Houston Texans’ Toro District Truths — This New Headquarters In Bridgeland Is a Push For the Future For More Than the Team

CYPRESS — NFL franchises are like aircraft carriers. Making a move requires planning several steps ahead and being aware of the impact any shift in course is going to have on everyone and everything in the area. The Houston Texans are making what Texans owner Cal McNair calls “the biggest move our organization has made since our inception,” teaming up with Howard Hughes and Harris County on Toro District, a new massive 83-acre complex in Bridgeland that will become the team’s headquarters and home.

This is a ground-shifting move designed to set the 12th most valuable team in the NFL up for the future. On and off the field.

Doing it with Howard Hughes — the real estate development and management power that helped turn The Woodlands into a studied model for masterplanned communities and developed Bridgeland entirely (with the community opening in 2006) — gives the Texans a partner with experience in lands built around a sports franchise. Howard Hughes developed a 100-acre community in Summerlin, Nevada just outside of Las Vegas that is anchored by the NHL franchise Golden Knights’ practice and training complex and the Oakland A’s Triple A team’s baseball stadium.

Still, Howard Hughes CEO David O’Reilly readily admits there is nothing quite like the NFL.

“It’s an entirely different level,” O’Reilly tells PaperCity. “It’s not every day that we announce a new development or put shovels in the ground that ESPN is tweeting about it. That hasn’t happened in my career and maybe it will never happen again. But when you bring a world-class NFL franchise with this community building we do, you can create an economic output and you can create a  result that otherwise wouldn’t have been achieved.”

The Texans are in a results-orientated world with scoreboards all around. As Cal and Hannah McNair speak inside a packed big white tent — its walls flapping in the strong winds — in what’s essentially a massive open field of grass right now at at 10900 Peek Road in Cypress — they try to get everyone to imagine the future wins this Toro District will set up. The Texans cheerleaders dance, the voice of the Texans Marc Vandermeer enthusiastically introduces all the dignitaries, Texans’ Pro Football Hall of Famer Andre Johnson finds a seat in the front row and confetti cannons go off after the McNairs push a giant red button.

Cal, Hannah.Janice McNair hit a big red button to launch the franchise’s new Toro District in Bridgeland, setting off the confetti cannons. This 83-acre center will include a 175,000 square foot football operations center and a 150,000 square foot fieldhouse with 16,000 capacity pic.twitter.com/sHpw1oxstJ

— Chris Baldwin (@ChrisYBaldwin) February 25, 2026

This is the NFL. The show matters. But so does keeping up with the arms race of football.

This new Toro District gives the Texans’ the kind of headquarters development that the Dallas Cowboys have in The Star in Frisco, a land where they can promote the game. In addition to the three outdoor NFL training fields, there will be multiple flag football fields at Toro District and a 150,000-square-foot indoor field house with a 16.000-seat capacity. A place where high school graduations, concerts and more can be held. The field house can even be converted into space for 21 volleyball courts, fitting considering the McNairs’ investment in owning the Houston franchise in the League One Volleyball (LOVB) league.

“This will be an industry tone setter for the sports and entertainment industry,” Hannah McNair says.

“We see how dynamic it can be when you have a sports-anchored facility in a mixed-used community,” O’Reilly says. “And that’s exactly what we’re doing here. Except we’re doing it better.”

Jim Carman, the ever-dapper president of the Texas Region for Howard Hughes, is in the packed tent, wearing red, white and blue socks, fitting for a day when the U.S. Olympic hockey team’s gold medal run is evoked. Texans franchise matriarch Janice McNair is also there, beaming as her son and daughter-in-law talk about this new headquarters land.

“It’s an entirely different level. It’s not every day that we announce a new development or put shovels in the ground that ESPN is tweeting about it. That hasn’t happened in my career and maybe it will never happen again. — Howard Hughes CEO David O’Reilly

Why Bridgeland

Texans leadership spent years examining countless potential sites in the greater Houston region when searching for a new headquarters locations. Bridgeland turned out to be the chosen one in the end.

“This came together really over the past year,” O’Reilly says. “They had — I don’t know, a thousand sites — a thousand sites in Houston where they could have done this facility. We’re blessed that they chose Bridgeland. I think we were able to bring them a longterm commitment, the community-first approach.”

While no official price figure is being offered by any of the controlling parties, several real estate sources tell PaperCity that with its scale, scope and complexity, this easily could be a billion dollar-plus project. Harris County will contribute $150 million dollars for infrastructure improvements for the site through a tax district reinvestment zone.

Besides the team’s headquarters complex, this new Toro District will include 61 acres of stores, restaurants, entertainment venues, a hotel and office space. When you’re building something this big and potentially region-changing, it needs to go beyond just football.

Even in an NFL-0bssessed America.

Harris County is now the third-largest county in the United States and the fastest growing in the country by many metrics. Toro District is projected to bring a $34 billion economic impact and 17,000 new jobs to the region. Yes, this new headquarters will be a long way from NRG Stadium (40 miles) and downtown Houston (37 miles), but in many ways it’s will be where many people moving into the area are heading.

By the time it opens (scheduled for 2029), many of the Texans’ current players will no longer even be on the roster in the rapid-change, roster-turnover world of the National Football League. (But you can safely bet that quarterback C.J. Stroud and pass-rushing terror Will Anderson Jr. will be.) Texans fans will find their way to Toro District no matter where it’s located for training camp practices, events and the like. Expect to see plenty of the new land’s bull logo.

Will this new cutting edge complex help the Texans win on the field as well as off? Cal McNair thinks so.

“This provides us with a competitive advantage,” he says. “And put us in an ideal situation every day.”

That day and transition are coming. With Howard Hughes determined to keep everything on track (Cal McNair says he would like to see a groundbreaking soon) and live up to the trust placed in the company.

“I would say that Howard Hughes is a community builder not a real estate developer,” O’Reilly tells PaperCity. “We don’t build the building, sell it and move to the next city. We build a community. We live here. Our kids go to school here. We’re investing in our backyard and it couldn’t be more aligned with the McNairs’ interests and how they run their franchise.”

Toro District is coming. And a forever-growing region is changing for good.