Michael Stevens is chairman of Michael Stevens Interests, Inc., a real estate development and management company, which he founded in 1981. Since its inception, the company has developed, acquired and managed over 84 real estate projects valued at over $580 million and representing over 10 million square feet of building area and over 10,000 apartment units. Currently, Michael Stevens Interests, Inc., and its affiliates employ over 150 people and own and manage more than 26 properties with over 4.2 million square feet of rental space and over 5,000 apartment units.
In early 1995, Mayor Bob Lanier asked Michael Stevens to serve as the City of Houston’s first Assistant to the Mayor for Housing and inner city Revitalization. His longtime involvement in the commercial real estate market in Houston, his talent in the financial arena, and his dedication to public service made Stevens a natural candidate for the volunteer position. Stevens was the driving force under Mayor Bob Lanier responsible for the major downtown revitalization currently underway. Downtown projects in which he has been directly involved include the Astros new Minute Maid Field ballpark, the renovation of the Rice Hotel, the new Houston Texans NFL/Rodeo stadium at the Astrodome complex, the Bayou Place Entertainment Complex, Midtown apartment development, the redevelopment of Gulfgate Mall, the demolition and reconstruction of Allen Parkway Village and the related Fourth Ward revitalization, the 1,200 room downtown Convention Center Hotel and the proposed downtown Basketball and Hockey Arena. These projects represent over $1 billion in new construction, 3,000 new downtown jobs, over 3,500 housing units, and over 10,000 permanent downtown residents. Stevens is also credited with the creation of the Homes for Houston program which built, rehabilitated or improved over 20,000 units of affordable housing stock in the city of Houston during the Lanier administration. This program was hailed by then H.U.D. Secretary Henry Cisneros, as the number one affordable housing program in the United States.
Through September 1999, Stevens served as Vice-Chairman Finance of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority. He was responsible for structuring all financing as well as heading the negotiating team responsible for Minute Maid Field, the NFL/Rodeo facility at the Astrodome complex and a new Rockets arena. Texas Attorney General John Cornyn, appointed him as Houston Regional Chair for Texas Exile, a gun crime initiative funded by the Governor's Criminal Justice Division. From 1995 through 1997 Stevens served as chairman of the Houston Housing Finance Corporation, the Houston Redevelopment Authority and the Fannie Mae National Advisory Council. In 1997 Stevens received the Galleria Chamber of Commerce’s Community Award recognizing his volunteer efforts for inner-city revitalization. Stevens serves on the Board of Directors of the Greater Houston Partnership, the Memorial Hermann Foundation, Save our Emergency Rooms, the Texas Exile Foundation, the Houston Convention Center Hotel Corporation, the Urban Center Advisory Board of the Brookings Institute, Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC. He also serves as the State Finance Chairman for Texans for Lawsuit Reform.
Stevens involvement in state and local transportation issues is extensive. He chairs the Transportation Task Force of the Governor’s Business Council. He is on the executive committee of the Gulf Coast Regional Mobility Partners, a Houston regional transportation planning and funding group of key business and political leaders. He also serves on the Greater Houston Partnership Transportation and Infrastructure Advisory Committee. He is on the executive committee of the Texas Urban Transportation Alliance, Inc. representing the business leader in Houston. He served as a member of the executive committee of the Greater Houston Partnership's Travel Rate Improvement Project (TRIP 2000) responsible for the development of a congestion management plan for the Houston region.
Among his other volunteer positions, Stevens serves as a deacon at Second Baptist Church and is chairman of the church’s Centurion Foundation, which televises the sermons of Dr. Edwin Young. The radio and television broadcasts reach a worldwide audience of over 1.25 million people per week.
Stevens is a native Houstonian. He graduated from the University of Houston in 1973 with a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration. He was honorably discharged from the United States Marine Corps. Stevens and his wife, Kim, have one daughter, Tiffany, two granddaughters, Grace and Kassidy, and one grandson, Anthony.