How The Woodlands Grew Into an Economic Powerhouse — Creating a Place Where People Want to Be

This article is promoted/partner content and not produced by the editorial staff.

Editor’s note: With The Woodlands’ 50th anniversary almost here, PaperCity is showcasing some of the top stories featured on TheWoodlands.com that bring the first five decades of this pioneering master planned community to life. This is the next story in a new series that provide an inside look at what shaped and continues to shape The Woodlands.

The Woodlands has been known as a great place to live since it first opened in 1974, but over the past several years, it’s also become well established as a great place to work, visit and hold meetings. This is largely due to world class hotels, attractions, shops and restaurants in the area, along with the promotion of The Woodlands as a premier business and leisure destination of its own.

Tourism was always part of the vision for The Woodlands. One of the first buildings opened in the area was The Woodlands Resort, initially called The Woodlands Inn. What began as a 218-room hotel evolved into an award-winning resort, complete with 400 guest rooms, five restaurants, two championship golf courses and an exceptional waterpark with a 1,005-foot-long lazy river.

Over the years, The Woodlands Resort also welcomed some of most famous names in golf history, as it was the site for the Houston Open for 17 years and now hosts many of the golfers in town for the PGA Champions Tour Insperity Invitational every year. The Woodlands Resort continues to draw golfers, conference-goers and leisure travelers alike, often getting named as one of the Top Resorts in Texas by publications like Travel + Leisure.

Of course, this is just one of the attractions that brings people to The Woodlands. Tourism got a major kick start in the 1990s, with The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion opening in August 1990. The Woodlands Mall followed in October of 1994, with 86,000 people lining up to get in and start shopping. People continue to come in from around Texas and the Houston region to visit The Woodlands Mall — and these days, Market Street — for exceptional shopping.

The Woodlands’ Town Center

A key moment in the history of the development of The Woodlands centers around Town Center and the creation of Town Center Improvement District, known as TCID, through a legislative process at the state level. TCID was created to enhance public safety for a future growing Town Center as well as provide economic development tools for public/private partnerships. TCID is the predecessor to The Woodlands Township which continues to hold public safety and economic development as its top priorities.

In 1999, the development of The Woodlands Waterway began. This 1.8-mile-long water feature gives The Woodlands a differential advantage over other planned communities in Greater Houston, and has since become an activity hub and the anchor for two exceptional hotels. The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel & Convention Center, which was built in 2000, was named the No. 1 Marriott in all of North America twice in the last 10 years. The Westin at The Woodlands officially opened in 2016 and quickly became another fan favorite for business meetings along The Woodlands Waterway.

Another key moment in The Woodlands history came in the creation of The Woodlands Convention & Visitors Bureau in 2006. The Woodlands Convention and Visitors Bureau (Visit The Woodlands) is the official destination management organization responsible for promoting The Woodlands to drive demand for both hotel and retail tax collections. Its mission is to promote The Woodlands as a beautiful, lively and welcoming destination recognized regionally, nationally and internationally for first-class business, convention and leisure travel.

In the 2000s, the development of Market Street, Town Green Park, multiple hotel properties (now totaling 14) and the expansion of The Woodlands Mall outdoors created a vibrancy not seen anywhere in the Greater Houston area. With topnotch hospitality attractions and meeting spaces, tourism continued to increase in The Woodlands.

Seeing an opportunity for economic growth, in 2016, The Woodlands Convention and Visitors Bureau rebranded its name to Visit The Woodlands and moved its focus away from festivals to focus on tourism sales and marketing strategies.

Since then, The Woodlands has seen a great increase in hotel occupancy tax collections and sales tax collections. In the past 10 years, hotel tax collection has grown from $6.5 million in 2013 to an impressive $9.6 million in 2023. This helps keep property taxes low for the residents and businesses of The Woodlands, as sales tax and hotel tax collection make up between 55 percent to 60 percent of the overall Township budget.

It is estimated that more than 20 million people come through the Town Center each year for shopping, dining, hospitality and entertainment. In 2022, alongside leisure travel, more than 2,050 professional meetings and events were held in The Woodlands that generated $21.6 million in overall room revenue.

Today, 70,000 people work in The Woodlands with approximately 2,600 businesses. In total, The Woodlands boasts 11.4 million square feet of retail space and 12.4 million of commercial office space.

When The Woodlands was first established, there was a vision for a thriving economy, seen in the plan for the Town Center and Village Centers. This has become a reality – one that is primed to grow and flourish in The Woodlands for years and years to come.

Author’s note: Nick Wolda is the president of Visit The Woodlands and Mary Murphy is the public relations coordinator for the organization.