HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Larry D. Johnson, a visionary developer who helped shape suburban growth around Houston, died last week at the age of 81.
Johnson’s work created communities that now shelter hundreds of thousands of residents. He proved adept at building and guiding a major real estate enterprise through multiple economic cycles.
Born in Plainview in the Texas Panhandle, Johnson founded Johnson Development Corp. in Houston in 1975.
Over the following decades he assembled an extensive portfolio of master-planned communities across Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, Austin and Atlanta. Today, his firm is developing 19 communities on 47,000 acres that are planned to include roughly 80,000 residential units and about 16.7 million square feet of retail space.
In RCLCO’s rankings of the nation’s top master-planned communities for new-home sales in 2021, Johnson Development placed three communities in the top 50: Sienna at No. 24 with 646 new-home sales; Woodforest at No. 45 with 467 sales; and Cross Creek Ranch at No. 48 with 457 sales.
A Pioneer Opens Up the 288 Corridor
Johnson played a central role in developing the Pearland new-home market and unlocking the potential of the Highway 288 corridor. In 1995 he acquired the unfinished Southwyck development in Pearland and rebranded it as Silverlake. Before Silverlake, Pearland and the underused 288 corridor had not been a hub for high-volume home sales. Backed by investment from Prudential, Johnson relaunched the project and emphasized the area’s then-easy commute on Highway 288. That message resonated with buyers, and Pearland’s convenient access to the Texas Medical Center—home to more than 100,000 employees—became a major selling point.
Since Silverlake’s success, the 288 corridor has grown into a major market with numerous large developments, including the 3,000-acre Shadow Creek Ranch and many other communities stretching south to Highway 6 and beyond.
Other Johnson Development master-planned communities include Riverstone, Fall Creek, Harmony, Grand Central Parkway, Imperial, Jordan Ranch and Jubilee.
The 1,620-acre Jubilee community, announced in the fall of 2020 amid the Covid era, reflected the firm’s evolving outlook and a pronounced focus on resident well-being. Johnson Development described Jubilee as a community “centered on joy,” designed to support residents’ physical, emotional and mental health. In announcing the project, Mr. Johnson said, “We want to raise the bar for how a community can better the lives of the individuals that live in it. Every aspect of this new community is being intentionally designed to promote positivity, allowing residents to decompress from the everyday grind and connect with nature and each other.”
Johnson graduated from Texas Tech University in 1961 and later served on the university’s board of regents. Throughout his life he held leadership roles in numerous philanthropic, community and educational organizations.
He is survived by his wife, Suzanne Eastwood Johnson; five children; seven grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, located at 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.
Jan. 10, 2022 – Realty News Report. Copyright 2022
File: Larry Johnson, Developer of Master Planned Communities, Passes Away. Johnson Development.