On a golden Texas evening, Kevin Lillis stands at the edge of a soccer field at Southlake’s Bob Jones Park, a whistle hanging loosely around his neck. His 9 year-old daughter’s team is laughing its way through drills, the sound of cleats and chatter mixing with the faint hum of the occasional passing car.
“This,” he says, smiling as he watches the chaos turn to teamwork, “is the best part of my week.”
It’s a scene you might not expect from a man who once oversaw the glittering ”Great Gatsby” premiere at New York’s Plaza Hotel, hosted Prince at a ”Saturday Night Live” anniversary party, or helped launch one of Dallas’ most ambitious urban redevelopments. But for Lillis — restaurateur, developer and founder of Hospitality Alliance — life in Southlake has brought a new kind of satisfaction, centered around connection, roots and a chance to build something lasting close to home.
A Long Way from Queens
Lillis grew up in Bayside, Queens, where community wasn’t a concept; it was a given.
“If you came home and your parents weren’t there, the neighbor made you a sandwich,” he recalls. “Everyone looked out for each other.”
That early sense of belonging would shape everything he later built.
After college and a stint producing live events, including large-scale sports and entertainment experiences through his own production company, he found his way into hospitality, where creative vision met logistical precision. By his thirties, he had joined Hampshire Hotels as Executive Vice President of Real Estate and Food & Beverage, overseeing properties across New York City.
Soon after, he became Head of Real Estate, Food & Beverage — and the only U.S.-based executive for Sahara, the majority owner of both the Plaza Hotel and Dream Downtown. When the Plaza’s famed dining rooms fell into disrepair after a failed condo conversion, Lillis was asked to restore their shine.
“It was the Plaza,” he says, shaking his head. “You don’t turn that down.”
The job was equal parts glamour and chaos. The hotel’s majority owner was later the subject of a Netflix documentary, and much of the management team had vanished. Lillis was effectively on his own, responsible for bringing a legend back to life. He leaned into the property’s Jazz Age mystique, helping reimagine the Fitzgerald Suite, reviving the Eloise Suite with designer Betsey Johnson, and reintroducing glittering events that made the Plaza the talk of New York once again.
“It was like bringing history back from the dead,” he says. “And once it was stable, I knew it was time to build something of my own.”
That decision would eventually lead him south. After years of building and managing iconic spaces in Manhattan, Lillis saw an opportunity to grow his own company — and his family — somewhere with room to breathe. Texas, with its business-friendly climate and central location, offered a perfect base for projects on both coasts.
But it was the people who made it feel right.
“Southlake has this rare mix of drive and kindness,” he says. “Everyone’s working hard, but they’re also looking out for each other. It reminded me of where I grew up.”
Building the Business of Belonging
In 2015, Lillis founded Hospitality Alliance, a Dallas-based development and management company that designs, builds and operates restaurants, hotels and entertainment destinations. His vision was simple: to create spaces where great food, music and atmosphere came together naturally.
His first major opportunity came when AT&T invited him to partner on its Discovery District in downtown Dallas. The flagship restaurant, JAXON Texas Kitchen & Beer Garden, quickly became a hit, followed by The Exchange, a two-story culinary collective and event space that earned Lillis the ICSC Development Project of the Year Award.
“Hospitality can’t be faked,” he says. “If you genuinely care about people — your guests, your employees, your partners — they feel it. That’s what makes a place work.”
Even amid the uncertainty of COVID-19, he and his team persisted, adapting JAXON’s expansive beer garden for outdoor concerts and community events. “We realized that what people missed most wasn’t food or travel,” he says. “They missed being together.”
That philosophy continues to guide projects across Texas, from Victory Social in Dallas’ Victory Park neighborhood to Shoals Smokehouse, Pistil Lounge, and a 25,000-square-foot event plaza at Toyota Music Factory in Las Colinas. Rather than chasing trends, Lillis and his team design each venue with a singular goal: creating environments where people want to linger.
One of his favorite projects, 1519 Main, captures that ethos perfectly. The building itself dates back to the 1870s — one of the oldest surviving structures in downtown Dallas — and Lillis felt a responsibility to preserve its soul.
“We didn’t want to put anything new in the space,” he says. “You can see the history in every brick, in the layers of paint, in the way the light hits the original windows.”
Rather than erase its past, his team embraced it: torching tabletops to bring out the grain, refurbishing cast-iron table bases from early-1900s factories, and filling the room with antique fixtures sourced from old Dallas warehouses. The walls remain raw and imperfect, their texture telling the story of the building’s 150-year journey from a 19th-century dry-goods store to a modern restaurant.
“You can feel the soul in those old bricks,” Lillis says. “We just tried to listen to it.”
Finding Home in Southlake
Lillis and his wife, Janna, moved their family to Southlake several years ago, drawn by its schools, location and strong sense of community. “We had projects on both coasts,” he explains, “so being in the center of the country made sense. But once we got here, it quickly became home.”
He laughs remembering the early adjustment from New York to suburbia. “I grew up walking everywhere, hopping on the subway. Southlake’s the opposite. But it’s safe, it’s intentional, and it’s full of people who care about the same things we do.”
That shared focus on family, education and excellence resonated with him immediately. “There’s a kind of alignment here,” he says. “Everyone wants their kids to have opportunities, to be kind, to work hard. It feels like a town built on shared values.”
Those values now guide his daily rhythm. By day, he’s in meetings about design, construction and operations; by night and weekend, he’s on the field or at a local restaurant with his kids.
“It’s definitely double duty,” he says. “But I’ll never get another chance to coach my kids. Sleep can wait.”
Designing for Connection
Even as his company continues to expand — from projects in the Toyota Music Factory to hospitality partnerships nationwide — Lillis’ creative energy is increasingly focused on community spaces.
He’s been deeply involved in early discussions about Carillon Park, the long-anticipated Southlake development that has captured imaginations for more than a decade. His hope is to help shape it into something truly special.
“I’d love to see a space that feels alive — where families can gather for concerts, charity events, or just to be together,” he says. “A green space that’s walkable, safe, and full of music and life.”
It’s an idea he’s already proved can work. At Toyota Music Factory, he re-energized the district by curating live-music programming and activating public areas that once sat dormant.
“You don’t need a massive footprint to create community,” he says. “You just need the right energy — food, sound, and a reason for people to stay.”
For Southlake, he envisions something on a more intimate scale. A park that feels like an extension of the neighborhood. “I want to build a place my kids and their friends can work someday,” he adds. “Somewhere they can learn, whether it’s in culinary, design, or event production. That’s the beauty of hospitality — it touches everything.”
The Character of Place
Spend a few minutes with Lillis and it becomes clear that his passion isn’t just for restaurants; it’s for storytelling through space. Whether it’s a 150-year-old building in Dallas or a new family-friendly park in Southlake, he approaches design as narrative.
“I love when a place has layers,” he says. “When you walk in and can feel what it’s been through — the people who built it, the moments that happened there. My job is to respect that and give it new life.”
That perspective also explains why he gravitates toward projects that merge old and new. It’s similar to the philosophy that Southlake Town Square’s developer, Brian Stebbins, had in mind decades ago when the city’s now-beloved central hub was just a concept. “Dallas and Southlake have so much growth,” he says, “but I think what people crave is authenticity — not just shiny and new, but places that mean something.”
Authenticity is a word he returns to often. Maybe it’s the Queens kid in him — the one who grew up around neighbors who told it straight and cared deeply. Or maybe it’s simply what decades in hospitality have taught him. “If you’re in this business for the right reasons,” he says, “you’re not chasing trends. You’re creating experiences that last.”
Legacy and Belonging
As his kids grow — his daughter, Evelyn, is now in elementary school, and his son, Grant, in intermediate — Lillis is thinking more about roots than reach. “In ten years, they’ll be out of the house,” he says. “Right now is the window to build something they can be part of.”
That means creating spaces close to home that embody the same sense of belonging he once felt in Queens. It also means showing his children what passion and hard work look like up close. “I want them to see that great things are possible when you care about what you’re doing,” he says.
When asked if he misses New York, he smiles. “I’ll always love it. New York is where I learned everything. But Southlake is where we’re growing something new. It’s where my kids are Dragons. It’s where we can build the kind of community I grew up with.”
He glances back at the field, where the last of the evening light glows across a tangle of white jerseys. “Hospitality, at its heart, is about people feeling at home,” he says quietly. “That’s what I want — whether it’s in a restaurant, a park, or right here.”