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Ssh, don't tell! The high end stores moving into the new River Oaks Districtdevelopment leak out

The covetable silk scarves and leather handbags of Hermès may soon find a homeat the River Oaks District.
Courtesy photo
OliverMcMillan's development is expected to include 650,000 square feet ofretail, office and residential space.
Although no specific store or restaurant names have been released, a floor plandenotes leases executed or in negotiation in red.
OliverMcMillan

As the year comes to an end, the last of the tenants of 4444 Westheimer are packing up their belongings and moving out to make way for the River Oaks District, a forthcoming mixed-use property from San Diego-based real estate developer OliverMcMillan.

Although the project is not expected to be complete until the fall of 2014, a highly-placed source has told CultureMap what sort of retail hotspots we might expect to find on the 15-acre tract.

Hermès, which currently has a Houston address at BLVD Place on Post Oak, has plans to move down the street once the dust has settled, according to the source.

Christian Dior quietly closed its doors in the Galleria earlier this year (with Louis Vuitton taking over the space for a temporary women's department while that store undergoes renovations), but it is also expected to open a new storefront at the River Oaks District.

Rumor has it that the fashion-forward Tom Ford and John Lobb, purveyor of "the finest shoes and boots for gentlemen," are eyeing real estate at the forthcoming development, too, which is also slated to include 99,000 square feet of office space and 278 residential units.

Inquiries to OliverMcMillan representatives were not immediately returned.

A pre-Christmas trip down Westheimer Road to Highland Village proved so traumatizing that we're avoiding the trafficky thoroughfare for the time being — so while it's nice to have an alternative to the Galleria, the worry still remains that this development (plus several others planned for that saturated stretch) will only make matters worse.

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No Cap

Houston ranked No. 3 destination for Gen Zers on the move for 2023

Photo by Alexander Londoño on Unsplash

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As Gen Z enters adulthood, many are flocking to the nation's biggest cultural hubs like New York City, Los Angeles, and now Houston, which had the third-highest inflow of Gen Zers in 2023.

H-Town's new reputation as a Gen Z hotspot was unveiled in a recent report by American home improvement brand This Old House, which analyzed migration trends across multiple generations using 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data.

Houston saw an influx of 22,868 Gen Z residents last year to become the generations third most popular city. That's up from ranking as the No. 11 most popular city in 2022. Houston gained fewer than 7,600 new Gen Z residents during that time in comparison to 2023's migration trend.

Houston started gaining traction as an up-and-coming destination for Gen Zers last year, when the "experience-hungry generation" was on the hunt for an affordable place to live with vast opportunities for entertainment, education, or employment.

Real estate marketplace Zillow seems to agree on a statewide scale, declaring Texas as the No. 1 destination for Gen Zers on the move in 2024.

While Houston saw big gains in its Gen Z population last year, many other big cities saw a mass exodus.

"El Paso, Texas, has lost the most residents from this generation, with a drop of 5,607, a sharp turn from 2022 when the city saw an increase," the report said. "Other cities, including Plano, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; McKinney, Texas; and Wichita, Kansas, are seeing similar declines."

The report also surprisingly revealed that Houston is also one of the top destinations for millennials and Gen X, whereas both New York City and Los Angeles lost more residents among those two generations in comparison.

Houston ranked as the No. 1 city for Gen Xers and No. 4 for millennials based on their respective migration trends in 2023. Houston gained 6,312 new Gen X residents last year – the most nationwide – and the fourth-highest amount of millennials (5,301 new residents).

"Gen X, baby boomers, and the Silent Generation are also moving away from major cities, particularly New York City and Washington, D.C.," the report said. "They’re heading to some of the same cities as Gen Z, including Houston and Jacksonville, Florida."

The top 10 cities that gained the most Gen Z residents in 2023 are:

No. 1 – New York City, New York
No. 2 – Los Angeles, California
No. 3 – Houston, Texas
No. 4 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
No. 5 – Chicago, Illinois
No. 6 – San Diego, California
No. 7 – Seattle, Washington
No. 8 – Charlotte, North Carolina
No. 9 – Dallas, Texas
No. 10 – Minneapolis, Minnesota