Co-owner Stephanie Leyva said Cinco Vidas Coffee Company expanded with a new location in New Caney in February.

Some context: The coffee company was founded by husband and wife duo Brandon and Stephanie Leyva in 2024 in Porter.

Check it out: Per officials, the new location is open Monday-Friday from 6 a.m.-1 p.m.

What they offer: Per previous Community Impact reporting, Cinco Vidas Coffee offers coffee sourced from local vendor Talavera, a Mexican-inspired coffee shop. Cinco Vidas Coffee Company specializes in lattes made with different flavors.

• Opened Feb. 16
• 18790 Hwy. 59, New Caney

From an indoor golf business to a new retail and office development, several businesses have updates to share in the New Caney and Porter areas. 

Now open
Golf Lab 24—owned by Matt Skelton—is now open in Porter. The indoor golf business offers customers the chance to play golf using screen simulators.

• Opened in mid-January; grand opening tentatively scheduled for March 1
• 22985 FM 1314, Building 4, Ste. 6, Porter

• First buildings opening in fourth quarter of 2027
• Southwest of the intersection of the Grand Parkway and Valley Ranch Parkway

Candidates for the Republican primary for U.S. House District 2 gathered at The Woodlands Area Economic Development Partnership on Feb. 19 for a forum on economic and business topics during the first week of early voting.

What happened: Incumbent Dan Crenshaw and candidates Martin Etwop and N. Lee Plumb attended the forum, and state Rep. Steve Toth, who represents District 15 in the Texas Legislature, was also invited but did not attend.

The details: The candidates offered information about their backgrounds and motivations for running, and questions covered topics such as the economy and legislative policies.

Get involved: Early voting began Feb. 17 and will end Feb. 27. A list of some of the positions on the sample ballot for voters in The Woodlands area in Montgomery County can be found here.

A major new natural gas power project in east Houston just cleared another state milestone, pushing a planned 455-megawatt plant closer to reality as Texas races to add generation amid rising demand.

What this means: Gov. Greg Abbott announced the new unit planned at the existing Greens Bayou facility has been designated a qualified project under the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation program, according to a Feb. 17 news release. The plant represents $617 million in capital investment and is expected to start producing electricity for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas region in 2028, according to the governor’s office.

The project is intended to strengthen grid reliability and create jobs, crediting state leaders and local partners for helping move the plan ahead, per the release.

What’s next: According to the release, with the JETI designation now in place, the focus shifts to the buildout and timeline leading up to the planned 2028 start date—when the additional capacity is expected to begin feeding electricity into the ERCOT grid.

During an arctic blast last month, the Texas power grid remained stable throughout the storm and the state came away largely unscathed. The Lone Star State has not seen widespread blackouts since February 2021, when millions of Texans lost power and nearly 250 people died.

The response: In Uri’s wake, state lawmakers and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas made changes to restructure ERCOT’s governing board, mandate earlier public alerts during tight grid conditions and require that energy providers “weatherize” their facilities to withstand extremely hot or cold temperatures.

Roughly 40,000 megawatts of power—enough to serve about 10 million residential customers—have been added to the grid since 2021 and the state’s energy supply has become more diverse.

Looking ahead: State leaders have expressed confidence that the grid would hold up during “a storm similar to Uri.” Yet some energy analysts caution that rapidly rising electric demand, driven by the construction of new data centers throughout Texas, means challenges may still lie ahead.