Johnson Development Corp. founder and CEO Larry Johnson died Jan. 5. He was 81.
One of Houston’s pioneering master plan developers, Johnson was honored by Zonda and BUILDER with the Legends Award in October at the Future Place conference for dedicating his career to the development of these communities.
In 1975, he founded Johnson Development Corp. and became one of Houston’s largest residential developers, specializing in highly amenitized planned communities of 2,000 to 3,000 acres. His first planned community, Steeplechase, was a 1,000-acre infill development on the edge of northwest Houston. The firm currently has 19 active residential communities in the Texas markets of Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston as well as Atlanta, “representing more than 80,000 residential units, 16.7 million square feet of retail, 47,500 acres of land, and 2 million trees preserved or planted,” according to his obituary.
“He had a long vision and appreciation for land that few had,” Charlie Lusk, a close friend and occasional business partner, told BUILDER magazine last fall. “He could look at a piece of real estate and see the merits of it from a developmental perspective.”
Johnson also was active in the community. He was the lifetime director of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo; a board member of the University of Texas Health Science Center Development and UTHealth Development Board; a member of the Board of Regents of Texas Tech University and Texas Tech Health Science Center; and a member of the Urban Land Institute, Texas Tech Alumni Association, Greater Houston Builders Association, Texas Association of Builders, NAHB, Center for Opportunity Urbanism, and the Houston Region Business Coalition.
In addition to the 2021 Legends Award, he has been honored with the Houston Business Journal’s Landmark Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 Scenic Houston Visionary Award, the 2019 West Houston Association IMPACT Award, and the 2009 Texas Tech Distinguished Alumni Award.
He is survived by his wife, Suzanne Eastwood Johnson; five children; seven grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. A reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 11 to share remembrances at Geo. H. Lewis & Sons in Houston. A celebration of life will be at 3 p.m. Jan. 12 at the Chapelwood United Methodist Church in Houston.
Memorial contributions may be made to Memorial Hermann Heart & Vascular Institute, c/o Memorial Hermann Foundation, 929 Gessner, Suite 2650, Houston, TX 77024 or Chapelwood United Methodist Church, 11140 Greenbay Drive, Houston, TX 77024.
