates include colorful branding, vibrant signage, and creative new tenant storefronts. New tenants will include local entrepreneurs with original dining and retail concepts such as the recently opened State Fare Kitchen and Mattison Avenue Salon & Spa.

Spearheading the transformation is Lionstone Investments, Dallas-based Rebees, Sugar Land-based Planned Community Developers, and the City of Sugar Land.

“The vision guiding the evolution of Sugar Land Town Square is to create a lively, walkable village filled with unique merchants, delightful surprises, outdoor communal areas, and authentic expressions of local culture,” said Matt Ragan of Rebees in a statement. “Sugar Land Town Square is the cultural and urban center of the City of Sugar Land, and it will soon honor this role by becoming as vibrant and future-leaning as the city itself.”

Sugar Land Town Square, which was developed in 2003, boasts 1.4 million square feet of mixed-use offerings. It houses a city hall, a Marriott Hotel and conference center, and an expansive central plaza that is the site of numerous concerts, festivals, performances, pop-ups, and city events. Myriad local and national retail outlets and restaurants dot the landscape alongside 167 high-end condominiums.

urban-renewal

Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”