HOUSTON — Retail follows rooftops, as the expression goes, but over the last decade in Houston, brick-and-mortar development and single- and multifamily construction have rarely moved at the same pace. Houston experienced a major housing boom in the years leading up to the oil downturn, which began in late 2014. A report from houstonproperties.com, which tracks the metro’s single-family market, notes that Houston topped the nation in new construction starts of single-family homes in 2013 and 2014. In addition, during that two-year stretch there were 28 high-rise apartment buildings under construction, and 83 additional high-rise multifamily projects either approved or proposed. Houston’s emergence as a strong-performing retail market in an era where brick-and-mortar shopping is on shaky ground was one of the key topics explored by real estate professionals at the second annual InterFace Houston Retail Real Estate conference. Crowds packed into the meeting rooms of the Royal Sonesta hotel in the city’s Galleria neighborhood on Tuesday, April 17 to hear about just how much new retail development the market can bear. Before retail development could catch up to the torrid pace of housing development, oil prices tanked, thousands of blue- and white-collar energy workers were laid off, housing prices …
