Sugar Land's Imperial Market, the mixed-use development designed to incorporate the historic structures once used to refine sugar at the former Imperial Sugar plant, has snagged Alamo Drafthouse Cinema as its first major tenant.

Geoffrey Jones, one of the project's developers, said the retail portion of the project is nearly one-third preleased. Falling oil prices have not hampered his efforts, he added. Construction will start in March and be completed in the summer of 2017.

"Our project has been unscathed by what has been occurring in the energy industry," Jones said.

While other sectors of the commercial real estate market are slipping, Jones said, Houston-area retail builders are in good shape because there's not a glut of available properties.

Alamo Drafthouse will be part of a newly constructed two-story retail building. The Austin-based entertainment concept, which combines movies and dining, will have nine screens at its Imperial location. Triple Tap Ventures, which will run the theater, owns and operates two other Houston-area Alamo theaters. It's planning another in the Regent Square development slated for near Allen Parkway and Dunlavy.

Off U.S. 90 between Texas 6 and U.S. 59, Imperial Market is expected to have 275,000 square feet of retail space, 106,000-square feet of office space and a 185-room boutique hotel. Apartments are also part of the plan.

The size has been expanded slightly since the developers announced it in July. Otherwise, the character of the project has not changed, said Jones, referring to the historic structures set to be restored and reused, including silos, smokestacks and the eight-story char house. Jones is developing Imperial Market with James Murnane.

On Tuesday, Sugar Land City Council approved plans for the 26-acre development.

The project is the commercial hub of the 720-acre Imperial planned community, which is under construction and will have nearly 2,000 new homes when completed.

Handling the food

Houston has more restaurants per capita than anywhere else in the world, and with new eateries opening here all the time, there's an ever-growing demand for commissary kitchens.

Doug Freedman found this out when he was considering options for a newly acquired cold and freezer-storage warehouse in southwest Houston and he kept hearing about a void in Houston. Restaurants, bakeries, and other food and beverage establishments use commissaries for storing, preparing and processing food.

"It's kind of amazing to see how much demand there is for this kind of product because there's just nothing like this out there," said Freedman of United Equities, a commercial real estate firm.

The company gave the 24,000-square-foot warehouse at 8209 Dunlap a face lift and divided it into four spaces, three of which have been leased to small, but growing, local food businesses.

The tenants are Snap Kitchen, Macaron by Patisse's and Malk, a nut milk manufacturer.

"They're all pretty young owners, young businesses. There's a cool vibe going on," Freedman said.

Based on the strong demand, the company is now looking to convert other area buildings in the same way. "I show this property every week," Freedman said. "There's a lot of demand."

Automated estimates

Seattle-based online real estate brokerage firm Redfin has started offering automated home-value estimates on its website for single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums in Houston and 34 other markets across the U.S.

The tool will mean new competition for Zillow, a national real estate information firm that also publishes property values. The company calls them Zestimates.

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman acknowledged the valuation tool is similar to features on other websites, but he said Redfin has a lower published error rate than its competitors.

"Unlike non-brokerage websites, we have 100 percent access to the MLS," Kelman said during a conference call, referring to the database agents use to list properties. "That gives us access to far more data about each home."

Among comparable sales and other factors, Redfin valuations consider specific attributes of a home, like if it's on a busy street, has waterfront access or includes a finished attic.

"We have hundreds of fields of every property non-brokerage sites don't have," Kelman said. "We have more knowledge about every home."

Homeowners with properties for sale can request the estimate not be shown.

Even though Texas does not require property sales prices to be disclosed, the MLS collects that data from real estate agents. Last year, the National Association of Realtors amended rules making it easier for real estate brokers to use MLS data to create automated valuation models.

"The Houston MLS is one of the most progressive in the entire country," Kelman said. "It's been very forthcoming with data."