Alamo Drafthouse in Sugar Land

Massive Sugar Land development signs Alamo Drafthouse as first tenant

Alamo Drafthouse Imperial Market Sugar Land rendering

The Houston-area's third Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is coming to Sugar Land's I [https://imperialmkt.com/]mperial Market mixed-use development in 2017.

Courtesy image

Movie lovers in southwest Houston and beyond will soon have a new place to catch the latest releases. The Houston-area's third Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is coming to Sugar Land's Imperial Market mixed-use development in 2017.

The nine-screen theater will begin construction in early 2016 as part of a new two-story retail building. In addition to its full menu of food and beverage options, Houston-area Alamo operator Triple Tap Ventures, LLC promises state-of-the-art projection technology.

"We are excited about the growth of our Alamo Drafthouse Cinema locations in the Houston market," said Neil Billingsley-Michaelsen, president and CEO of Triple Tap Ventures LLC, in a statement. “We look forward to bringing our passion for movies, food and drinks to even more people in the Houston metropolitan area. We already see Sugar Land guests traveling to our other two theaters and are excited to be a part of the Imperial Market development."

The 850,000 square-foot project will utilize a number of historic buildings located on the former site of the Imperial Sugar factory. The 90-year-old Char House building will become a 185 room Aloft hotel and the historic silos will be converted for restaurant and retail use. The development will also house the new Fort Bend Children's Discovery Center (FBCDC), a project of the renowned Children's Museum of Houston and the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation.

Will Alamo ever come inside the Loop? The Houston Business Journal notes that a theater is still part of the plans for the Regent Square development at the corner of West Dallas and Dunlavy. In the meantime, movie buffs can enjoy a full range of food and cocktails at the newly opened iPic theater at River Oaks District.

shopping openings hotels movies

millennial magnet

Houston stars among 30 hottest U.S. metros for millennial homebuyers

Photo by Jose Losada on Unsplash

Houston is a millennial magnet.

Houston and its surrounding cities have already proved to be magnets for millennials, and now a new national housing report has established the city as one of the 15 hottest destinations for millennials, whose local homeownership rate has nearly doubled since 2018.

The number of millennials who own their homes in Houston has grown from 227,365 to 418,698 households over the last five years (84.2 percent), according to a new housing analysis from RentCafe.

The study compared homeowner growth rates versus renter growth rates of millennials — based on Pew Research Center's definition as individuals born between 1981 and 1996 — across 107 U.S. metro areas from 2018 to 2023.

Houston ranked No. 29 in the overall list of U.S. metros that have seen the highest increase in millennial homeowners since 2018. About 49 percent of all Houston-area millennials own their homes, with the remaining 51 percent renting, the report found.

Houston also ranked 22nd in the national list of cities with the biggest growth rates among millennial-age renters. The number of millennial renter households jumped from 397,410 to 439,371 in five years, a 10.6 percent hike.

About 5.3 million millennials have become homeowners over the last five years nationwide, RentCafe's analysts said, which represents a massive 74 percent increase in millennial-owned households. The growth rate of renters was much lower in comparison.

"At the same time, the number of millennial renters in the U.S. rose by a modest 5 percent, adding approximately 600,000 households," RentCafe said. "This brings the total number of millennial homeowner households to 12.4 million, close to the 12.6 million millennial renter households."

While the rate of millennial homeowners is on the rise, the same can't be said for Gen Zers. Less than 15 percent of all Gen Z households in Houston own their homes, while the vast majority are renters, a separate RentCafe study found.

Elsewhere across the state, Austin (No. 7) and San Antonio (No. 10) ranked among the top 10 U.S. cities with the biggest growth rates among millennial homeowners.

The top 10 U.S. metros with the highest gains in millennial homeowners are:

No. 1 – North Port, Florida
No. 2 – Lakeland, Florida
No. 3 – Jacksonville, Florida
No. 4 – Stockton, California
No. 5 – Oxnard, California
No. 6 – Palm Bay, Florida
No. 7 – Austin, Texas
No. 8 – Tuscon, Arizona
No. 9 – Deltona, Florida
No. 10 – San Antonio, Texas

rentcafe study real estate housing report millennials houston