HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – David Hightower, executive vice president of Midway Companies, has been involved in the development of over 6,000 acres and numerous commercial buildings. Hightower is currently working on the development of the 150-acre East River mixed-use development on the edge of downtown Houston. Hightower also serves as president of the Energy Corridor District.
Below are excerpts from David Hightower’s recent appearance on The Ralph Bivins Project podcast.
To listen to the entire podcast Click Here for Spotify or Click Here for YouTube.
Ralph Bivins: One of the big projects that everybody’s been wondering about that’s kind of new on the Midway radar screen used to be called Post Oak Central on Post Oak Boulevard just a couple of blocks north of the Galleria. Midway is redeveloping it and you’ve renamed it Central Park Post Oak. Tell us a little bit more about what you guys are doing with the former Post Oak Central.
David Hightower: Well, just for full disclosure, it’s not my project, but I am keeping track of what’s going on here pretty closely, mainly because I’m in it right now. We moved our offices here a little over a year ago. We bought this property in October of ‘23, comprised primarily of about 1.2 million square feet of office, some minor retail mostly on the ground floor of the garage building. It’s a property that I can tell you we’ve had our eye on for some time … We broke ground on two new restaurant retail buildings that are located along Post Oak frontage between Post Oak One and Post Oak Two. Post Oak Two is the building you can see behind me. I’m in Post Oak Three. We’re bringing about 150,000 square feet of new and redone, if you will, retail with these buildings and also a new restaurant building for Post Oak Central Park. In Building Two, we’re going to do a restaurant in that building at some point, and then of course, retail in the garages. The leasing is doing well. It’s kind of a startup, value add kind of opportunity given where office leasing is, but we’ve recently signed TDECU for 125,000 square feet. They’re going to go in Central Park Post Oak One. BBVA just leased a floor in building number two. We’ve got a number of tenants that we’re talking to for office and of course the retail and restaurants were very active. The Henry, which is a Fox restaurant concept, will be in one of the buildings. They’re going to occupy about 7,000 square feet, I think, in one of the new buildings. So, it’s really exciting. And I think part of the opportunity here that was envisioned, if you will, by (Midway Chairman) Brad Freels was Midway can bring these additional offerings for the office tenants in terms of retail and restaurants. It makes it a much more walkable environment. We’re also looking at hospitality in the sense of hotel. That’s to be determined. We’re still kind of working through those concepts and ideas.
RB: But the hospitality, would you put the hotel inside one of the three existing buildings?
DH: That is one idea that we’re looking at. Yes. We’re looking at a number of different concepts.
RB: You are pretty busy on East River, 150 acres on the east side of downtown less than a mile from the Astros’ Daikin Park. You’ve got office in East River, you’ve got retail, multifamily.
DH: Our phase one is up and we’re about 85% leased on the office. There are negotiations going on for basically the rest of that space right now. Our multifamily family project with 359 units is approaching 60% leased. We’re well on our way with getting that one leased up. Retail is about 60% leased. Several retail restaurants are opening, a couple have opened, a couple more are in tenant finish out right now. We’ve got several other non-retail type operators like a dentist office and nail salon, a couple other things. So, the retail’s coming along. Of course, the Port Houston building, we’re under construction on their headquarters building … And then you’ve got those little buildings for sale. Studio buildings. Those are like 10,000 square feet. James Burnett, OJB, the landscape architecture firm is moving their office out there and we’ve got an architecture firm from Dallas we’re talking to about one of the buildings. So, we’ve got a lot of activity, we’ve got a lot of opportunity there.
RB: That’s the first phase, I believe you said is 26 acres and that sounds like it’s about used up.
DH: I’m as you well know Ralph, because I you and I have known each other for a long time, I’m a land developer. Our section one is 26 acres and of the 26 acres we’ve built vertical on 18 or so. Okay, so we’ve got a 3½-acre site on the corner of Jensen and Clinton. We’ve got a 2-acre site right dead center in the middle of the property at the entrance that we’re just waiting for the right office tenant to come along and do a build-to- suit on.
RB: So, there could be another year or so before you say, I’m out of land in the phase one. I’m ready to do phase two?
DH: I’m not waiting to sell every square inch of section one before I start section two.
RB: Isn’t there supposed to be some for-sale residential or something?
DH: Our earlier master plan involved some townhouses, for-sale townhouses. We made the decision back as we were about to kick off section one that we weren’t really going to look at that because we thought there were a lot (of townhouses) being developed north of us between us and Interstate 10, and certainly on the south side of the bayou there’s a lot of townhouse activity.
To listen to the entire podcast Click Here for Spotify or Click Here for YouTube.
David Hightower Bio:
David Hightower presently serves as Executive Vice President of Midway Companies. During his career he has been involved in the ownership, development and/or management of over 6,000 acres of commercial, residential and agricultural land investments and developments.
He is active in various community and civic activities, and is presently serving on the boards and committees of several organizations that deal with issues affecting the real estate industry and overall community development, including the West Houston Association, the Urban Land Institute – Houston District Council, the Greater Houston Partnership’s Real Estate Advisory Committee and the Houston Real Estate Council.
Hightower is a member of a number of other real estate-related organizations including: the Commercial Investment Real Estate Institute, NAIOP – The Commercial Real Estate Development Association, Counselors of Real Estate, Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, and Houston Association of Realtors.
He is also a founding director and current President of Harris County Improvement District No. 4 (The Energy Corridor District).
Hightower has earned the Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) and Counselor of Real Estate (CRE) designations and is a licensed real estate broker and licensed professional engineer.
Aug. 3, 2025 Realty News Report Copyright 2025
THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT PODCAST
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with David Hightower of Midway
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LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Brad McWhirter of Trahan Architects
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Lacee Jacobs of Rebel Retail Advisors
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Danny Rice of Colliers
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LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Kris Larson of Downtown Houston +
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Jim Carman of Howard Hughes Holdings
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Sam Scott of CommGate
File: The Ralph Bivins Project: Podcast Guest David Hightower of Midway. East River, Post Oak Central The Ralph Bivins Project: Podcast Guest David Hightower Energy Corridor District