Houston19514

That looks like a pretty nice way to incorporate a drive through.

Interesting... any inkling of what kind of developments we would be talking about? It's hard to imagine what could go there in place of the Dome that couldn't also be accomplished by renovating/reimagining the Dome. Just a few sorta random thoughts/reactions. 1. To be clear, It's all county. The city has nothing to do with it. (I can imagine the Mayors of Houston have been very happy not to have to make this decision (or avoid this decision). 2. The former county judge openly said that he did not want to be known as the man on whose watch the Astrodome was torn down. At least he made several good faith attempts to do something (poorly-executed though they may have been.) If County leadership is still afraid to make the demolition decision, that rather emphasizes my initial post on this topic. We need leadership. Not officeholders cowering under their desk, afraid to make a decision. 3. It bears repeating that nothing, either a Dome renovation or or Dome demolition/replacement with some new development, will work without the full support of the Rodeo and the Texans. I presume these rumored proposals are coming from either the Texans or the Rodeo or (hopefully) both. 4. One would think everyone involved would want something done in time for the World Cup. Perhaps it's already too late for that . . .

Your hobby seems to be creating conflict where there is none. Enjoy yourself.

It should have been abundantly clear the stadium financings I was referring to were the ones you had listed in the post to which I was responding (NRG Stadium, Minute Maid Park, Toyota Center), not any proposals to finance a renovation of the Dome. Sure, but it indeed was the conclusion and it was "concluded" quite some time ago, so one wonders why we are talking about it

No one is suggesting plopping an additional tax on visitors. The proposed Dome renovations have never been planned to be paid with hotel or rental car taxes, AFAIK. The plan was for general obligation bonds backed by county taxpayers (with at least some of the funds expected to be generated by the renovated Dome). It would serve to help grow the convention market by adding a huge additional facility (which at least OTC signed on to use). Since you brought it up, let's also remind everyone that, in spite of the wailing and nashing of teeth we saw on this forum, there were no defaults and The Sports Authority is in good shape.

It was a good proposal, but VERY poorly presented and marketed and then subjected to a lot of ignorant attacks that were not adequately rebuffed. Waiting another ten years is not acceptable (although I may well have to accept given the county "leadership"). A county of 4.75 million people should be able to handle the relatively small burden of the investment to make this extraordinary asset useful and productive. (And just to remind you and everyone... none of the stadium financings raised taxes on local taxpayers (unless they rent cars or do a staycation in a local hotel.) It's an embarrassment to be sitting there unused with no plan and no attempt by current leadership to come up with a plan. The past leaders of Houston who made us the world's energy capital, and brought us the ship channel, Johnson Space Center, and the Astrodome, must be spinning in their graves. The County owns this building; the County needs to take the lead; get the Texans, the Rodeo, the OTC, and the Astrodome Conservancy all together in a room and come up with a plan that everyone can be excited about. (A "plan" that does not have the full support of the Texans and the Rodeo is not a plan worth wasting time on.)

I imagine they are referring to the assistance they gave to the project. I cannot find it now, but I recall there was a brief discussion on this forum about the public assistance provided to this project.

Rodeo needs the grounds for Rodeo and yes, has very strong contractual rights to that (reasonably so, considering Rodeo has paid for a good portion of the complex). Also, the Texans demand and have contractual rights to the grounds for parking.

I can't guarantee the area is accessible on game days, but generally, you can walk up to the windows and see into the stadium. But you won't be able to see much, if any, of the actual game (and never could) as the field is well below grade and there are lots of things (and people) between you and the field. None of this has changed significantly since the ballpark opened.

I had actually thought it was on some of the Discovery Green property as well, but I dug in to it recently and it was apparently on the Marriott Marquis property. (Unfortunately, I don't seem to have kept any notes.) I don't know that the railyard was still active (I kinda doubt it), or if the rails were still there, but if not, it was just abandoned/unused. Certainly not being used for anything like a heliport. There are some good views of it starting at 0:35 in this YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2o7nU3H6vg&t=9s

I don't think the kiosks are either intended to or particularly like to gather crowds. They are really more about being used by one or two people at a time. I doubt accommodating the assembly of crowds was a consideration in their location decisions.

Why would we demolish an architecturally historical structure that could be utilized for additional convention/event space with a modicum of creativity and commitment from the county? If mixed-use can be made to work on the NRG Park grounds, incorporate in to the Dome structure.

2 years would be very fast to sell out a complex like this. (Not un-doable of course, but also probably more usual to take significantly longer)

Actually, it used to be where the Marriott Marquis is. The property on which Minute Maid Park stands used to be railyards.

I didn't hear anything that gave my that impression. It's of course possible I missed it. Could you point to something more specific? (IIRC, there was some public assistance for the overall Post project.)

Is the proposal available to be seen?

Is there really this much need/demand to build this tall in Austin? Hmmm Some other factors: downtown multi family occupancy dropped in the last year. One of only 2 Austin sub markets to drop. There are approx 4800 units under construction or in lease-up downtown ( that of course doesn’t count the proposed buildings such as the topic of this thread.) At most-recent absorption rates, the currently-under-construction/lease-up units give downtown Austin a 3-5 1/2 year supply, again, without counting the recently-proposed/not-yet-under-construction buildings. The 4,800 new units constitute approximately 40% increase in supply for downtown Austin . . .

That’s something struggling malls do to try to keep some activity going. FWIW, Pacific Place is pretty sparsely occupied. Well less than 50%. They might be lucky to be at 25%, and that appears to include some of the artist tenants. https://pacificplaceseattle.com/map

About 200,000 square feet

I think you're not understanding the site plan.

That is not quite correct. Safeway pulled out of the market. Apple Tree was a new company that acquired a whole bunch of the former Safeway stores. Apple Tree was not part of Safeway. Similar things happened in other markets. Some were more successful than others, at least partly because they were in less competitive markets (e.g. Homeland stores - Oklahoma's version of Apple Tree)

According to this https://uhsystem.edu/uh-system/, UH (the flagship university of the UH System) has "instructional sites" at UH at Sugar Land and UH at Katy UH Clear Lake, in addition to Clear Lake, has "instructional sites" at Pearland UH Downtown, in addition to Downtown, has "instructional sites" at Northwest (former Compaq campus), and Kingwood UH Victoria, in addition to Victoria, has "instructional sites" at Katy. Nothing shown in The Woodlands or Conroe, but it also doesn't show San Antonio, so I'm not sure how complete this is.

This is the time to share those concerns with the people planning this, not after it's designed and ready to start construction. ;-) https://www.goalpark.org/#wf-form-Feedback-and-Community-Engagement-Form

Sadly, our county leadership apparently has zero interest in doing anything with the Astrodome. The

Kroger is definitely buying Albertson’s. The purchase is being structured as a merger, but that doesn’t change the fact that Kroger is the purchaser and will be running the combined companies. So true. And they’ve done the same rinse and repeat in other cities too. The good news is: Albertsons won’t be in charge of the combined company; Kroger will.