The other side of the story told by "The Big Bad Developer"
A symbiotic relationship
PREFACE:
Do you remember that game we all used to play called Telephone?
The game is where you gather 3 or more players and the person starting the game thinks of a word or phrase and whispers into the next person's ear only once, with no repeats allowed.
That listener then tries to correctly whisper the same word/phrase into the next player’s ear and continues until the phrase makes it to the last person who announces the message to the group.
In most cases, the message announced to the group is significantly different from the message that was originally given to the first person in the line.
The lesson, as you probably have already figured out, is information received via word of mouth or hearsay is not always accurate. In fact, if you don’t receive information directly from the source, there is a good chance that at least part of the message is incorrect.
🧿 Telephone Word of the day: A symbiotic relationship is one in which organisms, people, or things exist together in a way that benefits them all.
Start: ☎️Symbiotic☎️📞 🗣️👂🗣️👂🗣️🤳👂🗣️👂🗣️👂🗣️ Finish: Demonic 👹
🧿 Those who have been following for a while may remember “The Montgomery County deflection detection system” has been activated and upgraded to code RED!! 🐿🐿🐿 <=====👈👀 💨🪞(🔥REAL ISSUES🔥 )
*More context linked here
🐿🚫HHC BAD 🏢
🐿🚫County Commish BAD👨💼
🐿🚫Sherriff BAD 👮♂️
🐿🚫Past Chairman BAD 🪑👩💼
🐿🚫PAC BAD💰
🐿🚫Signs BAD🪧
🐿🚫ARPA/c0vid 🤑💰
🐿🚫Kingwood annex 🦹
🐿🚫Woodlands Chamber BAD 👩💼🧑💼
🐿🚫Grass-roots concerned residents BAD🏡
🐿🚫Golden Hammer BAD⭐️🔨
🐿🚫 Can’t trust contracts📇
🐿🚫 Woodlands Pkwy extension 🛣
🐿🚫 82 Acres in Fredericksburg 🏞
🐿🚫Parks for older kids🛹
🐿🚫US Congressman Kevin Brady 🤦🏻
🐿🚫 Woodlands parkway expansion 🛣
🐿🚫 Traffic Control 🚦
Now think of all the hearsay, gossip, half-truths, and outright false information propagated through “useful idiots” when reading further.
👹Developer👹👈👈👈👈👈👀 🥷🔥🪞
On October 19, 2022, The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce conducted and interview with Jim Carman, President, Houston Region – The Howard Hughes Corporation, visits with JJ Hollie about Updates From The Howard Hughes Corporation.
Between The Trees Business Talk - 089 - Jim Carman
Below are some callouts and quotes from the interview:
Howard Hughes Corporation is involved in over 180 local charities
Vision: Live, Work, Play, Pray, and Learn (Truly Holistic plan to develop)
Community is truly curated and part of a plan.
What boards does Jim Carman sit on?
Response regarding forecasting and planning decades out, not just about stock price at end of the quarter.
Our time horizons aren’t what you would typically see from a development company or a real estate company. Probably the most unique relationship between a master plan developer and a community in the country. It’s a very symbiotic relationship in my opinion. Whereas the more amazing this place is, the more likely we are going to have our office space full. Which is the primary driver of our business. - Jim Carman, President, Houston Region – The Howard Hughes Corporation
We certainly believe that we’ve done a good job and a better job than most. That being said, we understand we’re not perfect. We have very high expectations of ourselves and don’t shy away from high expectations of others. - Jim Carman
Addressing Village Centers, Investments, Real Estate Owned by HHC, and Solutions
Take for instance the village centers Grogan’s Mill and Panther Creek. We take a lot of heat for those right now and the reality is we don’t own those centers and haven’t owned them for many years. We don’t own any part of them, we don’t manage them. We have no piece of anything in those. But folks naturally believe virtually anything and everything that happens in the community real estate wise, we have a piece of it. That’s certainly not the case. If you look at the majority of the real estate in The Woodlands it’s not owned by Howard Hughes. We have a significant stake in the office portfolio. - Jim Carman
Do I take it personally when people say why aren’t you doing anything about Grogan’s? No, I understand that people look to us as the developer. And we would like to be part of solutions there as well. That being said, we don’t own it we don’t manage it. We would like to be part of that process but certainly don’t have any control of any type over that. - Jim Carman
🧿 Bottom line is many negative stereotypes are outlining a narrative of the “Big Bad Developer” which in many cases around the United States is very justifiable. This just does not appear to be the case with this developer at this time. In fact, after extensively researching the company and investor decks fully (not just one or two pages calling out key buzzwords without context), they surprisingly appear to be a pretty great company to work, play, pray, and learn from.
Are they perfect? Absolutely not, but looking from a 30,000 ft view side by side next to other comparable master planned developments across the nation… Not too shabby, and I would challenge any reader to identify another master-planned community they would suggest The Woodlands Unique Special Purpose District model afterward.
