Historic maps of the City of Houston label the waterway as “Buffalo Bayou” west of downtown and “Buffalo River” east of downtown.

The present-day East River site was home to the Merchants and Planters Oil Company, a cottonseed oil mill owned by William Marsh Rice, of Rice University. But a series of dramatic events in quick succession and a fire that destroyed the mill changed the fate of the area.

By the 1920s, Brown & Root Engineering and Construction Company was making its mark as a pioneering road and general contracting company. They built the most important landmarks around Houston, including the first offshore oil rigs, NASA Mission Control, ships, and tanks to win World War II, and even the Astrodome.

In 1962, Brown & Root Engineering and Construction Company was acquired by Halliburton and became Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR). KBR operated on the East River site until 2010, when the company moved their corporate offices downtown.

By the second decade of the 21st century, the once-bustling campus lay dormant, awaiting a new wave of innovators. Midway creates a partnership with Cathexis Holdings to redevelop the site into a 150-acre mixed-use development called East River.

In September of 2021, Midway broke ground on Phase I of the project, 26 acres near the corner of Jensen and Clinton Drives, with plans to open in 2023.