The Ralph Bivins Project – Podcast Guest Kris Larson

HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – RALPH BIVINS: This is Ralph Bivins with the Ralph Bivins Project. We’re here today with Kris Larson. He’s president of the Downtown Houston+ association and president and CEO of Central Houston, Inc. He’s got a lot of things on his plate involving downtown Houston. Welcome, Kris.

KRIS LARSON: Thank you, Ralph.

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RALPH BIVINS: We have a lot to talk about today, Kris. First, the EaDo (East Downtown Houston) park, the 30-acre project that’s going to change the downtown – well, the whole city, really. It’s going to be built over a freeway. Tell us about this huge opportunity. It may take a few years to complete, but it’s going to happen. It will change the city forever.

KRIS LARSON: Not only may it take a few years, it will. Close your eyes and picture that very large, elevated highway between Minute Maid Park, Shell Energy Stadium and EaDo. We all know the impact of I-69 and I-59 as they move north to south and how it divides downtown from EaDo. In the new environment, these highways will be trenched. Imagine digging a very, very large trench through EaDo, essentially burying the highway throughout the downtown – about ¾ of a mile long. After trenching, and when the highway is placed below ground, we will put a cap on it that will act as a lid. As a community, we plan to put programmatic things on top of the lid. We are thinking of creating a 30-acre park space. It will be a very large space – five times the size of Discovery Green, stretching from Texas Avenue to Polk Street. On this spot we can introduce all sorts of programmatic elements. You could have a large amphitheater to accommodate tens of thousands of people at outdoor concerts. We are thinking about parks and open spaces and recreational amenities. The aim is to knit downtown back to EaDo. Not only will this help the game day experience but will improve everyday experiences. This is an incredibly important but also complex project that involves us working with a number of our partners.

RALPH BIVINS: Downtown is growing – and the boundaries are being erased.

KRIS LARSON: Not only are we erasing things, but we are adding things to unite two neighborhoods.

RALPH BIVINS: I also wanted to ask you about a project called Main Street Promenade. It involves permanently closing down auto traffic on the oldest part of Main Street for the promenade. Can you tell us about that?

KRIS LARSON: This is a project we have been working on for a couple of years and it really speaks to a couple of priorities. Main Street, since the introduction of rail, is not a good place to drive a car. People say the only time you see a car on Main Street is if someone is looking to valet at a hotel, or they’re lost. The City Council closed Main Street to cars in March 2023.

We have been advancing an idea of transforming Main Street into a pedestrian promenade. Everyone wants downtown to have better offerings for retail, shopping restaurants and places to go out. Main Street is that opportunity. It has naturally occurring clustered storefronts that speak to the historic nature of these buildings. It is the oldest part of the city of Houston, with buildings that speak to what life was like in the 19^th century. They offer ground-floor use which is critical to us creating that retail-restaurant-active entertainment type of district that people are looking for.

By closing Main Street to cars, it allows us to create an undisturbed pedestrian experience. There are a lot of jigs and jags along Main Street because of the historical interventions. We really want to streamline this street for a better protected but logical experience. This is a really exciting project that has received overwhelming support from the community, from businesses and property owners. This would be a 7-block promenade stretching from all the way from Allens Landing on the north side down to Lamar Street on the south side. This project contains unique elements unlike anything else in Houston.

RALPH BIVINS: Could you tell us about the major expansion of the George R. Brown Convention Center on the east side of downtown scheduled to begin next year? I understand a new building will be constructed, one that will include parking, exhibition halls, a ballroom and meeting space.

KRIS LARSON: We are excited to be working with our partners at Houston First for the convention center expansion. Senate Bill 1057 provided the financial resources to build this facility in the convention center. Part of the strategy was to begin to rethink the relationship of the convention center so that it doesn’t simply have one front door. Of course, today, it opens onto Discovery Green. In the convention center of the future, it will also open eastward into EaDo. So, it will essentially have two front doors opening into EaDo and the downtown, and it will have a relationship to both sides. That’s a critical component of this and they play an important role as we think about the design of the cap because the cap will be their front door in EaDo, so we have to get it right.

State of Downtown Luncheon

RALPH BIVINS: Your State of Downtown Luncheon is coming up Oct. 16 at the Hilton Americas, presented by Downtown Houston+. We look forward to hearing what you have to say there.

KRIS LARSON: Thank you, Ralph. This annual event is an opportunity for me to speak to a local audience of businesspeople, civic and political leaders from across the region to talk about the well-being of our downtown community. It’s really critical that we not only address a lack of information, but to tell the story in a holistic and accessible way. Because there are so many great individual news stories, and the way we receive information is often on a one-off basis. At one point, you are reading one story about one thing and rarely do you have the opportunity to see it all come together. Our State of Downtown event creates that space where we do have an audience with leadership from around Houston to talk about the well-being of the downtown holistically and to talk about the impact of all those small moves and really what is going to move the community forward.

Kris Larson’s International Appointment

Downtown Houston+ CEO Kris Larson was installed Sept. 12 as chair of the International Downtown Association (IDA)’s Board of Directors during the organization’s 70th annual global gathering in Seattle. The International Downtown Association has thousands of members around the globe.

“We are excited for the election of Kris Larson as chair of IDA’s board of directors,” said David Downey, IDA’s president and CEO. “Kris’s expertise in strategic planning and growing diverse major municipal centers will be invaluable during this unique moment in place management. As we navigate the evolving challenges of city building, Kris’s vast experience makes him relatable and well-equipped to support our members at every step.”

“It is an honor to steward the IDA board for the next two years,” Larson said. “The organization creates a home for inspired leaders working to advance their respective communities and offers deep expertise in strategies that achieve results in cities around the globe.”

Larson said the organization has focused a lot of effort to enabling the conversion of obsolete office space to residential use.

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Mark Your Calendar

Downtown Houston + will present its State of Downtown Annual Meeting on Oct. 16 at 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Hilton Americas, Downtown 1600 Lamar St. Keynote speaker: General Stan McChrystal. Information:

THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT PODCAST

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