Dawn Ullrich always puts Houston First
The George R. Brown Convention Center, which turned 30 in September, was not historically an easy place to love.
Designed by meeting planners and stretching five unwelcoming blocks, it lacked the hometown heart of venues such as the Astrodome, Minute Maid Park, Toyota Center and NRG Stadium, where professional sports have bonded people to place.
But things changed in 2017. In the months since Houston First, the center’s operator, unveiled its $175 million renovation in February, Houstonians have discovered its new restaurants and the renamed Avenida Houston. Street life is livelier and more connected to Discovery Green park.
No one is more instinctively motherly about the city’s new “front door” than Dawn Ullrich, Houston First president and CEO.
Ullrich has always appreciated the GRB’s role in hosting graduations and other life-marking events. This year, the center also sheltered 10,000 Houstonians displaced by Hurricane Harvey and became a longer-term temporary home for Houston Grand Opera, which transformed a vast exhibit hall into Resilience Theater. Houston Ballet will also give a few performances there next year.
“That we hosted this very beautiful party in February, the Super Bowl, then helped neighbors in a very desperate time speaks to the relevance of that building,” Ullrich said.
Her eyes teared up as she recalled how people praised the center during televised Super Bowl festivities. “I’m proud of that,” she said, “because for a long time, Houstonians have felt they need to make excuses for this place. And then they didn’t.”
Ullrich has led Houston First since the city created the local government corporation in 2011 to manage its theater and convention properties, including the Wortham Theater Center and Jones Hall. Focused on the job and loath to draw attention to herself, she rarely grants interviews.
I met Ullrich for the first time this fall, in her corner office overlooking the GRB, as she was contemplating how to light up the facade orange during the World Series. She welcomed me warmly, also revealing a gentle but sly wit.
Our discussion is edited for clarity. Q: You’re somewhat elusive! A: I’m sorry.
Q: You have served the public your whole career, right?
A: I started at the city when I was 22, as an assistant city attorney — which was not yesterday, unfortunately. Jim McConn was mayor. I’ll celebrate my 40th year in 2018, in and around the city.
Q: Do you still think of yourself as a city employee?
A: We’re like an alter ego or an extension of the city, with the mayor as the chief policymaker who sets the direction. The city approves our budget annually and appoints all of our board members. Our focus is on creating a premier travel destination here in Houston.
Q: Some people find Houston First’s relationship with the city confusing.
A: Because we touch so many things, sometimes it’s hard to deciper who we are.
We function like a nonprofit and operate sort of like an ecosystem.
Our largest revenue source is the Hilton, which we own. Our second-largest is the city’s hoteloccupancy tax. So we work to fill up hotels, and then we benefit from it. All the things we invest in stay within the system, to build product and bolster Houston’s reputation as a travel destination.
We have a $240 million budget, 240 staff members and 14 board members. We are heavily privatized, with hundreds of contractors who staff the buildings seasonally.
The last couple of years have not been great, but we know it’s cyclical. We’ve tried to be prudent and put funds aside in reserves, and we try to manage our money in a tight way so we’re responsible stewards.
Q: Why should a government corporation run city facilities?
A: It creates a more nimble environment, with a direct infusion of private-sector knowledge. We’ve been able to do things that have given us some notoriety. We are now leaders in terms of how one approaches convention business. A lot of our competitors visit to examine what makes this function so well.
On the marketing side, our philosophy is “dominate, don’t dabble.” If you are a meeting planner, you see us in virtually every publication that comes across your desk. As a result, Chicago, Boston and San Antonio have inquired about what we’re doing. Q: Are they the main competition?
A: Las Vegas and Orlando are the market leaders. They compete head to head, all the time. We are now No. 11, although size is not all that matters. We want to fit the bulk of convention needs and be relevant to the community. We think we’ll be rivaling Chicago, which is third. For them to come to see what we have done was a compliment. We were pleased to entertain them and didn’t tell them everything, of course.
Q: What does Houston lack to draw more visitors?
A: Our strong suits are our central location, our affordability and our moderate climate, which we don’t always brag about. We’re not hotter than Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; New Orleans; or Phoenix. We have great facilities, really good attractions. What we really need to work on is an iconic attraction. Q: What do you think it should be? A: Something unique. Iconic, by its nature, is something no one else has. That one thing that comes to mind when you think of Houston. We’re looking for that. Maybe something that happens at Space Center Houston or the San Jacinto Battleground.
Q: So it doesn’t have to be downtown?
A: No, we’re trying to take a regional approach. We have a beach. We have a lot of golf courses. We’re trying to sell a region and create a powerhouse from a visitation point of view. A new extension of our work is called Visit Houston and Beyond; 14 convention and visitor bureaus have joined forces to pitch the entire region.
Q: Did you ever imagine you would be running a hotel and all of this real estate?
A: No. It’s evolved over time, and buildings have moved in and out of our scope of responsibilities. But with each one, we’ve tried to do an ‘A’ job. Our hotel is one of the top three or four Hilton products in the world. We’re blessed to have a hotel of that stature, matched now by a Marriott of equal stature.
Q: How did you open the shelter operation during Harvey with just a handful of staff ?
A: We had done some shelter operations in the past with (Hurricanes) Ike, Katrina and Rita, and had developed a policy with the city about how we would stand up a shelter operation. We got the call a couple of days before the storm hit that maybe we were going to be pressed into service again. We all knew it didn’t sound good.
About 11 of us stayed here that Saturday, and it didn’t look bad that day, right? There wasn’t much happening. But overnight, things changed dramatically. We called in the folks we could, but we did have a fairly spare staff in the beginning. The population of evacuees grew from about 1,000 that first day to 10,000 by Tuesday. The need was so great. We probably would have had more if they could have gotten here. I think we topped out at 10,300.
Fortunately, we had a hotel across the street. They brought towels, provided some food. We were also fortunate that people who lived nearby came to volunteer.
Q: With the Wortham Theater Center closed until September, is it also now part of your job to help keep Houston’s displaced opera and ballet companies on their feet?
A: Yes, it is. We feel a great responsibility for them. The buildings in the Theater District exist for them. We feel we hold the buildings in trust for Houstonians but also to showcase the resident companies’ work. A lot of us have been up at 3 or 4 in the morning to make sure we’re where we need to be and on top of things for them. That has included shuffling 27 other client groups to accommodate opera and ballet performances at the GRB. Choreography!
Q: What’s next for Houston First?
A: Flood mitigation in the Theater District, apart from the $70 million recovery for the Wortham, the parking garage (which held 270 million gallons of floodwater) and minor Jones Hall repairs. We don’t really know what will be required, but we want to be smart about that.
Also, hotels have to be refreshed about every seven years, so we’re considering a big roomrenovation project at the Hilton.
Every year we produce a business plan to map out our everyday work and new goals. We’re trying to be as aggressive as we can and excel in every area, with short- and long-range plans for developing Houston into a travel destination. We’re always trying to push the envelope. When demand warrants, we hope to expand the convention center to the south, and we eventually want more hotel rooms downtown.
We see ourselves as all that’s good and important and positive about Houston, and we want to publicize that every way we can.
Q: Can you tell us about your personal life?
A: I’m married with three kids. We’re empty-nesters. I have three millennials who are out making their way in the world. My husband, Lee Ullrich, is a consultant with Erate, a federal program for schools and libraries.
Q: What do you do for fun?
A: It sounds so dull! I love to knit, and I love Western history. Of course, I’m a big arts fan, too. With performances virtually every night, there’s so much to choose from.