Twenty years ago, the standard for a successful retail real estate development was a traditional enclosed mall or a strip center with a sea of parking. For decades, these development formats were rinse and repeat, as they worked especially well in the suburbs, where many Americans were buying homes and driving was the primary mode of transportation.
When Market Street opened in 2004 in The Woodlands, Texas, a master-planned community north of Houston, it was one of the first developments of its kind to buck this trend. Instead of applying the typical suburban approach to retail, Trademark Property Company designed Market Street to follow New Urbanist principles, which prioritize walkable, human-scale development. As a grocery-anchored mixed-use community featuring high-quality, street-level retail, Market Street was breaking the mold.
More than two decades on, it is clear this commitment to a pedestrian-focused, mixed-use plan has contributed to Market Street’s resilience. The approach has enabled the development to consistently attract quality tenants, command top-of-the-market rents and serve as a vibrant open-air town center for The Woodlands community.
Market Street currently features 375,000 square feet of street-level retail, 115,000 square feet of Class A office space, 15 restaurants and a 70-room, 70,000-square-foot Hyatt Centric hotel. Despite constant evolutions in the retail sector, Market Street continues to hold up with a strong place-making and merchandising strategy that powers its success.
From the Beginning
Trademark was introduced to The Woodlands in 2000 through a long-standing personal relationship between Tony Chron, a senior Trademark leader, and a member of The Woodlands Development Company team. After years of informal conversations, Trademark was invited to make an offer on the land after The Woodlands tried to plan and develop it but changed course to create some liquidity. While Trademark had incorporated place-making, public art and grocery-anchored centers into projects before, Market Street represented its first fully integrated mixed-use town center. The opportunity appealed not just because of the project’s location and scale, but because it aligned with Trademark’s growing conviction that walkable, mixed-use developments were the future of suburban retail.
Initially, public officials and industry peers expressed concerns that Market Street’s open-air, pedestrian-first format strayed too far from the traditional enclosed mall or strip center model, especially in a suburban market. Many questioned whether placing parking behind buildings, allocating valuable space to a central green and integrating multiple uses would work. To address these concerns, Trademark leaned into data, precedent and vision, showing how the design would enhance community life. Ultimately, Trademark advanced the project through a public-private partnership with The Woodlands Town Center Improvement District and a design that reflected urban planning principles that had proved successful in great cities around the world.
Executing the Mixed-Use Approach
To shape the retail strategy at Market Street, Trademark studied the country’s few successful preexisting urban mixed-use developments, such as Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio; Kierland Commons in Scottsdale, Arizona; and Southlake Town Square in Dallas-Fort Worth, as well as numerous authentic, walkable urban town centers. As this was still a relatively new concept and Trademark’s first mixed-use development, research was a critical part of the process. Trademark was an early adopter, applying best practices from pioneers in mixed-use space and real cities to shape the Market Street experience.
As part of the process, Trademark carefully studied the size and function of public spaces, walked down various streets and attended industry conferences to better understand the elements that lead to successful mixed-use projects. Interactions with Andres Duany, the father of New Urbanism, proved incredibly illuminating, as his feedback reinforced the importance of scale, connectivity and the sequencing of public space — factors that can make or break a pedestrian experience. He challenged Trademark to think beyond aesthetics and prioritize how people would actually move through and interact with the environment day to day. That influenced everything from street width to placement of seating and shade.
One of the development’s central goals was to ensure that guests were in an environment they loved. Through the course of conducting research and engaging in active listening to understand the wants and needs of the community, walkability and street-level vibrancy emerged as top priorities.
Working with the Development Design Group, a third-party architectural partner, Trademark devised a plan that went against the grain of what was typical for that time. Rather than placing parking in front of the stores, the team prioritized walkability by designing Market Street with on-street parallel parking to mimic a true main street experience. Larger surface lots and structured parking were intentionally located behind the buildings to keep the pedestrian environment active and inviting. Likewise, instead of filling every square inch of the site with buildings or parking, space in the property’s center was dedicated to a central green (Central Park) for people to gather with friends and family.
While the project was overwhelmingly retail-focused at the outset, the shifting dynamics of the fast-growing Woodlands community eventually supported additional office space and the introduction of a hotel. Today, Market Street is 67% retail, 20% office and 13% hospitality.
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