HOUSTON | East River

[Wattleigh]

https://realtynewsreport.com/a-new-oar-in-houstons-waters/

A New Oar in Houston’s Waters
by Realty News Report
March 18, 2024

HOUSTON – (By Ralph Bivins, Realty News Report) – The concept has been floating around downtown for months now.

The logic: Houstonians can travel on planes and trains, on light rail and bicycle lanes, on sidewalks, pathways and paved trails. Commuters travel in cars and trucks, electric vehicles and buses But what if Houston dives into the unthinkable – transportation by watercraft.

The initial vision is limited to a three- or four-mile stretch of Buffalo Bayou through downtown and the districts immediately to the east and west of downtown.

A fleet of water taxis will carry the load, transporting a steady flow of passengers to a series floating docks at key landing points that will give riders access to restaurants, residences and workplaces.

The water taxis will provide recreational trips for Sunday sightseeing or a fun Friday cruises to a new place for lunch, in addition to entertainment for conventioneers. At this embryonic stage it’s hard to fathom, but soon an optimist will be asking: “Could Houston’s water taxis become as popular as the boats at the San Antonio River Walk?“

Commuters wouldn’t be left out. Downtown workers who want to avoid expensive parking lots, or students at University of Houston Downtown could take the water taxi. A boat that stops at Allen’s Landing gives passengers access to downtown Houston, the METRO light rail and a five-minute walk to skyscrapers, high-rise residential and hotels.

The acclaimed development of the Buffalo Bayou linear park on west side of downtown made Houstonians see that maybe Houston isn’t the ugly duckling of old stereotypes.

The Buffalo Bayou park made people realize that the bayou could be a beautiful place and that it had been ignored and disrespected long enough, says Brad Freels, chairman of Midway, which is developing the 150-acre East River development that features a long stretch of bayou frontage. The bayou is municipal jewel, he says.

“We’ve never embraced one of our largest assets,” Freels said. “We need to show it off.”

Freels is ready to build a water taxi dock at East River and another at the East River 9 golf course at the other end of the property.

The water taxi concept could become another building block in downtown growth and the advancement of the convention business and tourism.

“We’re intrigued by the idea,” said Kris Larson, President and CEO, Downtown Houston+. “Houston’s birthplace is in Downtown at Allen’s Landing, and our organization has a proud history of supporting Buffalo Bayou Partnership from its inception. With Downtown’s connections to bayou parks and trail systems, and our neighbor at East River building steam just downstream, we welcome further exploration.”

Other synergy could come from the Port Houston authority, which is preparing to break ground on its new 100,000-SF headquarters office building at East River. The Port certainly has access to talent that could pilot the bayou boats.

[Wattleigh]

New rendering of future phases & existing site from office leasing documents

[Wattleigh]

https://realtynewsreport.com/another-office-building-announced-for-midways-east-river/

Another Office Building Announced for Midway’s East River
by Realty News Report
April 29, 2024

HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – A new regional headquarters building will be built for Anton Paar USA in Midway’s East River development near the eastern edge of downtown Houston.

Anton Paar USAA ads to a growing array of office occupiers at East River, located on the former Brown & Root campus on 150 acres near the intersection of Clinton Drive and Jensen Drive.

When East River broke ground in a ceremony on Aug. 26, 2021, luminaries from Midway and the city held shovels and wore masks to guard against Covid. And there nothing on the site except grass.

Today, East River has multiple buildings complete and two more office buildings ready to start construction.

Anton Paar USA, a subsidiary of the Austria-based Anton Paar Group, plans to construct a three-story, 30,000-SF facility at East River, providing office and lab space

Anton Paar is known for its development, production, and distribution of highly precise laboratory instruments and process measuring systems, as well as providing custom-tailored automation and robotic solutions. The company is currently located near Bush Airport in an industrial building on World Houston Parkway

In addition to Anton Paar’s new facility, Midway is also developing the new 95,000-SF headquarters for the Port of Houston Authority at East River.

[Wattleigh]

Renderings of the new Port Houston facility & garage c/o Paco Jones on HAIF.

[DCReid]

Originally Posted by Wattleigh

New rendering of future phases & existing site from office leasing documents

What's on the other side of the river? Assuming its not a park, can that be redeveloped with bridge to connect both sides?

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by DCReid

What's on the other side of the river? Assuming its not a park, can that be redeveloped with bridge to connect both sides?

Development name notwithstanding, that’s a bayou. Not a river. It's Buffalo Bayou. Here's what Google Earth shows:



As you can see, there is development going on across the bayou. In fact, Google Earth is pretty out of date in this view.

[Wattleigh]

https://realtynewsreport.com/the-ralph-bivins-project-podcast-guest-david-hightower/

A bit from a recent podcast with longtime local business reporter Ralph Bivins and Midway EVP David Hightower discusses how work is progressing at the site.

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.

[Wattleigh]

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news...reaks-ground-regional-hq-east-river.html

Manufacturer breaks ground on regional HQ in East River mixed-use development


By Jeff Jeffrey – Senior reporter, Houston Business Journal
Sep 3, 2025

Anton Paar USA, an Ashland, Virginia-based manufacturer of precision lab instruments, has broken ground on its new regional headquarters in Midway’s East River mixed-use development.

The company has begun site work on a tract it acquired in April 2024 at the southwest corner of Clinton Drive and Meadow Street, where it will build a three-story, 30,000-square-foot facility.

The new building was designed by Houston-based Powers Brown Architecture and will include 12,500 square feet of office space and 12,599 square feet dedicated to technology, lab, training and conference facilities. The building also will have 5,000 square feet for distribution and shipping.
Benchmark Houston Builders is constructing the facility, which is scheduled for completion in summer 2026.

“East River’s vision for a connected, mixed-use district aligns with how we work — cross functional, customer focused, and future minded,” Brad Farrar, vice president of sales and service for Anton Paar USA’s South region. “By building here, we gain a headquarters that expands our training and application development capabilities while offering the environment and amenities that help our teams thrive.”

The company’s existing South region headquarters is in an industrial building at 3955 World Houston Parkway.

Anton Paar USA said the new purpose-built facility was designed to fuel growth and innovation in the region.

Anton Paar USA is a subsidiary of Austria-based Anton Paar Group. The company specializes in developing, producing and distributing highly accurate laboratory instruments and process measuring systems, as well as providing custom-tailored automation and robotic solutions.

[Wattleigh]

10/30/25

c/o hindesky on HAIF























11/6/25

c/o hindesky on HAIF

[Wattleigh]

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news...-moves-into-east-river-headquarters.html

Inside Port Houston's new headquarters in Midway's East River development (PHOTOS)

The Port of Houston Authority is moving into its new 93,845-square-foot headquarters in the East River mixed-use development.

A total of 256 employees will move into the new building, and much of the relocation will happen before Port Houston’s next Port Commission meeting, which will be held at the East River headquarters on Jan. 27.

The Houston Business Journal was exclusively invited to take a look at the new building, at 2960 Riverby Road.

Port Houston moved into its old building at 111 E. Loop N. near the Turning Basin Terminal in 1991. CEO Charlie Jenkins told the HBJ that the land is grandfathered into the Foreign Trade Zone, which could give tax benefits to cargos but is instead being used for office space.

“We've almost grown four times, and now the Turning Basin has had some growth, and that space is more in demand,” Jenkins said.

Port Houston will finalize its plans for the old space in the next 18 months, Jenkins said.

The move into Houston-based Midway’s 150-acre East River development takes Port Houston farther away from its Turning Basin Terminal and other port operations, but it brings the port authority closer to the historic beginnings of the port at Allen’s Landing.

Since Midway bought the initial 136 acres for its East River development in
July 2016, other maritime-focused businesses have set up shop in the area as well. Houston-based Orion Group Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ORN) — which provides specialty construction services both on and off the water to the infrastructure, industrial and building sectors — announced in 2024 its plans to move into the development. The move has since been completed.

Meanwhile, the Houston Maritime Center and Museum moved into the building next to Port Houston’s last summer. Margaret Kidd, who was the museum's president at the time, told the HBJ that the move was similar to other efforts worldwide to reconnect cities and their industrial ports.

Port Houston's new location will allow it to be more connected to other energy businesses downtown as well, Jenkins said.

“To build new made sense, and then it was like, ‘Where do we build? How do we build?’” Jenkins said. "We don’t need to be in the middle of downtown; we don’t need to be posh and circumstance. We need to be close because, by the way, most of my major partners are right over here in downtown, but we don’t need to be on top of it."

[Wattleigh]

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2026/02/10/us-lawshield-move-east-river.html

[Wattleigh]

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/artic...tmire-says-in-state-of-the-city-address/

Mentioned in the state of the city address yesterday by Mayor Whitmire

Whitmire also unveiled a set of aspirations — including a METRO light rail connection to the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, "huge pipes" to channel stormwater along I-10 from the Barker Reservoir to the Houston Ship Channel, as well as a water tax[i] service on the Buffalo Bayou connecting Downtown to the East End.

"It ain’t a tease. It’s going to get done," Whitmire said of the proposals. "It may not get done in the next six years, but we are actually meeting on these projects as I stand before you."