The Woodlands | February 2023

LOOKING FORWARD

FUNDING IMPROVEMENT Capital funds are reserved in the 2023 budget for several projects that will feed economic development in The Woodlands.

1 CAPITAL REPLACEMENT RESERVE: $36.5 million 2 FIRE DEPARTMENT FACILITIES: $10 million 3 PARKS PROJECTS RESERVE: $19.8 million 4 CULTURAL EDUCATION FUND: $1.1 million 5 FLOOD/DRAINAGE RESERVE: $115,124

Economic development projects possible in The Woodlands include township-directed activities such as design of an arts center as well as outside projects such as mall redevelopment.

2024: The Woodlands takes over the Waterway from Howard Hughes

2025: Proposed

2026: Study and design completion of a performing arts center

2027: The Woodlands hopes to see new set of Waterway events

groundbreaking of mall developments

Capital fund allocation: $ 67,515,124

SOURCE: THE WOODLANDS TOWNSHIPCOMMUNITY IMPACT

Revitalizing the village centers During the Jan. 19 meeting, the township board voted 5-1 to reform the Ad Hoc Economic Development Committee, which dissolved in 2020 due to the pandemic. The commit- tee is now composed of Board Mem- bers Ann Snyder, Kyle Watson and Brad Bailey. The committee works inde- pendently of The Woodlands Area Economic Development Partnership, which largely pursues large corpo- rate relocations in The Woodlands area. The local committee will focus on how the township can spur local retail, dining and entertainment development, ocials said. “Economic development is critical to growing and sustaining our local economy as well as maintaining and increasing our sales and hotel tax, and what that does is it reduces the reliance on property tax,” Snyder said in an interview. Several of The Woodlands’ village town centers have seen occupancy drop as larger grocery stores such as HEB and Walmart opened locations in and around The Woodlands. “Those village centers were sup- posed to be the hub of those villages, but right now they’re the at tire,” Bailey said at the Jan. 27 meeting.

HOTEL AND SALES TAX LEVELS RISE Hotel occupancy taxes allow The Woodlands Township to fund events and tourism-related projects. After falling during 2020, those revenues have risen close to prepandemic levels.

Rhode Island, for comparable ways to use the Waterway. “We’ve got to understand what [the township] vision is to really try to g- ure out how to make it work in a ve- year plan or what might be feasible to research,” Nunes said. For example, plans to pursue a performing arts center were tabled in early 2020 until better economic conditions were available, ocials said. The former GE Betz campus at 9669 Grogans Mill Road, acquired by the township in 2015, is being consid- ered as a potential site, according to township ocials. According to Sharp, the next step in the process to pursue an arts cen- ter would be to hire architects and develop an ocial design, which would take 14-18 months. She said hotel occupancy tax reserves could be used to pay the architect fees, which she estimated to total around $100,000 to $140,000. Hotel occupancy tax revenue helps fund tourism projects in the town- ship. However, Sharp said the fund would not be enough to cover the full expense of constructing the per- forming arts center, and the township would need to partner with another entity or put a bond referendum before voters for approval.

The Grogan’s Mill and Panther Creek Village Centers saw their anchor Randalls stores close in early 2020, and while economic growth in other parts of The Woodlands has started to return based on sales and revenue tax levels, the low occupancy rates of those village centers has remained. Bruce Cunningham, president of the Grogan’s Mill Village Association, said he hopes providing more visibil- ity to the shopping center as well as bringing in a new anchor store would revitalize the areas. “[The Woodlands’ founder] George Mitchell wanted everybody to be able to walk to a shop at Randalls, or, you know, a shopping center that was within a mile and a half of 90% of the people who live in the village,” Cun- ningham said. One of the biggest challenges is bringing all parties to the table, as the Grogan’s Mill Shopping Center alone consists of nine separate properties, Cunningham said. In a letter to the board of directors, the Grogan’s Mill Village Association asked whether the township would consider using $20 million in “surplus incorporation funds” to help improve the center. Snyder said the committee will speak with various stakeholders and

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report back to the board of directors to nd solutions at some point. “The ... Ad Hoc Development Com- mittee is the perfect vehicle to bring all those dierent parties together and try to come up with a solution that is going to revitalize the shopping centers,” Hollie said.

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THE WOODLANDS EDITION • FEBRUARY 2023