The Woodlands

Proposed development includes transportation terminal

The Woodlands is already home to one of the world’s most popular live music venues, The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, and now another large-scale performing arts center could soon be on its way. Plans are in the works to build a $35 million performing arts venue along The Woodlands Waterway that would host a variety of Broadway-style theater productions.

The project is headed up by The Woodlands founder and principal developer George Mitchell and The Goodman Corporation, a development company that specializes in transit projects.

“George and his wife, Cynthia, have had a dream for many years of developing a performing arts theater in The Woodlands, and there have been various plans to accomplish that objective for 20 years,” said Barry Goodman, founder and president of The Goodman Corporation.

Project proposal

Goodman said that Mitchell and The Goodman Corporation have submitted a formal proposal to The Howard Hughes Corporation, which owns The Woodlands, The Woodlands Development Company and is the primary land developer in the community. The proposal calls for Mitchell’s purchase of a two acre site just south of the Pavilion along The Woodlands Waterway for a venue that could seat up to 1,800.

The timing of the proposal and the interest in the venue have been key components in the current stage of development for the facility. Goodman said the performing arts center could be part of a larger project that includes a transit terminal and the expansion of the existing Pavilion parking garage on Six Pines Drive.

“There have been two major ingredients that have recreated resurgent interest [in the performing arts center] on the part of several stake holders, [such as] the township and the land development company,” Goodman said. “One is the availability of federal funds to build a new transit terminal along the corridor just west of the current convention center and Pavilion, and a parking garage for weekend and evening events. And the second is availability of a piece of property owned by the land development company.”

The proposed transit center is being planned as a transportation hub for The Woodlands.

“[The transit center] will be an interface between localized transit and existing and future expansion of the trolley services and regional transit from The Woodlands to the Medical Center, downtown [Houston] and the Galleria and parking for those who want to use the transit system,” Goodman said.