Getting a Move On

O ver the course of our 33-year history, texas fish & game has had its headquarters in five locations around the state. First, there was 903 Third Street, Marble Falls, Texas 78654. This was the side-street location of Highland Graphics, a division of the Highland Publishing Company where we, along with HPC owner Bill Bray and then-Highlander Newspaper Outdoors Editor Marvin Spivey, brought texas fish & game into the world.

In 1990, Bray sold the Marble Falls-based newspaper and we picked up stakes and moved the growing fish & game to San Antonio, into offices at 14800 San Pedro Avenue, where our landlords were the importers of Corona beer. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the Alamo City, but in 1991 we merged with the more established texas fisherman magazine, which was located in Houston, and after a year attempting to manage the enlarged venture’s two offices in two cities, we decided to consolidate in Houston.

On Halloween 1992, we moved the contents and most of the staff from our San Antonio headquarters, along with the contents and staff of the Houston satellite office, into a seventh floor suite at 7600 West Tidwell, Houston, Texas 77040.

A lot happened during our stay at that address. The magazine grew to more than 100,000 paid circulation. We also initiated the management buyout that resulted in Bray selling fish & game to the Ward/Neves partnership.

As the seven-year lease on the Tidwell offices neared its end, we began thinking about finding a place the company could buy and getting out of the rent game. We looked at a number of buildings and finally decided to go with a five-acre lot on which we could build a new office. What drew us to this locaton was a two acre lake, already stocked with bass. This unique acreage, complete with pecan trees and a majestic row of tall oaks leading back to the perfect building site, was also surrounded on three sides by the Houston National Cemetary—no noisy neighbors.

When our lease on Tidwell ran out—on New Years Eve, 1999—we were not ready to build on the five acre lot, so we found temporary headquarters at 2350 North Sam Houston Parkway East, Houston, Texas 77032, which became our fourth location. We continued to work on the design for offices on the cemetary land, while we used its lake and surrounding amenities for photo opportunities and recreation.

After about three years, we determined that building was going to be financially undesireable and, reluctantly, we sold the five acres and lake. Still itching to get out of the renting grind, we shopped the market and found a neat stand-alone building not far from our Sam Houston Parkway office. In May, 2004, we purchased and moved into our Fifth Headquarters location, at 1745 Greens Road, Houston, Texas 77032 (didn’t have to change zip codes this time).

Now, thirteen years and many more changes later, we are moving again.

When we moved into the Greens Road headquarters, our office staff was more than a dozen people. It takes many fewer than that today to publish a monthly magazine, and many of our staff are now able to telecommute. So, we need a lot less space. We’ve also learned that owning versus renting was not the blissful experience that tempted us all those years ago—being your own landlord stinks.

And so, as this issue rolls off the press and into your mailbox, we are in the Sixth Headquarters for texas fish & game: at 247 Airtex Drive, Houston, Texas 77090.   

Email Roy and Ardia Neves at ContactUs@fishgame.com

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E-mail Roy at rneves@fishgame.com and Ardia at aneves@fishgame.com

 

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