'Create Confidence': Now Is The Time To Leverage Investments In Downtown Houston's Street Level

Downtown Houston is ready to enter its walkability era.

Over a four-decade diversification journey, Downtown Houston saw a significant increase in nonemployee visitors, but offices remained its bread and butter in 2020. Then the pandemic dealt a blow to the office market, leaving its 40M SF of office space still more than 27% vacant today.

The employees who do still work Downtown are drawn to the air-conditioned tunnels, leaving sparse foot traffic on the ground level on any given weekday.

But as stakeholders, including office tenants, told Downtown Houston+ that they want to prioritize business-friendly street-level environments, the public sector and commercial property owners alike are investing tens of millions of dollars in projects to create a more vibrant streetscape and public realm.

They want to see a lively, connected Downtown where visitors feel comfortable walking to different areas and popping in and out of storefronts. 

To make it happen, those investors hope more landlords will follow suit.

Now is the time to leverage the billions of dollars going into walkability-focused public sector projects, including the Main Street Promenade and the $2B renovation and expansion of the George R. Brown Convention Center, said Cassie Hoeprich, director of planning and economic development for Downtown Houston+.

“What we hope to see is a continued commitment to this vision of walkability and connectivity and vibrancy,” Hoeprich said. “It's what office workers want. It's what's going to keep the absorption of our residential assets up and positive. It's what's going to continue to create confidence in investing in Downtown.”

While Downtown Houston maintains a lingering “primarily for 9-to-5 workers” reputation, it captured 38.5 million nonemployee visits in 2025. That was up from the previous year but on par with 2023, according to Downtown Houston+ data. 

As the neighborhood gears up to welcome another 500,000-plus visitors for this summer’s FIFA World Cup, Downtown stakeholders hope the event will create more repeat visitors and more confidence to invest in a lively Downtown. 

“If you have an office tower and you're thinking, ‘Where should I put my money, in our underground experience or in the ground floor?’ My advice would be invest in the ground floor,” Hoeprich said.

Challenge To Overcome 

Downtown Houston lacks the inviting feel that other cities like Boston and Chicago have nailed, Rebel Retail Advisors’ Abby Hawkins said, adding that people usually visit Downtown Houston with a specific mission in mind. 

After the Downtown Living Initiative ran from 2012 to 2016 and helped add 4,250 residential units, the pandemic-fueled work-from-home shift halted that momentum. People don’t need to live as close to a job they only have to attend in person a couple of days a week, H-Town Restaurant Group owner Tracy Vaught said. 

NewForm President Dan Zimmerman lived Downtown in the summer of 2020, when it was virtually a ghost town.

“It was really just me, my son, my wife, my dog and a bunch of homeless people,” Zimmerman said. “It wasn't apocalyptic, but obviously it was a major kick to the stomach for Downtown.” 

That isn’t to say Zimmerman doesn’t believe in Downtown. NewForm Real Estate began buying property Downtown pre-pandemic, and just last month it completed the multimillion-dollar renovation of a century-old building at 917 Franklin St. In the interest of street vibrancy, Zimmerman said he didn’t renew the building’s first-floor office tenant and relocated it.

The tenant had painted the doors shut and put privacy film on the windows, which was not conducive to the block, which is part of the pedestrian-only stretch of Main Street, he said.

The space has been vacant for three years, but Zimmerman hopes the newly unveiled renovation will do the trick. He is also happy to take the time to secure a retail tenant that will contribute to the vibrancy of the public realm.

“A lot of banks are looking at me like I'm dumb, I should have kept the $12K a month and moved on with my life,” Zimmerman said. “But overall, I think it's better for the city, better for the block, and long term, it will be better for the value of my asset.” 

Rebel Retail Advisors’ Hawkins and Gideon Perritt were tasked with leasing the renovated 3,390 SF ground-floor space, and they are reaching out to tenants that would be “activated and inviting,” like a coffee shop and fitness hybrid, an art gallery or a large food and beverage operator.

“If we can nail this, that can be the first step in changing the feeling and the inviting nature of Downtown. That would make it way more walkable,” Hawkins said.

The Public Demand

Published in 2025, Downtown Houston+’s Public Realm Action Plan gathered input from stakeholders, including property owners, office tenants, city representatives and members of the public.

The top priority for the plan is to rebalance the public right-of-way to prioritize human comfort and a pro-business environment, bringing life to street level with “active ground floors and plazas that invite people to stop, shop, and spend more time strolling.” 

Some landlords are already on board. Aside from NewForm’s project, a $50M repositioning of 910 Louisiana, the 50-story tower formerly known as One Shell Plaza, will replace stretches of stone with glass at ground level and aims to create an inviting, pedestrian-friendly space. Completion is expected in 2027.

For its part, Downtown Houston+ is working on multiple projects. The Main Street Promenade began as a pilot program in 2021, and its popularity led Downtown Houston+ to designate seven blocks of Main Street as permanently car-free.

The project is slated for completion ahead of the World Cup, as is Phase 1 of Cool + Connected Corridors, which is adding shade structures, planting, landscaping, pedestrian-level lighting and small streetscape enhancements along 14 blocks of Texas Avenue.

Unlike past eras influenced by the advent of cars or air conditioning, Downtown Houston is entering an era that embraces its green space, parks and sidewalk vibrancy. Downtown Houston+ is helping to usher that era in and create an environment where visitors can park one time and go to a park, a game or a show, out to eat and more, Hoeprich said. 

“Downtown is certainly entering an era where we really want to embrace walkability. We want to embrace connectivity,” Hoeprich said. “We want to continue to see tremendous investment by both the public sector and private sector.” 

The Progress 

While Zimmerman waits for a perfect tenant to fill 917 Franklin, he has already proven the model at 104 Main St., part of the Main & Co. corridor. Fifth Vessel Coffee, a café painted with a bright, colorful mural, occupies the first floor.

“It transformed the block,” Zimmerman said.

H-Town Restaurant Group, which opened its restaurant Xochi in Downtown Houston in 2017, also made its second investment in the neighborhood in November. It opened Zaranda in Norton Rose Fulbright Tower, which is across Discovery Green from Xochi, in the Marriott Marquis Houston.

The restaurateurs were recruited for both spaces, Vaught said, adding that the density of that portion of Downtown and the frequency of conventions bolstered their confidence about the locations.

“It’s the same customer base, conventiongoers,” Vaught said. “It’s the same excitement. If you’re down there, anytime really, there’s something going on.” 

Phase 1 of the George R. Brown Convention Center expansion will add a new 700K SF building called GRB South to be completed ahead of Houston's hosting of the 2028 Republican National Convention. 

Downtown Houston has already seen 9.9 million nonemployee visits in 2026, an 8% year-over-year increase. And it is about to get another shot in the arm from the World Cup. 

Downtown Houston+ estimates that hotels in the district are investing $100M in renovations and expansions ahead of the tournament. The JW Marriott Houston Downtown’s multimillion-dollar expansion, for one, will add 56 guest rooms and 10K SF of meeting space. 

Just last month, Neway Hospitality opened a new 17-story Holiday Inn Express and Staybridge Suites at 1319 Texas Ave.

Neway Hospitality President Ali Momin is also involved in the redevelopment of the historic Scanlan Building at 405 Main St., a former office building that was surrendered in lieu of foreclosure, into Houston’s first Hilton Canopy hotel. That project, slated to open in 2027, will be along the pedestrian promenade. 

The hotel openings coinciding with pedestrian-targeted projects wasn’t intentional, but it will be a benefit because “walkability and location are key in any hotel,” Momin said.

Streetscape design is a major component of that, which is why the Holiday Inn Express and Staybridge Suites started its parking garage on the second floor. 

Its ground-floor retail includes a grocery store called Urban Street Market, which will open next month, he said, adding that it will carry fresh produce, meat and other daily essentials for guests of the extended-stay hotel. It will be the only grocery store in the immediate area that also has apartments, Momin said. 

“That would have been a dead space if we didn't utilize it,” he said. “We could have put any retail component in that spot, but we felt that the need for synergies between an extended-stay hotel and apartments in the area would justify doing a grocery store.”  

The Future

There is a lingering misconception that Downtown Houston is dead at street level, but that perception is evolving, said Stream Realty Partners senior associate Danielle Rothchild, who is leasing the office space at 917 Franklin. 

“With everyone really returning back to office and it being stronger than ever, that is continuing to change,” Rothchild said. 

Downtown Houston saw 513K SF of additional office space filled in 2025, its first positive absorption since 2019. Compared to 2019, the office recovery rate was 78% in 2025, according to Downtown Houston+. 

As work continues on the Main Street Promenade and 917 Franklin debuts its renovation, Rothchild said she has seen an uptick in activity.

“We're just really excited for the future of Downtown … and excited to see people who are invigorated in office leasing downtown,” she said. “It's great to see. It feels refreshing.” 

Continued investment from landlords and the public sector can create a mutually beneficial ecosystem that will attract more office tenants, retailers and visitors, Hoeprich said. 

Downtown ecosystems all over the country have been shaken up over the past few years, and Houston is landing an ecosystem that embraces a bit of the old, like Main Street vibrancy, and a bit of the new, with parks and green spaces.   

“Let's keep investing in a bit of the new, embracing each other's investments and leveraging them in the public realm,” Hoeprich said. “I'm excited to see the Downtown Houston ecosystem respond smartly to 2026.”