Central Houston, Inc. and the Houston Downtown Management District, regularly visit and interview downtown employers as part of our downtown office retention plan.  Based on these many interviews, employers and employees love working downtown because of the following reasons:

Shops and Professional Services 
Most errands can be accomplished within a few blocks at lunch or other times, without having to drive there.  Foley's, banking, haircuts, shoes, professional photography, film developing, shoe shines, DVD rental, florists, that greeting card you almost forgot, and much more.

Workout Facilities
Downtown offers workout facilities such as the Met, Houston Center Club, Houston Club, YMCA, Larry North Fitness and Houstonian Lite.

Education/Day Care
Downtown provides downtown daycare, backup care and education for kids , Incarnate Word Academy (Catholic college prep high school for girls), and adults from Houston Community College, the University of Houston-Downtown and the South Texas College of Law. 

Transportation
Options include bus, MetroRail, van, carpooling and utilization of HOV.  The light rail also provides transportation within downtown. 

Variety of Parking Opportunities
Use our list of parking garages, combined with the tunnel map, to determine where you want to park.  Using tunnel, you can park in outer parking lots or garages.

Meet Your Friends, Colleagues, Associates
Run into your current friends, old friends, colleagues, and business associates in the tunnels, sidewalks, escalators, and elevators. 

Tranquility in the Middle of the Day
Take advantage of downtown many tranquil assets, such as the downtown Houston Public Library, the Fred Parks Law Library at the South Texas College of Law (map), Main Street Square, Market Square Park, JPMorgan Chase's pocket park, Christ Church Cathedral's garden or exhibits in the cloister, Tranquility Park (bounded by Smith, Rusk, Bagby, Walker), Sesquitennial Park (adjacent to the Wortham), and, of course, any one of downtown's sidewalk cafes and restaurants.

Live Close to Work
With great downtown living opportunities, employees can live a few blocks from home!

After Work
We shouldn't encourage you to leave the office early, but there are plenty of afternoon or evening baseball games, and the evening provides the opportunity to go to the ballgame or theater after work.  Then there's all the restaurants, clubs and bars (we counted 51 restaurants/bars/clubs that opened in downtown in the 12 months ended in July 2004)!