The Main street Revitalization Project is an innovative, collaborative effort with a 20-year horizon to strategically integrate land use and transportation and revitalize the Main Street Corridor, creating an exciting, transit-oriented signature corridor for the City of Houston. The project has been designated a "Best Practices" project by FHWA and recently received national awards from the National Association of Counties and the National League of Cities.

Project Summary

This plan is a bold and dynamic vision fostered by Former Mayor Lee P. Brown and Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, to transform the Main Street Corridor into an icon for the City of Houston, and a destination of world-class stature in the new millennium. This landmark civic venture will create a signature transit and pedestrian-oriented Corridor along the 8.5-mile stretch of the Boulevard. Main Street will become Houston’s foremost gathering place both for residents and visitors alike to live, work, and recreate, as well as a prestigious real estate address.

Anchored on the north by a Hispanic neighborhood, on the east by the historically African American Third Ward and on the southern end by the Astrodomain complex, the Corridor is the eclectic heart of Houston. Stretching a mile wide at times, the Corridor is a melting pot of people, culture, institutions and activities that celebrate the richness and diversity of its many neighborhoods.

The Corridor has seven unique districts:

• Downtown
• Hermann Park
• Midtown
• Museum
• Near North
• Reliant Energy Park
• Texas Medical Center

These districts and their many sub-districts provide the setting for a wide variety of cultural, educational, medical, shopping and residential activities. Over five million people visit the Corridor annually to take advantage of museums, medical institutions, park facilities and the zoo.

The Corridor is the location of nearly 50,000 residents and over 245,000 jobs, and runs through the center of the city’s federally designated Enhanced Enterprise Community where over 95,000 people live.

A key feature of the revitalization project is the introduction of light rail. METRO has built a light rail transit (LRT) system sttretching 7.5 miles. This $300 million project will increase access and mobility throughout the corridor. City of Houston Planning and Development Department estimates put the cumulative revenue expected from new development spurred by the LRT at more than $1.5 billion over 20 years. In a separate study, CDS Market Research projects more than $11 billion in capital expenditures for real estate devlopment with rail in place over the same period.

An Exceptional Public-Private Partnership

Established in 1998, the Main Street Coalition, an exceptional public-private partnership of over 75 stakeholders including Reliant Park, Texas Medical Center, Museum District, Midtown Management District, Downtown Management Distric, is instrumental in making this dream a reality. This unique partnership provides a mechanism to:

• Gather significant input from stakeholders

• Leverage funding for greatest return

• Time development, preventing duplication of efforts and take advantage of capital improvements investment
  
• Coordinate the diverse plans of the many stakeholders and entities involved.

The Coalition has sponsored the development of several key tools to guide the planning and development process within the corridor. A Master Plan was developed with extensive stakeholder input to serve as a guide for future development. As a companion to this document, a Strategic Plan Framework was developed to guide the implementation of the vision developed in the Master Plan.

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