While it will be impossible to fill the shoes of our previous chairman, Etan Mirwis, it sure will be nice to follow his footsteps as he has blazed a trail that has awakened the Brays Oaks Management District to new possibilities. Indeed, through Etan’s leadership, a solid foundation has been laid in the advancement of our community, and for that, we owe him a huge debt of gratitude. Etan has been a terrific, passionate leader with a keen vision for what we needed to accomplish, and he has set the stage for great acts to follow.
We can see a visible example in the beautification initiative which has included improvements to 90 esplanades in the District and many not so visible improvements such as the lack of trash and graffiti! But there are other important advances that are not as tangible. For instance, BOMD has established a great working relationship with law enforcement officers throughout the community and that has enhanced public safety for everyone in the District. Thanks to Etan, the board and the various committees, we’ve also made tremendous progress reaching out to the owners and managers of multi-family housing complexes and have established a productive communication system.
Now that we’ve forged those relationships, the next important step is to develop a better understanding of our retail businesses. This is an area I’m particularly excited about, being in the retail property management business myself. Currently, we are gathering information about the existing retail businesses in Brays Oaks– an inventory that will tell us more about the types of businesses that proliferate and the types we need to cultivate. Once we have that collected and analyzed, we can begin a dialogue with the property owners, managers and real estate brokers to assist them in tailoring their retail properties to better meet the needs of the community.
We are also excited about three other major developments on the horizon that are destined to shape the educational and cultural aspects of Brays Oaks–the Levitt Pavilion for outdoor music concerts at Willow Waterhole, the new HCC Campus and the transformation of the old YMCA building into a new Westbury Christian Athletic Complex.
The Levitt Pavilion is in the early planning stages as to its leadership, fundraising, and design and more details will come in newsletters to follow. Suffice it to say for now – this project is very exciting for our community! The HCC campus will be a boon to the area and a wonderful addition to our community. With the workforce training it will provide, the campus will become just one more good reason for people to come to Brays Oaks to live, to study and to locate new businesses.
As I also serve as chairman of the fundraising campaign for the Westbury Christian Athletic Complex, I can assure you that is also going to be a huge benefit for the District. We’re raising $12 million for capital improvements that will turn an out-of-date YMCA facility into a state-of-the-art high school athletic complex. Located less than a mile from the Westbury Christian Campus in the center of Brays Oaks, the new complex will soon draw families from all over the city to watch their kids compete in football, track, baseball and girls’ softball.
Once we have more people from across Houston visiting Brays Oaks for concerts, sporting events and college classes, we can show everyone what kind of progress we’ve made. Brays Oaks is a growing, vibrant community with a lot of positive improvements already completed, and it’s time for the rest of the city to realize that.
I look forward to working with the board and staff, and we all appreciate your continued support and suggestions to further improve the Brays Oaks Management District.
Sincerely yours,
C. Fred Meyer
Chairman,
Brays Oaks Management District
